CHAPTER 95: I made a Decision

The Arripions were more hesitant to approach after they had seen so many of their kin fall out of the sky. Only around 100 had been killed compared to a few hundred that had fallen from the [Incapacitation Shout] as Adam used [Gladiator’s Approach] to reach them in the sky. Many had only been stunned by his roar for a second or two, the ones that were higher levels in their Tier 2 class evolutions. However, it had been enough to keep more from coming at them. When a particularly strong one resisted him, he would either use a soul spike on it or he could teleport to it with a sword slash to end it.

Adam was feeling more fatigued than normal. He knew that most skills had cooldowns, different lengths of time when they were unavailable after an initial use. Since what he had weren’t really skills, they were just memories of skills that had been mixed into his soul, he didn’t notice a cooldown. He did, however, get a feeling inside of what felt safe or not. That was why he didn’t just blast his soul spikes rapid fire against that boss Petramus. He had waited for what felt like a safe 10 seconds in between each use and had felt no issues.

It was similar to weightlifting. Each repetition of an exercise tires out the muscles more and more. Then once you reach the end of a set, lifting the weights becomes too difficult or even impossible without help. Without more time between his different pseudo-skills, Adam was concerned they would become too difficult to use in a single battle. He just hoped the weight-lifting metaphor stopped there. Otherwise, he would receive the “can’t use his muscles” affect that came the next day, only with his skills.

With the Arripions taken care of for now, Adam looked to the ground. He was falling and needed a way to get down there safely. The Pellicians were striking at the front-line warriors and shield bearers. They weren’t making much headway, harassing them in jabs to try and find a weak point. Adam could tell there had been a few places penetrated, but it looked like those in the rows behind had stepped forward to close any gaps. Otherwise, the shields were holding. Red flashing went off down the line as protection skills and spells were used.

The fight couldn’t have been going on for more than seven minutes. It was heartening that his forces hadn’t succumbed to the unexpected onslaught, keeping some control of the fight and maintaining their defenses and formation. It was also frustrating that they had been pressed down so quickly.

Adam was using a lot of his will power to keep his river under control. The voice within his soul was screaming at him to get back and fight those Tier 3s. Much of the fury and anger that powered his river and strength had faded as he went against the cries in his soul.

Before hitting the ground, Adam once more used [Gladiator’s Approach], feeling that strain inside, like heartburn except throughout his being. He sword instantly impaled one of the more frenzied Pellicians that he had seen. Two more swings of his sword cut another five in half.

He dropped the sword, using [Kinetic Impact] on his fists. Then it was just making use of his strength and speed as he punched the invaders around him, creating a cascade of enemies ping-ponging off each other. They were knocked to the ground or thrown off balance as they collided.

Just like Adam could feel hostile intent with his danger sense and soul map, he could now feel the uplift of morale that his presence gave the nearby troops. Adam rushed down the defensive line using [Kinetic Impact] and punching to put the Pellicians off balance. It was ridiculous how within the [System] a single person could turn the tides of a battle.

Once the fight stabilized and the Pellician horde had given them some space, Lucas came forward. His war hammer was bloody.

“Are we pursuing?” his friend asked.

“No. Sound a swift formation retreat. I’ve delayed it for now, but we need to get to the South Hampton Rift fast.”

“Captain Krysti?” Lucas asked. He saw the fury in Adams eyes and stiffened. Then he nodded and began shouting as horns sounded, telling the mass of troops in the back to haul ass, but in an organized way. With that, their harried retreat began.

***

The march…run…escape…whatever you wanted to call it, trip back had been exhausting and took about two hours, with intermittent fighting. Adam had to constantly roam the front, while Lucas and Brittney took the sides. If any of those three didn’t make an appearance somewhere around the rim, then the Pellicians moving parallel to them would pounce. They lost more than a few to those attacks on the way back, forced to let bodies lie where they dropped.

Adam was the last to step into the South Hampton Rift barrier. It was a black orb the size of a large shed in the middle of the open space that the Labesatis had previously controlled. As he entered, Adam wanted to be dignified and show a confident front to his troops. All the expectant faces were looking to him, wanting to know what would happen next.

Instead, he collapsed against a supply box and reached out a hand for the military rations that Abbey and Andrea were tearing open for him. It was impossible to ignore the people around him as he shoved the food into his mouth faster than his jaw could chew.

The actual skill, [Body and Soul Shaping], that he had created reduced the amount of damage he took from using his pseudo-skills. It also gave him more control over the power he could draw from the river. Another massive benefit from it was it reduced how hungry he got when using his powers. Unfortunately, 60% less starving is still ravenously hungry.

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After ten minutes of furious eating, when Adam finally had enough food to feel able to do other things, he stood up and looked at the thousands watching him. Manipulating the rift allowed his voice to reach everyone as if he was right next to them. Big screens in the air had a split view. One side was his face addressing them, the other was the view from immediately outside the barrier where Pellicians and Arripions were attacking the barrier to no effect. Like when Adam had tried in the past, all the momentum from their attacks was drained by the barrier.

“That raid didn’t go as well as we hoped. It was a setback and a costly learning experience. Each of us, no matter their level, needs to get stronger. On the positive, it also showed that our army can hold its own against the invaders, so take some heart from it. Right now, it isn’t safe to leave the barrier. We’ll monitor the outside and we may be here for a few days. This was always a possible outcome, which is why we brought all the food and supplies. I’ll update you when I know more. For now, get some rest and food. When we get back, we’ll honor the heroes.”

Once the broadcast was done the troops broke into groups, some staking out ground to sit on, others lining up for the rations. Support staff got ready to prepare meals on a large scale and healers went around checking for wounds. Abbey was quick to heal the cuts to Adam’s back and leg, while also taking away a bit of his fatigue.

“General, sir,” stammered Rick as he approached Adam. “I’m so sorry. Clearly our intelligence failed us. We should have gone with your plan.”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Adam, waving him off dismissively.

“I just can’t believe it was so different than what he thought. I’ll accept any punishment you have for me,” Rick went on. He spoke for quite a while until Adam had to cut him off.

“ENOUGH!” Adam snapped with force. “I said it doesn’t matter! Put it away and focus on what does matter.”

“Yes, sir,” Rick affirmed with a salute, though he didn’t look any less down.

“For now, go among the people and put a list together of the dead or missing.”

“Right away, sir,” said Rick as he pulled a notepad and pencil from one of his fatigue’s many pockets. Then he was gone.

As Adam was speaking with Lucas and Brittney about the boss invaders that he had faced, Carlos walked up while looking around.

“Hey, Adam. Where’s Lamar? I want to hear about what happened in the base. I also haven’t seen Nick for a while.”

Adam frowned at him and answered hesitantly. “I sent Nick to back up Captain Krysti’s infiltration group when they headed to the base.”

“Oh. I haven’t seen Captain Krysti either,” Carlos said, a bit in a daze. “Where are they?”

Both Abbey and Andrea were showing concern. Lucas put a hand on Carlos’s shoulder.

“I think my pops has some booze. Why don’t we go have a drink with him,” suggested Lucas quietly.

“Why would I want a drink? I just need to find Lamar. Where is the infiltration squad now?” Carlos brushed off Lucas’s hand.

“They were in the base,” said Adam.

“I know they were. Did we lure the invaders away so they could take it from within?” Carlos asked as his body began to shake.

“They were left behind,” Adam said more forcefully. Abbey was now holding Adam’s arm, and he realized he was shaking too.

“…but you went to help them. That’s why you ran to the base. To help. You got them out, right?”

“I had to leave them behind,” whispered Adam.

“…but, you always…”

“I LEFT THEM BEHIND!” Adam growled, using the Rift menu to limit their voices from reaching other people. “I couldn’t get to them! There were five bosses in the way. FIVE! There was no time to fight them and help the rest of the army retreat.”

“Bosses are easy for you. That snake, you just cut off its jaw,” Carlos rambled in a daze. “You’re the strongest.”

“He always said there was a limit to his strength,” said Lucas.

“Just because we aren’t near his strength yet doesn’t mean he’ll always be the strongest,” chided Brittney.

“This isn’t funny, Adam! This isn’t a joke! I’ve put up with you guys mocking me, but this is too much! Where is Lamar and Nick?!” Carlos shouted desperately.

“It was them or the rest of you,” Adam whispered with a firmness in his voice. “I had to make a choice.”

There was a clang as Carlos threw a punch enhanced with [Varying Strike]. Several of Carlos’s attack skills had a weird randomness to them. Skills like [Pick a Card] on offense and [Tricky Play] on defense had factors that they hadn’t figured out yet as to how effective they were on each use. [Varying Strike] increased damage between 50% and 500%.

This time the variance must have been on the high end, for when his hand collided with Adam’s chest armor, his hand shattered. Knuckles and finger bones broke. The skin tore. Carlos crumpled to the ground, not even aware of the pain.

“Let’s go get that booze,” Alissa said as she and Lucas picked Carlos up. Abbey went with them to heal his hand.

When they were gone, Adam kept watching, not really seeing anything. Andrea took Adam’s hand in her own.

“He’ll get over it, darling,” she said. It didn’t sound nearly as reassuring as she wanted it to. “It was a hard choice. Besides, you didn’t see the bodies so maybe they escaped.”

Adam shook him head.

“I made the decision. I’ll live with it…unlike Lamar, Nick, and the captain.”

He released a big breath before saying quietly, “I’m hungry. I haven’t eaten in ages,” while absently reaching into the case of rations.

***

Throughout the next day Adam watched the invaders surrounding the barrier. The Pellicians attacked it with claws and weapons. The Arripions dropped things on it from different altitudes. The barrier didn’t even seem taxed in the slightest bit, so Adam kept quiet. Everyone but the girls and Lucas gave him a wide berth. He just ate and watched the feeds from outside that only he could see.

He used the Rift Menu to communicate with Jordan Lane back in Jackson on what they hoped was a private channel. Since they still didn’t understand much of the words and characters on the Rift Menu, they were just guessing. Because of that their messages were brief and didn’t give away much information, just that both locations were safe, and they would return very shortly. Jordan could intuit the failure since a new Rift didn’t show in the network and no new water was available.

In the afternoon of the first day, the spine slasher showed up to test the barrier. He also sniffed around for quite a while but found no recent scent from the humans. Then he snarled at the rest of the invaders and they all just left.

Laying siege to the Rift would have been easy for the invaders. They could have waited out the humans. Adam was quite confused why they gave up so easily. His instincts were even saying that it was not another trap. He got the feeling those sense snatchers didn’t have enough power outside of the base to cast a large-scale illusion, and the Rift Menu wasn’t seeing any life signs around them.

The day that followed had no activity. Adam continued to watch, wanting to be sure. In the early light of dawn, he released scouts to check. Carlos would have been the best for it, or Lamar, but for now he kept his distance. Once the all-clear was given, Adam approved the trip back to Jackson.