Chapter 67: A Guide To The Fated Battlefield

  Later that night the camp was all set up, this one for a bit more permanency than the previous one. This camp would eventually act as a shield, much like Bridgefort. They hoped it would stand until Erik and Jessie could stop the Hellbeast invasion to give the fighting force a safe place to rest. If the two Remnants were to die, though, there was no reason to remain behind.

  That Erik and Jessie had magical powers opened up the possibility of someone else being able to fight them in their stead, despite Erik and Jessie not saying a word about Tuwavhe and Sun, whom they met in Africa, who had shown no interest in fighting.

  There could be others out there, and likely would be, but depending on strangers who had done nothing to fight back for months wasn’t an option. The Hellbeast numbers were ever rising, and soon there wouldn’t be time for any new magical person to be strong enough to even make a difference either way.

  Erik and Jessie were the last hope of humanity. Without them, the world would fall within a year, some had estimated. By now, most people trained to fight were already fighting or had died doing it. Militias were active all over the world but didn’t have the resources the semi-allied world army forces had.

  In half a year from now, most of the current defences put in place would have fallen, causing panic and devastation further inland on most, if not all, continents. This would cause the slow but certain downfall of civilization as they knew it before humanity ended.

  The morale was decidedly medium, with everyone being on edge. The Hellbeast force that had retreated from half the continent had returned here after all. When the base fell silent, howls and demonic barking came from the opposite side of Erik’s broken home.

  A makeshift wall and gate was erected to keep watch on the main road ahead of them, where any attacking hound was most likely to appear from. To the right side of this was the cliffside, where the chances for enemy approach were slim, but not zero. It also gave a decent view of the town the creatures would have to pass through to reach the human stronghold.

  For this reason, every light cannon pointed to these two sides, leaving the left and back patrolled with headlights. A cavalcade of vehicles parked tightly together formed the wall on that side.

  “You really need to sleep tonight,” Erik said to Angela after the incredibly awkward massage she had got.

  The masseur wasn’t the one she had talked to over the radio, but he was the one who introduced them, which was only the start of the awkwardness train. Instead, the masseur was introduced to Angela as if it was a blind date. To his credit, he was quick to find out she had no interest in that, and he even finished the massage twenty minutes later.

  “Like I even could,” she responded as she braided her hair with her fingers and stretched. “Wow, I really feel much better after that.”

  “You’re an integral part of this mission, Angela. We need you at your best.”

  She sighed and said, “I know. I’ll try. Good night, Erik.”

  “‘Night,” he responded with a smile. “Just you and me now, Gloom.”

  A black mass peeked out of the Titan’s right sleeve, white bubbles inside popping with glee. “Glom.”

  Erik had re-summoned Gloom that morning after it had been taken down while helping fight the Hellbeasts the day previous. Unlike Grace the dinosaur, Jessie’s familiar, Erik didn’t have any specific cooldown on summoning Gloom. The construct was more of an avatar rather than its own living being, an embodiment of the real spirit Gloom rather than an actual living thing.

  The Gloom ability was Erik’s most costly ability in terms of energy, so he waited until Jessie was rested and re-energised before spending a lot of his own energy.

  “Are you ready for tomorrow?” the Titan asked his sapient protective inner layer. Rather than popping, the white bubbles rushed around in circles. “I guess that’s a ‘yes’?”

  Erik got up on his feet and walked around the circumference of the camp, keeping an eye out and getting to move his legs a bit. Despite his magical physiology, sitting in a car all day didn’t feel great.

  He greeted those he passed with little to say to any of them and circled several times in relative boredom before sudden gunshots boomed from the gate. After several rounds had gone off, static from the radio gave way to a shouting voice.

  “Enemy sighted! It’s…it’s huge!”

  Erik dashed through the camp at break-neck speed, manoeuvring around people waking in panic. Gunshots still went off, but the radio was silent. He jumped on top of a vehicle, shapeshifting his feet whilst in the air, and leapt from the roof of the car high and fast.

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  Just twenty metres in front of the makeshift gate was one of the large Hellhounds, lit up by powerful light casters. Three assault rifles fired in bursts at the towering target.

  Erik’s momentum brought him a few metres above the gate, and he landed between the massive hound and the gate. The rifles’ fire slowed, stopping altogether as their wielders saw Erik in front of it.

  The beast growled, Erik sensing the reverberations from the ground with his feet. Despite this, it just looked at him. Its aura was just like the other big ones: basic. He hadn’t sensed many auras; Jessie’s, Tuwavhe’s and Sun’s, plus the aura of two—now three—large Hellhounds.

  Tuwa’s and Sun’s auras were powerful, but otherwise much like his own, except his aura had an effect and he wasn’t sure theirs had. Jessie’s was quite different, but each of them had a certain quality to them that made them…something. The large hounds’ auras were…empty, despite the power behind them being stronger than Erik’s own.

  A gust of wind from behind Erik and the accompanying sense of Jessie’s aura released a bit of the tension he held between his shoulders, but not all of it. After a quick moment, she landed next to him. Her Enter The Storm ability was already active and building a charge.

  Several tense seconds later, the stare-off hadn’t escalated. The hound breathed, sending gusts of air towards the Remnants, but other than a less bad breath than they would’ve guessed, nothing else was happening. Erik was loath to attack it head-on despite Jessie’s help.

  The hound soon turned around, leaving its back open to attack, and started walking away. The floodlights aimed at it kept tracking it, and it turned its head back towards Erik and Jessie after ten or fifteen metres.

  “Is it…waiting for us?” Jessie asked.

  “Would anyone like to explain what the hell is happening here?” asked General Mathisen over the radio. Erik lifted his radio from his belt and answered into it.

  “I think we’re being called out. It seems to want us to follow it,” he said.

  “We’re not doing that, right?” Jessie asked.

  Erik pondered what they should do until the radio sounded again.

  “Your call, Erik.” It was Angela’s voice.

  “What do you think?” Erik asked, turning to Jessie while keeping the static hound in his periphery.

  “It might be an ambush,” she said, not quite believing her own words. “But if you’re certain it’s your uncle behind this…then I don’t think there’s an ulterior motive. Maybe he just wants to talk to you.”

  Erik sighed. He knew who was behind this, now surer than ever. “You coming along?” he asked the Witch beside him.

  “Damn right.”

  Erik lifted the radio again, and said, “We’re going to follow it. You guys stay behind and—” The sound of a car behind them turning on interrupted him, and he chuckled into the radio. “We’re moving on foot. You guys keep behind us, and try to keep up.” He lowered the radio before telling Jessie to keep close to him with Enter The Storm active. The static field’s small energy-recovering effect would keep Erik at full strength while having only a negligible drain on her own energy.

  Her Jet ability would allow her to keep up, and keep her in the air as a bonus, allowing her a better view of the situation on the way. Jessie agreed, and the gate soon opened up behind them, letting a car roll past before shutting again. Dunham rolled the window down and drove to a stop next to the Remnants.

  “Dunham, you should—” Erik started, then saw Sophie in the back alongside Emma. He sighed before looking at Jessie. She also looked Sophie dead in the eyes. “You keep her safe, all right?” he continued.

  “Yes, sir,” Dunham answered, his clenched fist to his heart.

  “Let’s go, then.”

  Erik and Jessie walked towards the hound, still with its back turned against them as it waited. It started walking again once they were approaching, and its walk soon turned to a heavy jog before a full sprint. The massive beast was swift despite its large stature and weight, but it kept to the road, allowing the group to keep up.

  Erik had shifted his feet to a similar set of canine paws and lower legs, allowing him to keep up with its high speed. Jessie focused on flying straight above Erik while still having him in her Enter The Storm’s range. She was keeping up with the speed and preserved quite a bit more energy than she had expected because of the lack of manoeuvring required.

  The large hound crashed straight into cars left on the road, pushing them away without even a slight loss of speed, which was the main reason Dunham and the car kept the pursuit up.

  Radio messages flew back and forth as the camp they had left minutes ago was not only on high alert but also wondering whether they should follow. The plan had been to send an assisting force along with Warhead 1, Warhead 2 and Delivery Service the next day, if nothing else than to act as fire support and medical evac, but no one had been prepared for this situation.

  Erik couldn’t pay close attention to the radio as he had to sprint around various small and large obstacles in his pursuit of the large beast, so when the messages died down some time later, he wasn’t sure what the plan was. He knew Angela and Emma had both messaged, at least.

  Fifteen minutes after they had left camp, they were approaching Side Valley, meaning they had cut down the usual travel time by almost half. They hadn’t travelled over a hundred kilometres an hour, but with the lack of traffic and the need to adhere to traffic rules gone, they would be there in just a few minutes.

  The hound then turned from the road and went off into the woods, trees and branches breaking and thumping onto the ground in its wake. Erik and Jessie stopped, Jessie landing next to him once again. The car caught up to them. While decent at off-roading, the vehicle wouldn’t be able to travel even half the speed on the terrain ahead of them. The hound didn’t seem to wait for them this time, suggesting they were close to where it led them.

  They continued in a tighter formation, with Erik and Jessie still ahead, though walking this time. The car shook and tossed this way and that behind them but was otherwise fine and able to keep up. The group was silent, everyone feeling the tension in the surrounding air. Easy-to-follow tracks littered the ground from the large hound, keeping the few minutes of walking to a minimum.

  Growls, howls, and heavy stomps grew louder as they neared their destination. There was a surge in the number of tracks, though none as large or deep as the big one’s prints. Judging by the sounds, there were hundreds of beasts here, just as expected.

  The group approached a gentle hill going down, leading to a large, open area filled with the familiar monstrous dogs. In the centre was a man, dressed in a simple polo shirt, jeans and a dark leather jacket. Erik recognised the jacket and the stature of the man down the hill from them.

  “That’s him, all right. You guys stay here,” he said, taking a step down the hill. Jessie reached for him just as he turned to her. “Stay. You’ll have the height advantage here. Besides, I’m not sure this will break out into a fight just yet.”

  Jessie nodded in response, withdrawing her hand from his shoulder, saying, “The first sign of trouble, I’m scorching the bastard.”

  Erik smiled and nodded, then continued down the hill.