The sky thundered and the rain fell down heavily making the Raiders exposed to the elements extremely uncomfortable. However it wasn't enough to make them stand down, the arrow had already been loosed and couldn't be taken back. They would see this battle to the end.
White Snake dashed forward as he brandished his soft sword towards Don. He was isolated from the rest of the Raiders in this barrier but he wasn't bothered about anyone from the Northwind Shelter interfering in their battle as it was impossible for the Shelter to have another Evo and sending anyone else to interfere would have no use besides acting as a bit of an obstacle as they would be injured or even killed from only the shockwaves of their fight.
Gale knew this too and didn't bother sending anyone to get killed. He could have had the canons fired at them but White Snake moved to fast for the shooters to keep up with and if Don moved to hold him down he would get caught and lead to friendly fire. He could only trust Don and lead the residents to destroy the beasts as well as the other Raiders outside the barrier.
He didn't head out immediately however but had everyone fire from the protection of the barrier. The beasts and Horde Raiders fell under heavy fire and raked up huge losses. Gale nodded as he saw his tactics were effective. The barrier could stop the enemy from entering or firing at them from the outside but it was enough for someone to leave or shoot back from the inside.
As long as Don could keep White Snake busy, the shelter would focus on taking down the beasts controlled by Zooman. Although Zooman's ability wasn't weak, it would only be effective on weaker shelters. Strong shelters would easily be able to resist the tides of normal beasts and the few 1st Evolution Evobeasts he led over.
The Canons and Rifles were fired without holding back. Although it consumed a lot of bullets and battery cells which pained Gale however when he saw the enemies outside the barrier that were taken down by the unrestricted firepower he was satisfied. Although it was a pity however resources could be gained but lives could never be bought. Even though he wasn't a compassionate leader he still wouldn't allow his people to recklessly sacrifice their lives when there was a better option.
White Snake frowned. This situation was less optimistic than they had planned. The Evo on their side although recently evolved was as strong if not stronger than him. His ability was formidable and his Martial Arts were profound, he already had sufficient combat experience allowing him to fully display his strength.
His knife shadows were already tearing through his movement technique and he already had some cuts. Zooman had already mobilised the beasts in the area but the Shelter's fire power, soldiers and defensive measures were able to handle it. If it continued like this forget getting the girl, they may not even leave here unscathed. If they took too much of a loss then that would be a real tragedy even if they made it back alive.
The other Raider groups would quickly take them down either for revenge, to expand or to satiate their bloodlust. He wasn't the only one that noticed this however. 9live's expression was getting uglier by the moment, if this went on.....
"Hmph useless thing. Zooman don't hold back, if we don't put in some extra effort forget about leaving here empty handed we may not even leave at all. I'll go and assist White Snake, you get that lizard to tear down this barrier regardless of the cost. If your beast tide could get closer it would be more effective."
9lives bit his tongue and performed some gestures. Veins popped up across the skin underneath his cloak and crawled all the way to his face. His eyes turned bloodshot and with a roar he dashed towards the barrier while avoiding the bullets and beams shot from the shelter.
It wasn't that he was faster than the bullets or beams but rather it were as though he could see the future as he easily moved to avoid the projectile's paths. He quickly reached the barrier and threw a bunch of that weird grenade again at the barrier creating holes for a good portion of the Horde Raiders and the beasts to break through. He also quickly dashed through and charged straight towards Don as he pulled out a Plasma pistol and fired off at Don before he even reached him.
Don was just about to land another cut on White Snake but he sensed the threats the beams fired by the pistol posed to him and quickly moved to dodge or block the strikes with his Plasma Knife. With 9lives supporting him, White Snake was able to hold his ground and even started gaining ground.
Meanwhile outside the barrier, Zooman looked at the lizard with unwillingness in his eyes before slitting his wrists and feeding the blood to the red lizard.
ROOOOOOAAAAARRRRRR
With a loud roar the red lizard charged forwards as it's body quickly expanded to the size of a huge truck. The Canons and Rifles weren't able to damage it heavily and it quickly reached the barrier. It raised it's claw and struck heavily at the barrier causing the barrier to crack up and go dim before the cracks healed up and the barrier lit up again.
Zooman stomped his feet as he wondered just how many Battery Cells this small shelter had to sustain the barrier for so long. He gritted his teeth and mumbled some words before slitting his wrists again. His colour paled and his steps were a bit unsteady but he didn't stop the blood from flowing out.
The blood congealed and formed what looked like a pill. This pill contained a great deal of his essence and he tossed it at the lizard which quickly turned its neck and ate it. It's eyes lit up and it let out an excited roar.
It's red scales glowed a fiery red and with a great exhale flames surged at the barrier in a continuous stream dealing extreme damage to the barrier. The regenerating rate could almost not keep up with the way the barrier was taking damage. If this continued the barrier would soon be torn down but Gale wasn't shaken.
His men noticed his calmness and didn't panic and calmly continued focusing their fire on the charging assailants that had already broken through the time 9lives created a gap in the barrier.
"Reduce the power supplied to the barrier by 80% and ready the Daystar Canon. I take it that it's fully charged?"
"Hehe don't worry boss, the Canon is ready. As soon as you give the command, I'll give these guys a nasty surprise."
"Good. As soon as the lizard breaks through the barrier hold on a bit and fire the Canon when the beast is less than a 100 meters out. At that range it would take the full brunt of the Canon, that will also be the sign for our counterattack so ready the troops."
"Yes sir!" The hunting team member quickly left to carry out the order.
Gale looked back at the battlefield and a smirk crept up his face. If it were any other thing, even his son, he might have debated giving it up to avoid this battle as even if they won without losing anyone, the resources used in this battle would be a severe loss to the shelter.
However it was impossible to make Gale to give up on that girl. Gale was very ambitious, unlike 9lives, he may not be so knowledgeable but he knew the girl would be very valuable to those big organisations but does that mean she would not be useful to him too?
It had only been a few months. Only a few months, but the shelter had already reached this level. If it were before now, just one of any of the 3 experts of the Horde Raiders would have been able to solo the entire shelter but now even with all 3 joining hands they weren't able to take down the shelter.
What is growth? This is growth. With a few more years, it wasn't impossible for the Northwind Shelter to become a powerful organisation of its own as long as he had that girl. At this point even if she wanted to leave he wouldn't let her go, she was his ticket to glory and for this jackals who sought to stand in his way they should first check if they're qualified.
He had already resolved to have all of them die here or else if news leaked to those big organisations about the girl then he would have no choice but to hand her over as those people were not people he could afford to stand against even if the shelter were a 100 times stronger than it is now.
Don was patiently waiting for the signal as he held back his trump card. 9lives and White Snake were oblivious to this and didn't notice that Don was slowly leading them farther away from the barrier.
9lives knew the technique he used to overdraw his ability had a limited duration and should it finish before they took this Evo down then all would be lost so he focused all his attention on trying to find chances to take Don down.
White Snake was also aware of this and the injuries he took before now were already taking their toll on him and he had to attend to them as soon as possible thus driving him to recklessly press on towards Don.
The skies thundered and the rain had turned the ground to a soggy mess. The Raiders and beasts trudged through the fire power and joined efforts with the Red Lizard to strike the barrier. Soon enough the barrier wasn't able to hold on and quickly shattered. As it did the lizard roared out and charged at the shelter as it was excited.
Zooman didn't stop it as he was too exhausted. It had already used a lot of his essence to break the barrier so when it was drained it would come back to him. He was also eager to see this shelter get torn down.
He wasn't the only one as the two beat up boys looked at the shelter with excitement. They were surprised at how strong the shelter had become, they had seen these experts easily raze a shelter that was similar in strength to their shelter before but now this shelter that they left weak and helpless had become something that pushed the Horde Raiders to their limits and beyond.
However in the end they were still not strong enough. Their revenge was about to be completed but then a bright light spread across the world. As though a new star had risen amidst this stormy weather. The clouds were torn apart and the rain lessened for a bit.
Soon enough the new star faded away and the clouds covered the sky again but the rain had lightened up greatly and fell in a mere drizzle.
Zooman looked at the Red Lizard that had been bisected in two as well as the remains of the beasts and Horde Raiders that were surrounding it. 9lives let out a shout of surprise and even White Snake was blank.
However they were about to be surprised again as Don swapped his Plasma Knife for a scarlet butcher's knife that was hanging by his waist. He let out a roar and swung it at White Snake with all his might.
33 Knife Shadows formed as he swung his Knife out but then unlike before where they struck separately, they layered over each other and formed one huge knife shadow that was also very fast.
Before White Snake could recover in time, the shadow had already arrived and he only had the time to roar out before he was struck by the Knife Shadow and diced up into a bloody mist, even his soft sword was destroyed.
9lives was terrified and quickly backstepped but then he realised that at some time the barrier had come back on but this time it trapped what was inside from going out like a cage.
Don didn't waste any words and dashed at 9lives. His expression was pale from using the technique previously but he knew he had to see this fight to the end.
9lives technique allowed him to sense danger and opportunities, in his current state he could actively detect chances that will enable him to dodge strikes and avoid danger as well as find opportunities through which he can strike through and break the enemies defense.
However, it was always difficult for his body to keep up with his ability. Even when he could see it he wouldn't necessary be able to take advantage of it. That was why he took the path of a commander, with someone else acting as his sword he only had to tell them where to strike and where to avoid and although not as effective as them having the ability directly was still able to help greatly.
He had good chemistry with White Snake, that was why the two of them were able to suppress and nearly beat Don but the attack from the Daystar Canon had completely distracted him allowing Don to take the opportunity and kill off his sword leaving him without any means to effectively use his ability.
At this point with him trapped in the cage he realised he may not be able to survive. The technique he used came with some backlash and it was already wearing off. He helplessly shouted and struck back at Don with a barrage of bullets in a last ditch effort but he was quickly swamped with knife shadows that tore him apart.
Don tanked the bullets to finish him off. He quickly keeled over immediately after taking 9lives down, he was already heavily injured by White Snake and with this bullets if he wasn't taken care of properly he could die. Luckily, Gale had already sent a medic with a full set of medications to take care off him.
The barrier was deactivated. After Zooman saw his colleagues killed off and his lizard slain he collapsed. The beasts he commanded quickly ran away and the other Raiders were rounded up and slaughtered by the troops Gale kept for this moment.
Zooman was captured, his ability was useless without any beast to control so he was easier to manage and they could get some important information from him. Maybe they could even get the location of the Raider's vault and acquire the resources they had raked up over the years.
The rain suddenly stopped and the clouds dispersed allowing the soft rays of light to fall on the earth. The ground was still soggy and was dyed red by the amount of people and beasts that had been killed.
"Take our guest to his room and have people go and scavenge the field for any useful gear and beast meat. With this we won't need to go on a hunt for a while so store it properly."
After saying this he walked to Don who was currently being attended to by the medics. If Gale said he didn't desire the power Don wielded he would be lying, his last performance at the end really impressed him.
After he broke through, Don had met him and told him the details of his ability. After his break through on his own he could produce 15 Knife Shadows with the aid of his ability that shot up to 30 knife shadows. As for the extra 3 knife shadows that was a result of the scarlet butcher's knife at his waist.
He had often used it to kill beasts in the wild when he just joined the hunting team. Later he was promoted to be a captain and was given a Plasma Knife but he still held on to it and refused to throw it away as he was attached to it.
He also used it often on weaker beasts and maintained it well. Who knew that as he broke through and initiated his evolution, the knife followed along and became a 1st Evolution Evogear. It's ability allowed a 10% boost of his final attack speed and a cutting edge effect.
With the use of the ultimate move of the Knife Shadow Art, Layered Shadow Strike he was able to one shot White Snake with the opportunity Gale gave him however this ultimate technique was very demanding and left him tired. If not for the fact 9lives wasn't a direct combat oriented Evo, he would have not have been able to kill him.
The Daystar Canon was the highest reward they had gotten from that bunker. It had high damage and could take down even 2nd Evolution lifeforms as long as it could hit. Gale used it well and despite the cost he was satisfied by how far his shelter had come.
A dark haired girl sat at a table in a building within the central area of the shelter and smiled as she heard the cheers of victory. The residents also cheered and even Andrew was so excited his face was completely flushed. They were not only happy at being able to be alive but at the fact that their shelter had become so strong. It was only a matter of time till they expanded and reached the height of life.
Just when Andrew was about to turnaround and brag to Penelope, a terrible roar sounded out. This roar shattered all the glasses in the shelter and even the buildings were torn down from this roar. Weaker individuals had already started bleeding from their ears and some had collapsed, as to whether they were dead or alive was unknown.
Penelope was dazed for a moment but then she ran out and looked towards the sky and what she saw made her blood run cold as she remembered what the person that she had met to inscribe the dial symbol on her brother had said...
"Little girl, you must understand something at this point. At the moment your brother could die at any moment at the hands of his near endless calamities but at least they are still at a level you can barely manage albeit with risks as long as you're careful but as to how far this can go on I cannot say.
However if I do this I can suppress his calamity and for a period of an entire year he can live like a normal person but his physique would be weakened since he would have to withstand all that negative energy in his body though he won't die and as long as he isn't over worked, can live a relatively normal life but once a year he will have to face all of the suppressed calamity at once.
Naturally the power of the calamity will be beyond what you have faced so far but you are a very smart girl so as long as you put in the effort it wouldn't be too difficult to solve this either. The problem will come when the dial cannot hold on any longer and completely breaks apart. I don't know how long the dial will last so I cannot give you a time frame, it could last till the day you both die of old age or it could break the next day.
I may be a God and I'm extremely powerful but even I am bound by the Will of the Heavens and cannot go against the natural order of things and at most I can suppress it for a while.
When this dial breaks you will face a calamity beyond anything you have ever experienced. It will be an inevitable destruction but also there's a chance for an opportunity. One chance to save your life as well as your brother's life and allow you both to live a fulfilling life....."