World Filter

The sound of implements breaking as they crashed to the ground could be heard coming from Major Dureals tent. He now stood over his desk panting and staring at the wall.

Mark had checked the time and that conference call had not taken more than twenty minutes. That was all the time it had taken for them to make the decision to abandon this place. After Major Liam had left, Major Dureal reminded them to hold their tongues and then dismissed them all.

As he left the tent Sam, Jonathan Mark, and even Ethel had followed him across the now-empty soldier's quarters.

For a while the tent was silent and then finally Sam spoke up.

“Dad, listen we need to think of our next move. We can’t seriously be thinking of leaving all these people here, there has to be a way we can help”

The Major sighed.

“I completely agree but right now we are limited in our responses. This is a direct order from my superior officer”

“So then we ignore it,” Jonathan said coldly.

The major looked up at him with anger in his eyes but after thinking it over he seemed to change his demeanor.

“That is one option, but it comes with heavy repercussions Jonathan. Major Liam has been handed the reins, so the only soldiers that would follow me would be the ones that have a vested interest in this camp,”

“So the people that have family members here,” Sam said.

The major nodded and continued

“The next big problem would be that we will be branded as deserters, all outside assistance will disappear, and eventually if the situation ever does stabilize we’ll be a target for removal. Fighting the Corrupted is already strenuous enough, making more enemies will hammer the last nail in our coffins”

Jonathan wasn’t willing to give up just yet.

“Yeah but that's if they ever manage to get a force out here, hell they may even forget about us”

“You may be right, and it may take a long time but with their resources and stronger military forces who would you bet on going down first, us or them.”

“Them, definitely,” Jonathan said without a hint of doubt in his voice.

The major smiled for the first time, he let out a dry laugh.

“Maybe… but right now the soldiers in this camp make up around two-thirds of its population, remove that and we'll scarcely have the manpower to keep the walls occupied”

“We’ll reduce the size of the encompassing wall”

“Yes we’d no doubt have to but it still might not be enough” he shook his head as if he had already thought of this.

When it looked like Jonathan was about to lose it, Ethel chimed in.

“What about what the Colonel said about bringing the civilians with? Could you convince Major Liam to do that?”

The Majors pursed his lips.

“Major Liam will no doubt want to work his retreat in a convoy formation, the front will carve a path for the rest of the convoy, and then we will alternate them to avoid losses. The problem with this strategy is the more people you have, the more ground you need to cover, and the bigger target you paint on your back. Taking that number of civilians would doom the mission from the start. It might be possible to take a much smaller group but then how do we decide who goes and who stays?”

“Fuck it all, then what do we do?” Jonathan growled.

Sam was biting her thumbnail again and she looked up at Mark.

“Mark you got any ideas?”

Mark had been quiet up until now because nothing they had said up to this point had affected his decision.

Even when the Colonel had been giving her orders, Mark had felt no urgency, as nothing she could say held any weight to him.

For Mark the decision was simple.

Even if they were going to abandon these people he wouldn’t. Mark was calm because he was staying to help no matter what they finally decided. If he could help defend these people then it was worth it, and it wasn’t because of some misguided sense of virtue or need to be the hero. Everyone he cared about was here. Donny was somewhere nearby and if he couldn’t fight to protect the people here then what the hell was the point? He’d finally found something he cared about as much as his own survival.

“The only idea I have right now is to have everyone going out to fight and strengthen themselves, but with the time frame we’re working with it won’t be very effective or safe. Either way, I’m staying unless we can get everyone there without leaving people behind.”

Everyone fell silent as they weighed their options. The light was dying and their shifts were fast approaching.

The Major spoke up.

“Listen I’ll come up with something, we’ll see how it goes tomorrow and I will keep you all informed. I would guess that Major Liam will attempt to leave for HQ in the last three days. Meaning we still have four days to come up with something. Worst case scenario we fall back on survival and try to hold out for as long as we can, even if it costs us the help of our government”

Mark saw a man who had dedicated his life to the military but was willing to disobey a direct order in an effort to save lives. Regardless of how others might see him, Mark could only feel respect for the man.

The evening battle was starting so they all began to leave. Sam paused at the opening of the tent and said.

“You guys go on ahead, I have something to speak with my dad about.” before taking out her tablet and slipping back inside.

Heading to the battlefront Mark pushed all the complicated thoughts from his head. Climbing the wall he saw that fights had just begun. As a way to work through things Mark allowed himself to fall into the lul of battle. He even started employing his construct to sense the surrounding attackers. Kill, move on, kill, move on. Block that, heal them. While it was never boring, it did help Mark clear his head. Corrupted wanted only one thing, their intentions and motivations were unforgivable but understandable. Humans were a different story, willingly cutting off people because it didn’t serve them anymore. Mark got that they had to make hard decisions, the Colonel was making the best of a bad situation. That didn’t make it any easier to accept or make him any less angry.

Survival of the whole, in place of the individual.

If the soldiers never made it back to HQ, the Colonel would probably write them off her balance sheet, if they did she’d throw them into another battleground. Either way, she could take it or leave it. Mark realized he was starting to think about unnecessary things and threw himself back into battle. This was affecting him more than he thought.

The fighting continued into the early hours of the morning and as Mark walked back to Daphne's tent he found his mind much clearer.

He’d do what he could, where he could, and everything else he’d take as it came.

As he arrived at Daphne's tent he saw Ethel and her already talking. When he entered the two looked up.

“She up to date?” he asked.

Ethel gave him a look that told him she was getting to it.

Mark sat on one of the open camping chairs and listen to Ethel fill her in. At the same time, his construct filled the space and he thickened the walls to block out sounds.

When Ethel was done, Mark was glad he had because Daphne let out a string of curses that could make a sailor blush.

“Dammit, how many people were there again? One of them is bound to warn people. This is going to spread fast. People are going to panic.”

Ethel nodded.

“There's not a whole lot we can do right now”

Sam seemed to disagree.

“Tomorrow we are hitting the streets again, we need to grow our strength.”

When Mark heard this he couldn’t agree more.

“Will you let me join? I can help speed up hunting and I want to get in any experience I can”

Neither Daphne nor Ethel had any problem with this and soon enough Ethel headed out to get some much-needed sleep.

Mark took Daphne to bed and the two slept in each other's arms.

In the morning Mark grabbed his kit and headed to the wall with the knights. For the first time he took out the helm he’d gotten yesterday. It was a simple design and looked a little like a spartan helmet, minus the feathery mohawk. The outside was made of the same black leather, and when Mark put it on he felt its power merge with his and the set bonus tick up. His healing was now 75% more effective and the extra Prana was always welcome.

Interestingly the majority of the Knights were heading out, leaving only a select few to protect their area. Though even that was unnecessary because since the breach, the Knight's reputation had been climbing, and no one would cause problems in their area when they were providing protection to a good portion of the settlement.

As they left through the wall, Mark signed a waiver and followed their group out in the street.

Several dozen Corrupted were in the surrounding area. This meant they were in danger the moment they walked out.

This also meant that Mark got to see Daphne in her element. A good thirty team leaders surrounded Daphne, to which she assigned each one a party of ten. Her chosen method of leading was to divide their large force into multiple smaller groups, they would then be directed by seasoned knights. The best way to describe this was as Daphne’s main group moved through the area, there were multiple roaming teams that would clear the area and then swap out with the groups following her.

The rotation cleared out all the small fry while giving every person a chance to earn some exp. Daphne's group would consist of the strongest fighters and should anyone run into anything they couldn’t handle they would retreat and the main group would deal with it.

This was also where Mark decided to remain. From here he was able to make the most use of his resources. Mark's construct grew to a manageable size, spanning a good ten meters around them. Using it as a guide Mark traveled with the main group. The moment the groups rotated into his range he’d hit them with [Invigourate] and target any wounds that may be left over. Daphne had made sure she had healers in every second group to avoid problems, but even still Mark used his excess energy to close minor wounds. At the same time, he practiced with [bestowal] targeting the leaders of the parties when he had the spare energy. He’d already figured out speed, strength, and even toughness but he still needed something to help casters.

He hadn’t forgotten Sam’s suggestion but it was a different ball game altogether. How was Mark supposed to affect someone's magic when their very Mana would fight him? That’s when it hit him, instead of trying to enhance their magic what about enhancing their ability to cast it? Magic, or at least the use of it, was carried out by the brain. Something Mark had never thought to quantify but the brain's ability would definitely affect how strong one's magic was, or how much one could do at once.

Sam had said it herself, that her fine control over her magic came from her incredible understanding of the world around them. Now Mark couldn’t give people understanding but maybe he could naturally increase their processing speed. A spell to mimic his skill [Limit release(Mental)] but Mark definitely wouldn't test this on someone else. No, that could end badly, later this afternoon he’d have some time to himself, he had more than just this to test. Right now though he focused on [Force bolt] and supporting the people around him.