Chapter 32

Adrian watched the tunnel, considering the pattern he had seen so far. As he watched, a new spell came down the tunnel. This one was a rush of distortion. It went in a straight line but did not spread like either the flames or darkness.

What the?

Adrian looked at the far wall and when the weird distortion hit it, the rock wall seemed to fold in on itself. By the time the magic faded, the guard’s shell was vaporised and a hole four or five elephants deep had been gouged into the previous solid stone on the other side of the cave.

What was that?

Of course, there was no answer. Adrian struggled to understand, but he guessed it was some sort of spatial flame. Not that it mattered. If he got caught in any of those beams apart from maybe the flame, he was dead.

He crept closer to the tunnel exit. Mentally, he mapped the time of each attack. They lasted for twenty seconds with a couple of seconds’ break between them. It should be easy to get across. All he had to do was wait till the attack faded and then step across.

Dark magic swirled out and stretched about three-quarters of the way into the cave. That was significantly further than the first two dark spells had reached. For whatever reason, the attacks were growing stronger.

The energy receded.

Step. Step, Step, Step. Step.

Another roar erupted, similar to the fire, but he felt coldness on his back. Another shell was down he noticed absently, and a ring of ten was occupying the remaining two. There was a crowd gathered in the corner and he was worried they would be targeted but the last two zxeatra were clearly struggling and did not have the presence of mind to target anything, let alone pests that were not currently attacking it. They were fighting off Jules’s blood magic while fighters ducked in and out, cracking the shells imprudently. Both of them were going to die even without Jules’s magic as large sections of shell were missing.

They might have been class three, but the attackers were level fifty and they had geared up for this specific battle, and that made all the difference. The end came faster than he expected. Someone placed a package under a shell. They used a movement skill to get away and a massive explosion followed, killing the monster. The other one died without a whimper, slaughtered by Jules’s poison.

Adrian looked around stunned. The ice magic was receding and he knew another over-powered magic spell would come but for now, they were alone.

“Good job, everyone,” Kiyoko called out. “Now it is time to plan. You three start creating the portal.” Adrian studied the three that she was talking to.

Level 39 Teleporter

Level 45 Astral manipulator

Level 5

The information on the last one was interesting. She effectively had a lot of crafting skills for teleportation.

“That will be our escape route,” Kiyoko explained. “But our mission is not accomplished. We have done the hard work now. All that is left is to disrupt the main portal.” Kiyoko told them while behind her the three teleportation specialists were pulling out plates. Right near where he had set his own teleporter plate last time, Adrian realised. They too planned on using that seam of crystal to aid their escape.

Step.

The three setting up the teleporters ignored him as he collected the plate that he had never expected to see again.

“That,” Kiyoko continued waving at where a wave of flames was currently bursting out of the tunnel. “Was planned for.”

“You have a way to suppress that magic?” a weasel-faced man asked. He had bad teeth and looked like he had been a meth user pre-event, but the fact he stood here with them meant that he would have gained numerous levels since.

“No,” Kiyoko said quietly. “I am not sure there is anyone or anything on Earth that could suppress that. Instead, we have plan B.” She clicked her fingers and three people stepped forward.

“Where are Alisha and Darren?”

“Dead,” a voice Adrian recognised. It was Bec from the communicator. She was older than he expected. From her voice, he had been picturing low-twenties but now he had seen her mid-forties. She had probably been a very accomplished personal assistant pre-event. The type his bosses had always had, but he had been too junior to get. “Alisha never made it down the hole and Darren got smoked earlier.”

“His bag?”

Bec shook her head sadly.

“That means we can field ten runners, which is better than models suggested.” She smiled. “Everyone left alive with powerful movement abilities, step forward, please.” Adrian hesitated, he wasn’t sure his ability counted. “Jeff you too, Adrian, Wei Xinyi.” Adrian stepped forward and Kiyoko swept her eyes over all of them, with her eyes cloudy, as she examined each of them.

“Those I select will get artefacts to help you get through the tunnel. You need to move as fast as possible and attach a stone to the portal. Only one of you needs to succeed and it is probably a suicide mission even with the teleport plates we are giving to help with extraction.” There was a long pause as those still blind eyes swept over them.

“There is no penalty for refusing this part.” Kiyoko told them finally. “You will get the same experience and benefits as everyone else in this room even if you refuse to do this run. If you don’t want to be part, please step back.”

A woman stepped back. “I have kids,” her voice was defensive.

“No judgement,” Kiyoko said. “Anyone else?”

Another two women also retreated. Adrian wanted to shout that he had kids too and it was unfair, but he did not move. The fact he had kids was why he was staying.

“The world thanks you.”

There were fourteen of them left.

“Jeff, Greg, Edith and Penelope, we thank you for volunteering, but you are not needed. Everyone else select a pile.” Adrian stepped forward and looked at the piles of equipment that had been placed there. They all looked identical. A single teleportation plate and a whole host of defensive artefacts, though nothing as good as his fire resistance ring. No armour, he noted to his surprise. Plus a large chunk of metal called a portal disruptor and finally, a leather bag lined with liquid metal.

“The big grey chunk. Put that in your bag of holding and then the bag over your bag of holding to keep it safe. Your only job is to get to the end and place that metal on the portal. Do that then use the teleporter to get back. Once you’ve attached the disruptor to the portal, we all have twenty seconds to run. Only one of you needs to succeed, but the more the better. The rest is to just keep you alive.”

Adrian started picking up the defence items and placing them on. Getting rid of his mana rings as he did so.

“You will position at the mouth of the tunnel and when the power fades, rush as fast as you can.”

“All together?”

“No, in three waves.”

“Why?”

“So you don’t trip over each other, but mainly because even with the defensive trinkets you won’t survive the spatial breath and we do not believe it can do two of them in a row.”

Kiyoko walked them over to the tunnel. “Go hard, go fast. Four in the first wave in case it has another trick. Don’t get distracted by any zxeatra in the last room.”

“Will our abilities work in there?” Adrian asked, remembering how his magic had failed him when they were trying to kill Tony. The astral specialist had been setting up a similar two-way portal, albeit on a hundred orders of magnitude less scale.

“They are expanding a two-way portal. That’s delicate work and means they can’t restrict movement abilities. You will have them the entire way.”

“Then how come it happened when an astral specialist was doing it?”

Adrian had already noticed that Kiyoko’s eyes had rolled back when he started talking.

Her eyes returned to their normal colours. “I see your concern. What they are doing wasn’t what happens when an astral specialist sets up a two-way portal. When that initial connection is getting established, there’s lots of instability and that acts as a suppressor field. Expanding requires the opposite. Half of the mages supporting the portal are actually preventing instability on this side.”

“Who’s in the first wave?”

Six people stepped forward, including Adrian.

“Adrian and Wei Xinyi wait. Remember three waves. The first after the next spatial attack and then the second wave straight after and the third after that”

Adrian nodded. He had wanted to go first figuring that his fire immunity ring would provide protection when he was running that others might not have. Even if the flames had stopped burning, the tunnel would still be blistering from the latent heat that had been left.

Spatial power flashed by and then faded.

“Go,” Kiyoko screamed and the four volunteers blinked from sight.

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