Chapter 18 First encounter
Leslie stayed with Jan in the back while Fiora matched Rohan's movement. Britta and Ragnar split up slightly and moved to the store door, it was the entry to the staircase for the stores at the 2nd and 3rd level.
Rohan kept his gun aimed at the next corner, unsure if the sound would attract any extra attention. He had gotten his gun this morning and had only practiced a little bit before. He did have some experience of previous training, but wasn't an expert by far.
Fiora covered the back as Ragnar moved into the building, being covered by Britta.
They made quick work of the stairs and looked through the second level when suddenly shattering windows could be heard.
'CRASH… CLING CLING CLING CLING'
'THUD-THUD'
Rohan saw a satyr jump through the window and land on his legs on the ground. The Satyr wasn't wearing any clothes and looked at Rohan with a mad expression.
Quickly reacting to the glass breaking Rohan aimed his gun before the satyr landed and fired at it.
'BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG'
In quick succession he shot at the satyr, it could only move a single step before it got hit.
[You have slain Satyr]
[Experience earned]
Rohan could hear the system talk to him so he new the satyr was dead, but he kept aiming his gun at it and moved slowly closer. Keeping an eye on the store he heard Fiora talk to him.
"Good reaction, but keep distance, wait until Britta is back" Fiora said without looking at him.
It didn't take much longer until the glass on the third window shattered as another satyr jumped down.
Rohan reacted much faster this time and shot the satyr down before it even landed on the ground.
[You have slain Satyr]
[Experience earned]
[Level increased]
The second one had died as well.
He heard Britta shout from inside the building "That was all, this store is clear".
Still being on guard he waited until both got outside, before lowering his gun. He felt his muscles cramp up, that much tension he had put into holding the gun.
The rest of the team also caught up.
"We call these one stragglers, cause we find them very rarely outside the inner city and in stores were they look for food." Britta explained "We think they might be out of the inner city on purpose, or forced to be there. No other satyrs than these two were inside" she said while looking down on the dead satyrs.
The satyrs looked weird, wearing no clothes or even weapons it gave more animalistic feelings than the ones seen with clothing and weapons.
Leslie started turning them over and making some notes, it looked like he was inspecting goods.
"What are you doing Leslie?" Rohan asked out of curiosity
"checking for any marks or odd features and write in my handbook. Keep track of whatever interesting I see, might come in handy." He explained while scribbling down quickly
"Lets move on again peeps" Britta interrupted them "Make sure to be on edge from now on, we will see these fuckers more often now."
She took one axe in her hand as she moved on.
The team passed many streets and made progress. Passing shopping malls, streets, abandoned stalls and cars, bikes, neon lights still on, some buildings had music on. The districts in Duran varied greatly, each had their own center, ranging from just a single mall to a whole street filled with shops, restaurants, malls, pop-up stores and whatever else people liked.
There was a very limited amount of green vegetation in a cramped city like Duran. Often limited to some trees on a corner, or plants on the side of buildings.
It didn't take long before more satyrs showed up, who were walking down a neon lighted street. Fiora spotted them first, three in total. Jan took down one while the other two tried to react but were taken down by Fiora and Rohan quickly after each other. Using guns on enemies felt like a cheat, they couldn't do anything.
"Do you still need to check on them Leslie?" Rohan asked
"No we move on quickly, they were stragglers as well" Britta came in before Leslie could go.
"We should head for Duran's cross, we aren't even halfway after walking this much and the amount of fuckers will only increase."
Previous expedition teams had reported that on the outskirts of inner city the stragglers were common and the only enemy, but when reaching the inner city it would change drastically. You would find armed satyrs standing on watch, patrolling or even living in a house. Only one team went into the inner city and lost 2 members. The goal of this expedition was to scout it out, and mainly level up the rest of the team Fiora explained to everyone.
Rohan didn't know any of the skills of the rest of the members, and Jan might not even have any skill.
The pace slowed down quickly as they had to watch behind them and be on high alert for the stragglers. If you didn't finish them of quickly they would alert every single one of them in a couple kilometers by bleating.
The further they went to the inner city, the more the houses disappeared and flats would take their place. They weren't close to being skyscraper height, but every street they would get 1 or 2 floors higher.
Rohan spotted the next satyr, a lonesome fellow and finished it off. This would continue for quite a while, mostly no more than 3 or 4 satyrs in a group. All of them being stragglers, some even hurt or dismembered.
Fiora's team continued on without showing any mercy to any of them, Rohan also didn't feel weird about taking them down, it even felt more natural as he continued. But he couldn't find any joy in it.
Reaching the Outer river ring marked the entry into the inner city of Duran.