Dan and I followed the crowd to step inside the portal, the sight immediately changing from an urban landscape to a desolate wasteland the moment we crossed over.
Snarls and monstrous groans filled the air and we realised that we were already surrounded.
So it's that type of rift huh… Where the Anomalies are positioned directly in front of the gate to defend it…
Looking around, figures of monsters that look like humanoid creatures with serious growth tumours were all around us. Some of them looked like they had been human once before they turned into the creatures that they now are.
The Guardian that was leading the way raised her hand in the air and let out a commanding voice, "Everyone! Do not panic! Stay with your groups and clear out the Anomalies! You have the protection of the great Mortal Goddess Siti! Charge!!"
Geez woman… Calm down…
Dan raised his shield and pulled out his mace before smiling at me, "Stay behind me, swordsman!"
"Of course, my meat shield," I clapped back.
That Guardian woman waved her hands in the air and a giant circle of light appeared underneath us, bathing everyone in it with light.
I felt my body strengthened and energised, which was a typical effect from support type powers.
That didn't stop there though, as the circle expanded even further to envelop the Anomalies as well which drained them of their strength.
With the preparation complete, we started our assault on the creatures.
Magic and bullets filled the air as our side launched a preemptive strike against the monsters, bombarding them with magic and lead.
Dan charged ahead alongside the others at the frontline and I followed close behind him, right as the Anomalies were spurred to charge at us as well.
Some of the ranged type Anomalies shot spikes from their bodies at us, the creatures looking like humans with bloated torsos and spikes on their arms.
One such spike was headed straight towards me.
Dan moved in front of me and swung his shield to the side, deflecting the spike away and knocking it to the ground instead, not even slowing down his stride.
As I ran past, I grabbed the spike and pulled it up from the ground, taking a moment to aim before I tossed it at the Anomaly that shot it.
The spike embedded itself into the head of the mutated monster, decapitating it.
The monster stumbled forward a few steps before it collapsed onto the ground, dead.
Eventually, our frontlines clashed with the Anomalies and I watched as Dan rammed himself against one of the charging wolf-like creatures, flipping it over his shield so that it landed right in front of me.
I swung my sword and slashed through its neck, decapitating it in a single blow before stepping over it.
Dan smashed his mace over the neck of another Anomaly, snapping the bone underneath and sending it flying.
One Anomaly leapt at him, latching onto his shield in an attempt to pull him down.
I stepped out from the side and stabbed my sword through its torso and flung it away from us, freeing Dan to continue forward.
Four Anomalies jumped towards us at the same time, one latching onto Dan's shield and another on his mace.
I stepped in and grabbed the third one by the neck and stabbed the last one through its torso, intending to finish them off to help Dan break free once more.
But even more of those monsters charged towards me before I could, our situation looking a little problematic.
A gun fired from my side, nailing several of the charging monsters in their heads accurately before they could reach us.
I turned to see a smug looking middle aged man grinning at me with a pistol that was still smoking from being fired.
"Eh, not bad ah? Got a lot of gong gau hor?" He chuckled before continuing to fire at the creatures.
Did he really just call these Anomalies 'stupid dog' in hokkien? Some people are really carefree huh?
The Anomaly in my hand let out a growl and scratched at me, drawing blood along my arm and causing me to wince.
I threw it away from me, smashing it into the Anomaly that was clawing at Dan's mace before I kicked the other Anomaly on his shield away, punting it towards another group of Anomalies.
I looked down at my arm to see that it was already in the midst of healing up, the three claw marks closing themselves even as I watched.
Hmm… Guess this support Guardian really lives up to her position I guess.
The fight continued but with the Guardian supporting us and also the fact that this was only a Danger Class two rift, we managed to dispatch them without a single casualty on our side.
I let out a sigh as I caught my breath, reaching behind me to pull out my water bottle from my bag to give it a swig while Dan did the same as well.
"Ha ha! Pretty good eh?" Dan chuckled, surveying the field of corpses in front of us. "I think we might even get paid well for this job."
"I doubt it… Most of it would probably go to paying the Guardian over there and her Mortal Goddess that she serves. I wonder how much they have to pay just to commission them to deal with this rift?"
"Hmm… You know, why not just try and sign up as a Guardian yourself then? We have two Mortal Gods within the South Asian Conglomerate, right?"
I shook my head, "First of all, none of them are based here. If I become a Guardian, I would have to move overseas and I don't want to be so far away from my family. Second of all, I doubt I'm even good enough to qualify as a Guardian. All I have is a little bit of strength you know? That's nothing special compared to everyone else."
He scoffed, "Sometimes the most simple of abilities is the best. There's no need to overcomplicate stuff! Don't you know? Some of the most popular superheroes basically only have their superstrength as their main trait!"
"Sure… But their superstrength has to be the best out of everyone else. I'm definitely not that. I would barely be able to qualify as a superhero."
"Cheh, tell that to the idiots acting like their hot shit in the Super Association."
Right… I almost forgot about those guys.
With people awakening powers, you're basically giving powers to people who did nothing to earn them aside from just existing. Some of them might choose to use them for evil instead so there was a lot of crime back then where people used them for selfish gains.
This was years before Vanguards, Mortal Gods and even hunting Anomalies in rifts were a thing so people didn't really have an outlet to use their powers.
But there were people who were obviously inspired by superhero stories and decided to be vigilantes and hunt these 'supervillains' down, which eventually led to the creation of various 'superhero' organisations to deal with crimes related to awakened people.
And I'm saying all of those terms with quotation marks because can you really be considered 'super' when everyone else also has powers too? It's just that some of their powers might be stronger or better than others so I would at least grant a part of the 'super' being true.
Then after the rifts started appearing and Vanguards became a thing, these guys act like they're the pioneers or like they are some kind of special existence to everyone else around them.
Sure, there's still some crimes done by 'supervillains' so it's not like they have nothing else to do, but I guess it's just their holier than thou attitude that pisses some people off.
Well, it's just personal opinions anyway.
I chose not to answer Dan's comment and turned to look at our expedition force that were regrouping around the Guardian.
"Everyone! Well done! We'll proceed forward as planned! Vanguards! Please protect the miners as there might be more of these Anomalies inside!" The Guardian shouted out.
We picked ourselves up and joined up with the rest as well, right as more people started coming through the portal behind us.
Those would be the miners, the people who specialise in searching and mining Mana Crystals.
Accompanying them were various different machines that look like construction vehicles that were specially made to mine Mana Crystals so we don't need to mine them using pickaxes like we were living in some mediaeval period.
Support staff also came in to start setting up a forward base in case we needed to fall back and thus had a safe zone of sorts to go to.
Entering a rift really involves a lot of manpower especially when a Mortal God or their Guardians are involved huh…
We fell in line beside the miners as the Guardian started leading us deeper inside the rift, our goal being the Mana Crystals and also the Gatekeeper.
If things go as per normal… The Gatekeeper should have fewer Anomalies guarding them and the Mana Crystals should also be near them like the reports have said.