Codename: Freedom - Book 4 - Chapter 17

My first thought as my stomach seemingly jumped like it was determined to compete for a place in my chest was that billions of people were moments away from laughing at me. However, the reason I’d even dare such a thing was much more significant. With what our psionic made us capable of, jumping off a wall shouldn’t be seen as mad or impossible. We already had all the tools we needed to execute such landings as easily as descending a flight of stairs. It ate at me that the Ekseliksi were probably doing such things as children. It was a game to them, and yet Earth’s greatest athletes wouldn’t even consider taking the leap because their minds were still set in what was possible before psionics. I didn’t really blame them. It was the state of mind that I saw as my enemy. The one that I too possessed. Maybe I was wrong, or just being too impatient, but if I’d taken a step back from the edge then how could I do the impossible?

I immediately felt a distortion in the air behind me from the wall at my back. I’d jumped a good eight feet out while doing my best to keep my posture vertical, but there were different forces pulling and pushing at me at almost indistinguishable increments. At once I felt like I was going to tilt forward while simultaneously being dragged back.

I’d taken Destiny’s advice and kept my chin in a normal position while trying to spot my landing just by glancing down.

Gritting my teeth, I pushed down with Othisi through my feet and hands long before it was necessary. My energy reached downward like a torrent of wind, desperately searching for feedback.

For skydivers and those used to the highest heights, it wasn’t a long drop, but for me, the seconds were drawn out and threatened my nerves to the limit. As the speed intensified, my judgment was through off. Any regret I had at the moment had no time to admonish me.

I’d planned on limiting my psionics to rank F, but any plan I’d had was forgotten. Pushing downward with all my might, the first feedback came fast and hard. I was tens of feet in the air when I jarringly slowed. The danger of tilting forward was no longer a mental fear. As I did, I reacted by cutting Othisi entirely, which left me flailing with some forward momentum.

My fall hadn’t been slowed as much as I thought. The ground was flying toward me at break-neck speed. With desperate focus, I pushed my energy downward again from my hands and feet in a position resembling a cat with its legs sprawled out to the sides.

I felt the pressure on my arms and legs at the same moment, but the weakness of my wrists caused me to pull back my arms. There was a harsh collision in my legs as I rocked forward. I thrust my arms down again in response, and almost overcorrected and sent myself falling backward. I was on the ground.

As shaky as I was, only my wrists felt jammed and my left ankle tweaked.

Standing up straight, healing energy was already correcting those mistakes.

I hadn’t announced my performance, so I found no one in our fighting formation paying any attention. Barrell was even already waiting at the rear and hadn’t noticed.

Not seeing Mel, I turned toward the gate to wait for him to catch up, and I found him already standing there gawking at me.

He recovered quickly, snapping his mouth shut. He didn’t say a word as he walked past, not giving me the benefit of a response.

Was my landing that bad?

A shrill whistle came from above followed by a few cheers, so it couldn’t have looked that bad—from two hundred feet in the air…

“It wasn’t beautiful,” Destiny whispered through my headset. “But, most people should be impressed that you didn’t go splat.”

I caught up a moment later, only to hear Kline through a private voice channel. “Was that it?”

I grunted. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. We’re about to begin.”

“I hope so. I thought you might have hurt yourself after tripping over that wall.”

“Laugh it up while you can.”

He then growled at me, or something like a long drawn-out chuckle. “Want to bet?”

“To see who can personally draw the most viewers? You’re on.”

Destiny pulled up a small window with a live feed of Kline. His teeth were blinding.

“What are you putting up for grabs?” He asked. “You gotta have some good merch laying around, right?”

“I do… What about you?”

“Many lifetime supplies of beard hygiene products. General stuff too for babyfaces like yourself. I’ll put a crate of the stuff on the line. How about it? You do any tasty deals during the break? Preferably, something with meat.”

“Protein shakes?”

“Good enough. I get to pick the flavors.”

“Fine, old man. Don’t disappoint me.”

He swatted at the microdrone in front of him in reply as if wanting to swat me aside. We weren’t exactly fighting together, but modern tech allowed the next best thing. He’d be watching through his own headgear, as I’d be watching him and the other Majors when their turn came. It would be nice competing with him again, though I felt less motivated than I thought I should.

Barrell and Mel were waiting for me with Isamu and a squad of men. The instructions I gave them were rather vague, but they got the general idea. As they readied for the nonsense I’d just commanded of them and my orders spread to our men, I caught Isamu's attention with a glance. Words didn’t pass between us, but he gave me a perceptive nod.

Isamu

Rank: First Lieutenant

Atk: D+

Phys: E

Psi: F

Tech: E

Def: E

Phys: F

Psi: ­—

Tech: F

“Just a minute now,” I said, directing my words to Victoria.

“Best of luck,” she responded without delay. “Good fall, by the way. Combat Parkour training doesn’t start for a few weeks, but if you want early access I can make it happen.”

“That’s a thing?”

“The class is very basic, but yes. With some practice you’ll be much more comfortable in the air, and with extra, self-study, who knows what might be possible…”

I didn’t miss the implications of her last statement. She knew exactly what was possible and was strongly suggesting that I take advantage of the offer.  “Then sign me up.”

“One last thing before you go Hob-wild,” Destiny said. “See what I did there?”

“Ha,” I replied dryly.

An image of her appeared in my upper peripherals of her sticking out her tongue. “Here’s your own creature indicator reading so you have something to gauge it by.”

Lucius

Rank: Major

Atk: B+/A (More data needed)

Phys: C

Psi: E

Tech: E

Def: B+/A (More data needed)

Phys: C

Psi: ­E

Tech: E

“I’ll need to observe you for a while with your new rank E psionics. I’ll let you know when I have a solid reading. I also have very little detail on higher rank Attack and Defense ratings, so this is subject to change.”

“Thanks, drone head,” I said.

The augmented image of her just blinked at me.

“Fine, princess drone head.”

“You’re hopeless.”

“Good pep talk.”

“Do you want me to project myself onto the battlefield as a forty-foot cheerleader to encourage you?”

It was one of those times that stifling my reaction would’ve been the best course of action, but my own eyes betrayed me. They widened before I could keep a straight face.

Of course, Destiny sensed weakness, so she attacked. Just as she’d threatened, a giant blond woman appeared in the clearing behind my men in vivid, lifelike color. She for a pink miniskirt with tight undershorts covering her thighs. Her shirt was white, with sleaves cut high on the shoulder and her pigtails bobbled back and forth as if they had a mind of their own. The worst part was that there was a giant image of my face covering the front of her shirt.

I’d been sorely wrong. Jumping from the wall and bellyflopping wouldn’t be the most embarrassing thing that ever happened. This was.

“Destiny,” I growled.

Her hand shot into the air and she screamed my name. A spear then appeared in her hand and she brought it low before thrusting forward, “Poke!”

“Please, Destiny.”

“No can do. Our favorite Colonel just messaged me. She told me not to stop. Don’t worry. You perform well when embarrassed. And if you do well enough, people will forget I’m even here.”

I was fuming too much to argue, so I turned back from the giant cheerleader to find my friends giving me a look.

To add some Kline icing on the cake, he choose that moment to message me. “That’s cheating.”

They already thought I was crazy, so I just ignored them.

“Everyone, form up behind me,” I commanded. “Mel, have our casters on the outer rampart focus fire on the goblins already inside of the gate for ten counts before shifting all fire to outside the gate. I don’t want us to get shot by our own men. Barrell, be ready to issue the command for our men to part down the middle on my say.”

I judged the distance between me and the backline of our men as my immediate group took their places behind me.

Unlike Freedom, there were no group settings except for voice channels in Vanguard because there was no leveling system except for the very real one that tracked your physical and psionic progression. The one Freedom participants had used was designed to slowly introduce us to modern military tech. We were already well familiar with them, so a leveling system was no longer necessary. What was left to us was what was real. Our own skill, and teamwork.

Destiny added a ten-second countdown as Mel’s caster obeyed his order and focused all fire on the goblin soldiers already inside the gate. I heard my overly adorable AI as her giant projection was adding more entertainment value than I wanted to admit. I let all of it fade into the background as I zoned in on what I was about to do.

There was one final reason I’d dared to jump off the two hundred-foot wall before going through with this. Warm-up.

The embarrassment I felt didn’t disappear as I pushed away all distractions. Instead, I felt the churning in my stomach and untamed energy seemingly bubbled up from it. I snorted to myself. As uncomfortable as this whole situation was, Destiny was right—like away.

My hands were always shaking as adrenaline began coursing through me. Reaching out my arm, Shadow appeared almost instantly and I grabbed ahold of my shield, securing it. With my sword at my hip, and grabbing my spear as well, I lowered my stance as the countdown reached three seconds to go.

I let my energy begin to slowly stir.

As the countdown reached zero, I glanced back and gave some of my closest friends in the world a grand smirk. “Now.”

I was already running as I returned my gaze, and limited my energy to orange rank F. It was the level of power I’d practiced this at in the last weeks of Freedom.

Even as Mel issued the order for our men to part, I’d already reached them. The memory of my first glimpse of what a combat master was capable of flashed through my mind. Even without psionics, Cornelius had leaped over the heads of his men and single-handedly put down two hobgoblins. With the pain of my shattered back still fresh on my mind, seeing that had shaken the very foundation of how I saw the world. Thinking of the old combat master and mentor brought with it a surge of gratitude.

My energy exploded earthward as my psionic empowered limbs launched me into the air. Clearing the heads of my men, my upward climb had only begun. I reached the peak of my leap and felt a moment of weightlessness. From more than thirty feet in the air, I knew Cornelius couldn’t duplicate this height even now that he’d unlocked his psionics. Scanning the field of goblins, I found my first victim.

As I began to fall, I leaned into its shield first. Unlike my jump from two hundred feet up, this time I had no intention of slowing my descent.

The columns of my men below parted as Mel, Barrell, and Isamu were trying to catch up. Despite their absurd speed, this was a race they couldn’t win.

I pushed with Othisi as I neared the goblin-covered ground just enough to keep my fall under control. Activating Apotho, its milky, shielding, energy flooded into my new pshield with a glorious hum.

I watched as the unsuspecting goblin soldier with a red aura showing through his psionic shielding that covered him from head to toe glanced up at the last moment, finally spotting its doom. Cradling my shoulder against my round hoplon shield, I plummeted.

The goblin soldier crumbled into the ground back first without losing his footing. Psionic shielding against psionic shielding had a volatile, repellent effect, only adding to the downward force that drove the creature into the ground.

I rolled with the impact where I wanted to or not, over my grounded shield and came up with goblins on all sides. It had been weeks since I’d been in the bandit training simulation, but I didn’t miss a beat. My spear collided with a field of blue energy. With a quick surge of my aura, it passed through it and dipped past its ballistic armor like a knife to cardboard.

Flinging my shield outward, I backhanded a goblin off its feet. I still limited my psionics to rank F, but even then my Apotho shielding was superior to every force field it touched.

Extending my energy outward to get a feel for the immediate battlefield, I sensed a few goblins looking to take advantage of their position behind me.

Yanking my spear from the falling goblin’s chest, I spun with the motion and shoved the spiked butt of my spear into the closing goblin high on the chest.

With a sneer, I spun in the opposite direction and caught the second goblin with the full weight of my shield. It brought its shield up to defend, but its rank F psionic pshield interacted with my own psionics, magnifying to the impact.

These weren’t the small goblins of my early days in Freedom, but despite weighing as much as an average man, my shield propelled it sideways. It clobbered the goblin I’d just stabbed in the chest with its face.

Ducking low, I dodge an attack from my flank. Spearing one in the thigh, I took the opportunity to send a series of Voli bolts into the closest mobs at point-blank range. Others I pushed off balance or straight to the ground with Othisi.

It wasn’t near enough. Now that our casters were no longer firing on the goblins inside the gate, the goblin ranks were growing denser and were now moments away from collapsing in on me. I intercepted one in front of me with my spear and another with my shield on my flank. Continuing to spin, I directed shielding energy into my belt which refined it and suddenly I was covered in semi-translucent white light.

To use my belt’s pshield ability would require me to continue funneling energy into it, so using other abilities was difficult. I decided to make the best use of being covered in psionic energy. Using angles when surrounded became impossible. Shield bashing fueled by pure aggression, however, should be made an Olympic sport.

It was like fighting a mob of men armed with sticks when you have the only Warhammer. The full-body pshield from my belt was spread too thin to be on the same level of the one that normally covered my shield. Regardless, I may have not been invincible, but it was far better than most of the force fields I was facing.

Even as I manhandled the goblins as they approach, it was soon becoming so tight that I touched upon the frenzied state that I’d had very little use for even when facing bandits in the training hall in my last days of Freedom. The creatures fell broken and battered, but few of them were dying. With more and more coming, it was a game I was losing.

A blade found me, pushing hard against the psionic energy from the pshield that covered my back. It was a spear to my thigh that was the first to draw blood, while another weapon jabbed me in the lower back at almost the same moment. I’d promised to take things easy with my psionics after my breakthrough earlier today, but I’d run out of options.

Where were Mel and Barrell anyways? They weren’t that far behind me.

The invigorating feeling that came as my rank E psionic energy flowed through me and into my belt drowned out any pain I felt. My psionics had always made me feel powerful, but this was intoxicating to the point of distracting me. Enough so that it broke my rhythm and I had squatted down to block while also trying to dodge.

More than one blade scored a hit, but instead of desperately trying to fight back, I became very still. Standing up slowly, the goblins continued their assault and I didn’t try to stop them. It’s not that I’d resigned myself to a sure loss, but even with the belt stretching my psionic shielding thin, they could no longer touch me.

That wasn’t entirely true. Each thrust and slash pushed me around, but their weapons couldn’t reach me.

I watched closely as a goblin soldier in front of me chopped downward with his axe with all of his might.

Atk: F

If compared to my Tech Defense…

Tech: E

I laughed aloud—almost feeling bad for doing it in the goblin’s face. A smarter one decided to try and grab me from behind. It probably had the right idea. I started to move.

Charging forward, I slammed my shield into a goblin and didn’t slow. Pushing him into the goblin behind him and the next, I abused my rank C strength and decided to make some room.

The strain made me feel the wound in my back. Instead of stopping, I snarled through it and only pushed harder. My legs burned as I pumped. I felt some part of the mob of goblins start to teeter. When one fell, a dozen followed it.

Spinning around, I swung my shield out wildly, but none of the creatures were close enough. Seeing I’d successfully made room, I stopped directing energy to my belt and let my rank E aura burn. As I thrust out, my speed was too much and my spear sunk straight through a goblin up to my handhold.

Sending a burst of empowering Akonizo into my spear, I yank it back and sideways. Instead of exiting the entrance wound, it tore out his side with unnatural ease.

There was no time to be shocked. Cycling to my aura, I thrust another through, leaving my spear there and unsheathing my sword. I beheaded another with such speed it seemed like I was watching somebody else.

I knew I had to be careful with the psword, for if it didn’t have energy filtered through it it would be much easier to break. However, it fed on my aura and glowed with the same silver that I did.

Taking full advantage of my newfound speed, I became the aggressor. They fell before me in mass. Even if they were trying to crush me with numbers, they simply died faster than they moved.

I slaughtered low-level monsters before in Freedom, but this was different. Effortless. The feeling of being invincible was addicting, and for a time I even gave myself over to it. No longer did I question where my friends were, but I relished my newfound strength.

How long that lasted, I don’t know, but my breathing brought me back. I continued to flash side to side and the enemy fell. My lungs however started gulping for air. It wasn’t normal exhaustion. I knew what that felt like. It felt like something inside me was starting to fail.

“Now!” Victoria demanded.

I wasn’t sure where her voice had come from.

A second later, the sound of charging feet came from my rear. I spun and lunged in one motion, only to freeze when I found Barrell within arms reach with my sword a few feet from his face. He jumped back, removing his spear from a goblin’s torso.

Lowering my arm, I felt something inside of me start to spasm.

I must have made it obvious, form Barrell threw up his spear only for it to be caught by his shadow and he grabbed a hold of me.

“Where were you?” I demanded.

He didn’t seem bothered by my tone. “Victoria held us back.”

Isamu slipped past us with a few men close behind.

“Cut your aura,” Victoria’s voice sounded in my ear. She wasn’t actually here. It was just our voice channel.

It took me a moment for her words to register. When they did I did as she said.

My breathing was still out of control, but the weight on my chest seemed to lessen as soon as I dropped my aura. “What’s going on?”

“You’ve stressed your main psionic channel. Even if we don’t know how it’s tied profoundly close to your physical body, so you’re feeling the backlash. You’ll be fine, but you need to rest.”

Barrell dragged me back, but with each second my breathing slowed. I was able to walk on my own by the time we passed our front line. Some of them had to step out to intercept goblins behind us. It was then I noticed how the men and women in the middle and back rows were looking at me. These were men that I knew and had fought with. They were looking at me like they didn’t know me.

When Barrell mentioned he needed to return to the line, I told him to go. I walked the last few yards alone.

“Rest, Lucius,” Victoria said again. “Don’t even heal yourself until I say. You’re still needed for the boss fights later.”

I lowered my voice and tried to look unworried because I knew there had to be countless eyes watching me from the metaverse. “Why did you have them hold back?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

As I thought about it, things had only been difficult when limiting myself to rank F psionics. But with rank E…

“How long was I out there?”

“Half an hour.”

“Oh,” It had felt like a couple of minutes. “Sorry. I lost myself—for a while.”

“It happens. Rank E is considered more than just a regular stage of psionic progression. Perhaps, before I explain it in full, it might be a good topic for you to meditate on. You’ll probably get more out of the discussion that way.”

“Okay.” I made my way up the stairs to the inner wall’s rampart and found a place and sat down. With Destiny, standing wasn’t necessary to keep an eye on things.

Still a little concerned, I asked Victoria. “Did I mess things up?”

“If you were making a fool out of yourself would I have left you out there for half an hour?”

“No.” I snickered. “That’s good. My mind is a bit foggy.”

“Just rest. I’ll tell you when it’s safe to heal yourself.”

“Mmm,” I replied, then closed my eyes.