The Legendary Junkmaster

Jason rushed forward to meet the Armoured Bear while the hammer heated up. The first strike landed on one of its front legs, but it quickly shrugged it off before tearing another plate of armour to shreds. The blow caused Jason to stumble, but he managed to uppercut the bear's jaw with the hammer and deflect its bite in the process.

The Armoured Bear howled in outrage as it recovered and tried to snap at him again. However, Jason activated his RDB's just in time to avoid it. 'This is getting me nowhere!' Jason grunted as he tried to think of a better plan. 'It would be ideal if someone else could keep the beast occupied for a bit.'

Jason quickly scanned the remaining cadets to see if there was someone that could be of any help. His eyes eventually landed on Gerald, and a cold smile crept across Jason's face. 'Now there's someone helpful!' Jason started to move his fight in that direction while trying to signal to Gerald to help out.

However, when Gerald saw what Ouroboros was planning, he looked hesitant and even slowly started to back away while fending off the crowd of beasts attacking him. Jason sneered when he saw Gerald trying to distance himself.

'Don't think you can get away from this!' Jason reactivated his boots again, and the bear howled in outrage. It thought its prey was trying to escape! The bear was not for allowing that to happen and immediately gave chase while ignoring its surroundings.

Jason heard the heavy footfalls close behind him and grinned. The bear was acting precisely as he wanted it to. The only issue now was switching its attention to Gerald instead. The latter saw the approaching danger and gave up. He knew there was no way to escape in time since they would reach him in a few seconds!

The only thing he could do was prepare himself to face the bear and trust Ouroboros to protect him from the weaker creatures in the meantime. Jason heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that Gerald had accepted the situation. It meant that he would not have to waste too much fuel chasing after him!

Jason swerved to a stop in front of Gerald and spun while swinging his hammer at full force! The Armoured Bear failed to react in time. It never imagined that mere prey that was already fleeing would suddenly turn and fight!

The hammer connected with the side of its jaw with a tremendous amount of force. Which made the bear's head snap to the side violently as Gerald slipped past Jason to attempt to ravage its insides. 

Jason quickly let out a burst of flames targeting the Sabre-Toothed Squirrels that tried to chase after Gerald. A cacophony of squeals erupted from the creatures as they panicked. Their fur let off a horrendous smell as it melted along with their skin.

Jason had to drop his hammer quickly to pound another squirrel in the face that leapt for him amid the chaos. The squirrel had a small crater in the side of its head as it dropped to the ground lifelessly. Jason quickly glanced around to determine what the situation was like. 

The Armoured bear seemed to be having a tough time against Gerald as one of its legs hung uselessly from its body. It looked like Gerald had found an opportunity to disable or harm those particular muscles. Jason had to admit that Gerald's Power was a far better match for the beast while he could easily handle large crowds of weaker enemies.

'The only problem is whether or not Gerald has enough stamina left to win the fight.' This was the one worry that Jason had. After all, all of the cadets had been fighting for longer than he had, and he was already feeling the strain! He could only hope that everything would go his way long enough for them to turn the tables.

At that point, a loud explosive sound came from high up in one of the buildings. Some debris fell from the building and killed a few members of the beast tide on the other side of the wall, which caused some of the stronger ones that were yet to appear on the battlefield to look up. 

They seemed to sense an impending danger as a group broke off from their main assault and quickly entered the building. Jason was unaware of that situation unfolding. All he knew was the ecstasy of how close the plan was in coming to fruition!

'Just a while longer!' He thought as another explosion rang out. Jason crushed the ribs of an Octape that tried to get past him to help the Armoured Bear that was no longer looking too good. 

Gerald had obviously caused some extensive damage to its internal organs with the way the beast winced in pain every time it moved. 'At the rate that fight is going, the bear won't last another few minutes!' Jason happily turned back to slaughtering the weaker creatures as more cadets started to converge on their position.

They were slowly losing ground against the beast army and felt that Ouroboros represented their best chance of survival. But all they were doing was allowing the beasts to group up and force the cadets to spread their potential damage across many opponents!

The beasts snarled mockingly, thinking that it was only a matter of time until they devoured human flesh. However, Jason had spotted the escalating situation and rushed over to help them out. The area around Gerald and the bear were clear for now, so there was no problem in him doing so.

Jason could have sworn that these Octapes and Sabre-Toothed Squirrels were laughing at him as his lone figure charged into them! Those expressions soon changed to fear, though, as Jason unleashed the last of his poison gas on them. 

They were so closely packed together that they could not escape from the sudden assault. Many beasts coughed and spluttered as black blood started to leak from their orifices. The cadets had used Ouroboros's reckless charge to put as much distance between themselves and the tide as possible.

Jason also had to retreat. It was suicidal to wait there for the cloud to disperse. Besides, they only had to figure out that they could go around it using the edge of the wall. But their senses were preventing them from using whatever intelligence that they had.

The cadets could see numerous hungry eyes gathering on the other side of the cloud and staring at them with hatred. They silently counted the explosions that happened while watching the gas fade in front of them.

Jason swore as his tension reached new heights. He was already planning a route back to the base if this did not work. He had already started to subconsciously back away towards Adam's unconscious body. Naturally, he would rescue the youth if he could.

Finally, the loud rumbling of the support columns crumbling could be heard as metal screeched from pithing the building that Adam had sent a team into. The cadet's turned to stare at the building with hopeful eyes as the several top floors slowly slid away from the main building. 

Time seemed to stand still for everyone involved as they watched it happen. Eventually, that part of the building broke free and fell towards the crowd of beasts below. Panicked roars could be heard as some of them tried to rush the wall while others tried to back away before it could crush them.

However, it fell too fast for many of them to escape the catastrophe. Jason's face turned into a predatory grin as the ground trembled when it crashed into the ground. A quick calculation told him that hundreds if not a thousand creatures had been killed in a single strike!

The Squirrels chattered fearfully now that they were cut off from the others of their pack. The beasts that had been waiting for the poison to clear seemed to recognise that their situations had reversed. Although they still outnumbered the cadets, there would be no more reinforcements for some time.

Which meant that there was a good chance that a lot of them would lose their lives in the meantime. Many of them bared their fangs as the last of Jason's gas finally dispersed, leaving them free to advance again. 

However, a loud, low howl came from behind the cadets, along with a heavy thud. Jason quickly turned to see what was going on, only to see the Armoured Bear lying on the ground at Gerald's feet, dead. 

Jason wanted to congratulate him but noticed that Gerald was not looking too good. His clothing was dyed red from the shallow wounds he had received during a few exchanges that were too close for comfort! Gerald's complexion paled as he waved at Jason before falling to the ground with a satisfied expression on his face.

Jason cursed as he turned back to the crowd in front of him. 'That's another one I have to get out of here soon. We should fall back after killing as many of these ones as we can.' Jason charged forward amongst the projectiles launched by the cadets to his side.

None among them managed to notice a behemoth figure in the sky some distance away as it swam towards them. Its long tentacles moved rhythmically as the clouds in front of it parted. It seemed to be heading in their direction at a fast pace. If any of the cadets had been paying close attention, they would have noticed that there was a large, crimson glow emanating from the side that was facing them…