Chapter 62: Did You Use...
"Five, including us three. There are two more back at base. One of them can reinforce surfaces, walls, doors, that sort of thing. The other’s a ranged mana type like Madeline." Anton briefly glanced back at him and smiled faintly, "Of course, it’s six now, including you."
Dion’s expression remained even at that, and he only gave the faintest nod.
If this was the state that they were in, then really... unless they were headed in the same direction, and very soon at that, then their partnership would be short.
’Can’t exactly say, ’Oh, I’m just here to hide from the rain with you for a little while, and then I’m spitting on your welcome and leaving immediately’, though, can I?’
Meanwhile, Irvin was walking with his eyes forward and his hands in his jacket pockets.
Madeline walked beside Basil, her attention moving between the rooftops and the street with a focus that hadn’t been there when she had frozen against the gnoll.
"What’s the plan past tonight?" Dion asked.
"We want to head for Horizon Park Mall," Anton said. "It’s about three kilometres north of Greyland, and is more than big enough to house everyone, enclosed on all sides, loading bays for supply runs, and the retail floors would have enough left in them to keep us going for months if nobody’s already cleaned them out."
"And if some other group already has?"
"Then we talk to them. Sixty people is leverage whether we’re asking to join or asking to share. But if it’s empty, we take it, and we hold it; there are other places to find food around."
Dion faintly hummed in agreement at that, ’Now that... I can work with. Horizon is in the same direction as Novamed.’
They turned the corner, and they had brought Dion to a dark blue SUV parked neatly nestled into reverse parking within an alley. Anton walked ahead and pulled the driver’s door open.
"Everyone in."
Basil took the passenger seat. Irvin pulled open the left rear door, holding the door open for Madeline, who would have been right behind him; however, the young woman had walked around to the other side, opening the door as Dion came up behind her.
"Thanks..." he faintly muttered as he got in, finding it a little difficult to adjust, making it comfortable enough for himself to sit down with his new size.
Madeline sat to the other side of him, and Dion entirely ignored the faint glare that he felt coming from his other side.
Irvin’s jaw had tightened, but he had said nothing about it as he rested his elbow right by the window, looking out at the wall.
Anton turned the engine over, and in the quiet before the car pulled away from the curb, Irvin spoke instead about something else without looking at him.
"Did you use Enhancement to kill that gnoll?"
Dion kept his face straight, but internally, his expression had broken into one of curiosity.
He had been thinking that the abilities were meant to be unique to each person, and yet the way Irvin was speaking...
’Is everyone meant to have Enhancement? Then why does she have Mana Burst, and yet Spencer had Berserk Impact?’
Those were the only abilities that he had heard other people say, so he had only assumed that it should be natural that everyone had their own different kinds of abilities. Even when Anton had just mentioned that the other mana type user in their group was like Madeline, he didn’t think that she would have the same ability—Mana Burst—that she did.
But now...
’Hold on... Enhancement? That’s what Norman shouted before the gnoll killed him.’ He thought as the memory came back to him.
Because of the memory having been drowned out beneath a lot of the euphoria that had taken him from his first feeding, it had taken him a moment to remember, and a chill ran through him with his new understanding. There was a whole lot more about things that were going on with the chronicle and the differences between what he was seeing and what others were than he had initially thought there were, and what he had learnt thus far.
’And I here I was thinking just what Anastasia had been telling me sounded like a lot to take in...’
Dion looked at Irvin through the rearview mirror, and found the guy already looking at him through it as well.
The question hadn’t exactly been a friendly one, judging by his tone. Perhaps he was mad that he kill-stole? If so, he could understand it, to an extent. But this was no game.
Ultimately, here... it was a test. They wanted to know just how capable he was.
"You don’t have to... answer him right now if you don’t want to," Madeline said. She was looking at Dion, and her voice spoke carefully, searching for what she felt were exactly the right words that she should say for him, "You just helped us. That’s enough for tonight."
"It’s not about tonight," Irvin huffed back immediately. "We’re bringing him back to sixty people who were responsible for protecting. It’s irresponsible not to ask as soon as possible, especially when we’re going on a food run right after this."
Anton was quiet for a moment, his hands on the wheel, his eyes on the road ahead.
Then he spoke without looking back.
"He’s right that we need to know. Abilities are... personal, I get that. But someone who can do what you just did alone, that changes a lot of what we might be able to do through the rest of the night."
He hesitated briefly, his eyes flickering to meet Dion’s in the mirror for a moment before they went back to the road, as he turned around a toppled-over car.
"But... yeah. It’d be best if we can get to know a little more about what you can do."
"I didn’t use Enhancement," Dion said, shaking his head a little. "And I’ve been on my own since the first night. With two days without a group or anywhere to fall back to, I’ve forced myself to learn how to kill those things without using mana as much as possible. It doesn’t exactly recover quickly after all."
Anton nodded, understanding, his eyes still forward. "What about your class? Have you got one yet?"