Apocalypse Architect: A Tower Defense LitRPG

Chapter 197: Insect Swarm Eruption

Jax quickly ordered his men to haul Sawyer to a secure location for medical care.

The Augmentation Serum had pulled the man back from the brink of death, but recovery would take time. Glancing at the horrific grid of lacerations covering Sawyer’s body, Jax knew the scars would be permanent. A flicker of cynical pity crossed his mind; the guy used to be decent-looking. Now, he could kiss that face goodbye.

Leaving the medical tent, Jax armed his strike team.

Elena had wanted to join the assault, but the wasteland was crawling with stragglers. Someone had to lock down their Outpost and man the defenses against wandering beasts. Jax wasn’t about to leave his own base vulnerable just to settle a score.

Marching through the pitch-black wasteland, Jax’s crew dragged the battered corpses of the dead spies and roughly shoved the surviving prisoners along. When they reached a ridge barely a hundred yards from Drake’s Outpost, Jax called a halt.

“Dump them here,” he ordered coldly.

The surviving spies, bound tight with coarse rope, were unceremoniously kicked into the dirt. Almost instantly, their terrified shrieks for help pierced the night.

The commotion drew out Drake’s guards. What they found by the flickering light of their perimeter bonfires was a slaughterhouse: mutilated corpses, pools of rapidly cooling blood, and a handful of hungry insect monsters trying to push through the thick smoke to get at the meat. Panicked, a guard rushed to wake their leader.

Boss Drake erupted into a violent rage.

“Useless bastards!” he roared, kicking his cot over. “A whole squad, and you can’t handle a few stragglers? What are you staring at?! Gear up! We’re wiping their base off the map tonight!”

An assistant stepped forward, his face pale in the lantern light. “Boss Drake, it’s suicide! It’s the middle of the night. If we march out there, we’ll trigger an Insect Swarm!”

“To hell with the bugs! We have guns!” Drake snarled, throwing on his tactical vest and grabbing his rifle. “Move out! I want them dead!”

The camp descended into frantic chaos as weapons were distributed and men scrambled into formation. Gunfire crackled along the perimeter as nervous guards shot at shadows.

Crouched behind a rocky outcrop in the distance, Jax watched the frantic activity through his scope. A predatory grin touched his lips. No Defense Tower, he noted with satisfaction. Perfect.

He passed the signal down the line. His men fanned out, melting into the darkness to encircle Drake’s Outpost. They moved with excruciating care. The night was prime hunting time for the bugs, and firing a shot too early would ring the dinner bell for every monster in the sector.

Instead of rushing in, Jax reached out with his mind, hijacking the nervous system of a wandering Dune Stalker. He drove the beast toward the enemy camp, using its multifaceted vision to map out Drake’s mustered forces.

“Tell the men to lock and load,” Jax whispered to Kaleb, who was crouched beside him. “The second they step past the perimeter, light them up.”

“On it, Boss,” Kaleb muttered, slipping away to pass the word.

Just as Drake’s forces formed up to march, a low, rumbling vibration shivered through the soles of Jax’s boots. He frowned, looking toward the jagged silhouette of the distant mountains. A dense, chittering roar echoed through the valley.

“What the hell is that?” Jax muttered. “Get eyes on it.”

Kaleb scrambled up a nearby ridge, raising his night-vision binoculars. A moment later, he slid back down, his face entirely drained of blood.

“Boss, we have a massive problem. An Insect Swarm just erupted from the mountains!”

Jax’s eyes narrowed. “Are you certain? The sector was quiet.”

“Dead certain!” Kaleb gasped. “It’s a massive wave!”

“Distance?”

“Maybe a kilometer out! Closing fast!”

Jax calculated the odds in a fraction of a second. “Alright, a kilometer is a kilometer. Run back to our Outpost. Tell Elena to pack the convoy and evacuate immediately. Find a reinforced bunker and hunker down until the swarm passes.”

Kaleb hesitated. “What about you?”

“I’m staying,” Jax said, his voice flat and uncompromising. “If we don’t finish Drake now, he’ll be a thorn in our side forever. Go!”

Inside the enemy camp, the rumbling hadn’t gone unnoticed. Drake dispatched a scout into the wasteland. Seeing the lone runner, one of Jax’s men raised his rifle.

Jax clamped a hand down on the barrel. “Hold your fire. It’s just a scout. We wait for the main course.”

The men lowered their weapons, adrenaline burning in their veins.

Minutes later, the scout sprinted back into the bonfire light, stumbling in his terror. “Boss Drake! Swarm! A massive Insect Swarm is heading right for us!”

The color drained from Drake’s face. “Dammit! Evacuate! Pack whatever you can carry and move!”

“But Boss, our camp—” the assistant started.

“Screw the camp!” Drake roared, planting a heavy boot into the man’s stomach. “Run for your lives!”

From the shadows, Jax watched the enemy drop their assault gear and scramble in a blind panic. Curious, he pushed his controlled Dune Stalker closer to the perimeter, only to have its skull caved in by a panicked guard’s stray bullet. The psychic connection snapped.

Still trigger-happy, Jax muttered, shaking off the mental sting. He immediately seized a Tier 1 bug and sent it in. Through its eyes, he saw Drake’s men abandoning their heavy supplies, grabbing only essentials.

“They’re running,” Jax noted.

“When do we shoot, Boss?” a sniper whispered.

“Hold,” Jax ordered softly. “If they’re abandoning a fortified camp this fast, they have a fallback point. Let’s see where the rats run to.”

Within minutes, Drake rallied his remaining men and bolted into the darkness. Jax signaled his strike team, trailing them like ghosts. A few stray insect monsters tried to follow the running mob, but the sheer volume of chaotic gunfire kept the beasts at bay. Jax ignored the bugs and kept his eyes glued to his prey.

Finally, Drake’s panicked crew reached a massive cave system carved into a sheer rock face.

“Inside! Move, move, move!” Drake bellowed.

Crouched on a ridgeline overlooking the cave entrance, Jax’s eyes gleamed with cold satisfaction. A natural choke point. It was a perfect kill zone.

“Light them up,” Jax commanded.

The metallic clatter of bolts racking back echoed through the dark.

BANG.

Jax pulled the trigger, his sniper round tearing through the chest of a guard at the cave mouth. That single shot shattered the night. A blistering torrent of lead poured down from the ridgeline, tearing into the desperately fleeing mob. Bodies hit the dirt, screaming as the bottleneck turned into a meat grinder.

Trapped against the stone, Drake ducked behind a rocky outcropping, his face twisted in desperate fury.

“Return fire! Give them everything you’ve got!”