Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 154: The Monsters, the Lightning, and the Fog!

"Are you telling me that once they are hit by lightning, they’ll be completely immune to our cannons?" Luke asked, his voice rising in disbelief. "That’s insane! I don’t buy any of that invincible talk, right, John? Everything has a weakness!"

"It’s not only that," Reody sighed. He deliberately ignored the sharp tone of disbelief in Luke’s voice, that once the human boy actually spotted these monsters, his bravado would vanish, replaced by the same conviction of terror currently paralysing Lanmar. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"With each lightning strike, the Wrathers store a portion of that electrical energy around their bodies. It lasts for almost ten seconds, powering their bodies up even after the bolt has passed. They are an effectively unstoppable menace for the duration of the thunderstorm."

Hearing this made even Luke fall into a stunned silence. The idea of an enemy that was not only fast and numerous but also intermittently untouchable and powered up was a reality that defied their current combat experience. Yet, amidst the heavy silence, John suddenly asked a question that seemed to come from left field:

"How about the fog?"

"What about it?!" Reody asked, genuinely confused by the pivot.

John narrowed his eyes, leaning forward. "How do they act inside the fog? Do their fighting patterns and prowess change?"

"Well..." Reody was hesitant for a moment. It was the first time he had shown such a reaction since he started speaking up, his usual mountain-like stability wavering. "To be honest, John... No one knows!"

"How is that possible?!!" Ricky asked in high-pitched doubt. "You have all these stories and legends about them, but no information about this point at all?!"

"Well... Think about it," Reody paused, trying to find the words to explain what he had in mind. "As you know, the end of a trial pocket only comes after a race unifies all the disparate territories into one, and after they’ve used fifty Ogolith cores to clear every trace of the fog.

So, in the era when these death reapers typically appear to challenge the races, there is no fog! They are creatures of the post-clearing the pocket trials. I don’t know how to respond to your question because the conditions you’re describing—Wrathers and Fog existing in the same space—never existed before."

"Good point," John murmured, turning his eyes to the horizon. "And our sensors won’t work in the fog either, so..."

He drifted into deep thought. He was weighing the variables of a lethal gamble. From one perspective, there was the dangerous unknown waiting for them if they let the fog reclaim the territory.

From another aspect, if he kept the fog back to use the cannons, he was giving the Wrathers a clear, lightning-charged highway directly to their walls. If he let the fog in, he’d lose the use of almost all his cannons, and perhaps even the defensive towers wouldn’t be able to attack properly.

"What are you thinking about?" Cissel asked softly. Everyone else looked at John with bated breath, waiting for him to devise another miraculous, fate-breaking plan.

"I can’t tell without a test," he sighed. "Tell me, Reody, do they come randomly? Once the wave starts, do they trickle in, or do they come out in their full force and head straight here?"

"It’s the latter option," Reody replied with a grim sigh. "Once the wave starts, it’s a flood. We have to expect all of them running like freaks toward the loudest source of noise they can perceive."

"Describe them to us then," Cissel requested, her gaze never shifting from John’s face. She was searching for that spark of genius, that crazy plan she knew was brewing inside his mind.

"Well, imagine giants like us, but skinless. Their flesh is a deep, bruised dark red, and they have deadly, elongated claws that can rend through reinforced steel. They are primarily attracted by sound, much like the Fog Seekers we all have dealt with before..."

"Wait a second," John’s eyes suddenly shone with a brilliant, manic light. "You’re telling me they are sound-sensitive? That they will attack the location with the most noise?"

"Sure, but in this desolate area, the only noise for miles is us," Reody pointed out.

"No, there is a way to direct them," John said, his voice gaining strength. He turned his eyes toward a specific section of the base where they had stored the miscellaneous loot—the useless items they hadn’t found a use for yet. "Luke, Elena, go there right now and bring me all the noisy devices."

"The noisy devices?!" the two asked in unison, blinking in confusion.

"You once showed me one of those sound emitter devices before," Ricky said, suddenly volunteering to lead the way. "I know what he’s talking about. Come with me, we’ll need the Bulltors to help carry them to save time!"

Ricky directed his words toward the Bulltors, who were still holding the hysterical Lanmar steady. Watching four of the giants follow the three toward the storage piles, Cissel turned back to John, her expression sceptical.

"Diverting them will be a temporary solution at best, John!" she warned.

"Especially since they’ll destroy those machines the second they arrive at the source of the noise!" Reody added. Neither of them seemed able to shake John’s resolve.

"That’ll be enough," John said calmly. "It will be enough to see if they act the same in the fog or if the fog dampens their aggression or changes anything for them. I need to see if the lightning shroud holds up when there is fog or not."

"And how exactly will we know that?" Cissel asked. She paused, her eyes going wide as the implication of his words hit her. "No... No, you don’t plan to go out there alone. You aren’t doing this again..."

"There is no other way," he shrugged, his voice low and calm. He reached out, grabbing her shoulders with his hands. "I must see for myself how they act and fight in the fog. If I stay behind these walls, I’m just guessing. And guessing gets people killed."

"Why are you so persistent about the fog?!" Reody asked, frustrated by the human’s apparent obsession with it. Cissel looked at John, waiting for a real answer. Yet, the latter simply shrugged.

"Let’s talk about that later. For now, we need to move fast," John said, looking up at the sky. At a far distance, a black circular rim was appearing in the form of clouds. "And if my guesses are correct, then this won’t just be a fight. This will be a great present for us!"

Neither Cissel nor Reody grasped what John meant by a present. To them, fifty thousand death reapers were anything but a gift. Yet Cissel felt a strange, familiar flutter of hope; John clearly had a plan ready in his mind. He planned to shift this menace and direct them towards his enemies: the Hivemind!