Chapter 66

Reality distorted, the world shifted and Adrian was in a new spot. He tried to stand but stumbled, then before he could say anything he was plucked up and Jules started running.

Helplessly, he vomited.

Most of it went all over her.

His spear whipped air tendrils to dislodge some of it, but the damage had been done.

Jules said nothing. Her legs eating the territory.

He might not be able to run, but his magic still worked. Adrian considered what he could do. Forcing his eyes open, he looked forward. Based on his stomach it would be minutes till he could use mana potions. His mana had been reduced by almost half through his fight with the echidna, and even with regeneration, his body felt battered.

However, that would not last.

Jules ran, barely slowed by carrying his weight.

Ahead, the land dipped.

Wind Gust picked them up and threw them through the air. In seconds, they were level with the top of the trees.

Jules squealed in delight, and then he brought them down to the ground again. They had skipped the ravine, but he had to conserve his energy. Jules seemed to understand, she hardly broke stride.

“Next time let me go,” he ordered, deciding that he was well enough to move on his own two feet.

She nodded. She crested the hill and started running down.

Wind gust, wind gust.

As instructed, she let him go midair, and the violent wind split them apart and then his spear directed them to land.

“What happened?” she yelled.

“Stage one went perfectly. Hopefully, it will hold it till we are clear.”

Telekinesis brought potions to his lips and drifted the teleportation plate to Jules. They still might need it. If the waste product from the vitality potions failed to work as they envisaged, then the plan was for Adrian to draw the echidna away from Jules and then use the teleport plate when the echidna eventually trapped him. Because it would.

Adrian struggled to keep up with Jules, as he did not want to use either of his movement techniques. Blink because it was a mana hog and shadow step because he was afraid it would send the echidna into a frenzy and help it escape too quickly.

There was no doubt it would get out, and Adrian felt guilty about polluting its environment. The waste product was a horrible blight. Adrian could remember it smouldering in the ditch and killing plant life. The side effect of its herbicide properties would hopefully inhibit the echidna magic that relied on plants. The question was how long it would take to dig its way out. That entire indentation, two hundred metres wide and forty deep would be filled with the stuff. Hell, if his mathematics was accurate there would now be a small hill there. The only question was whether the substance would impede it sufficiently for them to get out of the territory before it got free.

They had to run a little over fifteen kilometres, but it was up and down hills. Even with him cheating to let them fly across the worst of the terrain it was still enough that the run was going to take almost ten minutes to finish.

“Why did we bring you again?” he asked playfully

“Because I wanted to come dummy,” Jules yelled back.

“I would be faster by myself.”

“You’re an idiot sometimes.”

“What?”

“The system wants me in Melbourne,” Jules yelled.

“What?”

He grabbed her hand, and by this point she understood the signal. They both leapt over the cliff and wind swept them away to land on the upward slope forty metres away. Without his wind tricks, this trip would take four or five times as long.

“There is bash-bash to do in Melbourne,” Jules told him.

“Fuck!”

“What?” She looked at him, knowing he did not swear often.

“Kiyoko made me bring a deadly mushroom. The deal is, I had to keep it for a month before getting rid of it.”

“Oh, how deadly?”

Adrian grimaced, remembering the properties of that fungus. “Army killing,” he admitted.

“That’s a lot of bashing.” Jules laughed.

“Doesn’t it disturb you?”

He grabbed her hand and jumped again. His mana was at seventy percent but declining, and the last potion he had was exceedingly bitter, so he had to rely on his mana generation from now. They landed hard on the other side when the spear failed to control the descent. It had clearly followed his thought process.

“Oof,” Jules complained.

“Conserving mana,” he explained while puffing. “Why aren’t you worried?”

“Adrian, if you’re willing to get involved and use that fungus, then whatever the target is will totally deserve it. For example, I doubt you would have used something like that against Adhava and the patriots.”

“No, I wouldn’t have.”

“See. The system will not point us at targets that are morally grey to fight. It knows we’ll refuse.”

“Why the hell do you have so much faith in me?”

“I’ve seen what you do, and how you act. You’re too selfless and ethical by far to abuse that.”

Behind him, the echidna appeared in his domain. “It’s here?” he told her. “Drop the plate.”

Jules did as instructed and then accelerated away. Adrian changed course to lead the echidna at right angles from her. In moments, she had vanished from sight.

Battle wraith, step, step.

He brought up the minimap. They were less than three kilometres from the Melbourne edge. If geography was mirrored on each side, then the worst of the mountainous terrain would be behind them. Four to five minutes was all he needed to buy Jules.

Make space.

Green nature magic swirled around him, and while the echidna was four hundred metres behind him, its aura had reached him.

He chained steps. Stacking them one after the after. He was crossing 50m in a second. Adrian was moving faster than anyone could have imagined pre-event. The echidna closed anyway, but his speed achieved one aim. The echidna did not have time to shape a cage to slow him.

The ground dropped in front of him.

A natural cliff.

He leapt, wind gust sweeping behind him. Two hundred mana blasted out of him, and it was like he had been shot from a gun. The acceleration made his reinforced body groan in displeasure. The power kept flooding, another one hundred were spent and for the first time, he was outdistancing the echidna.

He sustained the speed. Hurtling twenty metres above the sharp tips of the giant grass trees.

The burst had blown him mostly clear of the echidna’s aura. He just had to make sure not to give it the chance to create one of its whirlwinds to suck him to the ground.

Aerial assault also did not worry him. After all, he planned on teleporting out.

His mana was dipping, and he needed to keep at least one blink in his pocket. Mana regeneration kept him in the air but far slower than earlier, and it meant that the monster echidna was gaining on him. Once more, the edge of its aura lapped the top of the trees below him.

His eyes flicked around, checking the sky for enemies and tracking the progress of the aura.

Adrian’s mouth was dry, and he mentally rehearsed emergency measures. He still had the potion that would give him unlimited mana for a minute, and the circuit that would increase his damage. He had not mentioned it to Jules, but that was his fallback position, that burst of energy would let him vaporise the echidna. It was his hail mary, saving grace, and his salvation.

There were consequences. Enormous consequences for him. He could never use magic again, but it was better than dying.

What to do?

A grass tree grew in front of him. Trying to intercept him. The aura was driving growth from below. One mana into a wind blade severed it from the ground and let him push the top section aside.

It seemed the echidna considered that to be a provocation because abruptly ten trees ahead started growing, nature magic glowing bright throughout the entire trees. Adrian knew the echidna was strengthening the internal structure, so his cutting blade would fail.

In response, Adrian blew himself upwards, choosing to go over the obstruction rather than through.

This was all about buying time.

Foresight warned him of the incoming suction and he ducked himself into a dive. Possible paths presented them and he angled his body perfectly. He dipped into the twisting, sucking winds at speed. His body stretched, then contracted. He felt like he had been hit by a train, but as the calculations had predicted, he was tossed out. Shallow entry angle plus normal physics meant that instead of trapping him the funnel ‘fling shotted’ him away.

Success.

Having magnificently repurposed the echidna’s wind magic, he was back to moving at bullet-level speeds. Forecast again clicked into action. He was too low and heading straight towards the top of a grass tree. No physical movement options presented themselves—destroy the obstacle or blink.

Flames roared out of him, above and below where he was about to hit.

Smack!

There was an explosion of blue sparks and the section of grass tree he hit broke across the lines that he had burnt into them. His preparations softening what would otherwise be an unsurvivable collision.

The echidna had luckily created a funnel right at the top of a hill, and the moment he was past the tree he was in free air once more. The remnants of that last barrier still blocked his sight. He pushed with his hands and it fluttered away. Behind him, a chunk of a grass tree the size of a surfboard was ripped away.

Gravity took hold, and he dipped toward the ground and would hit the valley almost at the bottom but on the opposite slope.

Was that one or two minutes?

He only needed two minutes. Four minutes for Jules to get out. Two minutes wasted following him and then another two minutes running back.

It was not even close, Adrian knew instinctively. He was going to have to burn further contingencies.

The ground was rapidly approaching and a well time shadow step bled his momentum away.

Foresight triggered. He was within the echidna’s aura, and a grass tree was whipping around to dissect him.

Part of him wanted to dodge, but he let it strike.

The ring on his finger activated and teleported him away.

He reappeared ten metres away, stumbling slightly. It was nowhere as bad as the teleport plates, but the complete change in position would be enough to affect anyone.

There were at least two more system teleports available, plus his other ring.

Adrian was able to take three long strides before the echidna located him once more.

Every second matters.

Once more, foresight showed swords of the grass under his feet, whipping through where he stood.

Step, step.

The echidna was already reacting. Or maybe it had magic everywhere. Three whips were already flashing to bisect his new location.

Step.

His second teleport triggered abruptly.

Foresight did not even trigger this time.

It was clearly too dangerous to stay.

He didn’t drop the plate on the ground. Instead, he tucked his legs up while still holding it and put his feet on top of it midair. For the briefest of moments, he was surfing on it.

The world quivered, and he was in a new place.

He wanted to collapse.

The mini map came at his instructions, and he oriented himself. Eyes shut, the world was spinning and his domain only partially functioning. But he was pointed the right way, so he pumped his legs and accelerated. There was a brief moment of clarity where his domain revealed the ground in front of him.

Step.

Vomit came up, and he swallowed most of it but some leaked out. The taste made him run faster. He was running back towards Seymour and away from the echidna’s position. It was part of the plan, allowing for the extra time Jules needed. He had one more of the transferring teleport plates. Jules had the second receiver.

He ate up the ground, one kilometre then two kilometres. Maybe he had run too far. Was he still in range?

Map said yes.

His monster alarm went off. It was coming for him.

“Second plate,” he yelled.

“Acknowledged.”

Green mana was pooling around him.

“Plate down,” Jules said.

He dropped the sister plate on the ground and then held his position. Every second counted and till foresight triggered he was safe.

Grass behind him grew and lashed out.

Adrian instinctively ducked to dodge it. It was a single plant, and it flashed over his head.

He was ready to trigger the teleport and run if more attacks came but. But the echidna, instead of trying to splat him where he stood went for a more strategic approach. Barriers formed at ten metres, then twenty and then a third set at thirty. The echidna was setting up a trap where blink, instant teleport or shadow step would only throw him into a different killing field.

It was burning time.

Adrian was thrilled to let it.

It had drawn to a halt a full hundred metres from him. There was none of that curiosity that had it approaching to almost within patting distance the other times. It had clearly learnt from his previous trick with the alchemy waste and did not want to get trapped again.

Nature energy built up around him.

His foresight went crazy. Two seconds of warning with every inch of air filled with an attack. Both near him and further away. Foresight, even using blink could not see a vector for him to escape.

He triggered the teleport plate.

He couldn’t move as dry heaving hit him.

Jules grabbed him, and he felt himself being carried once more.

Adrian checked his mana. Just ninety left.

Then his map.

They were only five hundred metres from the start of safety. Maybe they would make it without him having to use that unlimited mana potion.

Jules’s legs were pumping and eating up the ground. There was a small cliff in front of her, and then she exploded forward. It felt like when he used his wind gusts to their maximum potential.

They soared through the air. It had to be some sort of new skill that she had purchased. They landed with Jules’s feet smashing a three-inch hole into the earth. A twenty metre leap and she kept running like it was nothing.

No echidna yet.

Two hundred metres.

Ahead of him, the land dropped suddenly into the familiar geography. It revealed a land that had been cut apart by a swift-flowing river, even if it was filled with blue and purple grass rather than the colours he was used to. That was the natural feature he had been looking for earlier in the day. Fifty metres to the bottom and a football field across, if he had lured the echidna into something like this, it might have trapped it long enough for them to full run across its land.

“Help!” Jules screamed at him, and then she leapt. Behind them, rock crumbled. It was an impressive jump, a superhero jump but inadequate for the situation. The previous long jump world record was less than ten metres. Jules carrying him probably leapt fifty metres, but it was comically short given the size of the gap they were jumping across. She had trusted his magic to be enough or was sufficiently desperate.

Wind power swirled, working with her jump to push her higher and faster.

It was enough.

Thirty mana to spare. They crashed down and instinctively Jules leapt again as she landed. Her technique stopping her legs from breaking. The section of bank they landed on crumbled, tossing them forward another thirty metres. They were right on the edge of the echidna’s boundary.

He felt it appear in his monster domain.

“Put me down.” She threw him forward instead, and a step righted him.

It was eight hundred metres away and descending in righteous judgement. Jules was almost free, but he still needed to buy her half a minute.

He shadow stepped along the edge of its territory but still within it. It had to sense him. His feet landed on grass, breaking stems after stems to ensure that he got its intention. Adrian could see the green land of earth to his right. The spread of purple, blue grass in front of him and then on his left, about ten metres away, the start of the echidna’s tree line.

If it went for Jules, then he would use the potions. Consequences be damned. While losing his mana permanently would be crippling. No more magic. Alchemy with a permanent ceiling of expert. And a crippled sensory domain. All of it was a small price to pay for saving her.

He could still be useful. Still be a husband, father and warrior with his spear abilities.

Stop. Enough. None of that.

They were both getting out of here alive.

More steps.

In his bag, the special potion and circuit were ready to be used.

Circuit of Spell Intensity

This device can increase the intensity of any spell cast by the wearer by up to eight times. Mana cost increases by double the extra spell intensity. Thus, doubling the strength of a spell will cost four times as much mana.

Unlimited Mana Potion

The user gets unlimited mana for 62 seconds, but the process will permanently burn out the capacity to store magic in the future and permanently prevent the user from ever using magic again.

Four hundred metres and he could sense magic.

Come on.

Him or her?

Another step.

The echidna changed its direction, and it was going after him!

Thank god.

He had done enough. He changed direction shooting for the green grass.

Chaining steps.

The aura was around him.

Flames poured out ahead of him, burning grass, killing just a dinner plate size patch. Just enough to step on. Then an ice plate, then more dead grass.

Flickers of the future continually assaulted him.

Instead of stepping ten metres he only went six, then instead of straight, he went sideways. Grass walls grew in front of him. Gum trees turned into a whomping willow and tried to squish him.

More flames.

The density of mana around him was intensifying. The echidna had left its territory to get him.

“Jules! Plate!”

The second to last teleport plate. This, like the next set, was only paired with the single plate and none of the previous ones they had used. It was also shorter range and was single use. A final desperate measure they had hoped not to use.

For the second time, the foresight went crazy. Once more, there were no spots locally to escape. This was going to suck.

He triggered the teleport.

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