As they were leaving the area to follow the monkeys they noticed that the orangutan had moved back to its original position as it plopped back down with a large thud and started laying inside the ruined school building. Its belly once more exposed to the air, but the scorpion tail was lazily hanging on the building right next to it so the massive creature could strike out at any time if something tried to attack it.
While following the pair of monkey's they noticed right away that the haze was once again getting thicker as they left the area of the school building and had to go back to relying on Becca's echolocation to see the things around them clearly. They made sure to keep a certain distance away from the monkeys so that they wouldn't take notice of them following them. Joshua didn't think things would go so well if they were noticed based off of the way the monkeys kept diving down and grabbing up a few haze creatures every now and then for a snack along the way. It seemed to be their quickest way to absorb more haze instead of just trying to breathe it in.
After following the monkeys for a while they eventually stopped at a park like area that the monkeys seemed to use as their hang out. The park wasn't all that big as the two massive monkeys could barely fit in the space. Even so they didn't seem to care as they laid down casually and passed out right away. 'Well with that we know the location of two of the threats we'll have to deal with. Now all we need to do is go find out where the boss is exactly so that we can have all the pieces in place.' Joshua said through the mental link.
'This will probably be the first place that we'll come for since taking these two monkeys by surprise should be our top priority. They could go off and alert the other two stronger beast if given the chance.' Marcus said as he wrote down some more information before looking towards Joshua and Becca showing that he was done mapping out the area.
'Alright we'll head back to the school then go in the direction the giant gorilla went. From what I could tell the haze seemed to be thicker in that direction so we'll probably have to rely on Becca for vision.' Joshua said as Becca nodded in return before leading the way back towards the school. When they got back to the area the orangutan was still sleeping, so they quietly slipped their way around the area before heading into the direction that the boss haze creature had headed.
The moment they started following the trail of the giant gorilla the haze seemed to thicken considerably to the point where it was hard to see each other without Becca's echolocation. It made it harder for them to leap from building to building and slowed down their pace considerably. Even so they were able to reach the back side of the town that was much closer to the mountain range. It was a good design for a base of operations since the mountain range behind it wasn't to big, so any beast that lived in the area wouldn't be too powerful for them to handle in the future. The mountain range would act as a natural barrier that would protect the town from attacks from behind.
The backside of the town was filled with several buildings that seemed to be clustered together creating an interesting market area, but the design would most likely be changed once they took over the territory. In the center of this market area was the massive gorilla who seemed to be sleeping in the ruined remains of what looked like a large scale mall that was most likely the center of attention for the town. What took Joshua by surprise was the fact that the area was covered in weird purple vines that seemed to grow along all of the buildings nearby. The source of the vines came from the mall area where the gorilla was located and they were rather large.
For a moment all three of them looked over the area with Becca being their main source of observation. Luckily the boss didn't seem to notice their presence as it casually pulled on a nearby vine and pulled it over to its mouth. It began to chew away at the vine that seemed to leak out haze with each munch as it thickened the haze in the area rather quickly.
'Do you think the vines are like a condensed form of the haze?' Marcus asked with a hint of confusion.
'In some ways it probably is, but I get the feeling the source of the vines is the boss itself.' Joshua responded while pondering the new information. 'In all likelihood these vines might be some sort of ability that the boss has since they don't seem to be anywhere else around the town.'
'Well should we head back? I don't think we'll be able to get any more information than this without putting ourselves in danger.' Becca asked while turning to look at Joshua.
'I agree. It's time we make our way back. If we want to get things started today it would be best for us to not waste any more time.' Joshua said with a smile. Becca and Marcus both nodded as Becca took the lead and retraced their steps back towards the outside of town. Since they were moving by roof top and avoiding the areas where the boss level creatures were located they didn't have any trouble making their way out of the town at a far faster pace.
When they cleared the haze they met up with the large group that had been waiting outside of town for the news. The main group was able to see what was going on thanks to Natalie showing them whatever Becca could see through her echolocation, but they still wanted to hear the opinions of the people that actually went into the town.
"So what do you guys think?" Henry was the first to ask them as they approached the group.
"Well, all of the boss level beast are level eighty so it will be quite challenging trying to take them down. Luckily they seemed to be quite spread out from one another so as long as we take them out separately we should be able to handle the situation." Becca explained her feelings on the matter.
"I agree." Marcus jumped in. "We'll have to handle the sub-bosses rather fast so they don't group up and cause us problems. I highly doubt taking them on together will be something we're capable of. Especially with the haze around to help them out the entire time."
"Well what do you think Josh?" Adrian asked as he turned to look towards his friend.
"I was thinking about what characteristics we can expect from the different bosses." Joshua said with a bit of a frown. " I know that the monkey's will probably be extremely agile and use the environment to their advantage as much as we will, so we need to take those two out before any help comes. Dealing with them while having one of the powerful bosses around would be difficult."
"Hmm well if I had to guess I'd say the monkeys will probably be good at working together or alongside the other two haze creatures if given the chance. The orangutan sub-boss is probably extremely intelligent so giving it an opportunity to help out the others would also be a problem. The gorilla should be mostly based on power so saving him for last while getting rid of the others will allow us to plan around it." Henry said with a frown.
"The issue is we know that there will be a dungeon to take care of after we've cleared out the town right?" Laura asked getting nods from everyone. "Who's to say the dungeon won't force us to take on all of the creatures at the same time?"
For a moment everyone thought about that scenario. The canyon dungeon did force something similar on to them when it came to the final boss so it wouldn't be to surprising to come across something along the same lines when they got to the end of this town dungeon. The dungeons always seemed to try to put the bosses in the best case scenario against them so it was likely to happen.
"Well if that becomes the case then we'll take the time that we fight against them before the dungeon as an opportunity to learn as much about each creature as possible. If we know what we're up against beforehand it won't be impossible even if we have to take them all on at the same time. I'm sure we'll figure out a few of their weaknesses by that point as long as we take things one step at a time." Joshua said getting nods of agreement from everyone.
"So how do we want to set up the large group that'll be attacking from the fringe of town? They have to be somewhat inside the haze otherwise they won't garner enough attention to drag over some of the haze creatures that are deeper into the town." Henry said while looking towards the group that was waiting for their say on things.
"We'll have to bring them at least to the gas station and water tower that's on the fringe of town so that they can draw some attention, but make sure to warn them to keep their guard up for attacks that might come from behind. They'll be inside the haze, some of the creatures could end up forming behind them even if it will be in a small amount." Joshua explained.
"We can keep that in mind for the formation they go in with. Any reason why you decided on the gas station as a good place for them to take position at?" Isabella asked as she went over some of the notes that Marcus had brought back with him for the group to take into consideration.
"If they take up position at the gas station they'll have two large traps that they can use to take care of the haze creature hoard they'll be facing against if things start looking bad." Joshua said while walking over and pointing at the map that Marcus had drawn out for them all to see. "They'll have the major water tower that they can take down to create a large flood in the area. It'll disorient all of the haze creatures for a good portion of time and any ranged fighters in the large group will basically be put into a situation where they'll have free target practice against the drowning zombies and haze creatures. The other set up they could use is the gas station itself."
"You mean as an explosion right?" Laura said remembering some of the plans they had used during the first phase.
"Exactly. They can back away from the gas station when things start looking like it's too much to handle then blow it up with some fire spells or grenades. Not sure how the gas there has hold up overtime, but there are enough cars in the area to do some damage even if the explosion isn't all that big."
"Seems like a good start. What about on our end?" Dave asked getting everyone's attention. "I'm sure we will be attacking on two ends so we'll have to have good timing with the large group."
"That's where we will rely on Natalie to get the timing set up properly through the mental link. Our group will move out ahead of the large group once they clear out some space near the gas station. We will head to where the two monkeys are resting and take them out first before either of the other bosses can make it to our location. When we start fighting the two monkeys the large group will start attacking the haze creatures near the gas station. At that point it will come down to us taking out all of the bosses before the large group gets too overwhelmed." Joshua explained.
"What about the news crews?" Amy asked with a bit of confusion.
"Oh don't worry about us. We've got some good experience in these type of situations. Two of us will stay with the large group and film their part of the expedition while the more experienced pair of us will go with your group and stay out of your way the entire time." Sarah said with an excited grin.
"Well then it seems like we've got things settled. Let's get started then." Joshua said as they all headed over to meet with the rest of the alliance members to explain how things were going to go.