Chapter 231: Havoc (1/2)

As the ships droned and the Hybrids stomped, we skulked beneath them in the sewers. We passed several of the checkpoints, dispatching several groups of Hybrid sentries sent to find us. Once up close to the first point for our illusions, I stepped up the wall of stone. As if covered in black water, my skin shifted like living blades. I cut through the rock with ease, pulling myself forward with gravity.

I rose through the dirt and stone, passing up into the first building. I walked up to the top floor, the windows blown out from the chaos below. Beneath me, Hybrids haunted the streets like steel titans. They stood over the doorways and cars, their monstrous frames crushing the city with ease.

Several of the Hybrids carried carcasses of espens, chewing on the opened entrails. They dug their metal wires into the corpses. It mirrored the mandibles of a mantis munching through a cicada. Several of the espens were alive, screaming for help.

I crushed the urge to help them as I planted the quintessence stone. I ripped my gaze from the horrors, pacing back down into the depths. We raced through the hidden hallways of the city. Once through to the next point, I walked into a woodshop that survived the last incursion. I planted the illusion and passed the corpses of a family of espens. Someone devoured only their eyes and the contents of their skulls.

Throughout the entirety of placing these illusions, the city showed signs of devastation. The totalitarian rebels took a zero-tolerance policy for those that didn't join them. Though it might not have started that way, over time, these people devolved as the conflict continued. From what I imagined, the rebels committed acts of evil after joining. Once done, they either rationalized what they did or went insane.

This devolvement of the city's people made Polydra's destruction less of an issue for me. This place died a while back, and now it was a shambling corpse instead of a living metropolis. Either way, I planted the final illusion near the entrance of a metro.

With that finished, I turned towards the final group remaining with me. The others split from us as we planted the decoys. Now Kessiah and Krog braced themselves for what was to come. I raised a hand,

”For the guild. Let's show them what we can do.”

They gave me a curt nod before racing off to their positions. I did the same seconds after, burrowing until I reached a tall skyscraper. After passing a beautiful but downtrodden reception area, pounding footsteps echoed above me. I sprinted towards an elevator shaft, not wanting to walk up hundreds of staircases. Avoiding prying eyes played to my advantage as well.

I wiggled into the elevator sideways, struggling to fit. Seconds later, I melted through the top of the metal box. I timed the roof's destruction with a giant explosion in the distance. After rippling of the wire ebbed in my ears, I shot up with gravity guiding me. Hundreds of floors passed before I reached the top level.

Far above the destruction below, I gained a view of the entire city. I walked up to a wall of glass, Polydra's ruin spreading out beneath me. After rolling my shoulders, I pressed my hands together. A dozen different objects lifted from around me. I pulled my arms in, the furniture racing forward.

With office chairs keeping me hidden, I sat down in a fort of printers, water coolers, and office furniture more akin to cardboard than wood. From the cracks in my guise, I reached out a hand, mana saturating my blood like liquid energy. It built in my hands as I stared at the dreadnought. A few seconds later, and my hand trembled with palpating power.

I braced a hand while sending a message to the others,

The Living Multiverse(lvl 10,000) - Go

- Kessiah -

I turned my gaze up as a flash of light erupted over the city. Above, cataclysmic detonation echoed across the city. Plugging my ears, I braced myself as a shockwave dispersed throughout Polydra. A sound loud enough to shatter teeth and crack stone followed.

Krog raised a wing, protecting me from being launched like a styrofoam cup caught up in a gust of wind. The source of the carnage, the enormous vessel's forcefield billowed out. My breath seized in my chest at the sight of the damn thing. It was just so fucking big. Ah fuck, why was I here again?

I shook my head as glass pelted me from above. I was tough enough for this shit at least. I turned down as Krog ripped a Hybrid from one of the gialgathens. Yeah. That was why I was here. To help this asshole. Great.

I hyperventilated as my eyebrows singed off my face from Krog's heated breath. That was about the only thing that matched the guy's fiery temper. Once the Hybrid disintegrated, I leaped down onto the broken pavement. Stumbling over to the gialgathen, I opened my ring's storage.

”Fuck, ah fuck.”

I pulled out a bag of blood before ripping it open. A car beside Krog exploded, another shockwave making me stumble to my side. I lost focus for a moment, the blood falling down in a torrent of red. I reached out a hand, my eyes widening,

”Ah, hell no. No, no, no.”

If I had to fucking use my own blood again, I'd fall out right here.

Another deafening boom shot out from above, the dreadnought unleashing arcane bolts at one of the illusions near us. I attempted ignoring the insanity all around me as I healed this gialgathen that got caught up in this shitstorm.

I stuck to the wounds that usually resulted in death. Pretty much, they were always blood loss, cardiac arrest, or organ failure. The other stuff was beyond me, so, I prioritized the major arteries first to stabilize their blood pressure and lower blood loss. After that, the guys needed an injection of fluids to help the heart with the whole pumping to live thing.

Once I got them stable, I slapped the shit out of them to wake them up. Worked like a charm.

With that in mind, I unleashed a furious flurry of slaps onto this random dude. The gialgathens eyes twitched, so I set his head down. Tossing it onto rock wasn't a good idea. Done it once and the gialgathen died. Talk about a lot of wasted effort.

A bit of Hybrid mush beneath me twitched, so I jumped up and screamed,

”Oh shit.”

Krog obliterated it with a tail whip, dirt spraying over my face. I spit out some mud, my hair blown back. I turned to the asshole,

”Thanks for the help.”

The damn gialgathen smirked at me,

”No need for thanks. I would do it anytime.”

He pulled the gialgathen up onto his back with a wing. After he adjusted it, I jumped on top of the pile of bodies. We leaped back up to the chaos, the wind off his wings, sending cars flying. I stared at the dreadnought, the ship casting entire city blocks in the shade. It looked like shit.

Daniel already blew up vast portions of it. Large hunks of the ship were just missing. It looked like a void shark just took a massive bite out of the damn thing. No void sharks here though. Only Daniel and his good ole singularity thingamajig.

As we crossed portions of the ruins, one of the spires reared back to swipe at us. It was like staring at a giant dick of death. Well, maybe the fact I thought of it like that said more about me than the damn spire. Eh, whatever.

As it whipped towards us, I swore to Baldowah that if I lived through this shit, I was never going back to a warzone. Leave this hell for fighters like Daniel. I preferred putting the mess back together afterward. Yenno, in a safe ass hospital. This shit, this shit right here sucked.

As the metal tendril of doom slammed towards us, I covered my ears. Krog unleashed a devastating roar towards the metallic tendril, the sonic boom sending the tentacle sideways from the impact. The wily old general aimed his attack to send the spire at one of Daniel's illusions. As it landed beside the mana crystal. Krog sent out a telepathic roar. Once his mind touched the gem, the white stone detonated. An elemental blast boomed from the tiny bomb. It unleashed blue fire, orange ice, and multi-colored crabs from the point impact. I shook my head, utterly flabbergasted at the sheer amount of crabs here. I mean, what the fuck was going on?

There were so many crabs. Why were there so many crabs?

Wait a minute. They were elemental crabs. The elemental crabs latched onto the frozen tendril, crawling across its surface. As they pooled near the base of the massive pillar of metal, they used their claws to snip the damn thing to death. I started rooting for the little guys.

I waved my fist. Go crabs. Go get that bastard. Fuck him up.

Another calamity discharged behind us, the behemoth of a ship quaking under the might of another gravitational implosion. We rode the shockwave, Krog smoothly adjusting to the shift in his flight path. I stared down, several other spires stuck in giant blocks of burning ice. The frozen fires allowed more crabs to destroy more spires.

At this point, the entire battlefield descended to utter madness. Hybrids attacked crabs. Crabs attacked Hybrids. Gialgathens burned. Gialgathens got burned. I'll be honest, I kept my head down as Krog took the brunt of the battle on. This shit was way beyond me at this point.

The battle continued even if I didn't look at it though. We landed at the base of one of the pillars. It smelled like a jug of milk left in a hot car for months, the Hybrids repulsive as can be. I gagged as Krog ran up to save other gialgathens.

From this stinking, orange, and sloppy pit, Krog roared once more. The apricot-colored liquid sprayed out at us, but Krog waved his wings, sending it flying everywhere else but here. Thank Baldowah. I did not want that shit on me.

Krog reached into the pit of metamorphizing gialgathens. Pulling them out one by one, his eyes widened as a thousand-yard stare covered his face. It was too much for the old guy, and I couldn't blame him. A lot of these poor bastards didn't have skin, the orange slop replacing it with metal wires and corded steel.

It gave me flashbacks to the endless flesh that used my body like a puppet. The violation. The helplessness. My breath quickened as I calmed myself, using some mental tactics I developed to deal with it.

Count to a hundred by 7's. I didn't understand how Daniel pushed through all this. He just did. I wasn't like that. It hit me hard, and I couldn't just keep standing up after every knockout blow like Daniel could.

Hell, it took all I had just to stand back up.

I shook out that memory, getting back in the moment. I slapped my cheeks as Krog sorted the gialgathens. One pile was for those beyond saving. The others had a chance. Once completed, I jumped down, my feet cracking stone under me. I frowned at the rock. I wasn't fat, alright? The pavement was just weak.

Anyways, I ran up to one of the tangerine-colored bodies. This one retained skin for the most part. I grabbed the sides of my head, panicking for a second. I couldn't do a damn thing due to the nature of the wounds. These guys were in the middle of a reformation. All my skills oriented around healing injuries, so what good was I here?