Chapter 25

They dropped to a walk, and the traders were just passing a bundle to everyone who passed. All the bundles were different sizes, but there was no hesitation when they were grabbed and handed out. Then Adrian realised something else. He could see what each person was getting and there was no obfuscation occurring. These transactions were open. Adrian’s ears pricked up as he listened to the various conversations.

“This is a loan.”

“You will need to return it.”

“This is only for the battle.”

Up and down the line, they were saying a combination of the same words. Before their hands would disappear into the draws, which were actually spatial spaces, to pull out another bundle. Presumably, they were going to outfit thirty thousand people. And given the shapes of what was being handed out, he had no doubts that the gear would be tailored.

The trader in his line had a shintopur form. Slightly less beautiful than the ones he had eliminated, a darker purple and maybe larger across the shoulder. It was probably a separate species. In fact, there were so many Alpha worlds out there that this gorilla-like person might not even be related to the beasts he had fought. But its presence here. In his line. That was deliberate. How they had engineered it was a mystery to Adrian, but he was sure it was deliberate.

The trader threw a package at him. No words were spoken just angry condemning eyes.

It hurt me already. He felt like screaming the words out, but he bit his tongue. No one cared, especially not the traders, they had made their decision and it was an all too human one, or should the word be sapient one? They were grieving Jaracol’s coming punishment and the raw emotion was boiling out and the backlash hitting him.

His stomach rumbled and he could feel sweat breaking out on his forehead. He wanted to lie on the ground.

Lay of Hands.

Adrian wished he had picked up a purge poison spell, but it was not useful given his pathway. Any poison he could not cope with naturally would be far stronger than what any of the cookie cutter spells could cure, anyway. Like whatever Jules had poisoned him with.

Through slightly blurring eyes, he examined the package. It was tiny and when he opened it, he was not surprised to find it only contained a communication necklace. Once he was far enough away that he would not interfere with the incredibly efficient lines, he stopped with his group and stripped off his current necklace and replaced it with the new one. This one was considerably more elaborate, with multiple gems inlaid within it and a complexity in Magic Focus that was frankly frightening. It was probably set up to link with the entire town.

The world swayed.

He grimaced before shooting an annoyed look at Jules. That tiny fleck of blood was doing a number on him. His only point of happiness was that if it was affecting him this much and so quickly, then it would help progress his poison pathway.

Jules’s hand steadied him.

“Do you need help?”

Adrian shook his head, and the world rolled in response.

He shut his eyes briefly before opening them to see what the less well-resourced members of their group had received.

Adrian glanced curiously at what the others had been given. Murphy, the threat paladin and their assigned tank had a large parcel. The paper ripped, and he pulled a shield.

Shield of Momentum

This shield created from an iron alloy is immensely strong and has an active ability that, if grounded in the earth will stop the momentum of anything hitting it without hurting the wielder.

Charges three. Recharge time: thirty seconds. Energy cost: 120,000.

Adrian, once he read the description immediately hypothesised that a lot of tanks were going to be getting similar options. It was clearly designed to counter the zxeatra. There was more in Murphy’s package, a very familiar communication necklace. Two identical rings.

Ring of Protection (single use)

This ring will create a shield able to stop almost any blow when the wearer is in mortal danger.

And finally, a new sword. It was thicker and bulkier than the one that Murphy had been using.

Shell Cracking Sword

This sword is designed with extra penetrating power. When mana is focused through it, the blade will create a concussive penetrative force designed to break brittle material.

Were the shells brittle? Other than when frozen? Adrian guessed they must be. At least they would break rather than bend even if it would take immense force to do so.

Curiously he glanced at Paul, their earth adept. His package had a full armour set, but no weapons.

Expert Wind Set of Dodging

Set bonuses

 Fifty percent improved running speed.

 Activation of wind dodge - (8 charges. Recharge time: 10 minutes.)

Wind dodge: Will push the wearer to the side in order to avoid an attack. High G-forces will cause internal damage each time the ability is activated.

Energy cost: 110,000.

It was an interesting set. It would keep someone alive, but when it did so, it would damage them, and not a smaller amount, either. Three or four dodges in succession could well kill the earth adapt, even if the blows that the set dodged never landed. Then again, the other way of reading the skill was the ability to dodge death eight times in a ten-minute period, which was ridiculous.

Adrian looked at their healer. “Joanne, you’ll have to heal whenever that dodge is triggered.”

She looked over at him and then, following his gaze, at Paul. Her eyes went unfocused as she studied the armour. “How bad?” she asked, finally admitting that her identification could not tease out all the required information.

‎ “Depends on lots of factors. How far he needs to get dragged to avoid the attack and even the angles involved. For a big dodge, we are looking at thirty percent health loss, but if everything goes wrong, it might be as much as fifty.”

“I’ll monitor it,” Joanne promised. “And always keep him above eighty percent health.”

Finally, Adrian examined Joanne. All that changed was that she was now wearing something that could only be described as a crown.

Crown of Healing

This crown increases healing by twenty percent.

Simple but powerful.

“Nice,” he said, nodding.

“Yep,” Jules agreed. “Joanne is about to audition for Queen of Wangaratta.”

Joanne rolled her eyes. “Not likely.”

“So, you’re saying there is a chance?” Murphy asked, getting a laugh.

“No,” Joanne said definitely. “I have family in Melbourne.”

Jules and he looked at each other. They had known Joanne long enough to recognise that while it was not a lie, Joanne was not close to that family. She was coming along with them because she needed something meaningful to do, and Albury reminded her too much of what she had lost and suffered.

“You could always become the queen and send for them,” Jules suggested.

Adrian wanted to kick her, but suddenly the nausea that he thought was declining swamped him and he fell to his knees and vomited.

“I was wondering when that was going to happen?”

“What?”

“The poison has three waves. I don’t know how they work, but each one is supposed to be more deadly than the last. First wave should affect coordination and concentration. Second, distraction and physical inflictions. The third does damage and will slay most things by itself.”

Adrian’s leg cramped. This poison in battle would be horrific. Even if it did not kill outright, the opponent would chop your head off while you fought off the symptoms.

“Maybe you should heal me.”

“Nah you seem to cope pretty well.”

Adrian went to say more, but could feel his path protesting. It wanted him to endure this and continue the drive toward completing it. The pathway was an absolute arse. Adrian bit his tongue, recognising the compulsion that was coming and knowing that fighting it could make things worse. If he chickened out now, Adrian could imagine a future where after the battle he would be down on his hands and knees begging Jules to poison him with a bigger dose, because that is what the pathway did.

“Alpha teams, prepare to move out,” Mike’s voice came through to him. “You are going to engage first, both to soften them up and also to get you used to the new skills. Then you will pull back to act as a reserve.”

“Mike, are you sure?” Charlotte’s voice responded immediately. “I have a passive vampiric aura. If I am behind the lines, I won’t be able to use it.”

“Badly worded,” Mike said immediately. “You will be right behind the front-line fighters to let your passive attacks still work. I am talking only two metres.”

“Rodger.”

“Any other questions?”

“How far do we go in the first engagement?” It was a voice Adrian did not recognise: it must have been one of the new Wangaratta fighters.

“Two minutes in, then do a little loop and retreat along a different route.”

“What happens if we bite off more than we can fight?” Yet another one of the unknown Wangaratta voices.

Adrian fell as all of his back muscled simultaneously spasmed.

“God!” he hissed.

Jules was smiling down at him.

“I can heal you now if you want?”

“Shut up,” he snapped at her, which earnt a smile.

She had known that was how he was going to respond. “The offer is there.”

“We’re monitoring and will send reinforcements. But call out any issues so we can react faster,” Mike stated. Maybe Adrian had missed bits of the conversation, but it was hard to listen when he had been spasming on the ground. The potency of the poison shocked him. If it could do this against a body with his level of tempering, he could only imagine what it would do against those with no protection. “Now these necklaces allow me to grant timing and map functions. Access your map and get going.”

Mike’s voice cut off. There was no attempt at an inspirational speech. Apparently, he was happy to just order people around.

“I don’t like the guy,” Jules said quietly, lifting him from the ground.

“Me neither, at least professionally. He’s fine to have a beer with.”

“You know you don’t mean that,” Jules said. “You’re just saying that, for Charlotte’s sake.”

“As I told them, I’m like a mad old uncle. He hurts her then…”

Adrian stumbled again as his feet spasmed. “If you’re fighting someone, then this is deadly.”

“Yep,” Jules agreed. “Which is why I want you to get immunity.”

Their map started flashing, showing the route and timings.

“Can you run?”

“No. I need a minute.”

“You guys go ahead, we’ll catch up,” Jules ordered the other three.

“We’re not supposed to do that,” Murphy objected. Jules glared at him, her eyes taking on that cold, distant look that he recognised, she was channelling it from when she was actually berserking. Murphy, even though he had never seen it before must have recognised a little of the wildness. He turned away and started running.

Jules smiled. “That is sort of fun,” she whispered soft enough that the three of them racing away would not hear. She watched their pace for a few moments. “I’ll give you one minute, then I’m carrying you.”

Adrian nodded, the spasms as terrible as they were, thankfully were fading. Having these non-lethal effects hitting you in a life or death battle would finish you just as quickly as a higher-grade poison.

“It is slow acting like this for a reason isn’t it.”

Jules agreed with a superior smile. “Lots of animals can purge lethal toxins out of themselves quickly. By splitting the effects, those defences don’t kick in.”

“That was in the skill explanation?”

“Yep. Stop stalling. Time is up.”

“I can run.” He pushed to his feet and started sprinting after the others. His muscles were still twinging occasionally, and his steps when he tried to use them failed half the time. Jules kept pace with him, sporadically dropping behind when he used shadow step but speeding up to catch him once more.

Then the debuff vanished, and his gait became smoother.

“Good job,” Jules said, puffing now that he had sped up. “Phase three incoming.”

“What is that?”

Adrian felt a stinging in his eyes. When he touched them, his gloves came back with blood on them.

Lay of Hands.

If he had full regeneration, he would have felt safer, but Jules was right behind him, watching him with eagle eyes the whole time. Something told him that even though she had not explicitly said it, she could save him. It was clear by how she had been treating him.

His health was actively being drained out of him as Jules’s blood poison went to war with his body. It was potent. Academically, Adrian observed the mechanisms it acted on. It was a mixture of poisons, but primarily it was a wasting type, and his maturity against that was strong. Thirty seconds later the health stopped dropping and then ticked up.

“No fair,” Jules complained, but she was smiling. “I bet that helped your pathway.”

Curiously, he checked.

Pathway of Poison Resistance - 74% (+3%)

Jules’s guess that her unique poison would boost him ended up being fairly accurate.

“Progressed three percent.”

Jules frowned at that.

“No, that is great,” Adrian assured her. “Any sort of progress is good. Come on, let’s catch up.”

They sprinted forward and in what felt like only a few moments they had caught up to the other three.

Adrian checked the map, roughly a hundred metres in front of them the contested territory started. The octopods had expanded another half a kilometre out from their strange geography into the normal Australian bush. In bright sunlight, he could see a pack of octopods and beyond that a shell that was becoming all too familiar.

“Rest here,” he told the team. “We have a minute before we need to engage. Go hard and fast.” Just as he finished talking, Mike came on the device, saying exactly the same thing. Jules rolled her eyes. “I feel like I’m back at school sitting up the back in Chemistry.”

“Ignoring the teacher, hey?” he said. “I was more middle-of-the-class guy.”

“Not a nerd up front?” Jules asked him.

“No… Sometimes.”

“When?”

“The English literature teacher.”

“What?” Jules gasped. Then she smirked. “You had a crush on your teacher, didn’t you?”

“Only briefly.”

Jules chuckled. “Oh, my god. I would never have imagined.”

“And you didn’t?”

“No.” Jules looked away. He could see that her cheeks were tinged a little pink.

“Do we need to talk about strategy?” Murphy asked, interrupting them.

Adrian grimaced slightly. “Probably. I’ll take the shells. Jules and Paul the octopods. Murphy, focus on protecting the healer and stopping any shells that get past me. Anything else?” he asked Jules.

“Joanne keeps us alive.” She shrugged.

“We will adapt further as we go,” Adrian decided.

“So, what was her name?”

“I don’t remember.”

“You liar.”

“Guys,” Murphy said.

“What?” both Jules and Adrian said together.

“Jinx,” Adrian said automatically.

“What the hell is jinx?” Jules asked.

“Guys, it’s time to go.” The paladin pointed towards where the other Alpha teams were trotting forward.

“I’ll tell you as we fight, not that it matters. You spoiled it, anyway.” They jogged forward. Adrian felt a brief spurt of anticipation. It was going to be fun to see how upgraded his Mind abilities actually were. They had a full-strength range of forty metres and that in a fight was a tremendous advantage. Shortly they entered bow range. Adrian could have got out his bow but figured it was unnecessary. Killing a couple of octopods now would not change the fight, and he doubted he could hit one of the shells.

“Jinx is a game my kids play,” he explained. “If you say something at the same time as another, then you say jinx. The first person to say it jinxes the other and they can’t talk till their name is said three times. But you spoiled it.”

“Next time I will do better,” she grumped. “Wait, were you just trying to shut me up?”

“Yeah, for Murphy’s sake.”

“Hey, don’t bring me into this.”

Then they were in range.

“Murphy,” Jules said abruptly. “I’ll get you for that.”

“What?”

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