"Here!!!" A loud voice called out in the darkness at the bobbing fire lamps that were edging closer to it. "We're here, we're right here!!"
"Keep quiet Bethan!" Another voice hushed from behind the first. The voice was thicker and a bit harsher than the first just like its owner.
There was a loud cracking sound and a small spark before a small light emerged and glowered in the lantern that was held by the owner of the former voice, its light giving shape and a bit of color to the man's face. He had a hard long face , long hairs that looked like they had never been shaved before, thick eyebrows, thin lips that were lightly scarred by a thin line that cut across from his left upper lip travelling all the way down to his chin, that gave an impression that his rugged, dirty and bushy beards was divided as well. His green eyes searched for the owner of the high pitched voice and found him in seconds. "…or you'll attract more than just humans."
"Oh am sorry general Karl." Replied Bethan in a low but excited tone. Bethan had a round face and shaggy blond hair, light skin tone and an impressive grin that could probably swoon some city girls if he was still in that home and in this monster hellhole.
The lantern lights that were approaching the two men were no lantern at all but ten fighter helicopters bringing a great gust of wind upon landing that almost knocked Bethan aside. The lights fully revealed the stature of the two men below, both covered neck to toe with sturdy amour that didn't look like metal.
Two huge figures; almost six inches tall, jumped out from the helicopter that was closer to the two men. They were also on armor, one in a light armor the other in the opposite. They also had their helmet on but it seemed like Karl already knew them because he called out their name respectively.
"General Judea and General Bolu Welcome." Karl greeted from behind Bethan and his excited mutterings of greeting. Karl was sitting on a large rock with the lantern in his hand and with his nonchalant greeting it showed that either the generals present were all in the same strength range or Karl was more powerful or that was just how he was.
"Gosh." Bolu a sixty four year old Nigerian man said. He removed his helmet and so did Judea and when he did he revealed his face behind the helmet. He already had grey hair in his supposedly black eyebrows and some wrinkles was clearly shown when he frowned lightly. "I didn't know the wasteland of Socrates would be this bad, has anybody ventured farther than this?"
Karl glanced behind him at the wasteland and then back to Bolu. Karl had to admit that of all the B rankers he knew, he feared this Nigerian more. "Not sure. Only people crazy to do that would be the great S rankers, wont it?"
"Naturally." Judea confirmed.
"How many men are with you?" Karl asked immediately.
"Seventeen." Judea said turning his head to the men in armor that were coming out of the helicopters with their arsenals. Judea was brunette, fair skinned ;unlike the dark skinned Bolu, with gleaming hazel eyes.He just recently became a General and was quite capable himself after learning from his master and although Karl had never seen the fights of this young twenty two year old man, he had witnessed the power of his master. "Why? Not enough?"
"Not enough." Grunted Karl.
Judea looked at Bolu in awe, what kind of monster would be able to defeat ten B rank hunters, eight C rank hunters and three ascending B rank generals.
"How big is this monster?" Bolu asked rubbing the bridge of his nose with his right finger, he had just returned from a D rank dungeon and he was dog tired, he had to come support this emergency since he was close to the sight. He cursed under his breath and yawned slightly.
"Look behind me." Karl said and pointed his thumb over his back. All eyes surveyed behind him and saw a distant but very large monster as big as seven skyscrapers joined together.
A loud but swift muttering of 'Jesus and god other curses' flew out of their mouth, something that big could either be a C or B rank monster and if their unlucky an A rank monster probably.
"Monster's name? Type? Ability? Rank? Intelligence? Strengths and weaknesses?" Judea asked his face turning serious all of a sudden.
"Undefined, Earth, yet to be seen, C rank, below average, very strong, not found." Bethan answered promptly.
"Well it's a good thing we asked for an A rank hunter's help, we should keep it busy before they arrive, where are the rest." Bolu said rubbing his back slightly to reduce the pain of carrying his berserker for too long while also trying to see where the rest of general Karl hunters were.
Karl revealed the location of the camp with a nod at the direction while Bethan led the hunters that had just arrived.
The three Generals waited behind until the hunters were out of earshot before Karl asked still sitting on the rock facing the others.
"Who are they sending?" He asked curtly.
"We don't know." Judea said bringing out a dagger and fiddling with it a bit before sheathing it. "They just said an A ranker might appear."
The sky started to turn a gradient colour of orange and rose pink making the outline of the monster almost becoming a dim silhouette.
Bolu whipped out a cigar from godknowswhere, lighted it and put it in his mouth. "How long do you think it'll take before it reached us?"
"Two hours."
"Then…" Bolu stated as he adjusted his berserker well on his back. "I guess we better get started right now, don't you think?"
"You read my mind." Karl said as he finally stood up to his full size, almost towering the two generals. He lifted the two curved axe that were stuck to the ground behind him and fixed them in their sheathes.
"Argh!!! This night would be the death of me!" Whined Bolu.
"Well at least you spent it protecting the border."
"Yeah? And how the heck has that benefitted me?" Questioned Bolu as they all went down the path to the camp.
The three Generals went into the camp site and were greeted immediately by all passerby hunters as a form of respect.
"Well you get paid at least for it right?" Judea said.
"Oh you mean getting paid for my own accomplishment. That's not fair at all." Bolu grumbled.
"How was your dungeon raid?" Karl asked Bolu. They had already entered a small tent which was designed for the generals alone. Karl went to the coffee machine and after a few seconds he came back with three mug in his hands.
"You know we don't do raid we're part of the government." Bolu said and gave a silent 'thank you' while collecting it a mug from Karl. "We only supervise and survey recently conquered dungeons."
Judea took the mug from Karl with a quick thank you and sipped a bit, letting it slowly warm his body before he asked amid other sips. "Which organization's dungeon exploration did you survey?"
"Oh! That! It was the KREACHERS." Bolu said nonchalantly.
No sooner had the words KREACHERS left Bolus's mouth that the other two unconsciously brought out their coffee from their noses in surprise that almost startled Bolu who thought they were under attack.
"What?!!" Bolu said with his hand on the hilt of his sword and a half irritated stare at their actions.
Karl recovered first.
"You surveyed the KREACHERS raid, how was the…" He started but was cut short by a loud and deafening screech which was instantly followed with a distant but fierce vibration of the ground.
Bolu looked at Karl and said swiftly. "I thought you said two hours or more!"
"Am just as confused as you." Karl said as he held his two axe and exited the tent with Judea behind him.
"Damn!" Bolu cursed. He swallowed all the coffee in his mug and with a quick but one of the foulest curse, he stormed out of the tent with his giant straight sword swinging behind him in a menacing manner.
When he came out he saw hunters hurrying around grabbing equipment and whatever they needed. Bolu went to where the generals stood, which was on a high platform that enabled them to view the hoard of monsters coming their way.
"The first wave is about to hit!" Yelled Karl to all the hunters who had already brought out their weapon and had staged themselves in a much better killing position.
After the attack of the demon beast in the past and the sudden emerge of super humans all over the world a year after the territorial attack. These super humans were called out to kill and hunt for materials from these demon beast to create weapons that can affect and defend against their attacks as well as heal and amplification and so on. When people saw the things they could obtain from these beast, they decided to form different business organizations all with the main aim of reducing the population of the demon beast and making profit while doing so.
The various beast that gained territory had different habitat. The first and the most common was a dungeon.
A dungeon is an underground cave which depending on the creature has two or more tunnels leading inside and outside the dungeon. Like every demon beast. The first wave means the first monsters that first appears in the dungeon, they are usually the weakest beast in the dungeon. After the first wave is the second and third with their difficulties level increasing respectfully. The last stage of a dungeon is for the Boss demon beast which is a level or two higher than the dungeon itself. If the dungeon was an E ranked dungeon, then the boss would either be D rank or C rank demon beast.
The same thing and movement was what was also happening here, minus the fact that they weren't in a dungeon. The first wave was a large group of dwarf goblins also known as devil goblins. They were about the have the height of an average man, red pigmented skin, sharp teeth and each of them with a weapon.
"The Goblins are C rank monsters." Whispered Judea to both Karl and Bolu. "If this is the first wave, I don't think I'll like to find out the boss rank."
A sharp screech tore through the air again and Bolu's voice bellowed through the closing darkness.
"They're here!!!"
Just as that sentence was completed, the goblins rushed in in tens and hundreds, almost flooding the entire campsite with their short arms wave in a menacing way but the hunters were ready.
The was a lot of loud screeches as many goblins fell to the ground dead. The three generals had released their ascending B rank aura so that it acted as repellant to the goblins in other to save their strength for far more important fights. The hunters there at the camp site are all from Hunter regulating Association; the HURA and even though they had more power in the regulation and control of other hunters companies and individuals, they only had three A rank and one S rank ; who was their chairman coupled with the fact that hunters from the HURA were not to be involved in the hunting or raiding of dungeons, which was a total mood killer for most A rank and S rank hunters who wanted to increase their ranks and strength by hunting. The hunters and the generals were just stand ins for the company that has been asked to take charge in the expeditions which was; the SAVAGES; one of the most leading, strong and successful hunter group around the world.
Hunters were acknowledged as blessing to humanity after the Great war. They were humans who were exposed to toxic materials that came along with the monsters, which, as scientist tried to explain, caused a biological change in their cells granting them a special ability, like the A rank hunter Mike Williams, whose body produces a lot of alcohol that then converses into gas that creates a spark friction in his throat causing him to breath out fire, or Kim sul lee, the B rank assistant secretary in RAIDERS, whose cells was given the ability to multiply the electricity in her body to as much as she could endure and so many hunters more.
After the government took into consideration that bullets were of mere play against these demon beast, they decided to have people who would be capable of producing weapons from dead beasts to give humans a chance to win. Scientist checked different types of beast blood they could obtain, conducted research and found out that some of these monsters blood could be used to create special toxins that had crazy yet unbelievably good result, life healing, cell restorations and so on, as well as their thick armor which depending on what rank it was, was ten times more expensive than diamond, not only that, two years after the Great war, dungeons were discovered and in them was a substantial jewel that worth( depending on its properties) a hundred times more than gold.
These things pushed hunters into seeing the possibility of a new source of income and while most of them decided to go solo, some found hunters organizations and decided to carry the whole group ahead.
The first wave had ended in a one sided massacre while the second one was on its way.
Judea looked around to see if everyone was still alive. Glancing at the goblins that laid cold on the ground, he shook his head, picked up a close one and muttered. "You recon this would sell for quite some amount, eh Bolu?"
He turned his head to Bolu when he didn't get a reply and called out again.
Karl also noticed it and turned to look at the Bolu who was staying right in between them, staring ahead and feigning ignorance.
"Yo! I said…" Judea started, his face cringing.
"Holy shit!" Interrupted Bolu.
"What is it?"
"That giant monster back there is an A rank monster."
"That's bad." Karl said. "But we know."
"No!"
"What's it now old man." Judea asked, a little disgusted at Bolu. "What!?"
"There are two of them." Finished Bolu.
"What?" Judea asked with his facial expression in horror and dread.
"OH SHIT!!!" Bellowed Karl.
That A rank person should better come on time unless he wouldn't be quite sure he and the rest of the hunters would survive, Bolu thought. This was honestly not how he expected his day to end.