Asphodel – Sixth Age – Third Year – Seventy-Ninth Sun

Ghost was dodging the double sided blade of a level 70 Soldier when a deafening sound came from the prison behind him. Deflecting the Soldier’s sword with his level 95 Damascus steel kukri, Ghost side stepped and shoved his level 98 P5 laser pistol into the Soldier’s midsection and pulled the trigger. The laser cut straight through his chain mail armor and tore a chunk out of his abdomen, causing the Soldier to go down hard on his knees. Ghost rotated and dug his kukri into the back of his neck for an instant critical attack. The Warrior fell with a dull thud against the ground.

The battle went eerily silent. Ghost looked around to see HTG security forces standing next to armored Tigers, Gryphons landing where ever they could find space and the massive assault mechs holding their ground. Everyone was focused on the prison and the unnatural sound that exited its halls. Seconds seem to stretch into hours as hundreds of users waited for the source to make itself known. Even the two bombers that had been doing strafing runs stopped above, coming to a hover a hundred feet from the entrance of the prison. Their wings were retracted back into an assault position and their bombing bays were closed to allow for their front gatling guns to be energized.

Ghost glanced around the area with a mental smirk. He was a level 100 Warden, and had been for over ten years. His history spanned over two thousand battles that scaled from several combatants all the way up to a full out war, but this situation was completely new to him. He had never seen anything stop a battle of this size in its tracks.

A thunderous roar came frame inside the prison, significantly louder than whatever made the previous noise. The roar was somewhere between that of a Black Tooth and Grizzly, amplified to an unquantifiable level. Ghost just stared while everyone covered their ears; the sheer pitch and volume at which the sound hit them was too much. Armor rattled, swords, guns and other weapons fell to the ground as people clamped their hands on either side of their heads. Even the Bombers wavered above. That’s when he struck.

The front of the prison exploded into a wave of smoke and concrete debris that rained over the battlefield. Flames engulfed the debris from behind, masking the Wrathic as it flew out of the facility. The cloud of fire focused, with two large beams of molten death shooting toward the bombers hovering above the ground. The pilots attempted to strafe out of the way, but they weren’t nearly quick enough. The fire engulfed both of the ships and a second later the Wrathic’s elongated head emerged from the blaze and swallowed what was left.

It was much bigger than Ghost anticipated. Mary had shown him early videos of the Wrathic transforming, but the creature back then was only about thirty feet long. Adam was only a level 9 and his Ghost estimated that his Wrathic was now around two hundred feet long from head to tail.

The field below turned into absolute chaos. Ghost’s orders had already gone out, so his forces knew what to expect and handled the situation perfectly. The security force was overwhelmed, but now the assailants were frozen in fear, or pointlessly shooting at the massive Wrathic as it swept over the battle. Physical and energy rounds bounced off of the Wrathics tough skin and it’s large wings gracefully swept up and down. It was an incredible sight to behold, and if Ghost didn’t have a mission to complete, he would have stopped and stared like everyone else. Alas, he was a professional and his people went to work.

The Wrathic arched up toward the sky and flew in a wide arch in order to sweep in for another attack. Ghost tagged the Wrathic and programmed one of the cameras on his helmet to follow it, while he worked his way through the enemy soldiers. He redirected the feed to the left portion of his combat glasses and turned the opacity down to forty percent. Now that he had one eye on the battle field and one on the Wrathic’s progress, he connected to the channel he created for his people and the prison’s security forces. “Remember his mind is a hurricane of fire. He can separate us from the enemy, but be sure to stay out of the way, he’s not in complete control. It’s not like a normal Shifter Fire will come before restraint so keep him in your sights and keep clear.”

Ghost holstered his P5 pistol and ripped the level 100 M4 assault rifle from his back. He was thankful for the relic around his neck that allowed him to mentally access his inventory while focusing on combat. Selecting high velocity, tungsten rounds for his rifle, he raised the iron sight to his eye. With several taps of the trigger, an approaching Soldier and Tiger went down. ‘1,000 xp and 1,500 xp’ appeared in the center of his combat glasses upper right lens in a light red, italic font. With the experience points that he was gaining on these kill, Ghost estimated that most of the users were level 50 and above.

He rotated the rifle to bring up the electric scope that was mounted to the side of his rail and zeroed in on a pair of Gryphons in the air. They were regrouping to attack the Wrathic from the rear as it circled back around. It was unlikely that they’d do any real damage, but his mission was clear; keep Adam safe at all costs. Ghost tapped off one round, then adjust quickly and fired another. The first struck one of the Gryphons on its helmet and the second hit the other between the armor on its wing. As expected the first gryphon rotated to find the source of the hit, and the second one began spiraling toward the ground. Ghost realigned his scope on the first Gryphon and drove another round through the eye hole of its helmet. It went limp. Ghost adjusted and caught the second gryphon between the gap of its helmet and chest plate, severing its brain stem from the spine. ‘Critical Hit Head Shot 3,000xp +500xp aerial combatant’ and ‘Critical Hit 2,500 xp +500 xp aerial combatant’ appeared in Ghost’s upper vision. He never tired of watching his kills rack up experience.

The Wrathic streamed down from the sky for a second attack, focused on two of the mechs just below it. They had a bipedal, humanoid shape with two legs to walk on and two arms that could handle large weapons or bash through walls. These two in particular were outfitted with anti-air cannons on their shoulders that were barraging rounds at the Wrathic. Coming in fast, the beast rotated forty feet above the ground and drove it’s massive, open talons toward the mechs. The Wrathic slammed into the ground, causing dirt and dust to fly up into the air as the metal crunched under the force of its powerful legs like tin foil. It rebounded, launching back into the air and tossing the flattened mechs back into a group of attacking Warriors on the battlefield.

“Keep it up!” Ghost commanded. The tide was turning. They were still outnumbered, but the enemy was too preoccupied by the Wrathic to formulate a plan, or even retreat.

‘INCOMING ATTACK: REAR’ flashed on Ghost’s right lens. He rotated and fired an explosive round from the lower portion of his rifle’s tactical rail. The attacking Tiger was already in the air and was unable to change course. It roared just before the round reached it, giving the explosive a nice clear path into the creatures throat. With a small explosion, a red mist shot into the air around the Tigers head which then fell to the ground in front of its body. ‘Critical hit 2,500xp +1,000xp Trick shot +500xp Red shower’

The immediate area around Ghost was clear, so he located the closest group of combatants and darted toward them to rejoin the battle.

As he ran, Ghost watched the video feed of the Wrathic in his left lens. Pulling its head back, it flew up the prison’s front defensive wall, rotated and landed on top of the wall, facing the battle. Arching its back and spreading its wings, the Wrathic let out another massive roar that swept across the battle field. It radiated so much force, that some of the lower level users where actually knocked to the ground.

“Ghost report,” Mary’s voice came through the comms.

“Little busy Mum,” Ghost dodged an diving Gryphon and rotated, throwing his kukri at its back leg. The blade made its mark between the plated armor and as the creature attempted to land, the limb gave way. The beast went down hard, tumbling over itself three times before Exodus, his fellow Warden, put it down for good with an axe to the head. Exodus grabbed the kukri stuck in its leg and threw it to Ghost, who caught it by the handle and swiftly holstered it back into his combat vest.

“I’m ten mikes, give me the cliff notes.”

Ghost redirected his Wrathic feed to Tony in main control so he could transfer it back to Mary. “Coming at you,” he replied. Ghost handled another advancing Soldier then looked up at the Wrathic on the prison wall streaming a wide birth of flames down on a group of Soldiers and Tigers that were trying to escape. They didn’t stand a chance. There was even a mech that got caught in the flames and ended up as a melted pile of alloy.

“That’s my boy,” Mary said quietly.

Flames licked the charred remains of the characters beneath the wall as the Wrathic flapped its wings and took flight. The battle was all but won and Ghost was no longer worried about keeping the Wrathic alive, he was worried about what would happen when it ran out of targets. As much as he hated the thought, everyone was expendable except Adam. He understood that, and so did his people.

“Don’t think he’s going to stick around Mum,” Ghost said.

“We’re tracking him. Tony you listening?”

“Yes.” Tony was curt, his potion was still active.

“Broadcast now. Every screen you can. Send out video blasts, spread the word through every group we have access to and hack the ones we don’t. Burn through fire walls, bring in other Techno’s if you need to. Get it out now.”

“Already done.”

“Ghost,” Mary said.

“Mum?”

“I have no doubt that he’s going to take a little trip. All of our research points toward the Wrathic being controlled by Adam’s Id and the last thing he wanted was to imprisoned. Let security clean up, grab your men and a ship and head after him but keep your distance. With those videos spreading across Asphodel, no one’s going to chance a tussle. I want you and your team on site to protect him when he changes back. He’s going to be weak, mana exhausted. Understood?”

“Yes Mum. Should we administer potions?”

"No, this is first real battle, I want him to feel the aftermath, can’t let Tartarus get to his head. Especially now that the word is out. Just keep him safe,” Mary paused. “And Ghost?”

“Mum?”

Mary’s voice softened. “He saw Lisa.”

Ghost didn’t respond. His mind raced with memories, videos of their interactions playing back through his head without control. She was once his weakness and now she was just a bunch of files stuck in his head, images that played back when his emotions took control. Ghost locked it all down and pushed the memories from his mind.

“Do I need to tell you how important he is to me?” Mary asked.

Ghost swallowed hard. His throat felt dry and scratchy when he replied with, “No.”

“Are we seeing eye to eye?”

“Can’t see how we wouldn’t be.”

“Good, I’ll touch base when I reach the prison, don’t let him out of your sight.”

“Ghost out,” The battle was over, brief but brutal. It could have been a lot worse if Adam hadn’t transformed. Ghost and his team were good, but their weren’t gods. Ghost instructed local security to finish off injured attackers, while the Wrathic circled the resulting slaughter high above. Ghost realized that his jaw was clenched shut and it took a few seconds for him to consciously loosen it. His cheek felt cold. Reaching up, his finger pulled back a tear.

“Sir?” Exodus said from behind him.

Ghost used the base of his palm to wipe away the rest of his past that leaked out of his eye and turned to his old friend. “Grab Miller and Hound, we’re going after him.”