Chapter 28

They joined the front lines, and they were only one and a half kilometres from the central section. A pathetic stage two was intercepted by Murphy and then had its shell cracked by Jules before Paul shot earth shards into it.

They kept running into no material defence for another half a kilometre of tortuous up and down progress. Suddenly, they crested the ridge and ran into a weak stage one shell. It was ready for them and Murphy went flying as it smacked him with its multi-jointed limb.

It was a scout. Adrian noticed that besides him Jules was dripping with blood. She had done it to herself, striking a briefly unarmoured calf and hip with her barbed club.

The blood seemed to come alive. A wave of bullets, like from a machine gun, exploded from her leg.

The shell blurred towards him.

Instinct took over.

Step.

He was immediately out of range, and the zxeatra stopped right on the ridge. Jules had jumped to the side. Having avoided the charge she swung hard, but with his enhanced senses he could tell that she was holding her strength back.

There was a flicker of movement.

Step.

The limb slammed down where he had been standing. The monster’s speed was impressive. For this battle, Adrian decided to stay out of the fight unless someone got badly hurt. Technically, his triple blade could whittle away its arm, but he wanted to preserve his magic. Meanwhile, his Mind Spikes kept slamming into the creature. There was no fracturing of its consciousness, but Adrian imagined, at the very least, it had to be hurting it.

Another shadow above him.

Step.

There was an explosion of rock shards where he had been standing. The Mind Spikes were definitely pissing it off.

Step

Chips of rock flew from where he had departed.

The bloody thing could cast some minor illusions to hide the movement of its main limb. In his vision, including his domain senses, the limb had not been moving till after it had struck the new spot.

Step.

This time it was the whole shell. It really wanted him dead.

The others were attacking, and Jules’s blood had already infected it. They needed time.

Step.

Another explosion of rock. This time from the appendage.

Pick on someone your own size.

Wind blade.

Adrian was sick of being passive and wanted to strike back, even if it was only a scratch to something that size.

Step, step.

It was hunting him and his Mind Spikes kept hitting. Maybe it was not pissed, but instead was a guard dog protecting the space.

Step

“It won’t leave the area.” He half asked half stated into the communicator.

Step.

“We know,” Jules told him. “Keep it occupied. You are doing a good job.” He chained more steps. “If you are running low of steps retreat out of the protected area.”

Boom!

The shell demolished an outcropping of metallic ore. A series of fractures spread from the impact point on the scout’s shell. Adrian was shocked. He had thought the shell was stronger than that.

His domain senses picked up on another hail of blood bullets, which this time targeted the new cracks. The bullets seemed to land and then wiggle like worms into the flesh of the monster.

Step.

“Adrian retreat,” Jules ordered. “That’s an order.”

Step, Step, Step.

Adrian stood next to her and Murphy, who had sprinted back into position looking slightly embarrassed at having been launched away like that. He stared down at the creature. Now that they had left the area, it was not doing anything. “Are we just going to wait?”

“Mike,” Jules said abruptly. “We have class three zxeatra scout blocking away. It has been mortally poisoned and will die within two minutes.”

“How confident are you of the poison working?”

‎ “Very.”

“Hold for two minutes and then re-engage if it’s not dead at that point.”

“Confirmed.” The communication clicked off. “Now, we wait.”

“How do you know your poison is strong enough?”

Jules turned to look at Adrian. “I can feel where my blood is, and if it has been in something long enough, I can tell whether it will kill it. That is how I knew you’d be fine.”

“You could have told me.”

“Nah, more funny to make you wonder.”

“And that thing?”

“Dead in sixty seconds. The first wave was probably enough to kill it, but the second wave just made it certain and sped it up an extra ten seconds.”

Curiously, Adrian watched with Magic Focus. He could see the internal battle that was occurring through the cracked shell and the limb coming out of the top. The inherent healing was battling and clearly winning. “I don’t see.”

‎ “This is the end of the second phase,” Jules answered. “The last phase is about to happen.”

Suddenly he could see the red of Jules’s blood like a malignant cancer within the limb. They wiggled and inherent healing rushed in but dissolved away when it touched the intense red. Muscle died as the little red wiggles moved in and across the creature’s flesh. Inherent healing failed, and the little red tendrils multiplied and spread in a cascading chain reaction.

Within his visual spectrum, he could see actual rot occurring on the skin. Lesions bubbled as skin died and the immune system fought back against the little red tendrils in the centre of the destruction. The rot spread outwards, inherent having failed, and then it slumped lifeless.

Adrian’s eyes then flicked to the shell and through the cracks, he could see the same things that had happened.

“Mike, class three is dead. We’re moving forward.

“Negative. Hold. It was your blood magic?”

“Yep.”

“Eliminate the one to the right then move forward as a combined unit.”

Jules looked annoyed at the orders, but she did as instructed, rotating along the top of the ridge until they looked down into another depression. This one also had a class three zxeatra in it but it was a guard instead of a scout. The monster looked materially heavier than the one they had fought. It had also clearly been in a fight. There were cracks in its shell in multiple spots and even sections of shell the size of his head missing. Despite that, it stood unbowed with its limb fully intact, held up proudly and ready to slap anything that threatened it.

Close to twenty human bodies lay in the area, all of them mangled. Some were little more than a blood stain and discarded broken weapons.

“Can you distract it?” Jules asked.

“Yep.”

Step, wind blade, Step.

The monster flashed after him, it flailed its limb at him, but with every third attack, it tried to body slam him. After about twenty seconds of leading it on a merry chase, he felt the streaks of blood slam home. Jules ignored the limb and just targeted distinct gaps in the shell. Having fought with her long enough he knew she would want it turned around to infect the other side.

Step, step.

It spun and charged him once more. There was another burst of bloody missiles and he retreated up the ridge to safety.

It did not follow him.

Jules stood next to him, her eyes squinted as she examined the monster.

“It’s done,” she said into the communication necklace.

“Dead?”

“In a hundred seconds.”

“Hold till it expires.”

“Being part of a war group suxs eggs.”

Adrian patted her on the shoulder. “I imagine the fights are going to get more intense.” Quietly, he stared down at the bodies below them. In some ways they had died in vain, and a slower approach would have let Jules’s blood kill them one by one, but the damage they had done to the shell had helped leave it vulnerable. Against the scout, they had got lucky since it had cracked its shell by itself. But against the guard with the thicker shell, he was not sure a single collision would have had that impact.

The zxeatra started randomly shooting around the space it was protecting. Adrian remembered vividly how his muscles had randomly contracted.

“Your blood magic is nasty.”

“Yeah, it was a terrible choice. Means I sit around just watching.” Adrian glanced at her sideways. “What, I don’t like it. Feels evil.” She physically shivered. “I know it’s a great way to finish a beast that would otherwise be too strong, and I know it’s good against these things, but.”

“Fair enough,” Adrian said. “I felt the same way about my Mind powers.”

“And now you don’t have them. I bet you’re happier.”

“Yep.”

“I’m going to feel the same way about the blood magic.”

Below them, Adrian saw the change in Jules’s poison and the sudden rush of inherent healing that quickly got overwhelmed by the poison.

“Done.”

“I can see,” he responded, but realised that she was talking to command.

“Move forward. Let’s see what we have next.”

As ordered, they strode down. Behind them, there was the hum of moving crowds as the rest of Wangaratta, or at least those in their section, started to follow.

Almost as if an order had been given they jogged by, forming up in groups in front of them.

“Alpha warriors.” The girl who directed them when Mike was not available, spoke into their devices. “You are to stand down. Please stay behind the assault squads till instructed otherwise.”

Jules kicked the class three monster they were passing. The shell rocked. “I hate battle groups.”

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