Chapter 585: Stakes and Rewards
There were tens of millions of lives at stake in the surrounding city. Hundreds of thousands had already been lost during the day’s fighting alone. His own son was still in the vicinity, retreating with Moon’s group, and every second the bubble was allowed to strengthen was a second closer to Kael being killed by whatever emerged from it.
Tom’s eyes drifted briefly toward Moon’s retreating figure at the eastern perimeter.
Moon was moving fast. Alaric was moving with him. Emma and the rest of Alaric’s team were forming a covering perimeter around them. Kael was with the group, sprinting toward the exit corridor, understanding that a person of his strength had no business in staying around.
Looking at Moon, Tom couldn’t help but shake his head wryly, ’This kid knows when to run. No wonder he survives everything thrown at him.’
Moon’s judgment on retreat was as sharp as his judgment on advance. Tom had watched him fight for the entire operation. He had watched him make one high-quality call after another. If Moon had decided the bubble’s contents were beyond his ability to fight, then Moon was right. Simple as that.
Moon’s contribution to this battle was beyond measure. If he survived what came next, Tom was going to make sure the Association paid him every last credit he deserved.
Tom would trust the boy’s instinct even when he couldn’t verify the reasoning himself.
He raised his hand.
"Let’s attack."
Golden fire ignited across both his gloves in a burst that lit up the arena. When he released, the golden fire fist streaked across the space between him and the bubble in a single explosive line, its heat searing the air behind it into a trail of distortion.
The strike hit the bubble.
The surface rippled and Klein’s bubble absorbed the impact and dispersed the energy across it.
The bubble held firmly.
"They can’t ignore us. Even at their level, our strikes force them to respond. Keep pressing. Every attack forces a reallocation of energy."
He raised his staff and began to unleash his four elements
Sierra’s elemental arrows continued raining down on dome of water. And yet, the dome held strong, the dark crimson halo strengthening it to handle the attacks.
Samuel watched the three of them prepare their next strikes. He simply stood there, calm and patient, as his three colleagues began the barrage that he had refused to participate in.
His eyes flicked briefly toward the eastern exit corridor, where Moon and Alaric were disappearing beyond the ruined section of the arena.
◇◇◇◇
Two figures arrived at the massive dome, one of them breathless.
"Are you sure we can escape?" Marcus’s voice came ragged, his hand slapping against the shimmering blue surface as if the physical contact could reveal something the visual couldn’t. The barrier held firm, his fingers unable to pass through the surface.
Since he was faster than Sarah, he had piggybacked her the last few kilometers. His shoulders were heaving from the effort. Sarah had slid off his back at the barrier’s edge and was already moving forward on her own feet, her posture as composed as it had been throughout the entire day.
"Yes." She nodded, her eyes scanning the surface of the shimmering dome. One of the barrier’s built-in effects was visual distortion. Whatever lay beyond the surface came through as blurred, refracted, and impossible to identify with certainty. Trees might have been buildings. Buildings might have been debris. Nothing outside the dome could be trusted at a glance.
But that didn’t matter to her.
She remembered the entrance point. There was a second order gate not far from here, and beyond it, a service road that connected to the wider transportation network. If they could find any vehicle nearby, they could escape within minutes. If not, they could still make it out on foot before whatever was happening inside the venue reached them.
She raised her hand.
"Grab on."
Marcus didn’t hesitate. His fingers closed around hers.
Sarah pressed her free hand against the surface of the barrier.
A small object glowed in her palm.
The surface around them rippled as they passed through
The barrier resealed behind them, and within a heartbeat they were outside.
Marcus laughed like a maniac, half from relief and half from the adrenaline that had been building in his chest since the moment the attack began.
"It worked!"
His eyes fixed on the pass still glowing in Sarah’s hand.
"How did you know the Association Surpasser had one of those?"
He had seen Sarah kneel beside the body of a Surpasser earlier during their retreat. She had rifled through his body. He hadn’t asked her what she was looking for. Now the answer was in her hand.
Sarah tucked the pass into her belt.
"Because they were part of the reinforcement group that knew what was happening inside." Sarah answered calmly. "The Association wouldn’t send fighters into an operation like this without giving them a way out. It only makes sense that they’d carry their own escape plans. He died before he could use his. I took it because someone was going to need it."
Marcus nodded slowly. The grin returned to his face. His hand moved unconsciously to wipe a smear of blood off his cheek, though it only spread the mess further.
"I hope that bastard dies inside from those creeps."
Moon’s calm and composed face flickered in his mind. The image of Moon’s cold expression from hours before.
The image of Moon’s dominance in the tournament. The image of Moon standing over the bodies of everybody that attacked him. All of it stacked into a resentment that Marcus was going to carry with him for a long time, if he lived long enough to carry anything.
"Oh? Look what we have here." A sneering voice suddenly appeared around them.
Marcus’s head snapped up.
A figure emerged from behind a broken section of a nearby building. Clad entirely in black, his face smeared with blood that was likely not his.
A weapon already in his hand, held loose at his side.
Marcus’s body went rigid and his eyes widened.
The attackers weren’t just inside the dome.
They were outside it too.
Before he could move to unsheathe his sword, the man’s aura struck him.
Sweat broke out on his body, ’We’re...dead. That’s a Surpasser!’