Chương 36: R&R Ch. 36 — They had a Plan

Maximize" Power pulsed through the two of them as they flew to their front line. Twenty minutes after they had broken through, the beginning of the wave had reached their wall even as other supers tried to direct them to various areas many were going to be attacking their domain. As they had intended, all the best combat capable of the two shifts on the clock were on the wall while the defenders were in their designated locations.

The remaining supers were in charge of patrolling the city to stop any crimes there, though Nicholas doubted they would be all that effective.

"So are you going to try and go for it?" Jasmine asked as they touched down on the wall." Barrage" The energy Nicholas had used to buff himself vanished as it was all imbued into his next working and a shower of energy bolts flew from his outstretched hand spearing Beyonders in the eye and dropping them. It was hit or miss if he could punch through their hides with the deficit, so he had spent hours researching where they would usually be weak enough for an attack to punch through and kill them.

Couple that with the increased precision, aiming, and penetrating force all brought to him by his previous working, and it was a combo that let him take out a whole horde of them at once.

"No, I'm not going to until I get the belief technique down, otherwise it's not going to be worth it." Nicholas said as he prepared a third working. This was a bad matchup for him in that this was about a wave of constant battle and he was prone to big showing. His breathing changed as he pushed his will through his body, causing the whirlpool of power to stop eternally condensing his ability and focus on recovering fast.

"Well, at full output how long am I going to last?" Jasmine inquired as her swords changed their orientation, blades pointing towards the enemy.

"Three minutes, but I can try and keep you topped up?" Nicholas said, still calculating. Barrage didn't have a range limit, so he had been free to cut loose. His remaining workings weren't so kind; more than that, Jasmine wanted them closer too. Because if she went out there now, the support she could receive was limited. They were trusting the two of them to signal the remaining members of their forces on when to attack. Nicholas wasn't in the habit of failing.

"Now."

Twister watched in awe as Retort and Retribution flew in both of them as confident as the old supers. Like the idea of having to fight people a rank up for who knew how long was just par for the course for them. She knew that she was scared. She wanted to be a hero like them, but they had something she didn't." Barrage" The world warped reality as Retort stretched a hand forward to the still oncoming enemies. Twister almost attacked on instinct, but that hadn't been the signal for the mid and close range supers.

Shards of glass blasted out of Retort's hand, each one flying to a different Beyonder and each attack felling one. In a single attack he had blasted through their entire frontline, stopping the advance briefly as the monsters had to clamber over their brethren while still others stopped to eat the morsels that were formerly their dead friends. It made Twister sick. This was why she became a hero to stop them. Twister built her power as she focused on condensing the wind that twisted around her arm.

Her strongest attack, and Retribution had said it was an attack worthy of being on the strike team, it was just how slow her wind-up was that she hadn't made it. Gold lit the dark sky as blades of lightning spun down all one hundred of them controlled by a single will. Retribution's attack cut through them like butter, blasts of electricity cutting through them all as the blades were nearly a chainsaw spinning through the enemy. Even stronger than the videos had said. Twister couldn't think about it.

She couldn't match them, but she would do her best. Despite the opening salvo from both their leaders, the monsters seemed endless, and Twister was beginning to wonder if she could hold her power any longer. It was getting hard to contain and if the signal didn't come soon, she would blast it out randomly on accident.

"Now." A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. From every person on the wall, the attacks flew out in unison. Twister couldn't even tell she had attacked before the twisting line of wind was halfway through their battlefield, having torn many Beyonders apart. Their shift had some of the fewest rank threes, and her attack had been among the top of the group.

The pure coordination of the attack combined with the devastation of what a full squad of supers could rock had blasted the enemy back, causing further delays as they had to once more recover ground they had lost. And even more as the Beyonders stopped to eat the bodies of their friends. She knew why they were doing it, but it still made her sick.

"Alright everyone," Retribution said through the communicators.

"We're going to begin releasing attacks normally. Mid-range fighters, you're with me, and we're going to build up the attacks till they're in range and blast them the moment it's optimal for us. Long-range fighters just keep hammering them."" Playroom" Once more a command rippled across the battlefield, though Twister wasn't sure what that one did.

"Ground team with me. We're going to set up a chokehold for close-range fighters to fight at with the plan of falling back the moment things get dicey." Retort said as the man stepped off the wall, the very earth deigning to catch him. Twister pushed that insanity out of her head as she began releasing blades of wind at the enemy to cut them down along with gales to push them back. In a few minutes she could do another twister attack and she would, but she wasn't going to neglect her duty till then.

Lupine hated everything that had led him to this situation. Some supers awakened and never had to deal with a wave before they retired. Other supers were bad at combat, so they were away from the walls. Other supers had ranged abilities that let them fight on top of the walls. He had none of those and was part of the ground team following Retort outside the walls as fortifications were created out of nothing.

The monsters would race in and funnel into one spot where they would meet Lupine and the rest of the unlucky souls that were forced into this. And Retort. Lupine wasn't sure what the point of Retort staying in this part of the battlefield once his creation was done, but he couldn't imagine Retort had much left in him after that first attack? Well, it had been terrifying.

"Get ready, they're coming soon," Retort said as stones drifted around him. Lupine was the last of the group to get ready as he summoned the beast spear and let power pulse through him. His gift let him while the spear was in his hand fight on par with the rank threes physically even while he was a rank one. A useless ability for making money and one he had no interest in progressing. What was the point of something so niche? All he wanted to do was get to E then retire, maybe work as a super laborer.

It would have been perfect. Instead, he was fighting monsters. Beyonders thundered around the corner. In a blur of movement, Retort was at the front. The stones that had been spinning around him raced through the air, thundering into the enemy with a crack, and as the stones shattered, the smaller projectiles continued to fly about.

"Go!" Retort yelled. It wasn't the command he had given the ranged fighters earlier, but most of the melee team responded all the same, thundering into battle. Two shifters, a speedster, and a strong woman slammed into the enemy. Lupine, despite being the second fastest, was a step behind the rest as he used the spear to its utmost limit of range. Retort was in the air, his hands flashing as he controlled the battlefield. Lupine's lunges brought him just a tiny bit farther than they should have.

The enemy always seemed to twist into his spear. Lupine could feel it: the waves of power rolling off of Retort as he was constantly channeling power while spitting out orders. Retort twisted in the air, mostly dodging an attack as he pulled Lupine up through the air, spearing the enemy. Lupine eyes wide stared at his leader uncomprehending.

"I'll be fine. I can't heal this or any injuries we take until we decide to retreat, so just focus," Retort barked out. Lupine gaped as Retort went back to battling like he hadn't just taken an attack to the arm that should have at least fractured his bones, if not break them. What did Retort mean that they wouldn't get healing? They were doing this without a healer? So what that most of the people here either were tough as nails or healed fast? What were they doing this for?

They could have just waited for the regular walls to fall.

"Riptide, I'm opening up a channel for you to run through in five." Retort called out, uncaring of his injury, as another stone spear skewered several of the enemy.

Jasmine was incredibly worried, especially when Nicholas had started thinking curse words with enough will that it came through their headbands, but she ignored it. She didn't have the time to worry about someone who was near the strongest on their side, even if he was in the worst spot. It had been her idea initially to make a chokehold so they could use the melee supers to cut through many of the enemies and reduce the effort that the ranged supers would use.

But it had not been her idea for him to be the one down there; she was their frontline with a bunch of builds that would work for it. But she had chosen the swords today because it had been what felt right to her, which meant they went with the variation that he was down there fighting without her being able to help and she was safe here. Though safe could be a bit of a misnomer as she dodged attacks from friend and foe alike, focusing on using her swords.

Nicholas's buff to her abilities had already fallen apart, so she wasn't the perfect maestro of her ability that she had been earlier. Though she was still effective, there were few problems that couldn't be solved by flying lightning swords cutting through the enemy. Even if they weren't all moving in perfect consort anymore. It burned her that her spear still wasn't ready. It was supposed to be her big attack, and it still wasn't ready; it needed a couple more treatments before she could use it. Well.

That wasn't entirely true; there were several aspects of the spear still ready, it just wouldn't be able to hold out forever. Jasmine looked across the battlefield as she relayed orders. They were holding them at the chokepoint, all the mid-ranged and ranged supers bombarding them to keep the monsters from overwhelming it while Nicholas and the others kept them inside. Though she wondered how they were cleaning them up, or was Nicholas doing that as well.

"How are we looking?" Nicholas thought to her.

"We're holding well. What about you?"

"At least one of them is going to quit on us, I'm sure, but I can keep it up for now," Nicholas said, his voice calm. It wasn't strained, so she believed him; his mental voice always broke before his actual voice did, though she wondered just how much power he was churning through to keep the playroom active. She suspected he had shrunk it once the choke point was made. He didn't need to reinforce it; they had gotten stone that a D-rank would struggle to break for him to build with.

Even if they got overwhelmed, the plan was to just bury himself and the team. They would be fine. She just had to keep telling herself that.

"I'm going to break out the spear," Jasmine said as a portal opened behind her and the weapon headed her call.