Chapter 29 – The Raptor Squad
*SHAAA*
Tama turned its mouth to the outside and hissed again. This time, it did not hiss at Dove, but something else.
Misha, who was self-regenning, felt the tremor from the ground. She knew that something was approaching her location.
She shifted her recovery concentration to the nerve and muscular system, planning to get herself on her feet first as the situation crying an emergency.
*SCREEEECH*
A sharp scream of a monster could be heard.
Tama shrank from the scream. It rolled back to Misha and hid in her cleavage, trembling in fear.
"Very courageous, Tama. What a reliable bodyguard …"
*Mew*
Misha glanced at the clock in the game menu.
6.01 AM.
The entire quest should have been over, and the army should have sent someone to pick her up. However, Misha knew that her situation was complicated.
She lost her wristwatch, which was the reason why Misha needed Dove's help.
Gritting her teeth and closing her eyes, Misha accelerated the MBR processing on the muscles of her legs and back. As long as these muscles and nervous system were partly healed, she should be able to stand again.
…
…
…
Dove dodged the lunge of the three-headed snake as he ran away from it toward the creepy tree.
The tree, however, thrust ten sharp roots at Dove from the front, aiming to screw him alive.
Dove sidestepped, avoiding the incoming root-spears. Because Dove dodged it, the roots penetrated the snake instead.
*SHAAA*
The snake hissed in anger and changed its target to the tree instead of Dove. The tree also stopped chasing Dove as it concentrated on sucking the snake's blood.
Running away from the two monsters, Dove attempted to get back to the crater and get Misha out of this place. He dashed back in full speed.
But the nightmare had not stopped yet.
<
<
"Not now!"
Dove could feel that his legs became sluggish as if he was running inside a water pool.
*KLUK* *KLUK*
The giant monster egg was rolling toward him. At this rate, it would catch him in a few seconds.
*SCREEEE*
The egg leaped into the air and bared its flower fangs, wanting to swallow Dove whole.
"RAHH!"
*POEK*
Dove swung his pickaxe like a baseball bat, hitting the mouth of the green egg at the side and sent it rolling. However, the wound that caused by the pickaxe regenerated in a few seconds.
As Dove wanted to finish off the egg, the red tree sent another batch of its roots at the egg and Dove.
"Greedy bastard!"
Dove rolled to the side, dodging the incoming five spear roots. On the other side, five more roots stabbed into the giant egg and sucked its fluid.
*SCREEE*
The egg did not give up. It opened its mouth and sprayed the green digestive fluid at the red roots, destroying them before it got sucked dry. While the egg was at it, five tentacle tongues extended and chased after Dove.
Dove continued rolling on the ground, avoiding another attack of the egg. However, one of the egg's tongues caught his leg.
He swung his pickaxe at the tentacle, which cut it and freed his leg from the monster. Not wanting to get killed, Dove got on his feet and kept running back.
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
Explosions occurred on the location where the monsters stood, but it also sent Dove flying.
The shockwave from the explosion destroyed Dove's eardrum and his sense of hearing and balancing. Thus, he collapsed on the ground in pain.
*VRRRR*
*BOOM*
Though Dove could not hear anything, he could sense that something large had landed. There were muffled sounds from the surrounding, but he could not understand them anymore.
...
"Cargo located! One is southwest of the crater, and the other one is in the center."
Five ten-meter-tall brown giant robots, which had a statue similar to a human, were a hundred meters away from the battle site of monsters. On their chest, an emblem of a raptor was engraved into the armor plate.
These robots were called AHMU, which stood for [Anti-Hydra Mechanical Unit], the specialist unit that used against giant mutants and Queen Eggs. They equipped with Anti-Corrosive Manyu Metal Shields and Angra Rifles, which contain special-made bullets that could negate the regeneration power of egg monsters.
The old outer look of these AHMUs filled with a brown and dark color on their armor plates. The chest of the mech was bulky as it contained devices and sophisticated cockpit within it.
The legs of the giant robots were in an awkward position at the first glance as it seemed the thighs were attached to the waist, but these legs could fold into continuous tracks which could be used in difficult terrains that normal mech legs were inefficient.
The five mechs walked toward the giant snakes, the red tree, and the two-meter-tall green egg while they pointed their rifles at them.
"RAPTOR five, use the AR-shell on the egg. RAPTOR two to four, HE-shell on the other two again. Provide me a cover after I secure the cargo."
"Roger!"
One of the mechs leaped forward and landed next to Dove. It knelt and scooped the ground under him with the mech's hand and carried him on its open-palm.
RAPTOR-1 leaped to the center of the crater and did the same with another hand of the mech. Misha and Dove now lay still on the palms of the mech.
"Cargo secured."
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
The four other mechs fired one shell each on the monsters, which turned them into fragments of dried woods and roasted snake. The egg also shattered to pieces, unable to regenerate again.
The pilot of RAPTOR-1 inside the mech leaned back. He pressed the intercom button, "RAPTOR squad to Scorpion Base. Cargo secured, but they're injured. Please prepare a medic team upon our arrival ASAP, over."
*BZZ*
[Scorpion Base to RAPTOR squad, how is the loot?]
The pilot's face twitched. He got annoyed that the base asked for the loot instead of worrying about the injured people.
"One of the cargo is resting inside the Queen Egg's cocoon. There are several virus gels in it, over."
[Good work. Take all of them back to base. Your mission is over.]
"… Roger."
…
…
…
Misha, who was lying on the palm of the mech, stared at her dreamt robot in a daze.
'Will I be able to pilot these cool guys one day?'
She did not realize that her sparkling eyes and her drools were noticed by the captain pilot of RAPTOR-1.
The captain laughed as he understood Misha's feeling very well. He, too, had drooled when he saw these giant mechs for the first time.
"Take it easy, lady. I knew that you're in the army. If you work hard, you'll be on my seat one day."