606 Debt paid

It was fast and unexpected. Using his ability, Nate was able to harden his whole body, but the hardening weakened after time. What made Nate so skilful with his ability, was through his years of fighting and martial arts, he was able to predict where someone would hit him before they did, and he could harden just that area extra hard.

These people weren't like the ones he would usually go up against, and he was caught off guard slightly. He was whacked while holding off the other squad leader and was now facing two of them at the same time.

Megan, rather than fighting those that were strong, was more concerned about the Crow's people. She was trying her best to help them fight, sticking to the plan and buying time until the others finished with what they were doing. Still, it seemed like a lot more people from the Sunshields then they had predicted were fighting in the centre of the shelter.

"Sam, we really need help soon, I don't think we can last much longer!" Megan said.

"I know," Sam replied. "But Blip and Dennis are still busy fighting. The Sunshields are stronger than we first thought. The squad leaders are just a bit much at the moment."

On their side, they had six squads who were led by the stronger members of the Crows. Meanwhile, on the enemy side, they had come down in twenty ships. With them, smaller teams of ten each with a squad leader and a head squad leader. Which meant each of their strong fighters would have to fight multiple enemies at a time which was unexpected.

When the Eagles had fought them, they only brought five ships with twenty men each. This was what Sam had based his calculations off, which was why his plan wasn't working out exactly how he thought it would.

"Fex, how are things on your end?" Sam asked.

The fight from the centre had spread out, going through buildings and spilling into the nearby streets. Fex's group had been moving in, and working on dowsing the fires as planned. From time to time they would help some strays fight, and send the injured back to the teleporter, but there was a problem much worse than all of this.

"We're still evacuating some of the citizens who are leaving now," Fex said.

Stubbornness. There were some people who were far too stubborn to even listen to the Crows about leaving their homes, and they had remained thinking the Sunshield would do no such harm. They just couldn't believe if they were under the protection of the Graylashes, why would they attack?

They would save a few of them, and a couple of people from their side would go the long way round to escort them back to the base and head through the teleporter.

"Help! Help me and my family!" Someone shouted.

It was a middle-aged man's voice. He was in a burning building that had already been consumed by the flames too much. The only thing they could do was isolate the building, so the fire didn't spread.

The man was on the third floor, and the fire looked like it had already engulfed most of the building.

"Please, just protect my family!" The man shouted.

"That idiot, why risk your families lives, you should have listened," Fex said, as he was ready to head into the burning building, but before he could, he saw a female with two round balls on her head run past.

"What is she doing, the fire is too strong, she'll just get herself killed!" One of the water users said, as she was trying her best, to create more water to take out the fire, but she had run out of MC cells at this point.

A few moments later though, over her shoulders were two bodies, and in each of her hands, she was carrying two children as well. She was carrying them as if they were pillows and her face had severe burns in several places, but it looked to not hurt her at all.

Slowly, the wounds started to heal away naturally.

"Kazz?" Fex said, half confused, but at the same time, he wanted to be thankful to her.

She dropped the two bodies on the floor and chucked the ones over her shoulder to the ground. It was a bit rough, but they couldn't complain given the circumstances.

"I have repaid my debt to this man." Kazz said, looking at Paul.

When Paul looked at who was on the floor, it took him a moment to recognise the man. He was the merchant who Kazz had used her influence skill on to steal some earrings. Paul was just telling her off at the time, and he didn't think it would stay with her.

"That you definitely did, I would say more so." Paul smiled.

A group of the remaining citizens from the shelter had been rounded up, and now it was time for them to be escorted back to the base. Half of them would go to the base, while the other half with Fex would continue to quell the flames.

However, this didn't go unnoticed. Watching from the far back towards the centre of the shelter, the head squad leader Gox had recived a report. A report that detailed citizens were for some reason heading back to the Crow's base.

"I thought it was strange that there were no people here. They are either hiding them all somewhere or have a teleporter running off to a different place. Follow them and see where they are going."

A separate squad had broken off from the centre, and they had chosen to follow Fex's group. Fex noticed this group and wanted to chase them off, but he decided he would trust Sam first.

"How many of them did you see?" Sam asked.

"About a group of ten," Fex replied.

"Leave them, if it's just ten, then they can protect the teleporter, don't worry. Right now, I need you to send the water users back, they have done enough. I will send them through the teleporters. By now most of their MC cells will be empty. They can no longer help much anyway. What I need you to do, is go and help Nate and the others in the centre now."

Everything was stressful for Sam, but he saw a little light of hope. Fewer people had moved away from the centre, lowering the others' burden, while he was sending in more people to support. Still, it wouldn't be enough, they needed something to change drastically in this fight if they wanted it to turn in their favour.

The Sunshields that were following part of Fex's group were able to attack at any time. They chose to stay back because they were planning to see where they were headed. A long route was taken, but it was clear. They were doing so just to avoid conflict while trying to head back to the base.

Seeing them all enter, the Sunshields were prepared to move.

"Come on, let's go!" The squad leader commanded.

As soon as the Sunshields stepped out and were in front of the base, Sam had given the order. The sound of large, heavy objects was heard landing around them, and then a few more had landed in front of them.

The objects were so large that their shadow towered over them.

"Mechs!" The squad leader shouted. "How did they get Mechs?"

Inside the suits were the Crows' weakest members, and Sam had given them a little gift which was handed over by Quinn. The Bertha ship had many different items in the storage room. It was designed to be a large battleship, and onboard, they had everything they needed to fight a war.

Usually, Mechs were costly, it wasn't that the Sunshields didn't have them, but they never thought they would need them in fighting a faction of this size. However, there was a problem. The mechs output could only fire lasers at the intermediate level just like the ships.

They were more used in war as an annoyance against beasts or the Dalki. It was sturdy when protecting a person. With the Mechs alone they would never be able to beat the Sunshield family. Sam was biting his lip out of nerves, at this point he was hoping Blip, or maybe even Dennis would have been done, but they were still busy.

Not only that, It looked like they had lost the lives of most of their squad members. Each death, Sam felt like it was slightly his fault. He could just see little green markers disappearing on the screen as their lives did, it was a reminder that those people would never be seen again. He could see a group of dots coming towards the teleporters. Probably hoping to retreat and fall back.

Just then, Sam had decided to go out himself. Even with no ability, he should have been able to do something. He left his post and went outside to join the others. That's when he saw them. A group of around thirty or so of the Crows helping out the mechs fighting.

They were mostly unarmed and looking at them, Sam noticed that they were from Quinn's squad.

"If they are here, then where the hell is Quinn?"

Using his shadow travel, Quinn was travelling towards the centre as fast as he could.

The bar was now at 24 percent, while his progression was still only at 6.

*****

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