Ark the Legend Vol. 16 Ch. 6

“Wh-What is it?”

Koong! Koong! Koong!

Deafening racket coming down from up above!

Irina lifted her head with perplexity.

“Wait here for few moments!”

Ark yelled as he ran to the cable car station and grabbed on to the handrail.  Then, in order to check outside, he stuck his head out through a prominent hole in the wall.

No, before he was able to stick his head out, a dark shadow fell from above, right in front of him.  He didn’t even have time to see what it was.

A sharp and long object flew in like a spear!

“No, No way!”

Wee-ing! Booong! Wee-ing! Wee-ing!

Ark stepped back and swung his equalizer.

White particles and that sharp “thing” tangled in the air as the sparks flew everywhere.

It was a surprise attack, but infighting is Ark’s forte.

While the “thing” spread throughout the room, Ark stood his ground and rotated his lightsaber and reflected the “thing’s” attack upwards.  Its head flung up exposing its lower parts wide open.

The moment was ripe for the Ark’s piercing attack!

Kyahh!

It whaled as its head rotated 360 degrees.

At this point, something invisible enveloped Ark and sent a tingling sensation throughout.

-‘you have been hit!’ 

Beyond unfathomable condition!

‘Crap! What is this so suddenly…,’  Ridgidly stunned Ark screamed in his head.

It was at this time while he helplessly looked at the flying thing’s snout.

“Sword! The sword nine!”

Irina unleashed her twin swords and charged.

Instantly, the thing’s body was covered in flaying injury, and at the same time, Ferguson shakily pulled out his revolver launcher and fired the grenade.

“Brace for impact!”

Pu-tung! Pu-tung! Pu-tung!

Consecutive flames shot out of the things body!

Shaken by the impact, the thing bounced out of the cable car station.  It was then that the thing spread right to left.

Outside of the station was the steaming heat from the flowing lava right underneath, but the spread out thing was fluttering up back toward the station.

Finally, freed from the paralysis, moaning sound flew out of Ark’s mouth.

“…..Teradoctal!”

That’s right; that was the thing that attacked Ark.

A dragon with a wingspan of 6-7 meters and beak that was sharp and long like a spear.  In reality, rather than a dragon, it was more like a bird, but still!

The thing was a pterosaur called Teradoctal.

Now that the mystery attacker’s identity has been revealed, Irina’s question regarding the destruction of the research lab built on a safely isolated section A was naturally solved.

The villain was definitely the pterosaur.

“Hick! It, it’s coming again!”

At that moment, underling A screamed from the other end of the room.

Now that he turned his head, pterosaur was flying toward the station in the Nosferatu side.  No, it wasn’t just that side.

As soon as Ark turned his body toward that side, another pterosaur stuck its head through the already broken window and plunged its beak.

Ark flung his arm as he rotated his body.

“Basak, Poke-sae*  (TL: sorry I have no idea what this word is, but it is some kind of attack where something is fired…such as his head)

-O~ohohoh!

Summoned Basak’s fang-like head soared through the air.

Flying head of Basak, which had, effectively, pushing element, pterosaur that got hit in the chin fell away from the window.

However, that was only the beginning.

From that point on, pterosaurs restlessly started to fly into the both cable car stations leading toward Nosferatu, the biomedical research center B, and the rows of windows on the wall.  Ark and Irina, Ferguson, A, and B were simultaneously bombarded with pterosaurs beaks!

“Crap! Get away from the window! Sonic sword!”

“Rapid sword!”

“Oowahh! Impact shells! Impact shells!”

PAZZEEZEE! KAKAKAKAK! PU-TUNG! PU-TUNG! PU-TUNG!

Station in the section A instantly became a crucible of chaos.

Ark and Basak mindlessly ran around releasing sword chi while Irina did the same with her rapid sword!  As for Ferguson, he launched impact shells after impact shells toward pterosaurs that were flying in from all direction.

They had some success in driving away the pterosaurs with their attacks, but only for a brief moment.  Flapping their long wings, as they flew around in circles, they, again, returned to launch endless assaults.

“…..We can’t hold out like this!”

It didn’t take long to arrive at this conclusion.

Luckily, each station had roof to provide some shelter.

The only way the pterosaurs were able to attack them was boarding the stations through the windows, and thus, the gang were able to selectively pummel the pterosaurs off.

The problem is what comes after.

The most efficient way to fight off numerous enemies is to attack singularly.

By focusing all the attacks on one enemy at a time, enemy’s number will systematically drop.  However, when they were flying in from all direction, this stratagem does not work.  Also, only time they could attack was when the pterosaurs came in for the attack.  There was no way to attack them when they fly off.

Of course in the Galaxian, there are guns.

Also, even if the users were infighters, they would, naturally, have at least a gun as a backup.

However, for a swordsman, marksmanship is always a plan b.

It would not be a problem if one was rich like Hawk, but regular users have hard enough time matching firearms to their respective levels, and therefore, can’t even attack properly.  There is no way a regular user can adequately equip a backup weapon.  Therefore, Ark’s b weapon is still only a level 60 Fire Eagle.

Alternately, pterosaurs are lower in level, as compared to T-rex, but their levels were in the 100’s.

There is no way a Fire Eagle would deal much damage to them.  Not only that, even though its range is longer than a sword, it is a shotgun.  Its effective range is less than 10 meter, and thus it’s impossible to use.

Irina’s situation was the same.

Since she is also a swordswoman, her range weapon was just a normal pistol.

Only person capable of dealing damage to the pterosaurs is Ferguson, but even he was not very helpful in this kind of situation.  Even though he was a ranged weapon user, his weapon was a revolver launcher, though it was an astronomically expensive launcher…

Revolver Launcher SW-304(rare)

Item type: Attached Grenade launcher: level 100

Attack Power: 30~150     Fire rate: 10.5 Sec

Durability: 80/80   Load number: 8

            Shells in the cylinder are capable of continual fire.  Even though there are variations in the shots, such as lightning shots and flame shots, there are limits in the variations applied to such small shells.

           Alternately, bigger shells, in order take advantage of the size, are made for special shots rather than regular shots. 

           SW-304 is a specially designed launcher to house special shells.  However, the disadvantage of lessened effective range was not corrected. Also, parabolic path that the shell takes as it approaches its target reduces accuracy.

            However, do not worry.  Regardless, grenade launcher is an AOE type weapon.  You can still deal some damage even if you missed the target!

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This was Ferguson’s Revolver Launcher.

Basically, due to it being a grenade launcher, its effective range is 50 meter only.  Also, it is very difficult to accurately adjust the rounds on something that flies in parabolic manner.

Well, despite that, it can damage multiple targets at once, but…

“Hyu, Hyungnim, its coming!”

“Move! Take that, you damned dinosaur chick! Continuous fire!”

Pu-Tung! Pu-Tung! Pu-Tung!

-Friendly fire from the grenade caused splash damage!

Damage 35!  Damage 26!  Damage 17….

Emergent Message opened up right in front of Ark’s eyes along with the spreading flames!

Its unfortunate, but Ark and the gang were in the interior of the building.  When you are firing grenades toward pterosaurs that were flying through the window, it is inevitable that the flame would spread inward.

There was no other way than Ark and Irina to be included in the damage.

“You, son of a…!  What are you doing right now? You want to kills us all?”

“Bu, but…”

“If you are a heavy damage dealer, you should, like any other heavy damage dealer, think things through!  If your brain can’t follow the situation, at least stay still and don’t do anything!  If you can’t even process the situation you are in and mess around, I can make sure you die, you got that, huh?

Smoked and burned, Ark yelled at the top of his lungs.

However, even without Ferguson’s sabotage, the situation was getting worse and worse.  The bad thing was that because they were inside of a building, they couldn’t determine just how many pterosaurs were outside waiting for them.

“We can’t accomplish much by staying in here!”

Once he made this decision, Ark yelled to everyone as he turned around.

“Irina, Ferguson, A, B, get in the cable car! We are moving to section B!”

“Yes!  We all….huk! Ar~Arknim!”

“What now? Huk! W~Why is that?”

Ark’s face turned quizzical when he turned his head.

They didn’t notice while they were chaotically combating the pterosaurs, but for some reason the cable car that they used to bring them over to section A was already returning to section B.

Why is this?  There was no time to even ask.

If they don’t do something, they are stuck in section A!

“Basak, get rid of this thing!”

-Oooo! Surge!

Basak surged and tackled pterosaur.

Now that the pterosaur that was about to come inside the cable car station had been taken care of, Ark quickly ran to the machine that controlled ‘A-B’ position function of the cable car.  Then he pushed the button!  What was distant cable car stopped and started to come back around, but only for a moment.

“Wh, what? Why? Why is it going back?”

Though the cable car was returning to section A, it stopped once again and headed the other way?  Not able to comprehend, Ark looked back to the control panel, and what used to be B → A was changed to A → B.

“Why is it doing this?  Come back! Come back I say!”

Pushi! Pushi! Pushi!

-B→A!  A→B! B→A!  A→B!  B→A….

No matter how many times he pushed, it changed back again and again.

In Ark’s mind he was about to go crazy!

“Damn! Is it broken?  Why at this time….”

Rollercoaster to hell that kept going round and round….

However, it was impractical to keep on wrestling with the control panel.

Not only was the situation getting worse with the pterosaurs attacking, Ferguson, A, and B were of no help.

While Ark was wrestling with the control panel, Irina was doing her best to manage the situation, but two pterosaurs somehow were slowly coming inside.

“Arknim, they are….”

“We can’t do anything at this rate!  I will take the rear.  Retreat to the second floor!”

“Okay! Sword Nine! Pah!”

With Ark’s yell, Irina swung her sword at the pterosaur and she was about to run down the steps leading to the second floor.

Kyahahah!

“No!”

Roar and Irina’s scream sounded from below!

As he turned his head in surprise, he saw a pterosaur overrun Irina and coming up the stairs.

It was then that he finally remembered that the second floor also had bunch of windows.

It was obvious that since it was hard to get in from the third floor, they started to come in from the second floor.

Neither Ark nor Irina thought about that!

With fast reaction, Irina pulled up her sword, but was hit by the beak and was knocked down.  Then pterosaur stepped down on Irina’s arm and aimed for Irina’s neck with its beak.

Ark wouldn’t just stand there and do nothing.

“No you don’t! Piercing!”

Ark flew as he changed into blitz of light.

However, the situation turned into something unimaginable.

Once Ark’s skill initiated, pterosaur that was attacking Irina turned its head, and as if it realized that it didn’t have the luxury to leisurely dine out, it roared and ran toward outside.  But….

‘“Arknim!”

“Huk! Irinanim! Damn it!”

Irina’s condition was not good.

Pterosaur had kidnapped Irina and already made its getaway.

At this rate, if pterosaur ran outside the reach of his sword chi range, there is nothing that can be done.  Also, even if it was, technically, still in sword chi’s range, there is no way it would be effective enough to bring down the pterosaur.  It would be just spinning the wheels!

“Armour Armament!”

Ark ran toward Irina and the pterosaur, and at the same time that the battle suit enveloped his body, he screamed as he looked at the running away pterosaur.

“Armament bind!”

Instantly chest portion of the battle suit opened up and tens of ropes of light came out.  Then, like laser, the ropes flew toward the pterosaur and wrapped around it.

Function of the armament that can bind the enemy!  Following through, Ark flew toward the pterosaur as he pulled on the ropes.

At the same time a white sword chi was unleashed.

“Fly! Sonic Sword!”

Pu-pu-pu-pung!

Pterosaur whaled in agony as it wobbled side to side.

As Ark landed another hit, pterosaur spazzed in pain as it loosened its hold on Irina.  In the mean while, Ark grabbed pterosaur’s neck, got on its back, and used the bind function of the armament and snatched Irina away from pterosaur and into his embrace.

“Are you okay Irinanim?”

“A~Arknim…”

It is said that the woman’s affection toward a man would rise in times of fear.

It was the truth.  Ever since she got to the planet, Irina was in a grumpy mood because she thought that Ark was in a petulant mood due to the wasted time, but what was, now, in Irina’s face was boundless trust and emotion!

However, unfortunately, Ark was not able to see that.  It was not the time for that!

Kyahahah!

At the sound of the shriek the two shook.

With the unintended passengers on board, the pterosaur flew up, down, side to side in its acrobatic effort to dislodge the two.

All the while, fearful Irina hugged Ark even more tightly and was constantly increasing affection toward Ark, but….

‘We can’t do anything in this situation!’

So focused was he to the combat situation, Ark failed to even register inkling of Irina’s touch.

“Hold on tight! Armament Bind!”

While white lights of ropes shot out toward the station A from Ark’s chest, the pterosaur did a loop in the air, strangling its neck with the lights of ropes in the process and got stuck, bound to the roof of the station.

“Now’s the time!”

Whi~ing! Boo~ong! Whi~ing! Kakakak!

Ark and Irina’s sword attacks resumed!

Pterosaur was only level 100, and at the same time, due to it being an aviation monster, its defense was not that great.  Attacked while bound, it was nearly instantly turned into a chunk of meat.

But it is too early to relax.

Ark and Irina were on top of the research lab.  They were overwhelmingly exposed to the overflying pterosaurs.

Kyahahah!  Kyahahah!

Of course, as soon as one monster was taken care of, mob of pterosaurs started to swoop down toward them.  Irina ran, quickly, toward the edge of the roof while screaming.

“Arknim, let’s first go back down…”

“Go ahead and go back down!”

“Huh?”

“It’s okay now.”  Ark responded with raised lips.

Irina felt discomforted at the thought of Ark’s response.

There is no place to hide on top of the roof.  Also, pterosaur is an aviation monster.  No matter how skilled Ark was, there was no way he can take them on at a place like this.

But it is okay?  Is he giving up now that we don’t have any option?

….so she thought….

‘If I get rid of at least one, I can fight them!’

Such was going through Ark’s mind as he was thinking out his strategy, but it was too hard to finish off a swooping down pterosaur with one or two hits only.

Even if he was to disrupt their flight, on a narrow rooftop, he would be subject to a siege combat.  At such time of indecision, Irina was, snatched up by the pterosaur already.  Though it was fearful situation, due to the circumstance, Ark was lead to the action that he needed to make.

“Come out Shire!”

It was then that Ark’s hand was enveloped in a bright light.  The light elongated and formed a pattern in the air!

“Rune Carving! Ikram!”

As the light permeated throughout the area, God of death Anubis surfaced.

All of a sudden, dead body of pterosaur that was collapsed on the rooftop shook and dark red life form started to crawl out.  On its head was a horn and its snout came out like a spear.  Though it had pterosaur’s head, its body was that of a hell’s hound!

However, this hell hound differed from previous hell hounds.  Hell hound that was made by level 2 Ikram, not only took on a physical likeness of the host, it also took on the physical traits of the host, and in this case….

Crrrr!

Hell hound got up as it let out a shallow cry.  At the same time, its giant wings opened up.  Though it was smaller than the T-rex, pterosaur was still a 6-7 meters big dinosaur.  The hell hound that took over this body was about 4 meters big.

“Fly! Hell hound!”

Kung! Kung! Boooooong!

Once Ark got on top of the hell hound, it screamed as it took off into the air.  All the other pterosaurs that witnessed this phenomenon had wide eyes, as if even they couldn’t fathom what they were seeing.

But even that was just for a moment.  They turned off of their current flight path and set their sight on Ark.

“But if the conditions were the same….”

Ark swung his arm and Basak that was watching the development changed into a light and returned to the bracelet.  Convenience of Baius Shield was this.

When summoning, Ark can only summon it right next to him, but when recalling it, the distance allowed is much more.

“Come out Basak! Surge!”  and right after, morph!

Like an arrow, it surged toward the pterosaur that was coming closer.  At the same time, Basak’s head changed into that of a sharp spear and shot out.

At the moment of their crossing, there was a loud thug sound followed by a visual of pterosaur pinned to the side of a cliff, and leisurely flying Ark looked as if he was one of those mythological knights.

“….there is no reason why I will be pushed.”  Ark mumbled as he let out a self-satisfied laugh.

Well, even though what I am riding is a drooling dog!

Even though golam’s head looks like that of a spear!

“Awesome!  That was so cool!”  Such statement would be obviously blurted out if others saw this scene.

Though the reason was for the sake of Irina’s safety, the resulting outcome was that the combat was flowing in Ark’s pace.

“Come out, Shire! Firam!”

Giant Eye came up out with a light on the battle field.

Through the giant eye Ark was able to see 6 pterosaurs that was flying around the section A research lab area.  Not a number to be relaxed about, but at the same time, it’s not too big of a number to worry over.

“Khafra Sword Style 3! Galaxy Sword!”

– Surge!

Pu-pu-pu-pung! Pu-pu-pu-pung!

Now that Ark entered the battle in earnest, as he weaved in and out among the other pterosaurs, there were all sorts of bright lights that permeated the sky.

Of course pterosaurs didn’t let Ark bully them without any response.  They got together in a group formation as each pterosaurs let out fear inducing scream as they applied pressure.

But of course, Ark isn’t someone to be affected by such.  Not only that, neither Basak, whose body turned into a chunk of rock, or hell hound that was summoned out of hell were susceptible to fear.  They both became one with Ark as they systemically fought on, and once 3 of them fell from the battle, the other three changed direction with a scream to exit the battle.

Kyahah!  Kyahah!

Though it can’t be sure what they were saying to each other, but it can be surmised that it was like a threat saying “we’ll see next time.”

However, Ark wasn’t playing.  “I don’t think so! Solid armor, Pyretom!”  It was a brand new armor that came out of his back and enveloped his body.  Concurrently, as Ark looked at the running away pterosaurs, a message popped up.

-Lock on! Lock on! Lock on! Lock on….

It was a homing light that locked on to all three pterosaurs.

“Carpet bombing!”

Pushoong! Pushoong! Pushoong! Pushoong!

Next instant, Ark’s shoulder opened up like a balloon and 12 missiles shot out.  Pyretom, a missile system that simultaneously fires 12 small missiles to intercept the targeted enemies.  Carpet Bombing!

Pterosaurs, after seeing 12 missiles coming toward them with streaming tail smoke, they understood that danger was approaching.  They flapped their wings like there is no tomorrow, but there is no way they would be faster than missiles.

Kauggg! Kauggg! Kauggg!

Pterosaurs were turned into dark firecrackers as they disappeared into thin air with the sonorous explosion.

And then Ark….

“Arknim, that was stupendous!  You killed that many pterosaurs by yourself!”

“Wow! Of course! Hey what are you doing? Hyungnim needs to rest! Give him a massage!”  As soon as he landed, he was showered with praise.  Well, that was to be expected.  Even Ark was impressed with himself this time.

Of course if the heavily drooling hell hound with a head of a pterosaur was not present he would have looked better, but it was too premature to cancel the summon.  He didn’t get enough out of it yet.

“But what do we do now?”  At that point, Irina let out a deep sigh as she opened her mouth.

“The cable car is on the B section….”

“We no longer have a need to go back there.” Though it wasn’t loyalty, but was their unwillingness to return to being Ark’s slaves, Ark shook his head while he was getting his back massaged by Ferguson, A, and B.

“While I was fighting with the pterosaurs, I saw a silhouette of a structure few kilometers from here.  Considering the direction, I would assume it is the Nosferatu that we are heading to.  There is no point in going back when the final destination is right in front of us.  We’ll simply get on this thing and fly over there.”  Ark responded as he tapped on the hell hound.

Even though it was a bit dangerous due to the pterosaurs, it was due to them that they now have a straight shot to their destination.  However, there was no time to be happy.  Due to the fight with the pterosaurs, he had nearly used up most of his mana.  Also, even as the hell hound was doing nothing but drooling, it was still consuming Ark’s mana.

Thus the gang got on top of the hell hound in an instant.

“Lift off, hell hound!”

At the moment of Ark’s order, the loyal hell hound took off with the gang on top of it, and the emerging silhouette is Nosferatu!  It was the final destination of the Jurassic World.

“We’re here! We’re here!”

Sector B research lab 3^rd floor

One woman was yelling as she jumped up and down.

Her name is Kaya.  Though it is hard to believe, but she was interested in Rapid.  Let’s not ask why.  She just liked him from the very first meeting.  Her reason for jumping up and down was him.  She had recently received information that Rapid was heading to the Jurassic World.  She has been tailing him ever since.  She was going to pretend as if she ran into him coincidentally, but her plan was shot down in just a few minutes after she landed.

‘This is strange! There is something wrong with this place!’  This is the forest that she ended up while tailing Rapid.

The visibility was poor, never seen before dinosaurs kept on popping up, she kept on going around in circles, and she kept on hearing screeching screams, though some of the screams were from Ferguson and his lackeys.

A woman ended up in such dreary place.

‘It’s scary, scary and frightened!’

She felt like doing away with the lovey feeling and leave this dreary forest.  However, she’s already inside the forest, and no matter how many times she tried, she ended up in the same place.  It was just recently that she found a rock with the written words.

“Stupid Ark, I just wanted to say that once.”

Real information was on the bottom side of the rock.

‘Hey, this is Rapid!’  There was no name on the rock, but she was sure that it was him.  While they were traveling together, she studied the interaction between Ark and Rapid, as well as doing some investigation on Ark’s agents.  That’s how she knew.

There is no one else in this forest that would leave such message to Ark.

‘Now I know where he is!’  So she made her decision:

Modified Plan:  Rescue Rapid was the initial plan → got lost → Let’s go find Rapid → Request rescue from Rapid.

In this manner.

She wasn’t able to follow her initial plan, but after thinking it over this new plan didn’t sound bad either, and in certain way may be more advantageous.  Actually, she didn’t have any choice.  There was no way for her to find her way out of this forest on her own.

As such…follow the direction written on the rock!

….so she decided, but she was not able to completely understand Rapid’s message.  Even before she finished reading the message, T-rex popped out and chased her away, was one of the reasons, but….

‘What is this about junction, what is all this?’  She wasn’t that smart.  Therefore, she still kept up ending up at the same location time after time.  It was during this time.

All of a sudden, the fog that was hiding the forest disappeared.  Also, that mysterious energy that made her go around in circles also disappeared.  Because of that, she was able to penetrate the forest by following the direction.

Just seconds ago she was able to locate a building near the cliff area, and after looking around even not so smart woman like herself was able to figure out the situation.

She realized that this Jurassic World is something that was made by a man, and the building that she found was a research lab.  The most important part was that, not too long ago, someone has passed by that location.

‘This has got to be Rapid! It wasn’t long since he passed by here!’

On the message that Rapid wrote, it said that he was going in the direction of the research lab.  Also, it also said that the research lab had the means of turning off the fog and the mysterious energy field.

Said in another way, the fact that the energy field and the fog disappeared means Rapid just got into the research lab?

‘Even though I have spent 4 days in this miserable forest, but the distance is not that great’

Kaya went up to the 3^rd floor, and went to the cable car controller.  She noticed that the cable car was in the A section, so she made it come back to the B section, but for some reason it stopped and was returning to A section!?

“What is this? Is it broken? No! Come back! Come back!”  Getting a bit anxious, she kept on pushing the return button.

After a while the cable car finally was returning to where she was.

‘Good! Now I can catch up to Rapid!’  Feeling optimistic, she went inside the cable car.  Her chances at love was, in real, was arduous.

Boggle Boggle

Lava from the lower areas of the Jurassic World was raising the temperature.  At this time, a big animal carrying 5 people was flying right above the molten lava.  It was such a unique animal.  Its head was elongated like a bird, but as you look further down its body, it appeared as a four legged animal.  Unlike a bird, it was covered in fur, and no matter who looked at it, it was a dog.

In spite of that, it had long wings with a wing span of 6-7 meters.  This irregular pedigree monster was none other than the hell hound that was born inside of a dead pterosaur!

And this hell hound was….

Hek! Hek! Hek! Hek!

It was panting with a miserable face.  It makes perfect sense, as it was carrying 5 people on its back, and even though it was big, 5 people are just a bit too much.  The hell hound was suffering so much so that even the insensitive Ark was feeling sorry for it, but it had to be done.

Ark had already fought with a group of pterosaurs, and thus, his mana was already near bottoming out.  Even then, they didn’t have the time to wait until his mana recovered.  As such, he had no choice but to use only one hell hound to carry all 5 of them….though hell hound was showing the most pitiful state!….though, numerous times, Ark had to consider whether kicking Ferguson, A, and B off the ride would be the most logical thing to do!

Luckily, there was no need for that.  Birthed from Level 2 Ikram, hell hound kept on flapping its wings even while wheezing in the most pitiful manner, eyeing the final destination which was just right in front of its nose.

“Over there is….”  Ark swallowed his dry mouth as he squinted to have a better look.  The building that only appeared as a small silhouette from section A research lab was a massive building seating on top of an end of the long bridge that originated from the field of land overlooking the lava.

“Do you think over there is the Nosferatu?”

“Probably.”  Ark nodded.

Even if looking from the geographical stand point, there was no doubt.  It was located on the very tip of a vertex of the triangular land of the Jurassic world.  There were no other significant buildings besides Nosferatu.  It was a no brainer.

At Ark’s response, Irina showed somewhat of an emotion filled childish facial expression.

“We really did come all the way over here.”

“Of course.  That was the reason why we came here.”

“But when thinking about the mysterious forest and all the trouble that we have had with the cable car, I really didn’t think we could make it.  Thought of giving up surfaced a few times in my mind, but we really made it to the end.”

“It’s all because of your help.”

“Well, I was just…”  Irina just let it be.  Even though she felt thankful, but deep down inside, she knew.  The one that took care of most of the T-rex, the one that figured out Rapid’s message to find the research labs, and the person responsible for proving a ride to the final destination was all Ark and his strength that made it happen.

Also, even though Ferguson, A, and B had played some role, Irina felt like she didn’t contribute anything worth noting.  Of course she did fight earnestly, and thus she had to have been some kind of help, but Ark would have been able to come all the way over here even if she was not here, and the same would not be the case if the role was reversed.

‘This is the difference in skill between the two of us.’

Irina wanted to spend more time with Ark.  Not only this time, but in the future as well.  Therefore, once her mission with the Federation came to an end, she was contemplating becoming one of Ark’s agents.  She also hoped that Ark would subtly offer her an agent position, but there was no such a thing.  That’s why this trip was important to her.

She thought that this was a chance to make Ark realize that she was needed by him, and she was going to speak her mind with confidence, after the mission, that she wanted to be one of Ark’s agents.  The result was less than spectacular.

Not only was she not of help, she only became an experience sapping entity.  If said more harshly, she was no different than a beggar.

‘I can’t tell him, at this rate!’

“Irinanim, look over there!”  It was then that Ark called out to her.

She perked herself up and turned her head as she squinted her eyes to have a better look.  Nosferatu was at least 10 stories tall, and its windows were all busted, but the in the very top most windows were sparks that were spurting out.  Ark was pointing right at those sparks.

“That is Saturation!”

“Saturation?”

“There is currently a battle going on up there!”

“If there is a battle then…”

“Yes, it’s Rapid’s team.”  Ark responded with a snicker.

Even though she was thinking about depressing things, Ark was worrying about totally different thing.

Knowing Rapid, even if he got in contact with the Silverhand, he would still head to the Nosferatu.  There was no doubt.  Also, if, right now, Silverhand and Rapid’s team combined, there would be no problem in attacking the Nosferatu.  This last part was Ark’s worry.

Would it be possible to reach the Nosferatu before Rapid consumes all of the experience?

There is no point in saying, but Ark also faced hardship in getting this far.  If he was alone there would be no problem, as Rapid was his subordinate, and there is no boss that would be unhappy about his subordinate completing a mission.  However, Ark was not alone this time.  He was with Irina.

He came all the way over here with Irina while going through all the hardships….all for nothing, potentially.  His reason for milking the hell hound to fly all the way over here was for this reason, to get to the objective before all is over.  However, there are bunch of sparks coming out of the Nosferatu.

There was no need to think about who was over there fighting, and the fact that there is still a battle going on is an indication that Rapid was still in the process of finishing the mission!  It’s not too late!

“Hell hound, its that window! Charge!”  Ark grabbed hell hound’s mane and yelled.

‘Wait Rapid!  Soon enough, all important me will, be, res-cu-ing, you!’

Motivation was overcharged.