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The Apocalypse Grinder - Chapter 213
🕑 Added 2025-09-08 21:02:30 +0000 UTC<< Chapter 212 | Index | Chapter 214 >>
He was frustrated that things always came down to brute force, but that seemed to be the status quo of the system. He took out the bow from his inventory.
Ronan lifted it and pointed it directly at the metal casing that was beneath the floating screen. He started to push mana into the bow, forming an arrow. He tried to push more than the usual limit, and a few extra points went in until the bow stubbornly refused to accept any further.
Not wanting to break the bow, he stopped there. The arrow shone brighter than those he’d fired before, but he wasn’t done yet. Ronan used another one of his newest skills—enchant - explosion. It happened in the blink of an eye, and nothing visually had changed about the arrow. He just had to hope it worked.
As he drew the string back, he had an idea. When he fired the arrow, he used arcane piercing strike. An arrow was piercing damage, so it should work. As it made contact, he activated surging strikes, but that failed from the get-go.
The glowing arrow struck the computer casing and pierced straight through the metal into the machinery below. It vanished from sight, and Ronan just had to hope being a violent thug worked in his favour this time, as it had all the times before.
A moment later he saw a few sparks burst out of the hole the arrow had made. Another fraction of a second passed and the entire computer suddenly exploded in a white-and-blue flare that set everything aflame in a five-metre radius.
Ronan whistled in appreciation at the combined power of the arrow. The alarm had not stopped blaring, however, which was cause for concern.
The screen that had been floating above the destroyed machinery had vanished and those near the explosion had also turned off, but the large bank of screens was still functioning, with the exception of two that had flickered off.
Ronan cursed. He charged up the bow and took another shot at the main bank of screens. It blew up, but only five or so flickered off. The alarm continued to blare, wailing loudly and making his eardrums ache.
The bow was fun, but it was too slow. He ran back to the entrance of the room, walking up the stairs onto the balcony. He had begun to charge a rainbow bomb as he was running, and by the time he reached the elevator door it was ready to launch. Ronan tossed it at the largest clump of machines he could see in the room, holding up an arm to shield himself as it struck them.
When the explosion faded, Ronan was finally able to let out a sigh of relief. The alarm had stopped. However, that didn’t mean his troubles were over.
On the large bank of screens, a little over half of them had flickered out. The computer was somehow still working. Ronan wasn’t sure whether destroying this room had actually interfered with the flow of logistics in the city beyond. For his plan to work he needed to ensure nothing could get in or out of Kayir.
Not all of the screens displayed text. A few had video feeds. He walked back over to them and had a look. One displayed a scene that looked eerily similar to star wars, with what had to be the spaceport. There were hundreds of workers rushing about. At the moment there was only one large ship inside, but it didn’t seem as though it was about to go anywhere any time soon.
There were half a dozen smaller ships nearby, being loaded by large vehicles carrying sleek metallic crates. None of the workers there seemed to be in a panic, which was a positive sign. If the alarm had gone out across the entire city he would be in a pickle.
The only thing that bugged him was that the lead technician had almost certainly believed he was fucking with Ronan when he set it off. They were the only two in the room at the time, so who had the alarm notified?
He heard a soft hiss from behind. Turning, he saw the elevator door start to slide downwards and open. Of course. Ronan conjured a shortsword and took a step to the side, preparing to cut down whoever stepped out.
The door opened slowly and he had an idea. Forming a mana bolt as it slid open, he threw it inside the moment the gap was wide enough. He heard the explosion and muffled yells, but he wasn’t done.
Before the door opened fully, he managed to launch two more mana bolts inside. By the time the elevator had exposed its innards, only one technician inside was still standing. Ronan cut it down in a single slash.
Unfortunately he didn’t gain any more levels, likely due to them being ordinary technicians and not commanders. That was fine, but he had a new problem.
If every single grathen in the building had heard the alarm, and some of them had chosen to come upstairs and find out what had caused it, then what about the rest?
When they started rushing out of the building and telling everyone nearby what had happened, chaos was sure to follow. He hadn’t even managed to seal off the city or interrupt the logistics and already he had to worry about a stampede.
The elevator door started closing, but Ronan didn’t want to be interrupted again. He launched a mana bolt into the gap between the door and the frame. It exploded, sending a few chunks of black stone flying and halting the rising door.
“Wait, fuck!” Ronan couldn’t help cursing aloud as he realised he’d just destroyed his only way back down. I suppose I can just punch a hole in the building and jump out if I need to. With my stats, I’d survive the fall, probably…
It took another four rainbow bombs for Ronan to completely destroy everything inside the control room. At one point, he heard a high pitched whine followed by what sounded like a thunderclap. A large portion of one of the walls exploded, showering the room in rubble and exposing the inside of the building’s walls.
Ronan saw complex circuitry and a strange foamy substance that looked like grey marshmallows. Most of the wiring inside was completely fried. He hoped that meant he’d achieved what he set out to do.
There was no use in staying inside the building having destroyed it. He wanted to ensure he completely locked down the city so that even once the logistics centre was gone, none of the pilots could go rogue and try to fly out on their own accord.
He walked over to the section of the wall that had exploded. It was already compromised and would likely be the easiest part to blast through to make an escape route.
After charging up a rainbow bomb, Ronan tossed it at the wall. Another loud whine cut through the vibrant explosion as the remaining functional circuitry was obliterated along with the wall. A small hole appeared as the colourful cloud of the explosion faded, with large cracks running out from it into the rest of the wall.
The hole wasn’t large enough for Ronan to fit through, so he needed to walk right up and use a magic strike empowered punch to blast it another two times as wide. Once he had done so, he took a look outside to appraise the situation.
Down at the base of the tower, he saw a crowd of technicians in various coloured uniforms standing around near the door of the building. One looked up and saw him standing in the hole and started to shout. The others soon caught on and a loud uproar began. He didn’t have much time.
He started channeling another rainbow bomb as he leapt from the tower. Halfway down, it was ready to go and he tossed it into the crowd of technicians. The explosion tore into the world as he fell, the ground still shaking as his feet hit it.
Ronan managed to stay upright, but his legs were a little strained from the high fall combined with the impact of the blast. Looking towards the crowd, he saw that most of them had died from his spell but a few stragglers were attempting to escape.
It took him a few minutes to chase them all down and kill them. He wasn’t sure if anyone in the nearby buildings had seen what was happening, but the streets around the tower were still empty. Once he made it back to the tower a few more technicians had exited and were yelling at one another while pointing at the bodies.
It only took a few mana bolts to finish them all off. This had turned into a fucking mess and Ronan wasn’t sure how to proceed.
He had destroyed the control room, which meant the logistics pipeline would have been thrown into disarray. However, he had no idea how long it would take for an alternative method of transport organisation to crop up and for the delivery ships to leave Kayir. He had to find a way to seal the bubble around the city so that no one could leave before that happened.
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