Chương 70: R&R2 Ch. 9 — First Base

Jasmine decided she hated her defender-healer hybrid setup. It was a good setup, and in most situations it was her statistically best. Probably. She hadn't looked, but that was probably the case, and she did not like that fact. There were several problems with the defender set up. The first and biggest reason was that it wasn't the type of hero she wanted to be. Yes, she would hold up the sky if it fell, but she didn't just want to be a bulwark who couldn't do anything else.

She didn't want to be the healer and the shield; she wanted to be the hammer that broke through the enemy. The only way this build could stop someone was if they exhausted themselves against her, and that wasn't what she wanted to do. She wanted to go to the problems and stop them herself. Even if that was a ridiculous desire. But that wasn't the only problem it had; the color scheme was not pretty during the day, even if it looked good at night. It wasn't fun to wear and pinched something horrible.

Turned out that just shielding and healing things was super boring. And worst of all, she had to practice healing, but it wasn't like she had anyone to work with ever. Super bodies would just take in the healing energy and do their jobs properly. But if she tried that on a civilian, they would just, well… it wasn't pretty. But it wasn't like there were a bunch of injured people lining up to get healed.

Alas, she didn't have a choice; it was part of her capabilities, and she was going to make sure she did them to the best of her ability. That and the train people had asked that she be part of the defensive team as they punched through. It was a phenomenon nobody quite got, but Beyonders concentrated mostly in a ring around cities. So the last day of the journey was all hands on deck so they could punch through a mini-wave.

And people were sorted into what they could do best, or in the case of their team, where they wanted them. Jasmine was on defense, blocking monsters while other people took care of them and keeping her section of the field alive. She knew that there were going to be consequences to having her healing build and shield build be the same armor, but it was still a shame. Nicholas, on the other hand, was stationed at the front of the train and was part of the spearhead.

That had surprised both of them, but the explanation had made sense. Jasmine was the stronger of the two of them and could hit way harder, but that's not what they needed an E rank for. They needed an E rank to clear the way and to take down lower enemies fast. And Jasmine could begrudgingly acknowledge Nicholas was better at both of those than her. And he didn't have any way to keep people going once Recover ran out of juice.

"Two hours, right?" Nicholas asked, leaning against her, not seeming to care that several pieces of armor were jabbing into his back. Though he was also in his suit. Sci-fi urban fantasy wizard chic it may have been, it was still a super suit, and it had the defenses to match.

"Yeah, then we have to be in position. Then, thirty minutes after that, we go."

"You sure you don't want to switch?" Nicholas asked.

"You know they're going to check for the right powers," Jasmine laughed. The idea that the two of them could switch places under everyone's noses was funny, but beyond getting a laugh it wouldn't do much.

"Yeah, too bad it's not like one of us changes reality on a whim and could theoretically make people switch bodies." Nicholas said with a sigh. Jasmine was still laughing when she finished processing his words.

"Wait, really?"

"It's not like I've made the word yet, but it's not like there's any reason for it to fail? Originally it would be impossible to do to you because of your absolute authority over your own soul. Now I imagine it's a bit different." Nicholas explained. Jasmine thought about it for a second. Nicholas was probably right. Body swapping wouldn't have worked before; her soul would have tried to rend Nicholas's apart, but they were linked now. The odds of it working were actually hilariously good.

"Do you actually have a body-swap word ready?" Jasmine asked, going for the more prominent problem.

"No, but I thought about making switch that, it currently is tied with two other choices." Nicholas shrugged.

"We wouldn't know how to use each other's powers anyway. So what else were you thinking for switch?" Jasmine asked. Hopefully, it would be funny.

"More useful in combat, swap places of two things. Figured it would be baby's first teleportation word. Or switch genders."

"How did you come up with that one?"

"If I physically change into a different person, how in the world are people going to realize what's her name is me?" Nicholas asked curious.

"Her name would be Nicki," Jasmine said on a whim. It was the first N name that reminded her of Nicholas, at least.

"But the reason you considered getting magical gender-bending powers was because you want to go shopping without getting recognized?"

"You make it sound like that's ridiculous." Jasmine thought about it for a bit longer. It really wasn't that ridiculous; she had done stranger things, so she couldn't really judge now, could she? Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

"Is the word ready?"

"No."

"Darn."

"Why are you saying darn?" Nicholas asked.

"Because then I could have dressed you up as the cutest girl for our date." Jasmine complained.

"Promise me that you'll show me girl you whenever you do bother to make the word?" Jasmine asked.

"I am fluttering my eyelashes just so you know."

"Who else was I going to show?" Nicholas asked.

"Great, so now that I have something to look forward too I am ready." Jasmine said, standing up.

"Glad to know you would rather have me as a girl than figure out what our date is going to be tonight." Nicholas said dryly, standing up as well, though he used Book as a handhold to get to his feet.

"Well, now I can have two things to look forward too, besides I was the one that planned the date, so that means you're supposed to be the one looking forward to it," Jasmine said, patting him on the back.

"Maybe we should both look forward to it."

"Deal. You need anything else? Any of your fail safes need a recharge?" Jasmine asked, fretting over her partner.

"Nope, they're all good, and now it's your turn," Nicholas said. Jasmine could feel power build through their bond." Emergency""Wait, what was that one supposed to do?" Jasmine asked, rubbing her head. She didn't feel any different, but sometimes Nicholas's workings were delayed.

"Get into an emergency and you'll find out," Nicholas said, not helping. Despite her needling for the next twenty-three minutes, Nicholas told her nothing about what the working did. They split off, heading to their own sections of the train, and Jasmine hefted the twin tower shields as she sunk into the mindset she needed to for this. She was unbreakable. And she would do everything in her power to make sure nobody in her area got hit before her.

Every hero on the train was outside it today, even the ones that usually were in charge of support or maintenance of the train. They had to be; if they didn't punch through successfully, then the whole thing was going to be a bust.

"Everyone, prepare for mental link," Coordinate said. Jasmine's existence expanded. It wasn't like the bond she and Nicholas had; it was both more connected and less deep than their own connection. She was connected to everyone on her team, and her team was connected with every other team. They were one entity. Made up of individuals. The disgust that rolled through her bond with Nicholas almost made Jasmine fall over laughing.

He was managing the two of them being linked better than either of them had felt possible. But being linked with everyone like this? Nicholas was not happy about the situation. Thankfully, she wasn't afraid that he would do something to jeopardize the mission. Nicholas would never do that, but it would push him beyond his normal level of skill for nothing more than to get everyone out of his head. He really was nothing but trouble. Jasmine could do her best too, though for him.

There wasn't a signal about when the start time was; there didn't need to be. With everyone connected, important information disseminated at the speed of thought. But Jasmine hadn't needed that to know when the show started. When monsters started slamming into her barriers, it had been a good enough hint. Jasmine roared her defiance as her shields redoubled. They would not break, and there would be nothing getting past her.

She pushed her barriers out farther, expanding the circle of absolute defense, and called Quicksilver out of her soul. The little guy wasn't going to be able to help her much; she needed almost all of her power devoted to the barriers, but one long-lasting command would work." Reinforce," Jasmine's command shook through her, and she felt the force of her spirit redouble and push back against the attacks. Her bulwark didn't exactly require her to be physically stronger than any attack trying to reach her.

She just needed to have the will to endure, and reinforce applied to her will just as much as the shields. Jasmine could not break; she could not falter. A new source of power flowed into her. No, not a new source of power. Additional power. She knew what that meant. The livestream was starting. She would take it. Karma was going to be slow to gain, Jasmine doubted she would change anyone's lives with a livestream of her blocking attacks. But that was making people believe in her, and that was enough.

And it wasn't like she wasn't acquiring any Karma. There were still the passengers. And she was saving those lives. As Jasmine's power expanded, she poured her own power into her equipment. Normally she didn't have to. It was easy to perform maintenance on her gear, so no reason to risk overloading or burning any of her equipment out. This wasn't one of those times for a few reasons. She wouldn't be using this set in the city, so she had the time to recover it.

And more importantly, this armor had been made to take massive amounts of power. It wouldn't do for the defensive gear to get overcome by something. Emerald light rippled through the world as Jasmine held the line.

Contrary to what he had believed, Nicholas was not constantly using new commands. No, he was continually using the dragon command while Book was using down to move things out of the way. Nicholas couldn't help but think of it as dragon's breath as he released a stream of concentrated energy from his hands, lancing through the enemies he felt were on his level or weaker. It cut through them like butter."

Down" Gravity shifted in front of the train, clearing the corpses as Nicholas released another blast of draconic energy down the route. At the front of the train, it was hard to realize just how fast they were moving. Or maybe that was because of the never ending onslaught of Beyonders they were trying to cut through.

"Switch with me," someone said, slapping Nicholas on the back. That wasn't necessary since they had that damn communication connection. Nicholas released the attack he was building, cutting through the chaff before switching with the next in his line. Nicholas pulled Book back into his spirit and focused on recovering his power. This was the method the people at the front had to use. When it was your turn, burn up your power as fast as you can and switch down the line. That had been his fourth turn.

More and more people were struggling to keep up with this pace and had quit. After his second turn, he hadn't dropped the dragon command. He could still recover while it was active, and it only continually drew power when he was using the active portions. It also fit with how Nicholas saw dragons. The dragon advanced. And so would he and Jasmine. Even Pinnacle wasn't his end.

Before too long Nicholas was in the front again, and he released the roar of a dragon as gouts of crimson energy burned through the enemy clearing the way. Just a little more.