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Evanescent Shift
Forty-Four: The Abnormal

Forty-Four: The Abnormal

Stefan scrambled to create another tier 10 barrier, astonished that the strongest type that he’d been trained to create had been destroyed so easily. It granted Meinrad a precious few extra seconds to give himself space away from the Abnormal which seemed to be wholly bent on destroying the closest living thing to him. The inadvertent distraction worked, and it allowed the five remaining soldiers except for Klaudia to unleash a barrage of gunfire from their hunting rifles. Klaudia did as Meinrad had asked her and continued to keep a safe distance back. Meinrad’s eyes were wide with horror, trying to process that a barrier even he had not consistently broken during his numerous training sessions with Stefan had so easily collapsed. But then again, it was bound to happen. Titanians could best five Terrans at a single time. But for this Abnormal, something wasn’t right.

He's just taking them on… and he knows that there are more than five humans here. He’s not calling for back up. He’s just taking the bullets, and not calling for backup.

The Titanian only seemed mildly unpleased as the storm of bullets bounced off his clothing and skin, only ever managing to create insignificant dents over him. The soldiers quickly switched to their revolvers, meant to be used only in times of self defence. The bullets continued to bounce off of him like rubber. He advanced towards them slowly, now directed away from Meinrad. The fear on the faces of the soldiers became apparent, realizing that their bullets had no effect on them. They only remembered with their last few bullets left that they could charge Reserve into their guns, and with them, managed to create a few scratches on the body of the Abnormal. Snarling with rage, he lunged at the nearest two soldiers and lopped their heads off of their necks with a swipe of the hands. Another had his face ripped off by the Abnormal’s teeth, and the fourth saw her own guts in his hands just before she could take her final breaths.

As the Titanian desecrated the remains of the soldiers he had just killed, Stefan took a few brief moments to consider what he could’ve possibly done at that moment.

There’s a system aboard that craft that I can use to communicate over long distances… Anwen told me it was called a radio. If I could use that and alert the other two groups about this situation, they can help us. 19 versus one… that monster can’t take down the rest of us!

“Stefan…” Meinrad said gloomily as he hid just behind a side of the craft away from the Abnormal’s view. “I’m gonna need you to get down from that tree right now.”

Stefan’s feet touched the forest floor the same time that the Abnormal had finished brutalizing the corpses of his victims. Stefan quickly put up a tier eight barrier, considerably weaker than a tier nine or 10 but one he had control over to cover a wider amount of space that would protect him as he joined Meinrad’s side once again.

“What do we do now?” Stefan asked, beads of sweat on his forehead signifying his nervousness amidst the completely foreign circumstances he found himself to be in.

“Klaudia’s still out there… we have to fend that thing off so that she can get back inside the craft and call for help.”

We’re on the same wavelength.

“But… what about them?” Stefan mumbled.

“They’re dead.” Meinrad cried as the Abnormal sprinted at the two boys. Meinrad had just barely acted in time, using his one of his strong legs to kick away the Titanian as he attempted to grab and undeniably crush Stefan’s throat. Using this short space of respite, Meinrad and Stefan ran as fast as they could to Klaudia, who had watched everything unfold from behind a tree.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“You need to get back inside the craft and—

“Call for help?” Klaudia interrupted Meinrad. “Cover me.”

The brutish Titanian had caught up, growling with rage as he raised his fists above his head, about to pound down on the three young Terrans. Stefan ducked and rolled away just in time, having created a tier 10 barrier to protect Meinrad as he pushed Klaudia away. Using the dagger he had brought with him he channeled in Reserve and dragged it swiftly against the back of the Titanian’s thigh. The Titanian responded by cracking his neck and eyeing down the much smaller Terran.

That slice barely had any effect. Any other Titanian would’ve been brought to their knees.

Before the Titanian could fling Stefan across the forest and shatter his body against a tree, a foot connected with the Titanian’s jaw, sending him crashing to the ground.

Was that a side kick? Stefan wondered as Meinrad repositioned himself. I’ve never seen anyone fight like that before.

“Stop daydreaming, Stefan!” Meinrad cried. “Make another barrier for me!”

Stefan, although clearly beginning to become tired, quickly formed another tier 10 barrier for Meinrad. The barrier did not touch the ground, instead hovering slightly higher than it to safeguard the vital areas of his body—his head and abdomen.

The Titanian’s arm shot sideways as he remained on the ground, swiping his hands at Meinrad’s leg in an attempt to pull him to the ground and finish him off. Stefan was quick to notice and dropped one hand so that he could use it to throw his knife at the alien’s shoulder, plunging it through its flesh. This allowed Meinrad and Stefan to distance themselves from their finally injured opponent. The Titanian groaned in annoyance and discomfort, but still managed to get onto his knees.

“Why isn’t he stopping? I hit him really good… he’s not trying to stop. He still wants to see us dead.” Stefan noted, using the opportunity to try to analyse as much as possible before their opponent caught up with them again.

“I’m sure you’ve noticed it by now…” Meinrad said. “But that Titanian is not normal. Even they would try to act somewhat rationally. The fact that he’s here alone was a telltale sign that something about him wasn’t right, they always come in pairs at the very least. And that tells me… that he’s lost his mind. There’s no sanity left in him anymore, and he’s trying to kill and destroy every moving, living thing that comes across him. We arrived at the wrong place at the wrong time…”

“So what now?” Stefan asked. “Even when he’s injured, he’ll still try to come at us with the same intensity as always.”

“We take out his senses, so that he can’t find us,” Meinrad said. “Then we cut him down. Or pop a bullet or two into him.”

“With what guns? The others used up all of their ammo before they were killed.”

“Hey!” Klaudia said as her arm briefly shot out of the entrance of the craft to throw an object out. “Use my rifle!”

“That’s right…” Meinrad said. “Klaudia never fired her rifle. Stefan, come with me and get it!”

Another four tier 10 barriers had to be formed to protect the two young men as they scrambled to retrieve the desperately needed weapon. Each of them had come down as quickly as they had appeared, but Stefan had used his intuition to know how long each one of them would last before getting destroyed.

“I got through to them!” Klaudia cried out from within the bridge of the craft. “Start a fire so they can find us easily. I can only tell them our general location.”

“Shit…” Meinrad muttered as he shot and reloaded the gun, successfully hitting the Titanian twice.

I’m going to have to leave Stefan alone for a bit.

“What’s—

Stefan’s arms made straining motions as his 10th or so tier 10 barrier had been produced, only to get cut down by the increasingly vicious Titanian.

--wrong?”

“I have to make a fire so the other two units can find us… hold on a little while without me.”

“Meinrad?” Stefan said as he found Klaudia’s hunting rifle in his right hand. His Reserve had subconsciously skewed over to his left hand to keep the barrier creation ongoing. “Meinrad?”

In past weeks, he had to actively think to switch Reserve channeling limbs, or even to output his Reserve into a single limb. This time, he didn’t have to, but he had a much bigger dilemma at hand. Whether he liked it or not, his own life and those of his two comrades rested in his hands.

I need a stronger, larger barrier that I don’t have to keep making again the moment it gets taken down… one that’ll also stay locked onto me so that I don’t have to make a new one each time I move… it’s time to make a tier 15 barrier.