944 Volcanic Cavern - Part 1

"Ready?" Bu Dong asked as he cocked the bolt and clicked the safety to 'off'.

"Ready!" Heala smiled with a gentle expression on her face that even made Xia Mao's heart melt.

"Gosh these Panda NPCs, how can you not love them all?" Xia Mao wondered out loud as he stayed near the side of the wagon.

"They are both huggable and useful in battle. Boss Jin has truly created the perfect NPC ally." Jing Yu joked as she stood behind Heala, acting as backup support. With the gathered experience from previous cave fights, they were not taking any chances.

By now the monsters in the Volcanic Caverns were 'impatiently' waiting for the Pandarens' move, and they became active the moment they stepped into the cavern. Without much care for their own brethren, Sui Lions and Sui Dragons rushed through the cavern with the sole objective of being the first one to rip the invaders to shreds.

It was a scary sight no doubt… but only if one was utterly unprepared for it. 

Fortunately, the group had figured out that something like this might happen. While sharing their comparing their experiences, both the Pandaren and Pandawan group had encountered one particular NPC in the village that reported seeing hundreds of Nian underling coming on to the shore.

However, no one had believed him because they knew that if the one could see the Nians, the monster would have gone and eaten him up. 

Most people had treated him like a fool in the village, but Bu Dong had taken him at face value. Seeing as the Elder Pandarens had completed all but the flower side quest without encountering such a large size of Nian underlings, there was only one place left for them to be at… the Volcanic Caverns. Yet, this was just his intuition at play, and the Angry Ape Pandawan left it all to luck (or in this case, Jin's programmed dungeon instance.) 

Worst case scenario, he could still use the weapon he was holding to fight against Nian. He had his doubts about how much damage it could do, but at the very least, it would be a unique and fun experience which was ultimately the most important thing in a dungeon instance.

As it appeared, his intuition had been spot on, and he faced it towards the Nian Horde and held down the trigger. The cold metal barrels started to roll, and the tubes of metal began to heat up. The gatling gun he had bought in the fiercest haggle against the weapon shophouse owner Bai Wan, was about to do the heavy lifting in this particular phase of the Volcanic Caverns.

"It seems Boss Jin probably used this with the intent to wear anyone down before they can fight the main Boss after this point?" Zi Dan shouted his question over the sound of the weapon, before he remembered that he could have just used the communication channel provided by the visors. (Especially since all of them were wearing earplugs on Bu Dong's recommendation.)

The spent bullet casings were flying after each shot burst out of the gun barrel and Zi Dan regretted that had not bought the ammo bag to store them in one place. Still, it was just a minor nuisance, and it was quite satisfying to watch the Nian underlings fall to the might of steel rain. Head Hunter Yiming could not believe his eyes as he helped pull the wagon. Even as he was raring to have a go against those Nian Underlings (or as programmed to do so), there was not a chance for him to even shoot an arrow out.

Eventually, the Nian Horde started to include bigger Sui Lions and Sui Dragons, yet the bullets were also sufficient to bring them to their knees as Bu Dong aimed the gatling gun onto their face. (He even shouted 'EAT LEAD' when doing so.) 

However, the gatling gun had its limits, and since Bu Dong had set it at the highest rotation speed, the barrels had quickly heated up, forcing him to stop or risk that gun would jam.

The Nian Horde must have collectively breathed out a sigh of relief when that happened, giving them an opportunity to bring down these six trespassers. Still, the Elder Pandarens and Yiming had already prepared for that interval. They were each holding a firecracker with a small incendiary bomb attached to them. The moment they lighted the firecrackers up, the four of them threw them forward.

The bombs immediately went off, and the fire started spreading on the ground while the explosion of the firecrackers caused the Nian underlings to be stunned on the spot. This allowed the fire bombs to do their work and burn the Nian underlings to death. 

As if that was not enough, Bu Dong had switched to his pistol and was holding it with two hands for better accuracy when he started to fire at the burning Sui monsters.

Heala actually moved back a little, pulling the wagon along with her so as to prevent the wagon accidentally catch on fire. Jing Yu acted accordingly and made sure there were no other Nian underlings that ambushed them from the back.

As soon as the gatling gun had cooled down, Bu Dong lowered the rotation speed and started firing haphazardly when the next wave of Nian underlings came at them. This process repeated a total of five times. Each time the gun was heated up, they would use whatever ranged projectiles or explosive materials so that there was always a gap between them. The audience thought it was a waste to use it on them since they could save it for the big cat boss. Yet, they seem to have forgotten sometimes being a big spender in Jin's dungeons does have its perks.

Once the coast was clear and no more reinforcements were coming in, Xia Mao and Zi Dan went around stabbing the Nian underlings to make sure they were all dead. Some had indeed pretended to stay dead, and those were the times where Zi Dan used his quick lightning reflexes to stop them. Meanwhile, Yiming and Jing Yu were busy moving the bodies out of the way to create a path for the wagon to move through. 

Bu Dong had started to fill the wagon with firecrackers while gathering as many bullet cases as he could and placed them in wooden boxes which came with the firecrackers.

As they reached the end of the tunnel, the Pandawan pulled out a new box with ammunition only this time they were of the armour-piercing variety.

"Let's fight that Nian head-on and show Boss Jin that we can clear this particular dungeon." Bu Dong said, and all the members of his group nodded in agreement.