Teresa Of All Trades (Book 1 Complete)

Everyone in Ezio's party had some points invested into Agility, enough to make traveling quick without the need of giving everyone piggyback rides. Unfortunately for Ezio, that still didn't mean he could match Teresa's Agility. While she ran with Noah on her back with Ezio's arm in her hand, she may as well have been dragging the guy around as bombs fell from the sky.

"We need to figure out why they're targeting us specifically!" Teresa yelled as she sidestepped another explosion. They honestly weren't too hard to avoid. They had to fall from the sky, and they didn't have any thrusters or anything to increase their speed. The bombs could only drop at terminal velocity, with her stats that was a piece of cake to avoid once she got the hang of it. The tricky part was not accidentally murdering Noah or Ezio in the process.

"It's a stretch but it might be me." Ezio admitted before letting out a grunt as Teresa yanked him in another direction. "The Avatars always seemed to target me primarily in my party."

"You're only bringing this up now?" Teresa asked incredulously.

"We didn't think it was this extreme! We thought it was just a tactical move to target the glass cannon, this is not tactical at all!"

A bright blue streak of lightning shot into the sky, illuminating everything briefly before returning to normal. In the air above Teresa, she spotted a small cluster of black dots dropping to the ground.

"What was that?" Noah asked with his eyes wide.

"I think someone just used a wand, I had one pretty similar to that once." Teresa answered as the black dots grew closer. They were drones, whoever had shot that lightning managed to take out a few. Teresa even got a few kill notifications from it despite not attacking the drones herself, being a distraction counted as contributing. Not very much experience was awarded, but it was better than nothing.

"What's the plan? Retreat for now?" Ezio asked, but Teresa shook her head.

"No, we can't guarantee we can draw their attention away a second time, and we need to handle the ground troops. First we need to make sure they're actually targeting you. If we want to use Noah's <Adhesion> we have to make sure he's not going to be targeted as well. You think you can survive on your own for a moment?"

"Yeah but we don't have long."

"That's fine, draw them away while I get Noah in position, I'll meet back up with you after!"

"Understood."

Bringing Noah along was a bit of a blunder. It wasn't his fault, this was Teresa's plan after all. She could own up to that fact, she hadn't even considered that the drones might prioritize targeting them. Regardless, it was something she had to account for now, and he could still be useful.

Teresa and Ezio darted away from each other, bombs still dropping all around them. Leaving Ezio on his own with his limited Agility was worrying, but the guy was still superhuman by all means. He could definitely carry his own weight, but if Teresa got the most important person in Arconette killed then she knew that would have terrible consequences.

Almost instantly the bombing stopped targeting her. They really were after Ezio for some reason, what he did to piss off Chernobyl Teresa had no idea. Teresa ran north to where she could hear machinery, and in no time she spotted an approaching army of Avatars on the other side of a hill.

Hundreds of tank-like vehicles were approaching, too many for Teresa to quickly count. After spamming <Identify> a few times, she saw their levels ranged anywhere from 36 to 77, though that was just from the small sample she scanned.

"Fucking hell, you want me to deal with that?" Noah asked.

"Can you use <Adhesion> on the slope? Make climbing uphill as difficult as possible, that's what I need from you." Teresa said.

"I can coat it with my spell, sure, but what's that going to accomplish?"

"We can use the hill as cover so only one row of Avatars can approach at a time over the top. The more we slow them down, the easier it will be for the army to handle. Instead of hundreds of robots at once, they'll only need to deal with one small wave at a time."

"That makes sense but I'm concerned, your plan keeps changing."

"New shit keeps happening, keep an eye on the sky. If you see any tiny dots up there, run. If you run out of Mana, drink this." Teresa said, pulling a potion out of her <Inventory>.

Noah placed his hands on the ground, and Teresa was able to vaguely sense Mana coursing through the porous rock underneath them spreading across the terrain. Teresa did a quick look around to ensure nothing was headed towards the vulnerable mage. Seeing that the coast seemed clear, Teresa activated <Dash> and made her way to Ezio, who was doing his best to not explode.

After a few seconds of sprinting she was next to the man. She picked Ezio up and continued running, still avoiding bombardment. This actually was getting ridiculous, just how many bombs did those drones carry?

"Now that the hill is taken care of, we should run away." Ezio said as Teresa gradually increased her speed. "I'm confident they could handle the Avatars on their own with that setup. We just need to keep the drones distracted."

"We can still trim their numbers down. If we run into the crowd we might be able to get the drones to bomb the Avatars." Teresa replied.

"I don't think that's a good idea, they could simply switch to having the Avatars on the ground target us while the drones go back to bombing the army, then we're in the same situation we started in."

"But we can still help-"

"No, we already are helping." Ezio said, cutting her off. "There is such a thing as doing too much. If we try to help anymore than we already are, that will only increase the risk of casualties. We've already given our allies the chance to get into a fortified position, our only job now is to survive."

Another bolt of lightning shot into the sky, striking a drone in the clouds. The drone's ordinance exploded, destroying the machine and causing a temporary lull in the bombing.

"I guess you're right." Teresa admitted, deciding to keep focused on the task at hand. "I just feel bad leaving them to fight on their own."

"Don't, cause that's not what's happening." Ezio responded. "Nobody out here is incompetent. They've all fought monsters before, they've all risked their lives before, and they all knew what they were getting into. Have some faith in them, they can handle themselves."

"That sounds cold."

"It's pragmatic. We could theoretically attack, I could use my nuclear <Embers> and trim their numbers down, but then that opens the door to a lot of risk we can't afford. Sometimes less is more, and right now we are fighting. I might just be a piece of bait to lure away an opponent making a poor decision, but I'm sure there are people who feel bad they aren't able to contribute as much as we are right now. This is a battle of attrition, we need to play this smart."

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Teresa activated <Dash> as a cluster of bombs blanketed the air above her, forcing her to sprint out from under the deadly rain of metal and fire. The drones were slightly changing it up, deciding to drop a shitload at once across a large area that made it harder to avoid.

She began to put more and more distance between herself and the army, which had now reached the hill Noah was using his spell on. Several human tanks began to set up just below the crest of the hill, while the other classes got into positions that would allow them to make the most of their abilities.

Some of the mages began to lob spells over the top of the hill, blindly bombarding the Avatars on the other side with various skills. She couldn't see exactly what the effect of the spells were, but there were a few consumables also being thrown. One of the Completionists threw a small green object over the top of the hill. Was that a grenade?

The answer was yes, that was in fact a grenade, which Teresa deduced by the explosion that sounded out in the distance well away from the bombs that were being dropped around her.

"Where the hell are people getting grenades from?" Teresa asked.

"Probably a Portal. We have those blue armbands for a reason."

The Avatars finally reached the fortified hill, though they were slowed down by Noah's <Adhesion>. Various rangers stepped forward under cover of the tanks to fire at the Avatars as they ascended, targeting the tracks on the machines that made up the sides of the attacking robots. Many of the rangers were barely leaving any damage on the metal machines, but a few began to break down as the belt on the tracks came undone from being under constant fire.

Even though none of the machines had been outright destroyed from the volleys being launched by the humans, it immobilized several along the perimeter of the Avatars creating a funnel that made it harder for any of the machines to flank. The humans retreated behind the cover of the hill once more as the machines began to cross the field of <Adhesion>.

The first wave of machines crossed the top of the hill only to be met with a barrage of spells, arrows, and bullets. Turrets were frozen by magic then broken apart by projectiles, robots sunk into the ground and were mauled by blunt weapons from the light warriors, red waves of energy continuously shot out from the frontline of shields as the tanks kept the focus on them.

Within 15 seconds the first wave to cross the top of the hill had been destroyed. Multiple light warriors and a few spare tanks were dragging a couple of the broken robots out of the way while more Avatars crossed the peak, leading to another barrage of robot destruction.

While the Completionists were capable of delivering incredible amounts of firepower on their own, the force from The Mall was nothing to scoff at either. Due to their limited levels, multiple parties had to target a single machine to take it down. It was at the point where Teresa could barely see some of the robots underneath the constant barrage of spells and projectiles attacking them, leading to wave after wave of destruction for the machines while all Teresa had to do was avoid the easily dodgeable bombs from above.

Countless kill notifications came in as her allies affected by <Facilitated Restoration> plowed through one line of the machines at a time, to the point where their fortified position was becoming difficult to manage due to the number of dead robot corpses. The experience reward was minimal, but Teresa was pretty damn happy with the levels she got from it anyways.

Occasionally, a drone overhead would spark as an attack landed. It seemed Mordecai was still trying to snipe the drones out of the sky, though it had a very small effect. Bombs were still dropping, and Teresa had no idea how many drones there actually were.

The army began to shift as the battlefield became even more cluttered with broken machinery. They were still having difficulties managing the robot graveyard, making their position far more difficult to maintain. A single person sprinted out from the human army and began making their way towards Teresa and Ezio, who were still being constantly bombed.

It was easy enough now that Teresa could practically do it on autopilot, but she still did her best to not zone out. She couldn't get too comfortable with the current situation when lives were on the line.

"We're retreating!" The woman who was running towards them yelled. "We're falling back a kilometer to fortify another position, less than half of the golems are remaining!"

"Understood!" Ezio yelled back. The woman turned around and sprinted back to the army while Teresa tried to analyze their situation.

"Why retreat? It looks like things are going well." Teresa asked as she began to change her own position. If they stayed where they were, then they would be out in the open for the Avatars to gun them down upon crossing the hill.

"Our formation isn't holding up, the destroyed Avatars are getting in the way." Ezio explained. "A small party could use that to their advantage taking cover behind them, but our numbers favor a controlled battlefield as opposed to a chaotic mess. We're likely going to repeat the exact same strategy somewhere safer. How's your Stamina looking?"

"I'm doing fine, we're only going as fast as we need to." Teresa answered.

"You can go faster?"

"Yeah, easily."

"What's your class again?" Ezio answered, making Teresa smirk.

"Sorry, it's a state secret."

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"We got to go back!" Mathew cried as he and Gabriel ran through the streets of Arconette. "They got dad!"

"I'm sorry but we can't." Gabriel responded as he led the way.

"But-"

"I couldn't scan that guy's level with <Identify>." Gabriel continued. "Going back is just going to make things worse, we need to get help."

"I…" Mathew started to speak but stopped, not sure what he could say. He didn't want to lose his dad, especially considering how things had been lately. Dad had always been a helicopter parent, it was something he and mom got into arguments about all the time when they were together. He tried keeping that same overprotective nature even during the apocalypse. Mathew hated that, he hated how sheltered his life had been, but even more he hated the way that he and Gabriel had treated their dad lately.

They had honestly been dicks to him lately. Maybe it was justified, maybe their dad had made some terrible decisions, but not everyone could be a Completionist. Maybe as time went on dad would realize how different things were, maybe things could improve.

Mathew didn't want his dad to die.

"Where are we going?" Mathew asked, trying to pull himself together. Panicking wouldn't help anything.

"The Guild, we can get help from them." Gabriel responded, but Mathew shook his head.

"We can do better than that." He said, racking his brain. How would all of those fancy people handle this? "Someone from The Mall was just kidnapped in broad daylight, we can escalate this higher up than the Guild. Let's go to the town hall."

"Good idea."

The two changed course slightly, taking different turns as they passed by multiple angry pedestrians. More than one person yelled after them to watch where they were going, a few grumbling about kids these days.

By the time they reached the town hall, it felt like an eternity had passed. Realistically it had only been minutes since dad was taken, but every second felt slow. The two teenagers yanked open the door to the town hall, running inside in an attempt to waste no time. Seconds mattered, which was why it was alarming that multiple weapons were immediately aimed at the two as soon as they entered.

"What the hell is this?" One man asked, upset. "What do you two think you're doing?"

"They kidnapped dad!" Mathew yelled. "The traffickers!"

"We got ambushed by a sleep skill!" Gabriel added.

"Why do two kids know about the traffickers?" The man asked, but before he could continue two women cut him off.

"We need a party ready and moving now!" One of them yelled. He was pretty sure her name was Madeline.

"What makes you think you can-" The man began to say, but the other woman cut him off.

"Thomas is a critical asset to The Mall, any and all negotiations regarding trade will be ceased until he is secured." She commanded. "Send a messenger out to the attack force, someone has targeted personnel from The Mall. We can no longer assume this operation is safe."

"You heard her." Another man said, already on his feet. "Mobilize the city guard, lock down the gate. Nobody leaves Arconette without explicit permission. Someone get Andes and brief him on the situation, tell him to meet up with the attack force and inform them of what's going on."

"Until Thomas is secure, these two are to stay with us." Madeline added, looking at the two teenagers. Whatever had been going on in the town hall devolved into a chaotic jumble of people running out the door while the guards stood on high alert.

"You'll find him, right?" Mathew asked, knowing damn well that was a stupid question.

"Of course." Madeline answered. "We'll do everything we can."