Gannon had not moved from where he had first encountered Jason. Instead, he had been charging up an attack. The jewels of his staff pulsed with power as each one cycled through absorbing, storing, and amplifying the energy which was held in a field around the head of the staff. Each jewel had its own particular color of energy that it released, but one could not tell as it mixed in with all the rest, becoming a mass of glowing white hot plasma shrouded in clouds of black myst that as the miniature sun grew more fierce the myst struggled to hang on. Gannon bided his time, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. The longer he waited, powering up his attack, the more likely it was that his attack would be all that it would take to get through any and all of the defenses of his enemy.

Jason launched himself into the sky. It was the perfect opportunity to strike. He couldn’t maneuver in the air and he had all but forgotten Gannon was out there, still able to pose a threat from a distance. Gannon lifted up his weapon, aiming it at Jason like he would a rocket launcher, being sure that his aim was true. Then the shot was taken. It was as if the jewels on the staff had shattered, each releasing their own facsimile star of their own color. They swirled around, mixing into one large white orb in front of the staff. The massive ball of plasma started on it course. In the first fractions of a second it moved slow, just barely moving forward, but in the next those self same jewels that had formed it released beams of energy that traveled up the staff, swirling around, till they reached the orb. Suddenly it was traveling at a velocity that had you blinked you’d likely have missed it shooting across the sky. All you’d have seen was a flash of light that lingered, slowly fading back into the background.

In the split second that followed, the majority of Gabbi’s body shot out from underneath Jason’s equipment, forming a shield structure between Jason and the incoming attack. She knew it wouldn’t be enough to stop what was about to happen, but she had to try. She’d learned about armor from the Human engineers thinking that one day it might be useful knowledge to have since she, herself, acted as something of a type of armor for Jason naturally, padding his falls when he fell. What she had learned is that different types of armor existed, each having their own benefits and drawbacks and each being better suited to defending against different attacks. What she had been doing for Jason was providing cushion against blunt force weapons while the ARMS armor provided protection against cut and slashing type weapons. They made for a good unit, almost impenetrable to some of the worst types of attacks that could be thrown at them wrapped around one of the best innate fighters on the planet, or whatever Debris actually was. However, this time what was thrown at them was a little different. It had blunt force power. It was explosive. Both of which likely exceeded what Gabbi and the ARMS could handle, but to make it worse, this attack was hot. Very hot. Enough to penetrate the wall Jason had erected at the Krizian border by itself. That was bad on its own, but Gabbi was particularly weak to fire as well and even if she wasn’t the orb would superheat her mass which was wrapped around Jason leaving him to boil to death.

Gabbi knew it was a long shot, but she had to try. The slime that composed her body formed several concave layers of shields and then crystalized. She’d never done anything like this before and she was still learning about all of this, but it was a chance and that was all she wanted to give Jason. The plasma ball slammed into the first barrier, shattered it, and then the next. And so it went till each level had been disintegrated into a fine powdery substance that salted the battlefield beneath them. Light flowed around Jason, redirected away from him by the shape the barriers had. Simultaneously he was pushed forward, toward the walls that had been out of reach before. When the last layer of Gabbi’s defense vaporized Jason braced himself. There wasn’t anything more he could do, but hold on and hope that both of them would survive this ordeal. The ball impacted him, smashing into him harder than anything he had felt before. He screamed in pain. The last of Gabbi’s mass slid across his bare flesh making its way to her home, the jeweled gauntlet that Jason wore, trying to reach it in time, before she was completely eradicated from existence.

When the light cleared Jason’s body flew over the wall and crashed to the ground before rolling to a stop. His Armor was in tatters and his skin blistered where it hadn’t already be pulled from the muscle beneath. The dirt beneath him became muddy and took on a reddish color as it absorbed the blood his body leaked onto the ground. It could be seen that he still drew breath but it was labored and showed no signs of consciousness.

The soldiers on the wall that were backing up Jason abandoned their post the moment they saw their leader fly over the barrier. Some went directly for the last boats, while others finished doing their final orders to hold the waves of enemies off for just that much longer, however there were other that rushed immediately to Jason’s side. They had healing abilities, minor as they may be, and hoped they’d be of help. as soon as they came into range they cast what they had. Hopefully it would be enough, if not to fully recover, to at least prevent him from dying. The first to his body were horrified. They’d never seen him in such bad condition. They’d never seen him with a scratch on him, let alone on the verge of death. They froze, not knowing what to do. The next ones luckily had the opposite reaction. They too didn’t have a clue as to what to do and now that their leader was down they began to feel as if hope was lost. But instincts kicked in. Whatever else might be true of the situation and however the future went there was one thing that was certain, to have a future they had to survive and to survive their best chance was to have Jason survive. That meant they needed to get away with Jason before the city was breached by the enemy.

For all the fighting and building up his body that Jason had done over the years his body was still fairly light by human standards. Heavy for a man of his size, but he hadn’t grown very bulky so it only took a person who was of average strength to carry him and stong person could lug him around at speeds that they’d normally not be able to achieve while carrying so much dead weight. The soldiers lifted him up and made for the ships that would carry them to safety. Several healers trailed behind doing what they could on the move. They hadn’t got very far when they heard the gate crashed through. The Krizians had made opened the door and now they flood in with nothing to stop them. It would only take a few moments to get to the boats from where they were. They had to leave now or it would put everyone on them already in danger of not making it away to safety.

That would have been the case, but thanks to some quick thinking the flow of enemies into the city was staunched. A black substance coated the wall and sealed off all possible entrances. It was the ARMS material. Someone had figured out a way to turn a common armor unit into one that could apply to an inorganic object and they’d deployed it right then. It was nowhere near as powerful as the border wall, but it would do to buy time for all in the city to reach the ships before more could make their way in. The ones already in would pose a problem, but the threat had been attenuated enough that they could be dealt with.

As they reached the docks a shadow approached from above. It went unnoticed. None had watched who had come through the gate nor had they attempted to fight them. They may have fallen easily, but it would take up precious time that they did not have. No matter how little, it would be too much. Only when they one caught up did the Free Nation soldiers bother to engage with them. Now, they had no choice as Caloway dropped from the sky in front of them stopping them in their tracks.

The giant stepped out of the crater that his descent created. Stalking forward he towered over the unconscious body of the bruised and battered Jason along with those who were attempting to rescue him. They had seen what this monster was capable of and knew that they stood no chance. Even if they dropped their leader and made a run for it they wouldn’t make it far. If they did, by some miracle, escape they’d still be trapped in a city overrun by their enemy. They had one option. Fight. They would either win, and escape, or die. Each of them did their part. The melee fighters let the healers have hold of Jason, before they dashed forward to engage Caloway. The healers, or rather, the fighters with the capacity of healing at all continued to apply their healing to Jason, hoping that he would recover, but they all knew that was a lost cause. Whenever they could manage they tossed a heal to ones fighting Caloway.

The Free Nation soldiers were stronger on average than any of the Krizian soldiers, but these Captains were several steps beyond the average. It was only their training and the fact that their equipment was not as lacking as the Krizians were that allowed them to put a fight against this behemoth of an enemy, but even when their strikes landed and penetrated they were as nothing to Caloway. It became obvious to them that he was playing with them, knowing that he didn’t have to do anything to claim victory other than stand in their way. He relished in the fear and misery that they were in from their hopes being crushed under his boots.

Caloway’s enjoyment came to a surprising end when out of nowhere a woman in a Free Nation soldier uniform appeared behind him. She flashed into sight for only a moment. Light reflected off two daggers and their edges as she sliced threw Caloway’s achilles tendons. Blood splatter against the wall. The woman vanished. The giant screamed in pain as he came crashing to the ground. The Free Nation soldiers were shocked at what played out in front of them, but they didn’t delay. As soon as they saw an opening to get around the beast of a man they took it, carrying Jason to the docks where they met up with the rest of those who had stayed behind to support Jason.

Seeing the state the group carrying their leader was in several rushed to aid them, taking up the weight. Simultaneously the ship captain made preparation to leave port, starting to move out, but slowly enough for the party to get on board. They made haste, handling Jason with as much care as they could as they loaded him up, passing him to those already on board, before jumping to the deck of the ship themselves in the final moments before they ran out of pier. They’d made it. They were on their way back across to their island.

The woman from before stepped out from the crowd, looking on to the fallen city and pulled a device from her pocket. Everyone looked on as she pressed a button on it. Explosions rang throughout the city, blowing apart homes and businesses, mansions and hovels alike. The pier they’d just been on and the dockyard that had once housed hundreds of ships disintegrated into ash. Nothing was left but a burning ruin where once stood one of the most wealthy settlements of Debris.