“So, how powerful do you think Connor is?” Sam asked.
“Powerful enough that even in the meditative state that he is in, he can probably hear us up here and in the front of the RV,” Liza said.
“Fair enough,” Sam admitted. “How far are we from Vegas?”
“A little place called “Nothing” is right up here on the east side of the road in about five miles, if this map is correct. From there, it’s another one hundred and fifty miles.”
“Any idea how he’s making those spells? It looks like he sits down and thinks about it,” Sam asked.
“No clue, but I’m sure we’ll find out if we earn an Uncommon class and choose that as our second class.”
“Do you think you will?”
“I don’t know. The ability to create skills and spells would be nice, though,” Liza mused.
“Heads up! There’s a barricade across the road up ahead.” Sam called out as he pointed at the road ahead.
Liza looked up from the map and saw three cars stopped on the road, a moving truck parked off to the side of the road, and a group of men moving from car to car. They weren't officers; they looked more like someone they’d see on the news out of Mexico.
“I think it’s the cartel or a gang getting people to take across the border,” Sam said.
Suddenly, a gunshot rang out, and one of the people who had been pulled from their car fell forward. The RV was still about 200 feet back from the stopped cars when he pulled to the side of the road and stopped. He whispered, “Sniper,” and vanished. Liza heard the light pop as Sam activated Shadow Step. A moment later, the windshield shattered as a bullet hit the seat where Sam had just been sitting as the driver side of the windshield shattered. At that moment, a man broke the passenger door window with the butt of his shotgun.
This was the point where the highway robbers would have scared the pretty girl who had just had the driver beside her killed. She’d be more malleable, in shock, and unable to react. “Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen,” Liza thought dryly.
With a thought, Liza activated Shadow Step and appeared directly behind the man who had struck the window beside where she’d just been sitting. She did a flat palm strike into his back. A loud crack was issued from inside his back and chest as blood exploded from his mouth into the passenger and driver’s seats of the RV.
“Shit,” was all Liza had time to say before she activated and Shadow Step again to a point 20 feet off to the side of the road behind a low bush that would hopefully mask the sight of any dirt she might kick up. She was still over 100 feet away from the other cars, and the sniper that had shot at Sam was on top of the moving truck.
Liza only had 278 mana, and her mana regeneration was shit right now at only one point every two Combat Turns, so she had to be careful with how much mana she used. Still, she could get into position and wait for Sam to make his move.
Two Shadow Steps later, she was on the other side of the picket line the robbers had created, with one on each side of her 10 feet in front of her. Counting the man whose chest she crushed, there were only six robbers. Three men lay dead on the side of the road where they’d been pulled from their vehicles. Two men sat in the truck, while two men with rifles sat behind the barricade that was blocking the road. They had their rifles trained on the RV, though neither had fired yet.
Her Party Chat pinged,
Sam: On the truck, taking Sniper, be ready.
By the barricade, Ready, Liza sent back.
Liza extended her Shadow Claws and waited. When she heard “PFFT” followed by another “PFFT” in quick succession, she struck out simultaneously into the chests of each man. The one on the left took the strike under the right arm, which was bent while he held his rifle. The robber on the right took the claws under his left arm, which was bracing the rifle he held. In one fluid motion, she stabbed out and brought both of her arms upwards.
The strike that killed the man that had been beside the road, waiting right where they’d stopped, should have clued her in that her strength was a little bit over the top. When her motion with the claws entered the two robbers' chests and then turned them into minced meat as they sprayed blood, guts, and brains everywhere, including onto her, it really brought the point home.
“Double Shit!” Liza exclaimed as she became visible.
Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw the man in the driver's seat of the truck pull a pistol and aim it at her. The truck was over 200 feet away from her. She’d seen Sam drop off the top of the moving truck when he’d appeared after putting two bullets in the head of the sniper. Sam would take care of the passenger, she was sure. It was up to her to take out the driver.
Luckily, she was fast. In a second, she was at the truck door. Her left hand hit and pinned the driver's gun hand to the ceiling while her right hand extended her claws through his neck. She’d had a month to get over being squeamish about killing people. Also, while these assholes weren’t slavers, they were obviously human traffickers. They deserved what they got. They were trying to pull this shit three hours north of where she’d been born just a month ago. If they didn’t jump back in the future, she was going to talk to Connor about heading into Mexico and ending this shit permanently.
From the other side of the truck, she hears Sam say, “Okay, dipshit, who do you work for?”
Liza retracted her claws. He was already unconscious and would be dead in a moment. Good riddance. Liza reached past the driver and grabbed the keys out of the ignition. Sure, enough, the key to the padlock on the rollup door was on the key ring. She walked back to the back of the truck and rolled up the loading door. The back had 10 people, all women, and girls, in the back.
Just then, she felt a presence filled with rage come up and land softly behind her, “Just me, Liza,” Connor said. “There’s nothing within 10,000 feet except desert creatures. Get them out of the truck. I’m going to run up the road and find a phone to call the police. Where are we at?
“We’re about four miles south of Nothing Arizona. There isn’t much there on the map, maybe a gas station,” Liza said.
“Four miles? I’ll be back in about two minutes after I talk to Sam.” Connor said.
Liza watched as Connor walked around the side of the truck. She heard him tell Sam, “Don’t kill him, I’ll be back in a minute,” before there was a “WHOSH,” and dust drifted up into the sky. Liza looked at the terrified people and asked them to come on out.
***
Connor had finished creating the spell Mana Battery, Rare, and woke up to an empty RV stopped on the side of the road. He’d immediately seen what was going on with Eyes of Eris, but now he knew that while he was making spells and probably skills, he wouldn’t be able to watch over his surroundings as well. At least not at the moment. He had a memory of what had happened, but while he was focused on creating the spell, it hadn’t entered his conscious mind. That was really good information to know about creating skills and spells going forward.
He'd flown over and landed behind Liza, talked to Sam before he’d killed the last highway robber, and then run north. He should be able to do four miles in about 20 seconds. Of course, that required him to break the sound barrier, which he did after erecting a simple wedged-shaped force barrier in front of him. He only invested five mana into the small barrier because creating that Rare Ritual had reduced him to 200 mana. He’d kept just enough to allow him Shadow Step if he needed to. Of course, for him, activating Stealth and just moving 100 feet in a second cost a lot less mana.
Connor made sure Stealth was active as he ran north. As he came within range of Nothing Arizona, his perception picked up a car and semi-truck with a trailer sitting next to four call boxes. It was 11 a.m. in October in Arizona. So, while it wasn’t freezing, it wasn’t warm. Connor could tell that the people in the trailer of the semi were sweating. The four people in the car were just sitting there listening to the radio while the two in the semi-cab did the same. With the two vehicles parked beside each other, it wasn’t even going to be close to a fair fight.
As Connor continued toward the parked vehicles, he cast Force Dagger for 10 mana into his right hand. The Force Dagger would only last one minute, but honestly, he shouldn’t need it for more than one Combat Turn. His spell Force Daggers of Throwing would have to be recast, which he didn’t have the mana for right now.
The six men died without knowing what had killed them within five seconds. Connor’s status showed that he could make up to twelve attacks for 1,050 stamina. Even with the mana saturation at only 5% normal, his Stamina seemed to regenerate normally. Since his stamina regeneration was 1,347 every combat Turn, stamina wasn’t going to be an issue. He could keep up this rate of attack for quite a while if he wanted to. Since his Stealth didn’t break when he attacked, the six men died without even seeing what killed them.
Connor didn’t waste energy or time. He used a precise thrust of the Force Dagger into each man's brain stem, being careful not to put too much strength into each thrust. When each man lay slumped in their seat, he quickly checked his Notifications.
You have killed an Unclassed Human, Level 3, and 30 XP awarded.
You have killed an Unclassed Human, Level 5, 50 XP awarded
You have killed an Unclassed Human, Level 7, 70 XP awarded
You have killed an Unclassed Human, Level 3 30 XP awarded
You have killed an Unclassed Human, Level 9, 90 XP awarded
You have killed an Unclassed Human, Level 10, 100 XP awarded
He closed his Notifications and tried to place each body into his inventory so he could loot and dispose of them later. That’s when he learned that what kept him from being able to put a corpse into his Inventory immediately was whether the soul had released their hold on the body or not. Four of the soldiers went into his Inventory immediately; two corpses did not. The bodies had ceased to function, but his Uncanny Perception let him know that the souls of the two had not let go yet.
He'd give it another minute.
Connor went over to one of the Call boxes and dialed 911.
“911, What is your Emergency?”
“Multiple deaths and a semi-trailer filled with abducted individuals. Send help now to this location, which is four miles south of this call box on I 93. Also, send food and water…
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“Sir, who am I talking to…”
Connor left the phone off the hook, then drew a 357 magnum he’d taken off one of the corpses from his Inventory and fired it toward the hillside off to the west side of the road three times.
“Sir! Are you Okay, Sir!”
Yep, that should stir the hornet's nest. Connor went over and put the last two corpses into his Inventory, then searched for the car and Semi-Cab. Everything, including the keys to both the truck and the car, went into his Inventory. There wasn’t much, but there was a go-bag with some cash, guns, and extra ammo in the trunk of the car. As for the Semi-Cab, not much was in it either, though Eyes of Eris let him find the safe and open it with little effort. Inside it, he found a couple of stacks of hundred-dollar bills. One thing he learned at that moment was that he knew exactly how many bills were in each stack. He had two stacks that contained 50 bills each, or $10,000.
When he finished, he had only been there for a minute. Before he left, he went to the back of the truck, yanked the padlock to the back door, and opened the door. He was still under Stealth, so the people didn’t see him as he ran back south.
Connor was back with Sam and Liza in two minutes; he’d been gone for about six minutes. As he arrived, he went to the body next to the RV and put it in his Inventory, then the body on top of the RV, the two in the truck cap, and the two that…Damn, what a mess, he thought as he placed the last two bodies that Liza’s claws had shredded in his Inventory.
Liza had kept the survivors in the back of the truck while the two of them had kept watch. Connor dropped Stealth as he walked up so as not to startle Sam or Liza.
“Your back?” Liza called.
“Yeah, cops have been called. They’re on their way.
“What are we going to do about the RV?” Sam asked.
“Is it going to lead back to you?” Connor asked.
“No, which is to say it will show up as stolen when the cops get here.”
“Uh huh,” Connor said as he pulled the map out of the RV and double-checked it, “Stay Stealthed, and head north. We’ll meet at the Hoover Damn. Do either of you need some water?”
“I do,” Liza said.
“Me Too,” Sam said. “Is there a reason you’re not flying us there?”.
“Yeah, I need to get my mana back. It took a lot to create that third ritual. While Stealth might protect us from cameras and even radar, I think if I make a big bubble and fly it at speed, the radars in the area might pick it up. Not sure, but I think so.” Connor said as he pulled out three full waterskins for each of them and handed them over, “Three waterskins take up one slot in your Inventory. I had twenty water skins; now I have fourteen.”
“Thanks, “ Liza said before she took a drink and looked thoughtfully at Connor, “Exactly how big is your Inventory?”
“I can hold a lot in it,” Connor said.
“Okay, keep your secrets,” Liza said as she cocked her head, “I hear a chopper getting closer.”
“Me Too,” Sam said
“I hear it, but it’s still more than two miles away. The sound must be reflecting off the hills and mountains. Regardless, that should be our cue to get out of here,” Connor said.
“Meet you at Hoover Damn,” Sam said as the three of them vanished and began running north.
***
FBI Agent Matthew Wood slowed and came to a stop behind a parked police car. Fifty feet in front of where he came to a halt, he could see forensics personnel standing off to the right, taking photos of the passenger side of the RV. About 200 feet in front of the RV, he could see a roadblock that was being swarmed with all kinds of personnel who were taking photos of the area. Off to the right was a small group of people taking pictures of the ground. From where he was, he couldn’t see anything, but he was sure that’s where the bodies of the dead had been thrown.
Agent Wood walked past the RV to the Sheriff, who was standing next to the Police tape that had been put up across the road. Agent Wood looked around to make sure. Yep. They were an hour and a half north of Phoenix in the middle of bumfuck nowhere. Why the fuck did they put up Police Tape?
As he came up to the police tape, the Sheriff lifted it for him to walk under. Once Agent Wood was on his side of the tape the Sheriff introduced himself, “I’m Sheriff Jason Collins. Did you have a good drive north?”
“It was pleasant,” Agent Wood said, though he didn’t really like to waste time with pleasantries, “How long have you all been on site?”
The Sheriff nodded as he led Agent Wood back toward the barricade as he talked, “We had a chopper crew verify the information received by the operators within fifteen minutes of the call. They did a quick flyby of here and up north at the call boxes. We found survivors in both locations. Some dead, too, though the dead up north have been there for more than a day. Everyone here was killed within the last twelve hours.”
“And the attackers? Or the person that called it in?”
“We have evidence in both locations of people that were killed, but it’s really weird. My forensics guys say that it looks like there were dead bodies, and then they were gone. There is no change in any of the evidence to indicate that the bodies were moved. The blood isn’t smeared. Where there’s dust, and there’s dust everywhere out here, nothing was disturbed. It’s like they were just vaporized or disintegrated, although if that did occur, there’s no extra dust to indicate that happened either,” Sheriff Collins explained.
“What are they looking at,” Agent Wood asked as he pointed to the passenger side of the RV.
“One of the missing attackers was crushed with such force that he spewed blood, guts, and bones into the passenger and driver's seat.”
“What now?” Agent Wood asked.
“One of my best forensics techs, who likes science fiction just a little too much, said it looked like someone that had superhuman strength punched him hard enough to deform the door, crush his chest, and force everything out of his mouth and nose.”
“What did he show you to prove his point?” Agent Wood asked.
“In the door, there is a specific area that is approximately hand-sized that is slightly deeper than the rest of the deformation. He also said the body fell to the ground, but like all of the others, it just vanished.” Sheriff Collins said.
“So what happened?”
“As far as we can tell, it looks like a group of men, six as far as we can tell from the blood patterns, set up an ambush point until the RV arrived. Then, the men who had stopped and killed the men and old women from the other cars tried to take out the occupants of this RV. That’s the other thing. There is a bullet hole in the windshield in front of the driver’s seat. It didn’t hit anything, and as far as we can tell, but someone was sitting in the seat, and then they weren’t. In fact, the seatbelt is still connected. The shot was taken from on top of the moving van, though the guy that was up there was definitely killed before he also disappeared.”
“And the survivors, what do they say,” Agent Wood asked.
“It was a roadblock. The men they saw all reminded them of gang or cartel types, but they couldn’t remember what they looked like. I should say that the descriptions are so varied that they are useless. As for the people who saved them, there were three people: two men and a woman. We did get pretty good descriptions from them for those three.
“And you, what do you think happened?” Agent Wood asked.
“It was probably the cartels, though this is a little too far north for their normal activity.”
Agent Wood nodded, “My thoughts mirror yours. I’m going to take a quick look around and then head North to check what happened up there. Do you need anything?”
“Nah, we’ve got it. We should be able to take down the blockade in the next 30 minutes or so. With no bodies besides the victims that the survivors have already identified, we’re almost to the point of just cleaning up as is.”
Agent Wood nodded and walked around to get a first-hand look at things but didn’t talk to anyone else. As he viewed each location where an attacker died, he could see what the Sheriff meant. The guy on top of the truck had been shot and bled out, but the blood stains hadn’t been smeared when he was moved. There was blood and guts in a circle around where the two people at the barricade had been standing, but no sign that anything had moved through the circle of blood; that was just weird. There was blood in the driver’s seat of the moving truck that had been used to hold the survivors. The passenger had been executed at point-blank range, which had splattered his brains against the back of the cap, but again, there were no signs that the bodies had been moved from where they must have slumped in their seats other than that they were gone.
Agent Wood walked back to his car and drove North. Thirty minutes later, he headed back to Phoenix. This was honestly the weirdest shit that he had ever seen. He thought about what he’d seen while he drove back to Phoenix. When he was thirty minutes out, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number he’d been required to memorize. The person who had briefed him had been as vague as possible but made sure to give them some pretty solid examples of what to look for. Feats of Strength and items missing from where they could easily be found, without seeming to be moved where two of the items had been mentioned.
“Yes?” A voice asked on the other end of the connection.
“Evidence of what I was told to look for has been documented 150 miles north of Phoenix near Nothing Arizona..”
“Thank You,” the male voice said before the line went dead.
Agent Wood put the phone down and put it out of his mind. That was the other instruction that had been part of that briefing. Once notified, the conversation never happened, and they would look into it from there. It was still early. He’d stop by the office and file his “official” report, and then he might be able to get out of the office early today. Maybe he could hook up with that Nurse again.
***
Veliron put the phone down. It was interesting to receive a call at this late stage in the project. It had been a simple thing for the Sect to infiltrate this world's governments and get the Soul Collecting facilities in place and built. After all, the Sect invested a phenomenal amount of resources. Since these earthlings responded to money so easily, it had been laughable to subvert the government and specific agency personnel in the governments they needed to with their “dollars.” Which were worthless in the greater multiverse.
He'd been on this planet for the last 10 years, and today, after the facilities were phased out to wait for SYSTEM Integration, he received this call. If a mana fluctuation or a random monster was spawning, it was more than 200 miles north of where he was. Nope, he was going to pretend like the call never came in. Send everyone back through the portal and then put this facility in stasis until it is time to activate it.
Veliron looked at a clock. It was just after noon local time. It was time. He reached over and taped a crystal on his desk. Instantly, red crystals attached to every wall began blinking. Veliron stood and walked over to the portal room. He could see that almost everyone was there. After a quick headcount, only two were missing. He mentally linked to the security of the facility and saw that the last two gnomes were heading toward the portal room. Then he remembered they’d been fixing one of the regulators that had basically blown, like a fuse, earlier when there’d been a surge.
He turned back to the gathering, “All right, people settle down. Yes, it’s time to head home. The portal will open in about 30 seconds. After it does, I want to see an orderly progression through the portal. Once on the other side, Turn in your identification for this facility to get your pay. We shouldn’t have to come back here for a while, so enjoy your time off. However, be aware that the Sect might need your services again as we move into the final stages of this project. Remember, “Hard Work for Good Pay is the Malicore Sects way!
Veliron watched as the portal opened and the workers made their way through. The other reason he hadn’t wanted to investigate the report he’d just received was because his facility personnel were the last to go home. Everyone else on the planet had already left. It would be at least 20 years before his Sect made it back. The reports he’d seen said the Integration could happen anywhere from 20 to 25 years from now.
Veliron watched the portal close and then headed up to the control center. The only person left in the facility was him. It was his duty to activate the spell that would move the facility into an adjacent dimension, which would wait until the integration and invasion began. Then he’d be back, and all the work he’d put in would pay off.
Because he’d been in charge of setting it up, he would receive a flat 10% of the profits. He’d been assured that, at the bare minimum, he’d receive the resources required to reach Tier III even if the facility produced nothing. Ten years of his life for a Core and Evolution upgrade, as well as enough monster cores to level his class up to the minimum for the next Tier? Yeah, the last 10 years and the 20-year wait would be totally worth it.
Without hesitation, Veliron activated the Phasing Array. The facility, with him in it, winked out of the physical universe and entered an eternal darkness. He checked the readouts and settings. He made sure the facility could still detect the ambient mana levels of Earth and that the Phasing Array would turn off the area when the Ambient Mana reached 100% globally. When he was satisfied everything was in order, he pulled his Personal Recall Crystal out of his Inventory. Once activated, it would teleport him back to headquarters. He looked around one last time, activated the crystal, and vanished.
***
Connor arrived at the Hoover Damn just shy of an hour after he’d left Nowhere. He’d considered slowing down but decided to make a very weak Force Barrier in front of himself and cruised along at about 150 miles per hour. The simple wedge kept the wind off of him as he ran down the road at almost 200 miles per hour.
When he came to a stop on the Hoover Damn, he was pleasantly surprised when a Notification popped up.
Mana Saturation in the local area has increased to 100%
Mana Regeneration has returned to normal while in this area.
Connor checked his status,
Seriously?
Nice!
He made sure Stealth was still active, and it was. Next, he activated Shadow Step and appeared on top of the cliff right above the Exhibits building on the west side of the damn. He could have flown up, but he didn’t want to press his luck quite yet. Stealth was supposed to prevent him from being recorded, but that might not be accurate. So he used Shadow Step and looked around the cliff he found himself on. There was a small shaded area back away from the cliff. The damn was well within his range, so he’d detect the other two when they arrived.
Now, though, his Mana Regeneration was back to 160 every 10 seconds. In the hour it had taken him to get here, he’d almost emptied his Mana Pool. Now, though, he could keep Stealth active and regenerate his Mana pool completely in under five minutes. While he waited for Sam and Liza, he could work on creating a couple more spells or skills. That meant that, if needed, he could make a rare spell or skill in about 12 minutes. An Advanced skill or ability would take almost two hours, however.
His first idea for a new skill was to find a way to dispose of the bodies in his inventory and maybe convert them into Mana or something. Maybe a separate skill called Incinerator or something? If he could get mana from corpses, he could use the bodies of his enemy to fuel their destruction. Maybe the SYSTEM had something like that? Connor dropped into mediation for a minute and then activated Malleable Skills; in 12 minutes, he’d have his answer.