Into The Portal: Monster Invasion

Chapter 61: Ambusher

Miles looked at the supply point with his eyes squinted. There was a different color there that made his back go cold.

"What is that?"

Miles tried to identify color, but he couldn't. It looked like a rainbow condensed in a small tube. "Is that an explosive?" Miles was right to think so because the rainbow looked like it was gonna expand with the smallest touch.

'My opponent must be the ambush master. Even though it is rare, it is one of the occupations taught in the orthodox schools.' Miles thought to himself as he looked at the explosive device. 'I can't recognize it with elemental vision.' Miles turned off the elemental vision, and everything turned back to normal. He was still in dense vegetation, and in front of him was a giant box with ammunition. He looked at the ground where he saw the condensed rainbow, but he couldn't see anything.

He changed to x-ray vision and finally saw the bomb masterly hidden underground. Miles looked at the bomb, but he wasn't proficient in bombs and explosives. He couldn't even say what its purpose or trigger was.

Ambushing was a vocation respected by the military. But in Arena, it was much harder than in real life. On Earth, ambushers would prepare their explosives or other devices long before they entered the battlefield. And bomb and explosive type orbs were too rare to scan for the game, thus ambushers in the game would have to create bombs themselves.

At the initial phase of the game, bombs and explosives weren't in the weapon rack, thus when ambushers played the game they would choose other weapons. Later, the military pulled some strings and added the weapon to the game. Ambushers could choose the occupation at the start of the game, and then they would be spawned with boxes of materials and could create tens of bombs or other devices depending on choice.

But then another problem arose. When the map was chosen by the opponent, the ambusher would mostly be at a disadvantage. Thus, the game changed once again and when matched with the ambusher, the right to choose the arena was always given to the ambusher. Of course, those who recorded themselves as ambushers wouldn't be able to choose any other weapon when the game started, and any orb unrelated to their occupation couldn't be scanned.

The game somehow balanced with all these readjustments, but ambushers were still at the disadvantage. Not all ambushers were proficient at creating bombs swiftly. Thus by the time they finished their first bombs, the opponent might already have arrived. All in all, it wasn't an occupation favored by many people, but those who played with it were extremely proficient at it.

"So it wasn't random for my opponent to choose the arena, but because he or she is an ambusher." Miles thought to himself. He looked around just now with his elemental vision, but couldn't see the enemy. Ambusher wouldn't go too far away from their traps to finish the enemy as soon as they triggered the bomb in case they survived after the explosion. Miles wasn't sure if it was because the ambusher was too good at hiding or the elemental vision wasn't able to see through the enemy.

'For now, I have to stay away from the bomb as much as I can.' Miles thought and circled around the supply point. 'The logical outcome when someone saw the supply point would be, they either have found the supply point first or together. No one would think the enemy found it earlier and even prepared a trap. 'I would do the same if it wasn't for the elemental vision. Then I would trigger the bomb, and would probably die.'

'It would be embarrassing to die in my second match when I chose this name.'

Miles of course thought to detonate the bomb by firing it, and he was capable of doing so. But the explosion would affect the supply box too. 'The most logical thing to do is, finding the enemy.'

Miles changed into heat vision and looked around. Even though it was virtual, the arena was able to create a real environment. The ground, trees, and even the metal had their respective heats, thus it wasn't hard for Miles to find the heat signature of the human hiding underground. Miles canceled the heat vision and looked at the place again. He couldn't say at all. Dirt was flat, and no way he could say there was someone hiding under it.

'Enemy is an expert ambusher.' Miles praised the opponent, as he approached. 'Wait a second. If I were to ambush and hide underground, I would first protect myself. Then there must be more bombs hidden around the enemy to explode if someone were to approach.

Miles changed to Elemental Vision once again and noticed several more explosives around the ambusher, but they were smaller and less compressed than the first one, so their area of effect probably wasn't enough to reach the ambusher, but would alert him nonetheless. Such a crafty fella.

Miles looked at them helplessly. He could fire arrows to the ground, but they probably wouldn't be strong enough to injure the enemy after it slowed down by the ground. He also couldn't approach the enemy while there were explosives lying on the ground. He could, of course, jump over them, but it would still alert the enemy and Miles wasn't sure if the bombs were remote controlled or not. Also, a jump would create a quake that might trigger bombs all the same.

I guess I can only explode the bombs, then fight him head-on. He shouldn't be too good at close range. Miles thought and removed the ten arrows from the quiver. He nocked them two at the time and fired them to the ground. In less than two seconds all ten arrows fired and hit one bomb each. The explosion filled Miles's vision and the sound was deafening, but he couldn't care about it at the moment. He dashed at the fire, still rising to the sky, and passed through it. His enemy now left the dirt and was holding two similar devices.

"I will detonate these babies, and we both will die." The ambusher looked at Miles with crazy eyes and held the bombs in front of him. If they both were to die, it would be a draw, Miles wasn't willing to give up just yet.

Miles's arrows exploded to pieces with the bombs, and he had no ammunition. He couldn't go to the supply point either. He only had one bow with no arrow at all. Miles was out of his wits and had no way to bring the enemy down, so he could only raise his hands in defeat. He threw the bow and quiver to one side, and removed his armor, and threw it to the other.

"What now?" He asked.

"Of course, you die." Ambusher said and threw the bombs in Miles' direction. Miles smiled and dodged the two bombs as he, with a great jump, dashed towards the opponent. 'You think you are faster than me? You wouldn't expect me to use two serums right?'

Miles was faster and stronger than the enemy and caught him before the bomb could touch the ground. While the enemy was in disbelief, he threw him to the half-circle surrounded with bombs and jumped into the ditch the enemy just came out of. Another big explosion was heard, and Miles felt dirt and rock raining on his body, but he stood in the fetal position, and let them hit him. Not long after, a notification was heard, and he won the game.

"Heh, it was thrilling!"