Chapter 29

Adrian crested the ridge and recognised the last ring before the funnel. This area was larger than the other sections. Previously, there had been regular ridges radiating out like a spike on a wheel, but now they were getting closer. They were so close to the centre that he could see about a third of a circle on either side. It was a tight-curved valley and the geography was crappy for humans. There were no flat spaces, but their makeshift army had already adapted.

The battlefield, their section at least, was almost a kilometre long and a hundred metres wide but bent. There was lots of space to fight, but it was filled with more zxeatra than they had expected. While this might not be the last stand, the zxeatra had clearly reinforced their numbers. It was only shells below them. The octopods had all been exterminated as the humans had stormed the mountain. Those rolling walls of tentacles that had confronted him had fallen under the equally numerous blades of the human armies. There was another reason there were no octopods below. The weakest of the shells were far stronger than a mana octopod. They would have added nothing to the coming battle. This was for the big guns.

First, his eyes examined them, from experience he classified them by dint of size and colours. There were four stage 2, then forty stage three and then five times that number of the weaker stage three. It was a significant force. Four creatures ranked between the wyrm and Bird, another forty as powerful as the Bird and then a multitude of chaff. Adrian swallowed heavily. He could sense the collective gasp that went through the massed human army.

There were more colour shades amongst the lower ranks than Adrian had previously observed. Hopefully, they would not complicate things. They were used to the power of the three main variants. Maybe they were cleaners and the enemy had run out of fighters and was bluffing them, but Adrian doubted it.

Zxeatra Italraca Stage 3 Earth Shaper

The Zxeatra Italraca are a species evolved upon Alpha worlds. Stage 4 earth shapers are mages that specialise in terraforming the environment. Their shell makes them nearly immune to both magic and physical attacks.

Not cleaners, but close. They were clearly on Earth for something other than fighting. With one successfully identified so their commanders would know what they were facing, he turned his attention to the real threat facing them. Four class three. That was strength they could not take lightly, even with their elevated levels. One of them was a mage that specialised in earth, another in fire and then a scout and guard.

“This looks more fun,” Jules said brightly.

“Alpha teams,” the female voice suddenly crackled in their ears. “This is not your fight. Please preserve strength for later. Do not expose yourselves to risk, but you can contribute. Providing mana does not drop below ninety percent, and you do not put yourself at risk of injury.”

“Damn,” Murphy cursed next to him. “I don’t want to watch more people die.”

Jules merely smiled. “That’s my cue to go kill them.” She patted her armour-covered thigh. “With regeneration and food, I have almost unlimited blood.” She plucked out a burger, took a big bite and then grinned at them. “Wait and watch.”

All the battle groups, excluding their own, started moving. It was eerie to see, but he guessed Mike had been addressing them separately.

“Alpha teams, I know Bec has briefed you, but I need to reiterate. The rest of Wangaratta can handle this fight. We need you to be fresh in case they have reinforcements.”

Mentally, Adrian registered just what that meant. The entrance to the hole in the ground would presumably be guarded by something stronger than what filled this valley. That was who they had to fight. Especially if it came and tried to attack them mid-battle.

Adrian watched the disorganised army advance. It was an amazing sight. Two thousand groups of fighters advancing shoulder to shoulder. They were literally ten deep in places, and as one they marched forward with no coordination in their movements. What they did have was a palpable sense of resolute tenacity.

While the system had been heavy-handed in forcing them to be here. Adrian did not think that mattered that much. Almost every one of them had chosen to be here. They were all willing to sacrifice themselves to ensure the portal below got closed. All of them knew what they were walking into. They had experienced the damage the smaller shells could do, and it was easy enough to extrapolate what the larger ones would do.

“Fuck, I want to help them,” Jules said.

Adrian swallowed heavily. “Yeah. Go.”

“We obey orders,” Murphy said firmly. “We need to be ready for a counterattack.”

Jules swiftly finished her burger. “I’ll keep my mana above ninety percent.” She then departed, half running and half sliding down the steep slope.

Below them, the battle was drawn. Magic exploded, defences were enacted and people died. The stage two guard accelerated and squished ten humans while sending another forty flying. It paused for a moment to let its limb slap around it, squishing two fighters who had only been injured by its charge. Then it sped up at a right angle. Straight into a different group.

BANG!

The shell stopped abruptly. A shield glowed with power, with a single woman crouched behind it. The glowing metal held her position despite the massive force of the moving shell. The enormous boulder having been intercepted by dint of her courage and powers.

Magic was… indescribable sometimes.

“Mike has asked me to target the stage twos,” Jules yelled over the communication necklace. “It’s official. See you losers.” She broke out into a sprint toward the guard whose first strike had done so much damage. Though from the looks of things, the humans were striking back and had stabilised the situation thanks to the glowing shields. The first attack must have caught the tanks off guard.

“I’m going too,” he told the others.

Step. Mind spike.

Unlike Jules, he targeted the smaller shells. Aiming not to kill but to distract them long enough for someone else to finish them.

He respected his orders and refrained from using battle wraith. Keeping his magic suppressed outside of the occasional air gust to save himself or others. His Mind Spikes, however, lashed out continuously, stabilising the battles near where he moved. Up the line and then down. He passed Jules, busily sprinting towards where the earth shell was wreaking its own unique form of havoc. That was one area that Adrian had avoided, as protecting himself from the multiple waves of earth magic was guaranteed to burn away his reserves. Either spikes exploded up from under your feet or it was shooting magic that acted like heat-seeking earth missiles. Sporadically, it created a fast-moving earthen wall that folded around and consumed them, and when it passed, it was like they had gone through a metal grinder. There wasn’t much left afterwards.

When he next passed the guard, it was dead. The skill Jules had chosen was damn smart. She had tailored it beautifully to this fight. By the time he reached the far side where the fire mage had started the fight, he found it near death. Its shell split open and its powers broken. The fight was still going. Five stage three defended their broken master, which was half of its initial complement of defenders and their vigorous defence combined with the occasional puff of flames from the damaged mage kept everyone at bay.

Adrian went to work using his temperature control ability to reduce the impact of the gusts of flame even as his Mind Spikes hammered one defender after another. The fighters around the monster took advantage of its stutters and pauses and the suddenly less damaging fireballs to finish the fight.

Adrian looked at his mana and grimaced. It was down fifty percent despite the orders to keep it above ninety. The surrounding fighters were cheering with excitement.

“Good job sections twenty-three through to thirty-four,” Mike’s voice rang out. “Four minutes for recovery, then you can move to reinforce other sections. Individual handlers will reach out to reform attack squads.”

With a shrug, Adrian turned and walked back towards his original starting point. There were still two class three alive, but they were the only real resistance left and one look with Magic Focus showed that Jules’s poison was doing its thing. The moment he got to where he started, he sat down next to Murphy with Paul and Joanne on the other side.

“How well did you obey orders?” Murphy asked curiously.

“Mostly perfectly,” he answered, looking in awe at the number of bodies that were laid out below him. Hundreds had died in this small area. “Mostly,” Adrian repeated, with a glance over towards where sections twenty-three to thirty-four were getting to their feet. Apart from that one battle, he had obeyed the orders perfectly. Adrian smiled to himself. It didn’t matter, that last intervention had been worth it. He must have saved dozens, if not hundreds, of fighters.

“Alpha teams form up and head towards the next crest.”

“We’re on,” Murphy said with false bravado.

Adrian’s map had updated, and they were not being sent directly across but at an angle toward where Jules was. The route gave her less distance to run. Smart. He thought it was just Mike and Bec, but they must have lots of people working for them to coordinate the fight to that level of detail. The more powerful individuals were being micro-managed.

Jules joined them just before the ridge of the hill.

“Time to earn our special treatment.”

“Did you kill three?”

“Nah, just the scout and earth one. The guard was killed before my poison finished up. I’ll take half credit though, it losing control of its movement definitely helped them finish it.”

“I only helped a bit with the fire one,” Adrian admitted.

“So you’re still on zero?”

He smiled at that barb. “Come on, let’s see what’s next.”

He could see that there was nothing preparing a direct ambush on the other side. The top of the ridge was not like you would ever find naturally, rather it literally went up to a sharp point. Probably the work of those earth shapers. They jogged to the top and assessed the funnel as a team for the first time. What they saw was an artificially shaped location and a big hole in the middle. All the zxeatra that had been in the space earlier were gone, leaving just a single monster to fight them.

“Mage,” he said instantly and then focused on it.

Zxeatra Italraca Mage - Stage 1 (Class three rating)

The Zxeatra Italraca are a species evolved upon Alpha worlds. Stage 1 mages use multiple magic types along with physical mobility to crush their opponents. Their shell makes them nearly immune to both magic and physical attacks.

As always, extra information flowed through to him. “Fire, Earth and Nature,” he told the others. Jules hissed from beside him. “It’s equivalent to a class three monster which puts its magic onto the next level. It has an enhanced moving earth wall that can one shot all of us.” He glanced at Jules, assessing her blood magic. “And its nature magic will counter your blood magic. So use as much as you can because if it’s healing itself, it’s not using white flame spit on us.”

“This is going to be shit.”

“Adrian,” Mike’s voice intruded. “Can you please complete your identification?”

“What are you watching through my eyes or something?”

“Not directly, but we have skills that use all the information gained and unfortunately you are one of our three top identifiers.”

He continued studying the threat in front of him.

“Are the others identifying, too?”

“Of course they are. They have a different angle from you and are alternately skilled.”

The shell was patterned curiously. Potentially, there had been a fracturing and regrowth there. He kept his focus on the creature, working out its mix of spells. There was nothing too alarming. The expanding earth wall was definitely the worst trick it had. It was even more terrifying than the one he had avoided in the previous battle. But as powerful as that was, the enemy was a long way from a single trick wonder.

Part of him wished he had months to study that earth wall spell. There would be so much that he could learn from it. The wall was not fast-moving dirt but more spinning sharp slivers of rock, and while technically not diamond, they might as well be. They would cut most of the armour he had seen easily. It was very similar to how the wind blades worked, but with diamonds instead of air and a ripple effect that could expand out to fifty metres in every direction. Given how often it could use the magic he was not sure that any humans were going to get into melee range.

The white fire spit was just as fascinating. It was like the sticky Dragon’s Breath potion, more than capable of burning a foot or so into solid ground whether it be metal or rock. The material didn’t matter as the stuff would just evaporate anything, and it could drop it on anyone within ninety metres of it. The creature could form it right above their heads just like he did with fire sprout.

“This is impossible.”

“Not quite,” Mike said with a laugh. Adrian had not realised his communication device was still open. “It’s beatable.”

“But?”

“We are still calculating probabilities.”

“What are you guys considering?”

“We can’t leave this at our back. That earth ring would be absolutely devastating at the bottom of the cavern. So there are two primary choices. The first is to let you elite guys kill it. The second is that we send the elite down the hole and then have the rest of us attack this thing, so it doesn’t follow.”

“Everyone else will be slaughtered.”

“Yeah, we will.”

“We?”

“Look to your right.” Adrian did so, looking down into the strange geometry they had just cleared. He was a quarter of a kilometre away, but Mike was walking up towards the ridge along with a whole host of other people he assumed were the support staff. “There’s no holding back and no second chances, so I’ll fight too.”

“You’ll all die..”

“Yes, if we chose that path. But if it gives you guys another couple of seconds to complete the mission down below, then that sacrifice is worth it.”

“You can’t.”

“We haven’t made the decision. But we’ll do whatever has the higher probability.”

“This system is bloody brutal.”

“The system is not making the choice, that is up to me and I know you think I make poor decisions, but we are doing what gives us the best chance of winning even if that means that every single one of us dies. The fate of the world rests here.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I need to talk it out with someone.”

“Charlotte?”

“She’s too emotional. I want someone hard enough to understand.”

“Great, and that’s me?”

Mike laughed over the necklace. “Yeah, it is. I used to be jealous of you but not anymore. Power comes at a cost.”

“Only if you have a heart.”

“Yep,” Mike agreed. “It fucken sucks, doesn’t it?”

All the fighters from Wangaratta were gathered behind him, not going over the ridge yet, but getting ready.

“That bastard you are looking at is the last one left on the surface,” Mike told him. “We will attack from every direction.”

“Which means?”

“What you fear.” His voice clicked off and then clicked back on in a way that let Adrian know he was talking to all of them. “We have a battle plan.” Mike’s voice rang out and Adrian, because he was looking for it, could hear the apology.

‎