From what Mark understood about Aura, it gave one more than just speed and strength. It offered one the ability to control their body to more extreme heights. To implement feats of dexterity and movements that normal people would never be able to replicate. So controlling the force behind one’s fist precisely became second nature.
Or at least that was what Mark hoped, as the obnoxious man crashed to the ground in a heap.
There was no pause or hesitation, their reactions were swift. Weapons appeared from inventories, holsters, and even sheathes.
Mark knew a fight was a possibility he’d just hoped they’d be closer to the Major when it happened.
Well there was no use crying over what happened, they would have to deal with it.
“Sam the tent!” Jonathan yelled.
The nearest soldiers attacked, swarming Jonathan, but never losing their formation.
All three of them were targeted and separated.
These men were some of the Major's best and they put them through their paces.
Mark’s construct flared around him and he jumped into the air. A spell from one of the soldiers took the shape of a chain and wrapped around Mark’s chest in an instant. Pulling at him in an attempt to rip him back to the ground. He dropped at first then his construct grew rapidly and the chain groaned before snapping, causing the spell to blink out of existence.
Though not before doing its job, the delay caused a good number of spells to hit, arriving from the outermost soldiers.
Jonathan maneuvered through the crowd of soldiers batting his way through them. Not one of them made it easy on him. Attacks swung down, he blocked what he could and took the rest, retaliating with just enough force to incapacitate.
It was one thing to be surrounded by Corrupted and an entirely different thing to have many intelligent enemies coming at you from all sides. They used the gaps in his guard to inflict damage. He blocked a decent number of them but the sheer amount heading his way ensured he wouldn’t be able to cover all his bases.
Sam had taken Jonathan's words to heart and had bolted in the air with such speed that Mark feared for her safety. Luckily the majority were too focused on Jonathan to go for her, which now that he thought about it was probably his plan.
She slipped through them all and made a mad dash for the Majors tent, using plates of rock to block stray spells.
An Aura user suddenly jumped from the crowd and tackled Mark from the air in an attempt to pull him back down into the crowd, the world spun. Unfortunately for the soldier, by now Mark’s control over his close-ranged constructs was absolute.
Both the soldier and Mark froze upside down in mid-air, their momentum arrested. A flick ensured the soldier was separated from him and launched downward while he righted himself.
Mark frowned, given enough room they could probably win this but time was short and they needed to get to the Major.
Mark released a sharp whistle to let them know what he was doing.
Jonathan disengaged and ducked down as more people came towards him. Covering his eyes with his arm.
[Light control] flared around Mark in a blinding flash, as a nova of light went off around them, sending shouts and curses into the air.
Mark and Jonathan were already moving before the spell had even consumed all its Mana.
They managed to break out of the encirclement and follow Sam. Hastily aimed Spells and gunfire pelted off Mark's construct.
Their sprint through the area did not go unnoticed. People stuck their heads out of their tents and promptly ducked back inside when they saw what was going on.
Sam had a decent headstart but they were quickly catching up.
Soldiers that were in this part of the camp saw the three of them being chased and, understandably moved to block them. Though they hardly even managed to slow them down. When the Major’s tent came into view, Mark made use of [Sculp Mana] and sent a lesser construct behind them in the shape of a wall. It bought them seconds but it was all they needed to get to the tent. Sam zipped inside, followed by Jonathan, and finally Mark.
As he entered, Mark locked down the space and covered the whole area in a powerful barrier. Attacks arrived on his construct at the same time.
The next thing his construct told him was that while the Major was in there, there were two other people with him.
Mark barely had time to shout a warning as blades of shadow arrived from all directions in the tent. His personal construct groaned as a majority were directed at him.
Lieutenant Nole separated from the shadows in the room but never stopped his attacks on Mark.
At the same time, Lieutenant Bix appeared from nowhere and stabbed his dagger right towards Jonathan's throat. The only reason he survived was that Sam had put up a shield and covered him in it at the last second, it shattered under the force of the blow but gave him enough time to move his neck out of the blade's path.
Mark wanted to help them but he had his own problems. Masses of shadow were clumping together and trying to cover his shield. They had to be more than just shadows because somehow they had weight to them and a lot of it. Mark struggled as more attacks began to appear against the dome outside, while Lieutenant Nole poured on more pressure. All the while mental barbs hidden in the shadow were searching for a way into Mark's construct, if he found one, Mark had a feeling it would be over.
Sam shouted something to the Major but Mark couldn’t make it out in the chaos of the room. During all of this, the man had not moved from his position. Holding a pistol firmly pointed at Sam, he never fired but he never lowered it for even a second.
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Jonathan and Lieutenant Bix were locked in a deadly battle and as much as Mark wanted to say Jonathan was winning, Lieutenant Bix was not an easy opponent. While he probably didn’t have as much raw Aura, the guy was heavily trained in multiple martial arts and killing arts. Even the way he fought with a single dagger spoke of years of combat training. Because of this Jonathan was actually losing. For every one hit Jonathan got in, Lieutenant Bix got in three, Jonathan never lost his calm but things weren’t looking good there.
Sam’s hands were raised to show surrender and was attempting to reason with Major Liam.
“Major we mean you no harm, call them off, I have a deal you will want to hear”
Lieutenant Nole took advantage of Mark’s lapse in concentration and slammed the strongest attack yet into his shield. The suddenness of it caused a hairline crack to appear in the construct and the moment it did one of the mental barbs slipped in. Stabbing into his mind.
The bridge was made in less than a second and the attack followed just after that. A blinding surge of mental energy came down the connection with the force of a sucker punch, eliciting a grunt of pain from Mark.
Lieutenant Nole had gone for the lights-out option rather than attempting to affect Mark's mind in any other way. While this may have worked against most people Mark was lucky he had ridiculously high defenses from his combined Mana and Resistance attributes. On top of having a natural affinity for mental magic. This meant that he managed to remain standing long enough to trigger his Mental limit release and push back the vertigo. Immediately he began recovering and fought against the now persistent connection. The physical attacks had stopped coming from Lieutenant Nole, in favor of a full-scale mental war between the two of them. The Lieutenant fought viciously and Mark only had limited experience with combat like this, while it seemed the man was adept in his field. He attacked the different areas of Mark's mind before retreating from Mark's counterattacks. The pain of one’s mind being ripped up was certainly unique and up until recently Mark may have said it was the worst pain he’d ever felt, but it didn’t even come close to what he’d felt from pulling Corruption though his Resistance.
The Lieutenant had been targeting specific locations and while he could endure the pain, Mark suddenly felt his barrier destabilizing.
Putting the pieces together Mark realized the Lieutenant was targeting the constructs. A persistent spell was naturally maintained in the mind of the caster and by attacking the parts of Mark's mind that held this spell together, it would cause the spell to collapse. If Mark's constructs went down now, they would be flooded by the very angry soldiers outside.
Clamping down Mark began to build a fortress, like he’d once done against those Ghouls, locking anything and everything out. Attacks continued to rain down but Mark just kept repairing the damage as fast as it could be made, and finally, when he’d gathered himself, he started using the connection to retaliate with savagery. This actually slowed the incoming attack enough that Mark could see what was going on in the room.
Jonathan was currently locked in a chokehold by Lieutenant Bix, but the Lieutenant was losing his grip as Jonathan was strong-arming his way out.
Sam was still in the same spot talking to the Major
“I sent a team to negotiate and you arrive here with ill intentions what am I supposed to believe!”
“Believe that we only have the best intentions for the people left behind, Take the deal, full credit will go to you, just leave my father to assist us here with the evac. If we succeed then you have everything to gain” Sam responded.
“Then I would be responsible if this gambit fails, why would I do that?” The Major's words were harsh but something about the way he asked her, told Mark he wasn’t as against the idea as he made it sound.
“Because you’re pragmatic, you would try to save them if resources allowed but the odds are not in your favor. Let us be your tool to tip the scales. This could be your last chance to save everyone. If we fail then it's on our heads, you lose nothing”
Mark didn’t hear the Major's response as Lieutenant Nole managed to break through a section of his mental wall and destabilize a greater portion of his spell.
Sweat beaded on Mark’s forehead as the construct warped and began to collapse. He still had over half his Prana left so he tried plugging the leaks by expending more but it was a doomed endeavor the barrier was going down.
The attacks from the outside had only increased and as the spell began to show signs of failing they only got worse.
All at once the spell shattered and the attacks stopped, Maggie made her way in with soldiers at her back. However, this freed Mark up from having to bear the weight of multiple spells and so he lashed out towards Lieutenant Nole with his full strength, casting [Mind spike] in an attempt to break their connection.
The Lieutenant retreated and the spell sheered through the bridge, allowing Mark to rear back and begin to cast another [Sculpt Mana].
Major Liam's next word caused everyone in the area to freeze.
“Enough! All of you stand down!”
Mark's eyes darted over to Sam and saw her making a calming motion. Mark swallowed and looked over to Lieutenant Nole and saw the guy staring at him, waiting for him to make a move.
Mana was still coiling around his fingers waiting for him, while his Prana was just at the threshold.
Lieutenant Bix and Jonathan had broken apart at some point and both just stood there staring at one another.
“If you can hold up your end of the deal then I’m prepared to try your suggestion. I can’t tell you how HQ will react but for now, Major Dureal is free to do as he pleases. No resources will be given to you only what you can gather on your own”
Sam simply nodded.
“You won’t regret this,”
Maggie along with the soldiers still blocked the path out but the Major held up a hand.
“At ease! These three are free to go.”
“But sir-” Maggie started.
The major silenced her with a look.
Sam backed out of the tent pulling the two of them with her, through the pissed-looking soldiers. Mark glanced back at Lieutenant Nole and frowned, the man was wiping blood from his nose and Mark couldn’t help but feel a sense of satisfaction at that. The guy was strong, probably the strongest he’d ever fought. And though he shouldn’t, he couldn’t help but feel like they had a score to settle. Maybe this is how Jonathan always felt, the desire to compare his strength to another that had come just as far. It was a strangely good feeling.
Soon enough they broke free from the soldier's encirclement and walked slowly towards Major Dureal’s tent.
Mark noticed Jonathan was limping and couldn’t help but grin.
“He got you pretty good, didn’t he? Also what happened in there I'm a little lost”
Jonathan snorted dismissively while Mark spread a fresh construct over them to heal their wounds. Right now a massive headache was forming.
Sam hummed.
“Let's get to my dad’s tent I’ll explain it all now. Also, Jon not that I don’t approve but what was with the sucker punch?”
Jonathan just looked away.
“Don't tell me you didn’t want to do the same, that guy is a pompous asshole. Plus I’ve seen that strategy before, he was never going to let us through, it was all just to waste our time. Joseph would have kept sending us away with pretty words. This was the fastest way we could sort things out.”
Mark shrugged, he was probably right. Mark had thought the very same thing when the man kept looking for excuses.
The difference was that the world had changed, power was still at its core but fundamentally one’s own personal power was rapidly becoming the most important thing. The key would be how one applied that power and what came out of it. An individual's values mattered even more now.
Manipulations like the kind Joseph employed would only continue to work for so long. You were bound to get people who understood this and made use of it. Mark could see good and bad coming from that, but it was the way of the new world, adapt or drown.