39.

  Santi stared down at the lines that everyone had worked so hard to build over the last day. Chalk outline with an adhesive laid down that held salt in place, all of in combining to form one of the largest groundwork spells he had ever witnessed.

  The complexity of the regression spell had admittedly been far more superior, but the sheer size of this one dwarfed what the Apostates had managed to accomplish. It spread across an entire town, from the newly erected barricades all the way to the pillar standing tall in the middle of it.

  Power buzzed faintly, just at the edge of his ability to sense. Ambient mana was flowing at all times and the array was slowly pulling it into itself. With enough time the array could theoretically collect enough mana to power itself. If nothing broke the array lines and interrupted its growth.

  He could always buy an array from the pillar that could draw more ambient mana towards it, but he didn’t want to waste the money. At least, not when he had a riftcore that could do the same thing.

  “Incoming!” one of Rayleigh’s people yelled from a rooftop a couple houses over. Santi perked up, hoping that it was Chloe and the scout duo. He leapt, grabbing the eaves of the closest house, and then bounded to the top of the roof. He was barely tall enough to see over the top of the barricade and across the dried scrub.

  Chloe was walking in the front, her axe seated on a broad belt he hadn’t seen before. Daniel and Hana were in the rear, their focus fixed on the path they had taken rather than where they were going.

  In the center of the group were three people that Santi had a vague recollection of seeing about. A tall, skinny woman with blonde hair in the middle of the group was wearing tan camo army fatigues with a crossbow on a slung over one shoulder with a green visor that covered her eyes.

  The man on the right was older with a gray and black beard and a shaved head and a pierced eyebrow that glinted from the sun. He was short and broad with an old army jacket and a knife in his belt.

  The man on the left was younger with short curly black hair and similar camo as his two compatriots. He had a pair of binoculars that hung off his neck and had a pack slung over one shoulder that looked half empty. All three of them looked tired and dusty, the hard travel having worn them down.

  Santi gave a quick wave toward them and was rewarded by Chloe waving back at him, a smile spreading across her face. He waited patiently for them, the urge to head towards them strong, but he was trying to keep some decorum. The group slipped past the barricade and into the small town. Daniel and Hana split off immediately leading their three people away towards the house.

  Chloe bounded straight up the side of the house and smashed into Santi before he could react. Her grip was strong enough that his bones creaked as she hugged him and he grunted as the air was forced out of his lungs.

  “Good to see you too,” he managed to whisper with the last of his breath. Chloe released him and threw back her head to laugh loudly. Closer to her, Santi could see the strain building up on her. The deep bags under her eyes, the matted tangle of her hair from dirt and dried blood. Her small smile was tired and her laugh forced.

  “I’m used to you being the strongest person I know. It feels weird that I’m stronger than you now,” Chloe said.

  “I don’t know about all that,” Santi said laughing even as he left his hands on her biceps. Her warmth radiated through her thin shirtsleeves and Santi felt the edge of tension he’d been carrying since they left for the dungeon slowly dissipate.

  “You can’t be that much stronger than me then,”Chloe corrected herself.

  “You’ll pass me up soon enough, don’t worry ‘bout that. How was the trip?” Santi asked, already knowing from the state of her dishevelment.

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  “Fucking nightmare. Wildlife everywhere, a few monsters running about, then finding them was hard enough. Getting back was even worse. Most things we could sneak around or outrun getting there, but with them it became just a long running fight. Got two more levels doing it though. So there’s some good that came out of it,” Chloe said. She slowly lowered herself and swung her legs off the gutter, looking around at the drawn on lines everywhere.

  “Are you sure this is going to work?” She asked.

  “Nope. I mean, it should. None of the spells we are doing are that advanced, they’re just big. And a few of them. The hard part is going to be timing, which will be relying on you for,” Santi said as he sat next to her.

  “Huh?”

  “Got to get everything here at the same time. Daniel finds us that beetle nest and you’re going to be our lure,” Santi said.

  “Since when?”

  “Since you just gained two levels and are our physically strongest person here. I can’t go do it, I’m the bait for Mercy.”

  “Thought you said she was going to be coming no matter what?”

  “I was lying. Got a resonance spell here near the middle of the town that will amplify the curses call. That is what’s going to drag Mercy to us.”

  “Resonance spell?”

  “Giant amplifier that will resonate with the curse, amplifying it and projecting it outward. It’ll be like throwing up a big-ass flare for her to see. And a challenge of sorts. She won’t be able to turn it down.”

  “Ok. Then when she gets here we use the defenses and spell forms to slowly grind them down?”

  “Yeah. Close enough. Grind them down and have Duncan’s people hit them from the rear. Catch them in a pincer and fall back deeper into the city and closer to the pillar before we trigger our final trap.”

  “The beetles?”

  “No. I’m leaving it as a surprise. Just between me and Yessenia. You’ll see it when it activates though,” Santi promised.

  “Can’t trust me?”

  “I trust you. I just can’t trust that Duncan is spying on us. I can’t sense him,” Santi admitted. He had thought he had been reaching the levels of skill that the Apostates had when it came to spell manipulation. Duncan had proved him wrong repeatedly with his ability to come and go at will.

  “I’ll breathe easier when he’s dead, that’s for sure.”

  “We all will.”

  “You get a better feel for him on the dungeon run? Maybe discern what he’s actually about?”

  “Self-centered, megalomaniac, asshole. He’s skilled though. Very, very, skilled.” It hurt that Santi couldn’t tell her exactly what was going on. After his time with Duncan and both of them knowing what they were about and what had happened, the sudden inability to talk about his past was glaring and painful.

  “Sounds like a real piece of work,” Chloe said, her eyes locked on her swinging boots.

  “He killed his two guys to finish his leveling off.” The words sprung out as Santi began to talk. The words were no more than a stream of consciousness as he described what had happened in the dungeon, the three boss monsters they had killed, and culminating in the death of Trevor and Bo.

  “What a fucking psycho.” Chloe turned and spat in distaste.

  “Yeah. I don’t know what I was expecting when we went down there, but it wasn’t that. I think he’s higher level than me, might be sixty already,” Santi said.

  “How? You are constantly fighting and killing things,” Chloe said, eyebrows raised in surprise.

  “No. I spend time doing paperwork. Arguing with people about how they need to be a [Farmer] and not a [Warrior]. It just takes more and more of my time the more people we bring in, the more we build out and grow. All he does is kill and hunt. I’ve cleared plenty of monster nests. I think I'm close to the top on some of the leaderboards, but there are people who are only hunting. I have to split my attention. Which means I’ll start lagging further and further behind on pure levels.”

  “But, you have other advantages?”

  “I have a strong community. Plenty of strong fighters and I have some of my own aces. The titles and equipment have been a huge boon for me. In the future we will have more gear than others, better support, food, and everything else. And it’s not like I’m lagging behind either. I’m still the top one percent on the planet, just not point one percent.”

  “Am I a one percenter?” Chloe asked.

  “You’re not far off. Get you a title or some better gear, boost your affinity a bit more, and yeah. You’ll be sitting at the top with me.”

  “Then that’s what’s going to happen. We kill Mercy. We kill Duncan. We kill every monster or mutated animal in the region. We build ourselves up. Then we take over the world,” Chloe laughed as she said that last part, the final bits of stress fading away as she leaned her head against his shoulder.

  Santi laughed with her and just enjoyed the feeling of not being alone.