The Scrap Tamer - Chapter 53

Chapter 53: Backup

The now bloody red sky ominously hang above the city and the stench of blood wafted in the air.

It had only been 20 minutes since Malrath was summoned and he didn’t even have to lift a finger to cause this much death and destruction.

Malrath sat on his throne with an amused expression. He was being entertained by two humans. He knew that the girl fighting in the sky was strong but the human boy that was fighting down there was even more dangerous.

The kid, although unawakened, could use what seemed like magic. Plus his demeanor had suddenly changed and he got a lot more efficient in dealing with the primals.

“Should I just end his miserable existence?” Malrath contemplated “That’s no fun. Let’s give him time to get stronger first.”

He kept his eyes on the boy until he sensed a couple of strong auras approaching.

“I was wondering when this world’s so-called protectors would show up,” Malrath said with a sinister grin hidden under his helmet like scale. “Let’s see if you’re any stronger than the insects below.”

____

Not far from the building Malrath’s throne was, the area around was filled with incomplete corpses of primals.

A pile of corpses was made and atop it sat Reid. He had his sword, coated with energy, stabbed in one of the primals, and his body was filled with the blood of primals.

He was utterly exhausted from fighting waves after waves of primals, so his forged-beasts were busy taking care of the remaining primals around them.

He raised his head, revealing his red eyes which seemed to glow, as he sensed someone approach.

“Reid?” The newly arrived person asked, unsure due to all the blood but she knew she couldn’t be mistaken.

“Sorry Mom, I couldn’t hold it in any longer” Reid said his smile contrasted the apology he was making.

Vivian, with tears in her eyes, rushed up to her son ignoring the pile of corpses. She tightly hugged him and said “I’m sorry for being this late.”

Reid returned the hug with an even wider smile which slowly faded as his hands dropped and his eyes closed.

He had been barely keeping himself conscious but now that his mom was here, he allowed the darkness to claim him as he passed out and his forged-beasts returned to his inventory.

Vivian turned to look at the people that came with her. They were her husband, her other two sons and her maid.

“I swear if something has happened to him” she looked at her husband dead in the eye “you’d have been the first to pay.”

She then turned to her maid and said “take him to safety while we handle this mess”.

“Yes Mistress” she replied and in a swift motion, walked forward and picked Reid up with relative ease.

She then turned towards the safer part of the city and left.

Maximus stood there looking as the maid carried Reid away. Although he hated the failure, he knew it wasn’t wise to offend mama bear right now.

Plus he really had to reevaluate Reid, since a failure could never achieve what Reid just did. He looked around at the place littered with corpses and the corpse pile in intrigue.

“Interesting” Maximus muttered, he clearly sensed that a lot of those primals were at gold tier.

“Now let’s finish off these beasts that dared hurt my baby” Viv said as she summoned a bird that was literally on fire by her side.

Her forged beast was a platinum tier phoenix and although she was at early platinum rank, its skills allowed her to take on platinum rankers stronger than her.

The three just sighed and summoned their respective forged beasts. With Maximus summoning a massive basilisk, Nathan summoned a frost serpent.

Finally Alexander, Reid’s older brother, summoned a three headed dog like forged-beast that looked a lot like the mythological beast Cerberus.

Vivian jumped off the corpse pile and headed towards the place she sensed the primals ready to burn them all down.

___________

In the air, Elizabeth and her dragon were busy fighting waves after waves of flying primals that she didn’t have a chance to check on Reid.

‘I hope he’s okay’

She was a few blocks away from where she left him. She just trusted that he would be okay.

“This is getting annoying” she grumbled.

Fighting for 20 minutes straight was wearing her down and although she could continue for a while, she would soon be overwhelmed by the seemingly endless wave.

“Where are you grandpa?” She whispered and as if her words were heard, the approaching primals were bathed in streams of flames, burning them to a crisp.

Elizabeth looked in the direction the attack came from and spotted another dragon coming her wave.

“Sorry I’m late, Izzy,” a familiar voice called out from the rider atop the dragon.

“Grandpa” Her tense expression softened as relief flooded through her.

“I’m here now” he said with a soft smile.

She looked down and spotted some other military personnels clearing up the remaining primals on the ground and searching for survivors.

“Alright boys, let’s get these b*stards out of our city” The commander’s voice boomed, ordering the soliders below.

“Sir yes sir” they shouted in reply.

“Reid” Elizabeth remembered and wanted to fly where she left him.

“Don’t worry, the kid’s fine” Her grandfather assured “His mother already rescued him”.

Elizabeth sighed in relief since she wouldn’t have been able to get rid of the guilt of something had happened to him.

“Why did it take so long for backup to arrive?” Elizabeth asked. She had expected the military to arrive just after the first portal that Malrath came from was opened.

Commander Gareth clenched his fist in anger but quickly calmed himself down “We were ordered to follow protocol.”

That’s right. After the red light beam shot up into the sky and Malrath’s oppressive presence spread throughout the city, the higher-ups made a decision that revealed their cowardice.

Rather than deploying the available military personnel to protect the city’s residents, they chose to use them for their own safety, prioritizing themselves and their families.

If not for Reid and Elizabeth, the decision would have resulted in far more deaths than anyone could bear to count.

Commander Gareth decided to disobey his orders to protect only the central part of the city (where the higher-ups stayed) when he saw a satellite image of Elizabeth and the new recruit standing against the waves of beasts.

Luckily, some of the great families resided here and they sent some of their tamers to help, with the Fletcher family head himself coming.

“You can take a rest now Izzy, we’ll handle it from here” He said.

“What about the weird looking primal?” Elizabeth asked in worry, the feeling Malrath gave off was unlike any normal primal “It’ll be fine, we have a few platinum ranked tamers that’ll help take it down.”

His words didn’t calm the uneasy feeling Elizabeth was getting but she still decided to hope that they’ll be able to take down that monster, whatever it was.

She turned around and headed to the hospital Reid was sent to as his grandpa met up with the rest of the platinum-tier tamers.

_____

“We cleared every beast on the ground, sir” one of Gareth’s subordinates reported with a salute.

Another riding a wyvern also landed with a report “the skies are clear Sir, most of the primals were taken care of by the Fletcher family.”

“I see” Gareth nodded.

The Fletcher family was one of the great families for a reason but Gareth still doubted their intention in fighting against the beast siege since their Mansion was on the other side of the city and from what he found out,

They didn’t care enough for Reid, to rescue him since they already abandoned him in the first place.

Apart from his mom, no one else cared if he died or not.

“It doesn’t matter their intentions, as long as they helping make this fight easier” Gareth mumbled to himself.

“Alright then, it’s time to take out the leader of these things” he mounted his dragon and flew in the direction of Malrath.

The flight didn’t take long and he soon spotted a humanoid dragon primal lazily seating on a throne, as if the ongoing destruction wasn’t caused by him.

‘what the hell is this?’ The closer he got to the beast, the more terrifying it felt.

“I see you haven’t retired yet old man” someone snapped him out of his thoughts. Turning back, he spotted a man with green hair floating towards him.

“Gabriel Blackwood” he recognized yet another face he didn’t expect to see here. Gabriel was patriarch of the Blackwood family and one of Gareth’s former students.

“Is that how you speak to your master, you brat” Gareth said with mock anger.

With Gareth’s arrival, the three platinum rank tamers of the Fletcher family also arrived and some gold tier soliders were the last to arrive.

Malrath was still seated in his throne looking at them in disappointment. Although these people were as strong as this shard of his, he was disappointed if this was all they had to offer.

“Let’s get this over with” He stood up and faced the challengers who froze in shock hearing him speak.

“Who’s dying first?” He asked as he picked up his sword..