If Zed was being honest, things weren’t looking very good.

He’d been hiding behind a tree for what amounted to a minute and a handful of seconds wondering if it would be too much to use his aura to seek out the others when he heard his first signs of life.

The massive ship currently sitting in a crater in the ground was smoking from at least three different positions. The smoke mingled in the air with the canopy of trees to blot out more of the sunlight. Now it looked as if evening was on a steady approach, determined to play usurper.

From one of the smoking areas he could hear a sound. It was like the wrenching of metal. Someone was doing their best to escape the ship, and had no intentions of being quiet about it.

Zed couldn’t blame them. When you were trying to survive a little longer just after surviving something you didn’t think you would survive, some things were secondary. Often times unnecessary.

When the wrenching stopped, somebody stumbled out of the ship. The sound was coming from the other side of the ship; the side Zed couldn’t see.

Is it really that loud or is Hypersensitivity just increasing how much I hear.

Since his impromptu double evolution, Zed hadn’t really taken the time to study just how much difference existed between his attributes then and now.

Could I hear from this far before?

For all he knew, whoever had stumbled out of the ship had simply been doing things at a quiet sound level and he was merely hearing too much.

If that was the case, maybe he could sneak around to the person. If it was someone he recognized, then maybe he could help them as best he could.

The shuffling came slower now, lacking in proper cadence. Was the person hurt?

The possibility was enough to force Zed out from behind the tree. But he didn’t simply rush in. There was still some part of self-preservation that kept him from being stupid. Regenerate kept him alive, but it wouldn’t bring him back to life.

Or can it? he wondered as he moved from behind one tree to another.

It had consumed innate mana once to bring him back from a coma. And comas were the next best thing between life and death, weren’t they?

Yes, it had taken a portion of his base mana, but that beat dying. What was the possibility that it was the attributes way of keeping him from dying?

Zed darted behind another tree, making a slow circle towards the part of the ship the sounds were coming from. What happens when I run out of base mana?

He made sure to head in the opposite direction of the shots that had brought the ship down. It was safe to conclude that if the enemy were heading for the ship, that would be the direction they would come from.

Unless the ship was already surrounded and they had their fire power on that side.

Zed frowned, not liking the way his mind played devil’s advocate against himself. The possibility of his new knowledge slowed his steps but didn’t stop them. But he was more attentive now. Where his eyes had merely been on the ship and what was in front of him so that he didn’t run into some stray branch, now they were on high alert.

He kept his attention everywhere. An ambush right now from unknown numbers would be terrible. Not to mention he still had to find Ash, and Oliver, and Shanine… Maybe Chris, too.

He came to a stop behind a thin tree and caught sight of the person that had crawled out of the ship.

It was an Olympian and he recognized her immediately. Her face was obscured by brown haggard hair but he could see one side of it covered in blood from a deep cut. She dragged something behind her, struggling to keep moving.

Jennifer?

It was his one conversation pretend wife, and he almost moved to meet her. But he stopped himself at the last second.

Why? He didn’t know. There was simply an instinct inside of him that was directing him. An instinct he knew didn’t belong to him.

What did the institute do to me? He was being guided, directed by notions and feelings that were foreign.

Before getting some of his memories back, it had been a simple annoyance, veiled by the curiosity of trying to figure out who he was. Now, it was simply disturbing to know that there were minds in his mind that didn’t belong to him.

As uncomfortable as it was, he listened to the instinct. They had not led him astray so far.

Jessica dragged a massive gun behind her. Its barrel dragged a line in the sand that left a trail from the small hole she’d crawled out of. The arm that dragged the gun had a cut in it that was still bleeding.

Zed suspected she might’ve gotten it when she pried open whatever metal had drawn his attention to her.

But she was a Rukh rank mage, if he remembered his conversation with her correctly. And even if she had been lying, she couldn’t be anything less than a Beta rank.

Had the mana pulse spell they’d been blasted with when they were in the air been that bad? Were the people affected by it nothing but normal humans now? Or were the metals of the ship just strong enough to cut into Beta rank skin?

Whatever the answer, it would have to wait.

Zed pulled three different runes to mind on nothing more than instinct. [Fire], [Force], and [Force shield] grew in his mind and his finger twitched in preparedness to cast as he heard another sound in the distance.

He pulled the runes up from nothing more than instinct and paused. That was odd.

I can triple cast now?

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He remembered the first time he had performed a dual cast. It had been instinctual, exactly like now. The only difference then was that he had cast at the same time he’d thought of it. Now, he merely held them in his mind. And if he could hold them in his mind, there was a really high probability that he could cast them.

Well, maybe. But I’ve only got two hands so…

He paused at the thought.

But I don’t cast with my hands. A slow smile touched his lips. I cast with my fingers. And I have ten of them.

Did it mean one day he just might be able to cast ten runes at once? What would it even be called? deca-casting?

He pulled himself back to the present as the second sound came into view.

“Halt!”

The man was a hulking figure that reminded Zed of Daniel. He spoke with a deep commanding voice.

To Jennifer’s credit, she turned and hefted the gun. She pointed it at him and didn’t look like she was going to miss.

The new addition to the party held a riot shield in one hand and wasn’t even protecting himself. In his other hand he held a simple gun. From where Zed was, it didn’t look like the gun had any modifications.

It was just a gun.

Jennifer’s, however, looked as if it was a modification itself, large, shiny, and futuristic looking.

The man stood outside the crater, giving himself the advantage of the high ground. He looked down at Jennifer, unbothered by her weapon.

“Put the gun down and get on your knees,” he said.

Jennifer supported her gun with the entire forearm of her second hand. “Make me.”

“You are weak, and tired.” The man rotated his shoulder as if now feeling the weight of holding a riot shield for too long. “You are barely a mage right now. You are wounded and incapable of holding a gun properly. Drop the gun and get on your knees.”

Jennifer wasn’t budging. “Beautiful thing about big guns is you don’t have to aim. Just point and prepare for the kickback.”

There was a part of Zed that was hoping she was bluffing. Right now she didn’t look like she could handle any kind of kickback.

The man sighed. “Do not say you were not warned. Take her.”

Three more men came out of the trees. Each of them carried a riot shield and looked as tactical as could be expected from a group of bad guys. Their arrangements were poor or sloppy, and they held their riot shields properly.

But Zed could tell they weren’t properly trained. They held their riot shields too close to their bodies. It gave their forearms too little space for resistance. Any significant amount of force would knock them back.

Zed wasn’t one for surrendering, but Jennifer was outnumbered, and arguably outmatched. Put the gun down and get on your knees.

It was the reasonable thing to do. The men didn’t seem like they were going to kill her. If anything, they looked worried. Only the large man didn’t seem bothered by her.

The sound of groaning metal forced everybody to freeze. The sound was quick and immediate. Metal groaned then gave under insurmountable force. Then out of another side of the ship, a large metal sheet blasted out as if from an explosion and an Olympian stepped out in a complete suit of armor.

It raised both hands and pointed large guns at the enemies. “Stand down, and I won’t have to kill anyone.”

Its voice was robotic, hollow.

The large man who’d once been unconcerned moved his riot shield to stand between him and any potential attack.

“I know you might be thinking you stand a chance,” the Olympian said. “You outnumber us two to one. But need I remind you of what an Olympian armor can do?”

The others flinched but the large man gave no reaction. He simply stood there, legs crouched, shield held properly.

He has military training, Zed realized.

It was much unlike the others.

“Stand down, Olympian!” the man commanded, raising his voice to carry across the distance and into the crater. “Exit the suit and put your knees to the ground and your hands in the air.”

Was he really not worried by the presence of the Olympian armor?

Just how bad is that thing they hit us with supposed to be?

The Olympian shifted the aim of one of his guns to the man. “I’ll count to three, and if any of you are still standing when I’m done I’ll be pulling the trigger. 1…”

Jennifer’s aim remained fixed on the man so that he had two guns on him.

“…2…”

Three more men stepped out of the shadow of trees. Then four.

They brought an entire freaking army.

Zed looked behind him, then around him. For all he knew the idea that they had been surrounded from the beginning was looking like the viable option. Any one could sneak up on him right now and slit his throat.

Okay, maybe not slit my throat. But still…

Oh my God. Ollie.

For all he knew he could’ve blasted Oliver straight into their arms. He could be tied and gagged, waiting for whatever would become of him.

Zed didn’t like that idea.

Now he was less concerned by what he could do to save the people in the ship and more worried about where Oliver was and how he could find him.

The people in the ship were still relatively safe. Oliver was not. And neither was Shanine. He was beginning to have too many things to worry about. It was making his actions less moved by logic and more coerced by haste.

He moved his attention from watching the entire scene and focused it on the hulking man as the number of their enemies continued to increase.

Now that they numbered close to twenty, the large man dropped his shield.

“I am Andker, third command to the rebellion. Put down your weapons, exit the armor, and I promise you safety as prisoners of the rebellion.”

“Safety my arse.” Jennifer spat. “Half of you are looking at me like you’ve never seen a woman before.”

It was true. One of the men were already salivating like a dog that had found prey after days of searching. All of them didn’t look the same, some even had stoic faces, the kind that would be expected of disciplined men. But a handful of leering men was worry enough.

The large man, Andker, turned his head. He didn’t have to look around. His eyes landed on the leering men easily.

“I give you my word. Should any of my men treat you as less than civilized, I will personally rip his tongue out and staple it to his balls.”

Zed had never seen leers disappear as quickly as the ones he saw vanish.

Don’t the threats usually involve ripping out the balls and feeding it to them, he wondered.

And why had the men suddenly grown so terrified. Had Andker done this before? Or was it all just an act?

Zed doubted the later was the answer.

Andker looked around, found no more leers, then turned back to Jennifer. “If you have any problem with how you are treated by my men, you only need to call out and they will be punished accordingly.”

Jennifer snorted. “You sound like we’re already your prisoners. I don’t remember surrendering.”

“And I don’t remember your partner in the armor counting to three.”

Jennifer risked a look at her partner and her jaw dropped.

“What are you doing, soldier?”

Zed moved his attention to the Olympian and saw the same thing that was drawing Jennifer’s ire. The Olympian had lowered his guns to his side and wasn’t even looking up at the enemy anymore.

“I’m sorry, ma’am.” It dropped the guns. “The suit doesn’t have anymore juice to keep running, and it’s practically tapped me empty.” Its arms twitched but didn’t move. “I don’t even know how long I can keep it standing. They called my bluff.”

Then you shouldn’t have bluffed. You should’ve just come out guns blazing.

Jennifer looked around in panic. Then she shook her head violently. “No!”

It was like she was declaring it. As if it would be enough to make it so. She looked at the Olympian.

“We do not give up. We cannot just lie down and die.”

“Frankly, ma’am. I really don’t want to die.”

“You heard the man,” Andker interrupted. “He doesn’t want to die. Do you?”

Zed held his breath for the answer as if it applied to him. And if he was being honest, it did. If Jennifer decided to lay down her guns and surrender, then he would have to re-organize his plans.

There was no part of him that believed Andker and his men would simply take her and be gone. They would take her and the other Olympian, whoever the person was, then they would ransack the entire ship.

If they did that, it meant they would remain here for a while. And unless he planned on abandoning everybody and making his way out of the forest, it meant he would have to wait with them.

Oliver could still be anywhere. Festus was still in the ship, and Shanine was probably still unconscious somewhere. Ash’s location was anyone’s guess, and Zed had to keep reminding himself that Chris was also someone he had to save.

But if she fought, then he would have to find a way to save her, and the others.

What’s it going to be, Mrs. Rockswell?

Jennifer stared at Andker, gun in hand, and the moment seemed to stretch on. Then she lowered it.

“Fuck!” she swore.