Chef in the Apocalypse

Seeing the shining globe upon Dion’s neck, Jayce did his best not to burst out laughing. Composing himself, he let out an exasperated sigh, "Very well, I know you guys have been working hard." He pointed to a seat, ready to sit down himself after tirelessly rushing here to deliver some news.

The trio sat down, both Kane and Dion’s faces turned serious in preparation for Jayce’s report on the Beast Tide. That is, until Kane felt a light shining into his eye which distracted him for a moment. He quickly looked around trying to find the source of the light, only to lock eyes on Dion’s bald shiny head.

He blinked a few times, not knowing to believe what he was seeing or not. It was as if there was a burning halo atop the dark man’s head, reflecting a heavenly light outwards. Before he could let out a peep, he felt a soft stomp on his foot, causing him to look up at Jayce who was staring at him with a deadpan expression.

"Please pay attention to what I’m about to say." He said in a slow and concise manner. Kane observed Jayce’s eyes which seemed to be telling him to keep his mouth shut. His gaze shifted between the resplendent dome and Jayce, before his eyes lit up in understanding.

"Mmph" Kane covered his mouth, holding back the uproarious laughter that threatened to escape the confines of his throat. Jayce grinned, happy that someone else could appreciate his handiwork.

Dion, who was none the wiser, prompted him to continue with a serious look.

Jayce cleared his throat, "Ahem. Originally as you know, I traveled east with my party in order to search for other cities and survivors. With the purpose of migrating them to Bastion, or at least notifying them of our existence."

Dion and Kane nodded, they had discussed this in great detail before Jayce’s party had left. Jayce continued, "Well, on our way we came across a few people who were running away from the East, stating that there were thousands of monsters that had attacked them and their city."

"This was about 5 days ago. It was then that I sent everyone but Zane and myself back to Bastion in order to warn everyone at Bastion and begin the preparations as soon as possible."

Not waiting for another confirmation, Jayce expanded. "Myself and Zane continued East in search of additional survivors, with the added objective of scouting the Beast Tide."

"We were lucky enough to find Heath and Macie who had escaped into the forest. They will be a good addition to our forces, you have my guarantee. Unfortunately there were no other survivors that we could find, they had either perished in the city, or whilst trying to escape in the forest."

Remembering the three teenagers that had been slaughtered in front of him, Jayce’s face tensed up momentarily before he hid his emotions. Dion and Kane also felt the weight of his words, mirroring his mood.

"We reached the city, which used to be called Qinling City and saw that the whole place had been overrun with monsters. From my vantage point, it almost looked like a whole army of ants had overrun the place." Jayce said in a grim tone.

"Can you estimate how many?" Kane asked with a serious expression, the anxiety evident in his face.

Jayce pondered for a moment, it was hard to gauge just how many monsters there were considering a lot of them were out of sight thanks to the buildings. However, if he were to base his assumption of what he knew from his previous life then it may be more accurate.

"From my initial analysis... I’d say there are at least twenty thousand monsters." Dion and Kane sucked in a cold mouthful of air through their teeth at these words.

"T-Twenty thousand?" Kane felt dizzy. "When the Apocalypse first descended, we only had a few hundred monsters appear within Bastion... If these monsters could cause such a large amount of damage, it’s unthinkable what twenty thousand could do if they breached the city gates."

Dion looked at Kane who looked on the verge of fainting, "Kane, just remember that it was the High Troll that did most of the damage to our city, and it was a boss monster. As long as we can enter into a siege with the Beast Tide outside the city, I think we have a hope of holding our own."

Although Dion said these words to try and convince and calm down Kane, he also said them for himself. It was almost too hard to imagine what twenty thousand monsters all gathered together would look like, so his words felt a little empty.

Jayce responded affirmatively, "Dion is right. Although twenty thousand monsters is a lot, our geographical location is perfect for these kinds of attacks. Plus, we only have one entrance to defend, meaning we can pool our resources without worrying about overextending."

Kane’s face began to retain some color after hearing these words, gaining a little more confidence. "Y-Yeah, I guess you’re right." he said, straightening up his tie and fixing his posture.

"The last question is when will they arrive?" Dion asked next, staring at Jayce.

"We have maybe 3 days before we’ll begin to see the advance party of the Beat Tide." Jayce said confidently, "However, I’m not sure how or why they’re moving. I did not see anyone controlling the monsters, but we cannot assume that they’ll just run at us mindlessly."

"What are you saying?" Kane asked incredulously.

"I just have a feeling that there’s more to it." Jayce said, his face scrunched up. He was not sure why but he felt that there had to be more to the Beast Tide than he first thought. While in his previous life he believed that it was just a force of nature in the new world, the fact that it had begun earlier than he had anticipated made him think otherwise.

He had a theory that the Beast Tide had formed earlier due to his quick completion of the World Quest. Despite having no evidence to back up his claims, he just had a suspicion that the two events were linked somehow or some way.

There would be something that could prove this theory beyond a doubt, but it had not happened yet. The event that he was waiting for was... A quest.