And So It Begins
'Shit, shit. Fuck me what even is that?'
Currently we were running from what looked like an amalgamation of a dear, wolf and some other unknown creature which had disgusting growths all over its body.
The MTV was faster then it, but with my lack of skill driving and 7 being less then perfect at reading maps.
The creature was about a third the size of our massive vehicle but I didn't want to find out what would happen if that thing hit us. We might be able to beat it but our lifeline the MTV likely wouldn't survive along with the fact we would be injured.
We couldn't allow any injuries to happen, and we couldn't allow this MTV to break. Either would be a death sentence and so we ran.
"Can you tell me where to go, you fuck." I shouted behind me.
"There should be a maze of rocks north east where we can loose this thing." 7 responded almost meekly.
"Finally, some good fucking news." I shouted again.
Looking at the compass I turned towards north east and pressed on the accelerator while making sure we wouldn't run into any issues.
Eventually I noticed a cluster of big rocks and turned the switch for silent mode which made the vehicle dead silent but made the car slower and less powerful along with consuming a metric fuck ton of roh which 49 was supplying the MTV currently.
13 meanwhile was through the latch on the roof trying to use his powers to generate icicles out of roh. There was no gun on top despite how much more power a mounted gun would have since they hardly had an effect on these creatures, only things made or manipulated by roh were able to pass through the dissolving effect the cursed thing had.
All of the cursed beings had this effect, almost all guns were ineffective against them due to this. Only heavy weapons or rail cannons were able to get past this without the use of roh, strangely radiation could as well
Turning around these rocks multiple times had all the others bouncing between either side of the walls.
Eventually 13 ducked into the MTV and said "We lost it, lets hide the MTV somewhere and kill the thing."
"I hear you, but I need to rest and recover my roh for an hour or so." 49 responded.
Finding a nice place to place the MTV I drove it there and drove it half into some shrubbery so that the cursed wouldn't find it as easily.
Walking into the back, I along with everyone else was catching our breaths.
While we waited for 49 to recover her roh we talked about how we would kill the thing.
After Itching my back for the third time this conversation I realised just why the pilot told us to never take off our elemental protection.
It protected against radiation, and there was a lot of it. Against the second layer of skin created by the elemental resistance it felt like small pings constantly, It was extremely itchy but I certainly did not want radiation poisoning so I had to deal with it.
Inside the MTV was normally really well protected against the radiation, with even the air conditioning filtering for it but with the latch on top not sealed some could leak inside.
Activating my sensory ability I felt my sight be taken from me and completely replaced by the sense for motion. It was a completely black world except for any movement which happened, it looked like clouds of gas somewhat resembling a form flowing around.
Scanning at my maximum range of a bit less then a hundred metre radius, I couldn't see anything besides the rustling of trees.
Talking to my squad I said. "Alright lets go over the plan one more time, I will find and lure the thing, 49 will create a march. We get the thing stuck in there, 13 makes weapons and then we stab the thing to death."
Everyone responded with a simple nod and we begun.
And that's how eventually I found myself walking around trying to find the thing. I somewhat enjoyed the scenery meanwhile. The orange leaves which marked the beginning of fall were quite a sight to behold.
We were apparently somewhere called Siberia, it was honestly a beautiful place. Much better then any pictures of landscapes I had ever seen.
It was fairly warm which was surprising considering the reputation this place had everywhere I had searched. I knew winters would get horrifically cold but right now it was actually a pleasant temperature.
Passing under an overhang created by a rock I looked to my right to see a familiar horrific creature to my right. We stared at each other for what must have been a few seconds before it lunged at me.
'Holy shit that thing is fast.'
Activating my speed ability to as high as I could, not sparing any roh. I dashed for the agreed spot, hoping 49 was done in time.
These few seconds of running were agonizing. I could hear the monstrous thumping and clacking on the ground behind me.
I didn't dare look back knowing that every moment I did meant it was closer to me and so I simply ran and prayed.
In the distance I saw 49 in a corridor of rock, and on the ground were four stones marking where the marsh was.
Even through my burning legs I accelerated further and then jumped over the marsh.
The abomination didn't have such foresight however and plunged into the fluid like soil. to which 49 disabled her ability and the soil hardened, trapping the creature.
49 tumbled to the ground, i felt like doing the same but stayed on my feet.
Revealing themselves from behind the rocks 13 and 7 were carrying each about a dozen spears. 7 handed me one while 13 gave one to 49.
The ice spear was cold but through my gloves it was hardly more then an annoyance. 13 placed a few more spears on the ground and we all begun throwing them at the thing.
Normal ice would have simply shatter and dissolved but 13's mystical ice both resisted the dissolution and was as hard as rock.
More and more spears were plunged into the creature until all the other three jolted slightly. Likely meaning the atlas had notified them of the creatures death, I of course heard no such thing. I didn't have the atlas system after all.
7 turned to the group and said. "So who is getting it?"
49 pouted before saying. "Did you forget it was my turn? Remember 4 cannot get it for whatever reason, that means it goes back to being my turn."
49 walked up to the dissolving corpse of the creature and touched it then it completely disappeared instantly.
From what I knew what was happening was that the atlas system somehow absorbs mana off of these things and then the user can use this collected mana for rewards.
I had tried absorbing one before but all I felt was a burning sensation on my hand and the creature wasn't absorbed.
The others hardly questioned why I couldn't use it, we all had our secrets, weird abilities and curses after all. It was rude to ask something so personal about someone.
The walk back to the MTV was uneventful this was the fourth cursed which we had killed today. Each one of them was an absolutely horrifying abomination, one was even somewhat humanoid which only made it worse.
The nearly eternally setting sun was making the sky come alive with my different colours which the autumn leaves however all of us just wanted to return to the MTV rather than admire the view.
Once inside we simply tried to enjoy ourselves. Night time was far too dangerous to explore since any lights we tried to use would attract any and all cursed that saw it.
Making sure to properly secure all the doors I turned on the window opacity to zero so that the lights from inside would not lean out and I turned on my sensory ability and felt my vision fade. I had grown used to the inside of the vehicle so as long as I made sure not to hit anyone while I moved there would be no problem having my sight taken from me.
On the other hand being able to see all movement outside would be essential. Especially because turning on the night vision cameras could sometimes be seen by cursed which have vision outside the visible spectrum and the passive night vision was terrible as seeing in the dark for even slightly long distances.
Today was the first night we were here on this mission and as we had agreed 49 and 7 would sleep first while 13 and I would take the first shift.
'Hopefully nothing bad happens.'