The assisted kill notifications had been coming in at such a steady pace Kaiden hadn’t been able to keep up.
Shield Warden HaroldMay assisted kill – 4,700 EXP gained!
Power Warden Panzerpants assisted kill – 4,700 EXP gained!
Enhanced Warden Frankie04 assisted kill – 4,700 EXP gained!
Blast Warden Werner06 assisted kill – 4,400 EXP gained!
Shield Warden Tomatillo assisted kill – 4,400 EXP gained!
Power Warden HammerRammer assisted kill – 4,400 EXP gained!
So many names; it was just about all Kaiden could do to see the battleground in front of him. The sides of his vision were flooded with notifications. Assisted kills. Level ups. New abilities. On and on.
As more enemies died, Kaiden leveled up more, closing the level gap between him and the other wardens. It risked drawing the attention of the Huntsman mobs, he knew, but the good thing about having his enemies fighting his other enemies – the wardens fighting the mobs – was that they were killing each other off. Still, how many more were there throughout the base? He didn’t really care to find out.
The fight immediately in front of them had boiled down to just a few scattered remnants now.
“Well, if I were a betting man, I’d say the mobs just about have this one in the bag,” Titus said, pointing to the last group of wardens: four in total and surrounded on all sides by Huntsman mobs. A few steps away, Zelda was in Sniper Mode. She lobbed an Improved Kinetic Grenade into the remains of the fight to make sure she and the rest of the group would get assisted credit when the wardens finally died.
“Moran’s gonna have an aneurysm when he learns about this,” Thorne said, then laughed. “Kaiden, thank you for this.” She spread her arms out wide. “For all of this.” There was an edge to her voice. Excitement, it sounded like. But also something more. Vengeance, maybe? Kaiden couldn’t blame her. He was feeling it himself. The Party was power-leveling accounts with this place, grinding out an army as quickly as possible, but in one fell stroke, he’d put an end to that. For a week, at least.
“Seriously, though. This was insane, Kai.” Titus slapped him on the shoulder so hard he wouldn’t have been surprised if a point of health had ticked away.
“Things, uh…” Kaiden smirked. “Turned out better than expected.”
“You can say that again.”
“Let’s not let our guards down just yet,” Zelda warned, cautious as always. “We’re almost in the clear. It’s time we got out of here before something goes wrong.”
“She’s right,” Thorne agreed. “The surviving wardens will have called for help. Probably some time ago, really. Reinforcements will be on their way to the planet. We should get back to the shuttle. Get scarce.”
“For sure,” Kaiden said, but he didn’t move. He found himself morbidly interested in who was going to come out victorious.
The last of the hominoids died with a screech, but it took one of the wardens with it.
Shield Warden HammyTheManny assisted kill – 4,400 EXP gained!
“Three wardens left,” Kaiden said.
“We should leave, Kai.” Zelda was still in Sniper Mode. She raised her hammer-gun toward the final few combatants.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. But we gotta loot this place first. Look at all this!” He spread his arms wide, taking in countless weapons and suits of armor scattered across the battlefield. “There’s a fortune lying around for the taking, not to mention higher level gear. Couldn’t hurt to bring some of that to the tournament.”
“Still a few levels before we can join the tournament,” Titus grunted. “Forty-seven isn’t fifty.”
“It’s close enough,” Thorne said. “No reason to push our luck here. After all—”
A burst of light filled the hallway and Kaiden recoiled as Zelda blasted an Inferno Shot at what was left of the remaining wardens and mobs. Combined with the damage buff from Sniper Mode it hit with enough power to obliterate everything in front of it.
Three more player assisted kill notifications came in along with eight mobs, and then finally, for a moment at least, there was silence.
A notification flashed into Kaiden’s vision.
Achievement Unlocked!
You Have Become Death - 20,000 EXP!
You broke the record for kills or assisted kills in a single battle! Congratulations, you murder-happy psychopath.
Unique Title Awarded: Destroyer of Worlds
Level 48 achieved!
Max health and stamina increased
+3 stat points
Ability unlocked: Lethal Precision
“A world first, eh?” Titus nodded, his face bent into an expression that seemed to say ‘not bad, not bad.’
Kaiden found himself stunned into silence. He read the achievement again, then once more for good measure. Slowly, a smile bloomed on his face. So much of what they’d done with their time in Nova had been because they had to do it, and technically, this wasn’t any different. But for the first time in a while, Kaiden felt the joy of taking pride in what he’d done. Were circumstances not what they were, he would’ve been dying to achieve something as noteworthy as a world first. Compared to the grand scheme of what they were trying to do – to take down the Party – it wasn’t much. But for the moment, it made him happy.
“All right, all right. Enough celebration,” Thorne said. “Let’s loot and get out of here. We’re on the clock. One hundred and two Party employees just logged out, no doubt pissed off and
