Chapter 6: 6 – Burning

Grey woke up to smell burning flesh, and he knew it was his own. But when he tried to look, he failed to. For some reason his ears were ringing, vision was failing, bones were shaking and he got the feeling that he was being dragged.

He did his best to lift his head, yet it seemed impossible. His body just did not buzz. No matter what he did, it did not obey him.

For a few seconds, he struggled. Then finally got his head back in control. Slowly he faced to the side, only to find his worst nightmare come true.

The world around him was engulfed in fire, everything from trees to grass to even humans beside him. They were all burning, crying in agony. But he could do nothing to help. Something or someone was dragging him somewhere and getting dragged was the only thing he was allowed to do.

A few meters later, in the distance, he saw the blades of a burning helicopter rotating on its own, and soon his body was jerked and he dropped to the ground.

Gasping for air and watching the remains of the blazing chopper, Grey tried desperately to remember the moments before his wake in this hell. And slowly but surely some memory surfaced, and so did his vision and hearing return.

He could vaguely remember the argument he had with Virkfon when his sneaking into the operation was found. But after that everything was blank. There was no recollection of how the chopper and he ended up in this wasteland.

That was the only clue he had. All of it had to do with the operation. Something had gone wrong during the flight. Though piecing the picture came second, he had to survive first. He couldn't lay here, waiting for eventual death.

So, Grey forced himself to move and there the bone-crushing pain struck him. Every inch of his body motioned; all his limbs were drowned in an insufferable amount of agony. He felt himself drifting towards unconsciousness.

However, death was a luxury he couldn't afford. The pain was in, and it would only get worse from here. He would have to suffer for God knows how long before hell would accept him.

"I can…not…" Gritting his teeth, Grey motioned, even if that was a millimeter.

He stumped his legs on the hard soil, but only the right one responded. The left leg was inert, nor could he check to see if it was attached.

Accepting the loss, he then tried to move his hands, and luckily both were working. His right hand moved to his waist where the handgun was still intact and the left one to the cardholder which unfortunately was empty alongside the pockets that should carry health and mana potions.

“Shit.”

He then checked his ear to check if the raider was still attached, and to his luck, only blood touched his fingers. The pain suggested he was touching his bare flesh as if the device was ripped apart.

But the constant ringing and red blink from the broken watch on his wrist somewhat relieved him. The distress signal was already sent. He just had to hide till the backup arrived.

Both happy and fucked at the same time, he tried to roll around. But his upper half did not move. Only pain stung him, worse than ever.

"Calm down! Calm down!" Biting his torn lips, Grey reassured himself.

His ribs were broken or worse entire back was cracked. Compound fractures. One leg might be missing, so external bleeding combined with internal bleeding. That posed a major threat. But on the bright side, he could still move. His hands were fine. Hearing and vision were alright.

All in all, he was banging on death's door. But had time till the doors were opened.

So, taking chances and using his hands and one leg he crawled upwards. There was no sense of direction here, so he pushed on where he was dragged.

As he went further, the cries of humans and animals alike got louder and louder. All were beyond painful.

Some were begging for help; some couldn't even move their lips. They could only grunt in agony. He too wanted to scream but wasn't sure anyone would respond amid this chaos.

He kept dragging himself, but at some point, his body was bound to give up. Only a minute later it did.

So, Grey lay hopelessly, staring at the moonless sky. There he saw hundreds, even thousands of destructive spells of many colors, shining brightly like stars, hurling towards the ground. But an equal number of spells were fired back, accompanied by a barrage of muzzle blasts.

A war. That was the best word to describe this. Against whom? Where? Why? There were no answers, nor could he do anything to find out.

Though sooner he found out that was the least of his worries.

Seconds later, a few translucent tabs flashed before his eyes; something in red was engraved on them. He read the contents, and well… They brought only bad news.

Depleting HP. 98 remaining out of 1450.

Depleting Stamina. 11 remaining out of 155.

Depleting Mana. 30 remaining out of 470.

Warning!

Body reaching critical health. Assistance required.

Immediate assistance required.

"Fuck!" He cursed under his breath, the gravity of the situation dawning on him. If the attributes drained completely, he would just die. It was worse than he thought.

Yet it wasn't over. Moments later an ear-deafening roar was heard and the ground shook rapidly. Sensing the rattling. Grey eyed his surroundings, and a mere five hundred yards away found what seemed like horses set on fire running in the direction of him.

They had probing red eyes, half the skin melting and the other half ablaze. Over them flew hundreds of birds, drowned in the same fire. Tailing the convoy were big and small humanoid creatures, yelling with their nonexistent lungs.

Accursed Creatures. The beings he loved and hated the most. The Cursed entities only knew how to kill and be killed.

"Son of a…"

Mustering every ounce of strength his body had left, Grey tried to move. Scratching the ground with his nails he plowed upwards but to no avail.

It wasn't enough. There was nothing left in him. He tried again, and again, and again. But his limbs were too weak to buzz.

Depleting HP. 57 remaining out of 1450.

Depleting Stamina. 6 remaining out of 155.

Depleting Mana. 14 remaining out of 470.

Warning!

Body reaching critical health. Assistance required.

Immediate assistance required.

Reading the warnings, Grey could only laugh.

Striking a deal with that woman was a bad idea. Whenever he involved himself with her, something was bound to go wrong, in the worst possible ways. Despite knowing the penalties, he tagged along, and paid an astronomical amount, just to suffer.

He was at death's door, for the sake of what… Curiosity. Whoever said it was like a cockroach, always stumbling into places where it did not belong, must have shared the consequences firsthand.

“Damn you, Kate…” He screamed, even if his throat was itching and mind drifted back and forth between oblivion and the current. If death was absolute then why not let everything out for once? A few seconds and it would be all over anyway.

He had quite a big list to go through, but before his lips could part ways for more, someone interrupted.

“I can hear you, dipshit.” Yelled Kate from afar.

“...”

Grey tried to respond, yet his tongue was too tired to stir. His eyelids were also getting heavier to hold, and so was his consciousness… slowly drifting away. Just when he was about to lose it all, an icy sensation throughout his body brought him back.

When he opened his eyes, he could see shards of ice forming around the area, mixed with snowfall that soon turned out to be a blizzard forming in the air. The air had already gotten colder, too colder even.

Then the ground rattled, stronger than the last. And what came after could be best described as sounds directly from hell. It was a cacophony of inhumane shrieks, followed by something heavy crashing over and over again.

Slowly and painfully, Grey tilted his head to find wide slices of ice falling out of the sky, directly on the hoard. The weight of the block was enough to crush them, but not enough to crush them all.

The soul-wrenching cries only got louder with each sheet down. But no matter how many fell over them, there was no end to their numbers.

And that was just the start. They had not even shown their true colors.

Once all the surrounding mana was absorbed and turned deviant, no existing spell would work. Only guns with tracer rounds had a chance, which this stranded party lacked. They were too short in supplies to tackle these numberless monsters that were now pouring in from all directions, circling them.

The only way to end them was, either destroy the source that powered them as a whole or destroy their shards. In this case, none of that was an option to consider. First due to lack of ammo. Second, no equipment to trace the origin which most likely was a pathway, deep in the forest.

Sensing no way out of this, Grey closed his eyes voluntarily.

‘At least she tried.’ He thought, loosening the grip over himself. No point in trying to float a sunken ship.

And just when he was about to finally drift to the far shore, a loud slap that even reverted beyond his soul, pulled him back from the depth of nothingness.

“Wake up, asshole,” Kate shouted, throwing in another slap. “Where do you think you are going?”

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Shaken by the impact, Grey opened his eyes abruptly, His lips tried to convey something, but in the end, nothing came out.

Noticing the movements, Kate injected the only available shot of Epinephrine into his thigh. The only thing that could save him and it bore results the next second.

His pupils dilated, heart pounded faster than ever which in return increased his breathing and blood circulation. Shortly his whole body was on internal fire, without any pain whatsoever. He felt like he could do anything and he did.

Flailing his hands and legs to the best of his abilities, Grey managed to get up but fell down the next movement, face down. His back was not broken, but something was wrong with the left leg. It was still there but did not work, not at all.

Nonetheless, he would not give up. He had to survive. So, he struggled to get up again, however, Kate smacked him down and rolled him to face the sky.

“Stay still for a second, moron.” She mumbled, gritting her teeth. Then she extracted another injection containing high-grade, mana and health potion mixed. Injected it in his left leg and stood back on her feet. “You will be up and running in a sec.”

Just like the last one, the potion-turned-injection did its job quickly. The overall pain subsided and he could even feel his left leg. His body was lighter, head clearer, and all five senses back on track.

Taking a very very deep breath, Grey forced himself up. Standing beside Kate and switching off the blinking watch on his wrist, he noted the chaos around him.

Blocks of ice were dropping all around, disrupting the flow of accursed creatures, and the howling winds fused with snow blocked their vision.

But the spell would run out of mana sooner or later. And considering their sheer number even after the repeated smash, things weren’t going to end on a positive note.

Wiping the trail of blood across his forehead and spotting his healing wounds, he turned to Kate.

"You okay?" He asked.

Just like him, Kate too was injured. She had wounds that were deep and still bleeding, but the most shallow ones were healed, leaving the scars as a reminder.

"Kinda." She let out a pained giggle and unsheathed the katana strapped on her back. "But not for long."

“How long?” He prepared the gun. Only one mag, 16 tracer rounds to defend against an endless enemy.

“What how long?”

“How long till the backup gets here?” Grey shouted; annoyance evident in his voice.

“We are the backup.” Kate fired back, brandishing her blade. "No one is coming."

"Why? Didn't the distress go through?"

"We are blocked. Part of covert OP."

“Great!” Grey stomped the ground, frustrated. But there was no time to waste. “Give me a sitrep.” He collected himself. A cool head was absolute to make it out alive.

Ignoring his words, Kate picked two thin metal cards from her waist belt and dropped them on the ground after pressing the mana stone engraved in the middle.

ID: Shield I-7

Type: Protection

Rank: Sporadic / Grade: B

Application: A shield made of mana that can withstand anything and everything. Durability lasts for a minimum of ten minutes.

ID: Verdure I-3

Type: Enhancement

Rank: Sporadic / Grade: A

Application: Produces a zone that rapidly restores all physical attributes of the user and anyone inside the zone. Effective for at least eight minutes.

Reading the tabs that flashed again, Grey took another breath. They were out of harm's way for the time being. The bluish barrier was protecting them and the green circle below the feet was patching their health.

“Thanks!” Grey had to show gratitude. Recovery was necessary for him to tackle what was coming.

“It is most likely an ambush by TARF. They attacked mid-flight. Everyone is scattered but is fighting. Don't know how long they will last.” Dismissing his words yet again, Kate delivered the report. “... This whole Accursed mess. It might be… I don't know… a coincidence.”

“I doubt that. Everything is too well timed.” Grey kneeled and summoned his system window.

~~~

<Welcome!>

Name: Grey [Human]

Class: Guardian |LVL – 47|

XP: 1210 / 4700 | Points: 3

HP: 340 / 1450

MP: 158 / 470

Stamina: 34 / 155

Cards Held: None

Stats:

Vigor: 44

Mana: 41

Endurance: 53

Strength: 59

Dexterity: 49

Intelligence: 51

Arcane: 25

Skills:

(Standard) Discernate: Enhances vision and perception to track down anything and everything.

(Rare) Presage: Grants the ability to mentally assess the opponent and derive an attack pattern.

(Rare) Grand Poiser: Grants the ability to gain resistance to flinching or staggering from enemy attacks.

~~~

Satisfied with the recovery speed, he closed it and returned to Kate.

“We should assume TARFs' involvement.” He mentioned, inspecting the reduction of snow by the minute. Then pointed the gun at the creatures, so the sensor below the barrel could take the deviant mana readings. “So… Damn the OP. We get the hell out of here right now.”

“The blizzard won’t last long, but will shield us for now.” She heaved a sigh. “We were close to Orlin, so roughly 70 miles to the buffer zone, 120 to base. Impossible by foot. None of us can fly. So…”

“Get through the hoard. Till we regroup, reach high ground, or destroy the power grid.” Grey finished her words. There was just no way around it. They had to fight tooth and nail to make it out alive.

“If I remember correctly, there should be a mine in the east.” Kate’s eyes darted through the mayhem and her mind at the same time, searching for coordinates she had seen on the map earlier.

"We need direction."

"Maybe… twenty miles from Orlin. East, where the main route connects to Keshmar." She was able to recall. “If we make it there, we might get a ride.”

“Brilliant! But how do you get directions in a blizzard?”

“You don’t.”

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