Essence Wave Book 2 Chapter 19

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

Moving along, moving along.

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

They ran for another couple of hours, alternating Sprinting through open areas and carefully Hiking through underbrush. Only twice did they Sneak, avoiding what looked like a patrol of Imps flying over the trees that had appeared with the apocalypse. While they could have defeated them easily, they worried that doing so would alert the rest of the Daemons that they were coming. Finally, they reached the edge of the forest, nearly stumbling onto (road). To their west the highway crossed the river, the bridge extending to match the massive increase in the river’s size.

Two dozen Grunts hooted and grunted to each other behind a waist-high wall that blocked the bridge. Past them, a small group of Imps cackled as they launched magic attacks at the fish in the river. Every once in a while, a blast of Water Mana shot back at them.

Aly vanished from David’s senses, sneaking out to scout the bridge. David waited anxiously, resisting the urge to speak to her via the communication system, worried it’d distract her at an inopportune time. After a few minutes, he slunk backwards into undergrowth. He then proceeded to pace in Sneak, getting minute quantities of experience in it due to the fairly distant Daemon’s.

“You okay?” Colin asked.

“Just worried. I trust her and believe she’ll be fine, but still,” David responded. They waited impatiently, only to jump when Aly appeared out of nowhere.

“Nice,” she said. “Stealth went up to Apprentice 6.” She took a deep breath. “Across the bridge there is a Corruption farm, or that’s what it looks like. They have twenty humans who are spreading a slop onto the edge of a very large Corruption patch. The stuff they put down seems to turn the Mana and Energy the people feed into it into more Corruption. It’s not a fast process. There are four Grunt Alpha’s watching the group, but I think the collar’s are Inscribed, or whatever the Daemon equivalent is. I didn’t try to get close enough to check. Stealth in the open is pretty difficult, and Corruption makes it harder.”

“That is perfect,” David said. “(Comm signal), this is Lord. We are in a position to try and grab twenty humans from the Daemons. Are you ready for your diversions?”

“This is Team One. We have eyes on twenty survivors as well,” a male voice came through the comm system.

“Lord, this is Team Three. We see a large force of Grunts moving south. We can perform hit and run attacks against them in five minutes,” a female voice said.

“Lord, this is Team Two, we have identified a storage facility for something the Grunt Alphas and other leaders use. On your signal, we can burn it down,” another guy reported in.

“Okay.Team Two and Team Three, coordinate your attacks in five minutes. Team One and we will rescue survivors five minutes after you begin. Priority is your survival and freedom. We can always try again another day,” David said.

“Roger,” all three team leaders responded.

They spent the next five minutes Sneaking as close to the Grunts guarding the bridge as they could, ending up only fifteen meters from the small fortification. “Attacking,” team 2’s leader said suddenly. Ten seconds later, a large explosion was heard, and the Imps flying over the river turned and flew off.

David started to charge up a Mana Bolt, focusing on putting Metal Mana in the tip and pure Mana in the shaft of the magical crossbow bolt that his Skill created. Beside him, Aly vanished as she moved to flank the Grunts, while Colin and Liz both charged some other Skill.

Most of the Grunts had turned to look back into Buena Vista, rather than pay attention to the road they were supposed to be guarding. Only three kept their eyes on the correct location. David made a second Bolt, then indicated the two on the left that were paying attention. Liz nodded and pointed at the rightmost target, while Colin grinned and mimicked a large explosion with his left hand, his right pushing more Mana into a Mana Grenade.

“Five, four, three, two, one,” David counted down, then both Bolt’s exploded out of his hands. Both Grunts dropped, the Skills mentally-directed to split their heads apart. A spike of Wood nailed Liz’s target. David Charged at the remaining Daemons, who screeched in shock at the dead among them. Just as they were turning back towards the road, Colin’s Mana Grenade blew apart five of them and staggered the rest.

David slammed into the crude wall they’d erected, the wave of Energy exploding from his reflexively summoned shield shattering the small logs apart. Two Grunts screamed as large splinters of wood stabbed them, only to be silenced by a Vanguard’s Slash. Colin Leapt into the midst of the rest, laying about himself with his wrist blades. A Mana Grenade from Liz broke apart the last of the resistance, David quickly putting the last injured Grunt down.

He reached out and looted the closest, tagging as many as he could in thirty seconds. “Let’s move,” he said. He Sprinted across the bridge. At the other edge, he saw two Grunt Alphas turning towards the bridge while the other two were herding their slaves away. Aly suddenly appeared, leaping onto one of the herders back and stabbing deep into its neck.  The humans immediately just dropped, laying flat on the ground, cowering in fear.

David sent a Bolt at the nearest Alpha, keeping their attention when it started to turn away. Five meters from it, it gestured at him, sending a beam of Mana that stopped his Sprint cold. The other Alpha roared, leaping into the air at him. It grinned in victory, only to be smacked out of the sky by Colin. Colin’s halberd smashed the Alpha into the ground, cracking its insectile carapace.

David held in place, using Earthen Bulwark to resist the push of the Alpha’s Skill. The Daemon pushed harder, more Mana flowing out of it, until a spike of Wood stabbed into it, transforming into a set of vines that tried to tie it down. The Alpha resisted, but the vines managed to drag its beam away from David, giving him the opportunity to Vanguard’s Charge across the bridge into the Daemon. It staggered backwards, only to scream when a Power Attack cut into its leg.

The Alpha’s fist smashed cracks into David’s shield, pushing him a step away, and then another beam shot out and blasted it apart. The beam cut into his shoulder, and David screamed in agony while stabbing upward into the thing’s neck. The attack cut off when the Daemon was decapitated, David’s sword cutting through its spinal cord.

He looked over to find Aly had dealt with both of hers, the collared humans still cowering on the ground. There were no Daemons within sight, every available one apparently having headed to intercept the other teams. David rushed over to one of the cowering humans. “It’s okay. We’re here to rescue you,” he said.

“No, don’t touch me,” the girl begged. “The collar will kill me if you do.”

“Okay,” David said, keeping his hands up. “Let me look at it, and I’ll see if I can figure out how to take it off. I won’t touch it without your permission, okay?”

She hesitatingly nodded, obviously terrified out of her mind.

“Can you stand?” David asked.

She shook her head. “We have orders to lay flat on the ground if there is an attack,” she said. “Only an Alpha or higher rank Daemon can countermand that order.”

“Okay,” David said, then he knelt next to her. He bent close, but didn’t touch the collar. The simple metal band had a dozen runes carved throughout it, glowing a baleful red-black color. “Can you roll to your other side?”

She rolled over, going from face down to face up. David noticed she’d be fairly pretty, if not for the expression of terror on her face. “Roll over once again,” he instructed, and she complied. “There, if I inject my own Mana at this location, I can short out the locking mechanism without triggering the security effects. May I try?”

She shook her head, too scared to let him try. “I volunteer as tribute,” another young woman said from close by. David grinned as he walked over to her. She was in her mid-twenties, with short brown hair that was matted with oil and dirt. Her bright green eyes looked at him with curiosity, the freckles on her fair skin barely visible though the grime working in a quasi-farm-like environment had coated her face with.

“Are you sure?” David asked.

“I’d rather die than keep serving them,” she stated simply. “If you can figure out how to save the rest of my colleagues, my death will be worth it.”

David nodded, then said, “I need you to roll over, then. The right location is on the back of the neck.” She rolled over, her stiff movements showing her nerves. David admired her conviction, sticking with it even through her terror. He reached down, gently touching the target rune before sending a surge of Mana into it. His Mana Inscription Skill pinged at him, and he changed the makeup of the Mana. He directed it to break the connection between two surrounding runes, and after a minute the collar clicked and came open.

David gently removed the collar. Once it was free of her neck, she rolled over and threw herself into his arms. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she repeated, over and over again.

“You’re welcome,” he said. “But now I need to do the rest of the collars.”

She quickly let go, falling back to the ground. Liz rushed over, reaching down to check over her. “Oh you poor dear,” Liz said. “Let me heal the worst of your injuries. We have a safe space to head to, but it's a bit away.” Her hands glowed green as she gently grabbed the sobbing girl’s shoulder.

David moved back to the first young woman, who promptly lay flat on her belly to give him access to her collar. “Please,” she begged.

He checked the collar again, ensuring that it was the same as the previous one. The location of the correct rune was slightly different, but not enough to make her have to change position. He followed his Skills direction, separating the collar from the trembling girl. She lay as still as she could, not moving even when the collar was removed.

David patted her shoulder then moved on to a young man. He noticed now that every person in the slave labor group was in their late teens through their early thirties. I don’t want to ask yet. After they’re all free, he thought as he shorted out a third collar.

“Hurry,” Aly said. “There is a group of Daemons forming up at their fortress. It is only a kilometer away.”

David nodded sharply, “Everyone make a line off me,” he commanded. The next enslaved person crawled in front of him, and he only gave the collar a cursory inspection before finding the right rune. With a zap, it was off. The guy tried to give him a hug, but David shrugged it off. “Later, no time.”

There were still six people collared when the Imp patrol returned. The Daemons screamed loudly, then sent a barrage of elemental attacks at the group. Aly and Liz formed various shields, one inky black and another nature green. Two broke through their attempts. Colin leapt into one before it could hit a young woman, and the other missed the group entirely.

David stopped paying attention, quickly moving to the next person to be freed. “Five more,” he yelled out, stepping to the side and reaching for his neck. The guy jerked a bit just when David started to channel his Mana, then screamed as the collar heated up. The sizzling of cooking skin made David nauseous, but he ignored that and shifted the guy roughly. The collar clicked off, and the guy collapsed.

“Don’t move,” David barked to the next person, who trembled but held still. He made no mistakes, forcibly holding the girl still with one hand this time, and the collar clicked off without any injury. She immediately put her hand on the injured man’s shoulder, and it glowed white while quieting his whimpers. “You’re a healer?” David asked.

“Yes sir,” she said. “We were allowed to spend some Essence to level up twice. I was given permission to become a healer so that we could work harder.”

“Look out!” Aly yelled.

David twisted to see two fireballs heading right for the kneeling girl. He jumped up, forming and extending his shield into a bowl shape. The fireballs exploded in the shield, the flame and shockwave deflected away from everyone else by his shield. It blew David into the ground, driving the breath from his lungs with a grunt.

He snapped a Mana Bolt at one of the swooping Daemons. It dodged with a shriek of laughter, another fireball forming in its hands. A Wood Spike pierced through its side, and the fireball detonated, knocking two other Imps about. David turned to the last four, reaching down and flooding Mana into the first collar he could reach.

It took him almost a minute to get the other three people freed. Several screams from the other freed people made him wince, knowing that they were injured, but he didn’t let it distract him. He was the only one who could free the rest, so that was his job right now. “Last one freed, let’s get out of here,” he yelled out while pulling the man to his feet.

He looked towards the bridge to see that it was still clear, but from farther down the road he saw a force of at least thirty Grunts, along with five Alphas and a dozen Daemons that were halfway between the two in size that were wearing full plate armor and holding wicked looking axes.

“We need to leave,” Liz said. “Run!”

David moved to the road, standing between the others and the oncoming Daemon force. Everyone ran past, the newly freed stumbling about. David looked back, then started to cast Spike Field over and over again, filling the edge of the bridge with the stone spike dense enough to make a wall. Each cast was overcharged, filled to bursting with Earth Mana.

He turned and ran, picking up a young woman who stumbled to the ground in front of him. He threw her over his right shoulder, dismissing his sword and shield, then scooped up another young woman. “Faster!”

Colin saw him then nodded, grabbing the next two slowest runners. Liz and Aly copied them, letting the group speed up a bit. Behind them, the Daemons broke into a sprint, slowly eating the distance between them. “We need to get back to the new fort,” David said. “Seneschal, how long until the backup team arrives at the fort?”

“Hold,” Josiah said. Ten seconds later, “they estimate around an hour.”

“We are headed there now, being pursued by almost fifty Daemons.”

Silence met him for a bit, then Josiah said, “They will make it in forty minutes now.”

“If we keep this pace,” Liz said, “We’ll be there in almost two hours, but I doubt we’ll be able to. There will be too much undergrowth in the way.”

They ran, then broke into the forest once the road curved enough to hide them from sight, even if only for a minute. Aly took the lead, setting down her passengers before slipping through the forest. She stayed in sight, though, and the freed people followed her. Every once in a while they grimaced, the rags they were wearing getting caught on branches or skin scratched by thorns. David and Liz drew up the rear, with Liz encouraging the plants behind them to grow, hoping to disguise their passage.

The group moved for nearly an hour before Colin told Aly, “I’ll take over guiding. Can you scout behind us?”

She nodded, stepping to the side and then vanishing into Stealth. The young woman she was next to gasped in surprise.

“Is anyone running low on Energy?” David asked.

“We all are,” panted the healer girl.

David nodded, then rushed past everyone else to Colin. He hit then slowed down and used A Leader’s Gift to give a hundred Energy to the first person in line. The young man perked up a bit, but Colin didn’t speed up. David repeated this with the next two, then paused for a minute to recharge his Energy before each of the rest.

Once he hit the last, Colin increased their speed by a small amount, and David repeated his effort. With this Skill, he marveled to himself, I can keep an entire group moving faster. At higher levels, I’ll be able to share almost the entirety of my regeneration with everyone around me. Gotta level it up a bunch more, and increase my regen too. It’s really good for me, but sharing it twenty ways is still only a trickle.

Ten minutes later, Aly’s voice sounded in his ear, “They are still following. The turn off confused them for a bit, but they got back on our trail. You need to hurry.”

“Got it, get back to us safe,” David said. “Will we beat them to the fort?”

She didn’t respond for a second, then said, “It’ll be close, I think.”

David opened his helmet again and sofly called out, “We need to speed up again. Push it.”

Grimly, the stumbling people pushed themselves just a little harder.