Chapter 324: Misunderstanding

The beam towered through the sky for a few seconds, bursting with a blistering, high wave of heat rippling down the volcano, with the source of the disruption coming from further up the super volcano.

Just at this exact moment did Elaine and crew finally arrive at the rendezvous point, reuniting with the others, but the air wasn’t light, it couldn’t be, not when they had assumed all their enemies to be rendered immobile only to end up wrong?

The human hearts shook at the sudden cold wash of the new presence, the conflicting temperature assaulting their senses causing their fear to grow even wilder.

"What the hell is happening?" Elaine asked softly as she approached the others wearing a scowl.

But she got no response and understandably so, after all no one knew what was happening? They had no clue who or what was coming?

"Wait! The beam came from beneath, isn’t that where big bro is supposed to be?" Brandon suddenly exclaimed, taking a few panicked steps forward.

Realization struck them all, hearts shaking at the possible implication... suddenly the entire island began to rumble and quake heavily, sending everything tottering.

Even the humans found it hard to maintain a steady footing, in this state running wouldn’t be an option!

The realization hit hard, as the army of humans staggered to maintain balance, even the division leaders weren’t exempt.

It was unknown whether the source of this tremor was caused by whatever was looming, or the already active volcano!

Eyes widened, heads cocked up towards the sky, as a dark shadow cast over their frames like a carpet of darkness, a hulking black dragon rising to the sky.

"Good lord have mercy!" a human soldier muttered, collapsing weak to his knees, as a shiver ran through every fiber of every human witnessing the beast.

Even the division leaders weren’t exempt from this horror, thick waves of the monster’s aura washed down on them, coiling round their frames in suffocating horror.

The humans’ frames, supported by the mechas they wore, were quite large, they could scale to about 40-50% of a normal dragon, but before this beast? They were nothing but rodents.

Unlike Seth’s division who had long adapted to fighting titan beasts in tiny forms, the other divisions had honed their entire combat style around their hulking size.

Take that away and you strip them of their effectiveness, they wouldn’t be nearly as lethal without the advantage of size their mecha suits gave them.

The shadow grew darker and the stifling pressure grew thicker, as the monster’s wings flapped one beat after the other growing closer towards them.

Its silhouette growing more detailed and even bigger, despite their fear-stricken state as humanity’s elites, their reactions were prompt and disciplined.

"Gather up!" Brandon’s voice boomed in command, the voice of the other division leaders echoing in unison.

Their call forced the human soldiers to shrug off their fear by instinct and roll into their formations, their armours humming and buzzing to life, huge energy weapons flaring in their grasp as the group readied for a clash.

Though the odds seemed against them, they weren’t willing to go without a fight, and besides the division leaders were with them, adding to the fact that they numbered in hundreds, this was helpful to the human army’s morale.

Silence settled leaving the hum of their mechas and the tremor of the earth quaking beneath them.

The group remained in place, focused on maintaining a stable formation despite the unsettling tremor beneath them.

The air went stiff as the atmosphere grew tense as the dragon loomed closer and closer, their heartbeat racing high, their palms hidden within their mechs getting sweaty.

Of the division leaders present, Elaine, Jack, Brandon and Uriel didn’t equip mechs so they stood small relative to the hulking army standing behind them, but their presence gave off the strongest of auras.

Just when the dragon broke into the critical range, the reach of the humans where their long-range attacks would be most effective, also marking where their range of sight peaked, they got ready.

Energy cannons, cocked the dragon’s way, began to charge, pulsing lights flickering brightly as the row of hundreds of humans focused their assault on this beast.

"Get ready to fire, we can’t let it get comfortably close!" Lukas, the leader of division seven, yelled at the top of his voice.

Acting in a whole uniform beat, the human soldiers locked their aims, their fingers relaxing on the triggers of their cannons ready for the attack command as their blood boiled tense.

Shaky breaths rang loud, their heartbeats drumming loud, Lukas’s hands rose, the Mexican evolver was donned in a hulking mecha himself, making his gesture visible especially since his and Dorian’s armour was fashioned to be more robust than the others.

Tension went even higher, as gestures signalled they would be making a shot within seconds, the humans primed their stance searching for stability as the earth beneath their feet rumbled and quaked even more furiously.

Finger after finger fell, from Lukas’s outstretched mecha arm, the humans’ heartbeats syncing as one, their breaths going steady, their grips slowly tightening around their triggers as their helm display showed their aim steady upon their target.

"Wait-" Uriel seemed to catch sight of something but it was too late, as Lukas’s hand fell at that exact moment!

BZZZZT!

The humans followed the signal as the response had long been drilled into instinct, everyone acted before Uriel’s exclamation could even register, squeezing tight their triggers without any mercy.

Pulsing beams of pure atom-destroying plasma burst out of hundreds of cannons, the energy beam streaking through the sky and striking right on target, the massive black dragon.

Explosions raged across the dragon’s frame as hundreds of beams landed harshly against the dragon’s scales, shifting the colossus off balance, some beams tearing through its wings.

"Fuck, did you see that or am I seeing things?" Brandon whispered in confusion...

Uriel nodded with a frown, "Yes, if I saw correctly, it appears members of division one are aboard the dragon’s back."

The others remained silent in confusion, they couldn’t possibly fathom why Seth’s division was sitting on a dragon’s back; it didn’t make sense to them, that was until a voice boomed in the mind of all the humans below.

"Ah fuck! That stung bad, what the fuck guys?"

Recognition dawned in stark clarity among members of team apex, "Seth?" they called in chorus.