Mason, Sunie and I ran out of a gap in the wall. Sunie had asked to come, and who was I to say no to the person that was probably the second most powerful currently on Earth? The three of us ran fast, crossing the distance. It was easier to jump over the small wall of bodies.

  Made no sense to me for the Grimdar to just throw bodies at the barrage, but they seemed to have a lot to spare. Not all the bodies were Gnoll. There were a couple Anura and even some orcs.

  From conversations with Jeriyan and Stylo, the Grimdar operated on a quantity over quality approach to the Multiverse. They had thousands of grunts that were basically powerleveled up to above Seventy-Five to be used in their armies. They had training, and gained real experience, but they weren’t elite by any means. Just cannon fodder.

  Why did those Faction members sign up for it?

  No choice was the main reason.

  But, like many pre-System folk from the poorer areas, being a soldier was a means out. A way to possibly get ahead and make something of themselves. For Factions like the Grimdar, joining their army got them Essences and power, to a degree. And if they did well in service to the Grimdar, maybe they could advance.

  There were some that could become elite through being a soldier.

  But then there were those like the dozens we just passed. Cannon fodder used to soften up the enemy.

  Not the best use of Resources, but the Grimdar had three planets of their own, plus the ones they plundered in Incursions. They weren’t lacking in Resources.

  It was the same idea that Subudai had for his Bounding Dragons Sect. There were hundreds of people like Go Chang, just soldiers being trained and powerleveled for his army. Go was one of the lucky ones that got to be an Adventurer and become a cog in Subudai’s machine in the Tower. I wondered how he was doing. How badly had Subudai punished him for screwing up the spying assignment?

  Not my monkey. I had plenty of my own to worry about. My circus was huge and pretty chaotic.

  We passed into the trees, immediately splitting up, Mason to the left and Sunie to the right. I could hear soldiers pouring out from the wall. They’d be in two groups. One would move to the treeline and watch for any Grimdar that snuck past me and my two buddies. The second group would be the looters. Parker had said ‘trusted’ because there were a lot of Essences and the plan was to gather them together for distribution, not hoard them to sell.

  I found my first Grimdars. They ran at me, leaving the cover of the trees. One had a sword and the other a club. I sent the slowing field at the one farthest back. He was only a couple steps back, but that was further away. His eyes widened as his charge slowed.

  The lead reached me, not realizing his teammate wasn’t right behind him. The club swung down and I caught it in my hand. He wasn’t surprised, using his greater strength to try and push me down. I held myself up, using kinetics to hold myself in place. I could feel the pulse of Arcanum as he Activated an Ability. The pressure against me doubled.

  So I pushed back with kinetic energy. His eyes widened in shock as I pushed the club up higher. He had the height advantage over me a good foot and a half. The Gnoll was tall and bulky. Holding the club up, I kicked him in the chest, adding some force to it. He fell back and I sent a sonic wave at him and the one behind them. The wave sliced into both, staggering them back. I rushed forward, punching the lead in the throat and sending a forcelance at the head of the rear. The force lance stabbed through, blood and gore exploding out the back of the Grimdar’s shattered skull. The lead took a couple more steps back, not letting go of his club. I kicked him in the knee, feeling bone shatter. These two were probably Level Seventy-Five, maybe even lower. Left behind to just annoy us, not really counted on to do any damage.

  This was one of those assignments that if they did good, somehow got lucky enough, they’d earn a lot of stature, honor, whatever they used in the Faction. Their standing and rank would increase and they’d be in a better position. Maybe they’d even stop being cannon fodder.

  Not that these two would ever find out.

  I send a force lance through the eye of the Grimdar, the body falling to the ground. I quickly collected the two Essences and went hunting more.

  ***

  The sword swung at my head, I ducked and it sliced through the tree, which fell with a crash but didn’t land on the ground, it got hung up in other trees. The sword glowed a strange red and blue color. I had no desire to see what kind of Arcanum it was.

  This Grimdar soldier was an orc. A couple inches shorter than I was, but a lot bulkier. The sword was huge, like something out of a pre-system anime. It looked too big to use, but the orc was evidence that it could be used.

  But in a forest tight with trees, not the best place for it. I could see that weapon being fearsome on an open battlefield. It was also not a good one to use against me. This was a weapon to use against an army, not against someone with speed.

  Why had the Grimdar put this guy in the forest? He would be better used on the outside of the hills.

  I punched forward, a force lance around my fist. It pierced the orc’s armor, driving deep into his stomach. My other arm lifted up and hit the flat of the sword, driving it up and away. The thing was heavy. What was the orc’s strength?

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  He didn’t get a chance to react as I pulled my fist out of his chest, thankful for the kinetic field around it as blood covered my first, and I punched up at his head. My lance pierced through his chin, entering his brain, and the orc was dead.

  I pulled his sword and the Strength Essence into my inventory. I really wanted to know more about that sword. My Notification told me nothing.

  YOU HAVE GAINED +1 STRENGTH ESSENCE AND CRABORIC SWORD

  Looking around, I couldn’t see anymore Grimdar. I’d only gone a couple hundred feet out from the clearing, trying to stay parallel with the trail that led up and out of the valley. The orc was the tenth I’d fought and killed. I’d even gotten an Advancement Crystal. I wasn’t going to use it, that would go to someone back at the portal.

  With no more Grimdar to fight, at least for the moment, I turned and headed back toward the portal. I had a pretty good recharge rate on my Arcanum, but I was still using it up faster than I was regenning it. I needed to rest and I was hungry.

  I walked out of the treeline the same time as Sunie, who was farther from where we’d entered. I waited for him to join me.

  “Have fun?” I asked.

  “Not really,” he replied. “They were a little too easy. Low Level.”

  “Yeah, cannon fodder.”

  Sunie nodded.

  Soldiers moved one of the portable walls, letting us in. I could see Mason talking with Parker. Some soldiers were sitting down. There wasn’t that much open space for all of us to get comfortable, but they were doing the best they could. A couple were eating. Nothing that looked all that appetizing, just field rations.

  “How many did you get?” Sunie asked.

  “Ten. You?”

  “Eleven,” he said with a smile. “Want to make it a contest?”

  “Oh?”

  “Loser buys a week’s worth of dinners at the Nexus restaurant of the winner’s choice.”

  “Solo kills right?” I asked.

  Sunie nodded.

  “The dozen or so you killed with the cannon don’t count.”

  “Fair enough.”

  I held out a hand and he shook it.

  “How’d you do?” I asked Mason.

  “Six,” he replied, a bit grumpily.

  I pulled the Advancement Crystal from my Inventory and tossed it to him. He caught it, eyes wide as he looked down at it, realizing what I’d just given him. He looked at me curiously.

  “You don’t want it?”

  “I do, but I have a handful saved already from our Dungeon runs in the Tower,” I said, pointing at Sunie. “Advancement there is kind of controlled. You don’t want to go too fast or you’ll push past the floors and that can cause problems down the line.”

  “We also need to find another party member or two before we Advance too far,” Sunie added.

  It had taken everyone a bit to get used to Sunie speaking our language, which I wasn’t even sure was English anymore. Maybe Earth had a universal language now? DIdn’t really matter. The System translated whatever language someone spoke into one the listener could understand. It was great, getting past the awkwardness of having to learn languages and having major miscommunication issues. No one wanted to deal with that when entering a place with hundreds of people from different planets. Not all humans spoke the same, or elves, and so on.

  Now they were used to it.

  Mason looked down at the Crystal and back at me.

  “You’re sure.”

  “Next to me and Sunie, you’re the strongest here,” I said. “Using that makes you that much stronger.”

  “Thank you,” Mason said, absorbing the Crystal.

  I felt the familiar surge of Arcanum gathering in the air as it all rushed toward Mason. He didn’t glow or anything, but we could all feel the Arcanum pushing through and into his Core. He grunted a bit, shaking his head to clear it from the intense feelings brought on by that much Arcanum. He nodded, flexing his hand to feel the increased strength.

  “Thanks,” he said again.

  I waved it off.

  “So how long has it been,” I asked, pointing at the portal.

  “Two hours,” Parker answered.

  “That’s it?”

  “Afraid so,” he replied.

  I sighed, turning and looking back at the forest.

  “I suppose we should get ready for another attack?”

  “Yessir.”

  “Whose bright idea was this anyways?”

  All three of them; Mason, Sunie and Sergeant Parker; gave me an exasperated glare. I could even see some of the other soldiers around us looking at me strangely.

  “Oh yeah, it was mine. Great idea too,” I smiled.

  We heard some noises coming from the forest.

  “Sounds like it’s time to kill some more invaders,” I said, walking toward the wall.