Ford breathed a sigh of relief that Benet and Ace had managed to get to them in time to escape and felt that it had only happened out of pure luck. Which brought to mind a question, ‘What do all the stats do? I have an idea of what most of them do, and I know what Soul does. But what do the rest of them do, specifically? Another question I’ll have to ask about later. Which I might be able to ask about sooner. But that will require some testing. For now, I need to get to Farah and the others.’
She stood and turned to the east toward the still-rising sun. To the southeast, pillars of darkness clashed with blades of light and Ford rightly assumed Ee and General Tse fought there. And a little further to the right of that, flashes of rainbow-colored light lit up a portion of the town. Ford took a deep breath as she checked the description of her new skill one last time to ensure she understood it correctly.
Skill: Close-Range Teleportation. Teleport anywhere within sight. Requirements: INT: 15, WIS: 15, LCK: 10. Cost: 200 MN. Level: 1/1.
Once she finished reading, she nodded to herself, looked toward the light flashes, and concentrated on the spot. Just before she teleported away, something clanked against her helmet. She barely noticed it and turned toward the source in time to see a rock flying at her and bounce off the front of her helmet. She instinctively flinched back and blinked. She looked down into the ally where the rock came from and saw a small halfling child picking up another rock and bringing his arm back to throw again.
The halfling looked to be half-human and half-dwarf, he had a short, scruffy, brown beard and steel-grey eyes that welled up with tears. “Give them back,” he demanded, his voice choking up, “Give my mom and dad back!” he yelled as he threw another rock.
Ford let the rock hit, unable to bring herself to dodge. Then she saw the kid glow white as her Linchpin skill automatically activated around the kid. She ignored it and turned away, letting another rock hit her as she focused on the distant battle and said, “Go home kid. I’m out of your reach.” Then she expended the two hundred mana to teleport away appearing a few meters above Gimble. Just as she appeared an explosive arrow struck Gimble’s shield and the force from the blow made Ford flip end over end and hit the ground face-first behind Gimble.
“Bupphfft! Hahaha!!” Kii burst out laughing as he saw her land on her face.
“Fuck off,” Ford mumbled. She shook her head dazed as the world appeared blurry and wobbling. She took a few breaths to try and steady herself as she noticed an icon under her stat bars with a circle of stars on it. The icon quickly disappeared after a few seconds and Ford could see clearly again as the world stopped spinning. Ford groaned and sat up, quickly taking stock of the situation.
Gimble braced himself against a glowing red tower shield as tall and as wide as him. Ford could barely see glowing orange and red filagree hovering in front of the shield facing the sniper’s location. Gimble looked to be in bad shape, his right eye had swollen shut and his right arm had bent the wrong way with a bone sticking out and a small trickle of blood running down his arm. Farah and Kii looked fine in comparison. Kii only had a few scrapes and bruises while Farah’s armor only had a few scratches on it.
“Is everyone okay?” Ford asked over comms, worried about Gimble more than anyone else, “Where’s Mizu and Max?”
Another explosion erupted from Gimble’s shield as he blocked another explosive arrow. Farah answered quickly after that, “Kii and I are fine. It’s Gimble I’m more worried about, but he insists that he’s fine.”
“I am fine,” Gimble insisted, “I can hold them back.”
“Not forever buddy,” Ford countered then turned to address Farah again, “You still haven’t answered all my questions.”
Farah let out a small growl as she said, “Mizu said he was setting up a location to snipe from while avoiding detection. He said that it’s more difficult than he expected. There’s a lot of people here hunting us apparently.”
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“And they’re closing in,” Mizu added, joining the conversation, “I’m half a klick out from your location. I’ve got the sniper in my sights, if only barely. And I’m practically surrounded by soldiers. If I fire, I’m boned. Also, I found Max she’s hiding in a rock wall she created and is also surrounded. She doesn’t seem to have a means to escape.”
“Heard,” Ford sent back as she quickly thought before turning to Kii, “Kii, you and Mizu share skills, correct? Whatever you get he gets. Do you have any spare skill points?”
Kii nodded, “Yes that’s correct, and we always have two spare points in case of emergencies. Why?”
Ford blinked a bit and said, “I didn’t know you two were that responsible, but I have an idea. Open your skill menu and get Long-Range Teleportation under the space mage skill tree. It allows you to teleport to places you’ve been. I’m going to guess and assume that since you share a soul with Mizu, you’ll be able to teleport to each other and back again without having to go there yourself so long as your brother has been there.”
Kii raised an eyebrow and said, “That’s a long shot even for us snipers.”
Another explosion erupted behind Ford and Gimble stumbled back into her. Ford instinctively pushed back against Gimble expending an exorbitant amount of stamina by the second to keep him upright. After three seconds, Gimble got his footing again and braced himself, breathing heavily as he did so. Ford cursed as she saw her stamina drop by three thousand points and snapped at Kii, “Just do it!”
“It’s worth a shot as good as this brother,” Mizu agreed.
Kii sighed and mumbled to himself, “I really wanted to get that upgraded power shot.” Then he opened his stat screen and allocated one point to Long-Range Teleportation.
“Thanks, brother,” Mizu sent over comms, “Get ready to run!”
A loud boom resonated over the town and the ground shook as though something exploded. After the sound faded, the town fell unusually silent. Like noises that Ford hadn’t realized were there had stopped, and everything felt eerily still. Ford spoke over comms, hoping that she was right, “Damn, Mizu. You didn’t have to use that much power.”
Mizu then appeared next to Kii, his rifle in hand, “That wasn’t me.”
“Of course, it wasn’t,” Ford sighed, and another boom resounded over the town as the ground rose at the far end of town bringing houses up with it. Ford squinted at the shape and activated Linchpin, trying to understand what she looked at and a text box appeared in her vision.
Name: Aldabramacrochelys Fortress
Level: 44
Rarity: Epic
Class: Monster Tank
Weakness: Piercing attack to the underbelly.
Ford gulped and stared dumbfounded at the colossal monster as it crawled out of the ground. The monster dwarfed everything in town, every step it took as it crawled out of the ground crushed entire buildings as though they were sand castles. It soon got out of the hole it was in and shook itself, the buildings and dirt on its back falling to the ground before landing with hollow booms. The monster had a jet-black shell like a tortoise that gleamed in the sunlight showing each hexagonal plate had an ivory spike growing out the center of them. Its head was shaped like a wedge with scissor-like jaws that came to sharp points in front. Its club-like legs had massive claws that dug into the ground as it walked, each step shaking the ground.
As Ford stared at the monster she hardly noticed the soldiers coming around corners and charging at the colossus. Once she did, she shook her head and spoke over comms, “Everyone run. Get Max and get to safety.”
“Don’t have to tell us twice,” Kii and Mizu said simultaneously. They teleported away without another word, already making use of their new skill.
Gimble and Farah turned to run north out of town but froze when they saw Ford not moving. “What are you doing?! Let’s go!” Farah asked in a panic.
Ford bore her teeth and clenched her fists hard enough to draw blood as she answered, her voice no louder than a growled whisper, “They did this.”
Farah looked confused, “Who did what?”
With burning red eyes Wrath glared at Farah and Roared, “The gods made this monster to make everyone suffer! I hate them!! I hate them, I hate them, I hate them, I hate them!!!”
Farah stumbled back in shock at the outburst, before quickly composing herself and drawing her swords, “Ford! Snap out of it! Or I will put you down!”
Wrath ignored the reaction and fixed her gaze on the monster and roared, “FIGHT ME!!” Then a red, flaming aura enveloped her body as she activated a skill and summoned her swords, launching herself at the monster with a sonic boom as she broke the sound barrier.
Farah could only watch in shock as Ford took off, as if she wasn’t even worth a second thought, let alone a first thought. Gimble placed a hand on her shoulder and said, “We need to go.” Farah gritted her teeth, bearing her fangs as she fought the temptation to run. Then she nodded and ran alongside Gimble out of the town.
***