Essence Wave Book 2 Chapter 20

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

Not super happy with this fight. Probably going to make it more of a closer thing in the next draft. Let me know what you think!

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

The clearing with the new fortification opened in front of David, and he smiled grimly at it. “We’re there,” he told Josiah. “And we need help.”

“Steve is the leader of the group,” Josiah said. “Team five, Lord, they are there. How far back are the Daemons?”

“Ten minutes,” Aly said, piping into my communication stream.

David gently set down the young women he was carrying. Both girls groaned in tiredness, having pushed themselves until they literally collapsed several times over the last hours. David then sent a Mana Bolt streaming over the fortification. “Team five, we need help carrying the rescuees, most of them are unable to walk anymore.”

“On our way,” Steve said. David saw the large man leap off the wall, and a few seconds later a small spattering of people came running around from the north gate.

David turned and helped the last few former slaves out of the forest. “You’re safe now,” he said.

“We’ll take care of you,” Liz said, healing Mana flowing from her hands into the strained muscles, blisters, and cuts that their flight had caused. Colin just kept going, heading for the fort with the four people that were hanging off of him.

“Come on,” David told the two girls, (names), and then lifted them up again. He passed Steve and the others. “Liz is waving you down. Let’s get them into the fort and give them a chance to rest and recover. Then we need to plan for the Daemons coming.”

“We’ll smash them to pieces,” Steve said with a grin, running past David to lift two more people.

David didn’t bother heading to the gate and simply leapt to the top of the wall, then used Vanguard’s Charge to redirect his momentum down to the ground on the other side. The blast of Energy scattered across the stone ground he landed on, and he gently set the girls down. “I’ll be back,” he said with a bad accent.

“Oh, are there terminators too?” One of them whispered, looking around fearfully.

“No, sorry,” David said. “We’ll explain what we know after we deal with our pursuers.”

“You’re going to fight them?” (Name) whimpered. “They always hurt us so much when we fought back.”

“These aren’t the first Daemons we’ve killed,” David said confidently. “Nor will they be the last. We’re going to remove them from our planet entirely.”

“But they were so strong,” she whispered. “They overpowered everyone, especially (Daemon name). He laughed as he killed a dozen strong men.”

“I will take care to destroy him then,” David said, “but now, I must go.” He gently pried her hand off his, then turned and jumped to the top of the fort’s walls. Wow, these really aren’t super great at keeping things out, are they? He thought to himself. Colin landed beside him, and they both watched as the team that Josiah had sent brought the rest of the freed people across the open area.

“Aly, how long do we have?” Colin asked.

“No more than two minutes,” she said. “I’m heading around them now. There’s too many for me to hit them from behind.”

“Good call. We’ll be ready,” David said. He cupped his hands over his mouth, “Hurry.”

The superhuman nature of everyone sworn to David shown through as they picked up the people they were assisting and Sprinted. Everyone had the Skill, even the four people dressed in what could charitably be called mage’s robes, or sarcastically called bathrobes. A quick scan of everyone’s level put the newbies at two, and every member of the team at at least five. Steve was the highest at seven, which impressed David. He’s been going on missions or something, David thought. Only way he’s up that high already. That’s awesome.

Less than a minute later, two people David hadn’t met yet were helping the rescued people into the keep, while everyone else congregated around David. Aly rushed out of the trees, Sprinting across the field. Her voice shot out of his earpiece, “They’re right behind me! Aerial forces incoming.”

David manifested a Mana Bolt, looking over the trees. Flying above them, six black dots quickly became human-sized beings with massive wings. They still had the ugly, pug-like faces of the imps, but their bodies were sculpted like Michelangelo’s David statue, to include the tiny penis. David concentrated on the lead thing and activated Scholar’s Vision.

Name: Lesser Incubus

Level: 8

Description: An evolved form of an Imp. Capable of damaging long-range magics and moderately capable with melee weapons.

“Those are evolved Imps,” David said. “Blast them out of the sky!” He activated Invigorating Shout

Colin charged up a Mana Bolt as well. His was sparking, a brilliant yellow enfusing the Bolt where David’s was a mixture of brown and silver. Two of the teammates, one of whom David recognized as Lisa, pulled out bows and began infusing them with Energy and Mana both. The people wearing mage’s robes summoned a variety of Skills. One Fireball, another a ball of Water Mana, and two swirls of shimmering Air hovered above outstretched palms.

David targeted the third Incubus, then shot out his Mana Bolt. He quickly summoned another, blasting it to the left of his target, and then another to the right. The Incubus dodged the first one, but the third took it in the leg as it tried to rise over it. David got really lucky with the second shot, though, as the fourth Incubus in the assault line dodged an arrow and the Fireball only to take his Metal-infused Mana Bolt in the face. It screamed loudly enough that everyone heard it and dropped. As it fell, another arrow from Lisa exploded through its face.

Colin’s Mana Bolt thundered across the sky, moving faster than David could see. His target was wholly unable to dodge, and the Incubus’ wings locked up as the Lightning Mana Bolt acted like a taser. It didn’t fall far. Colin’s stats and Skill levels were stacked more towards the physical. The enemy still only flew drunkenly, the damage significant.

They responded with a barrage of magic. David quickly formed a shield, then rushed in front of the two archers. He took a blast of a dark Mana that made the back of his mind shiver. He retaliated with another Mana Bolt, though the Daemon dodged it. They were getting closer, giving them less time to dodge but better accuracy on their own attacks.

A swirling shield of Water Mana appeared in front of the mages, a young woman in heavy armor standing behind them with her arms outstretched. The shield moved as she did, intercepting several attacks and letting the mages cast their Skills with no interruption. David focused on mimicking her, blocking for the archers who were pelting the remaining three Daemons with Skilled shots.

David risked a glance at the forest line, and saw the dozen armed and armored beasts slowly making their way out of the trees. They formed a shield line and began marching, and were finally close enough for him to examine them.

Name: Daemon Legionnaire

Level: 7

Description: An evolved form of the lowly Grunt. Legionnaires are capable of following complex commands and utilizing advanced battlefield weapons and tactics. Extremely dangerous in large numbers.

The last of the Incubi fell, and a mass of Grunts erupted from the trees at the same time. They burst ahead of the steadily marching Legionnaires, hooting like the deranged gorillas some of them resembled. With the long ranged attacks gone, David pushed nearly four hundred Mana into a Mana Bolt. He took a few seconds to aim once it was formed, then released it at the centermost Legionnaire. The highly overcharged, fully Metal Mana Bolt slammed into its shield, obliterating its protection before shooting straight through the Daemon. David saw the thing collapse as a full quarter of its torso vanished under the discharge of his Skill.

“Awesome shot!” Lisa exclaimed. “Let me beat it!”

David felt the Energy and Mana she used. Energy to reinforce the bow, strengthening the string and enhancing how far back she could pull it and its tension when she did so. Mana enveloped the arrow, a bright blue Mana that he thought was Air coating the tip and surrounding the shaft while the deep green of Wood Mana sank into the shaft. She took a deep breath and held it, then released. A flash of Mana came from her arms as she activated yet another Skill before the arrow exploded away from the wall.

The Daemon’s used some sort of Skill themselves, a blurry gray form of energy forming around their shields as they stepped together. David’s attack had apparently surprised them, but they were ready for Lisa’s. The arrow burst against the shield, the Air Mana forming a small vortex that caused it to dim. David threw another overcharged Mana Bolt at it, and the other archer shot an arrow enhanced with Fire Mana.

The mages were bombarding the Grunts and Alphas, while the melee fighters either shielded their comrades or used their own, weaker, ranged attacks. David kept his shield up, warily watching the Grunt Alphas out of the corner of his eye while sending Bolts at the steadily closing in Legionnaires.

He quickly repositioned to the left of Lisa to deflect a beam attack from the nearest Alpha. The beam had a rusting quality to it. It was different from the decay of the Wargs, but it still worked to dissolve through his shield. The Metal Mana was almost instantly destroyed, the opposite of before, but the Earth Mana held on. David quickly reinforced his shield, pushing Mana at the maximum rate he could through his channels.

The beam lasted eight seconds before abruptly cutting out. David chanced a look to see the attacking Alpha stumble with an arrow in its eye, then collapse bonelessly to the ground. The Legionnaires were two-thirds of the way to the wall when four of the remaining eleven stepped backwards and slammed their shields into the ground. They drew crossbows from their backs, and the twang of their bows drowned out the screams of the Grunts.

David interposed himself between one of them and Lisa, then grunted in pain as the crossbow bolt shattered his shield, his Mana Shield Skill, and stabbed into his gut. He grabbed and pulled it out, since it only sank in about a centimeter, and sent Energy only to his Advanced Bodily Repair Skill to seal the cut up. A quick glance showed that one bolt had shaved off nine hundred Hit Points after going through both his defensive Skills. Need to strengthen them both. And Strengthen too, he thought while resummoning his Mana-Artifact shield.

A scream from his right showed one of the mages collapse, then bolt nearly ripping his arm off. Liz and a young man both Sprinted to his side, their magics glowing as they sought to stop the bleeding. Steve had a bolt stabbed into his leg, but he just ignored it. He grinned back at them, a ball appearing in his hand. He threw the item like it was a baseball and he was the pitcher. It ran into the Legionnaires’ shield and dropped to the ground. The closest one grinned and Steve winked.

The ball detonated two seconds later, and the shield had passed by it already. The grinning Daemon was blown backwards, and the two next to him were knocked sideways. The Skill they were using immediately shattered, and the three mages and two archers attacked the suddenly exposed enemies. The centermost Daemon tried to get to his feet, but his shadow manifested itself and began strangling him instead. Go Aly!

The crossbow wielding Daemons were the first target of the renewed offensive. “Bring’em down,” David Shouted, refreshing his main buffing Skill. He put his actions where his words were and shot out a Mana Bolt at a reloading Daemon. Three of the four went down hard, but one managed to avoid every attack thrown at him and retaliated with a bolt that shattered David’s Skills yet again. This time it drove into his shoulder, penetrating far enough that his arm dropped as muscles and tendons were cut.

With a scream, he ripped it out, doing significantly more damage on the way out than it did on the way in, but his Pain Resistance kept him functional and his strong regeneration Skill began fixing the injury quickly. The Daemon dodged another Water missile, then jerked as a Lightning Mana Bolt from Colin electrocuted it. In the two seconds it was stuck in place, it took three arrows, a Fireball, and a Wood Spike.

The Legionnaires Sprinted straight at the wall, knowing that they were done for now but trying desperately to take some of the humans out with them. They screamed in anger and panic, only to turn into cries of pain as they ran onto a Spike Field from David and a quagmire of mud that was surrounded by spiraling blades of Air. Shadows and vines attacked them from the ground, and the last of the Daemons was killed only sixteen steps from the wall. He had tried to leap, but a vine had wrapped his leg and drug him to the ground before he could gather his strength.

David looked around and saw the young healer working on the injured mage. He rushed over and checked his Mana and Energy. Down to fifteen hundred in each. These guys must be running on empty, he thought, then put his hand on the man’s back. With a thought, he dumped most of each of his resources into the healer, giving him a hundred something back. David got dizzy for a few seconds before his regeneration brought them back over a few hundred.

The young man looked up at him and said, “Thank you, sir,” before turning back to his patient. He used the gifted Mana quickly while also bandaging up the wound with a glimmering bright green cloth bandage.

“No problem, thanks for taking care of them,” David responded before looking out at the field. Aly was down there looting the dead Daemons. They dissolved into Essence, but they left their armor and weapons behind.

“These crossbows would be useful,” she told him through their communication system. He saw her heft one up. “Not too heavy. I’m glad we didn’t have to fight these guys in the forest though.”

“Yeah. Saving the elk helped save us in turn,” David laughed.

She turned, loaded a bolt, then launched it into the ground fifty meters away. “Awesome. Come on down.”

David checked on the others. Liz was treating Steve, who was laughing at something Colin said. Lisa and the other archer were talking to the middle-aged man holding a massive shield while he ran a glowing rock over the top of it. The dents in the shield slowly fixed themselves, though the rock itself got smaller each second. David nodded to himself, then leapt off the walls and headed over to Aly.

“What’d you want me to see?” David asked.

“This armor might fit you,” she nudged one with her foot. “It might be worth trying to stack armor with our suit.”

“I’ll try, but I thought we couldn’t,” he said with a shrug. He lifted the breastplate first, glad that the Essence Wave made bodies dissolve without smell. He then put the torso armor on, sliding it over his head like a shirt.

Warning! Incompatible armor equipped. The Legionnaire Breastplate you have equipped is incompatible with your Mana-Augmented Power Suit and will interfere with proper functioning. Do you wish to dissolve Legionnaire Breastplate to accumulate 50 Essence towards upgrading your Mana-Augmented Power Suit? Yes/No

“Well, we can’t wear these,” David said, “but we can use them to upgrade our nanosuits. Eventually anyway. I’d need twenty thousand of the breastplates, or maybe five thousand total suits?”

“Neat, so we can convert credits into Essence for our armor,” Aly said with a grin. “First we should see if anyone else wants these, though.”

“Yeah, not worth it right now,” David said, pulling the breastplate off. He threw five of the sets of platemail armor into his storage belt before he couldn’t fit anything else in. Aly copied him, getting four sets, and they hauled the other three over to the wall.

“Anyone on the other side?” Aly yelled.

“You’re clear,” Lisa shouted back.

Aly nodded, then threw a helmet over, followed by the rest of the armor. David did a standing jump to the top of the wall, activating Strengthen to give him enough boost, then stepped off and dumped the two sets he was carrying into a pile. He then caught the boot Aly had just thrown at him, followed by kicking the parts already thrown over into the pile. The rest of the armor he’d stored got poured out on top of it, and Aly jumped over the wall after him.

“Anyone want some Daemon armor?” David called out. “We should be able to adjust it at the Smithy for you if it doesn’t fit now.”

“Ooh, me!” Steve said, leaping off the wall and rushing over like a kid headed for a candy store. They helped him find a set, his massive shoulders helping. The final result hung on him a bit, but he just laughed it off. “Hah, I didn’t have enough credits for both a weapon and armor. Now I am invincible!”

“Awesome,” David said, then turned to the defender who had walked up. “You as well?”

“I like my armor, sir,” he said, “but this looks stronger.” The man was wearing a chainmail shirt and an open helm.

“If nothing else, the helmet should protect you better, and the boots and gloves would give you some more protection,” David said, forgetting the words for that type of armor. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Liam,” he said, “nice to meet you, sir.”

“Come on,” David gestured. “Feel free to grab whatever you need. Same for the rest of you! If you want to just grab a leg thing or wrist armor, do so. We’ll divvy up what's left after everyone gets what they need.”

The rest of the team dove on them like locusts, though most only grabbed a single piece of armor. Lisa walked off with a vambrace, while the other archer put on a pair of sabatons. He wiggled his toes a bit, then took them off with a grimace before shoving them in a bag. “I need better shoes,” he said. “But I’ll have to get these worked on before they don’t catch and bind,” he said.

After the feeding frenzy, Liz came over. “What are we going to do about the rescued prisoners?”

“Escort them back to Hope’s Refuge,” David said. “Have we heard from the other teams?”

“No, not yet,” she said with a frown. “I hope we hear from them soon.”