The gates of the citadel fall under a combined assault from our mages. It was a tough nut to crack, but not many things can withstand the force of over a hundred very angry mages at one time.

  The gate crumbles to the ground, nought but a pile of ash. The orcs inside waste no time, and start pouring out of it like water.

  “Alright people, get going!” Stephen says, punctuating his command with the crack of his rifle.

  A system message follows after his bullet hits its mark.

  [Rank 1 Core Hive]

  [Objectives (Grade 2 Core): Destroy Hatcheries (0/250), Destroy Generators (0/24), Breach Inner Wall (0/1), Sabotage Barrier Generators (0/4), Enter Core Rift (0/1), Defeat Matriarch (0/1)]

  [Bonus Objective: Minimize Casualties: +1% Rewards For Every Surviving Challenger (357/357)]

  [Monster Level: 250]

  [Monster Type: Orc]

  [Matriarch Level: 251]

  [Rewards (Squad): 30 R2 Augment Crates & 50 R2 Gear Crates]

  [Rewards (All): Liberation of Planet Volea]

  Seems like the objectives are just as we saw from orbital scanning. Though the bonus objective is new, and a bit scary. What kind of thing is rewarding us for staying alive?

  Nevermind that, I waste no time leaping onto the nearest orc. My entire body hums as I go through the motions of slaying it. I do get a minor scrape as I slip on some blood when landing, but it's nothing a bit of Moxie’s healing can’t fix.

  Violet is right beside me – and all the other Dragon Guard too of course – as we push back the orcs. The instant I think I am safe, I am forced to dodge an incoming fireball, spike of earth, lightning bolt or something similar. Then an instant later, an axe or sword comes swinging right for me. These orcs aren’t playing around.

  Good thing I am not either.

  I jump onto the back of one orc and stab it to death. Then another. Then another. Every once in a while I have enough mana to add in a bit of fire – for style and flair. But the orcs just seem to keep pouring from every crack. Which is surprising, considering they are ten meter tall behemoths.

  After several grueling hours of slaying orcs, and more than one casualty, the tide starts to ebb. It eventually comes to a stop and all of us are left standing in a large courtyard, deep pools of monster blood resting in blast craters. I am thankful for my helmet’s smell filtering, this place must reek.

  “Alright team, we are all tired, exhausted and some of us are wounded.” Stephen says over the coms. “But, we must push forward. If we stop now, all that we have done will be for nought.”

  Everyone sighs, but everyone stands strong and gets back to work. We do take a quick break to munch down a quite frankly absurd amount of food though. I think I pull at least twenty meals worth down in just three minutes. They supplied us with some super duper dense nutrient bars. They taste like shit, but they actually manage to make me feel full.

  “Maka, what's the plan?” Stephen asks while I am mid-bite.

  “Wh..at?” I sputter.

  “You know, your super awesome plan to conquer this place that I asked you to come up with?”

  “Oh right, that uh… got a map?” I totally came up with a plan beforehand. I am definitely not about to make something up on the spot. Most certainly not.

  Stephen throws me a map and I review it. The citadel is broken into three parts. First, the outer ring, which has a bunch of hatcheries as well as some generators that power defenses blocking us from progressing inwards. Then the inner area has a bunch of generators for a barrier over the core rift. Plus tons of not very nice monsters of course.

  Then lastly, the core rift itself. Which we know practically nothing about other than the Matriarch will be at the end of it.

  “We have seventy full squadrons available, so we send three to each generator. With our squadron taking on one all alone. If everyone destroys hatcheries along the way, we should be good. We split into a sort of web structure, so that if one squadron is facing a lot of problems others nearby can support them.” I say, hoping I am not missing something important. It is not a very complicated situation, but that only means things can hit the fan real fucking fast if things get more complicated.

  I draw a bunch of things on the map and assign squadrons rapidly to each area based on overall skills. Don’t want to put too many mages and medics in one area and have them lack front liners. Not all squadrons are as well balanced as ours, so it's important to think about balance.

  “Alright then, now that brilliant Maka here has laid out the plans, any questions?” Stephen asks and everyone says they understand. “Well then, let's get to work! The faster we are done here the sooner we can get home and enjoy our fancy new gear!”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  We immediately start moving towards our first hatchery. The citadel is quite large, but thankfully there are lots of rocks and what seem to be shaped like buildings. I have no clue why monsters would need to construct buildings though. Nevertheless, they make it far easier to move around. Roads are slow, but leaping between buildings is not.

  We reach the first hatchery and it is a bit smaller than the ones in the grade two hive. There are quite a lot of them, and a large area to cover. So they must’ve spread them out or something. No one knows how or why monsters decide to design their hives how they do.

  “Geronimo!” I shout as I jump first down into the hatchery. I am immediately surrounded by five orcs. They are very tall, and their armor is very menacing. I am but a single silver spec compared to them.

  But, I have explosions.

  I push about a quarter of my mana into forming a giant dome of water, edged with spikes of ice. Then I project it outwards and hear several satisfying cracking sounds. The water even manages to push the blood and ash away so I remain relatively spotless.

  Which is good, because a dozen more orcs are immediately right on top of me. I Blink onto the back of one and give it the good ol’ stabby treatment. Then I hear a crash next to me as three orcs stand with giant holes through their chests.

  Violet is standing on a nearby roof, her blade soaked in monster blood and a large smile on her face. The orcs explode in a nice shower, which just adds to Violet’s badass factor even more. I wonder at what point she surpasses the bounds of mortality. Her cuteness is already at least equivalent to a goddess, so she can’t be far off.

  “What are you staring at, get back to work, idiot.” She scolds with a wide smile on her face. I swear I catch a wink on her face, right as an incoming fireball forces her to dodge.

  “Yes ma’m. Won’t happen again.”

  “I am certain it never will, imbecile.”

  I smile and get back to work. Speaking of work, I hear we are getting quite a massive paycheck for being a part of the special operations unit. I think I am a millionaire now, not that I really have anything to spend it on.

  We finish off the rest of the hive and end up hitting two more before we reach our assigned generator. I gave us the farthest one, since we are the best.

  “Hmm, that looks like a fairly easy target.” Liv says as we sit on a roof nearby. “Like, it's wide open. Couldn’t Moxie just give it a good old explosion?”

  There is a large spike that is shooting a beam of light towards the center of the citadel. It is definitely the generator, but strangely enough it seems completely undefended.

  “I vote for Maka to go first.” Violet says from behind me. Then I feel a sudden shoving motion and I go tumbling off the roof of the building.

  I slam into the ground face first. Instantly my Trace Clues turn my vision red with dozens of warnings. Mines. And not just simple anti-personnel ones either, these ones are easily capable of taking out a small building.

  I carefully stand up and look out in front of me. Hundreds of them are arrayed in a seemingly random pattern. “Thanks for that Violet, I almost had my everything blown up. This entire place is a minefield.”

  “You are very welcome, idiot.” She says from atop the building, looking down at me with a super cute grin on her face. On second thought, I think I prefer the version where she was ignoring me. At least then she wasn’t shoving me off buildings into minefields.

  “Maka, how bad is it?” Stephen asks.

  “If anyone but me tries to move even a centimeter, we all go up in a nice fireball.” I reply back honestly. “Also, it seems there is some sort of barrier around the generator. I doubt long range attacks will work.”

  “So, you have to go on foot.” Liv says bluntly.

  “Yep, looks like this is going to be a whole lot of fun. You guys keep my back clear!” I reply.

  “Nuh uh, not a chance you get to have all the fun, coming down!” Violet shouts and then jumps down next to me. “I am coming with you of course.” She says with a tone I don’t think I like.

  “There is no way even you will be able to dodge all those mines without knowing where they are.” I protest.

  “Hmm, then I suppose you will simply have to carry me.” Her devilish smirk just about kills me.

  My brain short-circuits at the suggestion. Did Violet, The Violet just ask me to carry her? Mid operation no less? “Huh? Who are you and what have you done with Violet?” I blurt out.

  She moves a bit closer so that she is almost pressed up against me. Her voice is very low, and sounds absurdly hot. “Do you have an issue with me, imbecile? Perhaps you would rather go it alone and not carry me along to help?”

  I feel a bit of a blush rise onto my cheeks. I see how it is now. “Well when you put it that way…” I waste no time and sweep her off her feet and into my arms. I hold her tightly, I wouldn't want to drop her after all.

  “Wait I meant on the back…” She tries to protest but I have already leapt into the air, I soar over a bunch of the mines and land in a perfect deadzone. Then without any pause I leap again.

  A few seconds later, I and a Violet whose face is now quite red, land just outside the generator. I gently set her down on the ground. “Was that as fun as you imagined it?”

  She turns away from me. “Tsk, dummy.”

  I think that means she had a ton of fun but doesn't want to say she did. Well, that is what I will go with anyways. “So, how exactly do we destroy this generator thing?” I ask. There is in fact a shining barrier, I place my hand on it and it feels quite solid.

  “We stab it of course.” She takes a step back and draws her blade. It glows with aether from one of her skills and then she shoves it right into the barrier.

  Sparks fly and a loud cracking sound can be heard, but surely enough, the barrier shatters. There is now a small hole, enough to slip in a timed explosive spell.

  I create one of the ones Moxie showed me. It has been a moment since I have done it, so I have to fiddle with it a bit. But I finally manage to do it. “Alright then, let's get outa here!”

  I open my arms and step towards Violet. She calls me an idiot again but doesn't say anything else as I sweep her into my arms. I carry her back across the minefield and onto the roof, where our squadmates wait.

  “Really nice.” Liv says with a frown on her face. “Why do you two get to have all the fun? It's not fair.”

  Stephen places a hand on her shoulder. “I am sure your time to shine will come soon.”

  With that, we leave. Once we are a bit aways, I detonate the explosive. Though we don’t look at the explosion. Both because it would be bright enough to blind us, but also because cool people don’t look at explosions.

  Since our objective is met, we head to the rendezvous point. We manage to take two more hatcheries along the way, saving some nearby squadrons some effort.

  It is important to be very efficient in our monster slaying. We do have a fair few of them to eradicate still.

  [Scout has leveled up! Lvl 209 -> Lvl 221]

  [Mage has leveled up! Lvl 221 -> Lvl 236]

  [Average Level is now 228]

  [Lemon has leveled up! Lvl 201 -> Lvl 212]

  [Trace Clues has leveled up! Lvl 20 -> Lvl 22]

  Next Chapter: For Keeps

  If you are enjoying the book, I would really appreciate it if you dropped a follow, comment or even a rating!

  Checkout the official