World Filter

“Dammit, we can’t let this thing near the base!” Mark shouted

The final leg of their journey had been the hardest part, with the last five hours having been a constant battle. Now they were so close.

They’d cut through countless Corrupted, dodged the flocking Ghasts, and on multiple occasions had to outrun a pack of Ghouls.

Unfortunately just when they’d thought they lost the pack a Behemoth had shown up. Turns out the reason they hadn’t been able to escape was because of the alpha's tracking ability, leading the way.

They'd just been approaching the outskirts when a beach ball-sized bolt of acid came flying at Sam. Luckily she managed to block it with a shield but lost speed and height in the process. This gave the behemoth the chance to jump from the shadows directly at her. Jonathan and Mark had turned to help but the other Ghouls piled on from all directions, forcing them to deal with them first.

At that moment, in the chaos of battle, Mark saw the camp come into view out of the corner of his eye.

Though cracked and broken in multiple places the walls of Prospect Park still stood. Flashes of gunfire and spells issued forth from the top of the walls crushing the Corrupted below.

Suddenly the sound of thunder rolled through the area as Sam sent the Behemoth flying in a concussive explosion of wind. It crashed into the side of a truck, leaving a crater in the metal.

Jonathan didn’t hesitate and charged, landing on the creature before it even had a chance to recover. Sinking his blade into its neck, at the last moment the thing managed to knock the swing off course, and instead of claiming its life, Jonathan only managed to inflict a mortal wound.

Their battle caught the attention of the nearby Corrupted, causing them to change their targets from the wall to the unprotected humans on the ground.

They were running out of time.

Corrupted charged at them from both sides. Jonathan retreated before the behemoth could retaliate.

The creature thrashed around, causing its lifeblood to pour out onto the ground, and caustic fumes rose up from the tar.

Hatred burned in its soulless eyes and it charged Jonathan with the last of its strength.

Mark had been using a spear of earth to kill the pack of ghouls and blocking their incoming projectiles with his construct.

If that wave of Corrupted arrived before they finished the Behemoth off, then his job would get harder, so he made a decision.

Mark whistled loudly to let them know he was going to create an opening and that they should be ready. They'd come up with a system of calls to let each other know what they were doing in battle.

A single shirl whistle came back for Jonathan letting him know he heard and was ready

Still maintaining the first shield, Mark poured energy through the staff and sent a secondary construct forward. The thing landed like a falling hammer, crushing the dying Behemoth's charge and locking the creature in place.

Jonathan was already there and plunging his blade into its eye socket, snuffing out its life. Howls of anger went up from the pack as renewed bolts of acid rained down.

Mark pulled both constructs in as Sam called a retreat.

They charged towards the approaching horde as it was in between them and home, the stealthy option long since out of the window.

Mark flew up towards Sam as Jonathan disengaged and followed behind.

They made good headway before crashing into the first wave. Ghasts swarmed the air and the ground was covered in Corrupted.

From where Mark was flying he could barely see an open piece of road let alone a path forward.

When that wave hit, they’d be overwhelmed in seconds. The wall was just too far away.

Just before they met Mark saw an opening.

“Sam! Clear us a path through the air, Jonathan, follow my lead!”

Sam looked back at him for a second and with a nod turned back to the front

The night ignited with a blue radiance, as the air filled with flames, growing in strength by the second. Burnt bodies dropped from the sky like flies as Sam carved a hole through the swarm, leaving a cylinder open for them to pass.

At nearly the same time the surrounding air took on dangerous quality, like a beast's sharp fangs were moments away from tearing into one's throat. Jonathan had engaged his Aura as he crashed into the waves below, each moment cutting through dozens of Corrupted.

From the front Mark felt the heat burning his face and from behind the cold blade of a knife pressed against his neck.

Reaching back Mark made a scooping motion as he sent a construct ahead of Jonathan, pushing Corrupted out of the way and shaping it like a ramp. Jonathan saw what he was doing and ran up it. At the last second Mark condensed the thing into one compressed jumping pad angled towards the wall.

Realizing what Mark was doing Jonathan pushed off the construct with his full force, at the same time Mark pushed the construct forward as fast as he could. The explosive strength sent Jonathan catapulting into the air, their combined forces shattering the construct.

In that one moment, he overtook Sam and Mark, covering nearly half the distance in one jump, they only caught up to him as he began to slow.

Mark recreated another platform in midair just as Jonathan reached his zenith, landing once more he pushed off it again and launched himself over to the wall.

Sam’s flames were thinning by the second and Ghasts were beginning to get in.

“Mark, can’t keep it up” she panted.

Seeing the flames dull further he realized she must be running on absolute empty. They were all exhausted by the time they’d gotten here and to keep the air clear she had been burning through hundreds of Ghasts a second. That kind of firepower took its toll, as more Ghasts slipped through the widening gaps.

They were so close yet they may as well be a mile away.

Mark grabbed hold of Sam and wrapped both of them in a construct. At the same, he did something he really didn’t want to. He poured all his remaining Mana into [Telekinesis] and targeted both of them, aiming as best he could, he fired the spell.

With around 50 Mana left, this was the equivalent of what he’d done to the apple on his first day, he just had to hope their mass would slow them down enough.

All of a sudden the G-forces around them climbed to terrifying degrees and sent them hurtling towards the wall. Crashing through any Ghasts directly in their way and turning them into bloody mists.

Mark thought he heard someone screaming as they crashed into the top of the wall, tearing a huge chunk out of it and shooting over the other side, sending cracks throughout his construct. Seeing the ground approaching, Mark turned his back towards it to try and cushion Sam's landing. They slammed into the ground and the construct finally gave out as they both skidded along the ground, leaving a trench in the dirt, before finally coming to a stop.

The pain wasn’t so bad and his passive was already dealing with the bruises, he’d been lucky his construct had taken most of the blow. Not to mention he had the equivalent of 450 Aura at the moment.

Neither of them moved for a second before Sam bolted up looking both happy and angry at the same time.

“Warn me next time you want to launch us at a wall jerk!”

Mark just laughed at her pouting. They were home and safe who cared how they got here?

“Sam! Mark!”

Looking around Mark noticed Jonathan hopping down from the top of the wall and landing next to them.

“Shit, I thought you were right behind me”

“All good man, we made it.”

Mark got up and looked around. The first thing he noticed was the destruction. The wall was still standing but the inside was a completely different story. Tents lay collapsed and abandoned on the ground. Equipment and all manner of litter were strewn about. It looked like someone had attempted to fix some of the tents but they hadn't gotten very far.

Jonathan pointed over his shoulder with his thumb.

“We need to get up there, quite a bit has changed since we’ve been gone”

Mark checked his reserves and with basically no Mana and 35 Prana they'd just made it. Retrieving his rifle from his inventory Mark followed them up to the top of the wall.

Just as they were about to reach the top Jonathan turned and gave Sam and Mark another of the fruits he’d found earlier.

“Eat them, every little bit helps”

Sam nibbled on her lower lip but then seemed to make her decision and then popped it in her mouth.

Mark chewed on his and felt a little bit of energy returning. Cresting the top, he caught sight of what was going on up here, Jonathan was right things were different. Well. Sort of. The formations were familiar, along with the rotations. However, it was a complete mix of people up here. SAGE’s uniforms along with normal soldiers, civilians, you name it. It was a patchwork of people working together to keep the Corrupted out.

What was confusing though was that the soldiers seemed to be working with a small group of people in metal armor. Mark took another second to register they wore white armbands with a shield on the front.

Mark's eyes darted around and finally, he saw her making her way from one of the turrets.

Daphne walked out with a confident stride, followed by Ethel and Sandy.

When Mark saw her his mind finally calmed and he started walking toward her, the movement drew her attention. When their eyes met he saw relief flood through them.

Mark felt a wind whip past him and suddenly Jonathan was next to Ethel checking on her, looking for injuries. Boe barked from beside her for some of the attention.

As Mark arrived, he drew Daphne into a hug, which was a little awkward when they were both kitted out in armor and covered in blood and grime but felt good regardless. They broke apart and Daphne said.

“Really guys, the grand entrance was great, half the wall saw that light show”

By then Sam had arrived.

“Sorry about that, circumstances warranted it. Could you tell us what's going on? We want to help where we can”

Daphne nodded and said.

“No, it's probably a good thing, hopefully, the light will draw more attention to this side so we know where to focus our defenses.”

Her tone slipped into what Mark was calling her leader voice, realizing she had gone off track she cleared her throat and continued in a more casual tone.

“The simplest version is that the mother of all ‘Influxes’ arrived yesterday afternoon and breached the walls. We retreated to the fallback point and when the morning came, a group of volunteers consisting of SAGE, my Knights, and willing soldiers managed to retake the main campgrounds. Now we are just trying to recover, if Major Karter is right they say it should calm down by tomorrow afternoon. If you are looking for a spot to make the most difference then Ethel has been strategizing with Mr. Davis from SAGE and will point you in his direction. It's good to have you guys back”

Sam nodded and made her way over to Ethel soon enough they all began to disperse across the wall.

Just as Mark was getting ready to move, Daphne reached forward and grabbed hold of his arm. She wore a look of vulnerability that Mark hadn't seen since they landed the boat on the shore on the very first day.

“Find me after all this is over, okay?” she said barely above a whisper.

The emotion flashed across her face so fast that Mark questioned if he even saw it in the first place but in that moment her words stirred a protective instinct in Mark.

“I promise,” he said.

With a look that said, 'I'll hold you to that,' she moved towards the frontline.

Mark had seen Jonathan join in with the frontline on their current section, while Sam moved two sections over to assist the caster rotations there.

Mark slowly moved through the sections, alternating between taking shots with his rifle and helping share the burden of whichever barrier unit looked the most pressed. As he passed through the sections Mark noticed an incredible change in the defenders.

The wall breach must have been disastrous and as far as he understood they hadn’t even had time to count their losses yet but for all the destruction the breach must have caused, Mark saw people who refused to die or give up and drew the strength to keep fighting.

The numbers on the wall right now were about half what they were before they’d left on their mission but each person here was so much stronger. Casters had evolved from just basic spells, using more powerful versions that packed much more of a wallop and seemed to be able to maintain way more of them. The frontline dealt with all incoming creatures steadily and with minimal struggle, the basic Corrupted no longer able to simply overpower them. Medics ran from person to person no longer needing to drag them away, instead healing them right where they stood and moving on. The rewards of battle were starting to show. Mark looked on to see people that had bathed in flame and come out stronger.