Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 159: Fiery Dragon

The recent tranquility of the street disappeared after several public utility vehicles passed by. Most of them were on top speed as they swayed left and right, evading the abandoned cars on the road. The cars took the long route by the Lakeside Marina while people who were chasing after the vehicles on foot went straight towards the broken bridge. They didn't even slow down as they hastily crossed several vehicles roof.

"What's happening?" said the Alday Ruan to himself. He was trying to raise the morale of those who got injured to make sure that they won't be desheartened or traumatized.

Emman heard him and explained what the column of light do. After his brief explanation, he followed everyone as they went back to Black Haven.

Alday Ruan stared towards the east. If the column of light summons carriers, then why were the people joyously running towards them. Even if those things gives experience, shouldn't their safety be prioritized first? He couldn't help but think that something else was going on.

The Frontier had no idea about the stat increase that special carriers give. They didn't even saw the first and second column of light since they were headed east, disabling them from seeing the first column of light on the west, and became extremely busy when they met the cemetery carriers. 

This is the first time that they saw the column of light and Alday Ruan realized that for people to be crazy for it, it must be something good. He gathered the members that could still fight and brought them east.

A blazing red jeepney stopped after it arrived at the corner. People that were on foot could be seen on the distance but their exhaustion were noticeable. This people were those small group of parties made up of friends that were unwilling to join local powers and decided to establish their small circles.

The jeepney's driver's seat door opened and Edward got off. On the other side, Jun got off from the driver's passenger seat.

"See, my Fiery Dragon already did something useful!" Edward boasted to everyone as they gathered on the middle of the road. It was the same red jeepney that he claimed from the Mine Rescue Operation. After reaching the northern bridge that time, they had to go on foot and left the jeepney there. Now that they chanced upon it since they went north to get some loot, Edward became extremely happy to be reunited with his hot ride.

"You named it?" Sheila said surprised.

"Why not? Its a cool name and its a cool ride." Edward chuckled, "Are you envious of my ride now?"

"No... nevermind, let's focus now."

People started arriving and set their own group formations. There were visible division of people as people gathered with their factions and friends. Right now, most of them were resting and were waiting for the horde to arrive.

It was the same for everybody ekse. Almost everyone stood in formation in the middle of the road and waited for the horde of carriers to clash into them. Not because they were extremely tired, but because there were atleast dozens of evolved carriers as the vanguard of the horde.

Numerous Destroyers and Hunters led the charge. In the midst of their ranks, a few evolved Rank 2's could be seen. The lone D2 was three meters tall and towered among the D1's. People also couldn't ignored the lone H2 since it was so fast that it almost left everyone if it weren't for its H1 kins following behind. There's also atleast a hundred additional regular carriers acting as reinforcements behind them.

Jun realized that the towns people doesn't have enough strength to resist the charging horde. He said a few words to Edward and both of them led everyone to take the initiative.

With Edward making a triangular barrier to spearhead the charge and Jun acting as his support, a thin line made of two rows of people thrusted straight towards the horde like a spear.

When the H2 reached the 10m distance, it lunged forward and hit Edward's barrier. One of its arms got caught from the front edge of the triangle which resulted in its arm muscles getting scraped off.

Edward didn't stop and continued charging at top speed. He didn't even care on what's going on behind him and only looked in front.

When Jun saw that the H2 miserably failed its lunge on Edward, he waited for a chance to kill it. At the same time that the H2's arm got caught by the front edge of the barrier, Jun already had his bonehammer out in his grasp. By the time the H2's body stumbled to the side, Jun was already there ready to strike it down.

When the H2's body rebounded of from its fall, Jun's energized bonehammer pulverized its head. The line received a gap since Jun left but the person next in line advanced forward and followed Edward.

The H1's as if it learned that lunging at the bright barrier wouldn't result in their favor, evaded to the side. This time, the people behind Edward removed themselves from the formation and clashed with the H1's.

Edward's charge was only stopped after the H1's scattered. it was because a D1 slapped his barrier to the side. It was the first time he was pulled by his barrier and it was a new discovery for him. 

He quickly stabilized his footing and shouted to Jun, who he thought was behind him. "I don't really know whether I have enough strength to damage them but I'll try." He gathered energy on his hand and smiled as he shouted, "Shoryujen!"

Edward spun once as he sent an uppercut on the D1. It was 2m tall so he jumped as high as he could just to make sure that he could hit it. But Edward felt dismay after uppercutting the D1. It wasn't because he did not dealt damage, the D1 was shaking its head showing how effective his attack was.. He was dismayed because there was no one behind him!

Adrian, Sheila and Nik's group, even the new recruits, were forming small groups to kill the H1's. When Edward landed, three D1's and the lone D2 towered over him.

"Y-You guys! You're idiots!" yelled Edward as he produced a 180 degree barrier in front of him. The energy consumption was severe and ate seventy percent of his remaining energy but he felt it was worth it. If he didn't raise the barrier in time to block those massive hands, he knew that he could have instantly died.

"Why were you even charging that far!" Sheila yelled back.

"Y-you're even blaming me! Ah, I'm such an idiot for believing you guys."

"Just admit it. You felt it too, right? The adrenaline." Jun said as he rushed forward, ignoring most of the H1's and regular carriers along the way. His bonehammer shone with a glint of red before jumping high up and smashing the nearest D1's head. He quickly rolled away after dropping down and evaded several lumps of muscled arms.

He stood beside Edward and said, "You can fall back if you want. But I don't believe that these guys can kill you as long as you can move. Heck, they probably can't hurt you as long as you have enough energy. Oh by the way, this is a reward okay. Eat that." Jun handed over a small green fruit to Edward.

Edward's widened when saw the fruit and immediately ate it. It was the energy fruit that can increase your maximum energy and restore it fully. The only downside in consuming the energy fruit was that every time you ate one, its effects would be halved. But since this was Edward;s first time eating the energy fruit, he received its full effect.

With his energy cap increased and restored to full, he was able to cast another set of barrier to block the barrage of attacks to them.

Everything that occured just now, happened within a very short time period. By the time the police volunteers and small parties were able to react, half of the evolved carriers were already dead.

"They're taking it all! Let's go, let's go!"

"Those Black Haven bastards! Move! Charge!"

With their revolting appearances, anyone unknowledable with the sitution would think that they're going to kill the Black Haven's group.

Also, the Frontier that just came saw the frenzied people charging forward. Alday Ruan had no clue about what's happening and just led his members to charge. When they were on the frontlines, he just grabbed someone who almost hacked him and asked what was the craze about. The person was displeased due to his disturbance quickly gave a brief summary and went on his merry way.

After some rational thinking he realized why everyone was so crazy about fighting the carriers/ They could increase stats! But when he reached that realization, it was already too late. The horde was so thin that people were having small fights to whom the last stragglers would belong.

The beneficiary of this wave was clearly Black Haven. By the time the people arrive at the frontlines, the D1's were already on their last breaths. Black Haven took every last evolved carrier and gave way for the people.

Well, the elites backed off but the newcomers didn't.

These women braved the crowd with their strenght in numbers and maanged to get a good chunk of the horde. When every last carrier was killed, most of the new recruits reached level 1.

Everyone rested for five minutes and waited for the column of light to appear. Some people already started teleporting back to the minicipal square and waited there, so they could move as quickly as they could.

Jun had told everyone to recover as much energy as they could. He had this hunch that he wished that wouldn't come true. When Jun opened his eyes from meditating to recover energy, he saw the column of light on the south.

Just like he predicted.

And he hates it.

Because the only thing that you could find at the southern part of the town was the lake.

Jun stared at the column of light and sighed deeply.