Chapter 29

Earth
Algonquin Park Dungeon, Ontario
August 15, 2019
18:54 EDT

“Ooh, looks like we got lucky with that one,” Ben answered. “346D is Raise Skeletal Archer. It works the same way Raise Skeletal Warrior, but even if I learned it, I would only be able to have one skeleton at a time until one of them reach rank two. It may be better for someone else to learn it.”

“At rank two you can summon two skeletons? Does that mean you’ll be able to have one hundred of them at max rank?” Mason asked.

Ben shook his head. “The raised undead spells are rather unique in that each of them only has ten ranks, for a maximum of ten raised undead at a time. There is also a caveat where having Raise Skeletal Warrior at rank two will still only let me summon one Skeletal Archer. At least until Raise Skeletal Archer hits rank two.”

“I think you should still take it. You’ll probably be able to level up the ability a lot faster since an Archer will be out of harm’s way and will stay alive longer. You said that you need a skeleton to be active for an hour for the ability to reach rank two, right? You could probably do that tonight.”

Ben seemed to think about it while he was chewing. After he swallowed, he nodded. “Alright, I’ll take it.”

I handed it to Mason who handed it to Ben and then dug around in the pouch for another of the Tier D Skill Gems. Having found one, I rolled it around to see the number.

“The third Tier D Skill Gem is--”

[Jonathan! You and your friends need to get ready to move! Five Spectres will be there momentarily. When they arrive, listen to them!] my mom commanded.

[What’s going on?] I asked, dropping the skill gem back into the pouch and pulling on the drawstring to close it before putting it in my storage.

[There’s been an attempt on your sisters and you could be a target as well. We’re not taking any chances so we’re getting you back here ASAP.]

[My sisters?] I gasped. [Are they alright?!]

[Lucille and Alexis are fine but Aleena took an energy bolt to the shoulder. It went through cleanly, cauterizing the wound along the way. She isn’t in any danger, but she’s being rushed back to the base for surgery.]

[What about the attackers?]

[They’re all dead. They were bounty hunters, though not very good ones. Omar and Yuki were with them and kept them safe. Unfortunately an energy bolt was reflected from one of the other Spectres’ armor and Yuki couldn’t intercept it while in the middle of a fight.]

“Jonathan, what’s wrong?” Anja asked after I went silent.

I looked at her and was about to respond when three people appeared out of nowhere behind Ben and the twins. Anja began standing up, an alarmed look appearing on her face. Some sort of energy field encompassed an area around us and I heard a voice behind me.

“Time to go, boss. There’s no time to waste.”

“Zaszi?” I asked before standing up and turning around.

The petite woman nodded. “Zogyr and I are part of the team shadowing you today. C’mon, we need to go,” she commanded before turning to my friends. “Leave the food, you can eat back at the base.”

“What’s going on?” Mason asked, dropping his slice and unholstering his halberd.

“Zaszi, we don’t have time for this. We need to go, NOW!” a man yelled from behind Ben.

Before Ben and the twins could stand up, we were all teleported just outside of the dungeon building. I turned back to see three of the Spectres pulling my friends to their feet, and a second or two later a massive fireball obliterated the picnic table and surrounding area.

I felt someone grip my arm and begin pulling me into the building, followed right after by Spectres dragging my friends in as well.

“Lock us down!” I heard from behind me.

For a few seconds I was able to see a large area on fire outside the building before my vision was blocked by black metal dropping into place at the doors and all of the windows.

I turned in the direction I was being pulled in and saw a woman pop up from behind the counter. She placed the assault rifle she was carrying on the counter before turning around and raising her hand towards the wall behind her. A moment later the wall started swinging open, and Zaszi pulled me towards it.

“Everything is activated,” the woman said after she had turned back towards us. “The forcefield is up and you will be able to monitor the situation from inside the safe room.”

“Thank you,” Zaszi replied, letting go of my arm, she put her hand on my back and directed me into the safe room.

“What’s going on?!” I heard one of the twins ask.

“You’ll be told in a few minutes, please keep moving,” one of the men answered.

When I was about ten feet inside the safe room, Zaszi stopped prodding me forward and turned back the way we had come. I looked back and saw my friends standing together with the other four Spectres standing behind them. One of the Spectres reached over and pressed a button on a panel on the wall, which triggered the large vault-like door to close behind us.

“Come, sit down. I’ll explain what’s going on,” Zaszi said, gesturing to the conference table in the middle of the room before moving to sit down herself.

My friends and I followed while monitors all around the room began turning on, displaying the outside area. The picnic table we were sitting at, and the area nearby were still on fire, and it seemed like it wouldn’t end anytime soon. It was already spreading to the nearby foliage, though the four men and three women standing outside of the forcefield didn’t seem too concerned about it.

As we watched, six of them started spacing themselves out evenly around the forcefield, while the seventh actually started levitating. She moved until she was perhaps one hundred feet directly over the top of the building before stopping. As soon as she stopped she raised her staff, a red shield enveloping her. The shield looked identical to the one my friends and I had trouble dealing with less than an hour ago.

Shortly after the shield enveloped her, the other six people simultaneously lifted their own staves and, with a gesture, began firing off streams of fire directly at their compatriot. When the streams collided with the shield, it grew incredibly bright forcing us to avert our eyes from the monitor. In another monitor, we could see a very similar stream, though many times more powerful, if the size of it was any indication. It was at least ten times larger than the other six streams being fed into it, and was being fired right down on the forcefield protecting us.

“Is that going to be a problem?” I asked.

“No,” Zogyr, who was standing behind me, said. “There is a fusion generator powering the forcefield as well as a backup we can channel our mana into if it becomes necessary. All that is moot anyways, as we have--”

I had spun my chair around when he started speaking, and a few seconds after he stopped talking, I saw all the color drain from his face. Looking at the other Spectres, I saw that they all looked the same.

“What?” I prompted.

“We thought other Spectres would be descending on this area quickly, but no one is coming,” Zaszi said, drawing my attention back around to her. “We just got word that those people out there are members of a group called Hellraisers. They’re very, very high level bounty hunters, and we wouldn’t be able to match them. There are ten members in the group and we’re only seeing seven, which means the other three are somewhere nearby, probably patrolling the area.”

“Hellraisers? Why have I never heard of them?”

“They’re not from Earth, so you wouldn’t have. I am surprised they are here already with Kaldrus Dhir only learning your location a few days ago.”

“If no one is coming, how do we get out of this? Can we teleport out?”

Zaszi shook her head. “They’ve got a jammer in place preventing anyone from teleporting in or out. We would need to make it outside of the jamming field to be able to teleport or open up a portal back to the base.”

“Why don’t they just get one of the ships on the moon to come down and take them out?” Mason asked.

“Only two of the ships up there have shrouds, and they’re not very powerful. A ship appearing would prompt the Hellraisers to switch targets, and they could easily destroy either of those ships in less than a minute.”

“That’s not entirely true,” I said. [Abi, I trust you’ve been monitoring the situation?]

[I’m already on my way down, Jonathan. Do you want me to scare them off or eliminate them?]

[Is there any chance you can capture them?]

[If I had more time to prepare, yes, but we don’t have time for that. The strength of the fire stream being fired at the shield is increasing by the second. I estimate that the fusion generator will no longer be able to generate enough power to sustain the forcefield in seven minutes and thirty-eight seconds. The backup generator wouldn’t even add a minute to that, even with everyone in that safe room channeling their mana into it. I will be there in less than six minutes, so you can see what I mean about not having time.]

[Zaszi said that there are ten members in the Hellraisers group but we’re only seeing seven on the monitors here. If you can find the other three, then eliminate them all. If not, scare them off.]

[I’ll begin scanning as soon as I get close enough, which will be in four minutes or so.]

[Alright, thank you, ] I said. “Abi will be here in six minutes or so. She’ll take care of the situation and then we can leave.”

“Take care of the situation how?” one of the men in Zaszi’s team asked.

“Two options. If she can find where the other three are, then she’ll eliminate the entire group. If she can’t, then she’ll just scare them off.”

“Why not just capture them?” the same man asked.

“She said she doesn’t have enough time for that. Apparently the fire stream that they’re firing at the shield is getting stronger and stronger and in less than seven minutes the fusion generator won’t be able to produce enough power to keep it up.”

“Can’t we use the backup generator?”

“It won’t help much, I’ve seen this sort of tactic before,” Zogyr said, pointing to the monitor showing the woman hovering over the forcefield. “She is using Fire Shield to absorb all of the fire damage being directed at her, substantially increasing her own fire damage. Normally, the damage increase is temporary, but they’re using a spell that never stops doing damage while it is channeled. That allows the damage to stack up until they run out of mana and can’t sustain it anymore, though I don’t think that will happen anytime soon. Exhaustion would probably force them to stop before their mana ever gets low.”

“How is she keeping Fire Shield active while channeling that spell?” Mason asked.

“Fire Shield is a toggleable ability, so as long as she has enough mana to maintain it and the spell she is channeling, it will stay active,” Ben answered. “If I’m not mistaken, the fire spell they’re using is Conflagrate. Both are Tier S abilities.”

An alarm started going off right after Ben finished talking, causing Zogyr to walk over to one of the computers and begin typing on it. “Looks like Abi was right. We’ve got about five minutes now before the shield will be incapable of generating enough power.

Unlike everyone else, my attention stayed on the monitors showing the four men and two women who were channeling Conflagrate, if that’s what the spell was. Shortly after the alarm sounded, all six of them looked skyward and in the same direction.

[I’m assuming you just entered the atmosphere, Abi? It seems that the group knows something is coming.]

[There is no helping it, I’m sure a lot of people heard the sonic boom. I’ve discovered the location of the jammer blocking teleportation. It is approximately five hundred feet directly over the building you’re in.]

[A shrouded ship?]

[Yes. It is a surprisingly good shroud, but not good enough to fool my sensors, especially in atmosphere. What would you like me to do with it? I’m sure I could shoot it down, but that would make it very hard to hide what has taken place here.]

[Can you fire off a warning shot when you get in range and then hail them? Tell them that you’ll be forced to shoot them down if they don’t stop assaulting the forcefield within ten seconds.]

[I’m within range now.]

[Alright, do it.]

My eyes were glued to the monitors and I saw the heads of all six of the Hellraisers on the ground snap to the direction Abi was coming from. A second later their heads were all turning again where a tree could be seen falling and dirt was thrown into the air.

“This is King Jonuth Kidravia’s ship hailing the ship under the control of the Hellraisers. You have ten seconds to cease your assault or I will open fire. Next time it will not be a warning shot,” we all heard Abi say via the speakers located in the corners.

I started counting in my head and when I got to nine, I saw all seven of the Hellraisers stop casting. A moment later they disappeared.

“Good choice,” Abi said. “Leave Earth and make sure you never return. I have added your ships’ engine signature to my data banks and will know if you return. If that happens, I will destroy your ship. Consider this your first and final warning.”

[I’m going to shadow them to see where they go, ] Abi sent. [I detected three lifesigns on board prior to my transmission and now I’m detecting ten, so I’m confident they’re all aboard. The jammer preventing teleportation has been disabled, so you’re free to leave.]

[Thanks, Abi, you’re the best.]

[You’re welcome, Jonathan. I’ll let you know what happens.]

“Abi said that their ship is heading into space. She’s going to follow them to see where they go, but reported that there were ten lifesigns detected on the ship shortly after they disappeared. She also said that she’ll know immediately if they return.”

“Why not just have her eliminate them?” Anja asked. “They were coming after you and letting them live just gives them the opportunity to try again. What’s stopping them from leaving, getting a ship Abi can’t track and coming right back?”

“She’s got a point, Jonathan,” Zaszi said. “They took a contract to capture or kill you, and they’re not the sort of group to give up so easily. They will be back, sooner or later.”

I turned away from everyone and started pacing back and forth, struggling between letting them go or giving my first order to have people killed. There was nothing but silence in the room while I paced, everyone waiting to hear my decision.