Anyways the snow crunched under our feet and the sound of explosions and gunfire filled the air as we followed the path hurriedly. Our arrival was kinda expected this time as apparently at least one soldier noticed that the strange red and purple energy snaking through the air was going the opposite direction of the vault. That was kinda my bad but I was not stopping if I didn't have to. I was raking in an obscene amount of lifeforce between the dead and the Eridium I was stripping from within my powers range.-
'Assuming the flow of Eridium stays consistent all the way to the vault I should breach two million by the time we arrive.' I thought with a grin as I put a bullet in the heads of two different soldiers at the same time.
This was the third sort of minicamp so far and we had only come across one other elite soldier(he died like a bitch). The Seraphs though were a consistent problem as as there were enough of them buzzing through the sky and across the path that each little camp we found of soldiers was outnumbered by at least four enemies.-
I had to admit that not stopping to collect the "dead" Seraphs was making my teeth itch as my greed for their tech and metal went ignored. Still I placated myself by constantly reminding myself that I could just come back to grab it all after the vault was dealt with. For the most part things weren't so bad as we made our way through this narrow warzone. With plenty of cover and good teamwork we methodically were chewing through the enemies to advance. Soon enough though we reached a large open area in the cliff face pathway that was obviously the halfway point and also a large encampment of Lancemen. -
"That's a lot of heat." Mordy said with a frown as we looked over the fierce battle between the soldiers numbering at least fifty and the Seraphs who had around seventy bodies being thrown at at the soldiers.
"Lil you think you can drop some grenades in the middle of those Seraphs? Mordy pick off the elites from the Lancemen. Roland you are with me and Brick as we push the attacks." I said and everyone nodded in agreement before we moved into action.
Lil rapidly flickered into and out of existence in the densest parts of the Seraphs swarms leaving grenades behind while elites from the lance side got new holes in their heads courtesy of Mordy. Roland, Brick and I sprinted straight into the thickest parts of the enemies guns blazing and fists getting thrown. Roland and Brick hit the Lance side while I alone smashed into the Seraphs both literally and figuratively. Even as my shield broke under the Seraphs retaliation and I felt blades and blasts of energy strike me I couldn't help the massive grin on my face as my adrenaline was PUMPING.-
Thanks to the Seraphs energy weapons being mostly electrical in nature my [Energetic sustenance(shock)] trait dulled the damage just enough that my regeneration could keep up. It was close though as for all the progress it made closing my wounds I gained just as much new damage. After a good five minutes of intense battle my friends finished dealing with the soldiers and came to help me deal with the Seraphs. Not that I really needed the help by that point as I had cockroached long enough to whittle the numbers down by close to half.-
"You okay? That's a LOT of blood." Brick asked concerned as I was literally covered in my own blood once the fight was over.
"I'm peachy, can't say the same for my fucking clothes though. These pants are ruined and this body suit is fubar." I complained.
I fucking meant it too as besides my boots I had a bunch of cuts and holes all over my blood soaked clothes. My body suits top half was more or less scraps of cloth barely clinging to my form at this point and besides my crotch the bottom half was not too much better.-
"Well at least your dick and ass aren't hanging out." Mordy joked and I chuckled.
"I actually went out of my way to protect those bits. Not shy or nothing but I have no intention of battling in the buff if I can help it." I said with an chuckle.
"It would certainly leave an impression." Roland joked and we all laughed.
We moved on after that and thankfully it was all small camps until the end. It had to have taken us nearly two fucking hours to reach the end of the path and I can say for certain it was fucking worth the effort.-
My lifeforce count was sitting at a pretty 2,128,003 from both the Eridium and sheer amount of dead bodies. If I wasn't sure it would almost absolutely leave me incapacitated I might have even tried to grab Lil's siren trait. The end of the path was by far the largest area and also the biggest battle. Dozens of empty suits of armor and broken Seraphs covered the ground while easily over a hundred soldier fended off almost twice as many Seraphs. The sheer quantity of blood and burnt gun powder that I smelt erased any traces of any other scents and the noise storm from the fighting was deafening.-
There was no special plans here unfortunately as the whole area was chaos. Lil dropped grenades in the groups of enemies while Roland, me and Mordy leaned around cover and popped shots off before sitting behind cover again. Brick served as our body guard and punched the life out of anything that tried to come around the drop pod we were using for cover. Even pooling all our grenades up Lil still ran out before the numbers had even reached a halfway mark.-
I honestly debated whether or not I should use [BURN] again to save time but chose not to in the end. Even if it was slow going we were still chipping our way through the enemies. Lil pilfered some more grenades from the Lancemen ammo crates eventually which really helped clear things out when she set them off in the densest pockets of enemies. A good hour of gun fire later all of our guns were burning red hot on the barrels but we could finally move on. Unfortunately I was not able to draw in any more lifeforce or Eridium as I had already got all of it nearby in the hour we were fighting.
2,311,899
That was the final amount I was left with at the end of this massive fire fight. A windfall of epic proportions and hopefully enough to grab whatever the vault monsters traits were as well as Steele's siren trait after I personally blow her fucking head off. We all took a brief five minutes to raid the ammo crates here since all of us were running low after all this and it gave our us some time to rest a little.-
Hours of constant fighting had left even me and Brick tired and a brief break was well needed even if we were on a time limit. I passed out some food and water to try and replace some of the energy and water we'd lost through effort and sweating and with a resolved expression we all walked into the carved stone hallway that lead to the vault. I briefly looked over the symbols carved all over the place as we walked and frowned as I didn't recognize some of them.-
Others felt strange and out of place like the symbols for, feed, sacrifice, sorrow, energy and world. My best attempt at understanding them all told me all of nothing without the fucking context to look at as well. How did it all tie into this vault? What exact was in it that would cause so much emphasis from the Eridians? I had so many damned questions that I hoped would be satisfied once we busted open this millennia old can of worms.
___________________________________________
Support me on pat reon if you want to read ahead. I post almost daily there.
https://www.pa treon.com/user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa treon.com/pa treon_loskro
_______________________________________________
Alexander Drake
Lifeforce: 2,311,899
Integrated Traits: [Gun mastery-Rare grade]X3, [Clever mind-Rare grade],[Enhanced senses-Epic grade]X2, [Demi-supreme body-Legendary grade], [Supreme armored hide-Epic grade]X2, [Energy projection-Legendary grade], [Superior vitality-Epic grade]X2,[Lesser dragon breath-Epic grade],[Regeneration-Epic grade]X2, [Disease resistance-Epic grade],[Amphibious lungs-Uncommon grade], [Thermal sensing-Uncommon grade], [Water resistance-Common grade],[Active camouflage-Epic grade], [Eridian engineering expertise-Mythical grade], [Efficient lungs-Rare grade]x2, [Fire resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Elemental body(fire)-Legendary grade], [Shock resistance-Epic grade]X4, [Energetic sustenance(shock)-Epic grade]X2, [Radiation resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Energetic sustenance(radiation)-Epic grade]X2, [Biometallic bones-Epic grade],[Elemental body(shock)-Rare grade]X3,[Quick thinking-Rare grade], [Minor spatial awareness-Epic grade], [Buzzaxe expertise-Uncommon grade], [Siren(Phaselock)(Altered)-Mythical grade], [Pugilist expertise-Uncommon grade], [Adrenal rush-Rare grade], [Mechanical engineering expertise-Rare grade]X3, [Gunsmithing expertise(degrading)-Common grade]X3, [Elemental body(Corrosive)-Rare grade], [Corrosion resistance-Rare grade], [Mechanical Savant-Epic grade],
Stored traits: [Flame breath-Uncommon Grade], [Tinkering instinct-Rare grade], [Minor regeneration-Rare grade], [Superior vitality-Epic grade], [Omega body-Rare grade]X2, [Supreme Armored hide-Epic grade], [Hard bones-Rare grade], [Sword expertise-Rare grade], [Gun mastery-Rare grade]