chapter 5 - Main Objective

A flashing light was blinking in the middle of the forest, slowly but surely it was joined by two other lights slowly coming towards it.

"Everybody here?" A man in dark green clothing asked as he approached the first light.

"Almost, Paul is on his way." immediately after saying that they could hear footsteps getting closer and closer until another man in tight athletic clothes and carrying climbing gear stopped beside them.

"Now, that's everyone," the green-clothed individual said.

"Let's go then," said the only man armed with weaponry. They swiftly departed walking towards their destination.

"Hey, Jim do you know what we're doing here?" Asked Paul.

"I know that we were supposed slowly approach the main goal while us scouts looked for anything salvageable"

"Then I'll explain" the person leading the others interrupted " the objective is to get to a high-tiered monster nest while they're out looking for pray near the titan"

"Paul will climb up to the nest and using some rope he will begin dropping us the beast's eggs"

"You will be waiting to pick them up while I will be on lookout duty"

"What about the others? How will they find us?" Jim asked.

"Gill knows what to look for so I'm sure he'll find his way" The man responded. "And it's not exactly easy to miss."

As he said those words the group started to approach a clearing in the woods. It was a large hill with no trees anywhere near it making it a large open field. On the very top of the hill, there was one big stone pillar that was obviously out of place.

"That's the nest," the man said pointing towards the pillar.

"You're kidding me, right Mark?" Jim was flabbergasted after seeing the objective. "We'll be sitting ducks in the open like that! And what type of creature can make a nest like that!"

"Relax the beast has been spotted near the titan so we'll be safe" Mark tried reassuring his companions. "And you know damn well that those eggs will sell for thousands, maybe even millions!"

"The longer we stay here the more we'll worry," Paul said while leaving the cover of the forest.

_____________

"Where are we going?" Ashe asked the guard who was now leading him.

"The goal of this mission, you'll see when we get there." He replied.

They continued to walk in silence until Ashe noticed something weird. 'Why does it smell like the beast den?' He took another sniff of the air and the smell of blood and fur could be felt subtly in the air.

"Wait" Ashe spoke out to the guard while taking out his flashlight.

"What are you doing?!, the others are waiting for us," said the guard while walking towards Ashe.

Then the light of the flashlight lit their surroundings revealing the details hidden by darkness. Multiple paws were etched into the ground, going in the same direction as them.

Ashe knelt and picked a hair off the ground. It was deep red.

Both of them were stunned. They realized that they were carelessly walking into their death. They just stood there silently for a couple of seconds before one of them had a realization.

"They're going for the eggs!" The guard was panicked and quickly took out his phone frantically typing out a message.

< beasts are coming for the eggs >

"What are we going to do?!" Ashe asked now panicking more because of his partner's reaction, while still not knowing anything about the goal.

"I have to go I have half our firepower." Even though what he was saying was brave, the tone of the guard told Ashe that he was one accident from leaving everyone behind.

Gritting his teeth Ashe had managed to say something that seemed completely idiotic to him.

"Let's go then"

_________________

Paul and Jim were now under the big stone pillar while mark was laying under a single bush somewhere between the nest and the forest edge.

"I was looking forward to this" Paul said with a smile while putting his first foot on a small bump in the rock.

"Be careful!" Said Jim, but Paul was already long gone, being an excellent climber as well as his rough skin made even this vertical pillar a piece of cake.

Paul had almost made it but the nest at the top was almost like barbed wire. Hanging on with one arm he reached out for the axe on his tool belt. Paul swung with his axe, but he only managed to tear through a couple of branches.

Paul was starting to sweat slightly loosening his grip. He began to feel nervous as he didn't expect this nest to put up a fight, and one wrong move would result in him falling to his demise.

"Hey over here!"

Paul looked down to see what the voice shouting at him meant.

It was Jim pointing in a certain direction. Now that Paul's eyes were on him he shouted again

"Try from this side!"

Paul began slowly climbing around the pillar. Climbing in any direction that wasn't up was a lot harder but Paul still managed to make it around the back. On the other side, the nest was more indented making it possible to grab the ledge of the pillar. With that, Paul swung his axe again now trying to get it stuck in the branches. On the second swing, he succeeded in pulling himself up to the nest.

Paul looked around and he saw 3 big eggs each larger than a watermelon. He took off his bag and began putting the first egg in the bag when he got a message on the phone.

< beasts are coming for the eggs >

Paul panicked and quickly went to look over the edge, but he didn't see anything. The bright side of being on the pillar is that he could see the entire hill. Still confused he decided that someone else had to decide for him what to do, so he decided to message Mark

< what do I do? >

Paul started packing the eggs while he was waiting for a response. He managed to fit two of them in his bag but no more would fit. Now with nothing else to do his paranoia started to set in. He could hear the others shouting something at each other, making him even more worried.

< grab as much as you can and get down >

Paul didn't even think twice before grabbing his bag and starting his descent. The way down was a lot slower as not only did he have the weight of the bag but he also had to be a lot more careful with his footing.

Jim was guarding one side while Mark guarded the other having a combined 360-degree view of the clearing.

Paul was more than halfway down when he heard the screaming of his closest lookout.

"They're here!"

3 beasts that divided themselves, each coming from a different angle. They started walking toward them conserving their energy. Luckily for the group, the clearing was fairly large which bought them a bit of time

"Hurry up!" Jim screamed

Paul tried to get down as fast as possible, speeding up his pace with every step he took.

Then suddenly he slipped.

With his fast reaction time, he managed to plant his heel on one of the ledges, which flipped him over causing him to land on his stomach and not the bag on his back.

Paul had fallen from the height of a bellow average second-floor balcony. A height like that would have probably done more damage to him if Jim didn't catch him.

Now both of them were on the floor, Jim quickly got up lifting Paul with him. They started running towards Mark who was also going towards them this whole time.

Unluckily for them the moment Paul fell the fox beasts started sprinting hoping to catch them off guard. They were now more than halfway through the clearing and approaching rapidly.

The two men also started sprinting towards Mark who had already pulled out his assault rifle. Jim had made it further down the hill towards Mark, Paul had been stumbling off balance because of the fall and the heavy bag. When Jim realized this he tried sprinting back up the hill but he froze before taking a step. The fox beasts were now already on top of the hill.

Two of them went after Paul, while the other had decided to climb the pillar for the remaining egg

Jim quickly sprinted and grabbed Paul, dragging him out of Mark's way.

With that Mark no longer had any obstacles and started to fire his rifle at the beasts. Mark sprayed at them with the rifle hitting them in random places. The bullets penetrated their skin but they didn't seem to damage their body much.

The beasts still stopped now knowing that their prey was dangerous as well.

Seeing this Mark also stopped firing. He knew that there wasn't much left in his magazine, and even though he doubted that the beasts knew what a magazine was, he didn't want to risk unloading his weapon.

Both the beasts and the group were now in a standoff. Mark and the others were slowly taking steps towards the forest, while the beasts were slowly surrounding the group.

They were now a couple of meters from the forest. 'Would we even have an advantage in the woods?!' Mark realized.

Mark stopped moving and the group followed suit. The beasts took this chance to surround them making it impossible for Mark to shoot at both.

Worse news followed as the third fox beast, now carrying an egg in its mouth, caught up to them making the situation borderline impossible to escape.

Everyone was losing hope.

*bang* *bang*

Two shots were heard shortly followed by a loud whimper slowly disappearing in the distance.

Both the foxes and the group were surprised, but Jim quickly yelled "run!" Which helped the group snap back to reality.

The 2 beasts were confused and disorganized one of them retreated with the first one while the other went for the attack.

However, Mark kept his guard up. And shot towards the beast. While he didn't hit any vital points but it still managed to scare the beast away.

The group was still on edge and Mark used this brief downtime to reload. The group was now running away while constantly looking behind them to check for any beasts.

After a couple of minutes of running, they were so tired that they had to take a rest.

"Is it over?"

Paul asked while gasping for air.

"I think so" Mark replied with a soft smile

"Ha ha ha! We did it!" Jim started shouting, he then stood up and did a little dance to himself.

'Maybe he went insane' Mark chuckled to himself.

Then Jim noticed a blinking light in the distance and tried to respond but he noticed he dropped his flashlight somewhere in the chaos.

"Do any of you have any lights?" Jim asked the group. Paul pulled out his flashlight but it was smashed to pieces.

Mark then stood up and screamed

"Hey! Over here!" While waving his arms.

The light quickly came over to them and out of the forest, Gill and Ashe emerged.

"Are you okay?!" Gill asked the group.

What he wasn't expecting was for Jim to rush toward him just to hug him. Hearing a quiet and muffled "thank you" coming from Jim.

"It's all right" Gill responded patting Jim on the back. "Besides you should be thanking that rookie over there, he's the one that found the beast's tracks."

Ashe smiled awkwardly while a small blush appeared on his face.

"Okay let's get the hell out of here," Mark said while standing up and stretching a bit before leading the way back to the car. On the way, the atmosphere was oddly cheerful for a group that almost died just a couple of minutes ago.

The road back was much less eventful which was a nice change of pace for the group.

"Okay, I'll gather the loot and tell you all how much it sells for on the group chat. Then after the boss takes his cut we'll split it equally. Any objections?" Mark asked almost jokingly as everybody knew that everyone went above and beyond, especially the rookie who was brought in as a spare set of arms.

With everyone in agreement, Mark only had one last thing to say before entering the city.

"Rest well boys, you went through hell today you deserve some rest."