Chương 38: R&R Ch. 38 — First Checkpoint

Jasmine was glad nobody like the fog Beyonder had shown up since she and Nicholas had defeated them. But the fact that the two of them had to both fight him was a problem; she had been sure her spear throw had enough power that she would have been able to deal with the problem. But minutes after she had thought she killed the beast, Nicholas had fought him with substantially both more and less ease at the same time.

"I'm not sure how long I will be able to keep going," Nicholas said as the melee team continued to fight within his chokehold of horrors. Jasmine had to wonder which part of their forces killed more, and even if it had been their group, there was something visceral about being in melee with everything unlike her current position of just letting the swords flash below as she flew to the few flying enemies taking them down with her spear.

The spear that she still didn't have a name for was holding up well, even if it was not too happy about absorbing the power of the attacks of all of her friends on the wall and then releasing it in one gigantic blow. It was a good thing she had packed her baby with a bunch of materials and extra soul that let her vent most of the damage onto the excess so that she could keep using the spear normally. That she would have to hold this position for eight hours was something she really didn't want to think about.

Though at this point it would be closer to four more hours than she could go home and sleep, which she desperately needed.

"Only four more hours, right?" Jasmine joked as another storm formation formed to release a lightning bolt that would tear across the battlefield.

"I would rather not think about it," Nicholas replied.

"Tomorrow I am hoping that we can go with a different strategy. This is becoming exhausting to handle."

"I can go down in there and try and cut through the chaff a bit with your team?" Jasmine offered as she speared another opponent.

"I can handle it, and I can deal with the power exhaustion I'm dealing with, but my throat is killing me and my head is throbbing from all the big workings and how fast I'm trying to recover power." Nicholas said just complaining near the end. Jasmine laughed and let that feeling flow to her friend.

"Happy to provide the mirth," Nicholas replied, though she could tell that he was happy too.

"What about yourself? Anything major going on?"

"My soul feels great. I've barely used it, but yeah, I'm working with the dregs. I am not good with those big workings you use and I had to step up against fog boy," Jasmine said.

"He's going to come back," Nicholas grumbled.

"We don't technically know that." Nicholas was silent, and Jasmine couldn't disagree. It wasn't like she agreed with her argument; she had just felt compelled to make it. They were certainly going to show up again, and Jasmine wasn't sure how they were going to deal with that. There was a click as someone tapped into her voice channel.

"Hey boss, Sparky is here so I'm officially clocking out after this," Pierce said as the sky lit up as a volley of arrows all shot by one man rained down, ravaging the battlefield.

"Thanks!" Jasmine said, totally not jealous. Yeah, he had been on patrol before all of this had happened, but it had been mostly a chill patrol unlike hers. She clicked through channels until she was with…she couldn't remember his name. Everyone had taken to calling him Sparky after the fight with them, though at least he seemed to take it in stride and wasn't too upset about the whole thing.

"Where do you want me?" Sparky asked. Jasmine's first instinct was to send him in with Nicholas and have the two work together or tag Nicholas out as he did his best to make a team of rank twos fight rank three enemies perfectly. At least she had some E-ranks with her, but the melee team didn't. But it would be a waste to use one of their heavy hitters in the same place Nicholas was. But she could alleviate his stress at least a little bit.

"Are you confident in going all in?" Jasmine asked as her blades whirled.

"Yeah, I can handle it," Sparky said with confidence.

"I want you cutting through them before they reach the choke point. The boys in there have been holding it for four hours and they're all beginning to moan about it. So if you're outside with room to move, you can cut loose."

"On it." Sparky crackled with lightning before sparking down the battlefield, his swords flashing as he cut through them. The E-ranks were having such an easy time of it in comparison. She was the only F-rank felling them with consistency, and it was because she was subscribing to the theory of just keep cutting them more. It wasn't some magical solution that let her punch up. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

By the end of this, all the Es that had been considered weak wouldn't be able to be called that, though Jasmine supposed by that logic all the Fs would also be E-rank and none of them were going to be weak. The minimum time a wave can last is roughly one week, but there are stories of some of them lasting months. Though it was as they ranked up that the extremes became more common, most stayed around two weeks. Jasmine could handle two weeks, right?

As Sparky wove through the battlefield, he still helped her mostly by killing anything he got close to, but any sword that got near him got a little bit of bonus electricity for her to work with. To have power given freely. It was beautiful, and she wasn't going to let him just do that without her following through at least a little bit. With the bonus power, she focused harder, letting her blades flash with all the power she could muster at this output, cutting through them.

"Okay, so what terrible thing is happening that enemies are getting through less often?" Nicholas asked dryly.

"Sparky and his shift are here."

"Okay, I'll send out the melees who are off, make sure they're covered, and send the new ones down." Nicholas said, adjusting quickly. In less than a minute a large chimera creature with two supers hanging onto its back comes lumbering out, racing for the wall as four supers hop off the wall to trade spots with them.

"Thanks, the new blood is going to help, especially the E," Nicholas said as his new forces joined him.

"Hey there's a few to go around so you should be glad."

"Over the next few hours I'm going to be creating the drop points for regular people to use to dispose of the corpses so let me know if any of them are impossible to access or too visible. I'm working blind here." Nicholas said. It was a coin toss on if it was better to let Beyonders consume their kin or not. It slowed them down, and just eating a few of them wouldn't even grow their power that much. But it could snowball if you didn't dispose of them soon or if one lucky creature kept surviving and consuming.

All the monsters that died in the domain of Nicholas's playroom he had been burying. The ones outside it were just littering the ground, and the piles were getting massive. But it was slowing them down, but it was also making it hard for some of their members to land shots on their attacks. This being in charge thing was complicated. For another two hours they held fighting for all they were worth, and that was when the paradigm began to shift.

Projectiles began to fly from the forces of the Beyonders; some were energy, some were just stones, and even still more were the viscera and bones of their fallen allies.

"Defensive types form up! This is your moment!" Jasmine yelled.

"Those of you who had been requested to switch to the defensive team, please do so!" The first barrier to form was Twister's barrier of wind above their heads. She couldn't block every attack unless their forces were willing to let her throw off everyone's aim, but the arching projectiles she could do. Barriers of all sorts formed up, and the ones made of impermeable solids had openings for their forces to attack through, like a castle wall.

Jasmine didn't get any of those but she had her defensive charms which still had power, and she was a cool superheroine riding a flying sword so she dodged what she could even as her swords sought those who were trying to bombard them. Just because it was the strategy they were using did not mean it was the one she wanted to deal with from the enemy's perspective. It was not fun when the enemy copied your irritating strategy.

The particularly strong attacks she cut through herself or pulled in with her spear, the engine inside turning the power into something she could work with. Her spear was actually not just a tool that powered itself. She could use it to fuel her power too. But the power had to be used sparingly, or it would cause her armaments and soul to break down.

Once the attacks were processed, she let the power flow into her and then into her swords, causing each one to spark dangerously as she continued to harry the ranged assailants.

"I can help with those assholes or I can continue here. What do you want me to do, boss lady?" Sparky asked, breathing hard but sounding like he was enjoying himself. Jasmine didn't get how them beating up turned the swordsman into their friend and one of their most loyal people, but it had. Maybe Sparky watched too many anime.

"Stay where you are. I got this," Jasmine said, even as she wondered. They so far hadn't needed to use any of the healers, but healers weren't for the first day where everyone was fresh and raring to go. Even with magic to keep them sustained and theoretically in perfect condition, nobody could function at full blast every day for two weeks without a day off or even a chance to rest. After eight straight hours of the highest sustainable output they could manage, they would all be bone-tired.

And that wasn't including the supers that had already passed out from exhaustion. Hell, she had almost done it after her super spear throw. An entire wave of Beyonders shot out of the chokehold back into the enemy forces, and Jasmine was afraid something happened. She was already flying to her partner before she had a moment to think.

"We're fine, someone was injured to the point of not being able to continue, I had to buy space to heal them. And anyone else who could use a top-up in here," Nicholas rasped. She suspected that he hadn't given himself a top-up.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Two more hours, right?" Jasmine focused on the battlefield. What could she do? She couldn't necessarily do a big attack, but what if it was a combination attack?

"Sparky, if I give you a hundred lightning rods, what can you do with it?" Jasmine asked the strongest person on their personal battlefield.

"I can think of something, just give me a minute boss to get ready."

"Tell me when." Jasmine coordinated her swords into position, making one hundred fields of generally the enemy wanted to avoid them, though some of the tougher or dumber ones seemed happy to charge headfirst into her blades. She made sure they regretted that.

"Now!" Jasmine forced all of her swords forward into a new position as she activated their power, calling down lightning and using the fortification of her spear to augment it even further. Sparky rose into the air like a shooting star crackling with cerulean electricity. All of that power flashed towards the ground and it forked and forked and forked. Until each sword was struck with its own bolt of lightning. Each one with enough power that her swords could barely hold it together.

Explosions rocked the battlefield as a nova of electricity consumed their opposing forces. The silence only lasted for a second as they marveled at the destruction they wrought. And then the Beyonders continued advancing.