The Original Beefcake

The second wave of monsters was like a wall of teeth and claws. Marcus made a step forward, ready to break the wave, when the other two melee specialists moved. Grace charged into the wall of monsters and became a whirlwind of death. Fast and powerful strokes of her silver blade cut monsters into half. In the length of a single breath six monsters got sliced apart and the area around the deadly Paladin was drenched in the blood of her enemies.

Carlos didn't fall behind Grace. His mighty long sword turned invisible for Marcus, as the arms of the Accelerator moved faster than he could see. Bodies disintegrated around the man and turned into minced meat. Booming sounds from Carlos' blade overpowered the screaming of the beasts, as the tip of his blade broke through the sound barrier over and over.

Marcus felt like his body was made out of rock, slow, cumbersome and unable to react. The second wave was dead before he could even reach the first enemy. Shocked and deeply rattled he moved back to his starting position as the two champions returned after their bloody work. They didn't need him, Marcus thought. He was utterly useless in this fight. With more time than anything, Marcus looked down at the slain monsters and found that they looked a lot like raptors. Gray scaled hides with large eyes and big teeth and claws. They were running on two strong legs and used a long tail for balance. Only the surprisingly look and skinny arms didn't match the image, they were long enough to drag on the floor when they ran.

More monsters rushed into the killing zone and the well practiced team ended them like the first two waves. Marcus began to fully realize how completely outmatched he was with his normal fighting style. If it is like this..., he thought, and started to compress energy in front of him. He hadn't had the opportunity to test his advanced Impulse Wave against enemies and as it stood he could take his time and prepare a good hit.

Instead of a small red orb he imagined a cylinder of red energy and compressed the length of it until it was basically just a thin disk. He had made several small scale tests with his toys and he now knew that he could imagine different forms to cause Impulse Wave to trigger. A disk was much easier to hit than a small orb, at the end of the day. He compressed about 15% of his total endurance pool and prepared a 70% Impulse Hammer to trigger the Impulse Wave. Marcus expected that was an amount he could withstand without losing the arm. "There are more coming! I can see new monsters coming into range all the time. At least 60 are on the way," Janette warned the raid.

His preparation only took Marcus about three seconds, he had gotten a lot quicker over the last weeks. A positive side effect of his failed training to make Impulse Wave work as a direct attack. No less than twenty beasts came into view and started to climb over the corpses of their fallen ilk. Pinpoint weapon's fire and a giant rotating saw blade (Rita's work) reduced their numbers down to half before they even had the chance to come into the range of the melee specialists.

Marcus was ready to fire his attack and took two steps forward and raised his right arm. "Stop, Marcus!" Grace called him back. He hesitated for a second and lost his window of opportunity. Again, the two living metal tornadoes cut the remaining monsters apart and returned to their starting positions.

Grace moved closer to Marcus and removed some monster remains from her armor. "Preserve your energy. This trash isn't worth it," she said, and Marcus nodded slowly. He wanted to say something, but another wave appeared from the darkness and Grace moved back into her combat stance. Six waves and over 80 monsters crashed against the defense of the raid group and not one beast landed a hit. It was a splendid show of skill and cooperation, and Marcus had no part in it.

He was about to release his compressed energy and drown in self pity, when Janette's voice sounded in his ear piece again. "It isn't over yet! We have gained the attention of two much larger monsters, and they are FAST! ETA 15 seconds," she said, and everybody went back to serious mode. "Are they evolved?" Grace asked and Janette confirmed the suspicion, "Their aura is strong enough for it." Marcus hadn't expected anything else.

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A weird silence filled the void in between the battles, every little sound felt much louder than usual. After a few seconds Marcus could feel the ground shake. Roaring and bellowing filled the air as two massive monsters charged into the illuminated defense area around the trucks. Mighty muscled bodies on four hoofed legs moved with unstoppable speed right into the defenders. Two curved horns, the size of a grown man, crowned the heads of the beasts and were aimed at whatever stood in their way. A wave of attacks washed over the large dark bodies, but a second later Marcus had to Burst jump to avoid getting skewered or trampled to death.

The monsters didn't stop, but rammed into the closest truck, easily piercing the armor with their horns. The impact made the giant machine move by half a meter and dented the whole side of the truck. The defenders on top lost their footing or were thrown off the roof entirely. "Marcus, keep one busy, while we end the other," Grace shouted over the com, and Marcus was already rushing towards the closest monster.

Both the beasts had already recovered from the impact and their thick boned heads looked undamaged from the crash. Marcus had nearly reached his target, when he realized something was wrong. The skin of his hands hurt and when he looked down he saw his hands smoldering, as was the rest of his armor. "Fire Aura!" He shouted and saw remnants of the raptor monsters starting to burn in the vicinity.

The raid fell back, peppering one of the beasts with everything they got, while Marcus engaged his target. His new bracers kept the pain bearable and his Game Changer repaired the damage as quickly as it happened, but he could feel his endurance quickly draining. A giant hoof came down and nearly crushed him, but a Burst quick step saved Marcus. Before he could make his own attack, the monster lowered its head and swiped at him with the massive horns. The steel-like horns crushed against Marcus' ribs and he nearly lost his footing even with Carapace running at 100%. He staggered, but Carapace countered the impact and the head of the monster was violently pushed back.

Finally, Marcus saw an opening and Burst jumped up to the head of the monster about a meter above his own. He was prepared to give the raging beast a good blast with his Impulse Wave, but he had underestimated the strength and speed of his enemy. Mid jump, the monster turned its head back and closed its jaws around Marcus's stretched out right arm. Armor cracked, bones were maimed, but Marcus was a lot tougher to chew on than the wicked beast had expected.

It would take a few seconds to chew through that jerky, time the monster didn't have. Impulse Wave unloaded with 15% of Marcus endurance and a 100% Impulse Hammer. Normally this wouldn't be enough to kill or severely hurt a monster of this size, but the shock wave moved through its mouth right into its brain. The violent eruption tore the head of the beast apart and it rained gray goo all over the area.

The beast fell and with it Marcus. After he hit the ground, he pulled loose the remnants of his arms and endured the recovery process. The Fire Aura was gone, and Marcus turned to see the rest of the team kiting the other monster away from the trucks. He took a deep breath and started to run towards the ongoing battle. About 50% of his endurance was left and it was currently quickly regenerating. His plans for another attack were halted when he saw the front legs of the remaining monster bend from consecutive damage. Unable to move, the roaring beast couldn't avoid Rita's spear attack which literally drilled into its skull and killed it five seconds later. Cheering filled the air and Marcus took a deep breath.

The other combatants quickly came running and he was greeted with a lot of hugs and praises. Grace patted his back. "Are you okay?" She asked, and he nodded. "It looks worse than it is," he admitted, while he looked down on himself. Besides Monster gibber, much of his outer armor was burned and blackened. His right arm was basically without armor and he stank to the heavens. "You took one down all by yourself, and even faster than us!" Carlos said, with a bright smile, but kept his distance because of the stench. "I don't think we should linger here. Check the truck for damage and then let's move on. I don't want something even bigger to show up," Rita said, and the rest agreed.

As it turned out nothing important had been damaged and they decided to leave repairs until they got far away from this place. Marcus joined Janette again and he put some patchwork covering over the four holes in the side of their truck. Finally, he had time to take a short shower (this is true luxury!) and put on some new clothes. When Marcus sat down next to Janette, she welcomed him with, "I totally knew you would take that thing out instead of just buying time." Marcus shrugged his shoulders and answered, "I got lucky. It tried to eat my arm and instead got a mouth full of Impulse Wave." They laughed and enjoyed an after battle chocolate treat.

After the tension and excitement had finally evaporated, Marcus closed his eyes and reached out to Xeen. Enough thrill for you?

Let me ask you something in return. Are you still worried that you are useless to your comrades?

No. It was stupid of me to feel down just because I couldn't compete with the others.

It was. I also enjoyed the battle a lot, to answer your question. Seeing you grow with every encounter is very satisfying. If you now would also heed the words of your elders you would rise even quicker.

Marcus grinned and touched his chest. A crest came forward and Janette cursed, "You got another level up? That's because you hog all the EXP!" Marcus didn't mind her outrage and welcomed a new point of vitality.