Chapter 86 - 84: We Took Back One Street

Chapter 86: Chapter 84: We Took Back One Street

At seven in the morning, one hundred and eighty-three people gathered outside Greyhaven’s western gate.

Arin had expected sixty.

Cassian had expected thirty.

Victor had apparently expected a war.

He arrived wearing full combat equipment, carrying enough ammunition to concern everyone.

Arin looked at him.

"We’re clearing a street."

"Exactly."

"Why do you have grenades?"

"Street-cleaning supplies."

"No."

Victor sighed and returned them to the transport.

Lucan watched him go.

"I like him."

"That’s concerning."

The plan was simple.

Take one street.

Not the district.

Not the mine.

Not all of Greyhaven.

One street.

Western Gate Road ran nearly two kilometers from the old entrance to Market Square. If restored, it would create a safe corridor into the city and provide access to warehouses, housing blocks, an old clinic, and two secondary roads.

Unfortunately, approximately eight hundred monsters currently lived along it.

Cassian studied the map.

"That used to be a bakery."

Arin looked toward a collapsed building occupied by six Stonefangs.

"Good location."

"The owner was terrifying."

"Still alive?"

"Probably."

A voice came from behind them.

"I am."

Cassian froze.

An elderly woman pushed through the workers.

Same woman who had slapped him yesterday.

She pointed at the ruined bakery.

"That’s mine."

Arin looked at her.

"Monster infestation."

"I noticed."

"Building is structurally unstable."

"I noticed that too."

"We may need to demolish it."

She stared at him.

"No."

Arin paused.

Cassian quietly moved away.

Coward.

"The rear wall has collapsed."

"Fix it."

"The foundation shifted."

"Fix that."

"The roof—"

"Young man."

Arin stopped.

She pointed a finger at him.

"I waited twelve years to come back."

Then pointed toward the bakery.

"Fix. My. Bakery."

Arin looked at EVE.

EVE smiled.

"Founder Elysium has received his instructions."

Lucan turned away to laugh.

Arin sighed.

"Fine."

The woman nodded.

"Good boy."

Arin stared.

Nobody had called him that in years.

Victor returned at exactly the wrong moment.

"Did she just—"

"Say nothing."

The operation began five minutes later.

Independent Hunters moved first.

Not charging blindly.

Arin had divided Western Gate Road into twelve sectors.

Each Hunter team received one.

Clear.

Confirm.

Mark buildings.

Do not pursue retreating monsters beyond assigned boundaries.

Elysium construction teams followed behind.

Then former residents.

Nobody entered an uncleared structure.

Nobody wandered off to find their old home.

That rule caused arguments.

Arin refused to change it.

The first Stonefang pack attacked in Sector One.

Lucan’s team handled it in forty seconds.

Sector Two contained Burrowing Razors.

Victor deployed vibration charges to drive them toward an empty drainage channel.

Sector Three contained no monsters at all.

Instead, they found an old wine cellar.

Victor disappeared for eleven minutes.

EVE found him.

His disappointment became public entertainment.

By eight-thirty, they had reclaimed three hundred meters.

Then they reached the bakery.

The elderly woman stood behind the safety barrier.

Arin scanned the building.

It was worse than expected.

Thirty-seven percent foundation failure.

Roof partially collapsed.

Mana piping destroyed.

Water disconnected.

Front wall cracked.

A tree grew through the kitchen.

Arin looked at her.

"Demolition and reconstruction would be easier."

"No."

"Cheaper."

"No."

"Faster."

"No."

"Why?"

The woman looked at the faded wooden sign hanging above the door.

MARA’S OVEN

"My husband built it."

Arin stopped.

"He died during evacuation."

Silence.

"I couldn’t take much."

She touched the old doorway.

"But this stayed."

Arin looked back at the building.

Numbers changed.

Cost didn’t matter as much now.

"Rian."

The young man hurried over.

"Yes?"

"Get the structural team."

"Demolition?"

"No."

Rian smiled.

"Restoration."

The woman nodded once.

"Good boy."

Rian stared.

Lucan nearly collapsed laughing.

The road-laying vehicle arrived before noon.

Arin had fabricated one overnight.

Tavian had sent a message from Elysium.

YOU UNLOCKED A NEW MACHINE YESTERDAY.

YES.

AND ALREADY BUILT IT.

YES.

I HATE YOU.

Arin had saved the message.

The machine unfolded at Western Gate.

Former residents stopped working just to watch.

It wasn’t enormous.

Eight meters long.

Six wide wheels.

Front clearing assembly.

Compaction system.

Drainage cutter.

Surface-layer fabricator.

It could repair approximately one kilometer of damaged road per day under ideal conditions.

Greyhaven was not ideal.

Still.

The first hundred meters took thirty-four minutes.

Cassian stood staring at the smooth road.

"That would’ve taken us weeks."

"Yes."

"How much does this machine cost?"

Arin told him.

Cassian stopped admiring it.

"Never mind."

"Technology isn’t free."

Apparently this surprised people.

Sector Five became the first serious fight.

The old clinic was occupied.

Not by wolves.

Hollowmaws.

Twenty-seven of them.

Pale creatures hung from ceilings and walls, limbs folded unnaturally around narrow bodies.

One dropped onto a Hunter before anyone saw it move.

Arin reached him first.

The Hollowmaw’s claws struck Arin’s shoulder.

His armor absorbed the hit.

He grabbed its arm.

Twisted.

Threw it through a wall.

Then the entire clinic moved.

Lucan looked upward.

"Oh."

Dozens of eyes opened.

Victor raised his rifle.

"That’s unpleasant."

Hollowmaws poured from the windows.

"Residents back!" Arin ordered.

Hunters formed a line.

A-01 stepped forward.

His replacement arm transformed.

"Testing revised pulse."

Arin looked at him.

"Controlled."

"Yes."

A-01 struck the ground.

The pulse hit the clinic.

Windows shattered.

Every Hollowmaw clinging to the outer walls lost its grip simultaneously.

They fell.

Lucan moved.

His sword became a blur.

Cassian covered the entrance.

Victor fired from behind.

Arin entered the clinic.

Three Hollowmaws lunged from the ceiling.

One died before touching him.

The second hit a wall.

The third escaped deeper.

Arin followed.

Not because it was fleeing.

Because his scanner showed something else.

A heartbeat.

Human.

"Stop firing!"

Everyone froze.

Arin pushed through an old storage door.

There, beneath a collapsed shelf, was a man.

Alive.

Barely.

Grey hair.

Thin.

Filthy clothes.

A crude spear in one hand.

He stared at Arin.

Then said:

"You’re late."

Arin blinked.

His name was Doran Pell.

He had never left Greyhaven.

Twelve years.

Lucan stared at him inside the temporary medical station.

"You survived here for twelve years?"

Doran drank water.

"Yes."

"Alone?"

"Mostly."

"What does mostly mean?"

"There were seven of us."

Silence.

"Where are the others?"

Doran looked down.

"Didn’t make twelve."

Nobody asked further.

Cassian stood near the door.

Doran noticed him.

"Lord Cassian."

Cassian’s face changed.

"You remember me?"

"You were the idiot boy who tried holding the east gate during evacuation."

Victor whispered:

"I like him."

Cassian almost laughed.

"I thought everyone left."

"Someone had to watch the town."

"You stayed for that?"

Doran shrugged.

"Was my home."

Arin understood that answer.

Doran looked toward him.

"Who are you?"

"Arin."

"Guild?"

"No."

"Noble?"

"Technically complicated."

Lucan coughed.

"Builder?"

Arin paused.

"Yes."

Doran nodded.

"Good."

Then pointed toward the city.

"You’re going to need one."

Doran’s knowledge changed the operation.

He knew monster routes.

Nesting sites.

Safe buildings.

Collapsed tunnels.

Which wells still worked.

Which basements flooded.

Most importantly, he knew why the Hollowmaws had spread.

"They’re not one colony," Doran explained.

EVE’s map opened.

Doran pointed toward the eastern district.

"Big nest there."

Then north.

"Another."

Then the mine road.

"Third."

Arin frowned.

EVE had identified Hollowmaw Colony as one dominant predator.

Wrong.

It was a network of colonies.

"How do they communicate?"

Doran tapped his ear.

"Sound."

EVE immediately began analysis.

"Subsonic signaling is plausible."

Victor leaned forward.

"So destroy communication?"

"No," Arin said.

Everyone looked at him.

"If we disrupt it without understanding their behavior, they scatter."

Doran nodded.

"Smart."

Victor sighed.

"Nobody appreciates explosions anymore."

By late afternoon, Market Square came into view.

Cassian stopped walking.

The square was overgrown.

Statue broken.

Fountain dry.

Buildings damaged.

But recognizable.

Former residents began crying.

Some laughed.

One man simply sat down.

They had reached the center of their old town.

Arin checked the tactical map.

"Square isn’t secure."

Reality returned.

Two hundred monsters occupied the surrounding blocks.

Including something large beneath the fountain.

Victor noticed the red marker.

"How large?"

EVE scanned.

"Approximately twenty-two tonnes."

Lucan drew his sword.

"Finally."

The fountain exploded.

A massive armored creature erupted from beneath it.

Six legs.

Long jaws.

Stone-like shell.

Cassian swore.

Doran said:

"That’s new."

"Helpful," Arin replied.

The creature roared.

Hunters scattered.

It charged.

Straight toward the returning residents.

Arin moved.

He didn’t call for permission.

Didn’t consult a committee.

Didn’t wait for a System notification.

This was exactly what his emergency authority was for.

Protect people first.

Explain later.

Inventory opened.

A heavy construction pile-driver appeared directly in the creature’s path.

Victor stared.

"Is that a weapon?"

"No."

The monster hit it.

The pile-driver activated.

BOOM.

Its reinforced piston slammed directly into the creature’s armored head.

The beast flipped.

All twenty-two tonnes.

It crashed through the remains of the fountain.

Silence.

Lucan stared.

"Not a weapon."

"Correct."

"You weaponized construction equipment."

"It was available."

The monster tried standing.

A-01 landed on its back.

Lucan struck one side.

Cassian the other.

Arin drove another construction anchor through the ground beside its head and activated gravitational restraint.

The creature collapsed.

Victor walked closer.

"I want one."

"No."

"You have no joy."

The square was secured before sunset.

Western Gate Road:

Complete.

One street.

Two kilometers.

It didn’t sound impressive.

Until the old lamps activated.

One after another.

Light traveled from Western Gate toward Market Square.

Former residents stood along the road.

Watching.

Mara’s bakery still had no roof.

But its foundation was stable.

The clinic had been cleared.

The road was usable.

Water flowed through repaired pipes.

And Market Square belonged to people again.

Cassian stood beside Arin.

"One street."

"One street."

"Feels bigger."

"It usually does."

Then Arin heard something behind him.

Music.

Someone had brought a violin.

An old man played beside the broken fountain.

Nobody organized it.

Nobody requested permission.

People simply gathered.

Workers.

Hunters.

Merchants.

Former residents.

Even Doran.

Victor somehow acquired alcohol despite EVE’s best efforts.

Lucan sat on a stone step.

Rian was eating bread while still covered in construction dust.

Arin watched.

They hadn’t restored Greyhaven.

Not even close.

But they had taken back enough ground for people to remember what living here felt like.

EVE appeared beside him.

"Arin."

"What?"

"Message from Elysium."

Lyra appeared on projection.

She was screaming.

Not frightened.

Excited.

"WE GOT OUR FIRST REAL ORDER!"

Arin blinked.

"What?"

Little Elysium Workshop’s six-wheeled cart appeared behind her.

Tessa stood beside it.

Twenty bread crates were loaded on the back.

"We delivered all of them!"

Luna corrected:

"Nineteen."

Lyra frowned.

"Twenty."

"One fell."

"It still arrived."

"The bread arrived. The crate didn’t."

Tessa shouted from behind them:

"IT COUNTS!"

Arin stared.

Lucan leaned into view.

"Successful business?"

Lyra nodded violently.

"We made twelve copper!"

"Profit?"

Lyra froze.

EVE’s Elysium-side instance asked:

"After electricity, replacement wheel bearing, workshop rent, materials, and Tessa’s damaged crate?"

Lyra’s smile slowly disappeared.

"How much?"

"Negative three copper."

Silence.

Victor started laughing.

Arin covered his mouth.

Lyra looked horrified.

"We lost money by making money?!"

Arin finally lost the battle and laughed.

Even Cassian joined.

Lyra pointed accusingly through the projection.

"STOP LAUGHING!"

"I’m not."

"You are!"

"Business lesson."

"I hate business!"

Luna quietly said:

"We should charge more."

Lyra stopped.

Then slowly turned.

Arin watched the realization happen.

He became concerned for Elysium’s economy.

The celebration ended after dark.

Then Doran found Arin.

"You want the Titanite mine."

"Yes."

Doran nodded toward the northern mountain.

"You can’t reach it through the main road."

"Monsters?"

"Partly."

"What else?"

"Bridge is gone."

Arin relaxed.

A bridge?

That was easy.

Doran continued.

"Gap is about two hundred meters."

Still manageable.

"And the old route runs through Wyvern nesting territory."

Less easy.

Lucan appeared.

"Did someone say Wyvern?"

Arin sighed.

Doran pointed toward the mountain.

"There’s another way."

"Where?"

"Freight tunnel."

Cassian frowned.

"Greyhaven never had a freight tunnel."

Doran smiled.

"Started building it before evacuation. Never finished."

"How far?"

"About seven kilometers."

"Condition?"

"Don’t know."

"Monsters?"

"Definitely."

Victor joined them.

"Now we’re talking."

Arin looked toward the dark mountain.

One restored street behind him.

A Titanite mine ahead.

Seven kilometers of abandoned underground construction between them.

Good.

Tomorrow, they would stop fighting for streets.

Tomorrow—

They were going underground.

Chapter End