Codename: Freedom - Book 5 - Chapter 30

Mia and the metacaster panel were on the edge of their seats as the Forefathers retreated only to use their auras to leap up to the top of the maze walls. Even if they were holding their breaths while their shields were down, the gas also affected their eyes. Many of them struggled momentarily, but someone figured out that intensifying your aura blasted much of the gas from the surface of your skin. That included your eyes. It was then that the Forefathers ran across the inner walls, leaping from one to the next until they were above the opposing army and facing off with them men they had positioned there. The moment they could use the full range of their psionics then any advantage Prodos had disappeared.

Brendon Black had lost two rank D users in the first battle of the event, as well as fourteen of his elite rank E users. It was an awful showing. Especially considered that Ebrima Okoro of The Burden Bearers had just grabbed a flag and the Real Major wasn’t far behind.

It was a comforting thought for an instant until the Forefathers fell upon Prodos’s men in the maze. Many threw bolts from above while a group led by Brendon Black leaped into the maze.

Prodos fought back. Even if each man or woman could only delay them for an extra blow, it was something. Their all was not good enough to stop the slaughter.

On one hand, the event was to Prodos’s advantage since they had so many people. They could only field a thousand in total, but their remaining soldiers could defend their base.

There wasn’t much commentary during the slaughter. Mr. Rachet did his best to address the overall competition and how this was giving Lethal Accord and The Burden Bearers an early advantage.

Many of Prodos’s men made it to the outer tunnel before the Forefathers reached them, but still more than a hundred and twelve men died before they did. As for them stopping Mel from capturing the flag, there was no chance. He delivered it to their base before Brendon Black made it through the maze.

As soon as they scored the first point, a scoreboard appeared in everyone’s peripherals. It was only clear when someone focused on it. Oren pulled it up for everyone to see.

There was currently only one battalion listed, and they didn’t have one point, but two.

Scoreboard

First Place – Prodos – 2 Points

Countdown

47:58:43

When the first-place battalion was selected, a breakdown was revealed.

Prodos

1 Point – Flag Captured

1 Bonus Point – Currently leading with the number of Manticore King’s killed (5).

This visibly seemed to anger Brendon Black, who backhanded a rank E user with his shield before rushing another and leveling the woman.

They reached the tunnel and a group of some of Prodos’s most familiar faces were waiting. Their position was pulled back so that those atop the maze walls wouldn’t have much of an elevated advantage. The casters would have to stand back ten yards on the wall to get the right angle.

“Why aren’t they running?” Mr. Bolt protested.

Mia’s gaze was already narrowed. Her teeth were grit hard enough that her jaw was trembling. “To give the others enough time to escape,” she managed.

Prodos’s Left Hand, Kline, who had already singlehandedly taken out one of the Forefather’s rank D users, stood out front of a squad with a large round shield in one hand and his infamous poleaxe in the other.

Behind him was a row of shields with the small giant of a man, Captain Ma, shouldering a greatsword. Treetop was there, as was Isamu. Every single one of them had ranked near the top of rank E users.

“I hate to say it this way,” Mr. Rachet began. “But isn’t it a waste of psionic talent for them to sacrifice themselves for the others? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?”

“They’ve already thought of that,” LeLisa countered. She made a few motions with her hand only to highlight a young black man sprinting away with an unhappy redhead thrown over her shoulder like a sack.

He nodded to acknowledge her point, but he didn’t let it go. “However, why only Barrell and Heather Esper? Their abilities are good. Some of the best. But Isamu has one of the strongest short-range attacks they have, and you saw what Kline did.”

Mia couldn’t hold back. “I want to agree with you, but Isamu may have a strong attack, it just isn’t strong enough against rank D users. And Kline. Well, I know him. He wouldn’t leave even if Victoria tried to make him. And let’s face it, he caught that rank D guy off guard. His defensive ability makes him a human wall. This is exactly what he is good at.”

The guy who never let an opportunity for conflict go unstirred opened his mouth to say something when he just huffed out instead. “I guess you’re right.”

“Brendon is approaching alone…” Bolt said wide eyes.

No one replied as they watched the exchange.

The war hammer wielder swaggered forward while swinging his weapon around casually as if it were a walking stick. “You again,” Brendon jeered before turning his head and spitting. It seemed he was still trying to clear some of the gas from his system.

“You’re too late,” Kline called out. “Don’t feel bad, though. You’re twenty rank D users lost to our one. I recommend a hot shower. It’ll rise off the embarrassment, amongst other things.”

Brendon frowned. “You’re that former soldier, right? Kline was it? Prodos’s Left Hand.” Raising his war hammer and shield, he shook them. “We all know what your fantasy game’s queen does with her hands.”

A chorus of snickers came from the Forefathers.

Kline shrugged. “Shield her eyes from having to look at your ugly face?”

Tilting his head to the side, Brendon wore a half smile. “I guess I was wrong. She only plays with the pretty one.”

“Oh, but I am the pretty one.” Throwing his poleaxe to the side with his shield, Kline popped his pecks with his arms outstretched. It didn’t matter if he was wearing a ballistic suit or not. His chest was large enough that his entire suit moved with it.

With a sigh, Brendon tossed his shield and weapon to the side before muttering, “Taking you out will make things easier later.” His men waited behind him.

Kline took that as an invitation and strolled forward with his E-Field still active.

Snorting, the top ranked psionic user’s hand shot up as his shield dropped. A psionic bolt flew at grinning black man with thick beard. It was at such a close range that it was almost impossible for him to miss, but the man didn’t even flinch.

The moment the bolt struck home, the angry pop of several firearms went off at once. Several of Prodos’s lesser-known shield users revealed hidden handguns. All of them were aimed at Brendon Black.

The whole thing was a ploy.

Kline tanked the rank D psionic bolt and charged. Ma and Isamu did the same, coming at the Forefather’s strongest with their swords ready.

Then there was Treetop. He was aiming to do the same when he saw that several of Brendon’s men were lifting their hands to end the surprise attack before it started. So he did something only Treetop would do. He jumped in front of the others spreading out his hands and throwing his feet out to the side until he was parallel with the ground.

Several bolts flew. He caught four of them with his body to give the others a chance. He was dead before he reached the full height of his jump.

His sacrifice spared Ma from all but a bolt to the hip. The man’s face turned pale as a furious scowl proceeded him slashing down with his sword with both hands.

Isamu wasn’t so lucky. The man had anticipated the coming bolts, but he was only able to release one sword arc to split one of the rank D bolts in to before several others stuck his body.

Brendon Black hadn’t left his shield down for more than a second. It was just long enough to fire off a bolt. He’d already been struck with a few stray bullets. But he hadn’t expected the sudden barrage, nor for Prodos’s Left Hand to play dirty. Even then, he’d resummoned his shield to block most of the damage except for one round that had caught him high in the chest.

He didn’t have time to check the damage, for a large blade was raining down from above. Trying to step back, his legs were tied up. Glancing down, the annoying Left Hand had grabbed him around the waist.

The sword struck him between the shoulder and the neck with such force that it drove him to his knees. He tried to push the man holding onto him away so that he could get in a good position for block another blow or dodge it entirely when he saw several rank D bolts strike the sword wielder.

Turning his full attention toward the man that just wouldn’t die, Brendon found that sticking his arm out to try and push him away was a mistake he wouldn’t soon forget. The instant the man had ahold of his wrist, he leaped upon him. The man’s legs found his chest and his arm was being pried back. Despite his rank D psionic shielding, it didn’t protect him from this kind of force, or the suddenness of it. He heard it pop.

The only reason it wasn’t worse was because his men fully attacked. Not only did the man clinging to him get struck with two additional psionic bolts, but one of his men had just skulled him with a broadsword. The man’s shielding was still going, but it was enough to cause the man to let go.

Testing his arm, he found he could move it, but damage was done. When he turned back to the fight, the others had already taken care of the rest.

The metacasters were silent. Kline had been so close, but even with the rest of the group sacrificing themselves, it wasn’t enough to even seriously injure the man, let alone kill another rank D user.

“There’s more,” one of Brendon’s men said. He was pointing to the ones fleeing.

He didn’t respond right away as he watched them go. Shaking his head to himself, he turned and spat again. Taking a step back, it looked like he was getting ready to call a retreat when he stopped himself. He looked like he was weighing their options. Most of Prodos’s retreating members had made it to the halfway point. There was about a half mile between them now.

Mia leaned forward while trying to get a better look at what she’d just seen. It looked like a green glow coming from the end of Prodos’s base. “Is that Mel?” she wondered aloud.

A moment later, Oren zoomed in and they watched as the blond headed Captain, and Prodos’s only rank D user rocketed higher into the air than any of them had ever seen. As he climbed, green rank D bolts flew toward Brendon Black and his men a mile away. His aim wasn’t perfect, but still impressive from such a distance.

Mel kicked off the wall when he reached the full height of his jump and used it to slow his descent as he bound from one side of the wall to the next. He didn’t stop firing off rank D bolts all the while.

He landed behind the last retreating members of Prodos a little more than half a mile away and stood there with his aura blazing, daring them to come.

The rank D bolts didn’t do any damage from the distance since they could see them coming. Brendon Black took that as an excuse to leave. “Let’s capture our flag,” he commanded. “With the number of people we’ve downed, we should have the highest kill count.”

As they turned to go, they didn’t see a bloodied Kline whose E-Field had been deactivated where he was lying on the ground. Not until the man flipped over to his stomach. At a glance, what covered his back just looked like any ballistic suit. But up close, it was hard to miss that it was several inches thick. The next moment, he exploded.

The concussion was large enough that it sent Brendon Black and more than eight other rank D users flying back and toward the walls.

“What the—” Bolt started to say but just stared with his mouth agape.

They all had the same reaction except for one person. LeLisa had a giggle fit.

Even Mia looked at her friend like she’d lost it.

So LeLisa responded to their reactions. “He always does something crazy like this. Remember the Ekseliksi guy on the first day of Vanguard? He stuck a grenade in its face.”

“True…” Mr. Rachet replied.

Mia stared at her friend as if she didn’t know her.

“Don’t give me that look,” LeLisa said. “I’m not laughing at his death, but just at how ridiculous it is.”

Mia’s expression lightened. “I guess.”

“Besides, it looks like the rest of them will make it.”

Looking back at the screen, her friend was right. Prodos had escaped, but at the same time, the rank D users that had just suffered the explosion were starting to get up.

***

“How many of Brendon Black’s men made it?” I asked after watching what Kline’s last moment.

“All of them,” Destiny replied. “There’re probably injuries, but nothing they won’t recover from in the next forty-eight hours.”

Folding my tongue in my mouth, I bit down.

“Patience,” she said, seeing my reaction.

“Are you talking to me or yourself?”

She laughed bitterly. She didn’t answer my question directly, but said, “Let’s head to the opposite side of the coliseum to kill some of the manticores by Lethal Accord and The Burden Bearers. After that, we should have killed enough of them that no one will bother trying to catch up.”

“Fine. Let’s go.”