CHAPTER 156: Crumbling

The walls shook with every impact, but they held. The blue Kukiolis that had made it this far kept slowly drawing back their arms and punching the wall. They were spread out a short distance from the gate, staying out of each other’s way. They ignored all the damage done to them and continued to pound away.

Cracks weren’t showing in the walls yet, but everyone could feel the shaking getting worse as the punches continued. If their strength stats had been anywhere near their vitality, then the wall would have fallen already. Lucas was thankful for at least some balance among their stats.

Five more had been killed, and it had taken quite a bit of time and energy to drop them. Fear was building among the wall fighters, but there was nothing Lucas could do about it. Especially as he watched the yellow Kukiolis, “Castle Destroyer [29],” continue his path towards them. He wasn’t far away now. Lucas couldn’t wait any longer.

“Right rifleman, hit the big yellow guy as soon as you can,” Lucas said, knowing that pulling him from helping the groups attacking the blues was only slightly less dangerous than allowing the yellow guy to arrive.

“Roger!” responded the man in his display.

Almost immediately the bullet went out. The boss Kukiolis stopped walking mid step. There was a flash of red on his eye, and then his hands began to glow. No damage had been taken from his eye.

“Again!” Lucas ordered.

Once more a bullet went out. The eye flashed and the glow on the hands increased.

“It isn’t enough, sir,” gasped the gunman.

“Damnit!” swore Lucas. “Don’t waste any more bullets on him. The damage probably empowered his fists. Damn [System] and damn skills!”

“Going back to the blues,” said the gunman, hesitancy in his voice.

Lucas stood there, completely still. His arms were crossed, and he looked calm to the others as he watched the largest invader approach once more. Inside, Lucas was feeling just as concerned as the people openly showing their fear.

He wasn’t the most gregarious person, but he had still formed attachments in this place. There were plenty of people outside of Adam’s team that he spent time with. Having drinks with the other soldiers at the bar, the liquor finally strong enough to cause a buzz thanks to the Leputi alchemists. There were women that he spent personal time with. Activities like playing pool in the rec center and enjoying the spars at the training area, reminding him of his boxing training. Even with the death and planetary uncertainty, Lucas was enjoying his life. He had been freed from the obligations of a peaceful society and now he was able to be true to himself.

Aside from the fate of the world and humanity, Lucas didn’t want to lose this place. Protecting it was more than just a way to honor Adam, and the trust Adam placed in him. This was a place that mattered. His father. His uncles. His pals and dates and sparing partners. A lifetime of being brushed off by society, ignored and belittled, didn’t matter anymore. He would protect this place.

“Jordan, have a Leputi bring me that stuff the alchemists put together,” Lucas ordered calmly.

“Commander,” gasped Jordan. “You can’t mean the alien napalm!”

“NOW, Jordan! We don’t have much time.”

“Bu-but…that stuff is too dangerous. How will you even be able to use it without killing the person who delivers it?!” croaked Jordan.

“Better one death than hundreds of thousands. We’re out of options. I doubt even Adam could take that thing out.”

“F-fine, commander,” Jordan said and disappeared from his display.

Lucas continued to look on. For his family, for his friends, and for his place in the world, Lucas would gamble it all.

***

The shaking of the wall worsened every time a Kukiolis punched it. Everyone could feel it. The groups of attackers would focus their spells when a giant would take a bullet in the eye. They would blitz it to create enough damage that Lamar or Andrea, depending on which location the attacker was at, could get an attack inside the monsters.

That still left a large stretch where the remaining giants were left to pound away at the wall.

Alissa didn’t have useful buffs or abilities for this fight. She stalked along the unpopulated stretch, near where the massive invaders were punching. It was stupid and dangerous, but with how angry and denied she was feeling, a little danger felt right. At her side was Fido.

Both of them missed Adam.

Alissa missed his awkward gentleness, which at the drop of a hat could become hell raining down on those who opposed him. She loved his fire and fury as much as his love and kindness. Even though she hadn’t confessed it to the other girls, Alissa got a thrill whenever Adam switched to angry mode. The rage that came from his connection with her, the actions taken to change the world into the image his rage demanded, those were things she respected, and pre-[System] had sought for herself.

Now his connection felt mostly gleeful. Sometimes there was nervousness mixed with the excitement, but there was never anger. Never rage. It felt almost like when someone starts dating, a mix of desire and self-consciousness.

That wasn’t what Adam was like…not what he should be like. He was fury. Destruction. The world bowed to him or suffered.

Alissa couldn’t image what had happened to turn him from a god of war to a little puppy, according to the feelings coming from his connections. Was this change permanent? If…when…they got him back, would he be the same? Would he be the force of nature to lead them through the oceans of enemies?

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It was difficult to admit about a guy, but she missed him. She missed him so much, and she knew the other three girls did as well. She wanted his reassuring touch, his affectionate arms to wrap her up, and his heavy war hammer to smash these stupid oversized gorillas making a racket against the wall.

Of course, if she wanted to see what had happened to Adam, what had changed him into a simpering kid emotionally, she would need to get stronger. She would need the power to take out monsters like this handily, with or without the group.

Just like she had used her increased strength to pay Greg back for the years of harassment, she wanted to pay back these invaders. As she huffed along in her march, she wondered how she could reach high enough to give these blue buffoons the same kick as she had Greg.

Before Adam had been taken, Fido was palm sized. They had all used the Rift Menu to make toys for the three headed dog using common disposably materials. Fido had mainly stayed in the condo, with the chefs feeding him when Adam and the girls were absent. Adam had set up the Rift Menu to clean up any messes that Fido made by absorbing the organic material and removing anything left over. No other pet owner had ever had it this conveniently. At level zero the puppy Carthraga had been easy to care for.

Once they began leveling him, his size increased with his levels. Caring for him took more at that point. Multiple walks a day had come from the girls, including Emily, and excluding Ashtala who once more became scared of him. Fido was energetic, playful, and breathed fire, ice, and lightning from different heads, requiring a lot more attention than normal pets.

The walks had allowed the people in the area to find out about him. Every time during a walk that a person shrieked at them, or fell to the ground in fear, Fido had been calmly introduced to the person. The kids loved him the most, and two of his three heads loved the attention back. Fortunately, the third head was more bark than bite, or the kids teasing him might have paid for it.

Even though he had grown the most since Adam vanished, Fido still missed his owner. He missed the kind man who had fed him. Missed chewing on his skin without being slapped on the noses. He especially missed the heat that Adam generated when angry, since it reminded him of the caverns he was born into.

Still, Fido enjoyed being out and about. He knew who to attack and who not to. His intelligence had increased with his level, bringing with it more reason and recognition. At least for two of the three heads.

As he walked beside Alissa, he would get annoyed at the giants, blasting out an elemental breath at them that would cause them to grunt and stop their pounding for a moment. Whenever he did this, Alissa would pat his side and say, “good boy!” It was quite enjoyable.

He wondered when his master would return and whether he would be taken out to fight more by his favorite chew toy. None of the other humans seemed to like being chewed on, he had discovered sadly.

The two continued to march along the stretches between the blue cyclopes when suddenly Fido stopped. One head looked up and snipped the air. Another tilted its head, trying to listen for something. The third began growling, a low rumble in its throat.

Alissa stopped her ruminations and looked around. She turned in various directing, listening closely for any out of place sound. She even tried to smell the air. There was no indication as to what Fido was sensing.

Then the dog burst into a run, heading along the top of the wall to where thousands of Sentinels were casting spells at a blue Kukiolis, bringing it to its knees. Alissa didn’t know what he sensed, but she ran after him with all her strength, even though she wouldn’t be able to keep up.

***

Emily breathed heavily. Once more she cast [Flame Geyser]. Fire erupted from her hands and towards the eye of the cyclops below them. The walls were 25 feet tall, and the cyclops was around 20. Now that its eye was torn open, the mages would back off and Andrea would finish it off.

The wall shook once more from an impact.

She had felt so many of the tremors from the Kukiolis punches, but this one was almost enough to knock her from her feet. While losing her balance she fell into someone packed tightly next to her at the edge of the parapets. Immediately Emily stopped casting so no one would be hit by her fire.

Looking around, Emily saw everyone else affected like she had been. They stumbled into each other, bumping around but unable to fall due to the congestion of people in the group.

Seeing that most of the spells cast at the invader had stopped, Andrea ran forward. Emily pulled her hood a bit lower as Andrea leaned over the wall railing and cast [Volt Cutter] to try and finish the cyclops off, even if the eye damage wasn’t as strong as on the others they had killed.

That’s when Emily noticed it. Two cyclopes over, a punch had cracked the wall. The constant damage it had done over the last twenty minutes was allowing them to get through. The wall needed repairs.

Pointing to where the wall was crumbling, Emily shouted, “We need Earth mages to seal that crack!” Then she ran. Short legs pumped as she dashed along the wall to where the crack was opening, bits of the obsidian rock were breaking off and shaking along the quivering ground.

BOOM!

Another punch impacted and Emily saw the crack spread as she ran.

At Emily’s shout, Andrea looked up mid-cast. Emily’s hood had come off as the wind blew it back from her sprint.

“Emily?!” she hollered as she saw the girl run past wearing their spare gear. She wanted to go grab the girl, to tell her to get back to safety, but if she stopped then the giant would have the chance to regenerate. Before going after Emily, she needed to finish this creature off. She thought about Adam and how much he wanted to protect his sister. Then she poured even more power into her spell.

Focused on the crack, Emily arrived with a skid, the crafted leggings protecting her knees. She slammed her hands onto the wall.

“[Rock Fusion]!” she cried, unleashing a spell to try and seal the splits in the obsidian.

She was panting heavily from both her run and the amount of power she was outputting. The obsidian was a higher Tier material, and she could feel it resisting her scant amount of power. She kept pushing more in, giving it everything she had. Her power flowed in the stone and tried to draw the two sides together, to make whole what was breaking. Sweat was pouring down her forehead and pain began to pierce her brain as she gave it everything she had.

“If Adam can’t be here to protect this, then I will do it for him!” Emily thought fiercely. “This wall, this base, they belong to my brother!”

She was so focused on fixing the wall that she wasn’t prepared when the next fist impacted it. The large crack which had been the length of a person instantly spider webbed outwards. Cracks spread and grew more cracks. Emily was thrown to the side, her casting broken.

Her head turned to the outside railing of the wall and saw it crumbling. Eyes following the breaking stone, she looked below her knees and felt the instability. This section was about to collapse. She tried to stand, to push off the floor to get her moving, but she didn’t have the strength or speed. A ten-foot section of the wall tilted towards the outside and crumbled, taking her with it.

***

Sgolkr had been watching. Waiting. He had seen the natives managing to kill the little giants, once more to his surprise. These followers of the aberration were dangerous. Seeing the damage they were doing to those so far above them reinforced that they needed to die, for the good of the universe. He didn’t think the Red Clan speaker could have even known they had grown strong to this extent.

However, even with the kills that they had gotten, seven of the original thirteen Tier 2s, the wall was crumbling in parts, and the Tier 3 “Castle Destroyer” was just about to throw its first punch. Once the wall was breeched, the natives would feel the full weight of Scyrric justice land upon them. He hissed in satisfaction.

The Scyrric troops were still waiting behind the little giants for their time. While it was proper etiquette to give them the first chance to kill, Sgolkr felt the anger rising in him as his intelligence was traded for strength, appropriate to his berserker class. He wouldn’t be able to hold himself back. The pleasure of combat, of showing the Scyrric superiority, needed to be his as well.

“The wall is about to crumble. It is time. All troops, take those natives and show them the truth of the universe!”

With that order given, Sgolkr began to run towards where the breech was forming.