A Black Market LitRPG

Kyle focused on the remaining spires, ones who were still recharging and could potentially threaten the hovercraft as well as his forces coming into the town. With him now in the center, the Violet Demons could hardly regroup fast enough to deal with him.

Aero Shoes!

His speed increased, though it was still weighed down by his repaired Version 0 exosuit that had been damaged in the Battle of Utul – each individual engraving had been improved as much as he could, creating an even tougher armor set that could survive a bullet storm if the point defense engravings failed.

However, as strong as he was individually, it was impossible for him to fight off two thousand men in a single battle. He needed help to take down the spire, so instead of running right for another spire, he charged towards the three men who were crucified in the center of the town, killing any remaining Violet Demons in the area that tried to stop him.

Many of the workers who still waiting at the sidelines immediately leapt into action the moment Kyle cleared the area, recognizing the opportunity to save Hank, Fred and the priest as well. Kyle grabbed one of the workers by the shoulder. “Armory?”

“Over there!” The worker pointed towards a warehouse that had obviously been appropriated, the oak barrel sign above burnt and damaged. Already the Violet Demons were spreading out in front of the armory, deploying metal covers in a semi-circle, with all guns aimed right at him.

“Bring all your able-bodied fighters there!” Kyle urged.

The worker was about to retort that the armory was heavily guarded, but Kyle was already sprinting towards it, rushing the panicking defenders who charged fired back at him. The pellets did nothing against the green arcia bolts that Kyle’s exosuit shot out – those that made it through did not dent the armor at all as well, the Sturore alloy seemingly impenetrable.

Compared to Nest, these Demons are too easy. Kyle barely gave a thought as he swapped weapons to his heavy variant rifle, returning fire with precision even as he moved from burning wagon to collapsed building, nailing each soldier in the head. He ducked under counter fire, using a fallen bakery sign to deflect the pellets.

[Sir, take cover. Artillery fire ready!] Sasha reported over the telepathy channel.

“Clear!” Kyle shouted back.

The mortars under Kyle’s forces fired volleys into the town, utilizing the rapid communication between Orisa’s clones high up in the observation hovercraft coupled with Kyle’s direct observation. “Shell Sector 178CE.” Kyle ordered, watching six mortar rounds land right onto the designated spire, blasting into half.

Dozens of Violet Demons suffered injuries as explosions wrecked havoc across the town. Collateral damage was unavoidable as well, locals suffered death and destruction all around them as buildings and wagons were blown to bits by the withering barrage.

The hovercraft’s massacre continued unabated as well, shredding ground forces and forcing the Violet Demons to take cover in the buildings. However, for all the destruction Kyle and his troops had wrought, the death toll was nowhere near enough to wipe out the brigade.

[Sir, three spires left – they are charging up again!]

The spires began to cooldown again all across the town, the soldiers ordered to quickly dump water onto the base to cool it off. Green arcia bolts and remanent anti-air turrets shot towards hovercraft, the larger bolts incinerating a hole in the makeshift retrofitted armor of the hovercraft.

“Retreat for now! Stay out of range until the spires are down!” Kyle ordered the pilot of the hovercraft, prompting the hovercraft to retreat, smoke seeping out of its internal structure as it limped back across the forest. “What’s the status of the first goblin den?”

[They’ve broken through the first line of defences – they are in the mining tunnels now!]

“Not a problem – once we cut off this logistics resupply point, we can encircle them easily.”

He returned his focus to the armoury, which still had a dozen soldiers outside protecting it doggedly. Before he could even peek around the sign that he was using as cover, a mortar shell flew straight towards him from above, slamming directly into the sign. The ensuing blast would have sent Kyle flying, if it were not for the exosuit that kept him grounded even as the rush of air swelled around him, his free hand pressed firmly against the sign.

The makeshift foam within the armour absorbed some of the shock and vibration, preventing Kyle from being concussed from the near hit while his metal boots carved into the floor with sparks, both him and the sign being pushed back centimeters.

“Shell him! His armour is too strong for small-arms fire!”

Penchant for Violence! Kyle slung his rifle behind him, and with a grunt, he began to lift and charge with the sign, his ramming speed increased rapidly before slamming it right into the deployed metal barriers of the Demons, knocking the first three over and pinning them down with the sheer weight.

They were the lucky ones, as a Demons who had narrowly avoided the collision on the left immediately had his wrist grabbed by Kyle, twisted into an armlock to become a hostage shield. His eyes widened as he yelled : “Don’t sho-“ but it was already too late, his allies blasting him into oblivion.

Before the hostage shield was turned into mincemeat, Kyle launched the flailing corpse forward right at the other defenders, before immediately delivering an elbow strike to a brave Demon who tried to backstab Kyle from the right with a knife. The Demon’s chin was crushed to bits as he staggered backwards, buying Kyle time to pull out his heavy variant rifle again, firing with impunity.

In an instant, five other Demons were killed on the spot, Kyle’s pellets spiralling through their vitals as the air swirled around their paths. The remaining Demons tried to fight back, pelting Kyle’s exosuit to no avail.

However, Kyle could see yet another squad of Demons in the armory from beyond the entrance, the barrel of a large cannon facing him directly. His instincts kicked in the moment he saw the engravings on the cannon light up, grabbing the nearest defensive barrier with his hand and using it to protect himself.

The shockwave from the projectile blasted forward knocked the cannon backwards slightly, slamming right into Kyle’s defensive barrier. But instead of trying to stop the explosive force as he was pushed back, he spun around, utilizing the momentum to fling the defensive barrier towards the cannon like a frisbee.

The Demons ducked as soon as they saw the barrier fly over them, knocking the cannon back even further and crushing the legs and arms of the cannon crew who were in the vicinity.

Before any of them could recover, Kyle was already blasting through them in a whirlwind of death, annihilating them as he leapt over their covers. Even the remaining squad in the armory was of no consequence to Kyle, his exosuit far superior to anything they had in store. He retrieved his warhammer, before searching the armoury for something to support the workers.

He quickly found a crate of arctech rifles, lifting them up and sprinting back to the central area where the workers were still gathered, albeit near the buildings where they took cover from the Violet Demon’s reinforcements that had now come from other parts of the town, the entire brigade slowly being mobilized.

Hank was still unconscious on the floor, weakened even though his friends had taken him down, with his family still crying next to him while he was surrounded by locals as explosions rocked the flimsy walls. Kyle examined the reaction of the workers, noticing that they were in despair. This guy is the key.

Putting down the crate, he shoved his way through the crowd, none of the workers daring to go against him after seeing him mow down dozens of Violet Demon soldiers. Necklace of Healing!

While the green arcia energy surged through Hank’s body, healing his wounds slightly, Kyle opened a metal pocket on his armour, revealing a stamina potion vial that he forced into Hank’s mouth. The potion caused Hank to instinctively gag and swallow, forcing him to wake up as he inhaled sharply, his eyes widened.

Kyle grabbed the same worker he asked for directions. “The armoury is clear! Get the spires down now! Else the Violet Demons are going to kill all of you!” Kyle did not stay around to see the effect his words had, instead immediately leaving them on their own and heading straight for the nearest spire.

The spires fell easily as long as Kyle got near, but Kyle was not clearing them fast enough. [Sir, two spires left.] Sasha reported through her telepathy channel, utilizing Orisa’s clones as a relay to the observation hovercraft far above. [The workers are now attacking spire 5, but are facing heavy resistance. Qatu’s troops are approaching the town soon.]

“Get Qatu to push through the areas without spires now!”

The remaining spire was still hard at work, blasting the incoming mortar rounds out of the air, the Violet Demons now manually controlling the spire to handle the special fragmentation rounds meant to deplete the point defence engraving.

Need to be faster! Kyle recalled the new albeit infant method that he had learnt during the fight with the mage, channeling the arcia energy to his feet and giving him even more impulse. He began to leap instead of running, the air rushing through the seams of the armour as he flew over dozens of Violet Demon soldiers, landing right next to another spire.

“What the hell? How did he jump that far?!” A Demon exclaimed.

“Shut up and kill him!”

“Wait! Don’t blow up the spire!”

The confusion gave Kyle enough time to slam his warhammer into the base of the spire once more, the follow up impact cracking the spire from within and causing its foundation to crumble in a cloud of smoke.

In the midst of the chaos, Kyle was like a hunter, killing wantonly through the dust kicked up by the collapsed spire. “Final spire down.”

[Hovercraft resuming attack run.]

The artillery barrage of the town ensued again, this time with full strength. The information asymmetry allowed Kyle free reign in the town, able to pinpoint target groups of soldiers before annihilating them himself, earning tons of EXP in exchange.

Soon, Qatu’s troops began to push into the town as well, spreading out across the buildings and fighting from door to door, clearing out each and every single nook and cranny. It was a tedious effort and took the better part of three hours before they managed to flush out all of the Violet Demons.

Not every Demon was killed, with more than eight-tenths of them still alive and retreating down the main path back to Raktor, led by Aiden. Aiden had immediately begun to plan for a retreat the moment Kyle appeared, making Kyle wonder if it was all a ploy of sorts. Kyle inspected the remaining equipment left behind the Culdao Peaks town. Weird, there isn’t enough here to sustain a siege in the first place.

[Sir, all the other brigades are retreating as well! We won!] Sasha exuberantly rejoiced, but Kyle was of a different mind. This was far too easy – there’s no way Sebastian would launch an attack without any gains.

“Sasha, reorganize the troops and prepare to ship off to Raktor. This might have been a feint attack to draw our attention away while they attempt to take down the Baron.”

[Yes, sir.]

Kyle was starting to think that this was also a probing attack to determine the actual capabilities of his troops, but before he could order his troops to reorganize and begin their counterattack at the first goblin den, a deafening rumble unlike any explosion Kyle had heard in his new life thus far erupted from deep underground.

He glanced towards the mountain where the first goblin den was, seeing the mountain and trees visibly shake as the ground trembled, cracking apart in some places as a devastating avalanche began to rumble, the signs of a massive underground explosion. “What’s going on?”

[We lost contact with the Orisa clone sent with the first batch of reinforcement!]

“Find out what happened, now!” Kyle quickly ordered for the armoured hovercraft to pick him up, flying straight for the first goblin den.

Instead of seeing a reinforced walled outpost with heavy defenses, it was completely collapsed in, covered in a triggered landslide with the interior tunnels filled to the brim. Kyle soon knew what was happening, realizing the objective of the entire attack. They blew up a third of the damn tunnel network!