The shield was MASSIVE. It didn't seem that big honestly, before I'd started. The fortress wasn't huge, at least not on the outside. It was just a reasonably large building, and given the scale I could work on when needed I wasn't too worried about pulling off the invocation. In retrospect, that was pretty stupid.

I could FEEL every inch of it. The actual working was so absurdly difficult it almost broke me. One massive crushing blow to my soul that would have shattered it if it lasted any longer, followed by continued pressure that I could feel Callie helping me offload. I had to stay standing, keep my feet planted, to maintain Mountain Stance, and I'm pretty sure that was all that prevented me from passing out from the pain.

On the upside, the damned thing was STRONG. Mel's Might was ridiculously high considering her flame abilities, not to Jessie's level of specialization, but closer than most. Her flames were extremely hot even spread out. Infused with Consecration of flame to enhance them, Touch of Tears to make them stronger, Mercy Kill to boost their power, and then with all that offense turned to defense by Stone Limb, they were formidable already.

Making that dangerously hot and sturdy magma three times denser with a density shift triple stack, followed by Mountain Stance to triple the defense of the whole thing...it wouldn't stop them completely, couldn't given the stat disparity in some cases, but even peak F-rankers would probably need some time to get through it.

Honestly a working this size would have been impossible before my rank up. Having an orange soul was a qualitative difference from having a red one, and being fifteen percent of the way to the next level gave me that extra bit I needed. Mel cocked her head at me. "I'm impressed. Somewhat horrified, but impressed. Having just cast that, I realize the strain you're currently under. I have no clue how you're conscious."

"Practice." I grunted. "I'm not Abel, but I put in the work when it comes to soul strength. I'm used to working through the pain." Every word felt like someone was driving glass into the back of my eyes, so clearly not THAT used to it, but I didn't say that. As the leader, I needed to do SOMETHING to help with this battle. I saw a slight flicker and Amaya landed on the roof next to us.

"Sir. I take it this defensive dome is you?" Her voice was impressed, and I was glad I had a mask on since my face was bright red and probably currently dripped blood from my eyes and nose.

Unable to nod, I gave a grunt of affirmation. "It is. Hope I didn't disrupt your plans for our defense." I hadn't known what they were doing, but the bone wall showed me they were ok with defensive enclosures, so I'd taken a gamble on this whole thing.

"No sir." She said, shaking her head. "To be honest this is ideal. We've identified and begun repairing the defensive enchantments on the fortress. They're of Ladrigani origin, if somewhat out of date, and one of my teammates is classically trained. I don't know the details, but apparently our kingdom has developed a standardized set of enchantment runes for ease of repair. It'll take some time, but if we can fix them we should be able to hold this position until we can send for reinforcements from lady Salara."

I hadn't realized we had that option, but I supposed taking this place was a coup for Ladrigan, if it could be held, that would be a major strategic advantage. Salara would be stupid to pass up the opportunity, and even if she didn't have the guards on hand, she could always hire more, or borrow some from the king.

"How long is it going to take?" I asked through gritted teeth. I might be able to hold the shield as I was, but I was functionally useless in any other fashion right now. Callie would be distracted too, though not as much considering she was only offloading about a quarter of the strain. She kept trying to take more, but only one of us needed to be paralyzed with pain, so I only gave her what I couldn't handle. Still, I'd probably be dead without her. I loved that girl.

She looked uncertain. "Anywhere from an hour to four." She said apologetically. "The enchantments are carved into the bedrock of this place, but they're old and very damaged. Some of the runes need to be recast to get them running again. Luckily we're on top of a natural wellspring of energy, so we don't need to worry about a battery. In fact, the one part of the enchantments that HAVE been working were the power siphon runes. It's been soaking up energy for decades."

Which explained why the enemy hadn't been using the wellspring. I made a note, because if this could benefit us it could screw us. The original builders of the fortress had an advantage when it came to occupation, though not an absolute one, or they wouldn't have lost the damned base in the first place.

Swallowing hard, I forced my tunnel visioned gaze back to Amaya. "I'll hold as long as I can. Work with Callie. Try to get your people into the best possible defensive position. Hell, try to get MY people in the best possible defensive position. I gave them all orders, but I'm not a tactician. You have way more experience with this kind of thing, so command is yours."

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Her posture straightened and her fist went up to her heart. "Thank you sir. I won't let you down." Then she turned and stepped off the roof in a few quick paces. Mel chuckled. "Good call there. Always defer to the expert. Want me to follow her? I'm on the fence about whether or not you need protection."

"Go." I said firmly. "I'll be fine. Let the others know Amaya is in charge. Should have asked her what to do to start with. Didn't consider requesting the help since she's not one of my people. I won't make that mistake again."

She gave an approving nod and hopped off the roof, vanishing into the darkness. To my surprise, she was replaced shortly after with Benny and Celine. He grinned at me as he appeared. "New boss lady thought you might need a body guard, and apparently we're less useful out there than watching your sorry ass take a standing nap."

"I'd flip you off." I grunted. "If I could raise my arms." My head was swimming, but it was also helping to talk to Benny. Gave me something to focus on.

The help became much more pronounced when he put a hand on my shoulder and a wave of cooling, soothing, relief rolled over me. Not enough to completely counter the pain, but enough to offset it quite a bit. My head cleared enough that I'd consider the remaining agony something like an ice cream headache instead of paralyzing waves of searing torment.

True to my word, I raised my middle finger at my best friend, who laughed, before saying in a hoarse voice. "Thanks. That belt is awesome. You have anything in your new bag of tricks that might help? I never got the chance to ask about any of the upgrades. Assuming you got them done."

He chuckled. "I did. Two of them. I got rid of the rope and the long range attack attraction device in my left forearm. I managed to rig up a few things that would be useful, but the two I liked best were respectively a G-ranked artifact that allows momentary intangibility, and an F-ranked defensive artifact that creates a small energy barrier of variable shape. Both useful, especially combined with my other tricks."

I whistled. "Not bad. Especially the shield. I assume the density shifting works on that?" I admit I was a bit excited about trading for some charges with those too. Benny's new tricks suited me pretty well. The intangibility would compliment my combat style perfectly.

He grinned, raising his left forearm and manifesting a plane of energy in front of it that he shaped into a hand holding up a middle finger. Then he concentrated and the yellow energy became brighter and more opaque. I took that to be a yes.

Celine scoffed. "Honestly, can the two of you behave? If Callie finds out I let you get each other killed because you were too busy making crude gestures and flinging veiled insults she'll never forgive me."

"Veiled?" I said in a wounded voice. "Our insults aren't veiled. We're very up front about mocking each other. Aren't we fuckface?"

Benny burst out laughing, but quieted immediately when his girlfriend glared at him. What a pushover. I felt a small burst of irritation from the bond, and remembered MY girlfriend was currently inhabiting the shadows in the surrounding area to do recon, so I cleared my throat and stopped messing around. Which was totally different. For some reason.

"Anyway." I said with a nervous laugh. "I should feel if they breach the shield, but keep your eyes peeled for anyone who has an ability that can bypass it. That's the trick we used on them, so no chance we don't see it exploited. I'm sure the enchantments on this place have a failsafe for that, or if not that they'll add one. But until they're up we're vulnerable."

The two of them nodded, taking up position on either side of me, Benny keeping his hand on me. It helped for a bit, but within five minutes I felt something smash into the dome, and my knees buckled. The only active connection I had was Mountain Stance, but that was keeping me on my feet, so them slamming into it like that threw me. Benny and Celine caught me under the arms. "Whoa there." Said my best friend, voice light and unconcerned enough that I might have believed he wasn't worried if not for the death grip on my arm. "Don't trip."

My whole body shuddered as they assaulted the damned dome again. And again. My brain was whiting out from the pain, but with the spiritual calming effect I was able to hold on. I became lost, set adrift on a sea of blazing white agony, I felt like fireworks were going off behind my eyes now, melting and cauterizing the shards of glass and their wounds. But I stuck with it.

Days. Months. Years. It felt like eons. Like an eternity. I lost all sense of time and meaning, nothing but pain existed. Every second felt like it would be the end of me, like it would be too much, but I always managed to push just a bit longer. I started screaming at some point, I don't know when. But I realized I was doing it when my voice gave out and I couldn't anymore.

And finally...it stopped. The connection snapped, the dome came down, and I slumped bonelessly to the ground, heaving and choking out gasps of pain. I would have cried, I think, if I'd had any strength for tears. Instead I just lay there. After a few minutes my eyes started working again, and I groaned and sat up. Benny and Celine were posted up around me protectively.

I heard explosions in the distance, saw flame and fist and red ice raining from the sky. They'd gotten in. I turned to Benny, who gave me a fake grin that didn't reach his horrified and concerned eyes. I coughed, clearing my throat and taking our a bottle of water before managing to croak out. "How long?"

"An hour." He said shakily. "Give or take. They almost have the defenses up, Amaya was here a few minutes ago. They weren't as damaged as they'd feared. Are you...are you ok, man? That was horrible."

I just chuckled, thumping back onto the roof and letting my eyes drift shut. I was too injured to help with the fight. My part in this was over. I just hoped I'd done enough. "I will be, Benny. I will be." The pain had been horrible, but it was nothing compared to the pride. Maybe I really could do this leader thing, even when my plans didn't go the way I'd hoped.