Chapter 50

Adrian moved as quickly as Ambusher’s Steps would let him. Every chance he got without slowing them, he would visually try to see if anything was following. His fear was that the class two creature might have followed the teleport. Logically, he doubted it. But fear was rarely logical.

Whenever he checked, there was nothing there.

He paused.

If Jaracol was available, he would have given a sign by now around threat levels. Presumably, other non-standard interfaces would be as communicative in a potential life and death case like this.

Adrian relaxed Ambusher’s Steps to allow for voice communication.

“Omala should we be running?”

“Yes!” she hissed at him furiously.

It was an emphatic answer. He turned and kept going.

As he ran on autopilot, Adrian considered the implication of the watlicuu striders and he frowned as he remembered their description. Near-Sapient or Sapient. They had been here en masse and high levelled to boot. Those monsters had come from a broken world that he thought was one without sapient creatures, or at the very least without civilisation.

They were not here to exchange casserole recipes. They were dangerous. Not to him, but to the typical humans. He had killed five before Omala had teleported them away, but there had been more beyond his forty-metre range. He had seen them, hundreds, children, an entire village had come to Earth.

From his memory, he broke down what he had observed in that three-second period as Omala had been preparing her spell. Twenty had been running at them. Another group had been peeling off to challenge the nearest class four, which had been a yellow elephant with dumbo-like ears, and then the rest of the adults had been working in teams of four to clear up the lesser creatures near them.

The closest one, that force mage, had not hesitated. It had gone straight for the kill, which told Adrian exactly where they sat in the nice neighbour sweepstakes. Maybe better than the drug den above his room at college, but still a problem.

He wondered if he had a responsibility to humanity to return here and ensure they did not survive.

Adrian considered it. He couldn’t help where his mind wandered sometimes. Especially when Ambusher’s Steps controlled his movements.

There had been valuable plants and immensely powerful monsters. The watlicuu were weaker than Adrian’s team, nevertheless, those classed creatures had been sufficiently powerful enough that Omala’s interface had felt the need to retreat. They had only escaped thanks to the teleport skill Omala had mastered during the mana storm. There might have been lots of them and they might be sapient and fight intelligently but they were barely strong enough to battle the closest class fours by themselves let alone the class two and the other presumably powerful beasts that must have appeared beyond his one-kilometre scanning range. Possibly the teleport had been needed for the stronger single monsters around them. The watlicuu striders still gave him chills.

Usually, he would lean on Jaracol for guidance, but he was unavailable, so he would wait for Kiyoko.

He could hear the rasping breaths of Omala despite Fade technically stopping everyone behind him from using sound. Mike and Beatrice, their fire mages would also be struggling.

Once more, he cast a Lay of Hands on Joanne, but it failed to revive her. He stopped walking and turned. “Omala?” He held out Joanne’s unconscious body.

With Magic Focus open, he watched her shaping a complicated spell and healing magic flooded into Joanne. Where his spells had barely touched Joanne, Omala’s sunk deep into the brain and made a difference. Joanne stirred in his arms.

Jules coughed lightly. “Praveen.” Her voice was broken. “I brought him, but I think he’s dead.”

With Magic Focus, Adrian confirmed that with a glance. There was not a single piece of inherent healing in his body.

“No,” Joanne croaked.

“He is,” Adrian assured her.

“No, I might have something to help.”

“He’s dead.”

“It’s resurrection,” Joanne gasped.

“What?”

“New skill,” she told him. “But my head.” Magic flooded around her as she tried to heal herself. It sunk into her like Omala’s but was focused on Joanne’s head rather than the rest of the body. “I need to recover, then I’ll try.”

“Should I freeze him?” Adrian asked, thinking of cryogenics.

Joanne tensed. “No, it won’t help.”

A loud roar from the direction they were running from startled everyone.

Adrian grabbed Joanne once more in a fireman’s carry. “Let’s keep moving till you’re ready to save him.”

As he moved, he marvelled at how much his strength had grown. Carrying Joanne did not strain him. Back in Albury, he had required both Buff of Strength and size to do the same to Joshua.

“Do we have to go already?” Mike wheezed. “It’s—”

The complaints were cut off abruptly when the silencing aspect of Ambusher’s Fade fully clicked in. It was totally not just to shut him up. It was because there was no reason to risk unexpected noises causing trouble.

Fifty minutes later, and confident that they had escaped, Adrian stopped in a bend of an old creek. It was as private as they were going to get.

“Joanne?” he asked.

The woman nodded. “I’m better. I can do it.”

Adrian lowered her to be next to where Jules had placed Praveen. “Can any of us help?”

She shook her head.

“How long will it take?” Jules asked.

Joanne put a finger to her mouth to indicate quiet and then placed one hand on Praveen’s forehead and the other she raised straight in the air like she was imploring the aid of a god. Power gathered around her and streams of light like when he was getting upgraded from the mediation achievement, started streaming into her. They came from everywhere, glittery magical particles that flowed in but only became visible in the final ten metres. It was not a small amount either. The quantity was enormous. Thick streams wider than his legs floating and spiralling into her and then out of her hand and into Praveen.

They could all feel the energies being used, and it felt like a mana storm only not chaotic, instead it was ordered and responsive.

The power settled in Praveen till his insides glowed.

More power flooded Joanne.

It was incredible and he should have been standing guard, but he could not pull his eyes away. None of them were acting as sentries. They were all transfixed by the spectacle. A miracle made possible by the new physics.

If it worked.

The energy swamped through Joanne, till Praveen shone like the sun.

A look of pain flowed over Joanne’s face. The smooth transfer of power spluttered. The glittery light stopped coming from outside. The bits left were getting sucked into Joanne like water down the drain. There was a pulse and the sucking force intensified. Suddenly, everything in the air shot into her so fast he expected a thunderclap to accompany it. The energy was focused on her hand. A solid lump was created and ever so slowly that lump crept down her raised arm. Settling in her chest. It paused, its nature changing and then it pressed towards Praveen. It looked like a titanic struggle. Joanne pushed and it resisted. It would move, then stop. Sweat poured from her face.

She grimaced and then the stalled power in her elbow slammed into Praveen.

Joanne collapsed.

The light in Praveen changed. The underlying nature of the energy altering. It fluctuated from light to white healing magic to a red something and then vanished.

Praveen gasped for air!

They all involuntarily moved back in shock. Inside Praveen’s body, the man’s heart started beating and inherent healing suddenly bubbled into existence.

“Resurrection,” Jules said in disbelief.

Praveen was alive.

Adrian cast identification on him.

Level 21 Defender

He had lost over twenty levels and was a lot weaker. Additionally, the twenty-plus attribute points associated with levels had vanished. He was significantly weaker across the board.

But… he was breathing. If his brain was okay… “Amazing.”

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