Chapter 26

Adrian unleashed his first Mind Spike from sixty metres away. He targeted an octopod and learned that every ten metres after forty halved the effectiveness of the ability so that he was effectively hitting it with a quarter-strength spike.

The spike hit its head. The creature spasmed as it lost control of all of its tentacles. Inherent healing rushed toward the head, but the internal brain functions were already switching off. The healing rushed over the dead space, finding nothing for it to heal. There was a tiny bit of consciousness still there and the inherent healing rushed into the space. The spark of life expanded in response, the mind rebuilding and spreading outwards.

Adrian didn’t even tense, it was obvious that the inherent healing was being burned off at a ferocious rate. It vanished and the consciousness that had swollen to almost eighty percent of its initial volume frayed at the edges and then collapsed.

The creature died.

At a quarter of his normal power, the most basic Mind Spike had killed an octopod.

While running, he started throwing more. Every time it was the same pattern, the brain would die, inherent healing would flood in and briefly delay the inevitable brain death.

He launched another one, and this time the brain fractured instantly and completely. Inherent healing did not even respond, and the octopod collapsed like a puppet with all of its strings cut.

That was what the killing blow looked like.

Lightning swept over the remaining octopods and then the zxeatra burst forward toward them. It was just a stage four guard, and he knew he could blow it away with a Mind Spike, but he was interested in seeing what happened. Jules must have had a similar thought because she dropped into a walk and let Murphy pass her to hit the lead. The zxeatra landed about ten metres away and then blasted forward straight at them.

Murphy reacted instantly, stepping to the side in order to intercept while lowering his shield. The shell slammed into it and stopped dead, and then Murphy brought his sword down and hacked off the limb before it could use it offensively. Only then, with it disabled did Jules step.

Boom!

The shell crumpled under the force of her swing.

Jules nodded, satisfied.

“Let’s go faster.”

“What?” Murphy asked.

The other four of them took off and Murphy, with a curse, accelerated to keep pace.

Adrian engaged battle wraith form and let the automatic attacks go off. They jogged through the bushland till the start of the slope and were attacked by six teams of the dozen octopods and their zxeatra boss. Adrian killed two of the shells with his Mind power. Murphy cracked one. Jules took out the remaining three. The octopods were not worth talking about. Jules lightning lashed out and fried most of them while a tennis-court size of earth spikes exploded from the ground to shred the rest.

When they reached the minerals, Paul slowed to examine the crystals. “Wangaratta is going to be rich. This is low-grade mana crystal, but with this much.”

“Have to win first,” Murphy harshly and then they kept running.

Their opponents tried to adapt and ambush them, but there was not much they could do. Adrian always knew where they were and that let either Jules or Paul shoot around corners to destroy the ambush before it was sprung. They continued moving and were attacked by their first stage three shell. His Mind Spike ripped it to shreds, which was not that surprising because his identification told him he had a fifty-eight percent chance of an instant kill and a ninety percent chance of that first attack killing it over time.

Jules pouted about not killing it first, but the next pack also had a stage three and Jules’s club cracked it open with one strike. She stuck out a tongue at him.

“Alpha Warriors. Update, please?” Mike’s voice crackled over the communication network.

“Zxeatra overseers are now stage three,” he said simply.

“Alpha Soldiers. Update, please.”

“No real resistance. Still stage four,” Galan’s voice replied quickly.

Mike went through the other team. The commandos, which included Charlotte were also fighting the higher staged creatures.

“Let’s beat Charlotte’s team,” Jules said immediately and started running faster.

Adrian followed, so far he had not got out of first gear and nor had Jules. “Paul, don’t waste mana unnecessarily.”

Jules started laughing. Not berserker but a happy sound. “I love magic,” she called out. Then she waded into a clump of octopods to get at the hidden zxeatra. Pieces of calamari went flying. “And bashing things,” she corrected happily. “Magic bash, bash magic.”

“Really,” Adrian called out.

“Yes Adrian, don’t you know it is important to love your job.”

He laughed too, jogging along and making sure that everyone around him was safe with his Mind Spikes shooting off in every which direction. He could feel them impacting but there was no need to direct it, they were all automated.

“Bash, whack, zap.”

“Shut up,” he yelled at her. “No one likes the girl in the office who loves her job so much that she sings to anyone who will listen.”

Jules stopped swinging her club for a moment and paused to wipe away some zxeatra goo. “Stop being a spoil sport.”

A stage two guard crested the hill and shot towards Jules. It was the strongest creature they had met yet. His Mind Spike hit it when it was halfway to her. Not enough to kill, but its singular limb that had been positioning to squat Jules, spasmed as the Mind magic went through it.

BANG!

Jules hit it baseball style and then stepped back, shaking her hand. The creature settled still a massive crack running through its shell.

With a yell, Murphy impaled it through the hole. “STAB, STAB.” the man yelled.

“Oh, my god,” Adrian said in disbelief to the laughter of everyone else. “It’s contagious.”

“Come on, one of you get injured. I want to do some heal, heals,” Joanne joined in.

“Hey.” he protested spinning to face her. “Don’t encourage her.”

The healer just laughed.

“Heal, heal.”

“Whack, smack, zap.”

“Spike, spike, splat.”

Adrian looked at Paul.

“What?” the final member of the team asked, holding his hands up defensively. “I don’t have a cool catch phase yet.”

“They are not cool.”

On the other side of the ridge right at the edge of his range, the last of the octopods died under his automatic and relentless Mind Spikes. The stage two creature under the combined assault had died to Murthy’s stabs. While technically stage two under his identification, it was literally the weakest they could get. Adrian doubted it would actually be considered a class three monster.

“Let’s keep going,” Jules said brightly. “This is fun.”

“Whack, smack.”

Wind gust!

The spell lifted her and threw her in the air. And she laughed joyfully before landing catlike on her feet. “Love that. Zap!” she declared with the club outstretched towards him.

Oh, no!

Zap!

The electric shock knocked him off his feet. “Hey, we’re in enemy territory.”

“You started it.”

“No, your back whack, smack, stuff started it.”

Jules laughed while helping him up. “Come on, jobs not done. We should find more stuff to hit.”

“The two minutes are up,” Murphy interrupted. “The plan has us heading back.”

“Hey Mike,” Jules said into her necklace. Her voice clear to all of them. “We have just run into a stage two and eliminated it with the first volley of attacks. Do you want us to continue a little deeper?”

“Yes,” Mike answered. “Alpha Warriors to continue. Everyone else to start looping, as planned.”

They jogged up the ridge, Jules kept running past the creatures he had killed, and everyone else paused in shock.

“I knew about those,” Jules yelled back at him even as her lightning lashed out at the next clump. Down into the valley, then up the ridge. Then four teams attacked them simultaneously. The groups included three stage two and a stage three along with about a hundred octopods. One moment there were no enemies and then there were a hundred forming a half circle around him.

“Incoming,” he yelled. “Seize the ridge.”

Lightning blasted to the right and he launched triples blades even while focusing his Mind abilities in a maximum power spike to try to disable one of the stage two threats. He saw Jules run her club down her suddenly bare arm with the club’s spikes tearing gashes down her arm.

Blood spewed out.

With a roar, Murphy threw himself over the ridge, protecting the opposite flank to where Jules stood. Adrian’s triple blades and Jules's lightning smashed into the octopods. They died by the dozens with the first volley, taking out eighty percent of them.

To people with fewer levels the octopods were dangerous, but to the surrounding group they were just a distraction. Despite their numbers, all of Adrian’s attention was on the four zxeatra. A Mind Spike flashed out towards one of the stage two monsters. With his scouting abilities, he watched Jules’s blood shoot out at the other three zxeatra. One shell burst into flame and the blood got incinerated before reaching it. The other two were less lucky, and the blood slammed into their limbs at the point that they joined the shell.

The stage three he had targeted wilted, but the instant blast of death that he hoped for did not trigger. That was the problem with the percentage chances, you could not rely on them.

Step.

Wind blade

A shell accelerated toward him.

Step.

The other two also attacked, targeting his friends. Murphy managed to get in front of one of them and Jules swung her club to intercept the other one.

BOOM! BOOM.

The roar of noise was almost physical and was caused by how fast they moved.

Step.

Right next to the monster that Murphy intercepted.

Triple blade.

The zxeatra he had dodged reversed directions and was coming for him again. Its main limb was wounded but still intact.

Step.

Boom!

The one trying to hit him crashed into the one that Murphy had stopped.

Triple blade.

Right at the damaged main limb targeting the same spot.

A blast of wind ripped from the damaged creature and he found himself knocked, flying straight over one of those impossibly deep crevices. Then he was falling.

Stupid things.

Wind gust!

He flew straight back out. Murphy used his shield to protect Paul. Jules had destroyed the shell that had used fire. Despite her assuring him that her seed club was invulnerable, he still worried when she used it to stop something moving at a hundred miles per hour and weighing close to metric tonne, it just felt like those sorts of forces would eventually crack the wood.

Of the other shells, the stage two were all in bad shape. The stage three, the weakest of them looked close to death.

He wavered around what to do for only a moment.

Mind spike.

He aimed for the weakened stage three. While his first Mind Spike had not killed it, the attack had almost halved the creature’s Mind defence. His chance of killing it was almost ninety percent, and that was ignoring the fact its brain was already damaged. Inherent healing could only do so much.

Step.

Step.

Standing on top of a stage two shell, he thrust the spear down while channelling triple blade through the tip of the spear. Last time he’d tried this the combined strike had easily destroyed the stage four he was fighting. This time, he was less confident. Stage fours must have been at least ten times weaker than the monster he was attacking now.

The spear plunged home and triple blade was released within the monster.

Abruptly, his arms were almost torn off him as the shell accelerated away from his group at immense speed. He surfed the moving shell, wind making his eyes sting because they were going so fast.

The creature stopped, and he kept going, colliding with the spear right into his groin. It was a glancing blow and mostly on his leg, but his eyes rolled up into his head and then his body kept going. He held onto the spear, and the force of pulling himself to a halt almost dislocated his shoulder, but he would not let go. The weapon was part of him.

Wind gust buffered him, helping him get back on the shell as his spear helped out.

Triple blade.

The power once more went through the tip of the spear this time forming noticeably easier due to the cavity that his previous blasts had hollowed out in the inside of the creature’s shell.

The moment the magic released he yanked the spear out. There was a squelch. And then the shell sped off, again. He fell backward, enhanced reflexes or not there was little he could to prevent spinning out of control as his foot got caught on the edge of the shell as it flew forward. He twisted in the air to avoid hitting his head, but it was unnecessary, air swept around him and deposited him upright like he had not fallen awkwardly.

There was an immense crash as the zxeatra he had just attacked rammed into a crystal outcrop without stopping. It was dead his internal assault must have killed it.

The remaining two zxeatra suddenly spread away from them. The fire mage shell was cracked in multiple places and it was dead. The final one that Murphy had been holding off was unblemished but it stuttered a lot, like when Jules’s blood magic had been affecting him.

“Do not pursue,” Mike ordered.

“It’s dead anyway,” Jules said happily.

“Retreat as planned,” Mike continued. “I have got the data I needed.”

Adrian’s interface flashed and a new route out was displayed.

Step, step.

He stood next to the others. Only Paul was startled at his sudden appearance. “We have our orders. Let’s go.”

“Whee,” Jules yelled. “That was fun.”

“Certainly got the blood flowing,” Murphy said dryly.

They ran along the route that Mike had mapped out, and Adrian was surprised by how few enemies they saw.

“Why so few?” he asked curiously.

“They were positioning themselves to stop the various groups penetrating towards the centre,” Mike told him. “That meant that forces that were supposed to be in the outer areas have shifted up their mountain. So there are few groups left able to intercept you. Also, given how easily you killed the weaker groups they might avoid you.”

“There are less of them than they want to project,” Adrian guessed.

“Yes,” Mike confirmed. There was a click that Adrian understood intuitively was his channel switching from his small group communication to address everyone. “The major assault is to begin immediately. Keep your positions relative to your teammates. We want to progress at a steady walk. Kill everything you see!”

There was another click.

“Alpha warriors.” It was a new female voice that he had not heard before. “I want Adrian, Paul and Jules on the front line. Murphy and Joanne are to be back up behind Paul’s position. I’m updating each of your maps separately. For this part of your assault, keep your mana above ninety percent. You are all technically still reserves.”

“What do you mean?”

“You walk behind the front lines,” the professional women said, “and use your magic to help the fight, providing it is over ninety percent.”

“No Bashing?”

“No bashing,” the woman confirmed. They could all hear her laughing. “Unless you have to save someone. You are going to get lots of opportunities to smash and whack later.”

Jules laughed as well.

“Wait are you guys listening in on our conversations?” Adrian called out, but the communicator went silent.

That laugh when Jules had said bashing could not be explained otherwise.

“They don’t have time to listen in on us,” Jules told him authoritatively. “Part of effective communication is using terms that accurately describe actions. Like bashing.”

Murphy came up beside him and patted him on the back. “I would leave it. This is one of those times where winning argument might be losing.”

“Why?”

“She is excitable.”

Adrian nodded at that advice and then ran along till they exited the mountain and saw the Wangaratta army spread out below them, marching forward now only a hundred metres from where the upward slopes started.

“No whacking,” Adrian reminded Jules, right as they parted for their different positions.

She stuck up a finger in response. Rude.

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