Leavery called Maik off of healing detail to come over and assist with questioning a couple of the Neon Lights gang members whom they had captured and piled into the second bus after restraining them. Maik was able to form the link easy enough using the sending skill once they made physical contact but the lilin was shocked by the chaotic mess that either mans thoughts had become. It was like the mans whole mind had become as savage and single minded as the Primal aspect of Maik's consciousness had been before magic was a thing and the Chi instructor almost broke the link on reflex when the savage will of the man lashed out at Maik though the connection.
Leavery had been watching intently and when he saw the Chi instructor manage to form a connection he immediately started drilling for information. "Good. I was hoping you could make a connection after my attempts failed. Do whatever you have to too find out what you can about their group. Why they attacked the national guard convoy, their numbers, how they have such strong Chi skills and where their base of operations is, All of it."
Having extensive experience in how to cajole the lilins own Primal mind into assenting to either Logic's or Creative's designs, Maik went about offering the man creature comforts in return for information through the link. Pheromones and a mood altering auric effect aimed at helping him feel like he was among friends was also used to great effect sense the man mind was in such a chaotic state. Maik requested and then offered the man water, food, candy and even massaged him soothingly while carefully extracting one snippet of information after another. The lilin was so engrossed in the task that the Chi instructor hadn't noticed they had reached the sight of the battle with the national guard until after the lilin had gotten everything out of the 2 captives that could be gotten out of them without moving on too a hand job. Leavery's voice was even more grave when Maik looked up. "Report your findings."
As Maik retracted the soothing auric effect they felt the oppressive atmosphere being emitted by the other people in the bus and wanted to ask but the fact that they had stopped, there was no sound of battle outside and the grim looks on their faces painted a bleak picture. Maik got on with the report. "Their minds has degraded, almost to that of wild savages. It seems that they found a way to advance their Chi skills quickly through the use act of consuming psychedelic drugs while distributing their alteration points but it has clearly had lasting effects. I think their brain chemistry is either permanently altered or they are under the influence right now. Their leader found what they are calling the divine high, which seems to have something to do with having a certain amount of alteration points saved up and then taking drugs with one of their.." Maik uses air quotes. "Shamans.. present in order to gain power. They have taken over a whole neighborhood to the north and according to these 2, they are expanding rapidly, moving house by house."
Both the mayor and Leavery looked at one another with even grimmer expressions than before and for good reason. When Maik finally made it outside to help with the clean up there were a lot of bodies, just as many of them national guard as from the Neon Lights gang and it didn't look as though their were any survivors from the raid. In total their were 26 bodies, 12 from the guard and another 14 gang members. It was unknown how many had been injured and the supplies had been stripped from the trucks, all of them having been disabled though various means. Telephone poles had been dropped in front of and behind the convoy, the power lines only helping to restrain the men who had apparently been on their way to collect local national guard members who hadn't managed to report in when magic became a thing and drop off some supplies in the process. After that they were swarmed and quickly overwhelmed by the empowered and frenzied warriors of the Neon Lights.
An argument was heating up between Leavery and the mayor, to the point that people could hear the commotion over their work on loading up the bodies. "Your men, didn't last even a minute before being overrun, despite how well equipped they are and now the Neon Lights have military gear they stripped from the guard. The unfortunate fact is that our asset can help speed up peoples training to gain higher tiered Chi skills but there is a limit on how many people Maik can help advance each day. We already have a force of 18 Higher skill user, not including Stevens and myself but that's not the real issue. None of your men have the basic Mind body skill yet and they need that first step to actually start learning the higher skills effectively. Maik can expedite the process but they will still need to learn that initial skill and sleep on it before they can start learning the higher skills. That's at least 2 too 3 days before they reach the level were at and we need to respond to this threat quickly, before it gets any further out or hand."
The mayor looked rather displeased but sense the man still didn't have the mind & body skill he kinda looked haggard despite his strong resolve, which was clearly evident in his voice. "And what would you suggest, given your Experience with Chi skills ?"
The former and now once again soldier looked back as his forces before calling Harper the head of medical, The fire team leaders and Maik over. "Report, whats our status ?" The medical personnel were down to about 30% Chi reserves, with the combatants having about 40% on average. Maik reported that they still had about 1300 Calories of Chi left. There were glances in the lilins direction from that number but Leavery didn't care. Judging Maik's reserves by percentage at this point was almost pointless given just how monstrous their Chi pool was compared to others. Leavery took a moment to tally up the figures before turning back to Zolinski. "Alright mayor. Our forces are a bit tapped at the moment so rushing into a fight right away is ill advised. We need a good hour or two to recover and get back to full strength. Then we can move on this gang, the Neon Lights.
Zolinski seemed to be thinking it over when another transmission came in over the radio, the woman's voice clearly in distress. "We are under attack. I repeat we are under attack. This is the Congressional Militia located on 475 just north of 52 St." The mayor eyes went wide with fear and anger but Leavery only nodded to the older man.
The one again soldier, now a Corporal of the full squad of higher tier Chi skill users, turned to address his troops with a loud and commanding voice. "Alright people, change of plans. These fuckers are hitting our neighbors the Congressional Militia right now. Saddle up ? Were moving out. Cycle your Chi to replenish as much as possible along the way. Its going to get rough." In less than a minute the column of vehicles was making strait for the private school that was the home base of the Congressional Militia.
Like all the others, Maik focused on replenishing Chi but also discovered that they had earned some kind of energy from having defeated the Neon Lights warrior earlier, a notification explaining the gains but there was no time to give it more than a cursory glance before closing out the notice and focusing on cultivation to recover. However they only had just over 9 minutes to prepare before the sounds of gun fire could be heard in the distance. Fire team leaders called for readiness. Those with guns checked their ammo clips and made sure rounds were chambered while the medical staff prepared the tools of their trade.
Maik desperately wished that they also had some of that new ballistic armor the engineers had produced when an odd idea struck the lilin. If Maik could infuse Chi into them self to improve the Durability stat, then why not an item, like the armor Maik wore. It was just some ATV armor, plastic padding that was good at absorbing blunt force but offered little protection from bullets. Still, the lilin focused and used Chi sight to examine the armor. Then applied Chi projection to send the Chi body infusion skill into the armor instead. Long seconds went by with the energies refusing to conform and connect, Maik attempting slight adjustments to the pattern and flow until it started working. It was something like the way the energy fused to Maik's bones but with a different structure.
With an ever increasing pace the energy melded with the armor and there were a few gasps but the lilin ignored them, fully intent upon completing the new creation so as to not waist the energy already invested. A few seconds later and the new pattern was stable. Maik still had to maintain some focus on the energy in the armor but once the armor was infused it was an almost negligible amount. Like chewing gum while doing other things. Maik opened their eyes to find everyone around staring at them. "What." Their odd stares were actually putting a damper on the lilins mood despite the recent prompt.
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Tier 5 skill Acquired - Chi Item infusion - Beginner
Infuse an Item with Chi to temporarily enhance various aspects of the item.
Harper only spared the Chi instructor the occasion glance, the majority of her focus on the cumming battle. "I take it that glow just now was something helpful to the cumming fight ?"
Maik was taken aback by the mention that there was a glow but quickly answered with a voice that was only slightly hesitant. "I just figured out how to infuse Chi into an Item. For a short time at least. I chose to use it on my armor."
The head of the medical department spared the lilin another glance and a nod. Within seconds they were coming to a rapid stop and the first bullet struck the frame of the bus. People started filing out in rapid succession. Maik forced out more Chi as they moved, making sure to imbue the helmet as well but the lilin felt their hold on the infusion of the torso armor start to wain as a result so they had to give up on infusing 2 pieces at the same time. Then the Chi instructor was out among those in the battle, even if only in the back lines for now.
Alright. I'll handle Chi distribution. Primal just let me know where you want the skills activated and when. I'm on situation awareness and creative tactical planning. Primal, just feed me targeting data and I'll feed you options and tactical responses. I am driving sense this is a combat situation. Lets do this.
The attacking force of the Neon lights had already made some head way, a 40 foot wide section of fence had been crushed with a series of fair sized logs and over half of the invading forces were already on the grounds of the private school. This actually worked to the advantage of those here to aid the Congressional Militia as it allowed them to flak the invading force, pinning them between the defenders and the arrived aid.
This didn't seem to matter all that much to the nearly 80 invaders from the Neon Lights as half of their numbers turned savage and blood thirsty gazes upon the new arrivals before charging without hesitation. This meant that the forces of the trilogy and the returning members of the Congressional Militia were still outnumbered almost 2 to 1. Thankfully those of the Neon Lights didn't seem to have any vehicles of their own and having that mobile cover was aiding those on Maik's side while the warriors of the Neon Lights scampered from one piece of cover to the next.
On Maik's side, they had learned to make sure and put at least 3 rounds into each opponent before moving on to another target wile the Neon Lights warriors seemed to have learned to be more evasive and tactical with their movements. Or perhaps most of the really stupid ones had already died in the previous battles. There were still a few that blindly made a mad dash for the allied front line. While those fool hearty chargers were dealt with easily enough they took a lot of the pressure off of their clearer headed comrades, giving them the vital few seconds needed to reform their lines and start returning fire.
The exchange of bullets was fierce and short lived as nobody seemed to have more than a clip or 2 for their weapon and within the span of just 2 minutes most of the gun fire had died down, those on the allied side being the only ones left with a few guns still in the fight. They still had to dig the spare clips out of their vehicles and reload though and those were precious seconds that the Neon Lights warriors used to rapidly advance with all manor of melee weapons. Everything from knives to one who wielded a full length barbell like a quarterstaff.
When the two forces met the odds had been evened out, a little. It was more like 1.3 to 1 as the allied force had their fair share of wounded from the fire fight as well but thus fare the exchange had been in their favor. Maik spared nothing as they infused strength and Dexterity with Chi while maintaining the armor infusion and spreading an auric effect of Chi sight around them self. Enhanced muscle control and strength aided the lilin to pump their legs like an Olympic sprinter, allowing Maik to rapidly advance from the rear to the front just in time to meat the first wave head on. The lilins first opponent wielded a tire iron and Maik let the guy swing right for their abdomen with the improvised weapon in order to get a clear shot at the side of the guys head with a right hook. This tactic was partially because the ATV armor was perfect for defending against this kind of thing and to test what would happen if the infused armor was hit but against a weapon that the armor was already well suited for.
The warriors strike hit first sense he had greater reach and almost all of the energy was used up by absorbing that strike. Not enough so that Maik would have to recast the whole infusion but enough that the lilin would have to spend the full price of re-infusion in order to maintain the effect and to recharge the armor. The effects of the strike were almost totally mitigated as well, allowing the lilin to land a solid Strength attribute enhanced punch to the guys face. While that impact was devastating to the warriors head, Maik's hand wasn't very happy either and Maik found them self needing to pour Chi into flesh molding to help put the bones of their knuckle back in place and then apply minor regeneration and minor healing to fix the damage as quickly as possible.
while the lilin knelt and focused on recovery one of the warriors friends took the chance to take a swing at the back of Maik's head with a wrench. The lilin had an auric effect up, imbued with Chi sight and so managed to duck in time but the attacker swung the wrench right around to come back for another swing. Maik switched the Chi body infusion for the Dexterity stat into the Durability stat and pushed off the ground to shoulder ram the guy, damaged hand still clung to their chest. Some of the charge in the armor was expended as well and it was like a 178 Pound (80 kg) wreaking ball rammed into the warriors chest at 40 miles per hour. (64 Km per hour.) The guy fell back but wasn't out of the fight yet.
With a half drunk gate the first warrior came at Maik with another swing of the tire iron and the lilin move back long enough to charge the defense in their armor again. Thankfully the guy was punch drunk and so still aimed for center mass, allowing Maik to turn and expose their armored back for absorbing the hit. From there Maik released the casting of Item infusion on the chest piece while shoulder checking the warrior to take him off balance. In the next instant Maik infused the bracer on their left arm with the item infusion before swinging it around and into the side of the guys head. He still managed to lift his arm up to block some of the force though and Maik did little more then ring his bell again and knock him over. However, the warrior did drop their weapon.
A third warrior stumbled Maik's way with blood running from their nose and mouth but flailing a claw hammer wildly in the lilins direction. Infusion was requested for the Dexterity stat and it would have been rerouted from the Durability stats but the skill reached the Intermediate level just then and Maik was able to now power 3 different stats at the same time and to even greater heights.
Tier 4 skill advanced - Chi body infusion. - Intermediate
With enhanced Dexterity and control the lilin reached out to catch the handle of the hammer, just above the flailing mans grip and then spin to pull the weapon out of the guys hand. Maik continued the spin around and swung the hammer in a reverse grip over and into the warriors shoulder to send them fully off balance and tumbling to the ground.
It was good that Maik now had a weapon because warrior number 2, the wrench wielder was descending upon the lilin, literally. The guy had jumped up high and was coming at the lilin with a powerful over hand swing. However, with the full combination of 3 enhanced attributes Maik managed to redirect the strike to the side with the hammer and then elbow the guy in the face with his right arm. The motion agitated the hand but it was almost healed at this point. A swing of the hammer at the warriors face while he was staggered and Maik knew he was dead when that odd feeling of energy entered their body.
The other two were struggling to their feet but the lilin could seed one of their class mates was wounded and being pressed hard by 2 attackers so Maik made a bee line for the fight in progress, flipping he hammer around to hold it upright along the way. The first swing struck one of the attackers right shoulder blade and the arm that was about to swing an axe at Maik's fellow student went limp as it dropped from the creaming mans hand and the second swing to the back of the skull ended that half of the fight. From their the other young man quickly gained the advantage on the wild warrior of the Neon Lights so the lilin sought out more targets. It had mostly divulged into one on one fights at this point but there were a few 2 on 1 that needed assistance and within another minute they had cleared this half of the attacking force. As a bonus Maik's right hand was working again too.
There was not time for rest however and Leavery called all the remaining able bodied warrior to his side for an assault of the forces that had already invaded the School grounds that were the headquarters of the Congressional Militia.