Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 163: The Energy Cells, the Raft, and the Monster Fighting Teams!

"It’s not rocket science," she said, rolling her eyes in a brief flash of her old self. "It’s just a normal swapping. Yes, I can do it."

"I’ll come and help then," a Bulltor volunteered, stepping forward.

"Me too," a second one added, their massive frames casting long shadows over the walls.

They knew the stakes. If the cannons went silent for even a minute, the yellow tide would reach the walls. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"Good," Ricky said, his voice cutting through the rising panic to prevent a mass exodus toward the energy cells storage place. He knew they couldn’t afford to have everyone occupied with the manual labour of hauling the cells, regardless of how vital that task had become.

"Now we need to focus. We need a way to actually stop these things at the source before the numbers become impossible to manage."

As the group huddled to brainstorm, the roar of the defences intensified. Down below, Elena and her two Bulltor escorts were already at work, navigating through the lots of items they threw aside, moving the energy cells apart from useless stuff. Just as they were halfway through, the third wave, twelve hundred strong, was finally silenced.

The victory was short-lived. Like a clockwork nightmare, the black sky flared again, and the fourth wave erupted from the soil. Two thousand four hundred yellow monsters began their sluggish, terrifying march toward the walls.

"We have to reach that bank," Cissel said, her eyes fixed on the distant yellow orb across the water. "What about the raft idea we made when we first arrived? Could we build something sturdy enough to cross the river and bypass the main swarm with the Bulltors with us?"

Luke, who had initially been the most vocal supporter of such adventurous plans, looked at the water and the mass of monsters currently clogging the underwater bridge. The idea seemed far more daunting now than it had during their first week.

"We’d need to go all the way back to the blue fruit orchard to get the right timber. Those branches are the only things buoyant and tough enough... But John isn’t here to facilitate the harvest."

"We have them," Cissel countered, gesturing toward the towering figures of the Bulltors. "You have the strength to bring down those branches, right?"

Reody tilted his head, processing the request. "Blue fruit? You mean the Blue Serpentile? The wood is indeed exceptionally dense and strong enough to build a raft. The branches are thick, but with our strength, we can certainly harvest enough to build us a big raft."

"Great!" Luke’s excitement surged back, his natural bravado returning as he saw a path forward. "I’ll lead the way. The orchard isn’t far from the base. Who’s coming with me to do the heavy lifting?"

Three Bulltors stepped forward, their massive forms ready for the task. The orchard sat just beyond the formal borders of the base’s current expansion. They moved with determination along the top of the walls, planning to find a clear spot to descend once they were adjacent to the trees.

Ricky watched them go, his mind already running the grim mathematics of their situation. He looked from the fierce, glowing battle below to the distant den.

"It’s going to take them time to harvest and drag those back. By the time they return and we assemble a raft, we’ll be at least three waves ahead of where we are now.

The growth is exponential. If my math holds, the sixth wave alone will unleash over nineteen thousand of those things. I don’t think it’ll be safe for any of us to leave the base until we’ve thinned that specific herd first."

Cissel looked at the den and nodded slowly, her face set in a grim mask. The scale of the coming conflict was starting to set in.

"We prepare to move out the moment the next wave begins its engagement," she decided, turning her attention to Reody, Lanmar, and the remaining Bulltors on the walls. "We’re going to need every bit of muscle we have. That means all of you are coming with us down there to help the defences."

Reody glanced at Lanmar, expecting another outburst of cowardice. To his surprise, Lanmar seemed to have found a strange, quiet resolve, or perhaps he was simply too exhausted to argue.

"We’ll go," Lanmar said, sounding like he finally found a scrap of his missing courage. "But if we are going into that mess, we need our storage devices. We’ll need the heavy equipment... Those fierce babies." He motioned his massive head toward the silver-barreled cannons mounted on the walls.

Ricky let out a long, weary sigh, while Cissel’s gaze turned razor-sharp. They both knew exactly what was going through the giant’s mind.

"You aren’t planning on taking that equipment and making a run for it the moment we’re down the walls, are you?" Cissel asked. Her voice was low, but it carried a lethal edge.

"Me? Running? Pfft! That is a hilarious joke," Lanmar stammered, his eyes darting away. His attempt to deflect the accusation only made his guilt more obvious to everyone present.

"If you don’t stand your ground and fight alongside us, I will personally ensure John hears about every single thing you intended to do today," Cissel threatened, stepping closer to the giant until she was standing right in his shadow. Her tone was purely cold. "And believe me, my man has a very low opinion of cowards who abandon their comrades when things get difficult."

A visible shudder passed through Lanmar’s frame, a reaction more profound than any the yellow monsters or Wrathers had managed to elicit. The fear of John’s potential retribution was a far more effective motivator than simple survival instinct.

"Now, all we can do is wait for the energy cells team to return," Ricky said, redirecting the group’s focus back to the killing fields below.

"We need to use this time to study them. Watch how they move, how they react to the plasma fire, and where their deadliest and weakest points are. We need to know every single one of their patterns before we step outside those walls. Once we’re down there, there won’t be any time to learn anything."

His words settled over the group, and a heavy silence followed. They stood on the walls, eyes fixed on the yellowish tide below, each lost in their own distressed thoughts. The only sounds were the rhythmic boom of the cannons and the occasional notes about a monster’s point of weakness as they prepared for the most dangerous battle of their lives.