Chapter 27

The final ramp was ready. They had been tested and met Cindy’s standards. She claimed they had a three times redundancy. Daniel had no way to prove it, but he hoped she was right and all the surrounding fighters clearly felt the same.

“Tell us when,” Luke whispered, keeping his voice quiet because they were worried about sound travelling now their windows had been removed and the ones below partially opened.

“I’m waiting for the roaming zombies to get into position.”

Priscilla, of course, was monitoring them on his behalf. Meanwhile, he sat next to a conduit ready to trigger everything at a moment’s notice. Windows downstairs, the ramps and the stairs that the zombies would use to reinforce them were all right on the point of triggering. Every item was balanced on a knife edge, so it would only take a fraction of his energy to trigger them.

Below them, a zombie went past the empty suites and walked away. These zombies were not stupid. The mobiles sentries were evenly spread, which meant apart from not triggering the windows while they were right outside the rooms he could act. Daniel waited till the feral was thirty paces away from the room they were going to breach.

Now!

A surge of power went down the conduit. The delicate roots that had replaced the seams in the room downstairs expanded. That lifted and then pushed the base of the window forward less than a centimetre. Then, as per the test he had completed in his current room gravity took hold. There was a loud crack as one window failed to fall easily. It got caught on the frame and then the glass’ weight warped the metal and it broke free noisily.

Then a series of cracks like someone slapping their thigh hard echoed as the windows hit the ground.

Daniel wished he had positioned himself to watch, but he was on the clock. More magic flared and this time he grew nothing. Instead, he removed the loops of vine that were holding the ramps up.

They flopped down.

His senses monitored the ramps two had folded down perfectly the last had caught. His consciousness filled it and the practice that Cindy had pushed him through identified the problem. One slat of wood had got caught on one of the support vines and it stopping them falling down. His power flared and ten centimetres from the edge of the problematic piece the wood thinned and went from strong to brittle to almost nonexistence.

There was a crack that was too soft for him to hear, and the ladder finished folding out and being deployed.

The fighters were already on the first two ladders and despite having seen that small wrinkle in the deployment the fighters assigned to the third ramp started down it.

“Loose slat. Ladder one. A third down.” Daniel bellowed even as the vines that held the ramp together flowered at the designated spot. They would know to avoid it, plus with a single slat missing it was not like there was enough space for someone to fall through.

With the ramps in place, he turned his attention to the third component of their plan.

It was his job to stop, or at least delay reinforcements and stop the ferals on floor nineteen from fleeing. His consciousness shifted from Cindy’s creations to the access stairs on the level below. As per the windows, he had prepared everything in advance. Two masses of wood were attached to the roof, One in the corridor and the second in the stairwell itself, then there was the spring connected to the stairwell door hanging sadly on a single damaged hinge.

Daniel triggered that spring and the door, using the replacement spring swung shut. He monitored till it was closed and then the platform made of spikes fell down from the ceiling on both sides of the door to increase the barrier. Finally, he prompted the growths in the frame to let sections of wood fall into the gaps he had left in the door. It was now effectively dead bolted at multiple spots around the frame. It was not as good as using steel. But while each individual ‘bolt’ was weaker, the fourteen that had clicked into place meant that the door was more firmly secured than a typical locked door. That would stop a human and block minor zombies, but he knew it would not hold the bigger ones for that long.

Delay.

All the Ultras would hopefully be a couple of floors down. That was uncertain. They could be higher. Priscilla had been monitoring floor nineteen, and he had decided that keeping mana in reserve was more important than using animal sense at the level where it could tell the strength of distinct life forms in its range.

All the door had to do was long enough for them to land the first bloody punch and then retreat. He was confident that the falling windows would not have triggered the brains from the floors below. But it was not like Daniel could predict how a feral would react. If whatever was controlling them thought as logically as a human, they would be fine. Even if it saw the glass dropping through the air, it would not spring to the conclusion that people upstairs were launching an attack. The natural thing to assume was some sort of fight occurred where windows were popped out as one of the parties was thrown into them.

He opened his eyes and the room that thirty seconds ago had been filled with ten fighters had emptied. He got a brief glimpse of Tamara and Ivey disappearing down the ramp, bringing up the back line as their roles dictated.

Daniel sprang to his feet to follow and then stopped as Priscilla sent an image.

She was downstairs, focusing on the rooms they were attacking from. A significant percentage of their fighting force was already down and getting into position. The closest sentry had emerged from a nearby room and had been taken down almost instantly by a barrage of arrows. A melee fighter who had been next to the door the stationary sentry had emerged from had had not had an opportunity to strike.

The two wandering zombies were charging. The elite was rounding the corner with anger clear on its hairy face.

Coming, he thought, don’t distract me. Daniel hurried to the ramp and couldn’t help but look down through the ramp to the building so far below him.

It was a long fall, and the vine ramp he had created looked ridiculously flimsy. He remembered how Cindy had set it up in the stairwell and literally had people jumping on it trying to break it. It was solid and wouldn’t fail despite its flimsy appearance.

“No,” he told himself. “I will not leave things to chance because I was nervous about heights. I won’t abandon my friends.”

Heart thumping, he stepped onto the ramp. It was almost as good as solid ground and the railing was at a perfect height. Grabbing tightly with his right hand, he ran down it. Daniel felt nauseated. The ground was so far away and the entire structure trembled with every step. He reached the window and stepped into the building proper with an involuntary gasp of relief.

He hadn’t realised that he had been holding his breath.

He was damn glad that Cindy had been around to design that. If he had been left in charge, then Daniel knew he probably would have baulked at coming down.

When he got past the ranged fighter and into the corridors proper, he could immediately see he was unneeded. All the Zombies on the floor had charged their incursion and been taken out with extreme prejudice. Mind you, these were the chaff. There had been only a single elite for them to kill.

“Good!” Luke screamed. “If you’re carrying traps move forward to place them.”

BOOM!!

The noise staggered everyone and Daniel watched in disbelief as the door he had reinforced was blown off at hinges and sent flying into the opposite wall. The spikes penetrating almost fully into the plaster because the door had been thrown with that much power.

There was a puff of dust from the ceiling and a touch of concern ran through Daniel.

Priscilla had identified nothing this powerful in all of her trips down.

How was it here? Why? And what else could it do?

Chapter 28

“RARAGA.”

The creature that stepped out reminded Daniel of the Hulk that he had fought on the first day only. That was based purely on size, but this time he was more powerful and had an assessment skill to measure his opponent. It was faster than him, stronger, and it possessed visible magic. The familiar coat of earth armour covered it from head to claw and that was an awful lot of the stuff. Under the armour it was pitch black, a combination of the underlying skin and the occasional patch of short silky hair. That skin, the claws and its misshaped feet you could squint your eyes and pretend humanity, but the head destroyed that situation. It had tusks and a prominent brow with a sunken face.

Comparing this to the hulk was an insult it was so much more powerful.

Panic radiated through his bond from Priscilla. Just like he had studied it, so was she, and her level of skill far exceeded his own.

Run! All my chips! Run.

The desperation in the thought shocked him.

Me lots chips.

An image of her den was sent to him. For a such a small mouse, it was a massive space. She had hollowed it out of the wall between the hotel room and the woody growth swelled out on each side. It was large enough to fit a large house cat and was filled with a dragon mound’s worth of chips. Priscilla’s treasure literally piled to the roof of her nest.

Yours. Run. Please!

There were images of her grabbing the chips and bringing it to him while he sat outside the den. She would bring a chip, which he would accept, and then he would consume it with worship filled bites. Then she would get him another. It was the bestest deal ever.

RUN!

Daniel did not have time for her concern. Intellectually, he understood the warning, but this was about their long-term survival. Their entire fighting force was here. If that got amongst them, tearing, shedding… He shook away the image he couldn’t afford to be distracted.

Finigan was next to him, growling. Daniel had not even noticed that the dog had come down.

Run. Daniel ordered the dog.

The response was resolute. Finigan was determined to stick by his and Cindy’s side. Once more, there was no time to argue.

Boom!

An arrow struck what had to be an ultra, or possibly a super zombie dead in the centre of its chest.

It was one of Ingrid’s specials. There was an explosion, and the monster did not even rock backwards. It ignored the missile like it didn’t exist.

His feeling of dread increased and while he had blocked out Priscilla, he could feel her mounting hysteria. The beast was too strong for any of them to fight.

There were more loud cracks as multiple people shot one off launches. Half of them hit the roof or the walls and of the three that struck the super feral two exploded like they were designed with the other one unfortunately bouncing off.

Hold your fire. He wanted to scream it, but it was too late.

“Save the rockets.” Luke yelled, but two of thirds of them were already shot. “Traps down.”

“RARAR.”

Traps were hastily dropped and pushed forward, but not one person got close to the monster and no one attempted to put up a restraint netting even though multiple ones had been brought down. Not that a few vines across the hallway were likely to stop something that weighed that much and was that strong.

“We want peace. If you come any closer, we’ll kill you.” Daniel screamed at the feral, hoping that this creature was like Dave because if it was truly feral they had no chance. “We don’t want to fight.” He tried again.

A wave of spells lashed out despite what he was saying. More arrows with the same explosive impact struck it, and it was like flies running into the monster.

“CEASE FIRE!” Luke screamed.

Daniel suspected Luke was making a military decision rather than supporting him. That barrage of spells had done nothing. The energy had rolled off the creature. They needed to wait till the earth armour receded before they could hurt it. Daniel had witnessed missiles, particularly Ingrid’s explosive shots strike other earth ferals, and they had all been rocked backward by the force. This thing had to be more than twice as heavy as any of the other monsters they had fought because the attacks did absolutely nothing. Eight hundred kilograms, maybe. Potentially over a tonne. Logically, that sort of heaviness seemed nonsensical, given that it had once been human, but Daniel’s eyes did not lie.

“It’s feral.” Ivey told him quietly having moved up next to him. Almost like she was in a daze. She passed Life Tinker to the healer that was next to her. “Hold it for me.”

For some unknown reason, the zombie had not attacked them. It stood there, taunting them.

More spells and arrows struck it.

“Cease Fire.” Daniel yelled. “You’re not hurting it.”

“Retreat!” Luke yelled at the same time. That order got a response. Half of the fighters gathered turned and run.

Why was it not attacking? Daniel asked himself.

“Ingrid again.” Luke said quietly.

Another of her specials slammed home and once more it was like the explosive arrow bounced off the monster. Weight or some momentum cancelling skill, Daniel decided and if anything he was leaning toward the second one, there was no way it weighed enough to ignore that arrow.

Once more, the feral absorbed the blow without seeming to care. The zombie was laughing at them, mocking them. It was so confident that it could defeat them that it was show boating.

The frontline tanks, whether they had heard Luke or just because of the monsters’ sheer intimidation were retreating. In fact, the only person moving toward the monster was Ivey. She was already equal with the leading tank and her steps had an inevitable confidence to them.

Dave had followed her and reached out and grabbed her arm, but she angrily tore it away.

“We’ve discussed this.” She snapped.

Discussed what? Daniel thought. “Ivey.”

She ignored him and started walking forward faster. Daniel went to follow to stop her but before he got two steps. Dave moved to intercept him.

“Dave.” Daniel warned.

The hairy man held up her hand in the classic traffic stop signal to him having turned his back on the feral behind him.

Daniel hesitated. Nothing was making sense, first the fact the super feral existed, then that it was intelligent enough to mock them, Ivey charging the monster alone and Dave supporting that decision.

Ivy marched toward it like she was about to tell a naughty kid off. The feral its head almost touching the ceiling was looking at her, incredulously. He could see that in its widening human like eyes.

It gave off the uncanny valley effect. Like it was human, but different enough to be disturbing, in this case its eyes, in that head.

He hesitated. For once, he was confused and not sure what he should be doing. It didn’t help that none of it was making sense. She was freely going toward it, but it would kill her. Hypnosis? No, that didn’t explain Dave. It didn’t matter he had to save her.

Was she going to attempt to pacify it?

Did she think she could talk it down?

That it would care that she was female.

It wouldn’t.

Speed.

It was his weaker version, being his boost from Finigan. The one that he could use without exhausting himself but from experience Daniel figured that would be enough.

Dave somehow matched his speed.

“Ivy, please don’t. You’ll die.” Daniel yelled. She kept walking, ignoring him.

She wasn’t listening. He did not know what she had told Dave he was not about to let her throw her life away. Abruptly, Dave’s enormous arms enfolded him. He had been planning on activating speed, but before he could, the bear hug tightened and Dave’s full weight crashed into him and staggered him. Then one leg went around his, pinning him in place and stopping him from stepping back to balance himself. Newtonian physics, gravity, angular momentum, with the most powerful monster they had faced right in front of them Daniel felt himself being tripped by an ally. Dave’s fur in his mouth and he slammed into the ground.

Instinct took over. His mind triggered strength. He flexed his muscles, twisting to the side and pushed himself to his feet. Dave’s hold was easily broken by the sudden movement and overwhelming power. Daniel scrambled upright.

He was too late!

Dave’s attack had delayed him for critical seconds and Ivy had only sped up in that time.

She was right in front of the terrible monster.

A beast that was laughing at them.

It did not care about her determined expression or the fact that she was human.

“Leave.” Ivey ordered.

It snorted and showed its teeth and then it sung at her!

Its massive hand, significantly larger than someone’s head with ten centimetre long claws, whistled down towards her unarmoured body. Those claws would cut anyone to pieces, let alone a slight barely armoured girl.

Thiik!

To Daniel’s senses it felt like a bomb had gone off. The space around Ivey distorted and a black cloud billowed out from her. It rushed down the corridor initially in all directions, but then he could only see the wave flowing down the hallway towards him, carrying a feeling of violence and menace.

In moments, the super feral were covered by that dense smoke.

None of it made sense.

At his feet, Dave groaned.

The smoke had travelled almost fifteen metres from where the monster had hit Ivey and it was not natural. That black mist was alive. It looked like an eldritch horror that had been converted to smoke.

If the smoke touched him…

Terror rushed through him. He did not want to think about what it would feel like if that surrounded him. It was not smoke it was a monster and a terrifying one.

Thiik!

The smoke abruptly became thicker. It took on red tinges and intense heat radiated outward. Daniel staggered backwards as the radiant heat smashed into him.

“Bloody Oath.”

The heat made it hard to look, and he was driven back even as the smoke withered and twisted. It looked like there was a monster, or probably monsters like the octopod obscured by the magical mist. Every now and again, he would glimpse a tentacle with jet black flesh. The hot dark smoke was filled with horrors that Daniel never wished to see again.

The hairs on the back of his neck rose. He wanted to look away and run, but there was no way he could tear his eyes from it.

To turn his back…

It was the stuff of nightmares. Especially the sound.

There was no noise apart from when the spell or creature or whatever was created or changed.

Absolute silence.

No. Roaring. Those solid tentacles that withered and smacked into the walls did not create a thud. There was not even the crackling of flames that would have matched the heat coming out. No whistling wind despite the jerky smoke movements.

The only sounds were his breathing and the muffled voices of the fighters going up the ramps behind him.

Dave sat and instinctively Daniel dropped a hand to pull the other man to his feet. Dave had saved his life. There was no doubt about that. If he had been caught in that cloud, there would have been no miracle to save him. He would have a talk later, but whatever Ivey had done had bought them all enough of time for everyone else to escape.

Dave held up his hairy hand. Five claws out and then he put down one and another and Daniel realised he was doing a countdown.

When he reached zero, the black smoke vanished and Dave blasted forward at a run. Instinctively Daniel matched him, drawing slightly on his speed power to recover from the slow start.

Ivey lying there prone on the ground.

Dead or unconscious or… whatever the state she was not moving as she sprawled in the middle of the corridor. The only thing that gave him hope was there was no visible blood, not that external blood was required for someone to have died especially given the heat that smoke had been radiating. But was clear that strike that the super feral had launched had somehow not landed.

Hope flared.

She might still be alive.