CHAPTER 53: Just a Bit More

“Invaders,” Adam mumbled with a whisper. His eyes had closed, and the two paramedics were lifting his body onto a gurney. Then his voice came out a little louder. “Invaders…I’ve got to…conquer…the invaders…”

Adam’s skin reddened, and heat started wafting off him. “The invaders…need to die…” The paramedics hurried away from him as the air blasted back from the sudden temperature change. His eyes popped open and he sat up. Fury showed in his face.

“They took my friends from me. I will take everything from them. I’ll kick their race off our planet and make sure they never return!”

Once he was standing Adam looked to the sky thoughtfully. Ron watched as the grieving child disappeared and instead was replaced by the steadfast and determined man. The one who hadn’t been stopped by armies of enemies, fatal gunshot wounds, or having his chest destroyed by the giant ballista bolt.

“But I need just a bit more. My soul attacks won’t be enough and can’t work on the barrier. Weapons that we have are useless and my physical attacks can’t puncture the rift barrier. The barrier is made of some kind of force. It stops inertia, slows my attacks before they hit it. I need a force that can’t be slowed, one that can focus my strength into just a point to push through. The same for their armor. I need to strike in a single spot so that the metal can’t disperse my power.”

Adam walked over to the broken ground where the black barrier protruded. He placed his palm on it, fingers still flapping uselessly. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the barrier. He felt it pushing his hand, keeping it from moving forward. It wasn’t like a solid wall, but it also wasn’t squishy. When he moved really slowly, he could feel the barrier increasing where he was and redirecting his strength.

What would happen if he could move faster? How fast would he have to be to press on it before it could redirect the strength? When he was trying to understand his danger senses with the elves, he had spread out his soul, to understand what was around him. Now he needed to understand something that was almost, but not quite physical.

The coolness in his mind wouldn’t do it, but maybe his river could. The heat that pulsed from his heart seemed to draw in his emotional energy, channeling and amplifying his anger while spreading it through his body. Other emotions and thoughts were overlayed by it until he could calm himself back down.

Then there was his river. It took the heat and anger and converted it into power, charging his physical body. The heat was like gasoline, and the river was the engine. The river flowed through his whole body, but did it have to? What if he could direct it to specific parts. The river wasn’t really under his control, but while the power and heat would run how they chose, maybe he could direct it.

Adam took a deep breath and cut out all his senses except touch. He changed the pressure of his hand on the barrier, first the left side, then to the right. He only shifted his own pressure when he felt the barrier respond by pushing back. The sensation of counter pressure was fast but distinct if you could pay close enough attention.

Once he had a rhythm of shifting pressure, one side of his hand then the other, he turned inward. A pulse pushed the heat from his heart into his core. Then he pushed the heat into his limbs. His muscles warmed and became more mobile. They were denser yet more supple. He took the pulses and instead of just pushing it outward, he tried circulating it around his body. The heat flowed into his arms and then back towards his heart.

The pulses tended to collide with each other, and Adam grimaced at the sensation. It was as if he was punching himself internally when the incoming flow struck the outgoing flow. That wasn’t what he wanted.

After several tries, he was feeling damaged from the pulses rebounding off each other, but that gave him an idea. He used the rebounds to trap the heat in his extremities, like a larger wave hitting smaller waves so they couldn’t go back out to sea. Once enough heat was trapped at the end, he summoned the river.

The river drew in the heat and Adam felt ready to burst with power. But what form could the river take to make use of the trapped heat? The river flowed through all of him, even where the heat was trapped. He wanted the river to stay there while continuing to flow.

Adam thought of a waterfall, but that would just let the flow escape. He thought of a pool, but that would be a barrier to the flow. A narrowing of the entrance wouldn’t work either since it would just overflow and lose its power. Then he thought of a whirlpool. Water would be drawn in and continue to spin, feeding the momentum.

He pictured the river flowing in but spinning at the end of his arms. It would continually take in the power and amplify the power right there, never letting it leave. He pulled on the river and twisted it into itself where the heat was trapped. The heat was sucked into the spinning vortex and he felt the power and strength become like a glove around his hand, becoming its own barrier that forced the world away from him.

The rift barrier began to quiver. Adam smiled a wicked grin, wondering what the [System] thought of what he did. The force of the barrier met the force covering his hand. The barrier was stronger, but he still pushed with his palm. Broken fingers flopped backwards as Adam didn’t try to push the barrier out of the way but to let his hand fight the changing shifts in the pressure, moving back and forth to squirm his way in.

Unfortunately, Adam felt his energy starting to diminish. His power was still too weak. He let out a roar and tried to increase the size of the whirlpool, pulling on the anger filled heat to create more fuel, trying anything to not fail. This barrier was an invader and needed to be stopped.

Lightheaded as he was, body broken outside and in, running out of energy, Adam stopped trying to contain the energy. Instead, he grabbed the built-up momentum of the whirlpool and pushed it outside his body, like the gloved barrier but much more forcefully.

A huge boom ripped through the air as his energy met the barrier. Unable to adjust fast enough to redirect it, the barrier instead was impacted by it. All that force had to go somewhere, and Adam felt it come back at him, like a physical shockwave. Pain ripped through his arm, ribs, neck, and stomach. He gritted his teeth as he felt the pressure pop all around him, and then the darkness took him.

***

Lucas looked down at his mangled arm. The muscles and skin looked mashed, and the bones were broken in more than one place. He was also certain he had several broken ribs. It hurt…a lot. Yet it wasn’t enough to stop him. The extra stats and levels really allowed the body to push further than it should have been possible no matter how things felt, though physics still applied. His strength was almost gone. Without the muscles and structure to keep swinging, grabbing, and holding, those actions were not possible.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

More than seven hours had passed and it was a miracle they had survived this long. Well, most of them had survived. Two of the policemen had died. One fell from a ledge due to exhaustion and another was too injured from getting hit by the wind shear of a Testudinate charge. Just the wind shear had killed him at that lower level. The bodies had been left behind because they were all too exhausted to carry more.

Looking at the group as they were waiting for the next assault from the oncoming Testudinates, he felt pride. Adam’s team, no, his team, had made it this far. They had worked together with no complaints, pushing to survive. They had protected each other and fought overwhelming enemies. They bore injuries from sacrificing for each other.

A lifetime of boxing, taking punches and giving them, had never earned him praise from his father. Never once in action or words had his father shown pride in him. Yet now Lucas knew the emotion well. He felt it towards every one of their team, from Tom down to Brandon. They all earned his respect and trust.

Unfortunately, Lucas couldn’t see a way out for any of them. He couldn’t summon Adam’s determination or ability to find a way to push through the odds. Lucas could only see their death coming. Even with enhanced strength, he no longer could hold the shells for others to work daggers into. Nick and Carlos were both unable to even hold daggers with injuries to their hands and arms. Carlos lost a pink when their strength gave out trying to wedge a dagger into the shell, allowing it to snap closed on his digit. It was just his speed and reflexes that prevented him more losing more fingers.

Brittney’s shield was still holding up, but she was out of mana to strengthen it, and was too exhausted to stay upright. Most everyone was out of mana. They had all used every skill point they had on whatever skills would benefit them the most. Those skills had drained their mana and energy as they fought. Yet only Andrea and Randall could kill the Testudinates anymore, and they had burned through their mana again and again. The healers could only cast occasional heals now, with so many sporting broken bones or mangled limbs.

This was the end, and Lucas’s biggest wish was that somehow he could sacrifice himself for the others. Find some way to let them live. His own life had been just meaningless. Thinking of the others he realized that almost everyone’s lives were meaningless. Only fighting for the group, for the planet, for Adam, had brought them meaning and satisfaction.

A pained sigh came from his lips. He wished he could save The General’s Wives for Adam at least. Adam will probably be devastated losing everyone. If only he could save Abbey…but Lucas knew that wasn’t possible either. Abbey was more determined than the rest of them. She wouldn’t hesitate to fight to the end for the team.

However, no matter the hurt, no matter the losses even after they were all gone, Lucas knew that Adam would press on.

“Is this it then?” asked Rick. He had sat out so much of the fighting due to his low level and powerlessness. Protecting and Serving were what he wanted to do, and he took every opportunity to lessen the load for the team, from carrying more equipment to pulling injured people back. He was willing to take risks, but only ones that would benefit everyone. Nothing meaningless.

“Yes,” answered Brittney.

“Good, then I can stop hiding behind everyone. Final stand time, I guess.”

A weight seemed to fall from Rick. Renewed vigor entered him as he stood tall and picked up a piece of Testudinate shell that they had ripped off one of their more dismembered opponents. It wouldn’t make a good weapon, but it was better than anything else the group had. Several of them were using shell pieces or jagged metal ripped from the arms of killed Testudinates.

They had roamed all the spires that could be reached, running up and down the slopes, kiting the slow-moving army all over the land. Only now there was no place to go to. The Testudinates had closed them in. Plus, they were just too exhausted to go on. Only a sense of rebellion to fate had Lucas still on his feet instead of just sitting and waiting to get run over by the metal encased creatures.

“Pssh,” said Tom, still bright and smiling despite the blood splatters all over him. He hobbled forward, on a leg that Lucas knew was broken. “We still have a way to win.”

“Not this again,” groaned Joseph.

“Why not? The conditions are right. We don’t really have much choice anyway,” insisted Tom. “Once we're on the verge of death he’ll come save up. That’s how it works.”

The belief that Tom kept showing in Adam was past creepy. He acted so irreverent towards him, but at the same time it was almost as if Tom worshipped him. Lucas shook his head.

“You read too many comic books, Tom,” said Brittney.

“Oh, he’ll definitely come for you girls,” Tom said with a snicker. “Maybe he’ll wait for us to die so he has less competition.” He waggled his eyes as he talked. Brittney didn’t have the energy to waste rolling her eyes or to slap his head, but a blush still entered her cheeks.

“Whether he comes or not, this is our last chance. I’d tell you all to give it everything you’ve got, but you’ve done that for hours. I’m glad that we all followed Adam together and I’m proud to stand with you all,” Lucas said as he looked around at each face.

He felt so sad as he saw them, and for the first time in his life Lucas had to stifle his eyes from watering up. Once he looked at their faces for the last time, he turned, and holding his sledgehammer with one hand, walked towards the approaching Testudinates, with Tom following him as quickly as he could.

He and Tom, as the most heavily injured, would hold them back as long as possible for Andrea and Randall to regenerate their mana. Then his job, and probably life, would be done.

“It’ll work,” Tom insisted. His eyes gleamed in hope and desperation, faith and madness in equal amounts. Lucas just grunted, not really having a response.

Lucas took up his position and as the Testudinates came around an outcropping of rock, he jumped into the middle of them. His hammer swung weakly and bounced off shell after shell. He wasn’t meant to kill them, just to get them to fold into the egg form. He swung and swung, his grip slowly loosening from fatigue. Tom hobbled behind him, thrusting his makeshift spear at anyone who looked at him. Rick was also with them, swinging his shell piece, clanging it off the other shells.

Only a few minutes went by, with no real damage done, when several of the Testudinates started mooing. A deep sound started first with only a few, but then spread back among their ranks. Louder and louder it got as more joined in. Some matched the pitch and others created a clashing vibration that shook the ground for miles around. Lucas had to cover his ears as he felt the sounds would burst his brain.

All at once the sounds stopped. Instead, a whistling sound grew in volume. Lucas grabbed Tom and leapt away. A Testudinate in egg form flew through the air, arcing high before it crashed into the ground where they had been. Rick hadn’t been fast or aware enough to fully get away and he lay where he had been thrown from the impact, unconscious and missing his legs.

He’s probably luckier than us, Lucas though as he looked down past the hundreds of Testudinates to see a massive one, about twenty feet tall, lumbering towards them. It picked up a nearby egg formed Testudinate and then threw it at them. It was all Lucas could do to run far enough before the thrown Testudinate crashed to the ground in a crater created from the impact.

The giant Testudinate wasn’t wearing any shell armor, but did have slabs of metal in its arms, legs, and torso. It still had deep hunching shoulders, which curved to its head. Large eyes took up most of its face, swirling a lighter shade of orange and brown. Four air holes expanded and contracted as it breathed, two under each eye. There were no ears, and in its snarling mouth were flat rock like teeth.

More Testudinates were thrown their way, as Lucas was forced to carry Tom with his one good arm and run with everything he had left. Even slow, that Testudinate covered lots of ground due to its size. And sitting above its head was the Testudinate boss tag: Crusher [23].