World Filter

The soldiers kept a tight encirclement on everyone as they dashed down the street. The Corrupted were spilling into the street in droves. As more and more appeared, they collected into one massive wave of death and teeth. They kept ahead of the horde by laying down suppressing fire while retreating.

It worked, but their way forward was blocked. Causing them to have to alter course from Prospect Park and travel more parallel to it. If Mark had to guess they were only a couple of hours out now. Running this way wasn't the worst option they would just have to enter from further up.

When the number started to become too great for the damage they were outputting the soldiers had to move into close range when some of them started to catch up.

During the talk last night, he found out that only four of the soldier were pure Aura users, the rest were Generalists. Now as far as he could tell that made them well-rounded, but Mark could immediately see the difference when it came to close-quarters combat between the two. The speed, strength, and reaction times were just too big of a gap.

However, Davis seemed to know their strengths and apply them to where they were most needed.

“Ava, Fox, Galahan, with me, line retreat,” he called.

They moved right away, moving positions to the approaching horde. While the others switched to overwatch.

At the same time, he took out a handheld radio. It crackled to life as he spoke into it.

“Unit 603J requesting extraction from a stage one Influx. Stage two is imminent. We are currently two hours out, co-ordinates are-”

Mark didn't hear if he got a response over the noise.

Once the switch was made their speed increased further. The only limit became the center, namely the family.

The woman was carrying the kid and the man was panting furiously. Mark could see they were already moving at their top speed.

Mark had not been idle during this time. He had been firing off [Force bolts]’s at key areas. Trying to cause collapses in their ranks. A single stumbling Corrupted could drag others down with it.

At this speed, they were keeping out of reach of the main bulk of the horde. But they were never able to pull away.

That’s when Mark saw the other mass of Corrupted approaching from the direction they were heading in.

Mark shouted above the noise to warn Davis.

To his credit, he reacted with a lightening quick response time. He indicated a narrow interleading alleyway, that crossed to the other street over.

The alleyway was surrounded on either side by tall buildings, it was probably big enough to allow two people with their arms stretched out to pass comfortably.

The two different hordes crashed together, merging, as their group entered the alleyway.

Moving rapidly the choke point caused the surrounding hordes to slow to a comparable trickle.

Just as they got halfway up the path, that’s when shit hit the fan.

The alleyway was a straight shot forward. So when another horde came into view on the other side, Mark's stomach fell to his boots.

The horde noticed them right away and charged into the gap, closing off their escape route immediately.

Mark began looking for escape routes.

No side doors into either of the buildings.

His eyes flicked up.

No windows anywhere near the ground floor. The nearest opening was three stories up.

He might be able to get himself and Boe up, but there was no way he could carry everyone here that distance.

They were trapped.

“Turn to fight! Full-auto, don't save a single bullet!” Davis howled.

The sound of gunfire exploded into the narrow space, bouncing off the walls.

Lead smacked into the moving wave of Corrupted. Killing its way through the line of charging bodies.

The choke point acted as a neat funnel, pushing back the ravenous mob.

It worked. That is until the Ordinators showed up.

With a screech, the Corrupted began to climb along the walls. This caused the group's funneling tactic to weaken as more of their number entered the narrow alleyway.

Mark glanced up at the windows above and back at the fighting soldiers.

The Corrupted were seconds away from reaching them.

With no time Mark shouted.

“Making space!”

Reaching down into his chest he gathered up all his energies and cast [Shape Mana].

A thick cube of force expanded in the alleyway to meet the walls. Expanding over the whole group. Purple light flooded the dark passage.

He kept channeling power into the spell, making sure it didn't become opaque.

The sheer power coursing through the spell was at least that of the armor he’d made yesterday. Only now he had even more resources at his disposal.

If he had to put it into numbers, the amour had cost him around 20 Mana and 85 Prana.

This construct had the full weight of 50 Mana and 140 Prana.

The Corrupted charged, crashing right into the construct from both sides.

No visible damage and there was barely any power loss.

The soldiers shouted in surprise.

“I’ll make sure you can pass through it. Shots will too”

After a short moment, he heard Davis shout at his men.

“Alright we have a defendable position, treat it as such! Take down as many as you can! I’ve Radioed it in, help is on the way!”

Right away bullets began firing once more passing right through the construct.

Outside, the Corrupted pressing against the wall were ripped to pieces by a hail of fresh gunfire.

The aura users began attacking with close-range weapons, from inside the construct.

Multiple thumping sounds rung out around them as the Corrupted pounded on Mark's wall of force.

It was gradual but very slowly the multiple weak hits were starting to add up.

The soldiers was attacking fiercely but the sounds of gunfire were slowly spluttering out, as one by one each of them ran out of ammo.

Mark could feel the construct starting to take strain. Each hit chipped away at his resources, but this was now an endurance game. Mark wasn't sure how long the supposed help would take to get here but right now he wasn't seeing many options.

The soldiers were now dancing in and out of safety as they pushed themselves to the limit, to kill just one more.

Mark dropped to one knee, his breathing coming out faster. It was still manageable.

Mark devoted his total concentration to managing the construct. Each time one of them passed through Mark allowed them to move through and back. It wasn't so hard when it was one or two but with so many, he was locked to the spot.

That was when they had their first casualty.

Mike from last night jumped out to kill a collapsed Ordinator and as he retreated one of the Corrupted snagged the strap of his gun.

One of the other nearby soldiers screamed for Mike and tried to pull him back. But the collective strength of the horde was too strong and ripped Mike from his grip.

Dragging him out of the cube.

Tearing into his neck and pulling him deeper into the mob.

Mike released a primal scream of terror and pain.

“Fuck!” Mark cursed.

He wanted to extend the construct’s range, but he was having trouble just maintaining what he had left.

His last screams stopped after a couple of seconds, but Mark would remember them for a long time to come.

He could have done something if he had just-

“Maintain the line! Do not let him die in vain!” Davis screamed at his men.

Jolting Mark to the present.

Right.

His job was to hold the space. Survive now, regret later.

He had to hold on for as long as he could manage. Mark's stubborn side rose to meet the challenge.

His mind began to empty of everything. Other than the thought of holding the spell together he thought of nothing.

His mind examined his spell.

He felt the wall of his Mana holding everything together, the Prana raising up like glue to fill the cracks. Holding everything together and insulating them. But he felt something missing. Something he wasn't providing the spell.

Stability.

Mark remembered the description of the spell.

The strength and toughness of constructs are based on the Mana and Resistance attributes.

Resistance. He thought that it might be applied passively, but now he could feel he was wrong.

He had to supply it.

But how did he apply something inherent?

Resistance wasn't a resource he could send forward. It was just there.

Then it hit Mark.

If Resistance was just there, then he had to bring the resource to the Resistance.

To himself.

Mark allowed the spell to rebound around himself. Normally he braced against the hits to his construct, but now he allowed them to bounce off himself. Taking a portion of the blow for the construct. He ignored the pain that each hit created and just let it flow

He was the frame, supporting the spell.

He noticed thin bands of Mana from the spell reaching from him from all sides and fastening themselves to each part of his body.

The disconnect faded and the space inside his Construct truly became his.

He felt each smack, hit and smash up against the construct. His resistance weakening each blow through him.

The pain began to subside, becoming more of a feedback than anything else.

Right away the constant pressure he felt halved and he took hold of the spell entirely.

Just a single step below mastery.

With the feedback, he could feel each person under his construct. Each little star of lifeforce.

Some were wounded, and some were hiding it. All were exhausted.

Mark knew the inherent downside of Prana was contact, it couldn't exist outside the living body or Mana.

However, with the addition of his resistance, this spell could act as a bridge between them.

Mark didn't have much Prana left and he didn't want to draw too much from the construct, but using what he could spare he began to cast [Invigorate] on everyone. Sending the Prana forward through his active construct.

He only gave small doses, but the changes were noticeable.

All around him, the soldier's killing speed began to increase as their exhaustion faded away.

Energized shouts of battle went up as they began hacking into the horde with vengeance for their fallen comrade.

Mark no longer had any problem allowing them through the field. He could tell where each of them was and how close they were to leaving the boundary of the spell.

Mark and the soldiers kept fighting. The minutes blurred together.

Davis’s radio cracked to life.

“Attention unit 603J. Extraction impossible, reinforcements onroute, ETA 3 minutes”

Mark heard this above the sounds of battle and could only hope that meant something would change soon.

Eventually, he had to stop using [Invigorate] in favor of saving his dwindling resources.

All types of wounds were beginning to pile up on the soldiers.

The family huddled in the middle. Boe was barking, wanting to jump at the horde, but Mark shouted at him to stay put.

If he went out there now, Mark would not be able to get to him.

Small cracks were starting to appear in the construct. With the addition of his Resistance, its strength had grown exponentially, but even still. He was being worn down by dozens of attacks a second.

“Keep it up, help is on the way!” Davis shouted

Mark doubled down on his spell, fighting to keep it together. His construct had about a fourth of its resources left. He could hold out for a little while yet, at the cost of giving up his only escape route.

Mark chose to hold on.

The raging hoard screamed for blood just inches away from them, each minute felt like its own lifetime.

Then the orange glow of the morning light in the street beyond turned a pale blue.

Suddenly the Corrupted near the exit of the alleyway exploded in all directions. Blue flames poured into the narrow passage, easily reaching a full story in height. Burning anything in its path. Mark's pupils narrowed as he braced his spell.

Only the flames warped harmlessly around them, burning a portion of the horde on the other side.

The flames cleared and two people stood there, well, one stood.

A man could be seen at the entrance holding a woman in his arms in front of him.

Her arm was extended out in front of her and beads of perspiration clung to her forehead.

Mark recognized the two of them right away.

“Good to see you again ladies and gents, that one took a ton outta me. We gotta move, now” Samantha said with a smile.