Chapter 66: The Reason For Taking It Slow

  The rain stopped pelting the windows further inland. Sophie slept with her head pressed against it while Erik had taken over driving the car. They were back on the road after the two-car convoy had stopped for lunch and changed drivers, the latter by popular demand from the previous drivers. Emma and Dunham had switched and had also taken the foremost position in the tiny cavalcade, leaving Jessie on standby in case of attack.

  Because of Erik’s greater physical strength, especially when using his body-altering Unleash ability, he still had to leave the car to help move the larger obstacles in their path. Jessie’s set of powers weren’t so much designed to move larger obstacles as they were to explode or otherwise wreck them, though her wind scythes from her Reap the Harvest ability did just fine on normal-sized cars.

  “Do you mind if I ask you something, Jessie?” Dunham asked, finding the passivity of simply being a passenger duller than he had expected.

  “Of course not,” she answered as her eyes met his.

  “Neither you nor Erik has absorbed as many powers as you can have, right?”

  Jessie looked down at her Crest by instinct and answered, “That’s right.”

  “And still you’re carrying around several semi-precious stones,” he continued.

  “Semi-precious? You know I absorbed the largest diamond I have ever laid my eyes on, right?” Jessie winked.

  “I, uh…didn’t. Anyway, as far as I know, many of those you’ve brought along are, like…synergistic with you, or something, right?” Dunham then asked, struggling to find a suitable word for the feeling they had described earlier.

  Jessie magicked out a gemstone that seemed jet black at first, though when he looked at its centre the light reflected inside it turned somewhat brown.

  Dunham continued, “Why haven’t any of you finished? Wouldn’t that be safer?”

  “In a perfect world, we would have, and it would have been. From what I see, though—” Jessie started, gesturing outside at a broken pile of neglected cars. “—it really isn’t that. This specific gem pulls on my conscience and my power, asking to be a part of me. If I start to absorb it, I will have to beat it at its own game, whatever that may be. It’s only because of Erik’s bloodline that we now know there is a spirit within.”

  She tossed the stone to Dunham, letting him inspect it closer.

  She continued: “The game is split into two parts, as far as I’ve experienced. The first is what you see out here: me absorbing the gem. This takes a lot of energy. Every second I spend absorbing that one gemstone, I spend more energy than you do in a day. Luckily, I don’t need to refill on carbs later, though!”

  “I’d love to just ravage a table full of food if I didn’t have to worry about my fig—I mean, health,” Emma commented.

  “And the second part?” Dunham asked.

  “The second part is going on inside me. The actual game to win over the spirit. It can be a puzzle, a fight, or hell, even a written test, I guess. It could even be all of them combined. The problem is that it’s a surprise test in a class I didn’t know I signed up for. If I lose or run out of energy…that’s it.”

  “What do you mean ‘that’s it’?” Dunham asked. “You’ll die? Have we been sitting around watching you almost kill yourselves every time you’ve sucked those things in?”

  “Power isn’t free, you know. I’m also only guessing, but after seeing what happened to Erik yesterday when he was lying there with his Crest glowing like he was absorbing something…it would’ve killed him if it had continued. That was a leak, kind of, and I think something similar happens when we absorb or spend it all.”

  Jessie took the black gemstone from Dunham’s hand as he handed it to her.

  “But that’s only one reason. Because we use a lot of energy, we might not be able to defend you guys if something happens. There’s also the skill-issue,” Jessie continued.

  “Skill-issue?” he asked.

  Jessie turned away from him, looking outside again. “Yup. Would you have felt safe if I were fighting to protect you just metres away with three new abilities I’ve never used before? Even just the one? Sure, I already know what it does, but what are the repercussions? Consider my fire-spell ‘Scorch’, for example. You are attacked by a Hellbeast, and I cast ‘Scorch’ on it. It catches fire and almost instantly dies and starts melting. The fire dissipates. You weren’t affected by the flame at all, and I was fast enough to save you from its claws.”

  “So far so good,” Dunham commented.

  “How good are you with heat?” she asked, once more looking back at him. “The first time I used it on a Hellbeast was when Erik had just found me, and the air base had one captured in a cage. The spell is targeted, meaning I choose the target; it isn’t directional. I hit the beast. Yet the cage melted before our eyes. That cage could withhold a Hellbeast until that point. So, do you like it hot?”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “No, ma’am,” Dunham grimaced.

  “In my scenario, you were close enough to feel the heat. That means I, at the least, severely wounded you instead of saving you, just because I didn’t consider the full effect of my ability. Hence, a skill-issue. Both me and Erik agreed we would train with our current powers. More powers would only make us more dangerous, and not just towards our enemies,” she finished, turning back around.

  “And yet you absorbed another one after you agreed on that,” Emma ever so silently commented to no one, just loud enough that the Witch could hear.

  “Well, it’s like giving a kid an ice cream and telling them to wait until they’re back home to eat it. You can’t expect me not to taste it on the way,” Jessie grinned.

  “Do you think we’ve seen the last of them for now?” Angela asked Erik as Jessie pushed a car away from the middle of the road, opening a path between a knocked-over bus and a crumbling building.

  “It sure does seem like it. We’ve gone past several towns and cities by now, even right through Oslo. I haven’t sensed, much less seen any sign of them since yesterday,” Erik answered, worry coating his words.

  “I’m not sure what’s worse, to be honest. Sure, it would take a lot longer to get there if we had to stop and fight every half hour, but…”

  “But will we survive another fight like yesterday? Next time they’ll have home advantage as well. Besides—” Erik grimaced. “—there is at least one big one we have to deal with as well. Maybe more.”

  “I think it would be best to leave that one to Jessie, in that case,” Angela said, causing Erik to turn his head. “Keep your eyes on the road.”

  Erik turned back to look ahead on the road and asked, “Why?”

  “She can build up static, causing the lightning to take it down while flying around to avoid its attacks,” she explained.

  “That’s just like what I did last time,” Erik commented, breaking to a stop behind the other car as Jessie went back outside to move a new obstacle or two.

  “You told me your black smoke thing couldn’t get inside it without going through its open wounds. That means you have to wound it beforehand.”

  “While true, we don’t know if the same can’t be said about Jessie’s lightning,” Erik argued as he leaned back into the driver’s seat, letting go of the steering wheel.

  “Should that be the case, she has ranged cutting attacks that she would be safe using from a distance, like her water scythe.”

  “I think you’re mistaken,” Erik said, leaving the words hanging as he waved to Jessie as she got back into her car. “My powers have been tested and we know they work, for one. Besides that, Jessie is better suited to keep you all safe and deal with groups of monster dogs.”

  Angela sighed and said nothing for several seconds.

  “Listen, Angela, I know this is a terrible situation, and I realise there isn’t any perfect strategy. We’re going in blind; we should be happy if we can think of a decent strategy.”

  “When did you start outsmarting me?” she asked, looking at him.

  “Nuh-uh, sister, don’t go there! If we go with my plan because you say it’s smarter, then that plan will backfire and kill us all,” Erik said with exaggerated movements of his hands as he drove. Angela laughed.

  “That’s true, I guess.”

  “Also, you haven’t been sleeping well, probably since Africa,” he continued, causing a silent yet obvious reaction from Angela. “No, I’m not spying on you. It’s obvious. You want to talk about it?”

  She sighed again, moving her gaze ahead as she said, “No…when this is all over…I’ll find someone to talk to.”

  Erik remained silent, the matter closed for now. They were making good time. Tomorrow might be the end. Angela’s well-being was just another reason to win this fight.

  “Delivery Service, how are you coming along?” said a voice from the radio in both cars after a short static burst from it.

  “Delivery Service?” asked Sophie, turning to Angela who was jogging back to the car behind them to answer.

  “Yeah…warheads…” she shrugged.

  “Warhead Delivery Service, really? That’s our codename?” Erik asked, his spirits somehow lifting after hearing this.

  The group was standing outside the cars, looking down on the ruins of Erik’s hometown in the fading sunlight of the evening. It had brought back memories and feelings he would rather be without, so his mind clung to whatever else it could find any slight humour in. With his friends close, he found no trouble seeing the brighter side of things, at least when compared to the last time he was here.

  “It wasn’t my idea,” Angela shouted in a whisper, as if the radio could hear her. “He was kind of cute, so I just…didn’t say anything.”

  “Woo, Angela’s on the flirting train,” Erik teased right before she answered the radio.

  “This is…Delivery Service…reporting. We are at…uh, Warhead 1…production site? Over?”

  “Excuse me?” asked the male voice over the radio.

  “Oh, is that him? This is rough,” Erik groaned, noticing Jessie’s similar, agonised grimace.

  “That is, his hometown. We just arrived. Sorry, is this a monitored communication?” she asked, her own face grimacing as well.

  “No, ma’am, just checking in on you.”

  Angela sighed in relief, responding, “That’s a relief. That was weird, huh?” she pretend-laughed.

  “No, it still is,” Erik commented.

  “It definitely still is,” Emma agreed.

  “Yes, ma’am,” the voice said. “We’re on schedule, ETA 1 hour to arrival. Any favourable spots for a war camp in your vicinity?”

  “Wherever my body lands after I fling myself off this cliff,” Angela commented to herself before answering, “We—”

  “What was that, Delivery Service?”

  “I mean, at this point you might as well just jump,” Jessie commented as Angela shook the radio in her hand.

  “Our current location should be acceptable enough for the night,” she said in a tired exhale. “Keep to the main road until the off-ramp towards Side Valley, or ‘Sidedal’ on road 219. Keep going straight ahead after that, and you’ll come up on us.”

  “Confirming route, please hold,” the man said, and silence followed.

  “I didn’t take you for a—”

  “Not. Another. Word.” Angela pointed her sternest finger towards Erik, who shut up without hesitation.

  “Route confirmed, Delivery Service. See you in one hour,” the man said moments later.

  Angela threw the radio back into the car, wanting to scratch her eyes out. She was just about to scream as the radio static burst again, and the voice continued:

  “Uh, Delivery Service?”

  Angela jumped into the car and grabbed the radio from the floor it had fallen to.

  “This is Delivery Service,” she responded.

  “May I say that you seem a bit stressed? How about we get you a massage tonight?”

  Erik hadn’t seen a woman’s eyes beam like Angela’s did right at that moment for years, and he was sure that was just in an anime he had watched.

  “That…would be great,” she smiled, tossing her hair back with her offhand.

  “Great! I know just the guy to set you up with. See you later.” The radio went silent.

  Angela faced her silent companions with a glacial expression. She cleared her throat, then said, “So the army is an hour behind us. Let’s clear some space in the area.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” said everyone but Sophie in unison.