~~~Lee~~~
Lee had scouted the border the day before when the kids told him about a lair nearby. They also mentioned that the fence gave them the creeps, and they'd avoided it. Lee could understand.
The fence was definitely taller than it used to be... and it gave off a chill he could feel just by looking at it. It became clearer what was happening once you approached.
You have entered a Place of Power: [The Fence]
Debuff Resisted: [Wailing Despair]
Unfortunately, it didn't elaborate on what that meant. It was a new name for something no one had seen anywhere else. But the zone came with an unpleasant bonus. Feelings of despair, fear, pain, and grief all washed through him simply from stepping in. And that was after he resisted something called Wailing Despair...
Lee endured. It was bad, but he'd felt worse... There were no monsters in visible sight, and nothing growing within a hundred feet of the towering monstrosity. The monsters were still there, however, and they couldn't hide from Lee.
That was how he ended up alone and waiting for a fight as the invisible creatures swarmed from every direction in the early morning light. His runed blade, custom made after his visit the day before, swung in wide arcs that cut apart the apparitions without resistance. It was a ridiculous size, taller than he was, but perfect for the swarm he faced.
The problem was that the monsters kept coming. Their bodies seemed to evaporate on death, and didn't leave corpses behind. Which meant no cores... Even the new sword wasn't making the dent he'd hoped it would. Which meant he had to try the other test.
He stood at the edge of the boundary, a line the monsters wouldn't cross, and let one hit him. The strike failed to penetrate his runed armor. That was good, so he walked a step deeper and just stood there while struggling to stay on his feet beneath the raining blows.
It went on long enough that he was reasonably sure they weren’t smart enough to go for the gaps in his armor intentionally. So he started spinning.
The tide never stopped, and Lee was getting dizzy when he backed out again. How anyone had made it through this nightmare without his runes... though most of them had died in the crossing. They must have been so desperate...
That left one more test. "You ready?" he asked the people in the distance.
Alejandro nodded, and his group moved further down the boundary line before stopping and watching Lee.
Lee moved back into the zone and went to work chopping while trying to monitor the others. They only waded in a short way and then just stood there. He could see their heads turning as they sought monsters that none of them could see.
It was a test to see if Lee's assault would provide enough of a distraction for others to run through unaccosted. If it didn't work, then any rescue mission would be far more costly, if not impossible. They couldn't cover nearly enough people in rune armor to make it a viable option; the six people on this team were wearing the only full face helmets they had. May had worked through the night to make them, as well as the crude gauntlets that mostly protected their hands. Without gear like that for everyone, they would likely lose most of the people they were trying to save.
To hopefully add to the distraction, Lee trudged deeper with each swing, until he finally reached the steel pillars that made up the fence. Then he whacked one.
His sword dug a much shallower cut in the metal than he would have liked. But then it was a thicker blade. He kept chopping and funneling mana into the blade as he slowly carved through the pillar.
He made it through the metal and then had to cut again higher up to remove the piece fully. The whole time, the screaming ghosts accosted him from every direction.
Between dumping mana into his blade and armor, along with a few knicks from lucky claws, Lee had to retreat after cutting a single pillar away. He took the metal with him. Assuming it wasn't some kind of cursed metal or anything, then May should be able to do something with it.
His mana regenerated slower while inside. The entire area was barren in that regard as well. His Mana Mind felt empty. It was only the monsters that held any mana, and they were chock full of it. Also, the fence. It held a weird type of mana Lee hadn't seen before.
"We took a few hits," Alejandro said, rejoining him where he sat in the sand. "But even those stopped once you hit the fence." He was smiling. "We can do this, Lee."
"Let me regenerate and I'll go make the hole bigger before we..."
"The hole is closing."
Lee looked up and sure enough, the damn metal was growing slowly but visibly back into place. "Well, shit. Do we go through and worry about cutting a new hole on the way back?"
They went for it.
Luckily, the gap was just wide enough for the heavily armored men to squeeze through. They all tanked some hits as they ran across the open terrain and then jumped the much smaller and crumbling fence on that side. The way it was decaying while the main fence had only grown made Lee think it was the monsters trying to get more people to enter.
Then they were in Mexico. If countries were even a thing anymore. An illegal crossing with plans to bring more people back across. Does that make me a coyote? Lee thought. Not that he cared. As far as he was concerned, the only thing that mattered now was people who would fight the monsters, and those who would help them fight.
Alejandro seemed to know where he was going, and he led them quickly into the city. The monsters had done damage over here in much the same way. A few buildings burnt down, some that were clearly lairs now, and others that had taken hits from something massive...
Lee topped off his and the other's runes while they ran. They tried to be stealthy in the ominously quiet metropolis, but with everyone covered in plate armor, they weren't. Lee drew up plans to add silencing runes to the armor next time. He just had to figure out a way that wouldn't silence the person inside as well.
His ridiculous sword was another issue, one solved by trading it to the strongest person among them. Matias. The guy was one of the rare people that had an actual fighting class like Alejandro, and it came with a hefty boost to his strength attribute. Depending on how it worked out today, Lee would probably let him keep the oversized sword. Things like weight and balance became less important when magic strength was involved.
Seeing Saira in plate armor was odd, but she'd insisted on coming. She was the one with the communication spell today, and Mar had the other half. Not only did it let them monitor the fort, but gave Mar something to do since the border monsters seemed to absolutely hate another invisible person showing up in their territory. She would lead the backup to meet them at the north side of the border if the mission proved successful.
They saw no one else as they jogged through the city. Not until the motorcycle came roaring down the street and blew past them.
It was shocking, and Lee got excited, thinking someone had figured out engines already. Then it entered his Mana Mind, and he saw the truth. It was an illusion. A construct like the panthers. It was probably that comparison that made him tear it apart without stopping to think about it. The thread running off into the distance that snapped away when he did so was another issue. "I didn't mean to..." Lee pointed where the thread of mana had led. "But it came from that direction."
Alejandro didn't question it and just took off running again.
The sprint ended when they reached a barricade across the road. People were visible walking atop it, and they were also clearly expecting Lee's group because more appeared up there as they approached.
What followed was a very heated back and forth in Spanish. Lee had made no progress on that front. He had too many things he needed to do...
Alejandro kept repeating a name in a rather demanding voice until what looked like the man in question finally appeared on the wall. Then things got even more heated. Lee could see the tension growing in the Spanish speakers in his group, so he followed their lead and prepared for a fight. His best guess now was that these were not the people they'd come to save, but who they needed to be saved from.
It was confirmed when Alejandro abruptly blurred atop the wall directly behind the man he'd been arguing with. He ended up with his back to the man because of how his skill worked, but just like Maria, he'd learned to use the defensive skill for offense. He kicked backward the moment he appeared and launched the man off the wall. Sending him outside and away from his allies.
Lee was only a heartbeat behind the others as they charged. They all fell behind Matias when the man bounded through the air, his massive sword slamming down to cleave the still falling man in half. Unfortunately, the blow never connected because the target vanished before he reached the ground.
Matias used his failed strike to launch himself over the wall, vanishing on the other side. Lee followed with the others as Alejandro cut through another man's sword, arm, and then neck in one smooth motion before charging after another.
This close, Lee could see their faces more clearly... and they looked like demons. Only, it was just painted on. He forced himself to look away from the spraying blood as he plummeted down into a veritable army on the other side of the wall. It was a lot of enemies, and he was really not looking forward to having to mana burn himself again. He needed to work on his runes, damn it!
It was an unnecessary concern. Rune blades cut through everyone and everything, and the rune armor shrugged off everything that came their way. Even the magic spells that started flying couldn't break through. Lee stopped breaking the spells he could reach once he saw that, and he just started hacking...
He felt like a butcher as his blade rose and fell in a horrible slaughter.
It was a relief when the tide of enemies broke. They'd finally seen enough, apparently.
Lee didn't know how long he stood there watching them run and refusing to look at the carnage he'd unleashed around himself. But a hand eventually landed on his shoulder and he flinched.
"Come, Lee. It is time to go home." Alejandro pulled on him, and Lee turned... and found hundreds of people hurrying past as they clambered over the wall in the street. There were so many...
He didn't get any more time to take it in because someone yelled something while pointing into the sky behind him. Lee turned back and felt his heart sink. That's impossible...
The ball of red fire arcing upward into the sky was bigger than anything he'd ever cast, or even seen. And it looked to be coming right for them. Slowly compared to most magic, but still oncoming as it rose in a ponderous arc.
Lee didn't know what to do... All those people... and Alejandro... Saira... the armor might protect them... but it might not. In the corner of his eye, Lee saw the massive sword beside him and had an insane idea. "Matias, throw me at it!"
Matias was a smart man, because he didn't hesitate and a glow burst from under his armor as the blade whipped around and landed on Lee's back. He hit with the flat side of the sword, in a cross between a golf swing and a baseball batter.
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It blew the wind from Lee's lungs and he felt like baseball must feel as he flew into the sky. It was exhilarating, terrifying, and he only then thought about how he would land... but that was a worry for the future.
Matias had good aim, and as Lee flew toward the oncoming spell, he hoped it was just another illusion. That was the only thing that made sense.
It wasn't an illusion.
Lee met the spell at the height of its arc, right as it started its descent, and he had a single moment to take in the impossible magic as it loomed in his vision like a roaring star falling to earth. The entire spell was too large across for him to even see it all with Mana Mind, and he could already tell that it held more power than his entire mana pool... and it wasn't even Liquid Mana.
It was a nuke.
Or the magical equivalent of a nuke, and far too powerful for him to undo... He didn't know exactly where the spell would land, but it didn't really matter. It would be close and something like this didn't even need to get close. Everyone would die when it touched down. His rune armor was good, but not good enough for this. They would all die.
Of course, Lee had already doomed himself by getting launched up here. He was on a collision course with the spell. He didn't know if it would detonate or if he might pass through unscathed. He'd be fine if it didn't explode. Mana Mind wasn't seeing enough of it, and he only understood a fraction of what he could see. Or thought he did. It was all conjecture based on magic he'd seen before.
If it didn't explode, then he'd saved himself. He would land further from the explosion. His armor would handle it fine from there. Sure, the landing might be rough, but it probably wouldn't even slow him down.
It would also mean the death of everyone he'd left behind...
If he couldn't pass through... then breaking the spell now would reduce his proximity to the explosion, even if only a little. It would give everyone else a chance... give his friends a chance. If anyone could survive what was coming, it was him. He could Mana Blast it with his entire mana pool… but it was so big… it might still explode… If he pumped enough mana into his runes instead... and did so fast enough... then maybe…
So many thoughts raced through his head in that singular moment. It felt like his entire life was flashing before his eyes... and that was a bad sign, wasn't it?
He remembered the people that helped him over and over. All the times Alejandro and Saira had dropped everything to save him... and not just them. People whose names he hadn't known who still risked life and limb when he needed them. Random people... some of whom were likely down there right now and about to die in a fiery cataclysm.
There just wasn't enough time... So Lee did the only thing he could... I'm sorry, Stan. I can't let them die.
He forced mana into his runes while pulling on the threads of a magical nuke and destabilized the...
...
...
...
...
~~~Saira~~~
Saira stared up at what was very likely her end. A magical spell of a size she could not fathom. Voices screamed around her. Sounds of terror and desperation. So many who moments ago had freedom in their sights… all of them doomed. Saira didn’t even try to run… she could never make it far enough. Now the only thought in her head was relief that Mary had stayed behind…
"Matias, throw me at it!" Lee yelled, finally drawing her gaze from the oncoming calamity.
Matias glowed, and without hesitation, swatted the man into the sky.
Lee… The young man who had done so many strange things since the first day she met him… he fought so hard… suffered so much… then helped her heal Mary. What is he doing?
The shiny silver of his armor vanished against the raging fiery backdrop that filled more of the sky every second, and Saira remembered him breaking that fireball just last night. He couldn’t be…
"Lee!" Alejandro screamed and then slammed his shield into the ground. A shimmering light expanded up and out from it… and the fireball ballooned outward to fill the sky in one eye-searing instant.
For one single moment, a red sun was born over the city. An orb of spinning fire stretching from the ground to the clouds above.
Out from the center of that crimson inferno, shot a blue spark that blazed with light to rival the sun. Like a shooting star falling to earth, it streaked across the sky overhead…
Saira was already running when the shockwave followed a moment later. A thunderclap of sound and wind that lifted her into the air and sent her flying forward.
She tumbled when the wind set her back down, but only for an instant. Then she ran on. Toward the fading spark and the crater it illuminated.
She knew what that light was… even though it was impossible. So she ran and pulled the life from every plant near enough, draining them to husks as their lives fueled the growing storm of energy between her straining hands.
It was impossible that he still lived… impossible that he was not merely ashes and dust in the wind…
Lee was neither dust nor ash, but Saira’s courage quailed at the sight before her. A glowing… thing lay in the crater. A skeletal thing… smoke wafting from bones wrapped with blinding symbols of power… symbols that were fading even now… remnants of charred flesh and sizzling molten metal adorning them.
Her despair at the sight did not stop her sprint, and Saira unleashed her gathered magic upon the corpse in a vain attempt to...
It drank down her magic like a parched field absorbing the rain. Gods…
Blackened flesh turned red. Pieces of a man that were never meant to see the sun squirmed and expanded in the ribcage…
Saira did not slow as she snatched up the body and ran for the nearest tree… All Gods above and below, hear my prayer and let me save this one!
~~~Lee~~~
…
…
Debuff Removed: [Organ Death]
Mana Mind came back first. It was small, but Lee knew Saira was carrying him over her shoulder at a dead sprint. His heart started beating right after, pounding in rhythm with her feet.
He also knew that his armor had no runes on it... at least not the pieces that remained melted inside his flesh... what little flesh there was…
The rest of his armor was gone. May's gonna be pissed... he thought. But the thought felt strange... distant… like someone else’s voice… The runes inside his bones still held... somehow. They looked weird... and Lee could feel his mana flowing into them even now, recharging them, and not from any action of his. That's cool...
Saira stopped beside a tree just long enough for it to die.
More of his flesh squirmed and regrew, while less of his blood dripped away. More trees died one after the other. Each one dragging Lee further from the dark. Until...
Debuff Removed: [Blindness]
Debuff Removed: [Deafness]
Lee blinked as vision and sound returned to him, only then realizing that he'd had no eyes until that moment... I should get a helmet without a vision slit.
He closed his eyes when the bouncing made him dizzy. He didn't need them to see Alejandro approaching after a few more dead trees. Lee could recognize his mana... and his voice. "You found him! Is he alive!?"
"He is healing!" Another tree died.
Debuff Removed: [Crippled]
The feeling of his slowly regrowing muscles forcing a chunks of hot metal out of themselves was... weird. It also went on for far too long. "I..." Lee choked and started coughing up... stuff.
"Don't speak," Saira said. "You are safe. We are nearing the fence."
She killed more trees on the way, and Lee felt it when they got there. The sudden mana dead zone standing out in stark relief. Also, the ghosts that were attacking the other people in the dead zone. "Let me fight," he said, struggling to escape from Saira's grasp.
She put him on his feet, and Lee swayed in place as he reached for a sword that wasn't on his waist anymore. "My sword..."
Alejandro grabbed his hand and placed a sword in it. Then held on for a moment. "You don't need..."
"I can fight," Lee said, and only staggered a bit as he stepped forward to cleave a ghost apart. Then another. It was only after that, when he realized there weren't nearly as many ghosts as there should be...
It was the clanging noises echoing out over the yells and screams of hundreds that drew his attention further down the fence. There he saw Matias.
The man stood with his back to the fence, sweeping his massive blade back and forth, each swing finishing with an impact against the fence before coming back around and doing it on the other side.
Lee stared with sluggish thoughts until Alejandro dragged him away. "Let's go. Everyone is almost through."
He let the other man drag him along as he tried to figure out what his mind was trying to tell him. It was only as they were passing out of the dead zone on the other side when it clicked. "The runes!" He dragged Alejandro to a stop. Matias' sword wasn't cutting the fence! "I need to recharge..." Except he couldn't feel any runes from that direction.
Lee ran back into the dead zone. Running away from the people streaming through a massive gap someone had cut in the fence before. Someone like Matias, and he'd drained the sword by doing it. Now he was defenseless...
The gap in the fence grew narrower with every second, and guards lined the edges of the rushing crowd, flailing their weapons wildly at the air. Only a few had armor protecting them... all of them were bloody.
He reached the fence. The undamaged fence, with Matias on the other side. Lee stuck his hand through the bars and drew a rune onto the already sliced up backplate. It refused to take... the armor was too damaged. "Jump over!" Lee yelled.
Matias glanced over his shoulder, his face slicked with sweat and blood. No helmet in sight. He smiled and his gaze went back to the people rushing through the gap. "She did it! And no, I can't run, not yet!"
Lee started hacking at the fence from his side. If he could just open a hole... He forgot about his lack of armor until heavy claws sank into his back, fetched up against his bones, and threw him to the side.
His blade bisected the ghost as it pounced after him, and Lee ran back to keep carving a hole. He just had to... another ghost charged, and he cut it down. Back and forth he went, alternately cutting the fence and killing the ghosts that came after him for doing so. It was slower without the great sword, and he'd only cut halfway through when Matias stepped away. "Keep going, Lee. Save them..."
Lee looked past him and saw the demons emerging into the dead zone from the city. They must have followed the noise of metal on metal... half of them were charging Matias while the other half turned and ran towards the fleeing people rushing through the gap in the fence.
"Despedida," Matias said, with one last grin at Lee. "It is my turn now." He jumped, soaring through the air, and landed just ahead of the demons charging the gap. His sword swung and bisected the first demon to reach him. The backswing took another life and did nothing to deter those coming behind. They crashed into him en masse and he vanished in the crowd, with only the massive sword appearing above the mob to show he still fought on. That and the bodies that flew out, usually in pieces.
Lee struck the fence as he stared after the man. He took another row of five-inch claws into his side and beheaded the ghost with a backhand swing. He briefly tried to climb the fence... but more ghosts dragged him down before he made it halfway.
He watched as the tide of demons broke against the man. As demons fell by the dozens, but never stopped charging to their doom. None of them made it past him to the fleeing people.
Eventually, Alejandro appeared behind Lee. "Time to go!"
"Matias..."
"He made his choice," Alejandro said, and dragged Lee away.
People were screaming, and Lee looked over in time to see the gap in the fence sealing up. The guards dragging one last person through the shrinking hole... A few people hadn't made it through yet... and they died screaming to invisible claws.
People still ran from the fence on this side, fleeing the zone as they pushed or carried the last stragglers to make it through.
Lee saw a man's back split open where a ghost carved apart his spine, and he went down. Another's leg fell away in a spray of blood, but an armored figure scooped him up. Only one more fell before the last of them cleared the zone.
They'd won... hadn't they? It didn't feel like a victory. The weeping and wails of pain... and the screeching. Lee turned toward the sound and saw one of the demon figures holding Matias' severed head high while they howled. They really were demons... and they should all die...
Alejandro pulled his hand down a moment before Lee unleashed a Mana Blast through the fence. "Don't do it, Lee. They aren't worth it!"
Lee struggled and failed to lift his hand. "They're fucking demons..."
"Save it for their leader," Alejandro said, still holding his wrist down. "Save it for that! Make sure it counts!"
That made sense. "Where's the leader?" He would wipe them from the face of the earth...
"I don't know."
Lee yanked against Alejandro's grip. "We have to find them! I have to kill..."
"Lee!" Alejandro didn't let go, and instead wrapped both arms around him. "Stop, Lee. I think you're in shock. We will find them, but not today. We're safe for now. We saved many people today, but we still need to get them home. Will you help me?"
"I..." Shock wasn't a real thing anymore... was it? He could heal from anything... couldn't he? Lee blinked, and the world had tilted around him. He stared at the wide trail of blood leading from the fence... pieces of bodies...
"I..." Darkness crept into his vision, crowding out the light... so many dead... he'd died too... hadn't he? Where... was...
"Rest now," the voice came from somewhere far away. "Rest. I have you. You're safe." The voice felt soothing... and the darkness looked so peaceful... so quiet... Lee stopped fighting and let it take him away...