DeSean signaled for his team to stop before they broke past the forest line. Ahead of them is a wide stretch of rock, brush, and creek. The tree cover was thinning, and there was a Chosen sniping his optilings out of the sky. He had the aerial minions hang back as far as the mana connections would allow.

The group huddled near clumps of brush. Dazzle used her [Earthly Tender] Skill to conjure short ditches and raised land around them. It wasn’t the most inconspicuous hiding spot, but it offered cover from would-be snipers.

“I’m confident,” DeSean whispered, “we’re as close as we can get without getting into a fight.”

“I have four different, uh, units around me that makes my magic feelers go tingly,” Casey informed. She knelt in the middle of the group, surrounded by people, semi-people, and demonic hounds. The latter snorted and pawed at the ground, their slobbering maws bearing needle like teeth.

The ditzy social media influencer flipped out her phone, thumbs moving swiftly across the touchscreen. “We’re north-north east of Route 5, and two miles east of the Camdenton High School. From what I gather with the buzz out there, Ozark’s Chaos Zone is mostly behind Camdenton. Stretches about ten miles in diameter north-northwest of the city, taking portions of the lake.”

Through her phone, she revealed a detailed map of the area that even included the perimeter of the blockade. DeSean nearly whistled.

“You made that?” Mariah asked, her eyes flicking with doubt.

“Huh, oh, no,” Casey said. “I just searched it up. I think someone got accessed to satellite stuff and threw this up for Marked to use.”

“Bless the egg-heads,” Dazzle said tiredly. She’d been using her System Skills for hours now. She hadn’t done anything large, but using those powers constantly at her Pathless level was straining for her mana depth.

“What are you feeling that’s around us?” Francis asked.

“Feels like there’s a bunch of Marked heading down route 5,” Casey explained. “I can hear them smashing cars aside right now with some heavy vehicles.”

“That’s the military plowing through,” DeSean explained, enhancing his hearing with Focused. He could hear the tank treads on the asphalt. He also had his optilings keeping watch. “I got eyes on them. What else are you feeling?”

“I sense Chosen gathering opposite of the military. I sense another group of Chosen half a mile east of us. They’re blocking the way to the school.” Casey paused, quirking her head to the side. “There’s another group of Marked not quite behind us. They’re flickering their use of magic. They’re half a mile behind. And… whoa. We have a third group of Chosen coming down north about a quarter mile away. They’re heading straight at us.”

“ETA?” DeSean hissed.

“Huh?”

“Estimated Time of Arrival,” Francis translated quickly.

“Oh! About three minutes,” Casey said.

DeSean whirled away and shoved aside his war hounds. His demonic left arm shivered, the limb parasite letting its excitement be known. He hit the dirt on all fours and crawled to the lip of the cover, his Focus-enhanced eyes seeing far and wide with crystal clarity.

At the same time, he pulled into service two of his optilings that remained up in the sky. One optiling moved ahead of the other. It got on top of the group of Chosen charging their location.

Everything went black right when DeSean glimpsed two Pathtakers followed by half a dozen pathless Chosen. One of the Pathtakers had a shining finger pointed at the optiling before killing it.

DeSean gave the orders for the second optiling to pull away but it got sniped, too. That left four up in the sky, but they couldn’t be called in right now.

“Did you feel those two shots, Casey?” DeSean asked.

“Is that what that was?” The social media influencer gulped. “That was way, way, way strong.”

“Is there something I can do about it?” Mariah asked eagerly.

DeSean could have the War Hounds charge the group of Chosen directly and send Mariah to circle around and strike from the back. The shining finger Chosen, the [Radiant Shooter - Level 3] was clearly adapt at attacking distant targets, so it might not have close-up abilities.

DeSean informed the group as much and added, “there’s another Pathtaker. The [Valorous Fighter - Level 1] might hold guard for the Radiant Shooter.”

“We can’t forget there’s Pathless with them, too,” Francis said. “Those guys can still kick butt even without their path.”

“Eight versus eighteen,” Dazzle said hoarsely.

The odds sounded good, but it could be a mistake to fight them when DeSean’s group was so close to breaching the barricade. If the fight included the Chosen holding guard near the high school, the odds would turn against DeSean’s team swiftly. He still had to add the other group of Marked to the equation and—

The low whud-whud whoop of a helicopter reached DeSean’s ears. He perked up, everyone following his example as he searched the sky. Coming over the tree tops, a beast of a machine whipped the air into a frenzy as it arrived on the scene followed by others of its kin.

Four fully-armed Apache Attack Helicopters swerved above their heads. The rotor-wash scattered dirt everywhere, getting into DeSean’s eyes. He blinked through and saw the aerial vehicles were turning their noses toward the Route 5 barricade.

A thin beam of white light sliced through the tail rotor of an Apache. It pitched straight into the shrubs and rocks two hundred feet to DeSean’s right and slammed down with a heavy, disjointed, metal-breaking crunch!

Another thin-beam of light pierced the air. It pricked a hole through an Apache’s cockpit and exploded the main pilot, splattering the interior with blood before setting it to fire. That one crashed in an explosive fireball near where the last one had fallen.

“War Hounds,” DeSean yelled in Lesser Infernal, “run. Hunt. Tear and eat!”

He pointed the way with his demonic hand, and the War Hounds charged full-tilt. They kicked dirt down the encirclement of mounds and ditches, DeSean the last to climb out and follow. He caught a glimpse of Mariah fading into the trees, making a fast move to encircle.

“Roberto, stay and protect,” DeSean said over his shoulder.

He missed what the kid said in return. One of the Apache’s filled the air with the sound of a million angry bees, the chain gun unloading. It got off a second of continuous gunfire before the spearing white light clipped the weapon itself and disabled it.

If the Radiant Shooter didn’t have their attention now after taking down two helicopters, it certainly did when the Apache’s charged their direction. It gave DeSean pause, wondering if military might was just good enough to overcome magic.

A host of other Chosen Skills flared at once.

Bright lights that seared the eyes burst like day-time fireworks in the air. A glowing white boulder soared like a comet. Reaching giant hands. Hot glowing spikes. Some were more effective than others, but it was enough to give one of the Apache Helicopters a difficult time. Denting and smoking its hull. The other, which DeSean noted had a Riding Cowgirl painted into its hull, dodged adequately enough to accrue little to no damage.

The vehicles finally departed, refocusing on their main objective that was the fighting on Route 5 between military and Chosen at the barricade. The explosive whoop of bombs and magic going off resounded in the background.

DeSean didn’t regret their leaving. He covered most of the distance to reach the attacking Chosen, his War Hounds on the verge of crashing into them front first. The Pathless were caught on the back foot, spooked by the direct representatives of the Hells.

The Valorous Fighter was more than game.

He used an antique rapier that shone with his power and hacked the first War Hound in twain. He skewered the second through the chest and tore his blade out in a fountain of demonic ichor.

Seeing the Valorous Fighter tear through War Hounds encouraged the other Pathless Chosen to regather themselves and aim their abilities at DeSean’s imps. The Radiant Shooter remained at the back, defended by a line of Pathless prepared to lay down their lives.

“Let not a second past where we don’t put to light the dark taint of chaos!” shouted the Radiant Shooter.

“Be merry, for we are Chosen, the victors in this holy conquest!” The Valorous Fighter laughed triumphantly, hacking through another War Hound.

DeSean revealed himself behind a tree, staying well within its shade. The shooter caught sight of him first as the other Chosen threw themselves into a frenzied fight with the War Hounds. As blood soaked the ground and ran red on the rocks, DeSean entered a shootout with the shooter.

He dodged aside when his position got lit by a beam of finger-guided light. The super-heated earth popped. The tree exploded into near-white hot flames that chased away the shadows.

“I won’t let you get away, Warlock Lord!” shrilled the shooter passionately. He shot another beam of light, slicing the ground to DeSean’s left where he low-crawled. The bursting flames and smoldering earth washed over DeSean and singed him.

“Show yourself so I may—Ah!”

With a tight smile, DeSean raised up and saw the shooter was having his spine sliced out by Mariah. The Ravaging Assassin lived up to her path and got the jump on the Radiant Shooter, and it wasn’t a quick and painless death either.

One of the Pathless Chosen turned toward the shooter’s torment and got their skull bashed open by a raging War Hound.

You’ve obtained basic Od Experience.

You’ve obtained 42 Od Coins.

DeSean brushed past the notification and marched into the ensuing chaos with a growing grin. He came across a Pathless Chosen with her arm sliced open. The warlock brushed past her, his fingers coming away with her blood. Before she could rear around and strike him with her golf club, he gave voice and emotion to a curse.

You’ve obtained basic Od Experience.

You’ve obtained 37 Od Coins.

Another Pathless Chosen shouted incoherently at their comrade’s melting death and raised a hand in revenge. A War Hound slipped in and thrust their spear through the vengeful Chosen’s chest, but that wasn’t enough to stop him from emitting a white shock wave.

“No thanks,” DeSean muttered, yanking on a cord of darkness linking him to a copse of trees. His feet left the ground as the cord lurched him away from danger, the earth exploding where he’d once stood.

Strings of darkness slapped at the ground, finding longer and darker shadows to soften DeSean’s landing.

He still had his loaded shotgun, putting it to use by blowing a hole through a young man’s lower back. The Pathless Chosen hit the earth hard, the System gifting DeSean basic Od Experience and 26 Coins for another kill.

Four down, four more to go, DeSean thought before Mariah zipped into the equation. After finishing off the shooter, she turned her blood-thirsting knives toward weaker prey. The shock wave man was blasting back War Hounds when Mariah struck like a bat out of hell, slicing open both sides of his neck.

She was killing the next Pathless Chosen before shock wave man was a crumpled sack of flesh on the floor.

Valorous Fighter threw his hat in and swung hard to decapitate Mariah. He missed, throwing a crescent shaped wave of white energy that lopped off the the tree tops.

DeSean kept his distance while his remaining War Hounds ganged up on the last Pathless Chosen. They used spears to stab his legs before going in for a gory kill with their slobbering, hungry maws.

You earned basic Od Experience.

You’ve obtained 49 Od Coins.

DeSean anticipated the moment he could step in as Mariah ducked, weaved, and sidestepped around the fighter’s killing strokes. Crescent-shaped blasts sliced up the earth and shrubs into torn chunks with each miss. The girl had a smile on her face even though she could die at any moment, trading near deathdefying dodges to get a small hit on the fighter.

Then the opening came when Mariah tripped over a crumbled patch of earth. The Valorous Fighter prepared a big swing to slice the teenager in half.

“[Eldritch Bolt],” DeSean said, his voice shifting weirdly to cast the Systemic Skill.

Without too much thought, his hand came up and an oblong projectile screamed across the distance between him and the fighter’s chest. It was less a type of energy shaped into a missile and more of a moving doorway leading to something… horrifying.

It struck the fighter hard and stumbled him backward, saving Mariah from getting slaughtered. The assassin fled away, disappearing somewhere on this bloody field strewn with bodies.

“That’s the best shot you… you… uggaaah!” The fighter screamed as his chest cracked open, strings of flesh tearing into whipping strips. The rib cage yawned open like a toothy maw, exposing major organs before snapping close like a gator.

The fighter kept screaming, patting against his living chest as it opened and closed like a mouth. With his attention robbed by the horror of his transformation, DeSean pulled hard and fast from the nearest and darkest shadows.

By the time the fighter noticed the warlock’s approach, DeSean plunged the spiteful knife of shadow into Chosen’s chest. Blood squirting, DeSean cast the blood curse and nearly melted the Valorous Fighter to death.

The Chosen proved to be stronger than getting his blood turned to acid and went after DeSean with another sword swing. Even with his muscles turning to slough, and bones going soft, the cut was strong and swift.

DeSean caught the sword arm with strings of shadow, fouling the hit enough for him to step out of the way. He used his demonic arm to backhand the man’s jaw, breaking it. Then he got behind the Fighter, pressed his palm against the back of his head and said:

“[Eldritch Bolt].”