The Rise Of A Porter

Nathan and Allen sat down together and were busy conversing about various topics, while Nina, Nicole and Arnold were busy having a conversation of their own. Even though Arnold was accompanying the ladies, his mind kept wandering towards Nathan and Allen, because all of a sudden Allen's expressions had changed, and he was looking more serious. Since he didn't know much about the effects of blood bond, he was worried that Allen might go out of control and try to attack the others, and then wind up dead. Something he didn't want to happen... at least not now.

"You know Nicole, your brother is the only man alive who rather than focusing on us, the lovely ladies, is busy worrying about the conversation between an oldie and his brother." Nina and Nicole chuckled while Arnold just stood there and shook his head.

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" I don't think there's any need to keep reminding someone about something they already know." Arnold turned his gaze towards Nina, "You're beautiful and you know it so why bother about seeking validation from someone else?"

Arnold's time in Brazil taught him one thing. If you want to stop a woman from bothering you... then just flirt back, but overdo it. It wasn't like he found Nina attractive or anything, but right now he wanted to focus on the conversation the other two were having... which soon ended.

"Wha..." Nina couldn't even complete what she was trying to say as her eyebrows arched upwards while her jaw hung slack. Out of everything she had expected, Arnold would say, she was not expecting him to so bluntly 'flirt' with him.

Even Nicole was surprised by Arnold's reply, "Hold your horses brother-"

"What? I'm just telling the truth. I'm still surprised that both of you are still single. I can understand why Nicole is single though... who in his right mind would date a-"

"Looks like we're done here." Nathan said as the two of them got up from their seats, "The good news is, Allen remembers the location of the facilities they were trained at... the bad news is... we can't go there, not now anyway."

"May I ask, why can't we go to wherever they are? I mean technically you're the leader of this nation so-" Arnold asked in his confused

"Because the location is not in our nation anymore." Nathan replied in a sorrowful voice, "It's in Florida... it's near the place where the dungeon break happened and going there is suicide. That place is the that was hit worse than the other places. It got transformed into a deadly swamp. No one in their right mind would ever think about stepping into such a place."

"Is it that dangerous out there?"

"Yes. The place has turned into something out of the Jurassic Park, where no human had ever stepped foot into." Nathan then proceeded to inform Arnold about the multitude of reasons as to why the swamps were so dangerous.

one of reason prominent reason was the deadly nature of the swamp itself. In swamps, due to the viscosity of the marshy water that the entire swamp was covered with, it was much harder to fight and even harder to run away. If a battle didn't go as planned, the entire situation quickly turned from bad to worse, and a single mistake could take your life away. For this reason, tank-type warriors, who had to wear heavy armour and carry gigantic shields, were much more prone to death or getting injured in the swamps, and without the tank no matter what the others did, they were doomed to follow the same fate as the tank.

Another reason being that most of the machinery and vehicles didn't work effectively either as they were swallowed up by the swamp even before they could transport reinforcements and other essential items into the battlefield, thus making it much more difficult for them to launch a full-fledged attack.

Not to mention, the mutated monsters were deadly. When Florida was nuked and the radiation sitter across the entire eastern coast of America, the alligators, snakes and whatnot, started mutating and soon they changed so much that they were indistinguishable among themselves and evolved into... the lizardmen, the nagas and the mermonsters. These three weren't the only species in the swamp, but they were the prime example of mutated monsters, but that wasn't all they evolved rapidly and continuously to adapt to the new topographical changes that occurred in the swamp, which made them faster than cheetahs, stronger than Lions, and had skin like concrete, which to them was a blessing as it made it easier for them to hunt for prey. They were the apex predators of that region. While the lizardmen and Nagas fought among themselves over the land, the mermonsters were unrivalled ruler of the marshy water below swamp.

Fauna wasn't the only part of nature that changed either. The plants and trees themselves evolved into carnivorous beings, swallowing anything and everything that dared to come close to them. The swamps itself was alive, ready to consume anyone who dared to step a foot in it.

"I don't even know how the hell, someone even managed to establish a facility in a place like that. Going there is an absolute no-no, it'll be Better is we look for another one of their base or something and prepare ourselves for war."

"I see..." Arnold was lost in his thought and scratched his unkempt beard, "If the situation is as bad as you're saying then it's better to prepare ourselves rather than trying to attack a hidden enemy, and I think, they would be prepared to attack as well because they would usually have to fend off the monsters on a regular basis... so their defences have to be undeniably strong as well, but I'm sure Allen or Alice would be able to confirm that for us as they've been there."

"I agree. By the way, wouldn't 'Alice' have some information about some other base as well?" Nina joined the conversation.

Arnold shook his head and sighed, "Alice and Allen were trained in the same facility, she already told me that last night, what she forgot to mention was the swamps..."

Everyone in the room felt distraught. They were so close and yet so far from putting an end to Devon Troy. As they were still trying to come up with a solution, Arnold got an idea. But first, he needed to know something else.

"By the way Nathan, how do you know so much about the swamps? You talk about it as if you've personally been there..."

"I have been there... I was a part of the force that was tasked to get rid of the creatures there... but rather than getting rid of them, about a quarter of our force got wiped out with moments of starting the operation. Most out of whom were tanks. It was horrible. Ever since then we've kept an eye on the region with the help of drones instead." Nathan responded, "And so it's even more surprising that someone managed to build some type facility there while we had our eyes on the region."

"So it's safe to assume that the monsters can't attack aerial units..." the edges of Arnold's mouth curled up, "Nathan, you don't worry about the swamps anymore. I think I have a plan, just try not to disclose anything to anyone till I tell you to."