Requiem of the Broken

Chapter 52: Doorstep to Olympus

The group took a few minutes to recover, cool down, and extinguish the fires that had sprung up all over. The fire spread rapidly, but the wet wood and ground ensured they could keep up with the spread, though it took a considerable amount of work exhausting them even further.

While the group rested and hydrated, Momo radioed the other groups. While they had been busy fighting the fake Dark Shadow, the hounds, and the fire, the other groups had closed in on Zeus's compound. Zeus had prepared well, and the buildings that made up the compound had undergone extensive reinforcement. It had made advancement difficult. They'd already called for reinforcements, believing Momo's group to be MIA.

She disabled her transmitter and turned to the group that was sitting around or stretching.

"The assault on the compound has begun, reinforcements were called in but it'll take time. We gotta get going now and reinforce them. They have defenses that Bakugo and Mina are suited to breaking." she said, packing her stuff up.

Everyone did the same and before long they were jogging through the final stint of trees closing in on the source of the combat that was echoing across the mountain. The flashes of weapons and quirks could be seen through the trees, and by the time they had gotten to the edge of the compound, twilight had fallen. It would be night by the time they finally breached the mountain fortress.

As they breached the thickest tree line, the compound came into full view and Momo could immediately understand the group's difficulty in breaching. There were relatively few trees across the compound, but they were strategically placed to hold up the camouflage mesh across the compound's top. An exterior metal wall had been raised from the ground ringing the compound, with reinforced buildings dotted along with it at periodic intervals. From these reinforced points, Zeus's forces could attack with safety.

The moment they came out of the thicker tree line, mercenaries in the reinforced building immediately opened fire. They were already behind decent cover though, so all it served was to pin them down. Momo glanced behind her where she could see a few of the others crouched for cover. She was turning her attention back to the front when there was a pause in the gunfire, then there was a mechanical noise different from the others. Then Shinso's tree exploded, sending bits of the tree everywhere. Momo recoiled from the explosion and was about to run over when the suppressing fire resumed. She watched anxiously where there was now a smoke cloud. The smoke eventually cleared and she saw Shinso laying on the ground, body at least intact. The tree she noticed, hadn't been destroyed at the base, but a bit further up. While Shinso was unconscious, and likely wounded, there was a chance at least that he wasn't dead, but that could change if she couldn't get to him and help.

Bakugo meanwhile had laid himself down on the ground, he stuck one out from the tree and toward the wall and let loose a series of flash and smoke explosions, then followed it up with a bunker buster explosion. The gunfire faltered as they lost sight of what they could see, assuming they could see, then the explosion meant to breach the wall crashed into them.

There was a pause as everyone waited to see if it had done anything. The smoke dissipated and there was a large scorch mark on the wall and building but not much else. The gunfire didn't immediately resume, however, so Bakugo motioned for everyone to fall back.

As Bakugo moved back to fresh cover, he passed Mina. Their eyes met and they both nodded, Mina, staying put as everyone moved past her. Bakugo and Todoroki both threw attacks behind them, obscuring the enemy's vision while they retreated to give Mina space.

Momo took the opportunity to run over to Shinso and drag him back behind fresh cover, before examining him for injuries. His back looked pretty bad, his armor had been damaged and she saw a piece of wood sticking out of it. She examined the area around the wound but was relieved to see very little blood. She materialized medical supplies and after another examination, removed the piece of wood. While the wound began to seep blood, it wasn't serious and she quickly cleaned, packed, and dressed the wound. Halfway through, Shinso came around but didn't move, opting to groan instead.