CHAPTER 124: Hounded

They had been attacked. People had died. For every mile they traveled they were being harried.

None of the individual attacks were strong enough to overwhelm them. If they were stationary, then it would have been a mere annoyance. With how the caravan was moving, this was getting dangerous.

If they tried to deviate from the path the invaders set, they would be attacked. If they moved too slow, their rear would be charged. Weak points were now being set up. At night, or anytime they tried to stop, flying invaders would come near, dropping large objects on their weakest people.

Several times the fuel trucks had been targeted. There was never time to settle for rest or to eat. At this point the higher strength people were pulling vehicles. It was either that or leave trucks when they ran out of gas, which was a regularity now.

At this point they were at three days and nights of moving non-stop. Supplies and packs were left by the sides of the road. Exhausted people were picked up. No one was immune from the exhaustion. Chad had even seen Gregor running between two attack positions, still in his berserker state unaware that he almost trampled the people in his way. As hungry as Gregor got, at least he could pick up the monsters he killed and fill his belly with them.

Even the leadership and intelligence officers seemed panicky now. They always had a person manning the radios, trying to send distress calls while praying for a response.

Chad stumbled, his legs burning and his mind too groggy to realize the people in front of him had stopped. When he noticed, he spoke up with a dry mouth.

“Wha…what happened?” he croaked out.

No one responded. He pushed through the people around him. Usually, people got out of his way, since those near his assignments knew he was friends with the intimidating Gregor. This time he had to push people, not even bothering to use his wind to clear the air or cushion the contact.

It took several minutes and a lot of tight spaces before he was at the front of the crowd. What he saw made him question wanting to survive the initial defense at the base three months ago, after the invasions started. What lay in front of them was the end. The fighting and struggle of the last three months would finally be over, just not how he wanted. The only thing his numb mind could think, trying to deny the scene in front of him, was how badly he needed a shower.

They were south of Martin, having been forced to run around it on the highway. The caravan stretched for miles. All lanes going both directions were taken up with their people. A quarter mile in front of them was a turn off to head south, the last stretch to Jackson. In a normal speed car that would have been about an hour drive. For the agility focused classes, they might be able to run it in that time if they had the stamina. But there was no chance for a group this large and varied. Not that it mattered.

Chad took in a deep breath, held it, and let it out. Then tears came to his eyes. They streamed down his face. He wasn’t the only one who broke at that moment. People all around were falling, whether in despair or due to exhausted legs. No one was willing to move forwards.

The turn might only be a quarter of a mile in front of them, but so were the invaders. Not the paltry sum that attacked them over the last weeks, but thousands. Tens of thousands. There must be 20-30 thousand separated into groups of different races. Vicious beasts and animals buffeted the groups, some being ridden as war mounts.

Forward was impossible.

Then a horn sounded from the rear. Chad wasn’t sure if it was an alarm, or a blown instrument, but it carried over the distance. It also brought bad news. All the invaders weren’t waiting in front of them, but behind as well. There was no retreat, not that Chad thought these exhausted humans would be able to get away.

Chad let the tears come. He cried, then sobbed. He was sure he had the ugliest face of his life on right then. Never again would he see his parents or sister. His last moments would be spent fighting a hopeless fight as they were overrun. It sure made all their fighting and leveling and searching for people a pointless endeavor.

It was time to surrender, to concede. They had lost. It didn’t matter what was waiting at Jackson. The invaders had controlled everything up to now. Their survival had only been due to invaders playing with them.

A sigh, a sharp intake of breath, clashed with his sobs and Chad began choking. Coughing. He reached into his pack for an already overused towel and wiped his still snotty face with it. Then he reached for his treasure, the last bar of soap.

He stumbled to his feet. The pack fell with only the soap in his hand. Then he raised it to his face and inhaled. It didn’t matter how good it smelled. He couldn’t smell it right now anyway.

Ignoring what was happening around him, Chad yelled towards the invaders. He hollered. His already dry voice was pushed to the limit. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever be able to make a sound again.

As Chad cranked back his arm and threw the bar of soap with all the power his leveled body had, he managed to make a sound. “Screw you,” came out as a scratchy whisper.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

A large, gnarled hand rested on his shoulder. “Well said, Chad,” Gregor said, just as parched and exhausted as he was. The words broke Chad out of his daze.

“Form up!” another voice yelled. “This is it! It’s either us or them!”

Commander Rexus stepped in front of everyone. He didn’t face the humans, didn’t turn his back on the invaders. Next to him stepped eight other people, all special forces, all just a hair from reaching their Tier 3 class evolutions.

Gregor patted Chad once more and then stepped forward with the others.

“If you want to live, then you fight. If you want to die, do it somewhere else,” said Rexus.

It wasn’t the most inspiring words, but people stood. They took their weapons. Archers and mages started checking the sky for more of those birds, or the screeching bats that had kept them up at night.

Then Chad saw Commander Rexus’s tag, “Siege Wall [3].” He had hit Tier 3! Chad could feel the strength in him. Rexus and his people didn’t look tired. They weren’t defeated. Those soldiers were ready for a fight.

As other soldiers, men and women hardened by constant life and death situations stepped forward to join them, Chad did too. He might die, well, no kidding himself, it was almost certain he would, but they would take as many down as they could.

There were short humanoids in black rock armor. There were creatures resembling walking plants. Elves with dark skin, jagged teeth, and bows for weapons made weird gestures and laughed at them. Weasel-like creatures hunched over but with spikes on their backs. Monsters resembling walking rocks and water and creatures that couldn’t be seen due to a layer of fire…

Chad took a deep breath and waited. There was nothing else to do.

***

Lucas pushed the motorcycle he drove as hard as he could, though it still felt like Brittney could blast ahead of him whenever she wanted. She even tried to do a wheelie, like Adam could do at these speeds. She didn’t try a second time.

It would have been reassuring if his dad and uncles were there, protecting his back. This was going to be more than a fight, more than a raid. Thousands of humans versus tens of thousands of invaders. He would have to trust the Sentinel Army to stand together against this.

Getting there in time was also difficult. They had set the faster vehicles in front so they would arrive in waves, with reinforcements coming as they arrived. They had been driving for 10 minutes. Pre-[System] this was an hour and a half trip. He was hoping to make it in 40 minutes.

It would be up to the other humans to last that long.

***

“Illusionary Loyalist, sir!” said one of the General’s Guards, using Tom’s appointment title.

“Yes, Guard Captain Kabir?” asked Tom. The man was practically giddy that Tom remembered who he was.

“It seems there are a combination of Pellicians and Arripions moving together towards Jackson from our direction. We’ve spotted about two hundred, with the flying ones carrying the weasels,” the captain reported.

Tom thought about it. “These must be the ones that ambushed our people at the water plant. We were defending Jackson at the time, but I think it’s fair to say we can earn some payback.”

Kabir grinned viciously at that, his eyes lighting up. Then he calmed down and added, “there is also a larger of the flying ones carrying a very large and armored weasel. Scouts think they are boss level threats.”

“Oh good!” Tom exclaimed to Kabir’s surprise. “Now I can finish what the boss didn’t have time for. Excellent!”

Kabir lit up again, seeing that Tom wasn’t concerned about even Tier 3s, showing they were destined to take back this world. After listening to Tom’s orders, Kabir went to relay them to everyone. They would show what humans were worth!

***

Adam was getting impatient. He had been pacing in the Brownsville base, trying to keep the heat pulsing through him in check. Without realizing it he kept activating [Body and Soul Shaping], drawing through more strength. He wanted to be out there, wanted to be with the main attack force, but someone needed to make sure the rear was secure.

The pacing was making those behind him restless. It wasn’t that the General’s Guards with him were getting nervous. They were all a little messed up after Adam’s accidental use of his connections during the beginning of the invasions. No, they were feeding off his nervous energy, desiring the fight as much as he was. Champing at the bit.

There was no telling how long he should wait before heading to Martin. It had been twenty minutes already, and it would still take him a good half an hour to arrive at full speed. Longer for the rest of the guard to arrive.

Then a notification arrived from the Rift Menu.

Alert: Hostiles have entered your territory.

Adam brought up the Rift Menu map. Since they had expanded the territory, they could see almost outside of the main city portions of Jackson. Through the Rift Menu display, he could see two groups moving towards their main base.

First were small humanoids. They looked like someone had taken a short adult using a computer art program and squished them to half the height. Hands and feet were large and wide, the heads a little flat but with wild hair coming off them. They wore leather vests and pants, with big boots. Adam would most closely compare them to leprechauns, though only ones from horror movies. Quite a few of them looked so buff they would need magic just to move.

With the leprechauns were much larger creatures. Adam would only come up to their shoulders. They had white and gray fur. Their shoulders had a massive hunch with smaller heads protruding forwards from an oddly angled neck. Their arms were massive, with mighty forearms and fists that almost touched the ground. Proportionally tiny legs made him wonder how they balanced, as they took small but quick steps to not fall behind the leprechauns, who barely came up to their waists.

A huge grin spread across Adam’s face as he stopped pacing. Everyone noticed and began checking their equipment. Finally, some action!

The invaders stopped when they crossed into the Jackson base territory. They felt it as they crossed the line. This wasn’t where they had been told the base was. From a distance they could see the obsidian walls that they had been told to attack. That should have been the base boundaries.

“Give me three minutes, and then come through those two portals,” Adam ordered the guards with him as he created portals to two buildings in Jackson near where the invaders had arrived. “Let’s make this quick so we can get on the road,” Adam smirked as he stepped through one.

***

“Mistress, why are we here?” the Red Clan researcher asked as they stood on top of a building in Memphis. “Is your plan progressing?”

Cruxannith’cz’Jurzax intensely stared at a crystal, connected to her through her soul. Lesser versions had been given to the leaders of the various races she had sent off. There were four groups of combined invaders that she had sent out, and five crystals that she was tracking. Through them she could feel the emotions surrounding her pawns, nearly as strong as if she had temporarily soul bonded them directly.

Yes, things were heading where she wanted. This outcome would be most satisfying.