Chapter 39

Panic filled Daniel. He had extended himself too far. While the will was there to leap up and continue the fight, his body was not responding as it should. He heaved for breath and all of his muscles from his biceps, through to his abdomen to his calves were cramping.

The ultra still stood. It glared at him through a jumble of broken wood. The barricade was shattered. If it came for him, it would get through. There was a path through to him. Probably.

Once more he tried to stand, but his body failed him. He could have screamed in frustration. There was no fault, but if… if he had taken an extra day… if he had trained up his speed and strength to better than rank one… if…

Anger coursed through him. If, was such an easy word to say, but Daniel knew why he was in this situation. Why they had rushed and when it was a matter of life and death, you couldn’t always afford to wait till you were ready.

He pushed himself half up to a city position.

The ultra looked like it was about to spring.

His will was powerful, but his body failed. He collapsed back onto the steps. Involuntarily his mouth gaped to suck in air and that feral glared at him. Daniel could see the hatred in its eyes… its preparation, and there was no way for him to fight it. The amount of damage he had done to its heart it should have been dead, but it somehow it stood. Whether it was a second heart or Alpha magic, the mechanisms did not matter. The only thing that mattered was that mouth which showed teeth that were almost humanlike, just marginally too sharp and those mad, furious eyes.

He wanted to watch it. To face his death like a man but his entire body suffered, and his eyes were too heavy to keep open and secondly what was the point. If something was coming to kill them, he did not need to see it when there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Hands grabbed Daniel around the shoulder.

What?

He attempted futilely to force his lids up… to see… but not even those were responding.

Boom!

His ears were functioning. That was a one shot rocket going off. He couldn’t see, but he could listen and there were no roars from the ultra or screams from the humans.

He wondered whether it was dead.

The hands dragged him up the steps.

With every step, Daniel expected an explosion of pain. That ultra had looked hungry and when predators saw their food retreating, they attacked.

Nothing happened.

That deadly monster was not killing him, it was not slaughtering the people carrying him to safety. Possibly it was being held back with magic or it had succumbed to what he had done to the heart or the one shot rocket had hit it or it had been forced to retreat as its armour failed. There were so many options.

“Ult…” He tried to form the words as he explosive exhaled but it came out garbled. Even he could not hear the question over the gasping breaths.

He was being pulled onto the mid-level landing, which meant there must be a wall of people between him and the monsters.

It was eerie. There was no noise, no clashes of weapons, roars of defiance or grunts of effort.

Stalemate, dead or retreated, and Daniel doubted it was the first. He was not sure that it had the reasoning centres required for it to show the level of prudence to enter a standoff with humans. One of the others then. Daniel remembered the creature still standing after he had blown it away that last time. How? Between him and Priscilla, they had grown dozens of thorns through the creature’s heart. That should have killed it. Daniel relived how the spear had been stopped when he had thrust it into the monster. It had hit bone in a spot where there should have been no bone present. It was possible its anatomy was no longer close to human. Maybe it did not need its heart anymore or possibly it now had two hearts. His hip smacked hard against the handrails supports and his gasp of pain briefly interrupted his heaving breaths.

“Ranged cover the stairs. Everyone retreat. Get some netting ready.” Luke thundered behind.

Safe.

That’s what those words sounded like. A controlled, unpanicked withdrawal.

The people carrying him shifted direction again.

Flat ground.

Daniel opened his eyes. Above, the roof transformed into the corridor, but they continued to drag him backward.

Fighters were running past him. Behind him, where he had come from the rear guard which included Luke and Tamara boiled out of the stairwell. The speed with how they burst out reminded him of the events yesterday, both the original super and then the crowd of ferals afterwards. Of course, the difference between humans and ferals immediately manifested. There was no taunting like with the super or the messy disorganised mess of the group yesterday. Instead, with tanks facing the danger and ranged magic users supporting from behind they ran backwards at a slow jog to open up space between them and the stairs. Traps were passed forward carried from upstairs and placed down. The self-sufficient netting that didn’t require Daniel to personally fuse to the walls were set up. They were closer to portable fences than the highly restrictive razor thorn restraints that the ones he installed. They might be weaker, but they would control the battlefield by stopping the ferals from charging straight at the massed humans.

Then Daniel was dragged through the actual defensive position and he saw that they had set up like an old school rifle company about five metres forward from the rooms that contained the ramps to upstairs. There were three defined lines, with the front tank line crouched their shields forward and the one shot rockets ready against their shoulder. Then, positioned by height there were two more rows.

Abruptly, Daniel’s view of Luke and Tamara was cut off as the tanks closed ranks and the people carrying him did not pause. He was placed near the ramp with his back against the wall.

One of the male fighters, Geoff, who had helped do the tension in the room the previous evening knelt down in front of him. “I need to return to the fight.” The man stood and turned to look at the other occupants of the room. Daniel recognised them as non-combatants mostly specialising in building and forging style activities. “Get him upstairs.” Geoff ordered.

“No, wait,” or at least that what he tried to say all that came out was pained gasps. An additional set of hands grabbed him. These weren’t as strong and he was more dragged than carried.

“Help, grab his feet.”

A young woman who Daniel had seen helping in the kitchen grabbed one leg and Jordan the other. With four people carrying him, they sped up.

“No,” he attempted once more to protest and completely failed and then they were carrying him up the gently rocking ramp and then placed carefully out of the way in the room’s corner on level twenty.

Daniel closed his eyes to gain control of his breathing and listened to the bustle of activity. People were going up and down the ramp, consistently chatting.

“What’s happening?”

“Nothing.”

“Luke’s orders are to keep bringing the wood down.”

Daniel heard the snatches of conversation. It sounded like the ultra had not overwhelmed them like he had feared. He recalled the damage he had done. Maybe he had killed. He half remembered reading that people could still do stuff after a heart attack, that it took a while for the failure of oxygenated blood to be circulated around to have an impact. Possibly those multiple attempts by the ultra, after having its heart destroyed were just the last gasps of the beast before it died. With the new way the world functioned, Daniel wouldn’t put that sort of outcome to be beyond the realms of possibilities.

Priscilla? He thought.

The feeling of bone dead exhaustion reached him.

What?

Then he felt the unfamiliar sensation of Finigan initiating contact.

He accepted and once more used the dog’s senses.

Priscilla was safe and next to him. Then a jumbled image of bright green and then Priscilla falling and Finigan grabbing her and carrying her up the stairs and then beyond the defensive line.

Good boy.

There was a metaphorical tail wag. A blaze of hope and a sense of excited self interest. Then Daniel experience desire to roll and show his stomach to get a pat. It was almost intense enough to overwhelm Daniel; the dog wanted to lick his face excessively. There were images, anticipation, bliss…

Daniel smiled.

Sure boy. The moment I get down there.

In real life he felt Finigan’s actually tail wag excitedly and then the connection faded.

Finally, his breathing was getting under control and he opened his eyes. There had been no fevered conversations for the last minute, but nor had there been any screams from below, so he was confident things had worked out.

“Jordan,” Daniel called out, seeing the man. “What’s happening?”

He paused glanced at Daniel, stopped and came over. “They’re holding the corridor. Only five zombies have breached. Two speeds that ran into the magic defences and were then shot down and another earth armour that the tanks tag teamed till the armour failed, and then range blew it away.”

“They’re safe.”

“Hardly a challenge.”

“Thankyou.”

Jordan still lugging a heavy piece of wood went down the ramp.

Daniel shut his eyes once more to focus on his breathing. A minute later, still not fully recovered but enough to do basic things he stood and decided to make his way down to the lower floor. He headed back down to level nineteen aware as he did so that this was the third time he had gone down the ramp having been driving off twice before. Mind you, this time at least he was the only one who had been withdrawn.

He still hesitated when he stepped on the ramp. It felt solid, but it was made of plants! If it had of been designed and verified by engineers, Daniel knew he wouldn’t have hesitated because objectively it felt safe.

That had not happened.

He knew exactly how skinny the process had been in creating this. After all, he had been the one who had constructed it and in a night no less.

Daniel stepped out the window and glanced over at the broken city. Unlike at night, there was no hiding the extensive damage. It was not everywhere, but it was horrifying frequently. Crumbled roofs where something large had crashed into them. In the distance, there were signs of extensive fires.

He sniffed. There wasn’t a lot to smell. A hint of the nearby sea, but no smoke or rot. Those fires had to be old. Probably from the first day when he was focused on the minor challenge of surviving. With a shrug, he continued descending, trying to ignore the trees that had changed colours and the crumpled cars on the roads.

When he left the ramp, he was happy and not because of concerns about personal safety. Observing the extensive evidence of what had happened to the world had got to him. Something about the enormity of the changes had snuck into the back of his throat.

This… Daniel looked up the roof and the rough interior of the hotel. This was at least familiar and had enemies he knew. His mind recalled those small shapes last night, and he missed a step. Objectively, the lizard was a more significant threat but… It was something about how they had hunted that gigantic monster and that minor fact that they seemed to be associated with water. He lacked the interface text to research directly, but the way everyone spoke about deep water had left its mark on him. Those creatures he knew deep down were something that he was going to have to deal with.

Daniel kept walking and smiled when he saw the fighters lined up. It was impressive and a reminder that as horrifying as out there was this was a battle they could win. Three days everyone here had been trapped in rooms and fighting a losing battle and now they were a cohesive fighting force. Luke had done a good job.

In front of him were the same disciplined lines he had observed as they had dragged him upward. The corridor was a different matter. It had been disconcerting after Ivey’s attack with the broken bones and the intact walls. That was no longer the case. It looked like a war had broken out. There had been multiple one shot rockets launched because he could see shards of them embedded in the ceiling and two holes on the wall where the rocket had veered severely off course. There were also feral bodies everywhere.

Luke was grinning broadly. “This shield.” He held it up proudly. “Is amazing.”

Luke looked like he was in a pub instead of holding the line against hostile monsters. “Why are you so relaxed?”

The other man shrugged and appeared only a little guilty. “You took the ultra down. This new position is not ideal, but only a single zombie at a time is coming up and they can be easily taken down.”

“I bet the speedsters at least scared you a bit.”

Luke laughed. “They’re the easiest. We have about ten wards and shields available. Toss them into the speedster’s path and it’ll stop them dead. This,” He hit his shield happily. “Your brilliant sapient seed can manifest a bar of air. By itself, it doesn’t do much and it won’t block a sword slash, but when a speedster runs into them, they full on almost decapitate themselves.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, the only thing I’m stressed about is the scenario where they have an army waiting below about to come up. So if you wouldn’t mind.”

“You want me to use animal sense?”

Luke nodded.

Daniel consulted his mana reserves, and they were about forty percent full, which meant he had been incapacitated for almost five minutes.

Animal sense.

Daniel focused down the stairwell and the surrounding areas. A short quick, limited pulse and he could see the ferals coming up the stairs. “Two incoming.”

Luke nodded and snapped out orders.

With the immediate risks addressed, Daniel breathed in deeply and launched a stronger spell. This was not his standard approach instead he extended what animal sense was supposed to do and focused on only searching for concentrated energy sources. The fast spiders that scared Priscilla but were not a threat to human wouldn’t be picked up. A regular feral might not be visible, but two close together would become visible. Daniel sacrificed precision for the ability to cast the range version of the enchantment sooner. His only aim was to look for threats and if it meant he couldn’t see weak monsters that was a feature rather than a drawback. If there was something dangerous, like a large group of elites or an ultra, they would get his attention immediately.

The diffuse energy spread out. There was a flair of power when he touched the moths in the main stairwells and lift shafts. He flinched away. The insects each represented an intense concentrate of power and there were so many of them. Not for the first time after touching them with animal sense he questioned his approach. Farming them was lucrative and had got some of their key non combatant extra levels that they would have struggled to achieve otherwise. That had a huge amount of long-term utility, but the moths… when his mind experienced them their strength and evil nature a flash of fury briefly consumed him. He was inspired to strike at them straight away and crush them.

If he could…

Then he would probably eliminate them.

Daniel tore his consciousness away from the evil insects and noted a concentrated source many floors down, but the spell form was not the type where he could change the spell mid cast to concentrate on a specific area.

The energy he had infused was fully consumed, and the framework fell away. Daniel took a deep breath while considering what to say. There were no threats apart from what evert that was way below them. Finally, he caught Luke’s eye. “They’re not massing to attack and there isn’t an ultra in the next four floors.”

Five floors, maybe he thought privately. That final bit of dense power was probably an ultra, but he would get more details once they get further down.

Luke beamed. “That’s why I’m happy and now you’re here, we can push.”

“Why the sudden confidence?”

“Your one-shot rockets work. We killed an ultra. You killed an ultra.” Luke corrected. “This assault has already taken out around thirty other zombies. You were right. We’re going to stomp them. Plus, we all know you can kill anything.”

“Apart from when he overextends and decides in the middle of a battle to have a sleep.” Tamara quipped.

“Those lapses are forgivable,” Luke said. “Because it’s usually straight after his done something superhuman to save us.”

“Just here guys.”

They laughed.

A roar shook the corridor, and a zombie emerged. It hit its chest threateningly took two steps and three arrows slammed into it. Only three and not Ingrid’s he realised. “You’ve got firing sequences planned?” He blurted out in surprise.

“Of course,” Luke answered. “What did you expect? My plan is naturally more sophisticated than your let’s throw pressure plates down and if it gets past, I’ll smash it with my club.” Luke winced slightly. “That sounded harsher out loud than in my head.”

A second zombie came running out. This one did not grandstand. It leapt up, turned, and ran at them. Daniel was surprised when no one fired a projectile to take it out. Instead, they let it charge the defensive line. Two spears oriented upon it and it skewered itself. The melee fighters shifted and Daniel did not see what happened, but it must have been brutally quick because the lines quickly settled back to where they started almost immediately. The zombie, even though he could not see it was clearly dead.

“Single non-elite ferals are dealt with by the shield wall.” Luke explained. “The first one was an elite. I didn’t get a type, but the fact they took it out with three arrows so swiftly makes me guess they had ranged ability.”

“They have ranged abilities?”

“They’re rare,” Luke confirmed. “But I have seen both dark and ice missiles. Do you think you’re up for us reclaiming the stairwell? This has been effective, but it’s slowing down.”

Luke had seen two ranged. Part of Daniel wanted to dispute the assertion, but he knew better. Since the octopod, the other man had fought significantly more ferals than him and it wouldn’t surprise Daniel if ranged magic took time to develop similarly to how the zombie’s strength was growing.

“Five minutes,” Daniel told him. “Let Priscilla recover and my mana to return to full, then we can try it. Same plan?”

“Yep. You heard him,” Luke bellowed. “Hold here for five minutes and then we’re pushing.” Then more quietly. “How frequently can you do your spider senses?”

“I’ll do it every minute.”

“Great means we won’t be surprised. Janice.”

The young girl ran up to the stairwell. Put her head through the door and screamed as loudly as possible.

“Got to give them an incentive to keep coming.” Luke joked and looked expectantly at Daniel.

Animal sense.

Daniel held up three fingers. “Last one feels strong.”

Luke seemed startled but barked out commands, anyway. When the third one came out, Ingrid’s arrow slammed into it and there was an explosion of grey matter.

“Not that tough,” Luke chuckled. “Anyone get an identification?”

“Yes,” Richard said. “It had a nasty, dark magic attack.”

“Blockable?”

“More like that Ultra’s attack but faster.” Richard confirmed. “So, while technically blockable with magical shields for us, it sort of wasn’t. Then again, its principal threat was its claws. It’s magic attack by itself would take a couple of applications to kill, but the first one would cause so much pain and muscle stress that you’d probably drop convulsing and frothing at the mouth if it got you. Then it would kill you before you recovered.”

“Sounds like it was worth avoiding.” Luke looked at Daniel hopefully. “Another?”

Daniel obliged and tiredly held up a hand of fingers.

“Anything noteworthy.”

He shook his head.

As promised five breached the steps. Two were killed by the ranged and the other three against the spear wall.

“To easy.” Luke chortled.

Animal sense showed another coming, so he held up a single finger.

It died.

Daniel checked his mana, and it was getting close to full. He figured one more animal sense to wait a moment and then movement.

“Incoming.” Ingrid shouted.

Daniel looked up, and a feral had sprinted out and was heading at them. There was a flurry of activity as the team moved to respond to the surprise enemy.

“Hold fire.” Richard yelled. “Weak.”

This creature, hairless and badly mutated with bony growths coming out with no rhythm or reason ran up close and then paused just before the spear wall. It took a cautious step backwards. Apparently, the presence of thirty plus humans not running overwhelmed its instinct to attack.

“Morris.” Luke ordered.

One tank blurred forward, and a spear punched through the feral’s throat and into the skull.

Luke grinned. “God, I love this setup. They come up and die.”

Most people chuckled.

Morris shifted back into the shield wall.

At Luke’s signal, Janice screamed again, and nothing approached.

There was another gesture.

Janice howled again.

Once more, there was no response. Apparently, the remaining ferals that could hear her did not think it was worthwhile to come and investigate.

The team peered around at each other. “Damn, I was hoping to stay up here and pick them off one at a time.” Luke complained.

“That would’ve been the best plan unless an ultra comes.” Alex pointed out. “Then I’d prefer a metre of wood between us and it.”

“True.”

They looked at Daniel and at a thought Priscilla sped off going down one flight and quickly scouting the floor below them. While the lower floors were infested with the fast spiders, the closest couple were thankfully free of them. Images came back from the mouse as she hurriedly poked into the different rooms. In total, there were only three of them and the only elite was a single ice zombie.

In his mind, the mouse pouted. None of the ferals had been clustered together, so she couldn’t have any fun with them.

“There are three on the floor below us.” Daniel told them, trying not to smile. “My recommendation is that we blast past and set up on the stairwell below.”

“Ignore them or?”

“You can send a kill squad to finish.”

“A?” Luke asked.

“Yeah, the strongest is only borderline elite and possesses ice magic. The stronger fighters could probably solo all three. A team will have no problems.”

“Tamara?” Luke nodded to the woman who had been listening in.

“Absolutely. Her lightning would disable them long enough for her to kill them. Especially with Mystic Explosion. I’ll also send Finigan with her to ensure the ferals don’t counter ambush. That’s the only way she’d get hurt.”

“Does your dog have your spider sense, too?” Luke asked.

“Finigan doesn’t but honestly his nose is almost as good.”

“I had forgotten about that feature of dogs. Is it enhanced?”

Daniel thought about it for a moment. He had been stunned by the amount of information Finigan had been able to gain with his nose. Was that enhanced? Daniel shrugged. “Don’t know. All I know is that it’s useful.”

It was better than a typical dog Daniel suspected, but he did not know if that was the animal’s increased intelligence or a combination of that an heightened sense of smell. The only thing he knew for sure was that he was not offered the opportunity to increase his sense of smells when they had been sharing their abilities. That indicated the sense was not enhanced because of the dog’s core at the very least.

Luke considered that for a moment. “And Finigan’s good enough to communicate.”

Fingan replied by barking.

“Give him some orders.” Daniel suggested.

“Sit, Heel, Spin.” Finigan responded as the dog’s link with Daniel let him translate information.

“Maybe something more complicated.” Daniel smirked, challenging the other man.

“Jump.”

The dog jumped.

“Jump and lick Daniel on the face.”

Finigan instantly reacted, leaping up to his chest level. Instinctively, Daniel caught his precious pet, and the dog seized the opportunity to land dozens of sloppy licks.

He dropped the dog and a very smug Finigan landed perfectly balanced on the floor.

“Lick Alex’s hand.”

The dog growled, then went over to Alex and head butted the offered hand. Refusing to sully himself with the act of licking someone who was not a member of the family.

Everyone laughed at its antics.

“Point taken. Finigan goes with them. Team three will explore and eliminate floor eighteen. One and two are on overwatch, while Daniel rebuilds the wall close to level seventeen. Cargo porters know what to do.”

Priscilla had descended to floor seventeen.

An image hit him. The stairwell door was half hanging off the hinges.

Daniel knew exactly what she was after. His conduit was already in position, and this sort of manipulation was getting easier and easier. Operating using mana regeneration, his magic reached out, and he shifted the weight balance of the hanging piece of wood. It swung shut with one hinge squeaked alarmingly. Priscilla alternated between hopping into the corridor and then back to look down the stairwell to confirm nothing was responding to the noise.

After Janice’s screaming, they should have been safe, but there was no reason not to be careful while the threat to the humans below meant they had to press forward an extra five, ten, twenty minutes or even a few hours was unlikely to make a difference.

Like he had suspected not a single feral reacted to the unexpected noise, and the door morphed from a few scraps of metal in a reliable barrier in short order.

“Floor seventeen sealed off.” It wouldn’t survive long against a feral, but practically they only needed a couple of seconds to prepare, and it would give them that much.

Priscilla moved down. Floor sixteen’s door was in multiple pieces, but the two largest chunks were still on the hinges. Under his ministrations, they too swung shut. He strengthened the sections and grew spiky bushy vines over the outside to hide the gaps in the wood.

“Sixteen sealed.”

Priscilla moved further down. The next door was had been torn off its hinges.

Hold there, he thought. And watch for spiders.

She positioned herself at the top of the door frame. It was partially dislodged and she could move between stairwell and corridor easily and if surprised there was a gap in the brickwork, she could escape to. A crack that led straight to the hollowed conduit that would let her escape effortlessly to a new floor, and it was spider proof as well. One because they were too large and even if that was not the case, if a spider was stupid enough to follow Priscilla into a conduit, then either Daniel’s or Priscilla’s magic would crush it. Surrounded by plant matter by the time they acted, it would be as good as dead.

“Let’s go quietly.” Daniel ordered, and he led the way down the stairs.