August Intruder- Chapter 70- Question

Clinton went flying into the bone white wall. Blood trailed the path he left. When he smacked into the wall, the sound was loud. Melmarc could picture the man breaking a few ribs. That was if he wasn’t already dead. Although there was a part of him that doubted death would come for Clinton so soon.

Still, his mind had eliminated the Delver. He was no longer a part of their survival. So Melmarc acted on his own. With the leader of the other team down, someone had to take charge. There had to be a second in command.

“Medic!”

Nelson was bellowing as loud as he could. He strained his throat, voice loud as a gorilla could roar. In the corner, Claire stood against the wall, watching with sharp eyes. She already had her attention on Clinton’s motionless body. Her problem was clearly how to get to it.

Melmarc could help. But first.

[You have used Rings of Saturn]

[Remaining uses: 3/4]

The [Damned] that had stabbed Clinton had given him over a hundred [EP]. Maybe it was selfish on his path, but while it was not at the top of the list, gathering as much [EP] as he could remained a priority.

There was a popular saying that there was nothing that was not important in a portal. And the more confusing it was, the more important it might be.

[EP] wasn’t confusing at all. Melmarc knew just how important it was.

He swung his arm in a side throw, putting all the effort he could muster into it. He tossed himself to the side in a dive as the ring of mana left his hand. Hoping to keep track of it with [World of Insight] as best he could, he focused as much as he could on the monster’s indicator as he ran straight for Claire.

“MEDIC!” Nelson continued to roar as he took a beating from two of their assailants while giving back just as good as he got.

Tanks were not known for their versatility. Speed often eluded them. Agility was a companion long divorced the moment they got their class. Dexterity was a laugh in their face. And a heavy pool of mana never blessed them. But you could always trust them to be battering rams.

Strength was their god and it blessed them greatly for bending the knee.

[World of Insight] told Melmarc the creature he’d thrown his ring of mana at had succumbed. Its head was servered cleanly from its body. His interface was a close second.

[You have slain Damned(B)]

[You have gained EP 124]

What the interface didn’t tell him, however, was that the ring of mana continued to cut through the air, disappearing from the entire battle field. But even as interesting as it was to note, the creature’s reaction to dying was more attention grabbing. Disturbing.

Its head fell unceremoniously from its body and hit the ground without making a sound. Then its arms came up, gauntleted hand and shield, frantically reaching for where its head had once been.

The panic lasted barely two heartbeats long, but it was enough to make Melmarc think. Then both arms dropped to the side and the [Damned] simply toppled over.

Melmarc charged down the small battlefield, mind active even as he made his way for the Healer. It was as if he knew where everything was. And it didn’t feel like the advantage given by [World of Insight]. It was like watching a chess game. Knowing where your knight was and where it needed to be to save your queen that was suffering under the barrage of your opponent’s assault.

Right now Nelson was their strongest member, holding down every [Damned] that came to him with the stubbornness of a dying star shooting through a night sky. Five of the creatures had already lost their lives to him.

Jed was in the distance somewhere, not very far, killing his third [Damned]. Unlike Nelson who was brute force, Jed was more calculated attacks. It took him longer to dispatch of his enemies in more moves than Nelson used, but he got the job done.

Melmarc ran straight at Claire, snatching her by the wrist as he barreled past her. She resisted, but only for a moment. Then she was running across the battle with him.

“How much time will you need?” Melmarc asked as they ran, head on a swivel, keeping his attention on every indicator in the battlefield.

“A minute or two,” Claire answered.

Dissonant.

“Will you need more or less?” Melmarc twirled his hand, ignited a ring of mana around his wrist and flung it to the side without looking.

It slammed into one of the [Damned] that had turned to them. It was missing the armor around its torso, bounding around in a helmet and armor to cover its lower body.

“More,” Claire said after a moment of hesitation, probably oblivious to Melmarc’s target.

“You have five.” Melmarc sucked in a deep breath and summoned another ring. “Make it work.”

They came to a skidding halt next to Clinton’s body. Blood leaked from the man’s mouth. He spotted one bad eye, not swollen but sunken. So deep it was hard to make out if there was still an eye. He breathed in shallow gasps, like a man dying dramatically in a movie.

It was supposed to hurt to watch. It did not.

Melmarc’s attention sharpened on three of the [Damned]. They had their eyes on Jude who stood, keeping each one away from him and Naymond with blasts of air that looked more like shockwaves.

Each blast was strong enough to send the [Damned] flying back. Sadly, they were too weak to kill them. Naymond seemed to be having a hard time as well. In the beginning, a diving [Damned] would fall at his attention. Now, some of them were getting past him. They completed their leaps only to be thrown back by Jed’s attack.

Melmarc stood guard in front of Clinton while Claire did whatever she could to get the man back on his feet. He stood with knees slightly bent and shoulders tensed. It was a combat stance. In self defense he’d been thought that it prepared the body to act at a moment’s notice. In his self defense teacher, the stance looked a little more different. For one, his shoulders were always relaxed.

With the man, his combat stance felt far more natural.

Melmarc checked on Claire as he watched the battle continue to unfold in front of him. While she had a hand to Clinton’s lips and two fingers on his wrist, the others continued to do their best to survive.

As the others fought, Nelson did his best to make his way to where Melmarc was. Watching the battle, Melmarc noticed that, for some reason, the [Damned] were drawn to Nelson. Even with their numbers dwindling, their attention continued to shift to the tank as long as it wasn’t occupied.

In the distance, their reinforcement was drawing closer.

He should go left, Melmarc thought, watching the fight. There was a scorched portion of land in that direction. The state of the land wasn’t what was important. The fact that there was a small cottage there was.

Nelson could pull the [Damned] away from the others—serve as bait since they were already drawn to him. As a tank, he could last much longer than the others. Beyond the small cottage extended into a scattering of buildings small enough to be called simple shops.

If Nelson could lead them into the maze of buildings, he could buy a little more time.

But how will he come back?

The man wasn’t known for his speed. What would happen if the [Damned] caught up to him?

That part of the plan didn’t pop up in Melmarc’s head. If he was being honest, it was surprising enough that he had come up with it. How had he even seen the battlefield enough to come up with it?

Yes, he saw almost everything from where he stood, the fighting and the chaos. The perspiration on Jed’s face. Jude beginning to breathe hard as he slowly ran low on mana—probably.

But it was incomplete. It was like playing a game of chess with someone that was significantly better at it than him while he was running out of time. Melmarc could see the problem, but not the solution.

Actually, he could see the solution, but only a part of it. And he knew with a childlike certainty that he was missing something.

Not for the first time, he wondered how his life had gotten to this point. Here he was, trying to survive a fight while protecting a medic as she healed a wounded Delver. The question now was if Clinton would make it.

He drew up another ring of mana. [Rings of Saturn] activated and he sent it flying at [Damned] that had drawn a little too close for comfort to Jed. It slammed into the creature, sent it staggering a lot of steps back. It also drew Jed’s attention to it and the Delver was already dancing circles around it.

So far, while the Delvers were fighting in their own ways, Jude’s the least impressive to Melmarc, he found Jed’s style of fighting to be the most impressive.

Maybe it’s because he’s the underdog.

“We need to get him out of here,” Claire said from behind him. “There’s something wrong with this place. I don’t think he’s getting better. Not fast enough.”

Melmarc took the time to look back. He was expecting to catch something of note. Something that would help him understand what Claire was talking about. He did not.

All he got was that Clinton’s breathing remained shallow. The man could be slowly getting better or worse and he wouldn’t be able to tell.

Suddenly he found himself thinking of the school for the Gifted that he would go to. Not necessarily a thought of which one he wanted to attend but what he would learn there. From what he knew, they had a vast array of classes you could take.

Melmarc hadn’t considered it before but now he thought he would like to learn as much as he could about the medical side of Delving.

It was funny how despite where he now found himself, he was still interested in becoming a Delver. But what was he going to do? He had to admit that he was surviving quite well here. Also, from everything that had happened to him, it was as if the interface was determined to make him a Delver.

How else am I going to get [EP]s?

Nelson pulled up to them a moment after. His clothes were torn and tattered. His vest that had carried his explosives was practically nonexistent at this point. He’d lost his guns and Melmarc couldn’t see any visible magazines on him. From the cuts and tears in his clothes, Melmarc could see lines from old scars and red welts that looked as if someone had taken a cane to the man quite violently.

“We need to move,” Melmarc said to the man, addressing what his brain felt was more important. “We can’t hold this location and its only a matter of time before reinforcements swarm us. We can’t make it.”

Nelson gave him an odd look. There was surprise in it, but more confusion than surprise. Regardless, the man nodded, agreeing with him.

“I’ll take Clinton,” he said, reaching down for the Delver.

Claire stepped away. “Be careful. He has far too much internal bleeding for my comfort.”

He’s a Delver. He’ll survive.

The thought almost spilled from Melmarc’s lips to become words, but he held his tongue on time. They were true words, but he was very strongly aware of how empty of emotion they were. They were, at best, apathetic. At worse inconsiderate.

“We need the other’s attention.” Melmarc stared at the group as they fought.

He needed a way to get their attention. He was beginning to understand the importance of comms in action movies. If they had comms right now, he could’ve just given his orders. But they didn’t.

People rarely ever carried comms into portals. It wasn’t unreasonable since comms didn’t work in most portals. Instead, there were classes that had certain telepathic skills that often served as some form of communication or the other. Sadly, Clinton’s group didn’t have one.

The fight raged on. Oddly enough, despite Naymond’s complete incompatibility with their current predicament, he somehow looked strangely at ease in the fight. It wasn’t quite in the way he fought but in the facial expression he had. It was far less worried than when Melmarc had met him.

Maybe it’s because he’s not currently dying.

“But where do we go?” Nelson stood next to him, Clinton in his arms, carried like a princess.

Melmarc didn’t think anything of it. It was the better way to carry a wounded man in his opinion. Better than throwing him over the shoulder.

“There.” Melmarc pointed down the path he had intended on having Nelson draw the attention of the [Damned] towards. “If we’re fast enough, we should be able to lose them that way.”

Claire looked from Melmarc to the cottage. “There?”

Melmarc nodded, activating [Rings of Saturn] once more. A ring of mana appeared around his wrist, bright and heavy. He threw it into one of the [Damned]. It had ventured a little too close to them and the blast had sent it flying back.

Again, Claire looked at him. There was something in her expression. A question. Did she not trust the plan? Was she having issues taking orders from someone as young as him? She hadn’t struck him as someone who would have issues taking orders from him.

“TO THE COTTAGE!”

Melmarc winced as the roaring sound of Nelson’s voice split the air. The man’s voice had been like a bear’s roar, if it was amplified by a microphone and too many speakers.

He looked at the man the way you looked at someone who’d just pinched you to get your attention.

“What?” Nelson shrugged.

“You’ve just given away our exit strategy,” Claire told him.

Nelson frowned. “I don’t think they speak English, though.”

“Me, either,” Melmarc said, thoughtful.

He hadn’t had to speak English around any of them, though. But he felt it was a safe bet that they didn’t speak English. They didn’t look like they had the brain power for it.

They also look like they’re supposed to be dead but they’re not.

The others had started falling back, Jed moving with a dancer’s grace while Jude stumbled back, blasting away at the creatures with a barely perceptible attack. Melmarc still felt like it was shockwaves of some kind.

Does he look more tired than usual? Melmarc wondered, paying the man attention through [World of Insight].

He was definitely sweating now, breathing a little too heavily, too. At this point it was beginning to look like he wouldn’t make the retreat if Naymond wasn’t supporting him.

Still, they gathered, pushing back the [Damned].

“What cottage?” Jude asked. He was panting. Tired.

“Can you keep going?” Melmarc asked him.

Jude frowned. “I’ll be fine, as long as we can get out of here. My skill isn’t as effective as I thought it would be.”

Melmarc wasn’t surprised. “Their B-rank. A little more powerful than what we know.”

They were backing away now. In a matter of seconds, they would be running. Hopefully, weaving through the buildings and losing the [Damned].

“No one’s told me about any cottage,” Jude said. He was the first to start jogging.

Claire pointed. “That one!”

“That’s far,” Jude complained.

Nelson followed after him, jogging with as much care as he could muster so that he didn’t end up tossing Clinton around too much.

Melmarc drew another ring of mana. His interface gave him a warning along with it.

[You have used Rings of Saturn]

[Remaining uses: 1/4]

Melmarc frowned at it as he remembered that the skill had still not evolved, despite already going past the ten percent mastery threshold.

Just like [Secrecy] he was beginning to wonder if there was something about contaminated skills that wasn’t common knowledge. At least something more than what he knew.

He flung the ring of mana at the closest [Damned]. Behind it, an arc of mana followed. Then a hand grabbed Melmarc by the shoulder and pulled. As his ring of mana struck a vicious blow to the [Damned]’s mid section. The slash struck true. Surprisingly, the creature hit the ground and didn’t get up.

[You have assisted to slay Damned(B)]

[You have gained EP 59]

Melmarc hesitated for only a moment at the notification before he turned and ran with the others.

Jude turned out to be the slowest of the group. Slower even than Claire. He panted like someone who’d been running for too long and wheezed with each step. Melmarc was beginning to worry that the man would topple at any time.

His ribs couldn’t be the thing that was holding him back because Claire had healed it a while back.

The [Damned] chased behind them, jerky and chaotic. The only time they covered any real distance was when they darted forward with a sharp thrust. Unlike the [Damned] beyond the wall, these ones had more complicated patterns. But they used only one to cover distances. A sharp, strong, forward thrust. Stabbing straight through the air.

Melmarc and the others managed to increase the distance between them and the [Damned] by the time they got to cottage. They didn’t enter the cottage, though, as it was not a part of the plan.

Melmarc smelt something edible from inside it as they ran past it. It was food, well seasoned ribs. Having not tasted a single meal for the past few days, it tempted him. But he shook it from his mind and continued to run.

He found he was the only one that had been tempted by it.

Their feet carried them past three houses before they took a turn to the right. Jude staggered at the turn and Jed pulled him from falling to his feet. Claire ran with all the grace of someone who hadn’t done any work and Naymond kept his eyes fixed in front of him.

Nelson was all care. A tyrannical gorilla seeking the grace of a ballerina. It was an interesting sight to watch him cradle Clinton so carefully.

“Which way?” Nelson asked, and Melmarc realized he wasn’t at the head of the run.

“Just a moment,” he answered, eyes squinted.

[World of Insight] was showing him a lot of things but they were not enough. With a frown, he activated [Knowledge is Power].

It blasted out of him as he ran. “Left he answered.”

Every one took the turn. No questions were asked. Only obedience. Melmarc found that he liked it. It was a surprisingly good feeling to lead.

To his surprise, no one reacted when the burst of mana returned to him. No one except Naymond who winced once again. Melmarc decided that when he had the time, he would have to talk to Naymond about it.

Hopefully he’ll give me a straight answer.

Even as the thought bubbled in his mind, Melmarc doubted it would happen. From the little he knew, in this world there were straight answers and there were Naymond’s straight answers.

They were not the same.

Melmarc’s mind lit up with knowledge once more. He knew almost everything within a range that he was now realizing was very wide.

“Right!” he called out. “Four houses down, left, then we go around the third house on our right.”

No one stopped running, but there was a slight confusion. Melmarc didn’t blame them. They took a sharp right and ran down the path, feet stamping down blades of grass confident enough to stand tall.

Jude was beginning to slow the party down. His feet lagged and he technically dragged himself just to keep up.

Melmarc slowed because of this. His options were to abandon Jed to his fate to ensure the survival of the team or slow himself down and risk the possibility of being caught up to by the [Damned].

Jed was the first to lag. “Come on, Jude. It’s not far.”

Dissonant.

Melmarc ignored the thought. He looked back. The [Damned] were rounding the corner. With no critters keeping track of them, they could escape the creatures if they just fell out of sight long enough.

Jude looked up at Melmarc and Jed. He was bent forward, tired. His hands propped him up by resting on his knees as he caught his breath. He’d led them to standing.

He gestured tiredly, shooing them away. “Just go,” he said. “I’ll find a way to you guys. Four houses down. Left. Around the house on my right.”

“You won’t survive it,” Jed refused.

Jude scowled at him. “I’ve been a Delver long enough to know what I can survive.”

“Guys.” Melmarc frowned. He’d just made eye contact with one of the [Damned]. It was a very disturbing feeling. “We have to go.”

Jude pushed Jed. It was the weakest action Melmarc had ever seen the Delver execute.

“Just go!” Jude hissed. “I’ll figure it—”

“Fuck it!” Melmarc swore, interrupting the man.

Jude let out a slight grunt as Melmarc picked him off the ground and threw him over his shoulder.

Jed seemed surprised by the action. Melmarc would be lying if he wasn’t surprised, too. For all his size, he had never picked a man up before. He could pick up small people, though. He’d picked up children. But never men.

Then he turned and ran. Jed followed.

In front of them, the others were gone. Turned down one path or the other.

“Which way?” Jed asked.

Melmarc pointed. On his shoulder, Jude weighed almost nothing. The man was also silent, which was a good thing. There had been a part of Melmarc that had expected him to complain.

Saved a Delver’s life in a portal, he thought as he ran, then took the turn he’d told the others to take. I can add that to my resume.

They took a turn at the indicated house, Jude bouncing on Melmarc’s shoulder. Melmarc could only imagine how much discomfort his stomach had to be going through.

They ran a little longer before rounding the chosen house. Melmarc knew where they were going. At least he knew where it would lead them away from. What it would lead them to was a different conversation entirely. Of that, he had no idea.

Right now we just need to survive.

The moment they went around the final house. A hand reached out and grabbed Melmarc. It pulled him abruptly with a surprising amount of strength, taking him and Jude with ease. Another grabbed Jed.

They were pulled into a small shack, large enough to hold at least ten people.

“We’re trapped.” Claire said it as if it was a matter of fact. Then she started sucking on her thumb.

Everybody paused, eyes turning to her.

“What?” she pulled her thumb from her mouth. “It’s skill-related.”

Melmarc doubted anybody believed her. But since he didn’t get a sharp ‘dissonant’ in his head, she was probably right.

Nelson raised a finger to his lips in a shushing motion as Melmarc lowered Jude back to his feet. The Delver didn’t make eye contact. Not that Melmarc was interested.

Instead, he immediately went to work. The walls of the small shack were still intact. Planks of wood held together by nails and gum of some fashion. The ground was covered in hay which was also green and there were enough gaps between the planks to watch what was happening outside through.

Jed eased up to one and stared through it with one eye closed.

Melmarc bent down at the center of the shack. Information from [Knowledge is Power] still filled his mind. He knew what was here. It would help them, but only from the threat they currently faced.

And that threat is a small army.

Melmarc frowned as he pushed the hay aside. It covered the ground like grass. When he was done sweeping it aside with his hand, Claire standing over his shoulders and staring down, he was greeted to the sight of what looked like the door to a cellar.

Melmarc let out a relieved sigh. He’d known it was there. [Knowledge is Power] had all but told him so. But there had been a slow itch in his mind, a fear that he was wrong. He didn’t know why.

“Shit,” he hissed, looking at the handle to the door. A massive padlock, old and rusted stared right at him. “It’s locked.”

“Move,” Nelson growled as Melmarc raised his hand.

Melmarc moved to the side and Nelson shattered the padlock with a single kick. After that, Melmarc pulled it open. It was a thick door, made of heavy wood. He raised it with relative ease. Beneath it was a stairway that led down, deeper into the ground.

Nelson turned to it. “Go.”

Jed didn’t hesitate. He headed straight for the new path and pulled Jude along with him. Melmarc wasn’t sure if the Delver thought that Jude would want to play sacrificial lamb or hesitate. He didn’t ask.

Naymond went next. Then Nelson looked at Melmarc.

Melmarc shook his head. “You first. You’ve got a wounded.”

As far as he was concerned, the wounded and the medic were always a priority. Why? Because they were the weak ones in the heat of battle. It was common sense to guide them first when it was time to escape.

Once Nelson was down the stairs, Claire went next. She was no longer sucking on her thumb. Melmarc focused on [World of Insight]. It showed him that the [Damned] were around them. They moved about in their odd way, as if searching, but not going into any of the houses.

He slipped beneath the door and lowered it above him as he went further down the stairs. In a matter of seconds, the entire stairway was swallowed in darkness.

Melmarc didn’t need the light, though. With [Knowledge is Power] and [World of Insight] acting together, he knew all.

It was why he knew to stop before he ran into Claire.

Hidden by the darkness, she stood on a step facing him. Melmarc doubted she had stopped because there was suddenly no light.

“We have to move,” he told her.

“It’s dark,” she said simply, voice a low whisper. “And we no longer have lights.”

That wasn’t true. Clinton had a glow stick in his back pocket. But it seemed Claire didn’t have this piece of information.

“Clinton’s got one in his back pocket,” he said.

Down the stairs, Nelson moved about carefully. In front of Melmarc, Claire raised a careful hand, as if gauging the distance between him and her.

He didn’t move.

Before long, the stairway was touched by the glow of fiery red from a glow stick. It wasn’t very bright, but it was enough to see with.

“I have a question.” Claire met Melmarc’s eyes as she said this.

Backing the light, her face was nothing but a silhouette in the dark. But some of the light touched Melmarc’s face. A touch of it threatened to get in his eye.

“Hopefully,” he said, very aware of the serious expression she had on, “I’ll have the answer.”

“I hope so, too,” Claire said.

“So what’s the question?”

“Are you Bipolar?”