Fifty-Eight

Mathis had found proper armor for Kon, but had been only slightly perturbed when Diur had turned him down. She wore a basic ballistic vest that had a cheap energy absorption weave in it, designed to slow projectiles and distribute an energy based attack. From the way Mathis had sneered at the bulky black vest, he didn't have a high opinion of its protection ability.

Kon didn't have the training to properly utilize Squire armor, but they had a more basic set that he could wear. It didn't have the camouflage abilities that was the selling point for the Squire's armor, but it was better than running around in a set of half-cured lizard hides or just cloth fatigues.

The armor consisted of a dull steel breastplate that Mathis had assured him could divert laser strikes or low level ballistic fire as well as claws or teeth from anything below E-Grade. He had a helmet with a series of different optics that he only half knew how to access, a set of lightweight plates along his inner thighs, knee pads, shin guards, and vambraces. Kon had taken one look at himself in a mirror and had to fight back a laugh.

"I look ridiculous." He looked like a half stripped down Knight. No one had laughed at him though, rather he fit in with the rest of the armored camp as Bosch had raised the alert level. No longer were people allowed to walk around unarmored or unarmed.

The selection of weapons had been rather limited. Most of their armory had been with the Dragon's Maw, but some had managed to be saved along with the supplies on the shuttles. Kon didn't have training on any of the heavier weapons that would be useful for above E-Grade. Mathis had handed him back his laser rifle along with ten batteries which Kon had deposited into his utility belt.

Mathis had also acquired a ballistic pistol for him, a series of different length knives, along with a long handled hatchet. Strapping it all on had taken a few minutes, but Kon felt a sense of security with the heavy weight on the belt as the multiple knives were belted on. Diur had taken a pair as well with a utility belt. Otherwise she just kept her sword.

Kon had managed to secure a locker for his personal gear, locking the ratty pack up, the holopad in it. The locks were flimsy, repurposed metal that had been placed inside of the building next to the showers. Kon didn't want to risk the data in the flimsy holopad on a mission, but leaving it in the base caused a spike of anxiety through him as he left it behind.

"Will you relax?" Diur asked. They were running at a good speed, neither pushing themselves hard, but still eating up distance. It was close to what the top comfortable speed the Squires had exhibited had been. Kon still had a hard time understanding how much more physically powerful he was than the older people.

"Sorry. Everything is changing so fast, I don't know if I can trust them."

"Clan politics can be treacherous. I doubt we'd kill our competitors in such a manner though," Diur said. She'd been around enough that she had heard of Alice's conversations about what could have been the plot behind the attack on the Dragon's Maw.

"I just don't know who to trust without Alice. Her friend Leo, she said I could trust him. I'll have to try to get in contact with him. I just know how it got like this."

"You found a valuable cultivation tool. It's only natural that greed would drive others to more base instincts. The only true protection is personal strength. Be so strong that no one can threaten you," Diur said as they ran. Kon grunted, wanting to wipe at his face, but the full helmet prevented the motion.

"Is that what you are going to do? When we get off planet?" Kon asked.

"Yes. I love my grandfather, but he made a mistake in not pushing further. Only with strength can one be safe from the avarice of others," Diur said. There was a bitter heat in her voice as she spoke.

She increased her speed as she spoke, the emotion behind their conversation spurring her further ahead of him. Kon increased his own pace to match her, part of his mind still reveling in the increase in his speed as he easily kept pace with the E-Grade cultivator.

They fell into a silent camaraderie as they ran. The distance melted away, Kon keeping them on track with only minor corrections needed from his HUD as his new helmet helped him keep track with where he was supposed to go. They had known exactly where Camp Bravo was and Camp Alpha was in relation to it, so they had made it possible to plot it out in the basic navigation system the helmet had.

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Mathis had explained if he strayed out of the plotted corridor, the system wouldn't be able to recalibrate. Not without having a satellite GPS to connect to. Kon had been thankful for even that limited system. Six hours of running in the forest could easily have him off course.

"How much longer?" Diur asked. Kon glanced at the distance, the kilometers shrinking away as they ran. They had seen not a single rift monster, but had seen signs of rifts around. The terrain having been changed or warped by the presence of the rifts. The lack of monsters was a distinct worrying sign, but Kon tried to keep it to a minimum. Not being attacked constantly was nice.

"Few kilometers. Ten minutes, max," Kon said. Diur nodded, her face tense as she scanned around her with alert eyes.

"Is it weird? How quiet it is?" Kon asked.

"Yes. Let's get there and hope for the best," Diur said. Her hand hadn't released its grip from her sword's pommel for the last ten kilometers. Kon swallowed, the silence somehow more unnerving than the constant barrage of monster attacks.

Both of them sped up without a word. They managed to shave about three minutes off of his estimate on arrival time to Camp Bravo. Kon wished he hadn't.

Destruction on this level should have fire and smoke. Kon stood there staring down on the ruin of the camp, swallowing slowly as he looked over the scarlet painted woods. Chunks of splintered wood jutted from the ground, piecemeal leftovers from the broken wall.

Kon could tell the fort had been made in the same design as Camp Alpha. The way the area had been cleared out around it, the base where the small towers had been. The central pillar that had held the shuttle cannon had been toppled over, crushing one of the buildings inside of the camp.

Dead monsters lay around the shattered buildings mixed in with Squires. There were hundreds of dead rift monsters scattered about, the toll to break the camp had been extensive. Kon swallowed as he walked out of the forest line and toward the edge of the camp.

"I think we've found where all the rift beasts have gone," Diur said. Kon didn't say a word as he walked across the cleared area and into the ruined camp. The rift beasts that had assaulted the camp were human sized with rocky carapaces, bug eyes, and long, spiky antennae. There were scores of them, all broken, scorched, and bled out. Their chests had been popped open, cores consumed by something.

Kon saw his first dead Knight a minute later. Halfway into camp he found the split apart ruins of the Knight. His armor had been peeled apart, hardly anything organic remaining inside. His helmet had been pulled off, half a face left inside. Kon leaned over and threw up.

Diur walked by, sword drawn as Kon slowly recovered. He knew Knights could die, they often did, but he'd never seen an armored Knight fall. Now, in the camp, there were six of them. They counted them slowly, each of the corpses striking another bolt of despair in his heart.

"What happened here?" Kon asked as they finished their circuit of the camp. There had been no survivors as far as he could tell. The ruined gun tower had had the last two Knights on it, both of them having died trying to man it.

"Subjugation. You know that C-Grade monsters gain intelligence, yes?"

"You told me that. Or was it Alice?" Kon said. Kon had led them to the torn apart building that was the same as where Bosch had her own office. Half of it had collapsed, but part of the building remained intact. Kon stepped through a hole in the wall and looked about, eyes roaming the chaos.

A pair of dead Squires lay in the corner, rifles bent and broken next to them. Another Knight sat in his seat, only half his armor on, with a bloody hole in his chest. Kon walked past him and into the office space, grabbing at the tipped over desk, ripping the drawers open to look through them.

"C-Grades can subjugate weaker monsters. It's not super common, since when would a C-Grade need to use weaker monsters? But in this case, with a pseudo C-Grade that is likely weakening rapidly, it won't be long before it starts to decay. All the missing rift. The creature has consumed the treasures and enslaved all the surviving monsters."

"What?" Kon asked as he looked up from the notes he'd found. There was a small, detailed map in the collection. Kon looked to where the radio relay was supposed to be. It was only a few kilometers away on what looked to be a hill.

"Its core is degrading, it'll eat the treasures to try to keep itself from dying. It's vindictive and managed to subjugate the entire area. Likely to seek revenge for Knight Willis's failed attack on it that ruined its ascension," Diur said.

"We have to go to the radio relay," Kon said, pointing at the map.

"Agreed. We have to warn the rest of the camps," Diur said as he looked over his shoulder at the map.

"This should not take us long to reach. Where are the rest of the human camps?" Diur asked. Kon quickly pointed them out, showing the ring of camps they had made. The main base camp was at the center of the circle, protected by the ring of camps and the patrols.

Until Bravo had been destroyed, leaving a gap in the line of protections. Diur's finger traced the gap, almost reaching the basecamp but stopping before it made it all the way there. Kon swallowed hard at the thought of the army of monsters reaching all the way to the basecamp.

"Come on, we have to get to the radio relay and back to Alpha. As fast as we can," Kon said. He tucked the papers away and left the burnt out camp behind them.

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