Damon's Ascension-Chapter 154: Oxen Raiders

In a stony outcropping high above the desert-like biome of Sector 13, nestled between towers of ashy rock and eroded stone pillars, a crude campsite had been set up.

In this place, large bones of huge creatures served as benches while long mats made of some fabric or material was laid under piles of gear. There was also a nearby rusted antenna that had the sound of static coming out of its speaker faintly beside a dented scanning orb that emitted pulses to scan the area.

Six Minotaur-like creatures lounged around lazily, each well over two meters tall with thick-muscles and rough hides ranging in color from rust-red to earthen brown.

These fellows were the Oxen Raiders, a band of outlaw Minotaurs from the 68th-ranked Minotaur race that had made this part of Sector 13 their personal hunting ground.

"Weather’s nice." Zovuk, the leanest of the six, grumbled while licking the edge of a cracker made from fried beast marrow.

"If you like moving like a corpse in a dream." Kragor, lounging against a flat boulder, muttered with his arms crossed.

Their leader, Gornash, sat on a stone chair that was personally carved by himself, misshapen as it was. His massive frame pulsed with great Power, mostly thanks to his C-rank ability Divine Strength, his visible veins all over his body bulging even while he sat still.

He stared ahead calmly, unmoving and lost in thought.

The other three in the team, named Drogar, Bask, and Tellun, were playing a slow game of bone-chess, where each piece could only be moved once every 12 seconds in order to add stakes and train themselves to think more when acting.

"Your rook’s cheating again, Bask!" Tellun growled.

"It’s a goat’s skull, they all cheat in Bone-Chess." Drogar replied dismissively.

Just then, the camp’s velocity-calibrated scanner pinged with a small alarm, causing all heads to rise immediately and glance over.

Bask sat up. "That a Sector Echo I hear?"

Kragor checked the readout, his brow furrowing. "...No, that’s movement. Eleven bio-signs and a rather massive power signature. It’s... contained. Their craft also has top level military-grade stealth protocols. Species: unknown."

Gornash’s eyes flickered open.

"Unknown?" He asked with a solemn frown.

Drogar leaned over and tapped his special scanner. The interface lagged slightly due to the Chaos Realm’s disfavor towards technology, but it eventually got the readings through.

"Confirmed to be a cruiser-class ship in low-speed cruise mode, holding a perfect 10 m/s. They’re obeying the macro rule to the letter."

"Which means..." Kragor started slowly.

"...they’re a new species, and smart ones." Gornash finished, tapping his lip.

The Minotaurs shared looks.

"They’re flying clean across Sector 13, with no intention to stop. That means they’re probably carrying Chaos Items... or Essence. Maybe both." Zovuk said while standing, his eyes flashing with greed.

Tellun grinned. "Sector 13’s a minefield for projectile types, so anyone crossing by ship is trying to avoid foot combat. That’s prime robbery bait."

"Could be a recon team." Bask added cautiously.

"Yeah, could be a full Vanguard squad from a new species that finished their grace period." Drogar suggested, glancing at the leftover wounds that still hadn’t faded from a previous failed ambush two days ago.

Bask also complained at this time: "Last time we hit a ’survey team,’ I still haven’t grown my horns back right."

"Quiet!" Gornash ordered, and all chatter stopped.

He stood up fully, towering over them while the stone chair beneath him cracked from the pressure.

"This Sector was made for people like us! We’re strong, we’re tanky and we don’t need to move fast, we just need them to not move faster."

He pointed toward the far dune line. "Set up at Ridge Echo-9 and keep the cloaking devices at half-buried. They’ll hit the funnel choke within twelve minutes at the speed cap."

"Confirmation?" Kragor asked, already prepping his equipment.

Gornash narrowed his eyes. "They’ll pass through for sure. Their heading is direct, with literally zero deviation. A ship obeying the macro rule can’t make hard turns."

"And if they’re strong?" Drogar asked, voice low.

"Then we die, but not before we test how strong." Gornash said simply.

The others grinned in response, their racial battle-lust rising from within, breaking through the crust of boredom. One by one, they armed themselves with their war axes, alloy armor, and magnetic spears, all gear that didn’t rely on speed and ones they had trained to use in this exact condition. freewebnσvel.cѳm

Zovuk mounted his boulder-hopper, a beast from the home universe that was so dumb it hadn’t noticed Sector 13 was slower than usual.

"They’ll never hear us coming."

"They don’t need to, they just need to not react in time." Kragor remarked with a raised eyebrow as he glanced at the antenna.

The scanner pinged again as Kragor sifted through the details then read them out.

"Target’s ETA is exactly 10 minutes and 12 seconds, while we’ve finally identified their origins. It’s the... Human race? And their Prime Representative Flag has been detected!!"

"...What?!" Drogar whispered with alarm.

Gornash froze in shock.

Zovuk blinked with puzzlement. "Did that just say... Prime Rep?"

Kragor squinted at the screen. "Yes, but... isn’t that the guy who... took Earth to fifth place?"

The scanner updated again, this time pulling from the database of the nearest safe zone, which was numbered 13.

"Estimated team size is 11 humans and all are registered Ability Users. They have 3 EX, 6 SSS and 2 SS Ability Users though their exact levels are unknown." Kragor stated aloud slowly.

A deep silence fell over the Oxen Raiders.

"...So, maybe we let this one pass?" Tellun began slowly, his voice hoarse.

"No." Gornash said after a long pause, but his voice had softened.

"We won’t attack, but we will observe." He said carefully.

"And if they see us?" Bask asked with caution.

"Then we negotiate with them as stranded explorers. Who says every team of explorers are bandits? Why cant we simply be lost sheep who need help?" Gornash answered with a gleam in his eye.

The group shared another look and felt this made some sense, so they nodded and got into place.

Gornash slowly sat back down, eyes narrow.

"Well, let’s see what the mettle of the fifth ranked race is."

............

Meanwhile, Damon, who was long aware of an ambush, remained silent and did not inform anyone. He also subtly tested the radar of the Normandy and realized that it was able to detect a group of living beings hiding in the area below.

It was advanced to the point where the Normandy even captured the detection methods of the Oxen Raiders and asked Damon if he wanted to block it, but he chose to let the bandits be aware. He wanted to see the logical reasoning and thought process of bandits in the Chaos Realm.

Are they the crazed type that would bite anything or were they the smart type who knew who or what they couldn’t or could not touch?

Most importantly, Damon wanted to sue these raiders as a whetstone to train his team further, so he kept the Normandy from pinging an alert, leaving everyone oblivious to the supposed danger they were rapidly approaching.

When the Vanguard Team was about 50 meters away, Nicholas, Kyle and Levi all perked up, as if struck by lighting, first starting uncertain looks between each other then turning to Damon himself.

"Boss, I sense some strange frequencies nearby. I can detect that some form of signal equipment I being sued as well as the subtle pulse of heartbeats." Kyle reported.

"Same, I can feel the pulsations of blood flowing through veins and the presence of organic liquids like plasma." Levi also reported after some thought.

Nicholas was the most direct. "I can sense six minds, all of non-human origin. They are contemplating whether to rob us or not, and are hesitating due to our lineup."

The rest were stunned by the information, then entered alert mode right away as they prepared for a sudden attack. Damon saw their preparedness and was satisfied internally.

"No need, the Normandy detected them the moment we crossed the border. It has a scan range of upwards of 500 kilometers, so not only this team, but we have also scanned a few other such entrenched groups in this Sector." Damon explained, flicking a finger to bring up the scan results.

Seeing the dense number of dots spread out, the scalps of the Vanguard Team tingled.

So many bandits?!

"With the time they spent squatting here, why not just go and work hard to mine?" Henry couldn’t help but ask in defeat.

"Because mining requires skill and luck. Meanwhile robbing requires them to simply have better information and the element of surprise to win most times." Felicia explained with a casual glance towards Henry.

Damon chuckled. "These are just raw scan results, so not all are bandits. Some may be passing teams taking a rest, as this sector limits travel speed so walking on foot or using a ship is the same thing."

"Still, let’s see what this clever group has for us," Damon prompted as they reached the area where the Oxen Raiders waited. Both sides planned to ambush the other.