Chapter 17: Imperial Corps
4:30 PM, La''s house; the trio of Jyorta, La, and George sat in front of a TV, ying the game ''Dungeon Rush''. Jyorta''s character, a sword-wielding goat shed through a tree monster, leading a team of goats deep into the enemy lines.
"Don''t head too far from the base. We still need to collect resources to spawn minions." George shouted, controlling hisva giant to burn a couple of tree monsters to a crisp. From the residual molten soot of the tree monsters, miniva giants emerged, joining the battle.
"George, go away from me. You are damaging my minions." La shouted as she sent a kick at him, cursing as her character took damage. Her character was a wood treant, raising disposable soldiers from the soil as it killed the enemy tree monsters. Unfortunately, her disposable soldiers died in three seconds, their levels too low for the high-level battle.
The sword-wielding goat suddenly flew towards the back, crashing into theva giant, suffering from me damage. George noticed his character taking a tenth of the damage while the sword-wielding goat only had a fraction of its health left.
"What happened?" La inquired, bringing her wood treant to stand before the injured sword-wielding goat, sending the disposable soldiers to the front.
"The Dungeon Boss made an appearance." Jyorta used some resources from the warehouse, bringing his sword-wielding goat back to full health. Through the crowd of tree monsters, a huge monster stepped forth.
Twice bigger than theva giant wielded by George, the biggest in their team, having a skin full of ck hair, and donning thick armour. It raised the two war axes and let out a powerful bellow, instantly destroying all the disposable soldiers. Three words popped on the head of the Boss monster inrge red words, bordered by a fluorescent colour, ''Dangerous Evil Gori''.
"Be careful guys, it has powerful knockback effects apanying its attacks," Jyorta warned and lead the sword-wielding goat to the front, leading its army of goats.
In the kitchen, La''s mother was preparing some sweets for the children. She poured half-a-kilogram of semolina in an inverted hemisphere shaped bowl, a steel utensil with a thick body. She poured water into the mixture and raise the temperature of the mes, asionally mixing it.
La''s father walked in, looking hesitant as he gazed at his wife making sweets. He stood in silence for a good three seconds before walking away from the kitchen, his hesitation apparent in his gait. La''s mother shuddered for a moment, continuing to cook as if she hadn''t noticed his actions, silently wiping the trace of tears from her eyes.
20 minutester, La''s mother took another bowl, poured 5 tablespoon worth of ghee, and ced it on the stove. After the ghee melted into a liquid state, she added cashew nuts to it, stirring it once before switching off the mes. She then added it to the semolina mixture, mixing them while adding a minuscule amount of edible camphor. Once she was done, she added three portions of it into three separate cups and ced cute spoons in them.
Walking to the living room where the three kids were shouting in all sorts of vocabry as they fought the boss, La''s mother smirked and purposefully ced the three cups of sweets near Jyorta. "I''ve made Kesari, have it before it gets cold."
She then walked away before they could respond, looking at Jyorta through the corner of her eye. As if he had been bewitched by the smell, Jyorta traced the smell with his nose, gazing at the three cups of Kesari, his attentionpletely focused on it.
"Jyorta, dodge!" George shouted as he blocked a hit from the Gori Boss. His face turned serious as the Gori Boss swerved around him and smacked the sword-wielding goat on the head, making it crash into the ground. It then sat on the small sword-wielding goat, raising its fists high and brought it crashing down on its foe.
"I''m stuck, save me!" A muffled voice came from Jyorta, the other two didn''t realise it as they were immersed in the battle.
"La, hurry with the aggro. I''ll detonate my character and deal it damage." George made theva giant jump high, using the weight of its body to crash into the Gori Boss. It then used abo attack to distract the Gori Boss as the wood treant made a critical hit on the Gori Boss'' back, making it retaliate with a roar.
The wood treant was sent flying; one of its branches that coiled around the legs of the Gori Boss pulled at it, giving theva giant enough room to charge up its attack. When the Gori Boss was focused on the treant, theva giant leapt on its back,tching onto it as it initiated a self-destruct sequence. Its body immediately melted into a set of stone armour that covered the Gori Boss'' body.
The Gori Boss dashed towards the wood treant, using its branch as a rope to tug at it, pulling it into its embrace as the countdown reached zero. Followed by a resplendent explosion, the screen was covered in dense smoke. George noticed that hisva giant and La''s wood treant had died in the explosion but the Gori Boss still has a sliver of its health left.
Seeing that the sword-wielding goat was still alive, George shouted, "Finish it Jyorta."
"Yeah, finish it with style." La echoed, her eyes glued to the screen, afraid to miss the final shot.
"On it!" Jyorta scooped out arge piece of sweet and ced it in his mouth, hurriedly chewing it before swallowing it down.
"Here it goes!" Followed by a shout, Jyorta pressed his stomach and let out a loud burp. Astonished, George and La turned to look at him and noticed that at some point in time, the console in his hands had swapped ces with a cup of Kesari. The console was ced on the floor before him, showing no signs of human interaction.
Seeing that the Gori Boss had gotten up, George slid on the floor, picked up Jyorta''s console, and threw it at La. La expertly caught it and pressed many buttons in a flurry. The sword-wielding goat charged with its sword glowing blue, shing at the head of the gori boss, performing a critical hit.
The words ''Dungeon Cleared'' appeared on the top of the dead Gori Boss as a fountain of coins shed behind. La looked exhausted as she red at Jyorta who shed an innocent smile.
"That''s it!" With a shout, La leapt at Jyorta, tickling him in frenzy. George hurriedly ced the remaining two cups of Kesari some distance away from them as he watched how Jyorta struggled to escape her hold, all the while preventing his cup of Kesari from spilling. He showed dextrous bnce habituated under years of effort as he endured the tickling attacks of La, a smirk etched on his face.
George silently began to eat the Kesari, relishing in its soft texture and sweet taste as he appreciated the battle in front of him. In his memories, Jyorta always had that intention to court death in all sorts of ways. This time too, he hadn''t disappointed him, sessfully stepping on La''s nerve.
La''s mother looked at the scene with a smile, as if she had predicted it beforehand. She then took two cups of the sweet and walked towards another room that had soundproofing installed in ce. She pushed open the door and noticed La''s father busy surfing the inte, looking at the topography where the Flying Signature Raid was scheduled.
His face was scrunched up and seemingly in worry as he looked at the monster details that frequented the habitat. His confidence decreased the more he looked into the details, his face paling. La''s mother ced the cup of Kesari before him, prompting him to break his gaze away from the monitor.
"What are you nning to do?" She asked, taking a nce at the monster depicted on the screen. Her body shuddered in fright as she read through the details of the monster, the habitat, and the weather condition of the area. The dome-shaped structure of the monster nest, the designated location where they had to mine for a precious mineral, the size and ferociousness of the monster, and its troublesome abilityall fazed her.
"I am" He hesitated for a minute and a half, looking between the monster on the screen and the face of his wife. He then gritted his teeth, saying, "I n to join the Imperial Corps. I will then get the chance to imnt an Unranked Skill in my body which would greatly help me in the uing Raid."
"There should be" La''s mother hesitated, "Another option right? Did you consider joining another family? With your strength, even the families of the inner Rings would wee you with open arms."
"I did," La''s father said with a sigh, "But, I don''t n on joining any other family for the matter. It would mean me marrying into their family, which will burden your lives. Moreover, I wouldn''t be able to get their Unranked Skill in such a short time before the Raid begins which would defeat the purpose of marrying into their family."
"Makes sense." La''s mother thought.
"Moreover, the monsters we would be facing in this raid would be flying type, so without the ability of flight, it would prove to be difficult to guarantee our lives. The Unranked Skill of the Imperial Corps is the best bet against that." La''s father said. He then continued to browse through the characteristics of the monsters and tried to think up ways to counter them.
"Then," La''s mother ced her hand on his shoulder, "It''s best you forward your application by tonight. The longer you dy, the shorter the time you will get to adapt to it."
"Okay." La''s mother saw him eating the sweet she had prepared, showing no signs of emotions on his face as he ate. He was engrossed in the details before he felt the door being shut. Looking to his side, he found his wife had disappeared. Only after a moment did he realise something, prompting him to hurriedly swallow the rest of the sweet, almost choking on it.
He then stood up, opened the door, and walked out, behaving calm and collected, just like usual. He walked to the kitchen, ced the empty cup in the sink, washed his hands, and dried them with a towel hung nearby. When he passed by the living room, he found his wife reading through the documents meant for his departure, asionally keeping an eye on the children.
"The Kesari tasted good, just to my liking." He muttered softly and hurried to his room, typing an application form on hisputer. In the living room, La''s mother gazed at the receding figure of her husband, her lips curved into a smile. She then broke out of her reverie, reading through the document pertaining to all the information of the Flying Signature Raid the army had sent to them.
''Flying Signature RaidSignatureeven Tier 5 monsters might make an appearance. I hope the army dispatches at least a couple of Transformers and Sky Controllers, otherwise, this mission might very well be a suicide.''