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||[Location Discovered: Cloudburn Refinery ]||

All are heading close. Cloudburn Refinery up ahead, emitting heavy smoke through all its cooling towers. Kilian recognizes the smell, confirming it to be the forbidden material.

||Hostiles ahead||

“We got company,” Selina said.

<< Perfect timing. Is it time now? >>

Both recognized the voice coming through their OLRS. Roland?

The engine roared from behind. Coming ahead, the undercarriage with four wheels hovers above everyone.

Screech!

Bits of trails from the tires left on the road, revealing a truck braking ahead, coming to a complete stop. Kilian diverges to the truck's driver's side, stopping at the window. “Roland, so it was you,” He said, gazing through the window. “Yeah! That’s my damn truck.”

“Look, I read the driver’s manual from last week, so we're all good,” Roland said.

“I know I’m just nagging. Now I know it’s you driving, I’m fine with that.”

“So, we're going to the refinery right? It’s on my visuals,” Roland said, parking the truck. Kilian nodded as everyone in the scene was heading there. “Ok, then we gotta go.” Roland pulls to drive, speeding the truck first down to the refinery.

Everyone sprinted and sped through the wide road, passing the town square, and barged through the incoming traffic, leaving the innocent pedestrians staring at a massive stampede. Too much footwork to count but enough to echo the sounds of the stomping blended with qi across multiple blocks. A few residents were about to nudge in the opposite direction despite not being close to the stampede.

All passed the vibrant parts of town, arriving at the empty lots of town, where the refinery is the sole structure. More walls were incoming, and Kilian caught up with Roland, who was about to ram through the gates.

“Roland, I need you to deploy your qi with the truck, otherwise it will total it!” Kilian ran up alongside the driver's side with Roland pulling down his window.

One hand on the wheel, he summoned his grimoire and directed it to the hood, deploying a shield bubble surrounding the whole front and hovering multiple heights above. “That should do it!” Roland yelled.

“Punch it!” Kilian yelled back, slowing himself down with Selina and others. “Push!” Everyone deployed their weapons, and he, being the frontman, unlocked his entire qi restrictions.

SMASH!

The metallic gates shear off from the concrete walls, tearing part of the frame. “Oh, not again!” Kilian exerted flames around the collapsing entryway, disintegrating it in time for the whole stampede to barge in. Through the crispy smoke, revealing three directions. All of the division instinctively divided left and right with a few commanded by Selina to follow her and Kilian.

“Hirko!” Kilian called, noticing him and the other two catching up from the outskirts of the stampede. They tried to speed up before nearly tripping. “Lord!” He jolted his knees down and stomped his feet through the asphalt, summoning the wind from the tip of his black sword, followed by a colossal gust swarming away from him, heading through the empty spaces between the three.

The gust redirects itself swiftly, forcefully thrusting its breeze to their backs, boosting them right alongside Kilian and Selina. “You got a lot of work to do, but not bad,” Kilian commented. Passing through the sizzling pipelines and the aching, lingering smell, the group reached the front door. Selina throbs the door knob only to be tightly shut.

“I’ll find another way to-” Roland’s head rings, jolting his nerves through his tight neck and jaw. “What the?” He sees a hard wall towering above through the empty spaces between the pipelines. He spins his direction back to others and is disturbed by the thin shadow, rapidly widening.

“ROLAND! COME BACK NOW!” Kilian shouted through the narrow path. Roland is uncertain he can make it through when he is significantly far apart from the rest of the group. Not wasting time, his grimoire's sudden appearance saves him in a nick of time leaving a feet length of space before a wall violently ramming the floor. Roland tripped to the floor, down on his stomach. Turning around, another one free-falling.

“Fuck it!” Selina directed her foot towards the doorknob, smashing the door inwards.

“ROLAND!”

One of the men looked up and then sprinted a distance towards Roland’s arm, gripping his hand and using the strength to get him up, pushing him away.

Splat!

A low pitch rapidly banging entered Roland’s ears. The sound progressively blares while he stares into space unwittingly. “Roland…Roland!” A grab to his shoulder, “Roland!”

Roland spooked at the shoulder grab about to deploy his beam and suddenly was pulled at light speed instantaneously. The lightning-roaring sound boomed after what gripped his shoulder let’s go.

“Breathe…breathe Roland. Shit!”

SLAP!

“Ow!” Roland grips his cheeks only to find Kilian and others deliberately staring at him as if he were some deranged person. He repetitively breathes after feeling a hollow hit within his lungs.

“Don’t do that again,” Kilian murmured one by one.

“Huh?”

“You were about to become fresh meat if we didn't grab you.” Selina went up to Roland, putting a grip on his shoulders, and she pierced straight into his pupils. “Are you okay?”

“A little disturbed.”

“Was it the wall or the unfortunate death?”

“The…wall. It could have been-”

Selina nodded, proposing to continue the conversation in a private session to calm him from his trauma. “I need you to stay focused. Once we finish Cloudburn, all of us will sort this out at home. Ok?”

Roland swiftly wipes the hanging tear from his eyelid, “Make it quick.”

||Automatic Documentation Updating…

Documentation Completed

• Head to the Refinery

Ongoing Documentation:

• Conquer Cloudburn
• Face [??]

||

The lobby only has one hollow hallway in the distance. With no other pathways provided to decide, all went through the hollow hallway. Partially pitch black without any light. The light behind them dims the deeper they head in. When Kilian turned back, nothing. “We are fucking trapped.”

||Automatic Documentation Updating…

New Documentation:

• Carnage Bloodlust I

||

“We got company. Yall received that?” Kilian, alarmingly quiet, whispered to Roland and Selina.

||Yes - Selina

Indeed - Roland||

“You guys, better be ready. We got a more dangerous company!” Kilian grunted, lifting his sword with his two hands upward. “Consider this a full workout exam.”

Cracking vibrations came from below as Kilian stabbed his blade through the floor. Flashing cold blue light brightens the vicinity, exposing the pitch black encircling them. Nothing. He spun his head back, returning him with no remarks. Gripping and bolstering through his tight veins within his fists, exerting the massive booming burst through his blade, fanning out the cracks and flashing more light, illuminating the scene.

“AH!” one of the men blurted through the depths of his throat when an assembly of hornet-like faces brought death stares at Kilian. He sees a vivid reflection of himself through its eyes. Murmur creaking growls coming from it signals hostility as it grows louder. More of them appear, bordering them. Each mimicking the exact creaking growls. Roland grew disturbed by the buzzing sound from its demonic wings, resembling a roaring engine on idle a few occasions.

||[Hostile Identified]

Mysterious Black Titan Hornets (100) HP: 2000/2000||

“Wait a minute, so you are telling me we have a whole fucking factory in a town, reported to refine such secret valuable material, could hold such enormity horrors,” Kilian murmured while staring dead at its eyes. “No wonder people shit themselves.”

SWOOSH!

||99 Remaining

+20 XP||

Kabam! A blast of shockwave disperses the front line from his exhaling chest.

||95 Remaining

+100 XP||

“Good luck,” Kilian said sincerely to others, beginning to slash the upcoming barrages of Black Titan Hornets.

They are more troubling with their wing speed proficiency as the unpredictability movements often dodge the raw movements of his swordsmanship.

When he was able to give one clash, to his surprise and bewilderment, the hornet used its abdomen's polished skin, clashing with the black blade.

Oh, what a bother. Bewilderment turned to ponder when Kilian's shrewd eyes focused on the hornet's exterior. One would think it's gloomy and horrifying. Safe to say it might be his first moment of discomposure.

The tense sensation within his arms and neck that brought up behind his eyes burns substantially. Incomprehensible and with no way of being calm, he ruthlessly slammed the spine of his sword, cracking the formerly imperceptible shield layer.

The growl transitioned to a screeching chirp when the blade pierced through its skin. His qi burst through its wound, tearing the hornet inside out leaving piles of shredded flesh scattered on the floor, flooded by puddles of violet liquid.

“Watch out for the stinger!” Selina warned from behind.

“What happens if you get hit?”

“Don’t want to know,” Selina replied.

More charged at him once they figured the intimidation tactic seemed to unfazed him. Unprecedented move, another fellow hornet grabbed Kilian from his back. With its upper two legs, grabs both of his arms and drags downward in an angle. The screeching growl he heard loud clear behind his ear signaled the two in front to charge at him.

||Danger Behind||

Not like this!

Clang!

<< Awkward first meeting was it?>>

Kilian, confused, glanced over his shoulders once more. Soft exhales after finding his sword made just in time, obstructing the hornet’s stinger. Wait, he talks?

<<Finally, you can hear me. I’ve been trying to talk to you for multiple days.>>

Maybe this is not the right time?

The sword shoots a liquid to the stinger, causing it to ignite and spreading heat to the rest of the hornet’s body like a pile of panicked ants. A Ray of blistering light shines through the decomposing body of the hornet within a flash, erupting from within. Nothing remains. Not even the piece of the puzzle.

||90 Remaining

+100 XP||

Kilian regains his movements, striking the two agonizingly through his wrists. He tried aiming for the head, slitting through.

||88 Remaining

+40 XP||

<< You are using way too much effort on the defense-heavy bastards here. >>

What on earth are you even talking about?

<< I’m making some sense here. Think! Why were you able to disintegrate a few at ease at the beginning but having a tough time with this? >>

What do you mean?

<< Do I have to say it word for word? You just did it. >>

While another set was coming at Kilian, he gave quick thought through his heavy head. Wait. He’s right. Shit. That explains. What a dumbass I am.

Kilian leaves his sword on his back, generating flames over his fists.

<< Now we talking. >>

He let it all out, running towards the army of Titan Hornets, deploying a massive burst of aura visibly reminiscent of the dragon’s head. Taking his stand with the knees flexing downward to the floor, he summoned ring lines of fire around his aura, expanding his reach. Followed by continuous jabs generated by each of his fists towards all upcoming hornets, making sure to strike on its head.

||81 Remaining

+140 XP||

The continuous jabs sure put an accumulation of combustible dust hanging onto his arms. Feeling itchy, he aggressively blew the particles to the next wave of hornets, debuffing their defense capability. With the vulnerability in check, he thinks of returning using the sword.

||79 Remaining

+40 XP ||

He lets the qi and flames engulf the entire sword turning it into a masquerade pit of fire, thrusting it through the wide space, striking multiple waves.

||32 Remaining

+940 XP||

Jesus, that's a lot of experience buff. Kilian turned around to others, still in a focused struggle. A similar situation to his. “Guys! If you are not utilizing your qi usage, their defenses won't debuff!”

“Thanks for the damn tip, but a little help here please!” Hirko urgently pleaded. Kilian ran up to his aid, striking the neck.

|| +10 XP (assist)||

“Appreciate it.”

Kilian nodded, then reminded him again to use all of his qi with his katana. He went to assist others, giving them the same advice.

||26 Remaining||

||14 Remaining||

||1 Remaining||

||Kilian

Health: Stable

Stamina: Unstable||

“Last one,” Bloodied Kilian murmured, staring at the sole survivor, about to take the kill. He solely lifted the blade vertically with both hands tightly around the warm hilt. He let his hands take the free fall.

“STOP!”

The tip of the blade abruptly halted, leaving an inch of life’s end. “I yield,” the hornet muttered in a stutter with a low feminine voice. It’s coming from the mandibles. Kilian attentiveness turns directly to the hornet face-to-face. Selina and Roland all spun around before dropping on their knees dumbfounded. “Another one talks,” Selina said, already baffled by the barrage of colossus-sized hornets only to find one can speak human words. “Tursus and now Titan hornet. What are my days.” She rubbed her eyes, covering her face.

“Give me a reason,” Kilian spoke firmly, with the mention of his blade still hovering over the hornet.

The wounded hornet surveyed all around her, revealing numerous disfigured hornets that succumbed to various inflictions. No…

“How should I know, I regained my consciousness only to find I’m about to be killed!”

“Elaborate,” Kilian grumbled.

“Let me say this, the last thing we remembered was being gassed and ambushed before it all went black. Here I am, with no knowledge of what has occurred since.” The hornet elaborated.

“Kidnapping situation then,” Kilian muttered, recording the event within the OLRS note system. “Are you sure you don’t have any recollection of this sequential ambush?”

She spins her head, followed by clicking sounds from its neck. Kilian withdrew, putting his palm over her, igniting vibrating pressure, hovering over the entire body. Slowly, he moved his hand over while keeping his palm out. Gash at the thorax, he articulated his hand and thrust his fingers inside, causing it to yelp growly.

“Relax, relax!” Kilian keeps her in place, emphasizing more movement will cause her body to further severe the existing damage. As much as he is uncomfortable dealing with insects, he keeps his mind focused away from that thought. Selina seemingly passed her internal tantrum of facing vicious creatures again, went on the opposite side of the hornet, in front of Kilian, and gripped his upper wrist. “What?” Kilian questioned.

“Nothing, this should make the process smoother.”

Green, vibrant light brightens under Kilian’s skin. The insides turned green as a result, followed by a reaction from her feeling significantly better. After a minute and feeling the internals ease up, he pulled his hand out, witnessing the hornet's regeneration. The wound stitches itself up with the bleeding absorbed back in. Selina and Kilian lifted themselves, distancing from the hornet’s personal space.

||[Level 1: 2408/5000] 1592 XP remaining to unlock Level 2 info perks

Automatic Documentation Updating…

Documentation Completed

• Head to the Refinery
• Carnage Bloodlust I

Ongoing Documentation:

• Conquer Cloudburn (38%)
• Face [??]

||

The Hornet steadily lifts from the floor, readapting her legs, offering her sincere gratitude. “So, now what?”