Long Island

Chapter 18: Beastmen Battle

Please Note: Statements between % something in italics % are game system messages. 

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An hour later, Caterpy and her team decided to rest as scheduled. She was a bit tired of walking by now and she wanted to sit down but there was no clearing. They were still surrounded by dense woods. Rough grass and shrubs below. Some of the players decided to lean on the thick trunks of the trees to rest a bit. The rest did not care. They sat down anyway. Caterpy was one of them.

It started suddenly.

One moment they were resting. The next, people were screaming. And as everyone turned around to look, they heard the shout "Formations!"

Sergeant Manuel was an experienced soldier who had put his life on the line. His reaction speed to these kind of situations easily surpassed even the veteran players. It was he who shouted the order. The soldiers accustomed to following orders reacted as soon as they heard. The players were slower.

Caterpy quickly stood up and unhooked her bow from the sling she had made to hang it on her back. All soldiers carried a quiver in addition to their usual weapons. The archers carried two or more, as many they could manage. She quickly set up to fire an arrow. And she was one of the fast ones. A lot of the other players were still confused. Maybe that was because they still did not know, whether it was an attack or just someone falling in a trap. It couldn't be helped as they had found so many on the way. 'Someone at sometime was just going to fall in...or that's what the thinking would have become' thought Caterpy.

Thankfully there were still more soldiers than players. And they did not play around with their lives. Looking at them combat ready and serious, the rest of players hurried up. And a good thing it was as well.

Because it turned out they were really under attack.

More screaming but the sergeant of team 4 suddenly shouted.

"Team 3, attack confirmed. Team 4 going center support."

Sergeant Manuel then shouted,

"Team 3, attack confirmed. Team 5 going right."

The sergeant of the team behind shouted.

"Team 3, attack confirmed. Team 6 going cover."

"Team 3, attack confirmed. Team 7 going rogue" Lady Altia's voice sounded.

"Team 3, attack confirmed. Team 8 going cover support...

She could not hear the other teams. Maybe they were too far away or maybe the forest was too thick to drown out their sounds.

'Diggeron is in team 3' was the only thought in Caterpy's head. But it was mostly an envious thought than an anxious one. Thankfully they did not make stupid men as sergeants. Each knew what to say and how to move. The first two teams she assumed had already moved into position. Now her team moved swiftly heading into the trees to make the right side of the box.

And then she saw.

In the time it took them to move.....team 3 was annihilated....by two wolf looking animals. But they were standing upright. 'So these are the beastmen.' She saw Diggeron's corpse on the ground. It still had not disappeared.

Caterpy thought she had gotten used to seeing Diggeron's dead body. After all he had died in other games as well. But no matter what she thought, she still felt irritated...and angry! That was the drawback of realism. Even dead people looked like dead people, atleast before they disappeared. But that could wait for now. She reminded herself that he is actually not dead and took a breath to calm down as they moved into formation.