AP5, Ch. 22, 23, 24 (Patreon)

Chapter 22

Time until next Challenge: 10 days, 12 hours, 22 minutes

The blinding flash had almost certainly been the result of an attack by one of the electric tower-Titans, but I didn’t feel so much as a prickle of pain: Micah must have absorbed the electrical energy in our immediate area. The wide-area attack had hit elsewhere, and the light from that had been eye-searing, but we’d avoided instant death. That was less comfort than it might be, since I could hear crashes, screams, and ominous crunching noises, and I couldn’t see a damn thing.

I could feel the yellow speedster nearing us, but my blindness limited my options. Telekinesis was my primary offense and defense these days, and I had to be able to perceive objects to target and manipulate them. Life Sense only let me sense living things, and Telekinesis didn’t work on anything alive. Without sight, I could only “grab” objects I was touching, and flailing around with them was more likely to hurt my allies than the monsters.

It was unfortunate, but at least I had other abilities. Gavin had slung himself onto the monster’s back, out of reach of its teeth and claws, but in striking range of its barbed tail. A fierce burst of Paralyze halted the whip of the offending appendage for a full second, tiring me but giving another adult - was that Priya? - time to dash forward and cut it free from the monster’s body. 

With Gavin out of immediate peril, my job was to keep myself safe until my sight returned, and that went double with Cassie still in my arms. I dodged backward, turning to put my torso in between Cassie’s Summoned Shell and the monster.  Another step made me almost lose my balance as my shin banged painfully into something hard. A piece of debris that had come loose from the car’s frame? I didn’t remember anything like that, but I might not have been the only one to damage the vehicle during our hasty exodus.

Another adult moved toward me and I felt warm pressure against my wrist. My vision cleared, letting me view the battlefield.

Immediately, I activated Analyze. 

I expected this to be a long fight, but I’d just passed my 16th ability threshold earlier the previous day - there was some advantage to the constant onslaught we’d been under - and Compatibility’s excellent synergy had pushed Analyze to 800%. I thought, if I was judicious about my other ability use, I could keep it active for the full fight.

While I was terrified of what the next fifteen minutes would bring, I couldn’t deny that this was what I’d built for. I was specialized to be on-scene in massive battlefields, recognizing the dangers and reacting - or guiding others to react - in the most effective way.

Panoramic Vision gave me awareness of the entire battlefield, while Life Sense gave me enhanced detail on my immediate surroundings, if “immediate” meant an 80-foot radius. 

Field to our north, rolling hills. Forested hillside to our south, with a sheer rock drop-off ten feet from the road. Seven known Titans currently engaged with my allies or within ten seconds of engaging: one speedster, one six-legged electric rock beast, one ground-manipulating snake… don’t see the acid hippo. Four twotwos?. 

One more speedster visible in the distance, at least 26 seconds from engaging. Snake’s road destruction may delay speedster further. Four more flagged twotwos visible that will arrive between 18 seconds and 1 minute from now. 

Possibly other Titans. May be blocked from sight by nearby car, or unflagged twotwos. Nothing unseen within Life Sense.

Nearest threat: speedster.

Nearby, Vince, Gavin, and several of my bodyguards were still battling the speedster, but with its paralytic tailspike removed, it was only a matter of time before they took it down. It already had a oozing gash along its side, and I could see Gavin had his sword plunged deep into its back.

I assessed all this in a moment, then turned my attention away, trusting Vince, Gavin, and the others to handle it.  Status? Controlled. Next closest threat? #13, ground snake.

The serpentine monster had thrashed its way through the highway, creating a ten-foot drop. Huge chunks of cement and pavement had been torn clear, including a slab the size of a refrigerator that landed only feet from my group. 

The Titan itself had surfaced and wrapped its front half around an SUV, lifting it  fifteen feet into the air. The vehicle was crumpled like a crushed soda can, but the monster was at the edge of my Life Sense range and I could feel people still alive inside. 

Status? Dangerous, not immediate threat to family. Continue monitoring for way to assist. Road damage may hamper other monsters approaching from the ground. 

The Titans didn’t attack each other, and their area attacks never seemed to harm each other directly, but whatever programming they’d been given seemed to assume that each was operating alone. They never paused to coordinate attacks. Any given Titan was as likely to get in the way of its fellow monsters as to drive its prey toward them.

First speed Titan handled! Terrain damage caused by snake may slow next speedster or provide shelter.

Information communicated. Next threat: electric beast.

The grey crags of the six-legged electroTitan were visible beyond the pile of debris from the destroyed road, but it was just beyond my Life Sense range… which still put us well within the area of its area electric attack. A daring flyer streaked overhead, dropping what seemed to be a collection of metal chains atop the monster: probably snow chains, given their criss-crossing netlike nature. They weren’t nearly large enough to encircle the Titan’s bulk, but the flyer’s aim had been good, and two sets stuck, draped around the mountainous spikes on the Titan’s back. The constraint cloud of static sparks that flashed around the monster seemed disrupted near the chains, drawn in rather than flashing away.

Will those block or redirect the big electrical blast? I asked Ariel.

<Partial. Quantity of metal highly insufficient relative to strength of Titan electrical manipulation.>

So, stay close to Micah.

<Affirmative.>

One more announcement, then.

Metal on electric Titan should hamper attack, but not eliminate danger. Maintain electric defenses and focus fire! More metal on Titan if possible!

My oldest son was only a few feet away, and the woman who’d returned my vision must have just done the same for him. Analyze helped me process information quickly, so she’d barely had time to let go of me and lay her hands on him. Micah shook his head slightly, then focused on the electrical Titan. His attack didn’t look like much, just a bare flash of light rather than the slow-moving blast sci-fi movies had conditioned us all to expect from laser fire, but I’d had enough experience with his Specialty by this point to know what he’d converted the electrical energy he’d absorbed into. I approved: for big targets like these, focused damage was the way to go. And, even if his attack was hard to spot, I could see the damage it left behind: a half-inch circular break that cut deeply into theTitan’s rocky skin.

An opportunity!

I dropped my sword into a Telekinetic grip and pulled out my revolver. It was a tiny target, especially left-handed, but my beloved Assisted Strike didn’t give a shit. One-two-three-four-five-six! I emptied every chamber into the gap my son had made, widening it ever-so-slightly and creating a line of lead to carry the lightning to the Titan’s less-protected internals.

Even I pumped out the bullets, I let my attention roam, taking in more of the battlefield.

The twotwos themselves weren’t visible, but the holograms they’d been tagged with were easy to spot. Two were in the air, circling for height and readying themselves for another attack. I kept an eye on those. One had just completed its dive against another member of our fleet, raking its claws against an SUV’s roof and sending the vehicle rolling to the side - the same thing that had happened to our own. Another had risen high into the sky, a struggling, bleeding person clutched in its claws. As it reached the peak of its ascent, it dropped the man. I Telekinetically grabbed his belt as he fell, using my mental strength to fight the pull of gravity and slow his fall. The twotwo took exception to this, immediately wheeling for another dive, this time targeting the airborne target with its piercing beak. I growled and reversed my pull, yanking the soldier downward instead of resisting gravity, and the Titan narrowly missed its dive.

One more thing to monitor. Even with Gravity Null to make landing far less dangerous, the drop itself was still dangerous. Few of us could dodge in mid-air. Still…

We’re doing… okay so far? Where’s the acid hippo, Ariel?

<Titan #17 is approaching from the southeast and will come in range of your allies in four seconds.>

So Hamlet hadn’t been able to drop three precisely on top of us. That was fortunate, and I couldn’t help but think that either Hamlet or his handlers had made a mistake. If he had held back and dropped the electric monster in while we were fighting the main wave of enemies, it would have been much harder to deal with.

I blasted out a warning to that half of the battlefield, letting them know where to expect the new Titan’s arrival, and was gratified to see several people react immediately, taking shelter behind vehicles.

Most of the Titans hadn’t reached us yet. Our sudden direction change and halt had done its job, and we were fighting “only” a handful at the moment, although distant holograms marking the hard-to-spot two-twos suggested that number would rise shortly. 

We were also lucky that Hamlet couldn’t micromanage the Titans. If he’d been able to tell some to halt or slow, or if he’d been able to make them target me personally…

One of the twotwos in the air turned, ready to dive again, and I focused on it. I threw myself and Cassie to the ground. We’d be just barely out of reach of the outstretched claws… even as I had the thought, I felt a wash of terror. 

It had been heading for me initially - maybe poor luck, maybe having Cassie’s Summoned Shell in one arm made me look like a less-mobile target - but as I dodged, it adjusted. Analyze pointed out the slight change in the tilt of its wings as it headed for another nearby, standing target. 

I dropping everything else I had in my Telekinetic hands to drag the new target aside. Unfortunately, a bodyguard had recognized the twotwo’s goal as well, and had stepped in to help… blocking my effort.

I tried to pull in another direction, but I was too slow.

Micah screamed as the twotwo’s claws latched around him.

Chapter 23

Time until next Challenge: 10 days, 12 hours, 21 minutes

The force of the Skybax-sized diving monster easily tore my son away from my Telekinetic grip, although one vambrace, a boot, and ragged portion of one jean leg were left behind in my ghostly “hands.”

Twotwo has Micah!

I blasted out the brief Announcement at full strength, a panicked reaction as I tried to get Micah any help I could. Draw Attention got the monster to turn its head back toward me for an instant, but it didn’t meaningfully slow the monster’s escape.

Gavin reacted immediately, letting go of the dying speed-Titan and flinging himself into the air with incredible power, no doubt assisted by Gravity Null. Unfortunately, the same ability that added to the force of his jump threw him off target, and he went wide of the climbing twotwo. His lengthy tail whipped out, but his reach wasn’t sufficient to grab onto the monster, although his tail-tip blade sliced through part of a wing. Even at this range, the twotwo was hard to see, and only Life Sense made me certain exactly what had happened. Gavin’s hit wasn’t enough to make the monster fall, but it faltered slightly rather than ascending smoothly out of its stoop, and had to start beating its wings to climb higher.

Micah fought back, too; physical restraints did little to limit his lethality. His Point Defense assistant was shooting repeatedly, and the blue panes of Force Shields and the yellow sparks of Shockwalls began appearing in front of the monster, slowing its ascent further as it had to fight its way through. Maybe slow enough that I could get some weapons up to help with Telekinesis? Analyze said no, but I tried anyway, wanting to be ready to help if the Titan slowed further.

Hurriedly, I grabbed daggers from a bandolier on my chest and moved them upward. Even as I did, I took a moment to sweep the battlefield. Even with my eldest son in direct danger, tunnel visioning on his predicament seemed like a good way to endanger the rest of my family and friends. 

I checked on them first. Cassie was as safe as she could be nestled in her shell in my right arm, behind the shield I had strapped to the limb, but she was really only as safe as I was. I couldn’t see Byron - he’d been riding in a different vehicle - and Gavin, Vince, and Priya were still fighting, while Anju was streaking off in the air after Micah.

Micah, watch out! Anju’s coming to help!

I kept my Announcement on a narrow beam, my own janky version of Mental Speech. Hopefully the heads-up would be enough to keep Micah from frying his friend with an unfortunate Shockwall.

Okay, that’s my allies. Now, my enemies…

The acid hippo had appeared from the south, knocking over several trees at the top of the cliff. It didn’t seem inclined to descend, and had halted at the top and was shaking its head, loosing a broad spray of acid over my nearby allies. I grimaced, but dropped one of the daggers I’d sent winging after Micah to snag a loose car door, lifting it high and trying to keep it in the path of as much spray as I could. The spray was forceful enough that my limited Telekinetic strength wasn’t enough to hold the car door in place, and I constantly had to fight to get it back in the path of the deadly liquid.

Another twotwo had reached us, but it was stooping toward another group, so I ignored it, and the second speedster seemed confused. It had paused on the far side of the snake and seemed uncertain which way to detour around the destroyed section of road. It would take a few steps one way and stop again as the road snake thrashed, causing more damage as it tried to take out the people at its feet with crushing attacks.

The last thing I noticed made me drop every last one of the weapons I’d sent toward Micah, hurriedly gathering up every piece of loose metal in the area to create an ersatz lightning rod. The sparks around the craggy Titan had multiplied, and Analyze let me know it was less than a second from firing, and our primary defense was 100 feet in the air and climbing.

I turned away and shut my eyes, dropping my gun and covering my primary eyes with my free hand. I didn’t have time to drop my shield, tied to my arm as it was, but I dug the rim into the dirt beside me, praying that any electricity that was drawn into it would go down into the earth, rather than through Cassie or me.

It was almost enough.

I heard an explosion, which Analyze identified as the electrical components in a car part I’d used as part of my ramshackle lightning rod. That was proof that it had, at least in part, done its job, drawing the charge through itself and into the ground. Unfortunately, all of us were standing on that same ground, and I felt my muscles seize as the indirect strike surged through me. Analyze was kind enough to let me know exactly how badly I’d been harmed: serious burns along the back side of my right arm, which was next to my metal shield; a critical burn the side of my back, where a pouch of gunpowder in my backpack’s pocket had ignited; partial blindness in my less-guarded auxiliary eyes; partial deafness; and neurological injuries that resulted in an approximate 30% reduction to mental processing efficacy and speed.

I did a close-range Announcement to send a message to Cassie, knowing Pointy would hear it, asking if they were okay. Pointy’s strength and volume had grown to the point where she could speak loud enough to communicate through Cassie’s Summoned Shell with difficulty, even if it wasn’t cracked… and I could now see hairline fractures across the shell’s surface, like a duckling just beginning to hatch.

“We’re fine!”

Pointy’s response was barely audible, probably due to the hearing damage I’d just taken, but it eased my heart… a bit. I opened my primary eyes, scanning the sky. Spotting the twotwo that had Micah was easy, but only Analyze let me be certain of its exact outline, and that only because of the peppering of wounds it had taken. Some from Micah, some from Anju, who had caught up and was perched on its back, and many that must have come from our other allies. The idea of someone shooting lethal attacks toward my son made me nervous, but I was far from the only one of my allies with Assisted Strike to aid my gunfire, and many attack abilities got bonuses that allowed the user to exempt allies with enough synergy.

No, my allies were being careful, and Micah needed help. Blood had oozed out around the points of the twotwos talons where the tips of its claws punctured my oldest son’s armor. I used Draw Attention again, trying to offer any help I could, as I drew my second revolver, but fumbled and dropped it as a residual muscular spasm from the electricity froze my muscles.

As I reached for the gun, icy crystals began blooming on the twotwo’s flexible neck, which bore a multitude of cuts. The ice was Micah’s work, but the cuts weren’t: my friend’s eldest daughter must have gotten close enough that Micah had been able to shield her from the electric blast, because her movements were swift and confident. She had one arm wrapped around the twotwo, and was using the other to repeatedly stab a dagger into its windpipe.

The twotwo was tougher than a regular monster, but it lacked the heavy armor of many Titans, relying on its speed and stealth to protect it. Even Analyze couldn’t pinpoint exactly which attack from the pair of nine-year-olds had been the killing blow, but the monster’s wings suddenly slumped. It began dropping like a stone before fading away mid-air.

My son began plummeting downward, but he’d barely fallen ten feet before Anju grabbed him.

Another twotwo dove for the pair, its remarkable speed in a downward dive outpacing what even our fastest flyers could do… even when they weren’t burdened by carrying another person.

Fortunately, the twotwos speed was a double-edged sword. I’d seen them attack frequently enough at this point that Analyze let me know exactly when the twotwo would want to level out the dive to spear the children on its pointed beak, and a flicker of precision-timed Paralyze - barely a tenth of a second - threw its targeting off completely. A basic hologram of a red octagon beneath Micah and Anju had her pause her descent and the Titan swooped beneath them, unable to turn in time to threaten them.

In seconds, Anju had carried Micah back to us. The bleeding punctures in the shoulders of his breastplate were gruesome, but Vince was ready before they’d even touched ground, and the easing of tension in Micah’s muscles let me know he’d been healed.

“Thanks,” Micah said.

“We did it!” Anju shouted. “We soloed it! I saved you!”

“There were two of us, we didn’t-”

Anju hugged him, pulling his head against her chest as she drifted a foot above the ground. “Soloed it!”

Chapter 24

Time until next Challenge: 10 days, 12 hours, 20 minutes

“You did great,” I snapped. “But stay focused! We’re still in danger.”

The heavily-armored electric Titan was still on its feet, but I could see that it was suffering. The crags on its back that had been draped with tire chains were scorched, with thin cracks evident. The borehole Micah’s laser blast had dug, and my subsequent lead delivery had been far more effective: a crater the size of a truck tire had been blasted out of the Titan’s shoulder armor, revealing blackened and scorched muscle below. My allies were already focusing attacks on that spot - no need to order them - and I saw multiple rods of metal driven deeper through the more vulnerable tissue.

Ariel, is that enough metal to neutralize it?

<Next blast should be ineffective beyond ten meters and will do catastrophic damage to vital systems of Titan #8.>

Electric Titan neutralized! Get back 30 feet, focus on acid hippo, avoid snake, and keep an eye out for twotwos! Speedster engaging in two seconds, take out paralytic tail!

Of the four twotwos that had attacked us initially, two had been slain and one was struggling on the ground, missing a wing. Unfortunately, our situation hadn’t improved as much as that suggested, because four more twotwos had arrived, and I could see that more holograms had appear in the distance as our spotter picked out others that weren’t far off.

I’d finally gotten healing as Micah landed, returning my Panoramic vision and full range of motion, and I was taking full advantage of my enhanced ability to multitask.The burns on my arms and side remained, but that made sense: battlefield healing ought to focus on the most critical wounds. Anything that didn’t meaningfully hamper combat effectiveness or immediately endanger a life should be left to be healed more slowly, later.

I’d resumed trying to help block the acid spray from the hippo. The monster contained a truly prodigious amount of caustic liquid, and the area at the base of the cliff had turned into a steaming swamp of dissolving plant matter, and the nauseating remains of one unfortunate body: still recognizable as human, but very, very dead.

Nearly everyone else had evacuated the area, and I could see blobs of water controlled by hydromancers scouring the acid off the survivors. Twenty people had taken acid burns, three of them severely, but it looked like the hippo had caused one death so far.

The hippo bunched its legs and I could see it planned to leave the cliff to chase its prey. In an instant, I dropped the car panel I’d been using to try to block the spray and grabbed a fallen sword, bracing it against the ground beneath the descending hippo, letting the monster’s own bulk drive it into its frame. 

At least, that was the theory. In reality, the mushy ground made my gambit less successful than it could have been, but the sword still penetrated several inches into the Titan’s blubbery belly, and a pulsing gush of moisture along the edges of the blade suggested that I’d pierced one of its acid sacs… although not enough to stop it from attacking.

Still, the monster was now down on the ground, and for all the danger its acid posed, it could only spray in a frontal arc. Vince and Gavin were sprinting toward its rear, along with a dozen other melee specialists, apparently planning to leap across the acid swamp and onto its back.

Why the hell are you bringing Gavin? I thought, but I didn’t try to stop him. I had to trust my allies, had to trust my husband, had to trust my kids. If they thought they could handle it, I had to let them.

I still watched, sending some of my larger titanium plates along behind them to serve as shields and umbrellas against the spray, or to try to catch them or help them balance if they misjudged their jumps or footing… but most of my attention was elsewhere.

The snake was continuing to thrash, pulverizing the ground and snatching up cars and individuals in attempts to crush them. It, too, had killed at least two people - I’d felt them fade at the edges of my Life Sense - but I thought my call not to prioritize it was the right one. It had already torn up the road and destroyed several our vehicles, and I thought that was the primary reason Hamlet had summoned it. It didn’t have the widespread damaging potential of the electric Titan or the acid hippo.

My allies hadn’t been ignoring it, and it had several deep wounds, but it was still in motion.

I left them to it, focusing most of my attention on the twotwos and using Analyze to determine their targets as they began their dives. Narrow-beam Announcements weren’t a perfect warning tool, since they alerted a whole wedge of people rather than only the targeted clump, but they were still extremely useful, and without the blinding electricity hampering my vision, three twotwos in a row pulled out of their stoops with empty claws and clean beaks.

They were slower on the climb, and we worked to slow them further. Predicting their flight path sometimes gave me enough time to Telekinetically lift objects they’d be forced to crash through, and a plethora of Shockwalls and Force Shields did the same. We only had ten flight specialists, counting Anju, but if they managed to get onto the back of a twotwo, it was almost impossible for the monster to injure them without complicated aerial acrobatics to dislodge them first. They tried, of course, darting into the trees to try to scrape their unwanted passengers off, but the moment that a flyer landed on their back, it meant the eventual end of the twotwo as often as not.

An intensification of static prompted another wide-area Announcement from me:

Shield vision! Get clear! Electric attack incoming!

I followed my own advice, this time ducking my head behind my shield and Cassie’s egg. The electric pulse shouldn’t reach us, and if it did, Micah would protect us. Blindness was the primary danger.

Even behind my shield with my eyes shut, I could detect the flash of light, but I didn’t feel anything. When I lowered my shield and stood, I could see the electric Titan turning to smoke as the spears embedded in its injury carried its own blast straight to its internals.

The hippo was still upright, but it was suffering. Cuts to its probiscus had reduced the force of its spray, and some genius had dropped a tarp over its head. I wasn’t sure how it was staying in place - Adhesive, maybe? - but the plastic material seemed resistant to the acid, and now the gouts of moisture weren’t getting far from the hippo. I was using Titanium plates to block as much backspray as possible, but I could tell that the fighter’s atop the hippo’s back were still taking damage, even as they cut through its blubber.

I narrowed my eyes, then shot out another tight-beam Announcement:

Get clear of hippo! Finish from range! You can’t fall into the acid!

My orders brought instant obedience, the six people on its back jumping clear like a swarm of fleas. Vince had Gavin in his arms and jumped far enough that he almost reached our group again; he’d clearly activated his Enhance specialty, boosting his strength and durability. This, sadly, took them well away from the hydromancers that were clearing acid, but one of my bodyguards hurried forward, using Cleanse liberally to blast the acid away from their exposed skin.

It left behind painful-looking pits and welts, but both my guys had Rapid Regeneration at nearly 900% synergy, and I could see immediate improvement as soon as the acid was removed. Analyze wasn’t even necessary to see them getting better: it only served to let me know that most of the injuries would be completely healed in six minutes.

I was starting to feel tired, and distant holograms in the sky suggested that the main wave of twotwos was closing in fast, but I couldn’t help but feel hopeful: we’d weathered the first and most dangerous onslaught, and of my 208 allies, we’d lost only seven people. Importantly, not a single death had been to a twotwo, and twotwos were the majority of what remained. I thought we could keep that up, even as their numbers increased. They were a fast enemy and a dangerous one, but a lot of the threat they posed came from their stealth, and with holograms marking them out in the sky and my Announcements warning their targets, they were finding it difficult to make kills.

Seconds after my guys had leapt clear, an ice crystal the size of a Christmas tree burst out of the hippo’s back. I almost glanced at Micah, but shook my head: that was too much ice, too far away. Clearly, one of my allies had taken advantage of the damage done to the monster to trigger a freezing Specialty that reached its damaged acid sacs. 

The hippo stilled for a second, then died, the crystalized and liquid acid vanishing with it.

That only leaves the… oh, nevermind.

Byron was on the back of the snake. I hadn’t noticed him getting there, but I’d been watching, and a quick review of Eidetic Memory showed that he’d gotten a flyer to drop him off. I couldn’t actually see Byron, but I could tell it was him from the blazing orb of now-familiar flames that surrounded him: his Specialty. 

The titanic snake was resistant to his attack, and tried to roll and smash Byron against the ground, but our friend leapt clear, dashing back in as soon as he could.

He could keep up the orb of heat at close range for a minute every 24 hours, but a full minute wasn’t required: after seventeen seconds, he burned through whatever passed for its nervous system, and it slumped to the ground, jaws working uselessly. Three seconds later, the monster died.

Right. One more big Announcement. You can do it, Meghan!

I flared a basic hologram over the treeline across the hills to our north, a giant orange arrow.

Area attackers down! Meet up at rally point for coordinated defense!