BI – Chapter 9: Collapse (Patreon)

Theo

My eyes widened in horror. The water tower was tilting straight towards the pavilion. It wasn’t just leaning and falling though. The struts supporting it were buckling, letting the great bowl list dangerously on one side as the metal bent under the suddenly uneven strain. 

My first instinct was to reach for Trina, but my second was of how to fix the problem. Did I have any powers that could help? 

Windblade Totems were obviously out. They’d shown time and time again that they only attacked demons, and years of experimentation had proven that. I remembered trying to get them to cut down trees to save money on deforestation when we were building our range near the dungeon entrance. It had not worked. 

Gripping vines? I didn’t think so. They were tough, but they couldn’t hold up a water tower! Or at least I’d need time to cast a fuckton of them, and I didn’t think my mana pool was large enough to pull that off.

People were panicking, desperately turning to flee as the tower lurched further. Rio. Rio was there. If I didn’t do something now she might die, crushed under that massive metal bowl.

No, time left to think, I did the first thing that came to mind. 

The tower began to tumble right as I cast the skill. My mana pool plummeted, but without warning, trees erupted from the open ground. Some of them shoved unsuspecting people aside as they blasted up from beneath the road, the green, and even straight through one of the buildings. 

The Living Woods ability was meant as an environmental attack. The trees could lash out at enemies with their branches and kill them en mass for a short period of time. I didin’t care about that. Instead, the tops of the trees caught the falling tower even as the ground abruptly transformed from urban to rural.

Every time I’d cast that particular ability, between twenty and thirty trees had sprung up out of nothing. When they disappeared, they left behind the evidence of their passing but they did last for a while. At least long enough to rob the tower of momentum. If I was lucky, it might just sit on the buildings without much trouble when the trees disappeared. 

Panicked people, suddenly realizing they weren’t about to be crushed, continued to clear out, but Rio… Rio was transparent because of course she was. Phase. She’d have been fine either way. 

It was hard to see her through the sudden foliage but I was surprised to see my wife suddenly dash off the gazebo, through the crowd towards the water tower. What the hell was she doing!? 

“What the fuck!? Wh-what the fuck is happening!?” Someone screamed. 

“Dane!” I shouted. “Get to that megaphone and tell people to start clearing out! This ability doesn’t last all that long!”  

“Are you fucking kidding me, man!? I’m not running under there!” Dane shouted.

I groaned, but Seok was already running towards the abandoned megaphone. People were starting to stand, but some were concluding they’d been saved, not realizing they were still in danger. 

I had more pressing business. Living Woods was temporary, but Gripping Vines were permanent. Now that the tower was closer to the ground, I might be able to make enough of them to hold it up. 

“D-daddy? A-are you doing that?” Trina asked, shocked. Taemi was also staring at me, eyes wide, but Narae, bless the woman, was holding onto both of them. When had I let Trina go? 

Fuck, no time. 

Living Woods was a mana-expensive skill, and there wasn’t much left in the tank. Still, I desperately cast gripping vines, wrapping them around the water tank as thick as possible, and did my best to bind it to the building it had almost crushed. The struts on the ground still appeared perfectly intact, though the furthest strut had snapped apart halfway up. 

To my shock, the vines were actually vines, launching from the trees like they’d always been there, instead of roots like they usually were when there weren’t any trees around. I’d never known I could use those skills in combination before. That was fortunate because I didn’t think the roots would’ve been able to reach high enough to act as support for the tilted water tower. 

Water was spilling from a small hole at the top of the tower in a deluge, soaking a few people who still hadn’t managed to get clear, but finally, Seok reached the dropped megaphone. 

“Everyone! Clear out! The trees do not last! Clear out!” he screamed, his accent thick but panicked as he managed to shock the last few people who weren’t running into getting out from under the falling tower. 

What the hell was Rio doing!? Shouldn’t she have picked up the megaphone? 

Vine after vine wrapped around the tower, and even as I felt my throat clench, the thirst that always came from overusing mana began to overwhelm me. 

The trees, living as they were, struck at nothing, because just like the Windblade totems, they only attacked demons. Since there weren’t any around, they remained inert, solid oak, strong enough to hold up even a massive water tower. 

I collapsed, hoping against hope that the vines encircling the tower and binding it to the building it had almost crushed would be enough. 

Almost on queue, the trees vanished. The tank held for a few moments, supported only by vines that had burrowed unnaturally into the brick and concrete of the building the tower had almost fallen on. Seok was the last one running, clearing out toward the other side of the green, shouting his lungs out on the megaphone. 

Then the vines began to snap. 

There was a small building between the water tower and the square, and I realized that some of the people closest to that building might not have even been able to see what had happened until the tower almost fell on them. 

Fortunately, they were all cleared out as my vines snapped, unable to bear the weight of all the water and the metal in the tank. 

The bowl crashed the short distance left between it and the top of the building, but the building held. Its upper railing didn’t. Instead, it rolled before crashing down onto a parked car in front of it, finally still. 

“Daddy!” Trina screamed, breaking free of Narae’s grip and rushing to me, wrapping her arms around my neck. She was shaking. 

I was practically dying of thirst, but I knew it wasn’t the type water could quench. 

Rio… she’d run through the gaps between buildings, heading towards the base of the water tower. Why? She had to have a good reason. I didn’t think Rio ever did anything without one, so she must know something I didn’t. 

A sudden shudder ran down my spine as I saw a lone imp pop its beady little eyes out from behind the mangled building.

There was never just one imp; that was where Rio had gone. For just a moment, I thought I heard the sounds of gunfire from behind the building. This… this was an attack. I had to get over there!

“Fuckin’ demons!” Someone cried just before a definite gunshot echoed out across the square.

The imp died immediately, but that didn’t stop anyone. Even more gunshots peppered the incredibly dead imp as the crowd turned from fearful to enraged. Men and women used to living in the country and typically armed even in the most peaceful times, were suddenly forming into a mob, spilling back towards the building.

I blinked. If this was a demon attack, I suddenly felt sorry for the imps.