Going down again

Author's Note: Sorry for the cliffhanger in the previous chapter. Another chapter in 5 minutes! 

Having realized what they were dealing with, a look of worry appeared on everyone's faces. While it was the lowest class of kaijuu, it was still a kaijuu after all. At nearly 40 meters tall, a broodmother was a female stalker that had evolved past the Stalker and Hunter stages. 

Akin to a mobile fortress, her mighty tail had fallen off and been exchanged for a much thicker exoskeleton that covered her entire body. On her back, the chitinous plating rose and deformed into a small hill with countless protrusions. Inside lay countless baby Stalkers, with hundreds birthed by the hour. Furthermore, her pincers, already powerful when she was merely a hunter, had evolved further into a type of chitin much more durable than the original, allowing her to withstand some of the most powerful weapons humans could throw at her. 

The same pincers could also be used for digging tunnels through the rocky ground, to the point where the Arcology had been directly attacked by broodmothers before. Each time, countless casualties occurred, both civilian and military, as they repelled the beasts. No matter where they struck, the residual toxin left behind from the fighting made it a barren zone for human life until everything was thoroughly cleaned. These cleaning operations could last anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. Countless emergency slums were set up so the homeless could evacuate and avoid the vile fumes. Among those affected, Asa's parents were apparently counted among those who died in one of the previous broodmother invasions. 

Thinking up to this point, Uria felt her heartbeat slowly accelerate. Was it her own excitement to fell such a beast, or was it the original Asa's emotions of hatred and fear?

Everyone else was also thinking about what probably lay ahead of them. A kaijuu was the pinnacle of power in this world, and most of them had unique abilities, most of which were absolute nightmares to face. Considering the stalkers and hunters still at large, many started thinking of ways to get out intact. Some lamented going on this mission. Some experienced ones started planning where to make their last stand, hoping to survive. 

Yet, Moustache interrupted everyone's thoughts after a while. Initially hopeful, he tried to contact the two APC mechs at the tunnel entrance without any luck. Then, with a little hope, he tried to contact the Last Bastion for a rescue squad. Finally, with a slight sense of despair, he hung up after calling RivTech HQ directly. Knowing they weren't a priority squad was the final nail in the coffin. Collapsing to the ground, having weighed his pros and cons, he asked the rest of them, 

"Alright, I won't beat around the bush. We're in trouble. A lot of it."

"Is there... more bad news?" replied one of them with a tense expression.

"The Bastion isn't answering at all." As he said that, many faces turned for the worse. "RivTech cannot send a rescue squad; another four teams were attacked and are being rescued right now." Everyone looked doomed and gloomy. Turning a shade bleaker, he then delivered the worst news of all. "And... the two APCs aren't responding. Meaning if we go down this tunnel..." He didn't finish his sentence, not wanting to imagine what horror awaited them there. Everyone considered what he said, but nobody came up with a way to get out. Or even if they could.

In the dark and damp cave deep underground, they kept thinking, yet no solutions came to mind. Seconds and minutes passed by until the old soldier walked up to Moustache and said, "Let's head down at least. If the broodmother is really here, it could probably sense us since we're too close to the tunnel. 

If we avoid her, id say we can deal with some stalkers and hunters... I'd rather fight down there where they can't ambush us as well. " 

Reaching this point, Uria looked around and suggested casually, "Or if you don't mind risking being crushed by rocks, just melt a tunnel entrance so they won't find us. I don't know how stable the network is, and it's only a last resort. As long as it buys us a few hours, it's probably good enough."

"... We don't have explosives, however," replied the RivTech grunt.

She pointed at his gun and said, "Isn't that thing capable of melting the rock easily?"

Staying silent, Moustache asked, "Can you guarantee there won't be something terrible locked in there with us?"

Shrugging her hands, she replied, "No, not at all. But if the alternative is being eaten definitely, it's an option to gamble on not being eaten, don't you think?"

While Moustache was contemplating what to do, she picked up some skittering sounds heading their way from the main tunnel. Walking towards the front again, she waited for the company to arrive. The RivTech grunt said simply, "Company, the bad kind, seven of them." Nodding to him and standing in front of the other armors, she waited for them to arrive. As for why she was in front? She had the bulkiest and most heavily armored suit there.

Merely a dozen seconds later, the seven stalkers showed up. As they started closing in, the other armors got into fighting stances, anticipating their charge. The first to be charged was obviously our heroine at the forefront. The stalker's tail collided with her unhardened chest plate, but it failed to penetrate and bounced off, leaving only a tiny scratch. Knowing exactly how resilient this thing was, she released the hardening on her inner armor, a just-in-case failsafe, and swung her right hand holding her damaged staff down. 

Pulling back the sizzling and bent staff from the acid-leaking corpse with its torso caved in, she noticed the others had finished off their stalkers as well, uninjured. Yet, the RivTech grunt suddenly sensed something and shouted in panic, "Be ready, I can sense there's far more coming—20...30...40..." As he kept saying higher and higher numbers, his face under the helmet fell lower and lower. 

Having finally made up his mind, Moustache said, "Alright, all be damned! Company secrets be damned!" With fire in his eyes, he continued, "I said I am not abandoning you, and I damn well won't! Let's head back to the deepest tunnel and set up shop there. It's fortified really well, as it is a huge stellarite vein inside of a meteorite. If we gotta greet the customers, we gotta greet them properly. And my name is Gareth. I'll treat you bastards all to dinner if we get out of this. So don't die, let's go! GO! GO!" 

The RivTech grunt, having been demoted to a mount again by Gareth, started sprinting down the tunnel while the rest of the people looked at each other. 

"I'll be the rear guard, get going," Uria interrupted everyone's train of thought. 

Looking at her and knowing that she bravely took the rear guard, the rest of them saluted her, then started moving ahead. "Ah, what a brave soldier, a true hero!" 

Meanwhile, the only thing she was thinking about, with stars in her eyes, was, "So many new souls... I mean, xp... " 

In her previous life, while she didn't have a system or similar that would give her xp upon killing things, she had Animancy—soul magic. Whether it was possessing others, absorbing the souls of those slain by her or her minions similarly to a system, to either strengthen herself or be resummoned as undead, she was a complete and utter nightmare on the battlefield. Even when she became a lich, she didn't use necromancy to bind her soul to a phylactery. She used countless souls to forge herself an immortal body that would never age, with her actual body as the main ingredient. That way, she didn't turn into a cold and emotionless being like a failed lich... for the most part.

Knowing that she would soon rapidly grow stronger in this world made her excited. As she started retreating with everyone while thinking about the free XP coming her way, the first visitor arrived. From down the ceiling came a whooshing sound as the critter tried to jump the person at the back of the convoy. Without even turning her head, she simply swung the staff in her right hand. Repeating the process a few times, the stalkers realized she was very troublesome, so they tried to go ahead and get the others first, to then encircle and kill her. Yet, even if they jumped down on those slightly ahead, they firmly guarded each other and killed them mid-air, their acidic blood only occasionally splashing on the armors. The sizzling from the acid, and the smoke accompanying it, that were coming from the acid splashes didn't cause them too much damage or worry, most of their armors were well balanced between attack, defense and speed. 

Like that, they arrived at the previous area where the vibranium was originally supposed to be.