Chapter 64

A Failed Parley

We marshaled ourselves on top of the dirt mounds formed along the northern community walls. Behind us were multiple rifle pits and foxholes, mainly consisting of sandbags, dug-out dirt, and the occasional mounted machine gun. While the wooden palisade wall, unfortunately, blocked their line of sight, it was assumed that if we ended up needing them, the walls would likely already be shredded paper by that point.

Several fireteams were stationed throughout the woods adjacent to the main road that the bandits were taking. With nearly eighty soldiers defending the Community in addition to our current selection of men, we were rather confident in whatever might come our way. After all, our scouts were doing a phenomenal job at staying hidden while also providing the appropriate intel. However, what concerned me were the reports that there were at least two dozen of these bandits, casually making their way to our front gate. They weren't even trying to be cautious. While there were more of us by far, something still irked me. The situation didn't feel right. Why would they just walk right up to the Community?

This feeling only continued to pester me as the convoy of bandits kept their trajectory, and ended up right in front of the main gate. They made no attempts to sneak or even surprise us. Which was altogether concerning, and put me on edge. The bandits held a white sheet hanging from a hoisted stick as they made their way forward. Despite everything that they've done, it was still universally recognized as a desire for negotiations. The Captain couldn't, at least in good conscience, make the order to fire on people under the white flag. But why bring so many men if this was just a negotiation?

I stood along with the other "support" members of the Community, Noah, Priscilla, Apinya, and half a dozen other newcomers who had decided to take the path of the mage. Their spells were weak, but it was something. The refugees hadn't come here to fight, but, when the opportunity presented itself, they didn't back down. It was strange, how much desire these people had to protect a community they had only just barely come to call home. I barely knew their names. There were the medical professionals, Rosie, and Jose. The Biologists and Botanists, Felix, Isabella, and Annie. And then ultimately one of the construction workers who had also taken the path of magic, Alexa.

Lastly, Rachel stood by my side firmly clasping my hand. She held my hand with a vise-like grip, I felt like the blood circulation was being cut off. She wouldn't admit it, but I knew she was frightened. The battle with the Lich had unnerved her, and here we were again, in another dangerous situation. It was difficult, having Rachel by my side, knowing that she could potentially be in harm's way, but... what was there to be done? The moment I had even begun to mention to Rachel to stay behind, she shut me up.

I could tell that the other soldiers were also unnerved, particularly Rick. The lieutenant was standing to the side, his arms crossed and fingers tapping away along his bicep.

I casually shuffled over to the lieutenant, "what are you thinking Rick?" I asked.

"Something's not right... It's the same type of feeling I had when dealing with insurgents in Afghanistan. Sometimes it was just that, a feeling. But other times... It heralded a lot of men getting hurt... But," Rick paused, "it looks like Captain Sherman wants your attention."

I looked towards the gate, and sure enough, Captain Sherman was motioning for me to come over. I sighed, everything was going just swell. The thing is, the transformation of the Community into a veritable warzone was... Unsettling. And the speed by which they made the transformation particularly shocking.

I walked up to Captain Sherman, "this kind of puts a dent in some of our defensive plans, now doesn't it?"

The Captain clenched his teeth, "even though the world has gone to hell we are still obliged to follow international law. No matter how... unwise it might be. We at the very least have the duty to hear them out. But mark my words, we have guns trained on them. The moment they even try anything, they'll be taken out.

I groaned, "let's get this over with. I assume you'll be accompanying me to negotiate?"

"And you'd be right, Mr. Parker. But I can't begin to emphasize the amount of caution you'll be needing to take. We'll be outfitting you in some body armor. As a precaution of course."

"A precaution?" I scoffed.

I was promptly outfitted in a woodland patterned tactical vest, as well as a small military earpiece, and walked towards the chain-link gate. Just fifty feet away stood the idle group of bandits. The first red flag was the slight reduction in the number of bandits than what I had witnessed earlier. I slowly began weaving mana through my networks and into my clenched hands. I'd be sure to launch a spell at a moment's provocation. I had learned from far too many mistakes to passively react. It was also for that very same reason I threw my eight free attribute points into my constitution attribute. Over the past week, I had managed to get to level 22. A long cry from my end goal, but progress.

As soon as we stepped out into view, two other men emerged from the bandit's Humvee. Without a doubt, the sight must piss the soldiers off. Glancing towards Captain Sherman only confirmed that fact. Their men had likely died.

I breathed out a held breath. There was no use in waiting. It was now or never.

"Let this parley begin, Captain," I exhaled, exasperated.

"You'd do well to stay alert, Mr. Parker," he responded, and we began to walk forward.

As our two sides journeyed closer towards each other, I quickly recognized one of the two men approaching. Liam. The man only filled me with a deep-seated rage. He couldn't just lay down and die, couldn't he?

At least he had finally shed his ridiculously tattered suit. In its place was a thicker winter coat. He must've forgotten that the Mana Zone was no longer freezing.

The other man with him looked every bit like the criminal he surely was. Close-cropped hair, with a tattoo, lathered face. Teardrops near his eyes, and snakes running up his bare arms. I could see the remnants of an orange jumpsuit poking from under the leather vest he wore. True to the reports. These bandits were escaped convicts.

I focused my attention on this unknown man, refusing to even look Liam in the eyes.

We stopped about eight feet from one another.

"Ah, the remnants of the damned nation, still alive it seems," the convict gesticulated, a flurry of a bow with extended hands.

I grimaced. He was mocking us.

"I don't presume you came for pleasantries," Captain Sherman seethed.

"Ah, don't be so flamboyant Captain, I was merely showing my gratitude for allowing the government to fall. Without your failure, we never would have escaped," the man smirked.

A glance towards Captain Sherman revealed the man was evidently getting under his skin—his face was turning red.

I intervened, "what do you want?"

"Oh, we just want a little fun. Can't have anyone spoiling that, now can we? We're simply here to remove obstacles to Mark's expansion. Ah, but it seems I have forgotten the most important part of negotiations, haven't I? I've been rude not to introduce myself. You may call me Varis. Not that we'll live long enough to remember that," the man winked.

Suddenly, several things happened at once.

As I finally glanced towards Liam's eyes. Instead of the look of hatred I expected, I was met with pleading eyes, and a mouth that motioned, I'm sorry.

In my ear, an alarmed voice, "hostiles incoming! Get back to the fence line, NOW!"

In the distance sudden spouts of gunfire, the sounds of the scouts engaging, and the sound of engines being pushed to their limits.

It took me a bare moment to react, thrusting an inordinate amount of air mana from my already ready hands, shoving it all through my mana networks without a care for the damage it might cause.

Two things happened simultaneously.

Liam erupted into a ball of flame and shrapnel, and I thrust a massive amount of raw air mana straight into both the exploding Liam and the man known as Varis.

The last thing I remembered was flying through the air, stinging pains all across my body, and a ringing through my ears. Muted gunfire decorated the surroundings, and a shrill feminine scream, "Thomas!"

* * *

It only took a few moments to wake back up. But it felt like an eternity.

Explosions, shouts, screams, gunfire, assaulted my ears.

And I was in the middle of it all.

I was recovering much faster than I thought I had any right to, and I looked at my stats to get a quick confirmation. 518 / 756 Health, and 1,132 / 1,176 [1,446] Mana.

I had taken some substantial damage, but apparently, levels really do mean the difference between life and death. Had something like this happened when I was only level one... Well, I only had forty health points back then. It was easy to imagine what the results would have been. I was still laying on the ground. Probably a wise position to be in, considering the amount of gunfire whizzing just above my head.

I quickly looked my body up and down. Sure enough, there were pieces of metal shrapnel sticking from my body, yet, the pain wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. In fact, a lot of it hadn't penetrated deeply at all.

With a harrowing glance, I looked to where I had just stood. Blood and gore splattered across the surroundings. My split-second air attack probably saved my life, but it looked like Liam and Varis hadn't fared so well. Liam was nothing but gore, while Varis only had segments of flesh around the area. I attempted to locate Captain Sherman. I circled my head until it rotated just ahead of me.

The sight would stick in my mind forever. His severed, mangled head lay just a few feet away, eyes still open, mouth hanging agape, the shock still frozen onto his face. Those dead, vacant eyes bore into my very soul. Captain Sherman was dead.

But I couldn't lay here and wallow in grief for a man who had surely known the risks. I couldn't—wouldn't—give up. There was too much at stake.

I forced myself to roll over and endure the brief flashes of pain. As bullets continued whizzing above my head, and slugs impacted the ground around me, I knew if I didn't move, eventually, my level difference wouldn't matter. I could only survive being pelted with bullets traveling the speed of sound so many times.

The urgency of my predicament was only verified when I heard the sound of squealing tires and the sound of a Humvee lurching forward. Looks like the bandits were fully intent on breaking into the Community, and I just so happened to be their way, a collision was imminent. I didn't think for one second I would be in great shape after being run over by an eight-ton vehicle.

With a flex of my arm, I launched myself across the ground, rolling out of the path of the Humvee as it sped by.

Several moments later, before the Humvee impacted the walls of the Community, a rocket-propelled grenade screeched through the air, slamming into the oncoming military vehicle. In an explosion much too large for a mere rocket, the entire scene was momentarily encompassed in a compressive shock wave.

That Humvee had been ladened with explosives. And it had nearly driven straight into where Rachel and the others were gathered.

I was pissed.

I had succeeded on scuttling over to the side of the road, now turned no man's land, and had hidden myself behind a bush. The Community should easily be able to see me, but at the very least it blocked me from the sights of the bandits.

As I peered over its top, I was surprised to note that what had been only a little less than two dozen bandits had suddenly swelled to much more. Stolen military trucks were speeding into the battle zone, and bandits were jumping from moving vehicles, rushing faster than what should have been humanly possible. How the hell did our scouts not see any of this coming!? But time to reflect on the mistakes can wait until after we survived.

With dread, I suddenly realized a variable we had failed to predict. The bandits had already fully dived into the System. Confirming a long-held suspicion—that other groups had already made progress. Just not the groups I wanted.

We were effectively fighting against a superpowered gang, and unless something was done, a lot of good people were going to die.

Already the soldiers defending the Community were rushing the pair of tanks we held in reserve into the kill-zone, likely to try and draw some of the fire. At this point, the wooden walls simply weren't cutting it.

It was anarchy, and I was hunkering down amidst all of it.

But there had to be something I could do. As I turned to look around, I noticed a blur from the corner of my eye. A small group of bandits were attempting to flank the community's defenses, and they were making their way along the houses bordering the road at an Olympic sprinter's pace. As luck would have it—whatever that was worth—I was there to see them, it was likely that they could have assailed the walls and caused some drastic damage. But, as it was, my location behind the small bush provided a perfect vantage point.

I siphoned fire mana from my core, shifting it until there were five spinning miniature destructo discs hovering in front of me—the only difference from previous iterations was the chaotic energy that surrounded the spells.

They were almost at the wall, but, they wouldn't make it. I launched my projectiles forward. In a flash, they sped through the air like homing missiles, heading straight for the rushing bandits.

Only one of them noticed in time, and as he jumped, clearing the blast radius, the other bandits didn't fare so well. One was severed clean in half, the others fell victim to the impacts of the disks and the TNT-like explosions that emanated as a result.

It was a success, but a momentary one, as the one surviving bandit made a rush towards my position. With their flanking maneuver failed, it was obviously a last-ditch attempt to cause at least some damage. The sole bandit wasn't far at all, but considering the likely level difference, I knew I could take him, even in the event of things devolving into hand-to-hand combat.

But just as the man advanced within a few feet of me, a slug of lead burst through the man's head, scattering its contents just to the right of me.

"Thomas, get your ass back here! You're a sitting duck out there! We'll lay down suppressive fire!" Rick yelled, his voice crackling through the earpiece still clipped onto my ear.