The Scrap Tamer - Chapter 74

Chapter 74: The Test Begins

Reid stood in the middle of the field, alongside his team waiting for the test to begin.

He contemplated on which of his forged-beast he should use but it didn’t take long for him to decide. He knew that any of his the three (Rusty, Nyx and Beel) would work so he just randomly chose Rusty.

He sent Axie back to the inventory and allowed Rusty to take it’s place on his head.

Clara’s eyes sparkled as she spotted yet another cute forged-beast on Reid’s head but she controlled herself. She reminded herself of the pending test even though she really wanted to pet it.

The training field was big enough to hold at least a thousand people so the 300 cadets were far apart.

The glowing orb like things that was above them turned out to be drones and they surrounded each teams, making sure they had enough space to move around.

The drones deployed a dome that seemed familiar to most of the cadets from higher class families.

That relatively wide dome was the same tech the Fletcher family had in their training hall, so Reid was already familiar with it.

Ethan on the other hand, had stars in his eyes. He hadn’t been expressive since they started the introduction so it came at a surprise when he suddenly started rambling.

“Those are the Genesis Drones, capable of creating simulations that feel extremely real and also expanding space infinitely within the dome,” He rambled, his eyes gleaming with excitement. “They’re equipped with an advanced AI that dynamically adjusts difficulty based on performance, and—”

“Nerd” Clara cut him off, making him blush in embarrassment. He hadn’t even realized he was talking out loud.

He sealed his lips shut and waited for the simulation to completely load.

Clara bit her lips a little before saying “I’m sorry I cut you off”.

Ethan looked her in surprise before shaking his head “it’s fine, I’m just a little embarrassed that I was saying all that out loud”.

Their test ground completely loaded and they found themselves on top of a plateau edge, dangerously close to falling off.

They moved back a bit, assessing the situation. They noticed a small town below them and the residents were rushing into their homes, tightly shutting the door.

They looked ahead and spotted a cloud of dust rapidly approaching the town. Clara looked through the scope of her sniper and instantly identified the cause of the dust cloud.

“It’s a primal siege” she informed and as if on cue, a hologram popped up from their watches, showing their goals for the test.

It read:

[Simulation: Primal Siege]

Objective: Protect the town from incoming waves of primals.

Waves Remaining: ???

Difficulty: Adaptive.

Bonus Objective: Minimize civilian casualties.

“Seriously?” Clara huffed “as if facing sieges of primals wasn’t hard enough but now we’re supposed to protect a town at the same time?”.

“Regardless, we stick with the plan” Reid said ” Let’s get into formation. Clara, stay here and take care of any primal we missed as we discussed, everyone else, we’ll protect the town from below.”

“Here you go” Clara suddenly summoned something from her inventory and handed them to the team.

It was a small white gadget and before they could ask, she started explaining “it’s an earpiece and we can communicate with it, since I’m not sure I’ll be able to hear you all the way down there.”

“Thanks” Reid said and placed the device in his ear, making sure that they were well placed. The others did the same while Clara searched for the perfect spot to snipe.

Since the plateau was just above the town, Clara had the perfect high ground to take down the primals.

The four summoned their forged-beasts one at a time. Lisa summoned her blue lightning wyvern, Marcus summoned a massive rhino with metal for horns and just like its name, its hide looked shiny just like iron or any metal.

Ethan summoned his Bio-synth Lizard, which was as big as a komodo dragon and also looked like something one would expect when they hear the name forged-beasts.

It was green and most of its body was filled with smaller tubes that started from its head. Within those tubes, a green glowing fluid was constantly passing.

Clara also summoned her forged beast, a falcon which quickly took to the skies, heading to scout ahead.

Reid allowed Rusty to grow into its wolf form, becoming gigantic. Rusty then used [skip] to teleport them to the gates of the small town.

He tapped on the ear piece and Clara’s voice suddenly came through “is this on?” She asked.

“Yes” Reid simply replied and put his hand down.

The others soon caught up and each took their positions, with Marcus and his Rhino at the fore front with Reid and Lisa standing just behind him.

Ethan was a bit far back because that was Reid’s order, since he didn’t want their healer to be hurt since he’s an important resource.

Clara had her eyes on the scope of her rifle as she waited for the beasts to get closer than this. Through the eyes of her falcon, she could clearly see the approaching primals and she was confident in taking out a few but she patiently waited for a signal from their leader.

The ground trembled as the primals got closer and closer to the town. Reid still didn’t give the signal and waited for the primals to actually come into view.

Some were flying through the air while others stomped through the ground. The simulated primals looked no different from the real ones and even Reid would have been convinced they were, if he didn’t know any better.

“We take out the flankers first,” he decided. “Clara, start with the fast ones. Lisa, after her first shot, you intercept any that get through.”

Clara smirked. “Finally.”

The moment the primals entered her kill zone, she fired. A single shot rang out, and one of the feline primals collapsed mid-stride, a bullet clean through its skull. Another shot, another primal down. She worked fast, thinning their numbers before they could spread out.

Lisa took to the skies as lightning surrounded her forged-beast while she aimed for the flying primals.

The skies suddenly darkened and the rumble of thunder sounded out before bolts of lightning came crashing down at the approaching.

Lisa and her wyvern floated as lightning constantly flashed around them. She looked like some kind of lightning goddess while her primal used its ability.

Not to be left behind, Reid took out his trustee bat from his inventory and quickly disappeared with Rusty. The next time they reappeared, they were already upon the primals.

All the approaching primals froze as Rusty used [pause] on them and Reid quickly dropped his bat on the head of the closest.

The skull of the primal cracked open but stayed intact since time hadn’t resumed yet. Reid quickly moved to the next target, moving from primal to primal. Rusty on the other hand, chomped down any primal it came across.

Not to be out performed, Marcus charged forward, his Rhino leading the assault. The Rhino roared as it crashed into the frozen beasts.

If they were not frozen in time, they would have been sent flying backwards with all their bones broken.

Ethan didn’t have to do anything at all since the trio in front of him didn’t get hurt or looked out of stamina.

Clara calmly continued taking down one primal after the other with her rifle. Her falcon was responsible for locking on targets, just like an aimbot, and she was responsible for taking them down.

Lisa was also taking down the flying primals with ease, charring them black with her lightning bolts.

The frozen primals stayed like that until Reid was sure each and every one of them will die as soon as the time stop was released.

As soon as it was released, and absolutely chaotic spectacle displayed itself. The primals that Marcus’ rhino had rammed through were flying in the air and continuous crunching sounds were heard from the skulls of the primals that Reid hit in the head with his bat..

Not long after, the first wave of primals were completely taken down with the team not even breaking a sweat. Their healer, Ethan, didn’t even have to move.

“That was pretty impressive” Marcus praised as he got close enough to Reid. His heavy hand patted his shoulder but Reid made sure to remain standing straight.

“You too” he said “you all did a great job”.

“Aw, thanks boss” Clara’s bubbly voice came through the earpiece.

“Well I was pretty much useless throughout this entire fight” Ethan said quietly with a small frown.

“Well, the test was to face waves of beasts not a single wave, so I’m sure you’ll be useful soon”.

He looked in the direction the first wave of beasts had come from and sure enough, another wave was quickly approaching.

“Alright everyone, let’s take our positions” Reid said “It’s time for round two.”