Luke Everhart
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Chapter 97 - Chased
🕑 Added 2024-11-29 08:24:40 +0000 UTC“Where’s the exit?” Kur asked, not bothering with being quiet. “Jul? The exit!”
“T-That way!”
“Take us there! Now! Run! Everyone, run!”
They ran.
They ran for their lives.
They ran like the scared little children that they were.
THUM!
Nar’s heart wailed in fear. His mind nearly blanked, under the assault of that weight that still set every fiber of his body to shivering.
His footsteps came crashing down, clumsy and heavy, and he felt as though he was running in place, the distant columns up ahead of them never moving closer.
What was this?
What was happening?
What new horror had the System conjured up for them now, that it was so powerful it could affect him from so far away? Without him even seeing it at all!
THUM!
He winced at the sound, and frantically searched for a way out. Anything! Even a hole! Something that might shield him from what was hunting him, for there was no fighting whatever it was.
They could only hope to outrun its massive footsteps.
Hope. Hope was all they had now.
Hope was…
A sound thundered through the space in between columns. Its roaring approach drilled into his ears and from there, it raged into his mind, almost outright blanking him.
He screamed in pain and tripped, almost going down.
For a moment, everything vanished in swirling orange, and he felt as though two forces waged war within him. One orange and the other gray.
Orange and gray.
Orange.
Orange…
Orange!
No!
Gray!
The columns and everything snapped back into focus.
He was on the floor, and his chin hurt.
Red wetness dripped down the usual holes and his mind cried. Hurt and devastated by the intrusion.
Nar scampered to his feet. There was no time for suffering.
“Up!” he shouted, reaching down to pull Rel up.
He looked around him, seeing the others slowly come up to their feet.
“Come on!” he shouted, hurrying them.
Kur stumbled to his feet and Nar caught him, lifting him with despair and [Strength] behind it, almost dislocating his shoulder.
“Run! Run!” Jul shouted, covering her antennae and looking wide eyed at them all.
“Nooooooo!”
Nar whipped around and his heart sank.
Gad was trying to get Viy back up.
Viy was kicking her feet and running from Gad’s hands, refusing to be brought back upwards.
No! No! No! Nar shouted in his mind.
He looked behind them, expecting to meet the end, peaking at them behind the columns.
THUM!
Not yet. Not yet.
He looked at Viy again, and at Gad’s struggle. Kur had joined her, but somehow, it seemed to make things worse.
“Let me go! Let me go! Let me go! Let me…”
Nar tightened his fists, battling his own panic.
Not now! Not now!
But what could they do?
Suddenly, Gad made her decision.
Ignoring the punches, nails and kicks, she went in and lifted Viy up as though she weighed nothing. She threw the screaming girl onto her shoulder, pressing her hard, and looked at the rest of them.
“Where to?” she shouted, holding Viy in place with a grip that had to be [Strength] powered.
“That way!” Jul replied.
And they were on the run again.
THUM!
The gap between the pillars dilated and extended before him, looking unnaturally long.
Nar had never felt so exposed and vulnerable in his entire life. Part of him wanted to crawl and hide behind one of the columns, hoping to not be seen. To be ignored and forgotten, like the insignificance he was.
Another part of him wanted to run into his dad’s arms and bury his face in his chest, just like he used to, when he was five, and everyone was dying and killing around them.
For a moment, it was not a powerful auramancer than ran. It was a little boy that fled, tears of fear and blood streaking down his eyes.
Then suddenly, there was a release.
He gasped, and he was back to himself again.
What? What in the pile just happened?
“It’s gone!” Tuk shouted.
“It was just messing with our heads!” Kur said. “Keep running!”
Was that it? Nar wondered, as the quality of his steps improved.
To be honest, he could not deny that it could all just have been his own terror taking over him. However, he did not waste any time thinking about it. He wiped the blood dripping down his face, and kept going.
One step in front of the other. Hot air burning down into his lungs. Panicked heart pumping blood to everywhere.
The columns slowly grew ahead of them.
THUM!
It's getting closer. It’s getting closer. It’s getting closer.
“Jul! How far is it?” Kur asked.
“I don’t know!” she said. “It’s behind those pillars. But I don’t know how far!”
“I can’t… Run… That far!” Cen gasped.
“You have too! We all have too! We’re not dying here, you hear me! Not when we’re so…”
“Nar! Nar!” Jul shouted.
It was too far for him to sense it, but Jul would only be calling him like that for one thing. Protection.
He sped past the others and joined her and Kur at the head of the party.
“Up there!” she said, pointing up.
Nar followed her finger up to one of the massive, orange wreathed columns.
“What is it?” he shouted, confused.
“Look! Look!”
He looked again and pulled on his [Sight] this time.
“Oh, Crystal…” he muttered, color draining from his face.
“What is it?” Kur asked.
“Guardians!” Nar breathed. “There are guardians coming down the column!”
“On the other side too!” Jul shouted.
The Pressure up on those columns bubbled and shifted in a frenzy, and a dark stain slowly formed, coming down the middle of the column and slowly covering its lower half.
“How are there… Guardians in the… Fucking Pressure?” Mul panted.
“And how many are there?” Kur shouted.
Too many to count. Those columns were already impossibly gigantic, and to see those two dark stains spreading down from the middle of them, covering every inch of those massive things…
We can’t fight that… Nobody can! Nar thought, as he watched the endless mass of enemies coming down to meet them.
Jul grabbed his arm and shook him. “Look! The big ones! They’re going to fire at us! Go faster! Draw their fire to you!”
Nar’s sword was in his hand with barely a thought and he did as she told him without hesitation, running faster to get some distance in between him and the party. He didn’t even question how she knew it.
The [Instinct] warning came, as expected, and he was prepared.
A massive dark thing sped towards him.
For a moment, he went blank. That was not a bolt.
His [NPC] kicked with the strength of a soldier 2’s blow, and Nar moved.
It was too big to parry, and he had no shield to block. And he was not at a level where he could simply cut through something with kind of power and speed behind it!
Up. That was his only chance. He had to deflect it up!
The sword flashed upwards, meeting the projectile a hand’s length from its sharp, black and orange flaming tip.
There was a loud clang, and the thing went flying above his head.
Nar dropped his arms, the weight of the sword suddenly too heavy for them.
Kur collided into him and carried him forward, back into a run.
“What was that?” Kur asked.
“I don’t know!”
[Instinct] screamed, coming down at him from high above.
“There’s too many!” Nar shouted. “Split! Everyone split!”
Kur understood him immediately. “We are too close together! Separate, now!”
Many things whistled at them, and seconds later, massive spear-like bolts, wreathed in orange Pressure, crunched into the floor around them.
Nar’s eyes went even wider. He had never seen anything damage the walls, ceilings or floors of the B-Nex before.
My Crystal… he thought. If that hits us…
“Don’t run in a straight line!” Kur shouted. “And don’t stop for anything!”
Nar grit his teeth, sensing the bolts coming down towards him.
Ugh! Why can I only sense danger that’s aimed at me!
There was nothing he could do to protect them! Nothing!
Without the rich sensory information from his [Instinct] guiding him to which projectiles would actually hit, and to which to focus on first, he was basically rendered useless. He could see them, and hear them, but there were just too many of them, and he didn’t know on which to actually focus! All that he could do was hope. Hope that their luck, or the Crystal’s Mercy, and the distance could keep them all safe.
Wait! Gad! He suddenly remembered.
Their tank was the slowest in the party, and she was now further encumbered with by freaking out Viy.
Nar looked right and left, and panicked when he didn’t find her.
He looked behind him and found her at last. She was lagging way behind them, holding up her aura coated shield to protect Viy, who was still screaming and kicking to try and break free of her hold.
Nar’s throat tightened. Gad was protecting Viy with her shield, not herself.
A shout tore away from his throat and Nar fell back.
Someone pulled at him.
“What are you doing?” Rel asked. “Keep running!”
“Not without them!”
“They’re too slow! But we can make it!”
Nar wrenched his arm free and ran towards the tank.
“What are you doing!” Gad shouted at him. “Keep going!”
“Put that shield away!” he said, falling into step beside her. “I’ll cover us!”
“But…”
“Do it now, damn it! And run faster!”
The massive shield disappeared, and Gad adjusted her hold on Viy. A bit freer now, she was able to pick up the pace.
“What about the others?” Gad asked, breathing furiously.
“I can’t do anything for them now!” Nar shouted. “Maybe they’ll focus on us!”
Rel fell into step beside him, on his other side, and Nar managed to glimpse the horrendous fury that marred her aged, wrinkled and spotted face.
He had no time to consider what she had told him. What she had wanted him to do. Another enormous volley was in the air already, and he could only hope that everyone would make it safely. There was no tanking any of that, and any one of those bolts could end his or even Gad’s life, never mind the others with their much lower HPs.
A single bolt came their way, leaving a streak of bright, burning orange in its wake. Nar pushed more aura onto his blade and cut in a sideways, rising blow. The thing went flying away from him and the others, and Nar stumbled backwards.
“Are you okay?” Gad shouted.
“These things are heavy!” Nar shouted back, rushing to catch up to them again.
“Do you want to use my shield?”
“What?”
He almost stopped dead in his tracks at the unexpected question.
“DO YOU WANT MY SHIELD?” Gad roared back.
“NO!” he shouted.
What was he going to do with it? He had neither the [Constitution] nor the [Strength] to simply stand there and take those bolts. Also, he doubted he was going to be able to push aura into the shield on his first try, and blocking those things without aura would be impossible. If they could crash into the B-Nex’s impossibly solid floor, what would it do the shield?
“Okay!” Gad said, and left it at that.
The bolts, or perhaps he should think of them as heavy, thick spears, kept falling on them in massive volleys, one after the other. They crunched into the floor around them, one after the other, in a rain of death, filling the air with their deafening cacophony. Above them, they whistled angrily, as they arched through the air, before plummeting towards them.
Suddenly, without realizing it, Nar realized that they were in between the columns, and his [Instinct] went quiet. They had made it!
“I think we’re safe here!” Nar said.
“No, we’re not!” Rel said, pointing to his right.
Nar followed her finger and for a moment, his mind was unable to process what he was seeing.
Guardians.
Guardians in a number uncountable rushed them from the columns that now surrounded the party, in their fast, rolling ball shapes.
Each and every one of them was completely covered in furious orange.
Never in his nightmares could he have come up with such a sight.
“Crystal have mercy on us…” Gad said. “They’re covered in Pressure!”
“Keep running!” Kur shouted. “We can’t let them surround us! Cen, come here!”
That was exactly what the enemy was trying to do.
The balls of flaming orange were angled, aiming not straight at them, but at the spot in between the columns, where the massive constructions ended and open space began again. They were trying to cut them off from both sides.
The Climber’s stamina-powered bodies granted them a speed that a normal worker could only ever dream of, even for the two short legged lengos, and their panic even gave them an extra edge. But it wasn’t enough.
As the minutes like hours drifted away, the mass of guardians overtook them, and slowly filled the path ahead of them, blocking them.
We’re not going to make it! Nar thought, as the gap slowly closed, disappearing under a growing wall of black metal and orange. The thing had to be over a 100-feet tall by now, and it was still growing! How were they going to get through?
“Ranged!” Kur shouted. “Blow us a hole through!”
At some point, the party leader had scooped Cen up to his shoulders, to be her legs, and at her command, Cen held up her staff above his head.
She was about to get her chance to try out her new [Aura Projectile 4].
Gray light erupted from her staff, casting back the orange light that permeated everything.
Nar, his face bathed in her aura, watched the light at the tip of her staff grow until it was almost the size of his outstretched hand. The thing had to be triple the size of what it had been before!
She held it high as they kept running. Waiting to be closer.
Closer.
The gap was almost gone.
Closer.
The mass of guardians grew before them, and Nar’s eyes widened as he stared up, and continued looking higher and higher at the shifting mass of dark metal, gleaming blades, and orange Pressure. Sparks erupted angrily across the wall, filling the air with angry snaps and hisses.
He almost forgot about whatever it was that was even now still stepping towards them, closer and closer and…
“Now!” Kur shouted.
Cen flung her [Aura Projectile 4] forward.
The ball of light flashed forward, leaving a hazy streak behind it.
The explosion was blinding, and echoed throughout that endless room, blowing burning, blinding air in his face.
Nar was forced to avert his eyes, but soon, broken bits of guardians started raining all over and around them.
When he looked for the gap again, he almost laughed.
It was there! A huge ragged gap, torn and ripped through the wall of guardians as though it had been nothing!
Behind them, the thing made a loud noise again, though this time he felt no adverse effects come over him.
“Don’t stop!” Kur said. “Tuk to the right. Rel to the left! Keep those things off of us!”
In a flash, they were into the wall of guardians.
Nar could only now see the full extent of what they had built to block their way. They were swallowed into the wall, covered up high on both sides.
Hundreds of thousands.
The number popped into his head, unbidden. At long last, the System had deigned to give him new understanding, so that he could understand the magnitude of what he was facing. And the sheer scale, the reality of what he faced, defied comprehension.
The guardians were untangling themselves and falling down the sides of the gap with loud, metallic thuds, their limbs flailing loose as they dropped towards them, covering the orange ceiling above them in darkness.
He watched Tuk fire one of his bright, devastating rings at the guardian that was the fastest to react to their ploy.
The bright disc of light flared forward, ready to dismantle anything in its path.
It met the orange Pressure, and was engulfed.
“My ring!” Tuk cried.
The utter and raw pain in his voice was such that Nar was moving before he could even think about what he was doing.
“No! Leave it!” Tuk shouted, horrified. “Nar! Stop!”
Nar stumbled, unsure of what to do.
“It’s not worth it! Come back, man!” Tuk pleaded to him. “Come back!”
Nar looked back at where the ring had disappeared into. That spot was quickly being covered in a living mass of guardians and Pressure, but it was not too late…
“Get back, here!” Tuk roared at him. “Don’t be crazy! Come on!”
Nar could almost hear the tears in his voice.
Hanging his head low, he ran back to the group.
“Keep your rings safe!” Kur shouted. “Cen and Rel will cover us!”
“Not me!” Rel shouted. “My arrows aren’t doing shit to that Pressure!”
“Just keep running then!”
“I can try a skill?” Tuk said, still holding up his rings and eyeing the encroaching guardians.
“No point in risking it! Just keep running!” Kur said. “Jul, how far are we!”
“The next column! The one on the right!” she shouted. “I think the exit’s in there, inside of it!”
“Inside the Pressure?” Kur asked, sure that he had misheard her. They all were.
“Yes! Right in the middle of it!” Jul said, dashing all of their hopes. “I can hear air coming out from it!”
“For Crystal’s sake!” Kur shouted. “Alright, everyone, we’re running to it! Cen, we can only count on you now!”
“Don’t worry! I’ll keep us safe!” the lengos shouted, from atop his shoulders.
Already, another charged [Aura Projectile] was forming at the tip of her staff.
“They’re coming from the front too!” Jul shouted.
Their relief had been short lived.
The guardians were reacting faster than they could run, and as the walls collapsed into chasing guardians on either side of them, more of them were chasing from behind, and more were now showing up to block them ahead.
“Where are all these things even coming from!” Mul shouted
“Nar, cover our sides! Cen focus on the front!” Kur ordered. “If they stop us, we’re dead! Fight if you have too, but don’t stay! Hit and run! We have to keep moving!”
As he spoke, Nar had already located his first target.
A flaming guardian was barreling towards them from the left, coming at full speed towards Rel, its legs tik-tack-ticking across the floor.
Rel aimed and shot an arrow at it.
The gray projectile fizzled into the Pressure and bounced harmlessly off the guardian's metallic shell.
She yelped a strangled cry, and tried to notch another arrow.
In two steps, Nar was there. He pushed his aura both into his sword and to his skin, to cover himself in a thicker layer of it. He didn’t want to find out what would happen if that bright, flaming Pressure touched him.
His sword halted the guardian’s charge, cutting it from side to side. At least, that had been his intention.
In reality, the aura coating his sword fizzled out, and was devoured by the Pressure. And when the flaming orange licked his skin, Nar cried out in pain and surprise.
“Nar!” Rel shouted.
He stumbled back, pulling his sword out with difficulty.
The Pressure had stripped him clear of his protective coat of aura, and he saw his hand redden and burn, before his aura rushed in to patch the holes.
“Are you okay?” Rel asked.
Her expression was that of one nearing a mental breakdown. She looked between Nar and the party that was even then speeding off and away from them. Her foot tapped on the floor and she swayed from side to side, swallowing saliva and air in equal amounts, her eyes open wide and wild.
“I’m fine! Go! Go!” he shouted.
Together, they ran after the party.
Nar watched Cen flung her charged attack at the mass of enemies blocking their front, but he didn’t have time to see the results. More guardians were flanking them, about to collide into the sides of the party.
He sped off from Rel, pulling yet more aura to him.
His UI was still gone, so he had no idea how much was left in that gray bar. He also didn’t have time to test Cen’s hypothesis that the external and internal auras were different things.
I might need to use my [Aura Strike]. But not yet!
He would hold off on it for as long as he could.
THUM!
By the almighty Crystal! In the chaos, he had forgotten about that menace behind them!
