Chương 20: Seperate

"Major, the Juggernaut is moving out of the explosive area and heading into the town proper! The Stormsummoner is confirmed airborne while all other members were sent flying back into the forest." The Major mulled that over in his head. Not quite what they had wanted to achieve. Ideally, the Stormsummoner would have either gotten those shields off but been blasted into the woods by the explosion's force or had gone skyward at the cost of leaving the two squishier members of her team vulnerable to injury.

She was faster than they had expected. An issue going forward. She could end the trap for the Juggernaut if not distracted. At least it wasn't the Healer.

"Radio Lieutenant Drask, and let him know we'll need his AA battery at the ready. All heavy weapons are to head into buildings for cover." Grasa nodded and immediately went into the radio. Hiding the heavy weapons would keep them protected for a time from the Stormsummoner. She could tear this town apart house by house to force them out. The only thing holding her back would be fear of hurting the townsfolk. For all the Travelers knew, they were stashed in one or more of the buildings.

Hopefully, that risk would force some restraint on them for now. If all went well, whoever was left of them wouldn't discover the fate of the townspeople till the very end.

"All units are still holding their positions, Captain?"

"Everyone reported in. All units are ready and awaiting our first target to enter the town." No one was running yet. Good. The first clash would be the real test, but it was a good sign. Trust. No one has illusions, but that doesn't mean they'll cut and run. Most of them have been in worse scraps than this. He'd worried some would. There was only so long you could put people into the cauldron of battle before it took its toll on them, mentally and physically.

Earlier in the war, troop rotation had been followed to try to keep that toll to a minimum. They'd run out of the troops for that long ago. This week they'd just have to survive and hope that they could cripple the Travelers. He touched the edge of the blade, drawing blood. You have taken 1 point of slashing damage. Your right index finger has taken 1 point of slashing damage. The entire plan for some of their targets hinged on that one fact.

You could stack your HP pool to a high total, capable of surviving many, many different injuries, but limbs, body parts, and organs had their own HP pools. HP pools that did scale, but nowhere near as high. Inflict enough damage, the body part was crippled. Inflict some more, and it would be gone. Internal organs as well, but you had to inflict damage on other parts first. Typically, only a portion of the damage went through as well.

They could eventually destroy someone's liver, but it would require easily ten times as much damage to their torso. Splitting skin would help, but with Traveler's, that could be.. problematic. It is best to aim for limbs and other exterior areas or inflict enough sheer trauma to affect the internal organs. They had lucked out in many ways. Three of these five were green. Another was a known hothead. The fifth had never been one of note before he'd been transferred to manage this.

Even then, with an entire battalion, it was a slim chance.

Jake stepped through the billowing dust of the explosion, grunting as he forced his way through the wreckage of the train station. Wood and warped metal surrounded him, almost like crude hands grasping at him as he strode through it. He got free of the still floating dust, emerging at the end of the town. Two-story brick and wood buildings greeted him, a few with chunks missing from their walls. Looked like most of the explosion had been directed into the nearby forest.

Jake wasn't sure of anything except one thing. He was pissed as hell, and the Scales were here somehow. God-fucking-damnit. Something moved in a window, and he felt a brief movement of something against the side of his chest. Bullet. Moron. The window was already deserted when he turned back around. No matter. He gripped the dragon's tooth with both hands and mentally accessed his skill list. If the fuckers thought they'd be safe plinking at a distance they were wrong.

He screamed as he swung the tooth with both hands, the point embedding itself in the ground. Wind gathered where he had cut, slicing forward along the line. It spread as it traveled until a roaring battering ram of wind crashed into the house. Wood splintered under the force, and the house split in half as the wind tore its way through. Walls creaked as they tilted until both sides collapsed into piles of rubble on either side.

Damage notifications popped up in Jake's UI as the wind finished blowing, carrying away detritus and quite a few bodies as well, throwing them up into the air. Fall damage would finish them off. You have killed Maastricht Verko, Peasant Level 3/Caravan Hand Level 3/Soldier Level 1/Shock Trooper 2! You have killed Tivo Sakrat, Peasant Level 3/Baker Level 3/Soldier Level 2/Shock Trooper 1! You have killed Naros Kelmon, Peasant Level 3/Machinist Level 3/Soldier Level 2/Shock Trooper 1!

He disabled the UI before it got flooded by another dozen death notifications. Sometimes, he despised it. There were settings for what would pop up as a notification or not. They also happened to reset every time you slept. And some, like death notifications, you could never disable. The rest of the wind strike continued onwards, smashing into the next building behind, the wall crumpling from the force. Jake started towards the rubble. Some of the Scales might have survived.

A thought struck Jake halfway to the twin piles of rubble. Crap, were their townspeople in there? Scales never really held hostages, but they'd never fought anywhere but their own territory before. And he had no idea what had happened to the townspeople of Halice. He'd have to be more careful. Some of the rubble began to wriggle and he held back a reflexive strike. A gloved hand burst through, followed by a steel helmet of a roaring wyrm, fire sparking in the throat.

The point of the dragon tooth stabbed through the mask's eyehole, the bulk of the sword tearing the head behind to pieces. So much damage overflowed the rest of the body was pulped, exploding into a mess of gore. You have killed Syvo Malak, Peasant Level 3/Brewer Level 2/Soldier Level 2/Shock Trooper 1! Asshole had tried to flame him. He could still remember the first time one of them had tried using a breath weapon on him. So shocking to him at the time. Past him had been a moron.

Of course, the dragon-like humans could breathe flames and other stuff. There was more gunfire, bullets plinking off his armor. Pointless and annoying. What were they even trying to accomplish? They should have realized by now they couldn't hurt him. He grabbed his sword, focusing his next skill more tightly now, jabbing the dragon's tooth at the window the fire was coming from. A lance of air spat forth, the window shattering into wood and glass as it stabbed in.

The fire stopped, and a second later, a kill notification arrived. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. This was boring. Uninspired even. Just occasionally firing at him from windows. Were they hoping for Crits? His Fortification talent was only 70%, so a crit could do reasonable damage. Would any weapon they could carry by hand have a large enough crit multiplier to do reasonable damage? Doubtful. Bullet crits happened rarely, too.

The System that governed everything didn't interact well with bullets, especially ones shot from automatic firearms. Something about them being too new to the world. More bullets from more windows. To hell with stabbing them. Getting up close and personal would at least end the damn sound of bullets pinging off his armor. Someone opened fire from the doorway of a nearby house, a stream of bullets smashing into his armor. He charged, boots digging into the stone cobbles, smashing holes as he ran.

Breaking through the doorway, bits of wood flew as he crashed through, sword swinging overhead. It landed on the ground, nothing in its way. The back door was still moving, the Scales having scampered out clearly. Jake prepared to give chase when suddenly multiple thunderous roars exploded into his ears. The walls gave out, and he had a second to realize what was happening before the entire house came crashing down on his head.

"The Juggernaut is making his way through the town. He's already torn a squad apart but is temporarily under a building." The Major grimaced as that report came in. Not unexpected. Luring the Juggernaut to where they wanted him was going to cost. There was no way around it. They'd only have the Traveler's recklessness to count on. The important thing for now was his temporary paralysis.

"The Stormsummoner is still out of sight above the clouds?" Likely changing the weather before she dove back down. They'd hoped for a clear day. No such luck, so the anti-aircraft batteries remained hidden.

"She has not been spotted. We should be clear for the examination."

"Tell Graeceling the first sign that the Stormsummoner is coming her way, she is to get out of the tower as fast as possible. I don't want our first test of the Lightning Rods to be keeping her alive." Glimpsing into another's System was a scarce talent to have. Also very dangerous. You could feel it when someone was looking at your system. That feeling of someone walking on your grave, which they'd all experienced when one of the Traveler had used it at the train station.

It also pinpointed your location immediately, hence his reluctance to have Graeceling use it. He'd had to fight tooth and nail to keep Graeceling under his command once she had developed the talent. Having an intelligence officer capable of reading the System of your opposition was a resource near-priceless. As is, she often ended up reassigned temporarily to handle tasks assigned from corps, army, or even high command. It spoke to the desperation that she'd been assigned back under him for this mission.

"Examining now," came the clipped response over the radio.

"Can confirm the Healer, the Blade, and the Lancer are still in the forest, all separated. The Blade is moving in toward the Healer, though. She probably had Systemsight on as they went into the trees. Juggernaut is working his way through a ruined house. It looks like he hasn't taken a fall yet. Stormsummoner is in the sky. She's looking my way, but she's too busy cloud summoning. Also on the very limit of AA range." The Major grunted.

"Bait, if I had to guess. Probing for what we are capable of."

"Possible. There's no damage. The three in the forest don't look any worse for wear. The Stormsummoner has obviously spent MP for the shields, but not a significant portion of her pool yet. The Juggernaut is swiftly losing conditions. All still show signs of recovering from Malden River and Trost. I'm seeing drastically drained Mana pools. It looks like the Vernati came through."

"Let's just hope it didn't spook any of them." The Vernati had cast soon after Trost's fall a ritual reducing mana regeneration across much of the continent. They were on the far side of Aetheria, and the next Aetherian offensive was currently hitting them. In all honesty, they'd probably have cast the ritual as soon as the first Aetherian unit pressed them, but the timing was fortuitous. Here's hoping burning the life force of a trio of Archmages on that ritual was worth it.

"And their builds? Are there any new levels or abilities? For all five of them." That was a concern; they had done their best to account for what spells or feats seemed logical, but one of the Travelers could always have picked an ability ripping their plans wide open.

"A new level for each, although mostly just improvements to existing abilities. Nothing new in that regard. All the levels have already been spent. It looks like they didn't choose to spend any of the leftover XP on refreshes, either. They've spotted me." Graeceling sounded strained, pain creeping into her tone.

"The Blade can inflict Backlash on me. I'm making the saves, but only because the Talent is nascent. Permission to disengage?"

"Approved," he answered.

"That Backlash ability, was there any sign of it at Trost?"

"At the fortress? No. But it's potentially a level-up reward? Depending on the advancement scheme, since-""Travelers tend to be more advantaged than our own," The Major finished for her. It made the most sense. Shielding from Glimpsing was a powerful talent, but pursuing it on your own meant a long tree of mostly worthless talents to waste points on until unlocking it at the very end. A free talent rolled randomly by the system when they leveled up at the fortress? Much more likely.

Travelers tended to get those, less XP for a level, and more experience earned in general. Part of the general package granted by whatever dragged them over from their home world.

"Do you think she may have also picked up another talent?"

"Doubt it. This group is young, but they let them out of the dungeons at a higher level these days." True. The Aethereans had learned through hard experience the best levels to release their new Travelers onto the field by now.

"It shouldn't matter. Most plans we have for them are build-agnostic. Captain, you can head back to your normal post." It may not end up mattering, but he didn't want to voice that. Let the others keep what confidence they could find. An unanswered worry taken care of. The System gave some leeway regarding when you could assign your new level, one month to choose among the options it presented you, or you lost it.

There'd been some concerns about whether any of the five had been holding onto a level-up for the free healing to full HP you would get from applying it. That and saving talents and skills for an unforeseen threat. This group had not been as vigilant as they should have been. The refreshes were just an option at leveling. Spend a little excess XP instead of banking it. You'd heal debuffs equal to the XP spent. An option that is very rarely chosen.

It took close to a full level to heal your full health bar, and debuff removal only affected your body, not anything outside of it. Even if it was better, the Major doubted many would use it. The competition between temporary and permanent improvement was not one where the former won very often. And those who picked it tended to be among the first to die.

Okay, now he was pissed. Jake cursed as he strained against the wreckage of the house they had just collapsed onto him. He should have realized. They loved doing this crap to him. It got more irritating every time because even pumping every point he could into strength during level-ups, it still took time to move this much debris. Wood groaned, and stone shifted as he pushed against it, moving it slowly. If he moved it too fast, it would likely break apart, and he'd have the same weight in smaller chunks.

Suddenly, a feeling of intense discomfort flooded through him, and he could feel a tug from somewhere further in the town and up. Someone was scanning his build. That or Rebecca had gotten there already. Either way, it should be safe to wind strike wherever that was. Assuming there weren't buildings in the way. Rebecca would survive. Probably. More bullets plinking on his armor as he strode out of the rubble. Annoyances.

"Seriously!" Jake roared as he strode out of the clouds of debris and smoke from the collapsed house.

"You can't even give us a vacation, you fucking Scale bast-" Something hit him in the chest, not penetrating his armor, but it felt like a mule kick to the sternum. His tirade cut off as the air left his lungs, and he stumbled forward, entirely leaving the debris cloud. You have been hit! Your armor score discounted all damage. You have taken 0 physical damage. Minor concussive impact affects you. Yeah, he could have guessed that.

Up ahead was a group of Scale soldiers who had dragged some kind of small artillery piece behind the town's central fountain. He had never paid attention to the exact details of the Scale artillery. None of them had managed to hurt him for over a year by now. Another shell less than half as thick as his hand rammed into his chest, exploding on impact. It forced him a step back as shards of metal ricocheted off his skin. The sensation of sand against his skin was all he could feel as he dug his feet in.

The third shell didn't budge him, and he moved forward as the fourth hit him head-on. Juggernaut activated. All movement debuffs are disabled. Stamina drain 5/second He growled as he continued to stride toward the fountain.

His ranged options were limited, and all his defenses were based around damage immunity and mitigation, it would be a long walk and a long period of being pummeled- The Scale group was fleeing as soon as he took a step through the fourth shell, leaving the artillery piece behind as they ran towards one of the corner stores. Jake paused. He might not like them, but Scales were typically made of sterner stuff. This was likely bait to get him chasing after them.

It would be best to sit back and wait for the rest of the group- The street collapsed under his feet with the sound of muted explosives, sending him tumbling into the opening tunnel below.