Chapter 16:
Ben rushed at one of the nearest monsters eager to get some revenge and to get rid of his nerves. He held his large axe in both hands and only used his normal maximum of applied kinetic energy to keep it weightless, drawing from one of the gems strapped to his right bracer. At the same time, he did the same to himself but used the larger crystal that he kept on his belt, reducing his own weight by almost half.
All of this together made him move much faster than he could have before despite carrying so much weight. The only thing he had to be careful of was not kicking off the ground too hard and sending himself higher than he intended.
As he ran at his target, more and more monsters came out of the portal. If he were alone, there was no way he’d ever dare charge a group of monsters like this. But with Katie and Shield Maiden and her guildmates to keep the monsters in check, he was free to take the Splitter Hyena one-on-one.
Before he reached the Splitter Hyena that he decided would be his first target, a dozen of Katie’s attack Bugbots flew ahead of him. Each glowed blue and slammed into the monsters sending them stumbling back. They formed a perimeter around Ben and his chosen target while smashing away any monsters that tried to get close.
Despite the Bugbot's relatively small size, each time they slammed into the monsters there was a flash of blue and they were sent skidding back.
At the same time, Shield Maiden flew ahead of them and with a wave of her hand, she created a moving force field that swept a dozen of the monsters away and closer to one of the groups of heroes that weren’t close to any of the portals.
And that was all Ben could take in before he was within range of his target. He tightened his grip on the axe and moved in for the kill.
The Splitter Hyena let out a screech, with all four of its jaws opening up and its serpentine tongue vibrating as spit flew.
Ben ignored the sound, dodged a swipe of its forelimbs, and went with a simple overhead chop. Nothing fancy about it. Except, as he brought the axe down, he reversed the direction he was using his Skill and doubled the amount of energy. His 27-pound axe came crashing down onto the thing’s skull with twice its weight.
There was a crunching squelching sound as his axe cleaved straight through its head. The axe almost slammed into the ground too, but Ben reapplied his doubled Skill on the axe upwards allowing him to stop it in time. Then he stopped doubling up, leaving the axe feeling weightless in his hands.
And just like that he’d killed one of them. Something that had given him so much trouble before, gone just like that. One less monster in the world to harm anyone else.
Ben grinned at just how absurdly easier his powers had made handling an axe. One that was almost four times as heavy as the one he’d used before, but he could still wield with all the skill he’d been training for the past year and a half. It was actually to the point that using his Skill to make the axe heavier as he chopped was overkill.
“Come on, man!” Voltic shouted drawing Ben’s attention. “You're gonna have to do better than that or else this is gonna be really boring!”
Ben's eyes widened as he took in what the kid had done. While Ben had been killing his single Splitter Hyena, the electric Super had taken out two and was working on the third. And from the looks of it, his teammates had let him fight all three of them at once.
Electricity crackled around Voltic Surge’s body and he moved just as fast as Ben had been, perhaps even more so. He stepped away from a feral slash of the monster’s claws, and then lunged in and stabbed it in the head with a thin but long sword. The blade didn’t go in deep but there was a flash of light and the crackle of electricity before the thing's eyes exploded from its head. Then its body, which had been as tall as the kid, slumped and fell to the floor.
The other Super turned to Ben, a grin on his face as he held up three fingers to Ben. “That’s three. Keep up or this won’t even be a contest.”
Ben grimaced at that but nodded. Then he looked at Katie. “Let me try two now and after that three.”
“Alright,” Katie said, and several of her Bugbots led the monsters they were harassing over to Ben.
This time, Ben upped his energy drain and doubled up his Apply Skill on himself. Moving much faster, though even more careful not to push up off the ground too hard, he charged at the two monsters who now noticed him and lunged at him instead.
A quick side-step let him dodge the first then the second. But as the second one passed, Ben lashed out with his axe and turned his Skill off for himself. With his weight back to normal, he held his ground and let the monster's momentum add to his axe swing and he ripped into its side.
The thing let out a screech as blood flew before it slammed into the ground behind him. Turning his Skill back on himself, he spun in time to see the second Hyena rushing back at him. Having gotten used to the speed of their attacks, Ben met it head-on and swung his big axe far faster than something as big and heavy as it should be able to move. The axe head cleaved right into the thing's face and sent blood and shards of bone flying as Ben spun to avoid the monster-turned-corpse.
With his heart thudding in his ears, Ben turned to the first monster he’d down, seeing it still alive as he expected. It was already forcing itself up and the big gash along its side was closing and the amount of blood gushing out had slowed to a trickle. Maybe if given enough time it might have healed completely, depending on how good its regeneration was.
Ben didn’t give it that time.
In three quick steps, he covered the distance and swung his axe, beheading the thing in a single move.
“Ready for the next wave?” Katie asked from the side, her voice also coming over the communicator.
Which was a good thing to have as the parking lot they’d been battling in had become a lot more noisy. The large majority of the noise was the Splitter Hyenas screeching as they were put down by aspiring Heroes or just Supers trying to level. But at the same time, many of the powers used by the Supers created a lot of noise as well.
There was what sounded like glass breaking again and again. A quick look showed an Ice Invoker creating fist-size shards of ice and sending them hurtling into the monster the Super was fighting. Beside him, a man, made completely of ice, slammed his icy fist right into the side of one of the Hyenas and ice spewed out of the wound and tore the thing apart.
There was also what sounded like a bear's roar, much deeper than the screeches of the Splitter Hyenas. It came from a man that periodically shifted into a bear shape, tore out the throat of a Hyena, before shifting back again to dodge in their much smaller human form.
The loudest of all, besides the occasional snap and crackle from Voltic Surge, was the occasional booming sounds that were slowly heading north. From the brief glimpse Ben had gotten, it seemed to be some kind of Projection Invoker who was creating big hand constructs and clapping the monsters to death between them.
“Yeah, I’m ready,” Ben said, turning his attention back to his own situation. Though not before he took another glimpse at Voltic Surge and saw he had taken down another three monsters and was starting on another group. Ben was gonna really have to pick up the pace if he was gonna compete.
“Alright, here they come,” Katie said, as her drones led another three monsters over to Ben.
This time, Ben took a second to focus on one of the gems in his right hand. This gem was strapped right in the center of his inner wrist with the top of it exposed from his bracer. It was also only a quarter full as it was a lot harder to do what he wanted to do next when there was too much stored energy. He focused on using his Release Skill and made sure he had a good mental grip on the Skill before he charged.
With three of the things barrelling down on him, he had to be more careful now. He couldn’t let himself get surrounded or attacked from both sides. So he chose to attack the one closest to the right.
Like before, as they got close they all lunged at him. Ben lunged to the right, keeping out of the reach of the other two monsters, while knocking away the strike of the closest one with the haft of his axe. Then he let go of the axe with his left hand and thrust his hand towards the monsters that were now all lined up.
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Fwoosh!
Still concentrating on it, he used his Release Skill and sent out a quarter of the stored energy. A blast of force hit the closest monster and sent it crashing into the ones behind it. Ben grinned at the sight and rushed forward, cleaving into the head of the closest one, turning his Apply Skill on and off for his axe as he did it. Tangled up in each other and their now-dead comrade, the other two Hyenas fought to get up and away but they weren’t fast enough.
With two more heavy cleaves, he finished them off, leaving him panting but proud. He was really doing it. He was really taking these monsters out like a proper Super! Take that you damned beasts!
“That’s better but I’m still four ahead,” Voltic Surge called out, bringing Ben’s attention back to the younger Super.
Like he said, Voltic Surge had taken out another four and was moving to finish off the last two. He easily dodged the swipes of the monsters and lashed out with his sword, grazing their flanks or limbs. Each time he did the monsters were jolted and knocked off balance, and before long he stabbed near their skulls and fried their brains with another jolt of electricity.
The kills were much cleaner and neater than Ben’s cleaved-apart monsters. But even still, they were only four apart. And Ben was only just getting started.
“Not for long!” Ben called back before he turned to face his next batch of monsters.
However, despite Ben’s eagerness, there weren’t any more monsters to fight. Not near them anyway, and no more monsters seemed to be coming out of any of the portals in sight. There were still almost a dozen Splitter Hyenas in the parking lot, but they were all corralled by other high-rank Supers, holding them in place for someone to come fight them.
Ben paused for a second as he really took in what was happening.
It was… almost like a game, to be honest. Despite the danger in each encounter itself, this Incursion was a far cry from that night. Or footage Ben had seen of disastrous Incursions in the past. And even though some of the E-Ranks seemed to be struggling to take out their monsters, with the higher Ranks watching out they were only moments away from being saved.
E-Rank Incursions really were quite different from the higher-rank ones. It almost made Ben’s feeling of enthusiasm over his strength, feel silly.
Ben shook his head, pushing away the unhelpful thought. Instead, he started heading towards one of the other small group of monsters that were being held in place by the pavement warping up from the ground and surrounding them.
“Ben, leave those to the others,” Katie called to him.
Ben paused and looked at her. “What? Why?”
“There are more portals elsewhere in the sector,” Katie said, gesturing to the northeast and out of the parking lot. “I’m getting updates on the local network the Association setup. Since you and Voltic are clearing the monsters so fast, might as well go take care of the further groups and leave these leftovers to the slower guys. Head onto that street and take the first turn right and there should be another portal.”
“Alright,” Ben said, starting to jog in the direction Katie pointed. His jog soon turned into a run as he saw Voltic sprint off, electricity crackling around their body as they leaped at the concrete divider.
“Last one there’s a rotten egg,” the younger Super called over his shoulder before leaping off onto the street beyond.
Shield Maiden easily followed behind him as she flew, her body glowing from her personal shield, and the B-Rank woman from the Radiant Guardians kept pace by just running. The other two members of their guild were nowhere to be seen, having apparently gone off on their own at one point.
Ben could have used his Bugbot pack to catch up to them, but for their little competition, it was decided that neither Ben nor Voltic would use their support Tinker Tech. It was a good habit to get into anyway, as relying too heavily on equipment would slow down their leveling.
So instead, Ben just used his Applied Skill on himself and his Axe and rushed after Voltic, Katie and her Bugbots flying along. As he ran, he also took a second to look at his Power Energy Bar in his interface. Or as some people like to jokingly call it, his Mana Bar. It wasn’t much of an issue before when he was only using a single gem at a time. But now that he was using multiple, it was important to keep track of just how much he had left.
After those three quick fights, which had lasted about six minutes total, he was down about a fifth of his reserves. Not ideal, but he knew from testing that as long as he didn’t double up his Applies too frequently, he should have enough energy for another half an hour at the very least.
As for his actual gems, they all still had plenty of energy. The new gems from the exchange made up for the increased usage that adding to his Power stat allowed him. And since he had two of each of the gems strapped to his arms and legs, along with two larger ones strapped to his belt, his stored kinetic energy would last much longer than his actual Power pool.
This meant his Power pool was his only real concern and even then it should be enough for the Incursion. If he wasn’t competing against Voltic, he might have erred on the side of caution and gone down to just one gem when not fighting so he could start to recover his reserves, but he was behind so he couldn’t do that.
After leaping over the divider, Ben followed after Voltic Surge up the street North. There were a couple of the Splitter Hyenas prowling around, but Ben and Voltic made short work of them before rushing to the intersection and taking a right onto the connecting street.
Katie had sent Bugbots ahead and they were already harassing and distracting the monsters as Ben and Voltic got there. They soon fell into the same rhythm as before, each taking out three at a time. The only thing that broke this rhythm for Ben was when he needed to replace the crystal he was using Release for. Not because they were empty, but because he still couldn’t control the Skill enough for the crystal to not suffer some kind of a backlash occasionally.
Ben had no idea what would actually happen if he tried to use Release with an already cracked crystal, but he didn’t want to take the chance. So each time he heard the familiar cracking sound after he sent a hyena flying, he tugged the crystal out, put it in his inventory, and took out a replacement.
With this being an issue, Voltic’s original lead, and his ability to kill the monsters with a quick but light strike to the head, Ben struggled to close the gap in their numbers.
But despite that, as more and more time went on and they cleared out the monsters in the area, Ben slowly did close the gap. He went from being four monsters behind to three, then even to two as they finished off the last of the monsters.
Ben was breathing heavily at this point and he rested his axe on the ground while turning off his Skills. Voltic was worse off and showed why Ben had started to be able to catch up. The younger Super’s stamina wasn’t as good as Ben’s and he was bent over with his hands resting on his knees as he panted.
With nothing else to do but recover, Ben took in the scene around them. They were on an empty street, with some kind of office building to the right and a small plaza to the left. Laying sprawled out and torn apart were several dozen Splitter Hyenas corpses. And half of them were eliminated by him.
Ben couldn’t help but smile at the sight despite how gruesome it was. He’d come a long way in a very short amount of time. Sure, Voltic and he probably wouldn’t have done as well without their escorts keeping them from being swarmed, but two E-Rankers taking out this many E-Rank monsters was still an accomplishment. In the end they even both took out four monsters at once on their own.
And they would only get stronger. So strong that it wouldn’t just be E-Rank monsters being swept away by them. Then they’d be strong enough to be true Heroes and keep people safe.
Ben grinned and looked to see how Voltic was doing.
The B-Rank, Shining Edge, was by the younger Super side and handing him a water bottle.
Edge wore the typical tight-fitting super-suit with a sleek-looking short jacket on top along with some kind of side skirt thing. She wore a mask that covered most of her face except around the mouth and eyes and her hair was up in a ponytail. Her outfit was an assortment of metallic blue and red and on the uncovered side of her hip she wore a katana with the same color scheme. Slung over her shoulder was a bag that didn’t fit her costume and was where she carried the water bottle.
She still had one more bottle in her hand that Ben looked at longingly. He hadn’t thought to bring any water himself since E-Rank Incursions like this rarely went for more than an hour. He really regretted that now.
As if sensing his look, Edge turned to him, saw his look, and smiled before she moved from the middle of the street to the sidewalk where Ben was resting.
“Thank you,” Ben said when she was close enough and took the offered bottle. He then took a big gulp of the warm water. At the same time, he swore to himself that he’d either bring his own bag of water next time or get Katie to turn one of her Bugbot Carriers into a mini-fridge.
“No proble—” Edge started to say only to get cut off.
There was a loud screeching whirring sound and the portal in the middle of the road started to glow. It drew everyone’s attention to it. Then it seemed to expand out and twist the space around it before contracting again. It did this several times before it finally stopped, still almost twice the size that it had been before.
The street was silent for a moment as they all just stared at the portal. Ben had never heard about anything like this and didn’t know what it meant.
He looked to Edge but she looked confused as well. He then started to turn to Katie who was farther away when something came through the portal.
His eyes widened as he took in the sight of it.
It was twice as large as the Splitter Hyenas they’d been facing so far. The bestiary named these things Splitter Equinus cause they kinda looked like massive muscled horses. That is if the horse in question had its head cut off and its neck became a heinous four-split-jawed mouth.
The thing roared loudly, its much larger split mouth opening up extremely wide, showing off its massive array of serrated teeth.
Ben winced at the sound despite being fifty feet from the thing and Voltic was even worse off being closer. The younger Super covered his ears and tucked his head down at the sound.
Which turned out to be a big mistake as before Voltic could recover the new monster charged at him. Despite its size, it moved a lot faster than the Splitter Hyenas. There were probably several reasons for that but the biggest was that this wasn’t an E-Rank Monster.
It was a D-Rank.