Other than the troopers freefalling all around me, it feels surprisingly calm in the air, or maybe I feel calmer than I thought I would. Some of the troopers have Powers or ranged weapons that they’re already activating. It’s the middle of the day, conditions for seeing are perfect, and the sky has a purplish tinge to it that adds to the alien feeling of this world. The rock formations below us that the Settlement buildings are built into also have heavy purple undertones, along with red and black. I can see sparse vegetation and trees from here; none of it is green.

  Down on the ground, it’s chaos. We’ve deployed near the Settlement where the Marauders are thickest and Soul Sparks blossom around me within my increased 252 meter range. I Reclaim them, pulling the warmth across the distance as if they’re right next to me, and glance quickly at the notifications.

  Soul Sparks Reclaimed: 2

  Soul Sparks Reclaimed: 4

  Soul Sparks Reclaimed: 11

  Soul Sparks Reclaimed: 8

  Next to me, Paul fires his jetpack and I activate mine too, slowing me down. My eyes go wide when I see Paul hasn’t fired his jetpack to slow down - he’s using it to rocket to the ground even faster, and Dalib hasn’t even bothered with a jetpack. I curse and flip, using the jetpack to pick up some speed and then I cut the engine and cut the whole jetpack loose by pulling the straps. Projectiles shards of ice coming from Marauder Mages on the surface narrowly miss me and the sky begins to fill with counter-fire from below. It’s immediately apparent that although we’re outnumbered our troops have more and better firepower.

  I whoop as I plunge toward the ground, excitement so high I almost miss the distant warmth of more Soul Sparks I can Reclaim. I pull them into me and watch in amazement as the Earth actually moves to absorb Paul’s momentum and sends him off running at high speed, his Power making the Earth under him move like water. Dalib simply lands nearby despite the high speed and darts off in a blur to cover Paul. I’m not far behind and I flip back upright, feet now down and ready in the back of my mind to feel the pain of broken legs and back as I hit the Earth at high speed. Instead, my Perception dialed up so that time seems to slow, I use my vastly increased Agility and Strength to perfectly absorb the impact of my landing and I roll forward then take off.

  Slightly stunned at how fucking awesome I am, I look around as I catch up to Paul. There are no Marauders here in our immediate vicinity and he’s already at work. As Soul Sparks form behind me and to my right that I Reclaim, I leap up on a ridge that Paul is already creating. Rock and hard packed earth rise up out of the ground at tremendous speed, like tectonic plates are colliding at high speed underneath my feet. Rumbing fills the air and mostly drowns out the weapon fire a couple hundred meters from us and the screeching, bellowing cries of the Marauders.

  Dalib has taken up a flanking position on Paul’s far side to watch out and guard him.

  “Hold the other flank,” Dalib’s voice comes through the communicator in my helmet. “Make sure he can focus on this.”

  We’re not far from the walls of the Settlement and I take up a position as Paul runs along it. As he passes, two new ridges start to form like spokes from a wheel. Combined they begin to separate the area into channels that I assume will funnel the creatures into clear killing zones, and I wonder if it will work as I scan the horizon. Pitched battles are taking place in the distance and I continue to collect Soul Sparks as they emerge.

  “I need a break,” Paul says through the communicators, which I now understand probably means he’s run out of Mana, and he’ll need to let it rebuild based on how high his Aura is. There are three short ridges and a fourth that is not very long, maybe twenty meters. All of them are about two stories tall and two to three meters wide at the top.

  “You should have done more on fewer ridges,” Dalib remarks.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Apologies, sir. Won’t happen again,” Paul replies and I find myself surprised. Because of our unusual and more informal situation, it’s been easy to forget Dalib has a military rank as well as a high Rank. Paul looks back at the defensive emplacements on the Settlement. “I’ll work on here and here when I can,” he says, pointing to two of the ridges in particular.

  A burst of Soul Sparks emerges from the battlefield and I know instinctively these are human ones. Before I can even say anything, Dalib has darted off in a high speed blur in the exact direction I sensed them. I race to the edge of my ridge, unclear if I should join, and zoom in with my Perception to see a massive Marauder that looks to have burst out of the rock. Bodies are strewn everywhere, both human and Marauder. A few of the humans stir and I see one of them is Aoife who must have been caught by surprise.

  The new Marauder is a massive, black undulating beast over 5 meters tall with thick tentacles lined in sharp cutting blades and tipped with barbed spears. Multiple round mouths with sharp teeth surrounded by shorter, grasping tentacles are irregularly placed along its length, and two of them are filled with humans struggling to free themselves as they fight against the tentacles and powerful maws. Its rock like surface is covered in hard, black chitinous plates that flex with seams that run along them like spider webs.

  Blaster fire and bullets seem to deflect off it without effect and even mini missiles don’t seem to phase it. I pull its information.

  Evolved Marauder Champion (Level 244)

  Damage Reduction Index: 23

  Mana: 3330/5840

  Conditions: Mass Driver, Ablative Armor, Epic Regeneration, Death’s Redeemer, more…

  At the speeds some of them are fighting at, closing distances is usually so fast and powerful that it acts by itself as a weapon that spears the opponent, but our troopers are bouncing off. Bobby and Kate in their PowerSuits are hovering well above the Champion, his armor penetrating projectiles ineffective and her flames billowing off a section of the Marauder without effect, ripples of heat in the air. As I watch and Reclaim more Soul Sparks from other Marauders caught in the crossfire, a dark purple aura forms around the Champion and quickly blasts outward, catching everyone and either throwing them back or stunning them. Bobby and Kate both fall precipitously for a second until their PowerSuits recover. Brad resists the blast somehow, probably his Tier 1 Epic Enhanced Physique Power, and he carves the Champion open with a glowing blade before he’s knocked away by a massive tentacle despite trying to hold his ground.

  Powers and weapons blast the Marauder without effect and I watch the wound Brad inflicted close up almost instantly. I wonder if anything will stop it before it ploughs through everything and destroys the Settlement. There’s no way I can help with this battle and the Soul Sparks emerging have thankfully dried up, since it’s only humans at the Marauder Champion within my range now. Should I try to evacuate the Settlement?

  And then Dalib slams into the Champion, and I finally understand the real difference between B Rank and A Rank, even though his Level is only in the 130s. Moving so fast I can barely follow, diamond hard bone blades emerge from his forearms and he carves open the Champion horizontally, spinning and ripping them free as he goes. I watch closely, fascinated, as he uses his Dimensional Rift ability that I can now copy to drop high powered plasma grenades and other explosive inside the creature. The wound heals up as he continues to jump and spin, but the Marauder is rocked as the grenades and landmines go off inside it, the healing it’s done actually counterproductive as the shockwave travels visibly inside its body, ripping its body apart internally.

  Bone armor forms around him in an instant. It looks unusual and I realize why when a tentacle wraps around Dalib and then squeezes, only to be sliced apart into segments as the armor itself carves it up. He scrambles to the top of the Champion and it surges at high speed in our direction and then rolls to buck him off or squish him. The Evolved Marauder might be powerful and tough, but Dalib is much faster and he simply runs along the top while shredding any attack that comes his way. Another purple aura blast slides off him as if it didn’t exist.

  This. This is what I want to be able to do and achieve. I wonder what his Attributes are and his training regime really is, and if I can replicate it all.

  Long bone blades emerge from Dalib’s arms and he slashes down, carving an ‘X’, and then he dives into the opening he’s created. As he disappears, I’ve already seen the sharp spikes and blades emerge all around him. The Marauder, now isolated because everyone who can move has now moved away, starts to convulse.

  Even though my Perception is focused on what Dalib is doing, I sense movement behind me and I spin to see a small group of Rippers climbing up the Settlement wall. There are three pairs, each struggling to climb and slowed down because they’re carrying a Brute between them as they scale. I glance at the Settlement defences, but they’re all focused just like I was on the fight in the distance leaving the Settlement exposed.

  “Paul!” I exclaim into the communicator. “The wall!” He spins as well to look and I know there’s nobody else this close to the Settlement with us.

  It’s clear we’re going to have to take them on..