With Skyblade equipped, Darius flew five hundred feet over the Desert. The rest of his newly augmented team flew below him in a loose V-formation. Flying at a hundred miles per hour, they’d been circling around what had been Albuquerque, on their way to intercept a hundred and fifty undead marching towards another human settlement. With his higher max altitude, Darius was keeping watch on their surroundings, and keeping a sharp eye out for their targets. They also had Drone number one tracking their movement from a safe distance, relaying their location to Darius’s Navigation system.

“Looks like we are coming up on them in just a few minutes,” Darius announced. They’d had to use Sophia as a communication hub, since she was the only one that’d upgraded her Communications System to Tier one, everyone else could only make two-way calls. “Remember the plan. I’m going in ahead and making two passes with Rain of Fire, then the rest of you sweep in. they should be disoriented enough for you all to do your thing. Jackson, are you ready to summon your Aeons?”

“Ready, my Golem is Primed and ready. Once he drops in, I’ll start summoning my Sunfire griffin.”

“Good. Is everyone else ready with their preparations?”

“I’m ready for quick response patch jobs,” Avery said. “This Mechanized Medic Class sure is something.”

“I am ready. May Amaterasu shine her light on upon us and may her warmth comfort us in our time of need,” Akira intoned.

You have received a minor blessing

Amaterasu’s Blessing of Warmth and Light.

Effect: +10% resistance to Cold and Dark based effects, +5% Stamina Regeneration.

Duration: 30 Minutes.

“Damn, I feel all warm and fuzzy inside,” Aisha said. “I didn’t know we could cast blessings like that.”

“It costs at least one Divine charge. Feel your God’s presence in your heart, speak your benediction and invest a Divine charge into that feeling, then release it,” Akira instructed.

“Great, I’m going to give it a try,” Aisha announced. She went silent for a moment, then everyone could hear her uttering a prayer with as much sincerity as she could muster. “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will reach out with your left hand against the wrath of my enemies,

And your right hand will save me.”

You have received a Moderate Blessing

God’s Blessing of Protection

Effect: +30% Resistance to Necrotic and Death Effects, +20% Stamina Regeneration, +10% Defense, Immunity to Fear Effects.

Duration: 1 Hour.

“Thanks to God, that worked.,” Aisha said, a sense of wonder clearly coming through over the comms. “It took three Divine Charges, but wow, that packs a punch.”

“I’m ready,” Liam said. “I wish I could have brought Argent along, but he’s still too young. He hasn’t even finished losing all his baby fluff yet. Hey, Darius, do you think Emily will do a good job taking care of him?”

“I’m sure she will be just fine.” Darius replied. “I mean, she’s a vet and grew up on a farm. If anyone can watch over your baby bird, she can. Just focus on the fight today. Okay folks, two-minute warning. The undead army are three miles away. I’m engaging my boosters in three seconds. It’s go time!” with that warning, Darius channeled his personal Mana into his winged booster Eidolon, Skyblade. one hundred fifty-five Mana drained out of him in seconds and he felt his Inertial Dampener engage as he rapidly accelerated to an insane one hundred forty-eight miles per hour. Once he reached full speed, Darius cut off the Mana supplying the booster, and then he triggered combat mode. He felt the subtle vibration from Doom bringer 3000 warming up and one of Rain of Fire’s incendiary missiles loaded into firing position on his other shoulder.

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

One minute later, Darius’s speed gradually decreased until he was once again flying at his normal top speed. He could see the horde of undead marching in lock step ahead and his targeting system locked on to the highest concentration of Draugr marching in the back. Darius reduced his altitude, then had to wait anxiously as the distance shrank by the second. His eyes burned as he stared fiercely at the square target lock to turn from red to green. As soon as it did, he knew he was in range and launched the missile.

As soon as the missile was away, Darius pulled up, reaching his maximum altitude quickly. He watched as the missile exploded and unleased an inferno covering a forty-foot-wide circle. Consuming a large grouping of the Draugr leading the rest of the undead. Darius passed by the burning area in just a few seconds and continued past the army. He had to chuckle a little as their orderly march turned into a chaotic mess, like watching a group of ants being disturbed. “Missile one detonated, I am circling around for another pass,” Darius announced to his team over the comms. He had to reduce his speed by half in order to bank around, but in that time, Rain of Fire cycled its second missile into firing position. As soon as he had the army back in his sights, he locked on and fired again. “Missile two away.”

With a massive grin on his face, Darius watched as the new missile ate up the shorter distance. Just before it impacted, a dome of Ice appeared out of nowhere and instead of blowing up the undead, it smashed into the barrier and detonated, washing the half sphere in intense flames. The dome didn’t survive, but the Draugr underneath were unharmed. “Shit!” Darius had to suddenly roll to the side as a flurry of huge Ice spike flew at him. “Fuck! Yall get here quick. They blocked my second Missile and are returning fire.”

“Thirty seconds out, hold on!” Liam announced.

Darius felt a shudder in one of his wings and was knocked to the side. Yellow lines flashed around the right wing on his display. Then, as he tried to avoid another volley, one he didn’t see struck him in the other wing and he could hear the sound of metal tearing. Darius dumped a burst of Mana into his booster to create some distance, though the sudden acceleration caused the entire left wing shear off. He tried to retract the remaining parts, but he got a red flashing warning. He didn’t have another choice. He dispelled the Skyblade Eidolon. The sudden change of weight and aerodynamics sent him tumbling through the air. Before he could right himself, or even slow down, he hit the ground and skipped and tumbled like a stone flung across the surface of a lake.

After what felt like an eternity, Darius finally came to a sliding stop. Every part of his body hurt, and his screen flickered and fuzzed in and out for a moment before it stabilized. Red outlined half of his Durability display., and yellow outlined the rest.

Warning, Durability is below fifty Percent.

Current Power Armor Durability: 73/200

Running Emergency Diagnostics…

Emergency Diagnostics Report:

Armor: Low Durability, Reduced Protection–Defense rating 19/50

Computation Systems: Reduced Functionality, non-essential programs-offline.

Communication System: Offline

Environmental System: Offline

Flight System: Offline

Internal Dampener: Online

Life Support: Offline

Mana Systems-

Reinforced Reservoir: Online

Elemental Flow Pathways: Offline

Basic Attunement Crystal: Offline

Arcane Resonance Chamber: Online

Eidolon Connection system: Online

Mobility Augmentation System: Online

Power Bank: Online—Full functionality

Power Recharge System: Online—Reduced Functionality. Power recharge rate reduced to 12 EPM.

Sensor Systems-

Audio: Online

Biological: Online

Energy: Online

Environmental: Offline

Radar: Online

Seismic: Online

Visual: Online

Strength Augmentation System: Online—reduced functionality,

Mass Compensation system: Online—50% Perceptual weight reduction of Power Armor Suit

Enhanced Strength application—Offline

“Damn, that fucked me up,” Darius said. “ Hey, can you all hear me? I’m down. Hello? Can anyone hear me?”

I’m s-s-s-sorry D-D-D-Darius, Communications are o-o-o-off-l-l-l-line.

“Fuck me sideways. God damn son of a bitch,” Darius vented his frustrations and pain with a long stream of cursing that lasted longer than it should have, but when he heard the sound of seven thrusters flying by overhead, he got his shit together and worked towards standing up.

For the first time since he’d gotten his Power Armor, Darius actually felt the weight of it as he struggled to his feet. It felt like he had a hundred pounds of weight strapped over his entire body. But with the strength enchantment on his Titan’s Fists, he was able to stagger his way to his feet. It felt awkward and unbalanced, but he managed. Looking around, he saw that some of the undead had split off and were running towards him, but overhead, a nine-foot-tall statue appeared out of nowhere and crashed down between the splinter horde and Darius. What Dorian could only assume was Jackson’s golem Aeon, stood up from the crouch it had landed in. Stone seemed to flow out of one of its hands until it took on the form of an absolutely massive granite-looking club that had to have weighed hundreds of pounds. It stomped forward and began sending zombies and skeletons flying through the air with each mighty swing.