Luke Everhart
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Chapter 86 - Uncontrolled Power
🕑 Added 2024-11-24 10:48:10 +0000 UTCNar woke to chaos.
The metallic battle cries of guardians competed with the shouts and [Aura] explosions from the Climbers.
Nar sat up and blearily looked around him.
“You’re awake!” Rel said.
Nar turned towards the sound of her voice, noting the stiffness on his neck.
“What’s going on?” he muttered.
“We’re being attacked! Guardians!”
Nar came fully awake in one long gasp. His sword was beside him and he used it to prop himself up.
“Nar, can you stand?” Kur shouted.
“I’m fine!”
“You’ve only just stopped bleeding out of your ears!” Rel shouted at him, even as she fired another bright arrow into the chaos.
“I said I’m fine!” he snarled.
He ignored them and scanned the fight, sending his senses outwards.
It quickly became apparent that Jul had been right. None of the guardians even dared to get close to the Pressure, which meant that they had two sides effectively blocked.
However, that didn’t mean that things had become easy either.
Gad stood at the center of the fight, her shield bright and easy to spot. Viy and Mul were at their expected locations, trying their best to content with the raging limbs and blades swarming them, but he didn’t see Jul anywhere.
“Where’s Jul?” he asked, to no one in particular.
“She’s still out there!” Rel said. “They just came out of nowhere. One second, silence, and the next, I heard them right on top of us. I don’t know where they came from!”
Nar frowned. That still didn’t account for everyone. Wasn’t someone missing?
He gasped.
Right there, under Kur’s tiny shield, and covered by his huge body, he spotted the missing party members.
“Tuk! Cen!”
“Tuk got hit first, and Cen just went down!” Kur said. “There’re too many bolts! Can you cover Rel? She’s our last hope against those bolters!”
Even as he spoke, Nar was already moving, urged on by his [Instinct]. His body voiced its protests loudly as he cut through the projectiles, but he grit his teeth and kept going.
“Nar!” Rel shouted. “You’re bleeding again! Your nose!”
“Focus! I’ll cover you!” he yelled back at her.
She said nothing more, but the rhythm of her arrows increased.
Nar however, scanned the frontline, dreading what he was about to see.
Gad kept three of the soldiers 2’s focused on her, and Viy was managing to stall the fourth one, using her spear to keep it at a distance.
Mul, however, was being absolutely hammered by the soldier 1’s. He actually hadn’t known that the lengos could move so fast and gracefully, as to dodge all of those bladed arms. But even from this far, Nar could see him bleeding and taking hits. A quick glance at his HP told him all he needed to know.
They were losing. And bad.
He blocked another volley of bolts, but his eyes never left the brave brawler contending with what looked like five guardians all on his own.
He can’t last like that.
He looked at Viy and her spear and then at Gad.
That won’t last either. And Gad’s going to lose her aggro!
Rel was doing the best she could, but without Tuk and Cen, the DPS just wasn’t enough to stop all of those bolters hiding in the dark. And Mul, alone, lacked Jul and Viy at his side.
We’re going to die like this!
“Rel, can you shoot the soldiers?” he asked her.
“We tried that! The bolters started aiming at the melee instead!” she said.
Damn it. Why did the pattern have to change all of a sudden!
What else could they do?
What else could he do?
He parried yet another cluster of bolts aimed at Rel. In the back of his mind, he already knew the answer to what must be done. But as he spun and slashed at the projectiles, he tried to deny it.
No, not that! There has to be something else!
He felt his legs close to giving, under the strain of his enhanced movements, and found it harder to hit the bolts from the air. He still got them, but barely. What was wrong with his [Reflex]? With him?
Wait… Am I shaking?
The bolts kept flying at him, and he barely registered them as he knocked them down.
Am I afraid?
The number one tenet of the System, one’s path and their gains, was that you are what you do. Everything pivoted around this truth. Even the workers, down in the bowels of the Nexus, knew that much.
“Your actions bear consequence,” the priest had said, to the mandatory gathering of nineteen year olds. “If you act in any way that is contrary to your wants and desires for your path, your gains will lead you elsewhere. If you act shamefully, or cowardly, the System will reward you with gains and skills worthy of those actions. Whatever you do, remember that the System is always watching...”
No!
He moved even faster than before, pulling on more stamina, more energy, more everything.
I’m not scared, System! I’m not a coward!
Had that been why he had avoided his [Aura] all this time? Fear?
“Nar, slow down!” Rel cried, seeing the blood pouring from his ears, and flying from his mouth.
But Nar did not hear her. He couldn’t. His Nexus had fallen to silence.
All my life I feared every day, he thought, in that sudden blissful quiet. I was so scared of that shift call. Of going into that factory. Into that machine. Of passing by those lines of Clean. But I’m not scared anymore. I don’t want to be scared anymore…
“Rel, get down,” he told her, his voice strangely calm.
“What?” she asked, caught off guard by both the request and tone with which it had been delivered.
“Do it now.”
The archer dropped flat on the floor and Nar stood still amongst the flying bolts, knowing that none of them would hit him.
He didn’t even take a deep breath. He did not prepare himself. He did not hesitate.
He pulled on his [Aura]. Pulled on it with everything he had.
He was going to show the System, the party, and himself, that he was no coward. He couldn’t put everything at risk just because of some pain.
Crystal, how long had he been displaying such pathetic behavior?
[Aura] howled within him, setting his veins on fire.
The sword shone, banishing both darkness and orange light.
“Nar?” Kur asked, covering his face with the hand that held his scepter. “What are you doing?”
Showing I’m worthy. Of this party, of my path and of my future!
Everything screamed within him, but he did not care.
If his lungs didn’t accept oxygen, he would force them too.
If his heart threatened to fail, he would beat it into submission.
Even if his brain failed him, melted into nothing but red goo, he would still move. On [Instinct] and [Reflex] alone if he had to!
He seemed as though he had only taken a single step forward, but he was already at the frontline.
The others had no time or attributes with which to react.
The bright sword cut through guardians, soldier 1’s and 2’s alike, with just the barest of resistance, metal crumbling and parting as though it was nothing but air.
Like Tuk had been boosted before, so was he.
His attributes ravaged through his mind and body, and he was a flurry of bright strikes and slashes.
In seconds, he had left the soldiers in a ruined mess, their bodies glowing a furious molten orange from where his blinding blade had cleaved into them, separating limbs and slicing off chunks as he easily cut into them.
He moved onto the bolters without stopping. He felt hot stickiness running down his ears, eyes and nose. He felt a taste in his mouth that was all too familiar to him.
His sight swam and blurred, came and went, but he pushed through.
He didn’t need to see. He didn’t need to hear.
Perhaps sensing the danger amidst them, the bolters had focused their fire on him, and his [Instinct] told him all that he needed to know.
Light surrounded him in long, beautiful streaks of burning white. Guardian bits flew all around him, and no bolt came even close to grazing him.
In the distance, he thought he heard someone calling out to him. Someone begging him to stop. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t take a coward’s path. What would he do with one? How would he save his dad? How would he stand before him? How would he contribute to this amazing party?
No, he couldn’t allow it.
“Do you see?” he screamed, as he ravaged through the bolters. “I’m not afraid! I’m not a coward!”
They were no match for him. Just limbs and bodies to be split and smashed.
Is this what I’ve been missing? Is this what strength feels like? Do I even need magic at this point?
His [Instinct] blinked off, and he was left blind, in the middle of the bolters.
Fighting a surge of panic, Nar swung the sword around him with abandon. He felt a bolt on his arm, and another one on his leg, but he was unstoppable.
His body was so filled with [Aura] that it consumed the poison, rather than let him succumb to it.
And so, he heard nothing more, and felt nothing else around him, until finally, he heard the voice.
“Stop, Nar! Stop!”
It was Jul.
But by then, Nar was too far gone.
Even half blind, he ran towards the Pressure, and plunged into it face first.
He raised his arms and sword high.
“Is this what You want?” he shouted, pushing his voice into the endless columns. “Here! Take it! Take it all! I’m not scared! You hear? I’m not scared!”
The darkness that befell upon him was so sudden, he didn’t even have time to be surprised, or fight it.
Gad grabbed onto Nar before he collapsed.
The Pressure roared around her, like madness itself.
It burned and weighed down on her, but even with just her measly [Aura], she was still a tank. Plus, she had spent all of her life carrying broken aetherium right into the jaws of the toxic, burning furnaces of the cubeplant. What she lacked in [Aura], she more than made up for with her [Constitution], [Toughness] and grit.
Holding Nar against her with one hand, and the glowing shield aloft, she dragged them both back into safety.
As she neared it, she twisted and pushed Nar across, into the waiting arms of Kur and Jul.
“How is he?” she asked, as she stepped out.
Her skin smoked angrily, and her voice was hoarse from the raging, all destroying heat. But she only had eyes for Nar.
“I don’t know!” Kur said. “His HP is still falling. I’m going to use my [Healing Boon]!”
“Do it! Quick!” Jul begged.
The quam didn’t know where to touch, and Gad could see the blood on her hands and drenching her clothes. It was pouring out of Nar, seemingly from everywhere.
Rel, standing right behind her, looked just as distressed as Jul.
“Don’t we need to pull out those bolts?” she asked.
In that moment, Gad felt the restorative, soothing energy of Kur’s [Healing Boon] spread over her with a comforting and relief inducing sensation.
Her HP began ticking back up, but Nar’s only stalled. It went down and up, and down and up again, as even with Kur’s boon, his own HP struggled to fix what had been damaged by his own [Aura].
“Not yet. It will just make him bleed harder,” Kur said. “Let’s wait for his HP to stabilize first. Then we can see about them.”
Gad took a deep breath, and clenched and unclenched her jaw.
“It’s up to him now,” she said.
Her words were meant not in ruthlessness or cold carelessness.
Nar had saved them all again. At his expense and sacrifice. How many times now, had she seen him bloody and battered? How many times had she suffered the same fate? Once? Twice?
Was that because she was tougher than Nar, or because he put himself where she couldn’t go. Because he took the damage that she couldn’t take. Because she was slow, and immobile. Her reactions slow, her movements ponderous.
Not for the first time, she wished she could be faster. Stronger. Better equipped to make the enemy go to her, and stay focused on her… Perhaps, to be a little bit like him.
“For now, let’s leave him here,” she spoke out loud. “Just in case we damage something by moving him.”
“I’ll stay with him,” Jul said, and there was nothing in her voice that allowed anyone to deny her.
“You do that,” Kur said, getting up. “Let me go check on the others.”
Gad sat down heavily next to Nar.
His face was a bloody mess. Blood came out of his nose, eyes and even mouth. How could someone damage themselves so badly? How could someone even recover from it? And the things that Nar had shouted?
It wasn’t hard for her to reach the right conclusions. Or at least partially.
Her mind had always been the fastest part of her, regardless of how much her family and other carters had tried to dissuade her of it, and she knew that she was grasping at something there, but she couldn’t quite figure it out yet.
“There’s something wrong, here,” she muttered to herself.
There was something about Nar that they were missing.
All of that damage had clearly been done by [Aura].
Disregarding the bolt on his left arm, the one stuck on his right shoulder, and the two above his right knee, the guardians hadn’t even managed to scratch him. He had moved in a way she still had trouble believing. It had been faster than ever before, not much more than a blur of light to her non-enhanced, normal, slow eyes.
He was running from it and he was scared the System would punish him for doing so. But he wasn’t running because he wanted to. He had to… Whatever it is, it’s hurting him. Really, really hurting him. So much it’s killing him. He can’t use his [Aura] at all.
But what was it? Why was it?
Was it the amount he had? The years spent in those double-shifts? Or like Cen said, something else entirely…
Gad didn’t know yet, but she would. And she would find a way to fix it. Even if it was the last thing she did, she wasn’t going to leave Nar behind, nor let him die at the hands of his out of control [Aura].
She was going to make it right, whatever it took.
Comments
Lucas Onderwater
Hey there! I recognized the username!! I'm really happy to see you here and I hope you continue to enjoy the adventure!!
Blorcyn
Hola. Just reached 86 on royal road. Continue to really enjoy the struggle and journey. Couldn’t be patient and wait.
