Chapter 317

Chapter 317

Matt was elbow-deep inside a Republic soldier when he felt the space near the inhabited planet ripple. His hairs rose up on the back of his neck as a giant ship appeared, a ship he had just seen three days ago. A swarm of smaller ships took off from its surface, racing towards the battlefield at top speed.

Growling, he wrenched his arm free from the chest of the soldier and waited for a moment as Darrow sent the soldiers an offer of surrender. It would allow them to sit out this upcoming fight, but the general in command of the army must have thought they could hold out until the elites arrived. That was a futile hope. Matt wasnt kind enough to play with them, given that there was a larger threat approaching. He didnt even bother with his mana cannon, just a sweep of his hand and an overpowered [Mana Beam] swept aside the stragglers. One of them survived, but he yanked a nearby corpse to his hand with [Gravity Manipulation], hypercharged it with [Tribulation Strike], and threw it at the survivor. The modified [Lightning Torrent] lashed out and finished his portion of the fight.

Around him, the rest of Team Zero likewise stopped pacing themselves and tore into their own assigned troops with renewed vigor. Mana levels dipped precipitously and willpower reserves tapped into to get the fight over now. Matt flared his Concept across the entire group, and Allie blinked Morgan and Sebastian in arms reach for him to more directly refill their mana pools.

It was a bit of a costly move, but the last thing they needed was more chaos as the dropship began to disgorge its inhabitants. Matt fired off a quick [Breach], more out of principle than anything, and was unsurprised when the ship twisted and avoided the attack given the range and small maneuver needed to do so. Joy picked up pursuit of the Sect-style ship, chasing it off with a few muttered curses leaking through their group comms.

Joy had very strong feelings about how spaceships should look, and Matt knew very well her distaste for the Sect wooden sailboat design. Unfortunately, her dogfight was interrupted by more Corporations-style ships, but Drifter effortlessly dodged their return fire and began engaging with them more directly.

His teammate would be fine. Matt turned to analyze the actual members of the Harmony Accords. They too were in remarkably good shape, and while Matt couldnt tell at a glance, neither Bulwark nor Darrow saw any signs of lingering damage or even healing cooldown. That wasnt a good sign, though it was even less of a good sign that theyd managed to get here so quickly. At least it seemed that theyd only just gotten here instead of lying in wait, but still.

Drifter was the first to articulate it through the mind-link. They have to have Talented pilots flying that tub, or there is no way they could have gotten here that quickly. And how the fuck did they even know we were going to be here?

Darrow interjected almost immediately. Some seeker Talent no doubt but they shouldnt have been able to get a read on us. And I dont like that. Well pull back to Camp Lightfoot where we can reconvene.

Matt didnt even blink at the order.

Shadow on the other hand said what they were all thinking. No, I don't think we will. Not yet, at least.

Darrow must have sensed the mood, but he made a crucial mistake. Talking reason. Drifter is correct in that they shouldnt have been able to arrive so quickly. We only arrived here five hours ago and it's a week's travel from our last flights system. This could very well be a trap set by them via a seeker or future sight of some sort.

Everything he said made perfect sense, but Matt didnt care. And seemingly none of the other Ascenders cared either, as not a single one of them shifted from their places in space. They were Ascenders. They did not run just because the enemy showed up where they shouldn't.

Matt was determined to make sure that round two didnt end up the same way as round one and he liked their odds when they werent caught flat footed.

Darrow, to his credit, the moment he saw that the Ascenders were refusing to follow orders, immediately changed tactics and started planning for a battle. Prepare for swaps. Dont let them entangle you with the counters we talked about. Prepare for spatial locks. Prepare for long-range bombardments. Prepar

Matt tuned him out as the first spells started flying.

Casting the largest [Bulwark] he could, he activated his Tier 25 Talent, strengthened it with [Reinforce Mana], and then dropped his connection to the spell, using just a touch of [Telekinesis] to hold the fifty foot tall and two hundred foot wide block of mana crystal in place as cracks webbed across it, then webbed together under the volley of spells. Of course, shieldbreaker skills quickly followed and the defense started to collapse, but that wasnt the point.

Just before the entire construction was about to collapse, Matt broke the remnants into fragments and threw them. Not at the elites, but at the mercenary corps who had managed to approach the battlefield before Drifter had chased off their transports. The hail of mana stones didnt hurt them, but it did make them wary and blocked a few spells that they got in the way of. It was a minor hindrance, but a hindrance nonetheless.

Light kicked their side off with an [Arc Lightning], whitish-green bolts traversing the distance instantaneously, then becoming an eerie red as he twisted the travel mana into armageddon mana the instant before it struck home. The explosion tossed away one of the Federation soldiers furthest from the center, and knocked Coltons hat off his head while leaving a few blistering wounds on his face, but failed to leave any serious damage on anyone closer to the center, where Gan Le was. The man in question was, of course, completely unfazed.

That confirms Gan Les defensiveness wasnt a fluke. Even if we can break through that, its not worth the effort. We just need to get them spread apart and test the limits of his shared defenses.

Matt nodded at Darrows observation. They were learning and that would enable them to pick through all of their enemies' tricks.

Lorlael countered Lights follow-up, dispersing a bolt of prismatic flames with a purple mist.

They had drifted close enough to engage in melee by that point, but while Gan Le beelined straight for Matt, he was waylaid by the combination of Stick and Torment, who had Sorrow and Lost Love as his primary summons at the moment. Ensnaring strips of cloth entangled the tank, while the summons darted forward with apt ferocity.

Of course, they werent the only ones with a team, and the Federation rune soldiers swooped in, clearly intent on freeing their teammate.

***

Gan Le cursed internally as the Federation rune soldiers rushed over to free him from Sticks cloth clutches. In an ideal world they would leave him to slowly work his way out of his entombment but no, they had to follow orders and come get him out post-haste.

Really, he was asking for too much and he knew it.

At least when he was being wrapped up he wasnt protecting a dozen other people from Master-level lightning storms. Theyd already blasted through his outermost defenses, including his amulets of protection.

He really needed to get some proper armor made, the kind that covered your entire body in metal. Sure, it may be inferior to a proper defensive Technique, but there was no reason he couldnt use both. He could ask the Republic smiths when they returned to the ship, he decided. They knew the proper way to balance protection with form, but he was not coming back into battle unless he could have something that could keep the attacks he was taking away from [The Unseen Guardian Which Halts All Assault] for at least a few blows.

As the rune squad started hacking at the binding he struggled. He was trying to keep himself entangled but he had to make it look like he was doing the opposite.

With barely three days to recover since their last fight, his spirit felt sore from spreading himself so thin. Hed never had his own defenses so seriously tested, and his Technique had yet to properly adapt to all the new forms of assault hed subjected it to. Even his Revelation-empowered refinement could only do so much so quickly, and he never wanted to get more than halfway past his personal protections ever again. It had even pushed through to the topmost layer of his skin. That was way too close.

If he could just sit this fight out and maybe the next one, and if he was really lucky, the one after that, then hed be able to be properly defended from that monster Titans ludicrously powerful attacks, and could focus on refining his defenses against Lights own techniques. That would be preferable. What was less preferable was how his spirit got punched while his Talent intercepted an attack before it could blow a hole in the head of the rune squad. It was one of Bolts bolts.

Such an inelegant and overly-generic name, it made thoughts and conversations so redundant.

Still, he did his job, even as he winced at the pain that radiated through his spirit as his Talent struggled to project itself outward and cover Clarisse.

A dagger came from nowhere, aimed directly at his eye. It managed to break through his primary defenses, and he fell the draw on his Second Revelation as it tried to remove him as a threat despite being bound in place. When that failed, it reinforced his defenses, stopping the dagger a hairs-breadth before it could come into full contact with him. He tried to blink, but found his right eyelid stopped on the razor-edge of Ascender Shadows blade.

She withdrew, and Gan Le desperately focused his spirit at preventing that from happening again. The knife, and the inconsiderate woman using it, were gone the next moment.

Then the rune soldiers, barbarians that they were, decided their best option was to burn Sticks cloth while he was wrapped in it. The fact that it ended up working only encouraged Charlie and Cynthia to keep at it, and Gan Le held very still to keep their burning light and raging lightning from hitting him as well as the enchanted cloth.

He had been hoping they didnt think of that and just kept trying to cut him free. Shame that, considering how much work he went through to make sure that the spatial ring the Harmory Accords people had given him was right in the blast zone of Ascender Light's first attack. That had been so full of escape methods. He didnt want to be captured, the Sects were far more comfortable than anywhere else, but maybe he could persuade them that he genuinely was out of his depth, and get transferred to somewhere else?

Maybe the Guild front? Hed heard there had been some upstart new cultivator there who fought with pillows and blankets, that sounded quite lovely to him. There was probably some horrible trick to it, but it was still better than here.

It had seemed like a really workable plan, too. Until the idiots freed him.

The moment he was free, he burst forward and resumed his job because he still needed his retirement fund if he wanted to find some higher Tier woman to mooch off of later in life.

Conan and Clarisse were busy dealing with a pair of nightmarish things, one a crying snake whose tears made its watery body keep getting bigger, and the other some horrid two-faced beautiful girl and shadow monster, but Gan Le was more than happy to leave them behind as Lorlael triggered some spell combination on him and teleported him

Not directly in front of Titan, like was nominally the plan. Instead, he appeared in front of Shadow, who now tried to stab him in both eyes. He tried to block, but found that Shadow barely seemed hindered by that. Her arms phased through his techniques, bent around his arms at impossible angles, and struck like a mountain.

His head snapped back and he went tumbling through the battlefield. Gan Le managed to direct his headlong flight such that he nearly bowled into Queen as she tried to take Chases head off. She barely even looked his way, just summoned a second sword and, without even grabbing the blade, swung it and sent him flying once again.

Matt made a snap decision and cut off his own arm.

Maven had just about reached his shoulder when Matt brought a [Sword Twin] down on his armor. Hed withdrawn most of its reinforcements and disengaged its connections to keep from damaging it too much, but there were still a few bindings he had to cleave through to get it to work.

Mavens vines snapped back at high speed towards the rest of her mass, and Matt got to enjoy a moment of shock rippling through Long Zhiyuans spirit before Matt shot forward. Though his arm was only superficially regrown, and not enough to handle the full force of the spell anyway, Matt blew his own fist up with his [Tribulation Strike], made into a spiky gauntlet with his thrice-upgraded [Reinforce Mana].

Long Zhiyuan opened a hole in his chest with some skill in a way that reduced the impact to mere knockback, but he still spasmed as some aftershocks wracked his body.

Maven pounced on Matt once again, now with Gan Le for support, pushing him to retreat while he regrew his hand again, and filled out the rest of his appendage with [Regeneration]. After tanking a point-blank [Mana Beam], Mavens grip loosened on Matts severed arm for him to recall its armor to his still-healing limb.

Now wholly armored once more, Matt kept on the retreat, extremely careful to avoid Gan Les glowing hands. He wasnt about to actually get locked down again.

Maven tried to disengage and redirect to Torment as he swooped somewhat nearby, but Matt slowed her down with [Hail], then dragged her back with a [Cosmic Pressure]-empowered flicker of his Intent. Even controlling gravity with his attraction was a bit more draining than hed wanted, so he cut it off, but it was enough to accomplish what he wanted, as Maven once again turned back to keep attacking.

Matt played defensively, accruing some damage under the Sect warriors relentless and reckless assault, but nothing terribly concerning. That he couldnt dissuade their attacks with his own abilities was annoying, but he could at least appreciate watching Gan Les gray skin grow darker and darker from exertion as he protected his countrymen. It was a slow process, but still fun.

And besides, he wasnt alone.

Shadow came in with a vengeance, blades flashing, tearing up Mavens back.

Maven turned and lashed out while tentacles grew out of her back. Those fleshy appendages tried to entangle Matts blade but he didnt care and simply hacked down, trying to push Gan Le to his limits, and right past them.

Long Zhiyuan didnt sit idle and landed several attacks on Matt, but he blocked most of them with a combination of [Bulwark] and his armors inbuilt shields. The rest splashed against his armor, harmlessly. Only one attack landed, some kind of twisting black ball of thorns that weaseled into a crack in his armor while Matt parried an opportunistic shot from Colton, on the far side of the battlefield.

It set into his flesh like a chainsaw, rending his leg into clumps of meat, but it wasnt lethal quite yet so Matt ignored it while he took aim at Maven tangling with Shadow.

Gan Le used that moment where he was occupied to land a blow on Matts head, and even though he was ready for it this time, Matt felt the tether snap into place.

FUCKKKKKK!, Matt lashed out but Maven and Long Zhiyuan were already moving away, relying on the pale and panting Gan Le to keep him occupied.

Unlike last time where Matt tried to just blast Gan Le away through pure physical strength, he instead moved into grappling the Sect fighter.

Once they were close, so close that Matt could feel the spell buzzing inside the other man, Matt started unleashing skills with abandon. Not at Gan Le but at everyone else around them.

A number of them were so weak as to be useless with the counter measures Gan Le was projecting but he didnt care; that wasnt the point of his attacks. No, he wanted to force Gan Le to use his Talent at range, always a fairly reliable counter for damage-stealers.

He was effective enough that Long Zhiyuan was already turning around, but after a brief pause, he hesitated, before flying away even faster, just before the world went blue with mana.

Matts armor dented, gaps opening between its plate, and then the shrapnel hit. Hundreds upon hundreds of shards of metal raced into the crevasses opened in Matts armor before they closed themselves up. Across from him, Gan Le was also bleeding in a few places, but all Matt could really focus on was that whoever had made that bomb needed to patch up their work. The detonation had definitely involved more mana than most of Matts attacks, but it was clearly approached from the angle of ship artillery.

Battlefield-scale munitions needed a very different approach to properly maximize their power.

Still, he couldnt argue too much with the results given the thousands of enchanted metal slivers it had left in his body. Damage over time, healing, mana disruption, enchantment nullification, the whole set. Each one was simple in its design and execution, but there were just so many, with so many different techniques, that Matts comparative blunt-force methods wouldnt do much of anything.

Hearing a message from Darrow, Matt pushed [Regeneration] as hard as he could. In a few places, the spell ran afoul of mana-disruption and only caused worse injuries, but it kept him alive at the expense of empowering some of the needles stuck in his flesh. In a few minutes, if he didnt get any additional attention, theyd detonate and rip his body to shreds. Or the rest of the way, at least. [Regeneration] kept his body running but it wasnt putting him back together anymore.

Hed deal with it later. His muscles werent working quite right, and his armor kept malfunctioning, but he grabbed his own body with [Telekinesis], pushed himself with [Air Slide] past Gan Le and swung his sword, fully recombined with all of its [Sword Twin]s and blazing with [Tribulation Strike]. Long Zhiyuan loomed large in his vision, and Matt attacked. Not at the mans core, but his still-injured shoulder. He was more vulnerable there and it was easier to dodge.

Long Zhiyuan obliged, and the blade struck Matts true target..

An entirely unassuming man startled and began to fade from tangibility, but a storm of lightning wrenched through his body and tore the semi-corporeal man to pieces. Space rippled and fragmented, momentarily breaking through the spatial locks in the area, and Ari Kai vanished. No essence pulse which was a shame, but he was definitely out of commission.

Long Zhiyuan struck, but Matt teleported behind his attack and struck out with a [Wind Cutter] [Barrage]. The former young master spun and dodged them, striking Matt several times with his own attacks. Many of the attacks even made it through the still-damaged armor, but they hardly did anything to Matts still-ruined body.

Then Matt grabbed the man with his left hand- the only part of his body other than his head still fully functional- and crushed his arm. Bones snapped, Long Zhiyuan cried out, and Matt finished cutting off the mans arm with a [Telekinesis]-wielded sword stroke.

The tide of battle wasnt just shifting, it had turned.

Theyd all been bloodied at some point or another, but Bulwark had kept their more fragile members upright. Stick had stopped screaming at some point, but her ferocity had yet to fall away. There was also a Liz flitting between them to provide patch healing where it was needed, but as a massive explosion sent a half-dozen federation soldiers away from Light, Matt felt the battle settle.

The Harmony Accords must have felt the same shift because just as Gan Le looked like he was going to vomit they all vanished in bursts of spatial mana just like Ari Kai had earlier. Shadow reached out like she was trying to snatch them out of space but her cursing told him whatever she had tried to do hadnt worked.

A moment later, the ships vanished back into Chaotic Space.

Matt glared at where the oversized flagship had been. They were victorious but it wasnt the overwhelming victory he had been hoping for. Still he couldn't linger on that thought, there was still a system to finish saving, and all of them were more injured than they should have been after a more normal fight. None of the Harmony Accords had been killed, with the possible exception of Ari Kai, but he wasnt going to count them as dead until he felt the burst of essence.

Eric had yet to be avenged.

There was more war to be fought.

It wasnt over yet.

A pair of Liz flashed over to him, one of them resting her hands on his temples and casting, while the other became blood and dove into his body. With her aid, the metal shards came loose and [Regeneration] finally started doing its job. Even as his flesh knitted together, his spirit started complaining about soreness, and hed probably have to be a bit careful about high-Tier skill overuse for a bit but he was fine and could even go for round two. Though he might be the only one.

Flying over to where Dena floated in space listlessly he pulled her into Drifter's ship where Darrow had already gathered with most of the others.

Denas words brought him back to the present like a punch from Maven though. I was trying so hard to join him, but I didnt even manage it. I kind of hate myself for that.

Matt rubbed her armored back ignoring the gashed in the metal which threatened to tear his flesh even more.

He wanted to say things would be ok but that was an outright lie. Instead he went with, Eric wouldnt want that, but you know that already. No one here wants that.

I do.

Matt didnt have an answer for that and let the silence linger.