Going Deeper

It has been a while since Hanns had ambushed those herd of goliaths. He was already finishing up his first medium mission but still had no luck in completing the second. Hanns had been clearing out the city block by block and street by street in the hopes of gaining more SL and RP but also clearing an area for him to stay and camp in.

He felt at home in the urban terrain he had found himself in. No dirt, dust, or trees to block his shots or obscure his vision. With every shot he used to kill multiple grimm, it would seem like a thousand would replace the ones he killed.

It was already two hours since he'd cleared out the first area before moving on to the next. He had a ton of motivation ever since he received that much SL and RP from those goliaths, so he passed the time by killing more grimm from within the city waiting to hear more goliaths passing by beyond the walls of the fallen city.

There were many times that he would forgo using his main cannon and machine guns by just running over the grimm that were too small to even scratch the paint on his Tiger H1. Reserving cannon shots to things like king taijitus, alphas, and a new grimm he encountered, the creep.

It was tougher because of their more armored head and their scales. Taller than an ursa and more numerous in Mountain Glenn.

He knew where they came from, he was close to whatever the old location of Merlot's lab was. He was going to need to enter deeper into the subterranean part of Mountain Glenn. Where he is going to be likely to encounter more grimm, especially those of the mutant variant.

First, he still needs to get to the tunnel that leads down underground.

An HE shell strikes the ground near a group of creeps. The shell explodes and fragments into the sharp heated metal which deeply cuts into the skin of the creeps walking on their hindlegs. The cries were silenced by the repeated action of a machine gun mowing down a group of supporting nevermores in the distance.

Hanns takes a reload but hears more of them scuttling around the corner. He quickly drives forward right as the group of creeps turns towards him. The inverted knees of the creeps bent unnaturally as the treads of his Tiger H1 mercilessly flattens whatever was left of the lower half of a creep.

The others quickly try to come to its aid and attack the tank with their main weapon, their tails. Finishing his reload he lets out another shot point blank at one of the creeps, vaporizing it into splotches of black tar on the street and nearby buildings.

A cry from another group of grimm attracts Hanns' attention. Turning his turret he found the last evolved version of a normal enemy he needed to complete his medium task.

An alpha creep pounces and dodges using the buildings as cover and scaling the walls. Hanns shoots but grazes the alpha creep making its way towards him. Hanns stood still focusing on predicting its movements.

A flock of nevermores nearby witnesses the battle and offers its assistance by sending their spear-like feathers towards the distracted Hanns. With the incredibly tough steel armor, he had no problem taking the hits. Hanns just ignores the attack in favor of focusing on the alpha.

More and more grimm start to converge on his position, and Hanns surges forward to meet the alpha grimm head-on. The alpha creep leaps into the sky as it exits the second-story building nearby, bringing its body forward it tucks itself into a roll before using its spiked tail towards the tank.

The impact sends dust flying, blinding the rest of the grimm trying to take down Hanns, as the dust settles the barrel of his cannon emerges from the smoke screen and fires on the stunning alpha creep, liquifying its insides and toppling over.

Machine gun fire once again sounds from the inside of the dust-covered battlefield as more grimm gets swiftly taken out by Hann's weaponry. Nevermores dive to grab at the gun before Hann reverses and it misses.

Their bodies became riddled with multiple wounds, the nevermores decay on the ground while the Tiger lets out another shell towards a group of beowolves. Seeing the battle being lost, multiple grimm try to escape through ruined buildings.

Hanns brings down a wall and rams straight into a beowolf which shrieks in agony before meeting the cold steel of Hanns' treads.

The rest of the beowolves climb on top of Hanns and desperately attack its roof. Hanns sends himself into the rest of the building, sending it down on himself and the beowolves on top of him. Letting the weight crush the grimm while it lands on top of Hanns.

The building is demolished as the lone figure of Hanns bulldozes a chunk of the building off himself and into the streets as his suspension bobbed up and down from the uneven landing.

*Ding*

[Mission Accomplished]

[Hard Targets: Destroy the evolved versions of enemies 5/5]

SL = 616,293 → 842,987 SL

VEHICLE RP = 78,743 → 112,382 RP

CONVERTIBLE RP = 125,887 → 165,807 RP

'Not bad at all.'

Hanns humms lightly at the numbers, he was getting more and more RP and SL as he went to more dense grimm populations. He only had gone through a small part of the city and he already got this much in a few hours.

Not only that but there was still an underground area which had even more grimm in it. He was confident he could get the plane if he got more RP than SL. The goliaths that he ended up killing were still not in sight but if he ever saw them he would definitely kill them.

'On to the next one.'

He drives forward, his engine blowing out the exhaust as he travels down the abandoned asphalt that traced the streets of Mountain Glenn. He happens upon a small opening created nearby. The crack goes deep into the nearby terrain that jutted out into the city.

'Hmm?'

A multitude of red eyes suddenly erupts out which startles Hanns.

'Woah!'

A small grimm with tentacles connecting to a small grimm mask suddenly shoots out from the small crack and scurries away from Hanns, getting spooked by the noise Hanns made with his tank.

'The hell was that?'

He quickly turned his hull and kept his vision locked on the thing. As his turret turns into position he loads an HE at the grimm. Debris was spent flying before Hanns clicked his non-existent tongue at the miss.

'Tch. It's always the small bastards that get away.'

He shivers at the thought of remembering a soviet ASU-57 sneaking around and Hanns trying to hit it but failing due to how small the thing was.

'I wonder what that thing was, I've never seen it in the show.'

5 hours later…

A large gaping hole was seen by Hanns, looking closely it used to be an above-ground subway terminal that littered the once populous city. The way down was still there and Hanns could use his smaller Sd.Kfz.234/2 to fit in the crack itself and hopefully not send the whole thing down with his weight.

He switched tanks and carefully let each of his wheels touch the collapsed terminal. He could get down but the distant noise of rocks falling and the echoes of grimm accompanied by the unstable looking rubble made him very nervous.

Letting one set of wheels go first he touches the first set of rubble connected precariously with what remains of the exposed rebar holding on to it. He felt the whole thing move with the newly added weight.

Hanns slowly let his entire tank go over the first ruble. Hanns observed the rest of the rubble left and counted.

'One...four...eight…no. I shouldn't think about it. Remember, don't look down.' Hanns says as he looks down.

'Oooookay...still far. C'mon, you can do this.' He regretted looking down.

He looks at the second set of rubble getting held by a support beam that was still standing. Hanns was a bit more confident and let his entire weight on it before it started swaying to the left.

Hanns screams internally as it starts to lean before halting steady. He lets out a sigh of relief and eyes the next 6 patches of rubble still left going downward.

'Why do I do this to myself.'

He tests the next one by lightly tapping it with his front tires and he felt the entire thing rumble and jostle around before rocks began slipping and breaking apart. Thinking fast he immediately reverses into the more stable 2nd patch of rubble before the one in front of him collapses. Fortunately, it didn't bring any more down and he could still cross albeit he needed to cross more rubble to get down.

He inched closer and closer towards the ground below him, he could finally rest his spiking heart rate or, engine rate in his case. He could see the underground part of the city that could hold bountiful riches in the form of Merlot's experiments.

After he feels all eight wheels touch the floor, he transforms back into his Tiger H1. It was dark but there was still light seeping from the sinkholes created from above. He huffs on forwards following the underground city.

Merlot's lab was above ground but their experiments were held underground so he needed to find the abandoned lab. To find it he plans on following the trail of breadcrumbs.

'There they are.' In the distance he spots green glowing spikes attached to an unusual grimm that lingered around the underground city.

Normal beowolves modified with serum, called mutant grimm, were roaming around in small groups who were accompanied by normal grimm. These were the captured grimm that were injected with an experimental serum created by Merlot.

He was a madman that saw grimm as the next superior species, enough to try and lure more grimm to the city itself to get more test subjects. When the city fell he too disappeared along with the main facility here in Mountain Glenn.

Readying his cannon he aims straight at the center of where they were. He fires and the HE shell he loaded explodes leaving a cloud of dirt expanding.

'So it can survive HE?'

The mutant grimm screams in anger as its comrades were laid to waste by the HE. It takes one look at Hanns and its howls reverberated in the underground city. Hanns pelts the mutated grimm with machine gun fire but it bounces harmlessly as the mutant grimm charges at him.

Hanns reloads and uses his APCBC to fire at the mutant beowolf the grimm, the shot pierces its body as it falls to the ground, its mutant green glowing effect fading into darkness.

Another mutant grimm this time, a creep variant, was seen far behind the beowolf that he just defeated.

'Just gotta follow the breadcrumbs.' Hanns reassured himself.

He moves forwards slowly, staying vigilant at the various hiding places and blind spots he could have just by being in this darker area. He looks at the mutant creep before it starts waddling in his direction glowing a bright green.

'Uh oh! Kamikaze!'

It starts humming lightly as its energy starts being released but before the mutant creep could reach Hanns he immediately shot it straight at the head. The explosion rocks the entire area he was in.

Hanns hears more roars around the entire city and the sounds of distance rapid stomping all around him as he realizes that the explosion from the shell paired with the suicidal charge the mutant creep did probably attracted every single grimm in a 10 km radius around him.

[Event Active!]

[You have alerted the horde!]

[Objective: Survive 0:00:00 / 1:30:00]