In front of me, the first wave was getting nearer.
Stan's ability could be useful in a way… it didn't take me to much time to completely ignore his presence behind me.
I observed the beast for a few seconds. They are too far for the sound to reach correctly, so I was sizing them up accordingly to my experience. This is good to practice, but we need more than this.
The fear inducement was a great ability, but the medium had a huge drawback. So far, I have used it just two times, but I understood that the problem of the source not being constantly sending shivers into the spine makes it similar to the bad guy jumping with a knife during a movie. It's something temporary that might not leave a long-lasting impression in most of the cases besides that scare jump.
Courage inducement doesn't have the same problem. When people are scared, they need a spark, something that reminds them why they fight or how to be brave. In a battle where I plan to use courage inducement that is enough to ignite their will, of course, a constant source of courage would work better too, they would feel inspired the whole time, but the problem wasn't as bad as with fear.
We came with two solutions for this that we planned to apply together.
The first and most obvious was to use it for longer periods. Instead of a simple threat or yell, I need to create a constant source for their fear, making them uncomfortable and feel threatened the whole time they are here. The second one was to have someone to remind them of the feeling constantly, enhance it and imprint it directly in their mind.
We need for the beast to be scared of us, so they don't want to come back. That is what I was planning to do with Dante. We wanted to create a phobia.
"Are you going to start any time soon? If you need time, I can try to act as bait, but experience told me that it never works as expected… I don't know why but beast always ignore me, don't get me wrong I think that is far better than being constantly attacked but being ignored like that hurts a little you know, it makes me want to yell them something like "Hey, don't you think I'm tasty enough for you?" and stuff like that. Are you listen to me?"
"Stan please, stay silent."
"Sure, sorry, you can keep… observing."
These beasts are weak, so the effect of my ability should be good enough, Dante is still going to be needed, but none of us need to exert ourselves yet. I might try different sounds…
'System?'
[mmm?]
'Does it matters the sound when I use fear inducement, or I just need to make a sound.'
[I don't get it, can you give an example?]
'If I use fear inducement on a threat, does it has a different effect than if I use it on encouraging words?'
[It depends on the receptor, in the case of beast it's more about the tone and intention behind the sound, they can feel hostility and intention thanks to their instincts, in humans is more complex, and it could be confusing if you mix it, the effect might be either enhanced or decreased]
'Okay, thanks.'
They were already close enough to start. I licked my own lips moist them and began to walk.
What came out of my mouth was a whistle.
(A/N: I like to imagine either a whistle version of "Tears of…" from the silent hill games or the whistle part from "Winds of change- Scorpion")
A constant source of fear, there is no meaning in giving a long speech to some beasts, and I'm a horrible singer, that leave… do something like roaring all the time which even with my endurance it was unlikely for my throat to handle.
I thought about humming, but the sound is not loud enough to reach too far. So I decided that whistling was a good option. This was the first try anyway so if it doesn't work I can scare them away with my horrible singing abilities.
The environment worked on my favor, I could hear the echo of my own whistling spreading from where I was. The sound of the whistle traveled far, and some of the beasts already reduced their speed as if they know that coming near me was dangerous.
The environment wasn't the only advantage I had. The Low self-sustaining perk that came from my previous Enhanced Stamina ability was a great help too. One of the effect that it has was related to my breathing, at first, I thought that it would be great if I need to go underwater, but it also helps my overall lung capacity making the whistle sound louder than it did before. Hope will hate this, she hated when I started whistling at home, and now she will hate it more.
It was almost too easy, as I thought these beasts weren't enough to push Dante and me, We need stronger beasts that can at least keep advancing. We were still far from going all out.
"Hey I know that song, I almost crap my pant when I played that game!"
The song I was whistling appeared recently on terror video games, movies and other places from time to time it was a known song that is so old that I have no idea who is the original composer or if it was from a band.
For some reason, Stan decided to whistle with me entirely out of tune… I get that you can be a bad singer but a bad whistler?
I ignored him as I kept advancing, the beasts already stopped charging in this direction, some were frozen on the spot, some were thinking of going forward, and others were already running away back to the forest…
I sighed. Well at least this part is working, I thought that the effect might spread too much with this method and that even with Dante's help it would take some time to imprint the fear in their brains. I looked at Dante at my side, he seemed to be doing fine.
'More beasts are coming, but they aren't strong either~…'
'This is just a test the strong ones are going to come later, once we send back most of his troops the Alpha will need to act… he will most likely send stronger beasts, and that's when we will be able to go all out.'
"Wow if everyone knows that they are scared of whistles it would be an easier fight bro… we should bring the whole shelter to the swamp and whistle until they don't even try to come for us."
…When did we become bros?
____________________________________________
Rose was using her power to watch the situation around the shelter, when she saw Beast running from Spencer she finally could relax, his plan was working. When they were talking before they all agreed that it was a good idea and that he should be able to pull that off without problems, but there is always the possibility of something going wrong.
When she finally saw him doing fine, she finally could breathe calmly and focus on her. As she explored east streets, Dante's childish voice appeared on her head.
'South… there are problems~.'
'South?'
'Yeah, Pinky told me~.'
She changed the direction and looked a group of people moving towards Green Shelter, the NDR was making their move too, they were using this chance to attack, but there was something weird about this attack. She couldn't see any of the leaders in between the group… it was like an army of robots with the order of marching forward.
Without Dante here it was impossible to "reprogram" them so this was going to end in a fight with loses in both sides. Unless they find a way to capture them…
Unfortunately, right now there are not enough resources to spend and try that. So they need another solution.
'Is there a way to contact Pinky?'
'He is in Green Shelter right now, on the sewers~.'
'Can you tell him to meet me?'
'If you need something I can tell him~… believe me, it's better that way~… he is weird~."
'Can you tell him to capture the goons coming from the south but without beating them too much?'
'So I can use my abilities on them later so they can help us~?'
'Exactly, for some reason, there are no NDR members with them, so it might be a good chance to improve our strength. If they are dead or too beaten, they will be useless for this fight.'
'I'll tell Pinky to meet with you, I need to focus a little here, the fear inducement is spreading between too many objectives, so I need to maximize the sensation in their brains for it to work correctly, and the second part of the first wave is coming… Go to the girl's changing room, he will meet you there.'
'Ok, Thanks.'
Rose closed her eyes one more time to check the surroundings before going to the showers to meet the white lab rat.