Chapter 168 - A Promising Start

“Careful, now,” cautioned Tucker, cradling the bundle of grenades as gently as he could manage. “One wrong move…”

“I know,” Carlos said, extending a shadow spear. As soon as he made contact with the glass globes, he activated [Umbral Step] and teleported into the center of the demon horde, dragging the grenades through the shadows behind him. He never stepped out of the shadows, which, because night had fallen, were deep and ubiquitous. Instead, he deposited the bundle of grenades, then stepped away, reappearing next to Tucker. Abby, who’d been standing nearby, handed him his gem, which he gratefully took. He sighed as the purity enveloped him, purging his body of the corruption. “That was easier than I expected.”

That he had to leave the gem behind, lest he be detected by the demon horde, was only one of the plan’s many problems. So many things could so easily go wrong, and if times weren’t desperate, Carlos never would’ve agreed to be the grenades’ delivery method. However, they didn’t have many choices available to them, so he’d been conscripted into action.

“How many did you make?” asked Abby.

The entire group was poised on the black sand dune, though they were crouched so as to keep a low profile. Not that the demons were likely to notice, of course; their collective attention was wholly focused on the city walls. Without that singular focus, the plan would’ve been doomed before it even started. Even now, Carlos was terrified that, at any given moment, the demons would realize what was happening.

“Ninety-four,” Tucker answered. “Six were duds. So, two per clump, and Tiger Beat’s got forty-seven more trips.”

“I hate that name,” Carlos said. The magazine Tucker referenced was from an era well before Carlos’s time on Earth, but he still understood the connotations. And while he wasn’t exactly ashamed of his looks, Tucker’s constant references made him almost as uncomfortable as when Talia’s unblinking stare settled on him.

Tucker clapped him on the shoulder, saying, “It’s a term of endearment. Now, let’s get to work. I don’t want to be in this realm any longer than we have to be.”

“Doesn’t feel like a term of endearment,” muttered Carlos.

“Leave him alone, Tucker,” Zeke said, his eyes never wavering from the demon horde. He’d been kneeling at the dune’s peak for hours, even before the others had arrived, and he was almost as motionless as Talia. “We’re on a schedule here.”

Carlos nodded. The moment Tucker had infused the timer of the first clump of grenades, the process had started. If they wanted the grenades to detonate at roughly the same time, they had to stay on schedule. However, that wasn’t the most pressing issue. Rather, that title belonged to the discovery that another horde of demons was on its way. Pudge had discovered them while ranging around the tower, and according to Zeke, they would arrive in less than a day. Carlos and his companions needed to be gone by that point.

The problem was that it all depended on him. For some reason, his shadow spears didn’t destabilize the grenades the same way being handled by human hands would. With a little concentration, the guiding embrace of his mystic path, and a generous application of [Channel Mana], he could shape the spears well enough to hold the grenades. After that, it was only a question of remaining undetected while he planted them in the designated locations.

The grenade clumps themselves were comprised of three globes. One was the timer, which, as soon as Tucker infused the liquid with mana, it would slowly mix until, eventually, it would explode. That would start a chain reaction where the other two grenades would detonate and disperse their hopefully deadly payload amongst the demons. It was a clumsy system where any number of things could go wrong, but it was the best they could do. Without Tucker’s grenades, they’d be forced to fight their way through thousands of full-powered demons – a prospect that didn’t bode well for their chances of getting out alive.

As Tucker infused the next grenade, Carlos glanced at Zeke. Of course, he’d probably survive regardless of what went wrong. Even when they’d first met, the man’s power had defied reason – and he’d only grown stronger since then. Two levels, an evolved skill, and what Carlos expected were at least a couple of achievements amounted to a lot of improvement. If Zeke couldn’t contend with Jariq’s true elites now, it wouldn’t be long before he had them quaking in their boots.

Oh, and he could walk around the demon realm without any issues? How did that work? Carlos could only shake his head. At least Zeke was on his side. He’d hate to make an enemy of the man. Idly, he wondered if, given an ideal set of circumstances, he could finish Zeke off before he could react, and the fact that, even after thirty seconds, he couldn’t decide on an answer, disturbed him enough that he would never try. Unless he was forced, which, given Zeke’s demeanor, didn’t seem likely. But he’d been wrong about people before, so he needed to keep his guard up. He might not be able to fight the man, but he could probably get away.

But that brought his thoughts back to Talia. No matter what he did, if she decided to hunt him, there was almost no way he could escape. That was almost as troubling as the massive disparity between his and Zeke’s power levels. At least he was pretty sure he could take her in an ambush, though.

And that was saying nothing of the other two members of the group. Tucker was a bag of surprises, and who knew what kinds of potions he’d cooked up? Unlike most alchemists, he didn’t seem to focus on healing potions and the like. Rather, he made weapons, and he clearly liked to use them.

Finally, there was the bear. Even before his transformation, Pudge was a vicious monster who could stand toe-to-toe with an Elite-Tier monster. Now, though? Who could say how much stronger he’d become? Carlos had seen him rip the spine from a devil ray that gave off enough pressure to make him question whether or not he could take it down. And Pudge had killed it in the space of twenty seconds. More, it hadn’t even seemed like the bear was even trying; rather, it was more like Pudge had been playing. He’d brought the demon monster’s spine to Zeke, almost like a dog who’d been playing fetch. Even days later, the sight still clung to Carlos’s mind. Beneath the bear’s affable demeanor was a true monster.

“Tiger Beat – you there?” asked Tucker, waving his hand in front of Carlos’s face. “Still on a schedule here, so quit daydreaming about pretty revenant girls.”

“W-what?”

“Tucker. Stop,” came Abby’s admonishing voice.

Tucker muttered something about being “an unappreciated matchmaker” as he handed off the clump of grenades. Shuddering at the implication, Carlos took the payload with his modified shadow spear, then repeated the process of planting the bomb amongst the demon horde. After that, they established something of a system, with Tucker infusing the grenades while Carlos planted them, only to repeat the process almost fifty times. When they’d finished about thirty minutes later, the grenades were positioned so that they would affect thousands of the demons. There were still thousands more, but the hope was that the ones on the other side of the city would be slow to respond. By the time they figured out what was going on, Carlos and the others would be inside the city and sabotaging the portal.

Of course, that was assuming everything went as planned, which in Carlos’s experience, was a futile hope. Whatever the case, they didn’t have much choice in the matter. As far as they knew, it was the only way they could get home.

Once everything was done, and Carlos popped out of a nearby shadow, Zeke said, “When they go off, everyone hit them as hard as you can. Our goal is the gate. Once we’re inside, I don’t think they’ll follow. At least not all of them. If you start lagging behind, yell for either Pudge or me, and we’ll get you through it.”

As he spoke, Zeke summoned his mace. Everyone else followed suit. Abby’s blue bow unfolded from her glove, and Tucker summoned a grenade for each hand. The glass globes glowed with green light, making Carlos wonder what the liquid inside the grenades did. Tucker, perhaps sensing Carlos’s interest, said, “Acid cloud. It’s heavy, so it won’t stay airborne for long, but it’s strong enough to melt a lead bar. Should be pretty effective against the demons. I’ve got a couple of other tricks up my sleeve for them, though.”

That wasn’t surprising. Tucker had spent much of their time in the demon realm locked in his laboratory. A man like him had to have come up with some ideas on how to deal with the demons.

Unlike Zeke, Abby, or Tucker, neither Talia nor Carlos had any weapons. However, Talia took the opportunity to activate a skill that coated her claws in green poison. When she started to radiate an aura of barely restrained action, he suspected that she had activated her speed skill. On top of that, he felt Zeke use his [Avatar of the Beast] and [Mark of Companionship] skills, accentuating his physical stats. Everyone else received the same treatment.

“Don’t forget to keep [Leech Strike] active,” Zeke said. “It might not heal much now, but it’ll keep you from getting exhausted. And the healing adds up.”

One of the curiosities of [Mark of Companionship]was that it only allowed access to a very diluted version of Zeke’s leeching skill. In the case of [Unleash Momentum] or [Heart of the Berserker], it didn’t do anything; perhaps they were too powerful or just incompatible. Either way, the skill was more than useful in that it allowed them to share experience. And one couldn’t overstate the importance of staving off fatigue as well as the effects of minor injuries. Without it, Carlos questioned whether or not he would have survived the previous battle in the cavern.

The only one who didn’t do anything to ready himself was Pudge, who seemed almost bored with the whole thing. Carlos didn’t dare say anything about it, though.

Like that, the group waited until, finally, twenty minutes later, the first bomb went off. Then, ten seconds later, another. And another. Over the next five minutes, there were forty-six explosions. The results were…underwhelming.

With each explosion, the immediate area was enveloped in a light blue mist. Eventually, after each of the bombs were spent, the entire area was coated in a blue fog.

“That’s it?” asked Zeke.

“No,” Tucker said. He handed one of his green grenades to Zeke, saying, “Hold my bomb.”

Zeke took it gingerly, asking, “It’s not going to blow up on me, is it?”

“Nah – it’s stable,” Tucker said. “But if you don’t want your face melted off, don’t drop it.”

“Noted.”

After that, Tucker summoned another grenade. This one was orange, and it looked like it had a flame dancing inside. “Y’all might want to stand back,” he said. “This one’s definitely going to pop.”

As Carlos and the others took shelter on the far side of the dune, Tucker cocked his arm back and threw the globe toward the demon horde. Carlos peeked over the crest of the dune, watching the glowing globe of orange flame sail across the gap. He heard Zeke say, “Nice arm.”

“I try,” said Tucker ducked behind the dune. “I don’t –”

He never finished his statement, because a moment later, an explosion of epic proportions rocked the area. The air boiled, and Carlos’s breath was driven from his lungs. It felt like his entire body was cooking. Then, as suddenly as it had come, it faded away.

“Whew,” Tucker said, handing potions to everyone. “That was a bit bigger than I expected.”

“Uh…what was that?” asked Abby, downing one of the red potions. Carlos’s eyes were stinging, so he didn’t get a good look, but her skin had turned an angry red. By the time he blinked a few times, that redness had faded away, replaced by her normal skintone.

“Take it, kid,” Tucker said, shoving a potion at Carlos. Belatedly, he realized that he’d been sitting there like a mute idiot. He took the potion, then tipped it into his mouth. Immediately, his eyesight returned to normal, and the burning sensation across his skin dissipated. As he enjoyed the effects of the healing potion, Carlos heard Tucker answer Abby’s question. “Grenade of Holy Conflagration,” he said. “Been working on that for over two weeks. It makes a nice explosion by itself, but when combined with that mist down there? Yeah. Should be fun. Think of it like we just left the gas on for a few days, then light a match.”

Carlos crawled back up to the dune’s peek, then marveled at the scene of destruction. The black sands had been turned into dark glass, and in the middle of the demon horde was a crater a hundred yards wide. There was nothing left of the demons that had been there. They were just gone.

However, outside of that immediate blast radius, the rest of the demon horde remained, although, judging by the way they were stumbling around, they weren’t in the best shape. Zeke must have seen the same thing, because he said, “Alright – not going to get a better chance than this. Let’s go.”

With that, Zeke slid down the glassy dune, regaining his feet when he reached the bottom. Abby and Tucker followed, with Talia and Carlos not far behind. Bringing up the rear was Pudge. As they sprinted for the gate, the horde of demons recovered enough to notice them, and as soon as they did, the opening wrought by the alchemist’s explosion began to close.

Carlos didn’t hesitate. He’d been holding his skills on the cusp of activation, and he finally let them loose. Dozens of shadow spears erupted from the black sands surrounding the city, each one impaling a demon. But Carlos wasn’t finished. Instead, he poured his mana into the shadowy spears – more than he’d ever used at one time before – and they responded in kind. In the space of only a few steps, the spears had grown into jagged stalactites of pure shadow, some of which even ripped demons part with their rapid expansion. Finally, when he felt like he couldn’t channel any more mana into the skill, he activated [Shadow Explosion].

Ever since being reborn, Carlos had eschewed the path of a melee warrior. He’d resisted the urge to invest in his survivability. Instead, every skill and most of his stat points had been directed toward one purpose – to increase his lethality. The skills all worked together, becoming more powerful together than they ever could have been alone. So, when he activated [Shadow Explosion], powered by more than half his mana, and channeled through dozens of shadow spears, the result was more potent than what should have been possible for a level twenty-one. Even Zeke, with all his monstrous stats, would have been hard-pressed to keep up with the sheer destructiveness of Carlos utilizing his skills in unison.

The shadow spears exploded into blades of umbral darkness that sliced through the unsuspecting demons, cutting a swath at least fifty yards wide through the gathering horde. It was the first time Carlos had ever truly cut loose and used his powerset to its fullest, but while the effect was impressive, it was also disappointing. It was undeniably powerful. No one would ever claim otherwise. But facing such an opponent? It was like a wave crashing against a boulder.

There were just too many. He’d killed hundreds of the demons, but there were plenty more to take their place. Having expended a good portion of his mana, Carlos stumbled at the sudden empty feeling. However, true to Zeke’s promise, Pudge was soon upon him, nudging him back on track.

Even as Carlos regained his footing, a series of glittering grenades soared through the air. Any demons that hadn’t fallen to Carlos’s onslaught were soon coated in green mist. Seconds later, they became puddles of so much goo. It wasn’t as widespread as Carlos’s own attack, but it was perhaps even more effective.

While Carlos was watching Tucker’s acid grenades melt their way through the horde, Abby made her presence known, sending one silvery arrow after another into the mass of red flesh, horns and fangs. Each projectile prompted a lightning strike that jumped from one demon to another. But though the lightning strikes destroyed whichever demons took the arrows, the skill’s effects weren’t widespread enough to make much difference. Still, the sheer number of arrows sailing through the air made up for it, at least a little.

When they reached the outer edge of the horde, Talia and Zeke went to work. They were an exercise in contrasts. Zeke was an indomitable force, forging a path through the horde, one swing of that wicked mace at a time. Talia, though, darted into any opening, her green claws flashing with every attack. She didn’t kill anything outright, but wherever she went, weakness and decay soon followed.

But it was clear that their plan wasn’t going to work. Even weakened by Tucker’s bombs, the demons were a formidable opponent. And there were so many of them that their individual strength hardly even mattered. Eventually, the group of humans would be overwhelmed by sheer numbers, regardless of how powerful they were.

Carlos couldn’t let those negative thoughts infect his mind, though. Instead, he refocused his efforts, shooting off shadow spears left and right. Everyone else did the same, and they slowly carved their way into the heart of the reconstituted demon horde. With their wide variety of attacks, the group displayed rarely seen levels of power. Lightning flashed. Explosions erupted. Every swing of Zeke’s mace destroyed a demon. But it was all for naught, and soon, despite their best efforts, their progress ground to a halt, and the mass of demons surged all around them.