Chương 41: R&R Ch. 41 — The Distance Between Them

It wasn't until the third day of the wave that Nicholas actually got to sleep all the way through the night, and it was the day he felt at his best. Best was a bit of a misnomer; he was far from being where he had been before the wave. There were still distortions in his ability where he had unbalanced himself, but it was the best he had felt since he got off of his own shift that first night.

"You're chipper this morning," Jasmine said as she enjoyed the breakfast he had cooked for each of them.

"We actually got to sleep," Nicholas reminded her as he finished his own food. Jasmine nodded her agreement at that one; she was feeling fantastic too. Their good mood lasted till they got a message from the bigshot supers. That at eight this morning they would be requesting everyone to put barriers up so that they could get a big attack going and hopefully kill the generals of the wave.

"Guess we know what armor you're using," Nicholas said after he finished reading.

"Yeah, we do but the problem is that they aren't going to help with our problem at all so not only is our barrier going to have to stand up to the attacks of everything that's going to come for us it also needs to be able to deal with whatever rank six or seven attack is going to come." Getting rid of the general would help; they were on average at least two ranks above, and there were several of them.

This wave Nicholas would bet that there were going to be higher ranks since they had already fought at least one rank five monster. And Nicholas had a feeling that they had fought two. In the best-case scenario, this would end it, but more likely they would still have to hold out for another four days at best. A wave that had all of its forces enter their realm in three days would be a rarity.

"Do you think we can hold out for another four days?" Nicholas asked quietly. He had hit his conclusion, but Jasmine was more insightful about this part, so he hoped that she would have an idea for what to do.

"Well, it's going to be close, but the answer is probably not. We're burning the candle at both ends." Nicholas pulled his stats open. Nicholas Belief: 5, 697 Karma: 11, 356 Power: Domain: Words All other information restricted. In a shocking turn of events, his belief was going to be the problem. After three days of nonstop fighting, he was over the ten thousand presumed requirement, but his belief had barely grown. There was a reason that seeing was believing.

None of the civilians had gotten a chance to see what they were doing unless something went critically wrong.

"You too?" Jasmine asked, closing her own status window.

"Yeah, until normal people get out of the bunkers we're not going to be ranking up." Nicholas said quietly. Jasmine drummed her fingers on the table. They and the strike team would be the first to fall by merit of being forced to work more than anyone else, and when the others faltered, it was going to be them who it fell to first. That they actually got to sleep now was bordering on a miracle. But there was just the simple truth: most of their forces were F-ranks and they were being forced to fight on endlessly.

They needed an edge.

"What's the consequence of the double-soul forged item?" Nicholas asked, echoing her own thoughts.

"Remember the original version of the telepathy headbands that caused a feedback loop, causing both of us to pass out?" Jasmine asked.

"I would rather not," Nicholas said, recoiling at the memory.

"Well, it won't be as bad as that because it will go through an item, technically two items in this case since I would make one for each of us, but it would be permanent always and forever. Most people end up going mad from it. Neither person able to function because they can't tell where they separate." Nicholas hummed for a moment, considering.

"Not that desperate?" Nicholas asked in a whisper.

"Not yet," Jasmine replied. Even in the cases where they went mad, they usually got anywhere from days to a few weeks of functioning, and that could be the difference. On top of all the benefits it would give their teamwork, they would also be able to punch up easier separately. And she already knew the perfect aspect of her power she would give to Nicholas. And she knew what she would want from his power, though that wasn't how those kinds of items worked entirely.

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"We'll have to get ready and tell the defensive members that this is their shift." Nicholas said, standing up, the conversation of soul weaponry put out of both of their minds.

"Do we want to switch people?" Jasmine suggested.

"No defensive types are important to keep around at all times, and we don't know how long this thing will last, do we?" Nicholas said, going to his room to get his uniform on.

"I'll help you with your armor in five?" Jasmine nodded, going to her own room. In the silence of their own rooms, neither of them could think about anything else besides the conditions of them being desperate enough to have the weapons forged while also still having the time to do so. There wasn't an easy answer.

It also begged the question with both of them now thinking in terms of when not if they would need to forge the tools it also made them think, if it did work what would they do after, bonding your souls and power together wasn't something to do lightly. Jasmine's defender and healer armor was her bulkiest set, and Nicholas had to use the flying sword to reach some parts to help get the armor situated. But when they were done, Jasmine gave off the sensation of impenetrable defense.

"Ready?"

"Let's do this." As one they flew back to the wall, tagging out Comet so she could return to rest, and Nicholas couldn't help but feel bad about the bags under her eyes. Just because he and Jasmine had gotten a full night's sleep didn't mean the rest of the strike team had gotten such a chance. They couldn't promise, but Nicholas had a good feeling that they wouldn't have to worry about it this time. How bad could it be when all they had to do was hold the wall while other people solved the problem?

Rend belted his sword to his side as he got ready to go and deal with the center formation, first time since the night they had broken out.

"Your kids are doing well," LongShot said from his side. The precognitive wasn't strong enough or specialized enough to go with the team, but as one of the highest-ranking ones in the city, he was here to consult them before and run support.

"I've been pretty impressed with them, held their wall for three days straight and helped another wall break. And they helped defeat a rank five." Rend agreed. He personally thought they were at the moment only meeting the expectations he had for them; he had suspected more from them. That when push came to shove, and the chips were down, the two of them would push even farther than what's possible. Individually fighting up one tier and as a team fighting up two wasn't impressive by Rend's estimation.

Well, it was impressive, especially for the powers they had, but he expected more. They had been critically important to the fight with their rank five that had "accidentally" slipped through but only to augment someone else on the team. Though actually pulling off the distortion techniques was a good sign.

"Their region isn't going to survive the full wave, at least not unless something changes," LongShot said quietly.

"Oh, I know," Rend said, hands on his hips.

"I plan on them surpassing their previous limitations and doing something surprising."

"Belief?"

"You can only predict using the knowledge you have," Rend reminded him.

"So you know something I don't?"

"I know many things you don't but that's not important right now, what's important is that I believe in my students they're going to rise to the occasion and they'll hit rank three at the end of this once the videos are released." Rend chuckled. He didn't like the systems that be, but he could acknowledge that this particularly scumful act is great for pushing his students to surpass their limits.

If his numbers were correct, they and everyone else in their area would be hitting rank three already and they wouldn't be growing at all. That he couldn't help them made him burn, especially the charm around his heart from an oath he was forced to swear, but that's why he took them on. He was certain that the two of them would rise to the occasion. Other regions might fall away from him and his students, but he would have to believe in them that the rookies wouldn't fall.

Otherwise he had to content himself with throwing children and civilians to the fire for the sake of the pinnacles. Rend knew he was winding himself up something fierce, so he let his thoughts simmer in the background and emotions be shoved to the side as he listened to the briefing. It was the same old, same old operation. Go in, slap a few heads around and do as much damage as you could to weaken the wave somewhat.

The top brass would still be around unless someone actually went to Beyonder space and started fighting their rank nines, but the chain of command could be broken. And they got to cut loose and use as much power as they wanted and not care about having a city near. Since he was one of the weakest members of this force at rank five, that would mean the damage they would cause would be devastating. It all came back to trust, didn't it?

Within Rend's soul power began to swirl as he connected his belief to his karma, and both of them to his actual power. Woven together through his absolute understanding of what he could and couldn't do, he was ready to cut through anything.

"We're going in," Flare said as he wrapped everyone in golden fire. Flying with the phoenix was always an enjoyable experience. The world warped as Flare applied his domain." Hear me, defenders of our city. We are going in to cut the heads so that the body can fall before us. When the golden light hits the enemy, summon the walls." Having now spent far too much time spying on a proper domain specialist, Rend found the application of power almost laughable.

Nicholas could do so much more with half of the words though he supposed his student had yet to be able to combine any of them.

As they flew through the air, Rend continued to weave together the complete form of his power and channel it into his blade. He had not yet activated the enchantments in the blade since that wouldn't go so well with everyone around him trying to fly, but his intentions were on the trigger, ready to act at a moment's notice. The phoenix shrieked. Rend's blade slashed through the air in a simple arc. Space shattered.

The light exploded from miles away, but even still it was blinding as Nicholas and Jasmine began working. Nicholas stood next to Jasmine as the two began working their powers together to weave their barriers as one. Jasmine's barrier went up first since his was infinitely more mutable than hers. And it was time to try something he had been working on in private. Phrases could change the meaning of the word and help focus his will.

"So long as we're here the Barrier will not fall." Nicholas intoned as the silver panels began to interlock, as the gold and silver light wove together to form a barrier of their best defenses over the entire region they were defending. They couldn't fall, not here.