Chapter 51: Barren

Chapter 51: Chapter 51: Barren

The second gate was waiting in a shuttered parking garage on the edge of a financial district.

"B rank," Karl said, eyeing it with his hands in his pockets. "Let’s try to look alive."

One by one, the team stepped through the shimmer.

The world on the other side was a desert.

Not a pretty one. A barren land.

Jared didn’t wait. The moment his boots hit the ground, he pulled a gem from his belt, snapped it against his knee, and let it fall.

Green light flared.

The SwampGorilla rose beside him, huge and calm, and in the same breath, it poured itself over him like water. His fists and other parts felt like tree trunks.

He fused.

Behind him, the rest of the team was spreading out, summoning beasts in bright, noisy flashes.

The falcon boy sent his bird screaming into the sky. The fox eared girl dropped a gem and a lean, russet fox bounded out.

"What are the odds," Karl said, strolling into the open, "that we run into two wasteland gates back to back?"

"Pretty bad," the falcon boy said.

"Terrible," the fox girl agreed.

"Well, this one’s B rank." Karl rolled his shoulders. "So it’s bound to give us a bit more trouble. Stay sharp."

Out in the flat gray distance, something stirred.

A long, low shape, scuttling across the cracked earth, kicking up a plume of dust. Then another. Then ten. Then twenty. They poured over the horizon in a rolling wave, a pack of lean, mangy, gray furred hounds with bony ridges along their spines and hungry, glowing eyes.

"Dust Hounds," the fox girl called. "Lots of them."

"Fun," one man said, drawing a blade.

The team met them head on.

It was a chaotic, noisy scramble. One beastmaster moved through the pack like a shadow, quick and silent, dropping beasts left and right.

Jared charged straight into the middle.

A hound lunged at his throat. He caught it in one hand, squeezed, and hurled it aside. A second leapt on his back. He reached behind, plucked it off by the scruff, and slammed it into the ground. The impact shook the dirt. A third came at his legs. He kicked it a hundred feet.

[Dust Hound (lv8)] defeated!

[Dust Hound (lv6)] defeated!

[Dust Hound (lv7)] defeated!

The notifications piled up one after another.

"So," the falcon boy panted, back to back with the fox girl, swatting at a hound with his wing. "Is it just me, or is the captain a little weird?"

"He’s weird alright," the fox girl said.

"He’s got like six owls."

"He’s got two. Maybe three."

"Why does a rookie stack two or three owls?"

"Rookie or not I wouldn’t consider a captain one, not anymore."

"I heard he once slept through a gate."

Jared kept punching.

"Hey," the fox girl called over her shoulder. "Jared! You coming to lunch after? We’re thinking noodles!"

"No," Jared said.

"We could get dumplings."

"Not interested."

"Okay, but there’s this place that does a really good..."

"I said no."

The dungeon wasn’t giving them enough trouble it seemed afterall they had time to talk about lunch.

The fox girl blinked. Her ears flattened slightly. The falcon boy opened his mouth to say something, then shut it, and exchanged a look with her.

"Okay," she said, quietly. "Sure. No problem."

They went back to fighting.

They respected his wishes, he noted. There was no sulking, no sarcasm, no hurt looks. They just let it go. It was strangely considerate.

’I could have been nicer.’

[You could have been.]

’I know!’

He tore a hound in half.

The battle didn’t last long. Within 10 minutes, the plain was scattered with bodies, and the survivors had tucked their tails and fled into the haze. The team gathered, panting, bruised, brushing dust from their clothes.

"That’s the first wave," Karl said.

"Only the first?" One person groaned.

"There maybe 3 more. I mean if it’s anything like the one we ran into earlier. "

They pressed onward.

The land seemed vast. It stretched out before them, flat and gray, wider than any field Jared had ever seen. The horizon never seemed to get closer even as they matched.

But Jared wasn’t fooled.

He’d seen this before. They all had. It wasn’t their first barren gate. They had cleared one earlier that morning, and they knew how this worked.

’It’s an illusion.’

[Of sorts]

It had to be. The land couldn’t be that big. The sky was too flat. The horizon never moved.

After they’d walked some distance, he was sure.

The actual land mass wasn’t much. A few miles across, at most. Beyond that point, the endless plain was nothing but a visual gimmick.

A mirage with edges. The illusion was separated from the real dungeon by some kind of force field, a wall you couldn’t see, running around the whole place like the glass of a snow globe.

"Find the ends," Karl shouted.

"On it," Jared replied.

He broke into a run.

The suit thundered across the dirt, shaking dust from the cracked ground. Beasts leapt at him from the haze, and he slammed his gorilla fists into them without breaking stride, one after another, sending them flying like bowling pins.

[Slow down,]

[You’re going to wear yourself out.]

’I’m fine.’

It took him much longer to find the edge this time.

He ran for what felt like forever. The land seemed to stretch forever. He changed direction twice. He doubled back once. At last, after nearly 20 minutes, the air ahead of him began to shimmer.

He didn’t slow down.

He drew back both fists and slammed them into the invisible wall.

CRACK.

The shockwave rolled across the plain. Jared braced himself, ready to see it shatter, ready to watch the illusion fall away like broken glass.

It didn’t.

The wall held.

He frowned and he hit it again. A crack. A faint groan, deep in the air. But it held. He hit it a third time, then a fourth, putting his whole weight behind each punch.

[Hm,]

’What?’

[This one’s sturdier.]

’I can see that.’

Earlier that day, he’d been able to destroy it alone. A few good blows with the gorilla, and it had shattered like an eggshell. This one barely shivered. It was thicker. Tougher.

He backed up, panting, and rolled his shoulders.

’I need more force.’

"Stand back," Karl called.

Jared turned.

He saw Karl crossing the plain at a leisurely walk, hands in his pockets. The others trailed behind him, panting. Then, as Jared watched, Karl bent his knees, pushed off the ground, and rose into the air.

He flew.

He didn’t use his owl. He didn’t ride anything. He just drifted upward, arms loose at his sides, coat flapping, like a man stepping onto an invisible escalator.

[We get it. Stop playing aura farmer. ]

’what?’

[Forget about it]

He did it with such elegance.

Jared stared.

’Flight.’

It hit him then, with a cold, quiet click.

’That’s what he meant. His owl’s primary ability.’

Birds are primarily creatures of the... Karl had said. It wasn’t a joke. It wasn’t just a deflection. It was the truth. The owl’s ability was flight.

And Karl was a beast master with an unusually large roster for a rookie. He had owls. Plural. Maybe more. And he had just flown across a battlefield on his own, without a beast, without a summon.

’He’s applying his owl’s ability in his regular state.’

That was it. That was the trick. A beast master could channel a beast’s ability through his own body, without summoning it. Jared had done it himself, with the ice, with the gas. But he’d never seen anyone do it so smoothly. So effortlessly. As if it were as natural as breathing.

’That gives me an idea.’

His mind raced.He didn’t say anything and didn’t move. He just stood there, staring at Karl’s back, his eyes narrowing behind the dark glass of his helm.

’Not yet.’

"Air rush," Karl said.

He lifted one hand, palm out.

A huge gust of wind burst from his fingers. It roared across the plain in a rolling wave, kicking up a storm of dust and gravel. It slammed into the invisible wall with a thunderous crack, and the whole barrier shuddered. A web of white lines spread through the air.

The backwash hit Jared like a fist.

He skidded back five feet, boots plowing furrows in the dirt, arms flung up to shield his face. The dust was blinding.

Karl hadn’t moved.

He stood exactly where he’d started, hand still raised, coat snapping in the last gusts of wind. He hadn’t taken a single step back. He hadn’t even shifted his weight.

’Is that his owl’s main ability?’

Jared stared at him.

’A wind attack.’

The thought crawled up his spine.

’What if...’

It snapped into place. A second realization, bright and sudden and terrifying.

’What if his owl’s ability isn’t skill neutralization?’

He thought of the owl in the wilds. His own water, rolling off its feathers. His own ice, blowing apart.

’What if the reason my attack didn’t land was because of a wind attack?’

A blast of wind. Strong enough to scatter flames. Strong enough to blow away water. Strong enough to shatter frost. It wasn’t negation. It was deflection. A gust powerful enough to knock his attacks aside before they could land.

It fit.

It fit horribly well.

[Interesting,]

’Don’t.’

[I’m only saying.]

"I don’t think we have mana to spend carelessly," Karl said.

He lowered his hand and turned.

"There are three more of these," he said. "These newly termed barren gates. We’ll be heading to all of them before the day is out."

A groan rippled through the team.

"So everyone else," Karl said, raising his voice, "head out."

"What about the rest of the wall?" the falcon boy asked.

"I’ve got a plan.

" Just Go."

They went. One by one, the team turned and began trudging back across the plain, toward the faint shimmer of the gate, far in the distance. Jared watched them go. Then he turned, too, and started walking.

It took them nearly 20 minutes to reach the exit.

The rest of the team had already filed through. Jared stepped up to the edge and lifted one boot over the threshold.

"Not you, Jared," Karl said.

Jared froze.

He turned slowly.

Karl was standing a few paces behind him, hands in his pockets, his expression unreadable.

"Wait," Jared said. "What do you mean by that?"

"We need you to destroy it."

"The rest of the wall?"

"The whole thing." Karl nodded at the empty plain. "We need you to destroy it like you did that volcano yesterday."

Jared’s mouth fell open.

"Wasn’t that reckless?" he said. "Like you said?"

"It was."

"You told me I almost destroyed an entire building and then then some."

"I did. But can you just let-"

"So you want me to do it again?"

Karl just nodded.

"Just do your thing," Karl said.

He reached into his coat, pulled out a small silver object, and held it out.

It was a lighter.