Chapter 43: The Way Home
The stone slabs at the mouth of the alley flipped without warning.
What had looked like an ordinary path split open to reveal intricate rune lines glowing a dangerous crimson beneath the surface. In the next instant, thick, glue like energy surged upward from the ground like living tar and wrapped around the squad's ankles.
"Damn it!" Baron took the brunt of it first. Two separate strands coiled around his legs and locked in place.
Hodell's gaze sharpened.
They had laid down an interception trap in such a short time. If the squad had hesitated for even a little longer, or if the enemy had committed true elite combatants instead of these delaying pieces, they might never have made it out.
He slammed his left palm toward the ground.
A compressed shockwave burst downward.
Boom!
The alley floor trembled violently. The newly formed rune structure buckled under the brute force disruption, its flow destabilizing for a split second.
"Move!" Hodell barked.
His right arm snapped outward. A searing whip of flame appeared from thin air and lashed across the ground with a shrill hiss, scattering the encroaching energy tendrils before they could fully close.
Baron roared, tore one leg free by force, then ripped the other from the half collapsed restraint and charged ahead with his shield raised. Sasha skimmed over the damaged trap zone like a shadow. Kyle thrust out his staff and released a purification spell that shredded the remaining black red energy. Irene layered a lightness spell over the group, and Loyi gritted his teeth, hugging the silver box as he followed close behind Baron.
They had just cleared the trap when several coin sized metal discs popped out from the walls on both sides of the alley, nearly invisible until the red lights at their centers flashed on.
Loyi's face changed. "Psychic emitters!"
Hodell reacted the instant they appeared.
He spread both hands and threw out two low intensity turbulence clusters, chaotic and unstable, one to each side. They struck the discs precisely.
Crackle. Sizzle.
The psychic waves from both walls collided with the turbulent interference, scattering into static before they could converge into a focused assault.
Baron kept running and cursed over his shoulder. "These bastards came prepared!"
"There are not many of them," Kyle said sharply. "This is a stalling line. Do not stop!"
Hodell glanced back once at the still flickering runes behind them. Every new obstacle only strengthened his certainty.
The enemy wanted the box.
Which meant the thing inside mattered.
Which meant this entire operation had hit something vital.
The return route became a brutal sprint through a corridor of carefully prepared death.
Traps. Hidden shooters. Interference nodes. Delayed ambush points.
It felt less like retreating through a city and more like forcing their way through the enemy's digestive tract.
Hodell pushed his perception to the limit.
His senses were already far beyond those of an ordinary operative, and with Simple Energy Perception operating at full output, the city around him became a layered map of pressure, heat, intent, and fluctuation.
"Loyi, duck!"
At the same moment he shouted, his left hand drew a sharp arc through the air. A crescent shaped ice shield condensed on the squad's left flank. A volley of thin black bolts struck it at once, hissing as corrosive energy ate into the surface.
Hodell did not even look at them. His right hand flicked behind him, and a fireball screamed toward a shuttered window that had just begun to open.
Boom!
The window exploded inward. A short, ugly scream followed, along with the crash of someone and something heavy going down together.
"The street ahead has a pressure field under it!" Loyi shouted again, his detector nearly squealing from overload. "Trap runes under the paving stones!"
Kyle had already begun outlining a large area spell with the tip of his staff.
Hodell beat him to it.
"I'll handle it!"
He drove his foot into the ground. A broad shockwave spread through the street in front of them like a hammer striking a bell.
As the vibration rolled forward, several perfectly hidden trap nodes flickered into view for just an instant. Their structures loosened. Their flows staggered.
Kyle's eyes flashed. "Straight through! Watch your footing!"
The squad surged ahead. Baron bulldozed through first. Sasha and Irene skimmed across the weakened zone with minimal contact. Loyi stumbled once while clutching the box but recovered under Irene's support. Hodell passed last, leaping over a final strip of unstable paving just as it split open behind him with a burst of red light.
Then they turned into a narrower alley.
And the alley collapsed on them.
A rusted water tower from the rooftop above was shoved over from somewhere out of sight. It crashed downward with a metallic shriek, carrying a tank full of stagnant black water. The whole thing came down like a small landslide, sealing the front exit in steel, filth, and spray.
"Back!" Kyle shouted.
Too late.
From behind them, two figures kicked through a pile of old debris and stepped into the alley mouth they had just crossed. Both carried portable magitech flamethrowers.
White fire roared out.
Not orange. Not red.
White.
A pair of burning flood tides filled the rear of the alley and turned the cramped passage into a furnace.
Blocked in front. Incineration behind. No room above.
"Up!" Sasha's voice cut through the chaos.
She had already scaled one wall like a lizard, short blade buried in a crack beneath a rotten wooden eave. Her meaning was clear. The roofline. Now.
Kyle moved first. "Baron, hold the rear! Loyi, Irene, with me! Ryan, buy me three seconds!"
The tip of Kyle's staff flared brighter than before. A layered spell model unfolded in front of him with frantic speed.
Hodell drew a breath so deep it hurt.
Then he stopped conserving energy altogether.
His palms slammed into the alley walls on both sides.
Source energy surged outward in a high frequency vibration, thousands upon thousands of micro impacts breaking apart the walls' internal support all at once. The stonework groaned under the strain. Cracks raced outward like spiderwebs. Mortar failed. Bricks shifted.
Not enough.
Hodell bared his teeth, kept Overload running, and shoved even more source energy into the collapse.
The walls gave way.
With a dull, thunderous roar, both sides of the alley caved inward. Stone, mud, beam fragments, and rotten masonry crashed down into a choking cloud of dust.
The falling water tower smashed into the fresh debris, detonating into a wave of black water and twisted metal. The flamethrowers behind lost line of fire instantly as the collapse swallowed the alley's center.
Three seconds.
Kyle completed the spell.
A brilliant light wrapped around the squad.
The world folded.
When the light vanished, they were standing on the rooftop of a nearby low rise building.
Hodell's knees almost buckled on landing. His source energy was scraping bottom. Irene caught him before he fell and shoved a stream of healing energy into his body.
"Keep moving!" Kyle snapped, his own face pale from the strain. "They'll be on us again in seconds!"
He was right.
The enemy no longer cared about subtlety.
From the streets below, more shapes emerged.
They were humanoid, but only in the broadest sense. Blood covered them. Limbs moved in jerks and spasms. Their eyes were fixed entirely on the silver box in Loyi's arms, and they swarmed up the walls like feral animals.
"Across!" Kyle pointed toward another rooftop several meters away.
Baron jumped first, landing hard enough to rattle loose tiles. Sasha followed like smoke. Irene made the crossing with Sasha's assistance. Hodell gathered what strength he had left and forced himself across after them.
Kyle jumped last.
One of the blood soaked figures hit the roof edge at that exact moment and launched itself through the air, fingers clawing for Kyle's legs.
"Captain!"
Baron turned and roared, but even he was too far away.
Hodell's eyes narrowed.
He forced one more pulse of invisible force out of his nearly dry reserves and nudged Kyle's ankle in midair.
It was only the slightest push.
Barely anything.
But it changed Kyle's posture by just enough.
The monster's hands missed his boot by an inch.
It scraped past beneath him and fell with a shriek into the street below.
Kyle landed in a half crouch, turned, and met Hodell's eyes for a fraction of a second.
No words.
No time.
They kept running.
The watchtower was ahead now. Its signal runes could already be seen glowing faintly through the night. Once they reached that zone, they would be close enough to the official response grid to force a major reaction.
Then the last intercept line stepped out.
Three enemies stood in the plaza before the tower. All three had clearly stronger energy signatures than the cannon fodder they'd been dealing with so far. Behind them staggered several more blood covered hybrid like figures, moving like puppets on ruined strings.
Every one of them was staring at Loyi's box.
Kyle's face hardened. "Protect the evidence!"
Baron planted himself in front of Loyi again and swept his shield sideways, smashing two of the charging figures off their feet. They flew back coughing blood.
But one of them, at the exact moment it was hit, ignited the unstable magitech core clutched in its arms.
Boom!
The detonation went off almost point blank.
Baron staggered back through the fire and smoke. His shield was blackened. His left arm turned red in an instant, flesh torn and burned. Still he did not fall. Still he remained between Loyi and the enemy.
Hodell saw the next one before anyone else did.
Another hybrid had already slipped through the chaos on a broken, limping charge. The object in its arms was brighter than the first.
Too bright.
It was about to detonate right on top of Loyi.
Loyi had only just forced himself back into motion after the blast. He looked up and saw nothing but a growing white glare filling his vision.
His mind went blank.
The box nearly slipped from his hands.
"Loyi!" Irene's scream tore through the square.
Sasha turned instantly and launched herself forward, but the distance was cruel. Kyle's staff was already rising, yet even his casting could not break cause and effect.
Hodell understood at once.
The stronger enemies nearby were pinning them down exactly for this.
No source energy. No time. No angle.
Then something massive cut in from the side.
Baron.
He did not have time to reset his footing.
He did not raise his shield.
He simply saw the light blooming in front of Loyi and moved.
For the first time since this battle began, he turned his back on the enemy.
Not to retreat.
To cover someone.
He lunged in front of Loyi with his ruined left arm half raised, as if he still meant to push the younger man farther behind him.
The explosion swallowed him whole.
Boom!
The flash turned the plaza white.
Loyi was blown off his feet and tumbled across the stones. The box ripped from his hands, spun, and landed nearby with a metallic thud.
When he looked up, all he saw was Baron's body dropping from the heart of the blast and that outstretched hand falling limp at the end.
Warm blood splashed across Loyi's face.
His mind emptied.
Irene's scream broke apart into raw breath. She stumbled forward two steps before the aftershock hit her too, throwing her backward. Her staff slipped from her fingers and clattered across the ground.
Kyle's face lost all color.
He drove his staff forward with savage force and a bolt of lightning smashed into the nearest enemy. His expression was rigid, but the hand gripping the staff had gone bone white.
Sasha vanished and reappeared beside another hybrid. Her blades flashed once, twice, three times, every strike aimed to kill.
An alarm finally began screaming across the district.
Energy projectiles rained down from farther out, official response fire blanketing the plaza.
The three stronger enemies retreated without hesitation.
The remaining blood soaked attackers scattered or fell.
Within seconds, white uniformed medics rushed in from the perimeter.
Baron was already on the ground, his back almost unrecognizable beneath torn cloth, blood, and burned flesh.
"Emergency trauma!" one of the medics shouted. "Get the stretcher here now!"
They lifted him onto a wind chaser skiff in a blur of healing light and practiced urgency.
Kyle reached him before the hatch closed and shoved an amulet bearing Third Squad's insignia against the edge of the stretcher.
"Hold on."
His voice was rough enough to scrape.
The skiff shot into the sky and became a streak of light.
Then it was gone.
Because civilians still lived in the surrounding district, the General Administration did not continue bombardment into the urban zone. The roar of combat faded, and the plaza fell quiet in a way that felt almost obscene.
Loyi was still on the ground.
He was staring at the blood.
Just the blood.
Irene had been helped upright, but her eyes were empty.
Several people looked instinctively toward Kyle.
He stood at the front of the team, back turned, shoulders pulled tight as cable.
He inhaled once, tasting smoke and iron and burned stone.
Then he exhaled.
When he turned, everything on his face had been pressed down into something hard and tired and cold.
He walked to Loyi, hauled him up by the arm, picked up the box, and shoved it back into his hands.
"Hold it," Kyle said quietly. "That is what he bled for."
Loyi trembled so hard the box almost slipped again. This time he clutched it like it was the only real thing left in the world.
Hodell finally pushed himself upright with the help of the wall. He followed the disappearing line of the skiff with his eyes for a long moment before looking back.
Footsteps approached from the edge of the cordon.
A middle aged man in General Administration uniform strode over at speed. The insignia on his shoulder marked him as a Rapid Response commander.
His gaze swept across the shattered plaza, the scorch marks, the corpses, the blood, and finally settled on Kyle.
"Captain Kyle," he said, voice even. "Report."
Kyle gave it to him in clipped, efficient sentences.
The commander's eyes shifted at last to the silver box. He said nothing for two full seconds.
Then, more quietly, "Get your wounded treated first. File a preliminary mission report immediately."
He stepped closer and lowered his voice.
"Kyle. Whatever you brought back in that box may affect the entire Oluson region."
This was no longer a clandestine clash.
It had become a local war.
Kyle nodded once.
The commander turned away sharply and began issuing orders.
"Seal the plaza. Expand the blockade radius. Connect me to tactical command now. I want an emergency battlefield summary on the Director's desk immediately."
Only then did he glance once more at the silver case before leaving them to the medics.
The healing station set up nearby operated at full speed.
Layers of restorative light washed over the team one after another. Loyi refused to release the box until Hodell personally told him he would watch it.
Only then did the younger man loosen his grip by a fraction.
Hodell sat down against a wall and accepted an energy supplement from a medic. He drank it in one pull. The emptiness inside him remained, but at least the dizziness dulled enough for him to stay conscious without effort.
He watched the lights.
The skiffs.
The medics.
The cordon teams.
The city beyond.
He did not possess foresight. He could not solve everything with one revelation or one miracle. He had no luxury of simply stepping aside and living a safe life while the main current of the world rushed past him.
He had chosen this road.
Or perhaps the road had chosen him and he had simply refused to crawl away from it.
Either way, there was no turning back now.
Irene finally broke.
She lowered her head and began to cry in harsh, suppressed sobs, as if she were ashamed even of that. Sasha stepped over and silently handed her a handkerchief.
Kyle stood facing the watchtower, his back to the squad.
The light from the tower stretched his blood stained shadow long across the ground.
The night wind moved through the plaza carrying smoke, dust, and blood.
Far away, the lights of the General Administration burned without going dark.
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
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