Chương 48: R&R Ch. 48 — Echoes of Gold and Silver

The two young heroes Golar had fought before raced to him, both of them blazing with power he hadn't seen in either of them before. They hadn't ranked up, he could tell that much, but they were certainly stronger than they had been. Intriguing, but someone growing stronger in the wave was only right. Though why neither had ranked up was beyond him, instead of progressing the natural way, both of them looked to be breaking down their own souls to forge something better."

Break" A will assaults his own trying to dispel his fog but unlike any of the previous times the wordsmith had tried to directly oppose him there was authority in his words. Not enough to work on his element, but it slowed him down. Gold and green light flared. Golar plummeted to the ground, twisting to see Retribution clad in her emerald armor, her eyes sparking dangerously. That was harder than she had hit before, and silver metal wrapped around her armor.

"Where do you think you're going?" Retribution asked, hammer outstretched." Down"" Down" The two commands shook the world, and Golar was now flying back to his opponents. She hadn't been able to do that before, or had she? Had she been holding back this whole time?" Barrage" Another command echoed through the air, and shards of force pelted Golar endlessly, seeking his weak spot, but there was something more concerning. The one hard limit he had observed from Retort was that his commands were only one at a time.

Even with Retribution's command, and her talent to manipulate force, he was still falling up too fast. Retort had managed to change the rule of his power somehow, and that didn't bode well for him. Golar reached the pinnacle of his fall when he clashed with Retribution's hammer. Even with her newfound strength, it couldn't really hurt him; the difference between them was too far. Gravity cut out." Impact"" Impact" Golar crawled out of the crater he had formed, cursing his own hubris.

They were comboing better than he had ever seen them before. And it was confirmed that somehow Retort had not only gained partial authority with his words but he could have two working at once. The two heroes floated towards him, one flying under her own volition, her sable hair flying like a banner in the wind, even as her armor crackled with emerald energy. And the other on a flying sword, a golden book floating beside him. His costume had silver but his tool was gold.

And her hammer attachment was silver despite her costume underneath the armor primarily using gold. The soul damage made a lot more sense. He needed to separate them fast. Columns of mist carried the two superheroes away as he tried to decide which one would be easier to deal with. Retort was the more versatile of them, but Retribution was downright stronger. What decided it was the upgrades each of them had displayed.

A simple increase, and a minor ability to copy the weak commands was far more manageable than gaining authority and twin casting. Golar tore through the sky on wings of fog as he raced towards Retribution.

Nicholas was irritated. Their fight had been going so well, and now he was in the middle of the enemy forces. It was going to be a pain to deal with.

"He's not heading towards me," Nicholas relayed as he called the flying sword to him. He would fight till his ride got here, and then he would go and help Jasmine.

"Yeah, cause he's flying towards me, but don't worry, I got this. I can hold out till you get here." Jasmine said, and the feeling through their bond assured him. She was confident in her ability. And honestly, so was he. She could take care of whatever happened until he got there. Fighting up one rank had become easy, so fighting up two for a while would be doable. Though there was a chance fog was C-rank. If he was D, the two of them could handle it, he was sure. If it was rank five?

That was going to be a different conversation.

"I'll be there as soon as I can," Nicholas said, finally turning his attention to the Beyonders near him. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. The fog had finally dissipated, so they were stalking closer, hungry. He wondered if some of them recognized him. They were natural Beyonders, not mutated animals, so there was a solid chance that they did."

Burn" Because of his temper tantrum earlier, Burn was substantially more potent than it had been, and from his book, the command echoes a ring of silver flame protecting him and seeking his enemies to burn them with purifying flames. He just had to be careful not to let it focus on him. That wouldn't end well." Playroom" The power to use two commands at once. Nicholas wouldn't ever get tired of it.

This wasn't him faking the method by doing one that was precharged and then channeled; this was a proper moment using two commands. Even if it was hell on his reserves, though the reserves in the book itself helped bridge the gap enough.

Spears of stone coated in silver flames rampaged across the battlefield, the corpses dissolving into ash leaving nothing to be salvaged which wasn't ideal but Nicholas didn't have the room to complain so long as it made sure that his opponents didn't get the chance to bother him anymore. Another minute before his sword would arrive. His hands flashed as he continued to direct the spears and the flames.

"Boss man, you good back there?" Sparky asked, apparently marveling at the show Nicholas was putting on.

"I'm fine, just got knocked off my sword and am waiting for it to come back, and I don't need extraction."

"No offense, dude, but even if you did, I wouldn't run over. That would mean running through Retribution's fight and then punching through as many forces as we could." Sparky laughed. That was astoundingly astute. Nicholas wouldn't want to go through that fight either. He would participate, but he definitely didn't want to try and break through it.

"Have everyone focused on just clearing out the normal Beyonders, though be ready to call in backup if it looks like Retribution and I can't take fog boy."

"Will you want me to join in?"

"Yeah, if you see a good opportunity, hop on in, you're our peer," Jasmine said before Nicholas could answer. It was a good idea. Everyone on the strike team had grown considerably, and he trusted Sparky. No reason to risk a fight because of his ego. Nicholas would need to switch workings soon; it was becoming too costly for him to keep up both of them. That was fine." Break" The ground shattered as Nicholas leapt into the air, his sword catching him.

"On my way," Nicholas said, aiming his sword to Jasmine and flying to her. This part was going to be less taxing than the earlier fighting had been, but every single flying Beyonder seemed to take personal offense to Nicholas flying through their forces back to the fight he wanted to be at. And the ones on the ground did not want to be forgotten.

Jasmine relished the pressure as someone her superior in every way clashed against her skill, and her skill kept the fight even. She would be able to keep this up for at least thirty minutes if things didn't change. Jasmine was going to change them; she was the weaker party, so stagnating was a plan that only helped her opponent.

"I had hoped we would still fight over there where my friends wouldn't be likely to see what I could do," Jasmine said conversationally as she focused on the quicksilver. She needed to name it. Just like the book, it had three actual functions beyond just being a boost to all of her capabilities. Minor ability to execute commands. The ability to change its shape. And the ability to change what power it was giving her.

That's why the hammer meld, maximize, more force power combo let her do so much without anyone being able to tell what she had done with her new toy. But if she was going to fight up she needed better tools. Jasmine flew through the spears of fog and picked out the plan that was best. She could do it well enough even without Nicholas here.

First, the matrix of power in her mind's eye that served as the quicksilver's control panel twisted, and her thoughts quickened, her senses cleared, and it felt as if she was finally utilizing her brain's full potential. Jasmine easily dodged an attack she hadn't been able to before and put her hammer right between the eyes of her opponent. Already she could tell this was an emergency setting only because it was intoxicating she would have to try this way more often in the hard fights.

Silver flowed off her hammer twisting around her like a serpent as she picked the new form for it to take as raindrops of silver flowed off of her forming a cloud around her even as green light spun around her forming sigils of force and gravity on each one of them. Now each raindrop repelled or redirected everything that came into contact with them. If she had been functioning normally, it would have been impossible, but the increased strength from the quicksilver pushed her already massive capacity further.

And the boost to her mind made it possible.

"Hey asshole!" Jasmine called, her now unadorned hammer pointing at her opponent as a cloud of silver and green orbited her. Fog reacted instantly, fog racing towards her, but it was warped from the cloud and flew in every which direction." Barrage" When Nicholas used that word, it created the projectiles and shot them off unerring. When Jasmine used it, the working was a little bit different. Silver and green rain shot off flying through the sky for their opponent, but each raindrop was perfectly targeted.

Some were for the attacks coming for her to block. Others were to hit the ground and have pillars of stone shoot up, the force runes on the raindrops changing the battlefield. Most of them were still in an attack that would not miss. She would hold on until Nicholas was here; she could feel him getting closer too.

With her increased processing speed, she realized that some of the runes and inscriptions she had put on her armor mid-fight had been done wrong, and with a thought she fixed them as she flew back into battle herself. She was Retribution. This was one of the commanders; she saw how they led the army. This was the one that had been gauging the strength of everyone on the strike team, forcing them to push beyond their limits and nearly break just so they could keep fighting a little bit longer.

And he was a Beyonder trying to break her new home and trying to kill all of her friends. She took the name so that she could make a difference, and this was a perfect opportunity to remind everyone just what Retribution meant. Even with righteous anger burning in her heart, the difference in ability was hard for her to surmount, even with the silver rain helping the best she could. She had changed the paradigm of the fight and she had the offensive edge, but that was all.

Instead of a holding game where she was on the defensive, they were in a holding state with her on it. But slowly she would keep hammering away at her opponent. Jasmine was a hero, and that's what heroes did. She could see the moment where Fog Beyonder had made a mistake; the dodge was just that little bit more unclean that she could capitalize on. If she were fast enough. She wouldn't be. Not alone." Hesitate"