CHAPTER 147: The Nick of Time

Colonel Davian felt the heat even before Jack Fleming lunged at him. He couldn’t react as the man led with his flames. They reached for him as the distance with Fleming vanished. The fires wrapped him, and Davian clamped his jaw shut to keep from screaming at being burned.

The world then moved around him. Or his position in the world moved. Davian’s sense of balance was thrown off. It was only for an instant, then he was standing, leaning on one of the troops behind him, another fifteen feet from where a surprised Fleming was grasping empty air.

“What?” started Fleming before yelling, “Ow!”

By instinct his right hand slapped against his neck, where a line of blood has opened.

“OW!” he shouted louder as his own fire burned his neck, evaporated the blood, and sizzled the exposed flesh from the cut. Immediately the fire around his hands and neck went out.

“Who did that?!” Fleming shouted, enraged from the pain and humiliation. People on both sides were looking around, trying to find what had cut Fleming.

Slowly a dark outline materialized next to Fleming. The silhouette reached around him while a sharp, steely edge pressed against his throat. Just the touch of the blade drew a light line of blood.

The silhouette then became increasingly clear as it turned into the form of a man. He was wearing black leather armor, though it wasn’t in good shape. Patches had been poorly sewn all over it. Both the jacket and the pants were mutilated and then put back together.

Eight knives of differing size and shape were at his belt, two more on each leg, and a bandolier of sharpened bone fragments wrapped his shoulder and chest. The man’s face was unseeable as a hood was pulled over it, the shadow repelling the light from entering. Two of the fingers on his left glove flapped with nothing inside.

His tag was clear though. “Unseen Death [37].” That was his class, with the appointment title removed from the tag.

“Why you…” shouted Fleming, ignoring that his own movement created a new cut against the blade. “[Flame barrier]!”

A burst of fire wrapped his body and radiated outwards. Yet the man, or the silhouette of him, faded like smoke being blown away. Fleming growled as he saw the man step out from behind Colonel Davian. Darkness formed a halo around his body. Other people gasped.

Elouise stepped forward, up to the man, and pulled back his hood. The face that stared at her barely resembled the boy she remembered. It had only been a few weeks, but they had changed him mightily.

His hair and beard looked uncut and ungroomed during the time he had been away, growing wild and unkempt. There were scars over his face, even more than Adam had. One was across his forehead, but he had a few on his cheeks and chin, little absences of beard hair making them obvious.

The biggest difference was his eyes. The pupils and irises couldn’t be seen. Instead, discs of black were there, shimmering eerily, as if they were trying to eat the very light that attempted to enter them. Those eyes looked at Elouise without concern, fear, or joy. They just stared.

“Just in the Nick of time,” she said while giving Nick a grandmotherly smile and a pat on his shoulder.

“Name puns? Is this the time for them?” he asked casually.

She smiled brighter at him. “Might not be able to use them tomorrow.”

Nick shrugged.

“Where’s Adam?”

The frown that Davian gave him didn’t cause Nick’s expression to change, as he already suspected something was wrong.

Elouise gave a different answer. “Scouting,” she said loud enough for the troops to hear.

“And my group?”

“Preparing,” said Davian. That caused Nick to give a barely perceptible nod.

“These chumps are?”

Davian opened his mouth to explain, but Elouise cut him off with a simple answer. “Troublemakers.”

A larger, slow nod of understanding came from Nick.

Meanwhile, Fleming was shouting and cursing at him, while keeping his distance. Nick looked at him with his lightless eyes.

“You seem a problem, but that guy seems like the real issue,” said Nick. His hand raised and he pointed at General Carmichael. Then his pointer finger and thumb touched. “[Shadows Bind Us].”

A gasp came out of Carmichael. Then a choking sound. His eyes blacked out and he fell to his knees. A line of black, hard to see, ran from Nick’s fingers to Carmichael’s throat and wrapped around it. There was no slack on the line, as if it was drawn by a steady hand and wouldn’t move from that path.

Shouting ensued as his officers tried to pull Carmichael up or to break the line. People’s hands, arms and bodies passed completely through the shadow line, as if it didn’t exist in this reality. Seeing the problem, Kevin Spence, still wearing the Scyrric knuckle weapons that Adam had given to him, activated a skill. The front of his fists glowed and then flashed forward to punch the black line.

The punch did cause the line to quiver, managing to contact it, but wasn’t enough to break it. Then Rexus stepped forward. His hand glowed too as he made it straight, like a blade, then he swung at the line.

With a snap the black line broke, though the two ends didn’t sag. They simply began evaporating, becoming black particles that faded. Nick glared at the man as he felt the rebound of the skill breaking but the disorientation it caused didn’t move him.

The end connecting to Carmichael vanished, returning his eyes to normal and allowing him to gasp for breath. While people helped him to his feet, Commander Rexus bellowed, “YOU!” at the glaring Nick. Then he began taking large strides to get to him.

Immediately Nick had a knife in each hand, backhand grip, and he prepared himself for a fight. Colonel Davian backed away, as did the rest of the soldiers, two pulling Elouise with them.

Distant shouting drew people’s attention as a pair of pickup trucks full of people came speeding up. One came to a gentle stop next to the Sentinel troops, while the other spun to a sudden stop, almost tipping. A few curses were audible.

“The hell! Brittney isn’t allowed to drive again!” yelled Carlos. He stumbled as he landed on the ground after jumping from the back of the recklessly driven truck.

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“If you don’t like my driving then ride with Lucas next time!” she yelled back, hopping out of the driver seat.

Rexus stopped moving as he saw the rest of the team exiting the trucks, as well as more soldiers at the top end of Tier 2. A group of rabbit men also came running from the same direction, their levels similarly approaching Tier 3. Both groups spread out, seeing the situation, and many weapons were brought out.

Carlos was still cursing and stumbling as he approached the colonel. Then he looked, doing a double take.

“Nick!” he yelled and rushed the man. His arms spread and he hugged him, ignoring the knives in his hands. “You’re ok!”

“Welcome back!” said Lamar as he squeezed Nick’s shoulder with a smile. “Glad you survived.”

Then Carlos frowned at the facial scars but smiled when he saw the two floppy glove fingers. He held up his own hand, where he had lost a finger when fighting the Testudinates.

“We match,” he joked. Then he punched Nick in the shoulder. “How dare you get so far ahead of us.”

Nick looked at them all. They had all reached Tier 3 as well, though they currently looked in bad shape. They were sweaty and grimy, with dried blood on them. Scuffs and scratches were on the armor while cuts were on those wearing cloth.

“Adam?” he asked quietly by Carlos’s ear.

“Captured,” was the response.

Nick’s face scrunched up in anger and the darkness around him began seeping out, enough that even Carlos backed away.

“What’s going on here?” asked Lucas, loud enough for all to hear.

Colonel Davian then stepped forward.

“Invader army is heading this way,” he said to Lucas, who nodded at it.

“As expected,” Lucas responded.

The colonel continued. “I was trying to negotiate for them to either let the civilians into the base, or to jointly defend it.”

Lucas once more nodded. Then he turned and surveyed the hostile group that had been let in the gate. With an exaggerated casualness, he placed his hammer on his shoulder and walked towards where Rexus was eyeing them.

Within four feet of the man, Lucas spoke.

“I’m offering you all one choice and one chance. You only have until I’m done talking to choose. Here are your options…”

Fleming shouted at him hatefully, “who are you to give ultimatums?”

Then a knife was once again at his throat, held by a shadowy hand. “Let Lucas talk, or we’ll go with his last option by default,” said Nick, at a conversational volume. Fleming ended up gulping, unable to defend without hitting his own allies with his flames.

“Option one, you sign a [System] contract to join the Sentinel Army. Then you are bound to cooperate, and we don’t have to worry about sabotage.”

“Unthinkable!” shouted Carmichael in a lather. “We won’t be following a bunch of brats with our lives and country on the line!”

“Option two, your forces come in and help defend. We’ll give you the South side of the base wall to defend, and you will be observed at all times,” continued Lucas. As if to demonstrate, several displays appeared in the air showing the group from different angles.

Carmichael started ranting again, so Lucas turned to Rexus.

“And option three?” Rexus asked thoughtfully.

“We carve through your forces so the civilians you are detaining can come in. Then any of your forces that survive leave.”

“Don’t you think your eyes are bigger than your stomach with that one?” Rexus smirked, pointing to the tag over Lucas’s head. Lucas was now showing at level 14, with a class of Battlemaster. That was low compared to Rexus’s level, even more so since 12 of Lucas’s levels were in body, leaving his class at only level 2 of Tier 3.

“It depends if you want to go this apocalypse alone,” whispered Lucas threateningly. “You might survive, but I can guarantee none of the rest of your men will.”

The confidence on Rexus’s face withdrew and he looked at all the enemies standing before him. The Sentinels still had better gear, numbers, and the home base advantage. Then he drew up to his full height, still a little shorter than Lucas.

“We’ll take option two,” he said slowly.

His own men nodded and sheathed their weapons.

General Carmichael began shouting at him, “Not you too, Victor! Just wipe them out! Take the base! This is our land! Our country! Don’t compromise with traitors!”

“I’d better go discuss this with the general,” Rexus said. “Do you have any buildings we can use?”

“One minute,” warned Lucas, then he shouted into the air. “Jordan! Absorb the buildings within our territory but outside the walls for materials. Even if people are still living in them. Let those down gently.”

“But Adam told us to leave it alone,” came a voice from the air, surprising Rexus and his men.

“You know the situation, man!” ordered Lucas. “Get with my pops and the army engineers from both groups and try to set up defenses. Maybe some collapsable trenches or ballistae. It’s not my area of expertise. It will all be used within our territory so don’t worry about anything disintegrating from leaving the territory.”

“I guess I can view it as a tower defender now instead of a city builder,” said Jordan.

“Whatever you gotta do,” said Lucas. “Now, arrange the south wall for Carmichael’s army. Make sure Lashtam sets up a watch on them.”

“Which of them?” asked Jordan hesitantly.

“ALL of them,” Lucas said forcefully. “Then build them some open barracks. Don’t waste all our resources on it. Something basic for them to sleep in with rotations. And hurry with it all, we don’t have much time.”

Rexus’s brow furrowed as Lucas pointed through the gate. Then his jaw dropped as he saw buildings, large and small, rippling and fading from reality. The land all around the wall was cleared, and it continued to spread outward. Rexus’s jaw dropped dumbfoundedly.

“This base can do that?”

“Yes,” answered Lucas. Then he imitated Adam, waving his hand dramatically to summon a screen that was displaying a meeting in which Carmichael’s group had accused Adam and his friends of being enemy pawns. Upon seeing that, Rexus’s face grew stormy.

“This base seems even more powerful than we expected.”

“It is, and it’s OURS! Any suspicious moves by your side and it will be war. One you will lose,” Lucas threatened openly.

Rexus stared him in the eyes, looking for something, almost disappointed when he didn’t see whatever it was. Then he turned and walked back to his group, whispering with General Carmichael. The older man nodded, and Commander Rexus started shouting orders.

It didn’t even take ten minutes before large crowds were flooding through the fully opened gate. Screens and voices directed them where to go so as not to be in the way once the fighting started.

There was still a lot to organize. People were spread through the various Rifts in the network, away from Jackson. Supplies to keep them alive for a few weeks were relocated, in case the main base was destroyed. Lower-level soldiers and personnel were sent to monitor the areas and act as guards to make sure as many people could be kept safe as possible.

It was a large undertaking, with the Sentinels unsure of how long before the invaders fell upon them.

STATUS:

Name: Nicholas Morris [37]

Age: 18

Race: Human

Appointment: N/A

Class: Unseen Death [28] (Epic) Tier 3

Body [9]

Strength: 291

Agility: 394

Vitality: 98

Intelligence: 60

Wisdom: 57

Skill Points: 3

Skills:

Light Steps: Reduce noise while stepping.

Dim Presence +5: Less likely to be noticed.

Unseen Blow +5: Increased damage when attacking while unseen.

Target Weakness +5: Attacked to weak points on an enemy do increased damage.

Mask Signs +5: Reduce chance of being noticed due to physical evidence of user.

Hidden Watcher: Reduce chance of being noticed when observing a target while unseen.

Remove Threat: Reduce chance that perception abilities will notice hostility or bloodlust. Opponents are less likely to see the user as a threat to them.

False Trail +5: Observable evidence that the user was in a location is more likely to lead in a different direction.

Deadly Blow +5: Near fatal attacks are more likely to kill the target.

Deep Cut +5: Attacks penetrate further into the target.

Hit Count: Provides the user with an approximation of the number and type of attacks to kill the target.

Between Shadows +5: User can move his body and apparel between shadows.

Shadows Bind Us +5: Shadows can be used to cut off motion of senses. The amount that can be cut of depends on the power and level difference between the user and target.

Light Saves Us +3: Create and control light to banish darkness or blind targets.

Enhanced Stealth +5: All perception reducing skills are boosted.

See the Unseen +5: Allows vision to persist regardless of amount darkness or light. Also makes visual effects and perception dampening skills less likely to work on user.

Vanish +5: Disappear from target’s perception based on user’s perception skills.

Where I've Been: Leave an image of yourself behind after using [Between Shadows].

Strength from Speed: Increase the Strength stat by 20% of base Agility