Chapter 17:

Ben swore as he dropped his bottle and started rushing to Voltic. But even as he moved he could tell he wouldn’t be fast enough. He’d been stunned by the sudden appearance of the thing and hadn’t reacted in time. The horse-like thing had already been in motion when he started to move. Maybe if he applied enough force forwa—

There was a loud crashing sound and the ground rumbled making Ben stumble. When he managed to catch his footing and looked back up, he was stunned at what he saw.

The big bulky creature that had been maybe seven feet tall on all fours was crushed onto the street. The reinforced pavement didn’t give out but the creature sure did. Its entire back was caved in and only the force field surrounding it kept the gore from going everywhere.

Inside that force field and floating on top of the monster was Shield Maiden, pulling her fist back from punching the monster down. Her shield seemed to shimmer for a second before all the gore covering her fell off, leaving her pristine as she looked down at the creature with her hands on her hips.

“You alright?” Ben asked as he finally got close enough to speak with Voltic.

The younger Super rubbed his right ear and shook quickly before nodding once. “Y—yeah. Ears are still ringing a little but I’m f—fine.”

“That’s good,” Ben said, looking back over to the smashed monster.

Shield Maiden’s shield was gone now, and she floated off to the side before landing on the ground. She had a frown on her face as she examined the monster.

“This is a D-Rank, right?” She asked as Katie walked up.

Katie frowned and nodded at that. “Yeah. One or two D-Ranks is not that unusual for large E-Rank Incursions but what was up with the portal?”

Shield Maiden continued to frown at the monster before she shook her head. “No clue. But it’s over now so I g—”

Shield Maiden stopped speaking as she looked to the side. Following her gaze, Ben looked and saw that more forms were coming out of the portal in the center of the street. They weren’t more of the Splitter Hyenas. Instead, each and every one of them was the larger D-Rank Equinus.

As the things caught sight of them, their massive mouths all opened.

Ben quickly covered his ears in anticipation of the roars.

But they never came. Despite the creatures opening their massive maws with their serpentine tongue flicking about and spittle flying everywhere, no sound could be heard. Instead, the blue shimmering barrier that encompassed all the monsters and the portal also blocked all noise from escaping.

After another moment, the things seemed to understand that they weren’t doing anything and charged the shield. They slammed their large bulky bodies against the shield while others tried to bite through with all their serrated teeth.

And yet despite all that, the barrier barely flickered and no sound could be heard.

“I’m calling it in,” Katie said, tapping on her wrist.

Ben barely heard her as he watched the D-Ranks continue to bash at the barrier around them. Each blow looked like it should have been devastating. Definitely enough to flatten a normal person or mess up a car. But the blue shield stopped it all like it was nothing.

Despite knowing that the higher ranks were a lot stronger than the lower ones, it was still humbling to see an example of it so apparent in person. But also inspiring. He’d be that strong… one day.

“Oh, are you impressed?” Shield Maiden asked, having caught Ben looking at her work. She smiled smugly and crossed her arms. “I suppose that makes sense. You’ve probably only ever seen Swarm here in action and now you get to witness a true Tinker’s work.”

“Oh please,” Katie said with a snort. “You may have me beat in shielding—you know, your own specialty—but maybe show me up in something else and then you can brag.”

Shield’s smirk only grew at that. “Oh you mean like when I—”

Whatever she was going to say was interrupted when Pyro Protector flew down from the air. The flames spewing from his limbs died down as he landed a bit away from their group. The older man was frowning at the monsters as he made his way over.

“What happened here, exactly?” Pyro asked.

Shield Maiden was the first to speak up and she explained the strange behavior from the portal as well as the sudden emergence of so many D-Ranks.

Part of Ben had expected the man to nod at this and have an explanation for what happened. That as an experienced Hero he would have encountered something like this before. But as the older man frowned and spoke into his communicator, telling the supervising Heroes to keep an eye on the portals, he realized that wasn’t the case.

This was something new. And potentially dangerous.

“Well, there's not much we can do right now,” Pyro Protector said as he finished speaking into his communicator. “Sensors show the Incursions energies are already calming and the portals should be disappearing soon. Just finish those monsters off and keep an eye on this portal. The League will probably get one of our own or someone from the Workshop to double-check the area later.”

With that, Pyro Protector stepped away from them and blasted back into the air on jets of fire from his limbs.

Shield Maiden nodded at that and turned her attention back to Katie with a smug smile. “I guess that’s that then. Meet me at the Radiant Guardian headquarters tomorrow and you can begin your work as my minio—I mean assistant.”

Katie scoffed and shook her head. “Hold on a second. You had to intervene to save Voltic. That disqualifies him and he was only up by two anyway. We win. I’ll pick up the QL3 from your headquarters tomorrow.”

“That’s hardly fair,” Shield Maiden said, crossing her arms. “What happened with the portal was completely unexpected. If it wasn’t for that strangeness beforehand, Voltic wouldn’t have been so caught off guard by just a D-Rank. And you act as if being two ahead is nothing…”

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Ben tuned out the bickering and instead looked back to the trapped monsters. He thought back to their speed and if he’d be able to handle that. And he also observed just how viciously they continued to attack the forcefield holding them in. Then he thought about how in less than two weeks he would have to face off against at least C-Ranks Supers. And while monsters would fight far more viciously than most Supers, and were typically stronger in terms of pure strength and power, perhaps this was an opportunity to prepare for that.

And also maybe, just maybe, Ben wanted to see how strong he really was now. Those E-Rankers weren’t that strong and he still had a couple of things he wanted to try… And it’s not like he would even be in that much danger anyway. Not with how easily Shield Maiden had ended things.

“I have a suggestion,” Ben said, interrupting the bickering duo. When all eyes were on him, he nodded at the trapped monsters. “So Voltic got saved but I was two points behind. But that D-Rank had really come out of nowhere and I was doing better in terms of stamina. So let's just call us even and use those as a tiebreaker. One versus one. And we keep going until one of us needs to be saved or whoever takes out the most D-Ranks.”

Shield Maiden frowned at that, looked to the D-Ranks and then Voltic. “Would you be up for that Voltic?”

The younger Super, who’d seem to be fully recovered again, looked at the monsters and then at Ben with a frown. “Well… Actually, I’m kinda tapped out. If I want to keep going, I’d have to recharge with the battery m—Shield Maiden gave me. But that’s using outside Tinker Tech. So if you really are still up for a fight then I guess you win?”

Ben's first instinct was to argue against that. Something like that hardly counted as the type of equipment they were forbidding for their competition. But as he took a better look at Voltic, he held his tongue. Despite looking like they’d recovered, the younger Super seemed paler than before. Their hands were also shaking just a bit.

Perhaps almost being run over by the D-Rank had more of an impact on the kid than Ben had thought.

“Now hold on a second,” Shield Maiden interrupted. “While Legacy has performed well today, especially for a new Hero, we shouldn’t call it unless he actually takes on one of the D-Ranks. If he needs to be saved then we’ll keep it as a tie.”

Ben blinked in surprise at that. He’d honestly expected her to argue for Voltic to continue and that his battery didn’t count toward the restriction. But as Shield Maiden walked over to Voltic and placed a comforting hand on the younger Super's shoulder, Ben realized that she recognized Voltic's distress and wasn’t going to push him.

Which made sense. Ben never considered himself an expert at reading other people, so if he could see it everyone else probably saw it as well. And despite Katie’s rather unflattering opinion of Shield Maiden and her guild, the other Super clearly did care more about her guildmate than their bet.

“That works for me,” Ben said, nodding his head. If Voltic wasn’t up for it then he wouldn't push. “Are you able to just let one of those things out?”

“Yes, of course,” Shield Maiden said before waving towards the forcefield. Inside the field, one of the D-Ranks was isolated in its own field and was then pulled out of the original force field and into the open.

The thing struggled the whole time, occasionally rearing up and kicking with its sharp front hooves. Not that it did much good for it.

“So, any chance you plan on just blowing it up with one of your full gems?” Katie asked quietly, walking up beside Ben. “Instead of battling it out with a D-Rank right after your first big battle with a bunch of monsters? You know, like a sane person instead of a risk taking dope?”

Ben laughed and shook his head. “Maybe as a last resort. But, I think this would be a good test for me. See just where my limits are without having to resort to high explosives I can barely control.”

Katie sighed and clapped him on the shoulder. “Knew you were gonna say that. Well, it’s not like this isn’t a pretty safe environment for it. And I’m watching your back. So good luck and have fun.”

Ben grinned and nodded at that before walking towards the contained monster, anticipation building in his chest. At the same time, he swapped out the two nearly empty gems from his right wrist bracer and also checked his own energy reserves. At the end of fighting the E-Ranks, he had about a fifth of his energy left. After the small break before the monster attack and up until now without using his gems he was at more than two-fifths. Enough for at least one tough fight if not more.

As he got closer to the monster, alive and rearing up at times unlike the other one, he really started to appreciate just how large the creature was. When on all fours it was maybe a head taller than Ben. When reared-upped, it towered over him. Combined with the fact that it was quite muscular, and it was clear this was not going to be an easy fight.

D-Rank monsters typically exceeded even the strongest normal humans when it came to pure physicality regardless of their actual size. When taking into account the thing's bulk, it was clear he wasn’t going to win any contests of pure strength with it. But it wasn’t like he planned on doing that anyway.

No, the only ones that went out of their way to fight monsters so directly were Strength or Vitality Enhancers. Ben would do things the smart way, even if he wasn’t going to do the smartest thing and just blow the thing up from afar.

“Alright,” Ben said, once he was within a dozen feet of the Splitter Equinus. “You can let it out now.”

“Okay,” Shield Maiden called out. “Dropping the shield in three. Two. One. Dropping.”

The shield dropped just as she said the last word.

No longer isolated, the creature's horrid snarling and growling could be heard.

Ben charged at the monster, his axe ready and weightless and his whole body incredibly light.

The monster reacted to this by rearing back its head for a shout but Ben had expected that. He would close the distance before it could. On his next step, he swapped from fighting gravity’s pull on him to propelling himself forward with double his maximum kinetic energy. And just like that he covered the distance between them in an instant and lashed out with his axe.

He went for a diagonal cut so that the weight of his axe, which he accelerated downwards, would help with the blow.

The creature lurched back with surprising speed but its shout was interrupted.

Not wanting to let it get room, Ben charged forward again. This time he held his weightless axe in one hand and kept his left free. He focused on the crystal on his left wrist, ready to use it at a moment's notice.

The monster tried to lash out with its front hooves but he dodged to the side. Then it’s stump of a head contracted before lashing out, extending far longer than Ben thought possible. Its massive serrated teeth-filled mouth tried to encompass Ben all at once.

But Ben shoved his free hand forward and released a controlled burst of a full half of the quarter-full crystal.

The blast of energy sent the thing's head flying back in the other direction, baring the grotesquely elongated neck to Ben. Seeing his chance, he leaped forward while accelerating himself up with energy before chopping down with his axe.

Unfortunately, instead of cleaving through its neck and beheading it in one go, his axe struggled to cut through the thick fatty flesh of its neck. The skin broke and blood sprayed, but it only went an inch deep before the thing’s neck contracted and his axe became stuck.

Eyes wide, Ben let go of his axe and leaped back, just as the creature twisted its neck again and tried to tear into him. An extra boost of speed from accelerating himself backward let him get out of range in time and a shove of his left hand towards the thing and another blast of released kinetic energy sent its head back away.

Ben panted heavily as the thing’s neck retracted again, his axe still lodged there, leaving him without his weapon. But he didn’t let that stop him from charging at the monster again. He didn’t have any special ear protection so if it got out of range to stop it and it screamed, he would be as helpless as Voltic had been.

So bare-handed and without time to replace the crystal on his left wrist, he charged. This wasn’t over yet. And despite the things bulk, strength, and surprising durability, Ben wasn’t done.

He still had some more options.