It has been a while since Hanns had ambushed those herd of goliaths. He was already finishing up his first medium mission but still had no luck in completing the second. Hanns had been clearing out the city block by block and street by street in the hopes of gaining more SL and RP but also clearing an area for him to stay and camp in.
He felt at home in the urban terrain he had found himself in. No dirt, dust, or trees to block his shots or obscure his vision. With every shot he used to kill multiple grimm, it would seem like a thousand would replace the ones he killed.
It was already two hours since he'd cleared out the first area before moving on to the next. He had a ton of motivation ever since he received that much SL and RP from those goliaths, so he passed the time by killing more grimm from within the city waiting to hear more goliaths passing by beyond the walls of the fallen city.
There were many times that he would forgo using his main cannon and machine guns by just running over the grimm that were too small to even scratch the paint on his Tiger H1. Reserving cannon shots to things like king taijitus, alphas, and a new grimm he encountered, the creep.
It was tougher because of their more armored head and their scales. Taller than an ursa and more numerous in Mountain Glenn.
He knew where they came from, he was close to whatever the old location of Merlot's lab was. He was going to need to enter deeper into the subterranean part of Mountain Glenn. Where he is going to be likely to encounter more grimm, especially those of the mutant variant.
First, he still needs to get to the tunnel that leads down underground.
An HE shell strikes the ground near a group of creeps. The shell explodes and fragments into the sharp heated metal which deeply cuts into the skin of the creeps walking on their hindlegs. The cries were silenced by the repeated action of a machine gun mowing down a group of supporting nevermores in the distance.
Hanns takes a reload but hears more of them scuttling around the corner. He quickly drives forward right as the group of creeps turns towards him. The inverted knees of the creeps bent unnaturally as the treads of his Tiger H1 mercilessly flattens whatever was left of the lower half of a creep.
The others quickly try to come to its aid and attack the tank with their main weapon, their tails. Finishing his reload he lets out another shot point blank at one of the creeps, vaporizing it into splotches of black tar on the street and nearby buildings.
A cry from another group of grimm attracts Hanns' attention. Turning his turret he found the last evolved version of a normal enemy he needed to complete his medium task.
An alpha creep pounces and dodges using the buildings as cover and scaling the walls. Hanns shoots but grazes the alpha creep making its way towards him. Hanns stood still focusing on predicting its movements.
A flock of nevermores nearby witnesses the battle and offers its assistance by sending their spear-like feathers towards the distracted Hanns. With the incredibly tough steel armor, he had no problem taking the hits. Hanns just ignores the attack in favor of focusing on the alpha.
More and more grimm start to converge on his position, and Hanns surges forward to meet the alpha grimm head-on. The alpha creep leaps into the sky as it exits the second-story building nearby, bringing its body forward it tucks itself into a roll before using its spiked tail towards the tank.
The impact sends dust flying, blinding the rest of the grimm trying to take down Hanns, as the dust settles the barrel of his cannon emerges from the smoke screen and fires on the stunning alpha creep, liquifying its insides and toppling over.
Machine gun fire once again sounds from the inside of the dust-covered battlefield as more grimm gets swiftly taken out by Hann's weaponry. Nevermores dive to grab at the gun before Hann reverses and it misses.
Their bodies became riddled with multiple wounds, the nevermores decay on the ground while the Tiger lets out another shell towards a group of beowolves. Seeing the battle being lost, multiple grimm try to escape through ruined buildings.
Hanns brings down a wall and rams straight into a beowolf which shrieks in agony before meeting the cold steel of Hanns' treads.
The rest of the beowolves climb on top of Hanns and desperately attack its roof. Hanns sends himself into the rest of the building, sending it down on himself and the beowolves on top of him. Letting the weight crush the grimm while it lands on top of Hanns.
The building is demolished as the lone figure of Hanns bulldozes a chunk of the building off himself and into the streets as his suspension bobbed up and down from the uneven landing.
*Ding*
[Mission Accomplished]
[Hard Targets: Destroy the evolved versions of enemies 5/5]
SL = 616,293 → 842,987 SL
VEHICLE RP = 78,743 → 112,382 RP
CONVERTIBLE RP = 125,887 → 165,807 RP
'Not bad at all.'
Hanns humms lightly at the numbers, he was getting more and more RP and SL as he went to more dense grimm populations. He only had gone through a small part of the city and he already got this much in a few hours.
Not only that but there was still an underground area which had even more grimm in it. He was confident he could get the plane if he got more RP than SL. The goliaths that he ended up killing were still not in sight but if he ever saw them he would definitely kill them.
'On to the next one.'
He drives forward, his engine blowing out the exhaust as he travels down the abandoned asphalt that traced the streets of Mountain Glenn. He happens upon a small opening created nearby. The crack goes deep into the nearby terrain that jutted out into the city.
'Hmm?'
A multitude of red eyes suddenly erupts out which startles Hanns.
'Woah!'
A small grimm with tentacles connecting to a small grimm mask suddenly shoots out from the small crack and scurries away from Hanns, getting spooked by the noise Hanns made with his tank.
'The hell was that?'
He quickly turned his hull and kept his vision locked on the thing. As his turret turns into position he loads an HE at the grimm. Debris was spent flying before Hanns clicked his non-existent tongue at the miss.
'Tch. It's always the small bastards that get away.'
He shivers at the thought of remembering a soviet ASU-57 sneaking around and Hanns trying to hit it but failing due to how small the thing was.
'I wonder what that thing was, I've never seen it in the show.'
5 hours later…
A large gaping hole was seen by Hanns, looking closely it used to be an above-ground subway terminal that littered the once populous city. The way down was still there and Hanns could use his smaller Sd.Kfz.234/2 to fit in the crack itself and hopefully not send the whole thing down with his weight.
He switched tanks and carefully let each of his wheels touch the collapsed terminal. He could get down but the distant noise of rocks falling and the echoes of grimm accompanied by the unstable looking rubble made him very nervous.
Letting one set of wheels go first he touches the first set of rubble connected precariously with what remains of the exposed rebar holding on to it. He felt the whole thing move with the newly added weight.
Hanns slowly let his entire tank go over the first ruble. Hanns observed the rest of the rubble left and counted.
'One...four...eight…no. I shouldn't think about it. Remember, don't look down.' Hanns says as he looks down.
'Oooookay...still far. C'mon, you can do this.' He regretted looking down.
He looks at the second set of rubble getting held by a support beam that was still standing. Hanns was a bit more confident and let his entire weight on it before it started swaying to the left.
Hanns screams internally as it starts to lean before halting steady. He lets out a sigh of relief and eyes the next 6 patches of rubble still left going downward.
'Why do I do this to myself.'
He tests the next one by lightly tapping it with his front tires and he felt the entire thing rumble and jostle around before rocks began slipping and breaking apart. Thinking fast he immediately reverses into the more stable 2nd patch of rubble before the one in front of him collapses. Fortunately, it didn't bring any more down and he could still cross albeit he needed to cross more rubble to get down.
He inched closer and closer towards the ground below him, he could finally rest his spiking heart rate or, engine rate in his case. He could see the underground part of the city that could hold bountiful riches in the form of Merlot's experiments.
After he feels all eight wheels touch the floor, he transforms back into his Tiger H1. It was dark but there was still light seeping from the sinkholes created from above. He huffs on forwards following the underground city.
Merlot's lab was above ground but their experiments were held underground so he needed to find the abandoned lab. To find it he plans on following the trail of breadcrumbs.
'There they are.' In the distance he spots green glowing spikes attached to an unusual grimm that lingered around the underground city.
Normal beowolves modified with serum, called mutant grimm, were roaming around in small groups who were accompanied by normal grimm. These were the captured grimm that were injected with an experimental serum created by Merlot.
He was a madman that saw grimm as the next superior species, enough to try and lure more grimm to the city itself to get more test subjects. When the city fell he too disappeared along with the main facility here in Mountain Glenn.
Readying his cannon he aims straight at the center of where they were. He fires and the HE shell he loaded explodes leaving a cloud of dirt expanding.
'So it can survive HE?'
The mutant grimm screams in anger as its comrades were laid to waste by the HE. It takes one look at Hanns and its howls reverberated in the underground city. Hanns pelts the mutated grimm with machine gun fire but it bounces harmlessly as the mutant grimm charges at him.
Hanns reloads and uses his APCBC to fire at the mutant beowolf the grimm, the shot pierces its body as it falls to the ground, its mutant green glowing effect fading into darkness.
Another mutant grimm this time, a creep variant, was seen far behind the beowolf that he just defeated.
'Just gotta follow the breadcrumbs.' Hanns reassured himself.
He moves forwards slowly, staying vigilant at the various hiding places and blind spots he could have just by being in this darker area. He looks at the mutant creep before it starts waddling in his direction glowing a bright green.
'Uh oh! Kamikaze!'
It starts humming lightly as its energy starts being released but before the mutant creep could reach Hanns he immediately shot it straight at the head. The explosion rocks the entire area he was in.
Hanns hears more roars around the entire city and the sounds of distance rapid stomping all around him as he realizes that the explosion from the shell paired with the suicidal charge the mutant creep did probably attracted every single grimm in a 10 km radius around him.
[Event Active!]
[You have alerted the horde!]
[Objective: Survive 0:00:00 / 1:30:00]
I loathe the lack of polls in this website/app.
'I shouldn't fight in here.'
The immediate area was enclosed and way too cramped to try and fight. There were high places grimm could leap to and attack him from the top or blind spots that the grimm could exploit to their advantage.
To Hanns, the place was horrible to fight in. Hanns needed to get vision, he was not going to risk a mutant creep sneaking up to him while he dealt with the increasingly numerous grimm that he attracted. Spotting a nearby area with light pouring in from the sinkhole above, he immediately went for it.
As he drove he could feel the thousands of footsteps the horde of grimm were making. Old ruined and still standing buildings were surrounding an area basked in sunlight that seeped from above. He idled in the middle while waiting for them to arrive.
He needed a strategy. While the Tiger H1 might be strong to resist attacks with its armor, the older and much stronger grimm will definitely use the distraction these smaller grimm will provide to attack his weaker top armor or underside.
Taking a look at his surroundings there was something he could do. He could funnel every single grimm in one opening while blocking off the rest by using the buildings.
Hanns began shooting the supports that held the buildings upright, bringing the whole structure down to sections of his area that had an entrance. Satisfied at the result he finally heard the horde nearby circling the area he created and readied himself.
Various grimm types began flooding the entrance he left an opening for. He loaded in HE and fired at the center of the entering grimm, sending some flying to the sky while the rest were killed in an instant from the high explosive sending shrapnel outwards.
Reloads were going to be his weakness so he had to use his machine gun to suppress grimm but found it harder and harder to manage increasing numbers of grimm.
'Can't these bodies decay quicker?'
The bullets he fired could only pierce a single grimm at a time, the lower caliber could instantly kill a weak grimm but its body still lingered long enough for other grimm to use its dying body as a meat shield before it decayed.
Hanns fires another HE at the center of the pack and spots mutants and alphas coming in. He needed to be more selective with his ammunition left in his machine gun so he focused on his main gun shooting stronger alphas and only burst firing at normal grimm.
Normal grimm were taken care of machine guns while harder enemies were destroyed with APSBS rounds. If there was a time he needed to reload hi machine guns he used HE while waiting for the reload to finish. The cycle he had was constant the whole time the event went on for.
Hanns was losing the track of time, he could check but that would mean a lapse in attention. He kept at this cycle for a while but he encountered a problem. The machine gun needed to reload and there was an unusually bigger amount of evolved and mutant type grimm arriving.
'Crap.'
Feeling the click from the now empty machine gun he switched to HE and committed to keeping the smaller grimm rather than eliminate the number of alphas. He backed up as the stronger alphas and mutants got in closer.
'Ok I think it's time to seal the entrance.'
Feeling the increasing pressure that the horde of grimm created, he fired a shell towards the support beam that held a building nearby. The structure collapsed burying beneath it hundreds of grimm before blocking the entrance he made.
Hanns could've done this from the start but free SL and RP made him choose to at least kill off part of the horde.
He was now left with multiple mutants and alphas in front and at his sides. He prioritized the mutant creeps. He wasn't going to risk getting blown apart by it so he wanted to take them out quickly.
He lets out machine gun fire at the other grimm to keep them busy while he reloads and fires an HE shell at the mutant creeps, killing them instantly.
A pair of mutant beowolves send out their spikes into the ground slowly growing in size while traveling towards Hanns.
'Woah!'
The spikes narrowly missed as Hanns backed away just in time. Loading in APCBC he melted the head of one of the mutant beowolves. The other alphas decide to launch their attacks simultaneously. Alpha creeps swung their tails, Ursa started charging him and beowolves began to lunge for the gun.
He accelerates forwards and crushes the alpha creeps beneath him while decimating the top half of the ursai when he shoots an APCBC round at them. Turning his turret, he switched to his other viewports to see the location of the other alphas.
He lets out more cannon shots as he kills the rest of the grimm before meeting the last mutant beowolf charging up its spikes. Not taking any chances he killed the beowolf and watched it as it lifelessly crumpled to the ground.
A sudden burst of rubble from the opposite side alerted him and immediately turned to face the new threat.
A giant mutant deathstalker crushes its fellow grimm below it while it walks forward from the breech it created, snapping its claws and its tail glowing bright green as it lets out a war cry at Hanns.
Hanns took one look at the new grimm and saw its armor plating lining the entire front part of the grimm angling at a really steep angle. Its mutated body let out green spikes from his side and made its tail grow green. Unlike the normal grimm, deathstalkers had almost its entire body made of carapace. So it's the closest thing to a tank that he could fight.
'Oh God, this reminds me of fighting soviet tanks before I knew about their weakness.'
Hanns loaded APCBC and shot it at the deathstalkers tail. The deathstalker swings its tail out of the way and Hanns' shot misses as it advances. He let machine guns fire out only for them to be ineffective, feeling his reload done he tries again.
Letting out another shell at the deathstalker he is surprised when the deathstalker uses its claw to block the shell. The grating noise of a ricochet reached his ears as he realized that the deathstalker just purposefully angled itself.
'One option left.'
He waits as he is loading in a DI-APCBC round. The deathstalker rushes forward reaching Hanns as it slams its claws at the ground while its spikes glowed green.
Hanns suddenly feels getting lifted up into the air as spikes reach the front part of his Tiger H1. He immediately makes his tracks grab the ground and break off the spikes. The deathstalker follows up its attack by swinging its razor sharp claw towards Hanns.
The barrel gets cut in half as Hanns drives towards its side cursing at the fact that it took away half his barrel.
Feeling the reload being finished he decides that he would let the DI-APCBC round travel towards the ground. The deathstalker tries to wrestle off Hanns who was attempting to ram its side while Hanns tries to get a shot at the ground below it.
The moment arrives and Hanns lets the shell travel through half his barrel before striking the ground beneath the unarmored belly of the scorpion-like deathstalker grimm.
The explosion tosses around Hanns sending him skidding across the ground while the deathstalker experiences total annihilation as it takes in all of the explosive prowess of the DI-APCBC and is left in bits on the ground.
*Ding*
[Mission Accomplished]
[Objective: Survive 1:30:00 / 1:30:00]
[Through the Fire: Destroy medium level grimm 15/22]
SL = 842,987 → 1,112,365 SL
VEHICLE RP = 112,382 → 185,438 RP
CONVERTIBLE RP = 165,807 → 260,489 RP
'Wait has it been an hour and a half or a minute and a half?'
The tank slowly repaired the damages and refilled the ammunition he used up during the fight and took his time looking around the underground city. Hanns would travel to where a trail of mutant grimm could be found.
Feeling his tank get repaired, he drives forwards passing by the multitude of decaying grimm. The breach the mutant deathstalker created was used by Hanns, he had planned on driving straight through the walls once the horde event finished but now that the deathstalker created one he could rest easy that it did the job for him.
In the distance he could barely see the markings of Merlot Industries' logo on a steel encased building. It was covered in destroyed sections of the facility and the paint was starting to peel off, a sign of age.
Multiple mutant grimm were roaming around it, easily spotted by the green glow they emanated from their body. It wasn't hard to pinpoint the area he needed to go so he judged the distance he had to travel.
'Quite far.'
Hanns had been fighting continuously for almost the whole day now. So he wanted to finish up the day by at least traveling towards the underground lab and stopping to some uncollapsed building to stay in before he would begin properly exploring Merlot's lab and killing every mutant type in there.
The rewards from earlier were very abundant. Mutant grimm provided more of a challenge and could actually injure Hanns properly if they could get to his weak spots. They gave him more RP and SP than their normal variant by a large difference.
He felt his tracks travel along the cracked and aging roads that lead towards Merlot Industries in the far distance. Roars filled the ambient atmosphere that the underground city was in. It was as large as the city above it but there is a stark contrast to the mood it brought.
Darkness filled the area since electricity powered by dust was presumably shut down after the fall of the city itself. The only light Hanns could use was the sunlight that leaked from the surface.
It was getting darker and darker and eventually Hanns got to a point where he was constantly running over chunks of fallen debris littered on the road he was trying to traverse.
He would need to find someplace to stay in for a while and rest up while he let the night pass by. Fighting in pitch black conditions would be a nightmare against grimm. If the night in Forever Fall had been dark, an underground labyrinth of concrete was much worse in terms of light.
As Hanns came to a stop he focused on looking at buildings to find a suitable place of refuge. It was still relatively sturdy and the buildings surrounding it acted as a wall to prevent grimm from wandering in.
Deeming it the best place for him to stay, he carefully made his way inside the building. It was surprisingly still orderly, unlike the other buildings that were scattered throughout the city. It was spacious too so he could bring in his Tiger H1 without blowing out the entrance for him to fit in.
He picked a spot to rest in and felt his engine turn cold as he urged it to turn off. He would still live even without the engine running, it just meant that he couldn't move from the lack of power.
He checked the hud for his account too look at the current SL and RP he had. Hanns was already at one million SL so the only thing keeping him from getting a plane was about 800,000 RP.
It would be only a few more days before he could unlock the aviation tree. The grimm both at the upper and underground parts of Mountain Glenn were still densely populated.
In one day he could earn almost 150,000 RP if he kept farming at this pace. It would be close to his goal of better transport than being stuck at the ground all the time.
'Should I just use the tunnels?'
It was definitely better than cross country suffering but a tank wrecking the supposed barricade to a city filled to the brim with grimm will definitely make the world hate him. Though he supposes that it wouldn't take long to get a plane so no rush to break down the barrier in Vale.