Kobe pushed himself up by his spear, vision spinning, trying to remember how he got here. Clearly, he'd been knocked out. Apparently, he'd also vomited and gotten it on his cool new boots. There was no sour taste in his mouth, though. That was weird.

Feeling like his body had just come out of an assembly line built only for torture, he let out a pained sigh and took a shaky step forward.

Right in front of him, a gigantic worm was trying to eat Tasha, but failing miserably. She was using her Abilities to evade the worm, floating over the ground to pull away from a lunge before striking back. She was throwing haymakers in the air, alternating between her left and right, which generated blasts of force that tossed the worm around and kept it from attacking.

"Awesome," he whispered, feeling a warm sense of pride well up in his chest.

But then he saw how the worm sped up and nearly caught her, Tasha only narrowly jerking out of its path.

Time to step up. He was sitting on quite a bit of Value, so he used it to get his Strength and Speed up to 30 and his Durability to 20. The rest went into his PE Capacity.

As Tasha still had its attention, he simply lunged forward and put his full weight behind a stab. But despite his high Strength, the speartip stuck in its hide, refusing to pierce deeper. His wires wouldn't fare much better then. He tried launching his metal ball, but again it just bounced off the thick skin.

Perhaps he'd just have to cut his way in bit by bit then.

"You better start moving! I'm almost dry!" Tasha yelled. With a nod, he pulled out his spear and dashed forward, circling the worm while slicing into it. He kept a close eye on the beast, keeping his magnetic fields at the ready. When it reared back and lunged down, he oriented a negative field on the container behind him, allowing it to pull him back. The ground shook as the massive beast crashed into it, pieces of rock scattering. Then, he reversed the field's charge, flying forward again to continue trying to dissect the huge monster.

In the next exchange, he leapt up, targeting the area near its mouth, but he underestimated its speed and took a thrashing blow that launched him towards a container. A timely magnetic field had him jerking to a stop right before he slammed into the wall.

"That was close," he muttered to himself, wincing as he touched his ribs.

He looked up at the battlements, seeing that there were only a few pockets of fighting. But the worm was tall enough to reach there and everywhere else in the town. Retreating to let it rampage was not an option. They'd have to contain and kill it.

He heard a crunch and looked over his shoulder to see Tasha crushing a centipede under a piece of stone.

"Claim that mobile MAFT, then kill something. It'll refill your PE!"

His eyebrows lifted. That was a good piece of information. After dodging another attack from the worm, he looked up and around to see if any more of those deadly Pterodactyls were around. He caught only one and it wasn't coming at them, so he brought his attention back to the worm.

Another few slashes failed again to cut through its hide, even though they were aimed at the same spot. Frustrated, he put even more power in the next slash, watching its head carefully. But he missed its tail end which whipped into him and sent him tumbling until he came to a sudden stop against something hard.

He groaned, getting some air back in his lungs with wheezing breaths, pulling himself up by a large machine. It took a while for him to realize what he'd landed against - an excavator.

"Can you distract it for a bit?" He called out to Tasha, who was already grabbing the worm's attention, flitting around like a fairy.

He looked the excavator over, wincing with every limping step.

"Yeah," he muttered to himself, "this might do the trick."

A quick glance back showed that Tasha was still holding it off, so he began to fiddle with the excavator's massive shovel, disconnecting it from the machine. After a few moments, he was done, calling out to Tasha.

"Can you hold it in place?"

She turned over to him with a questioning look, but then her eyebrows lifted as she saw where he stood. Right as she nodded, there was a spike of fear in his stomach as he saw the Pterodactyl coming in behind her like a fighter jet.

"Watch out-"

His scream died in his throat as she jerked out of the way right when the bird was pulled off course, jerking down and forward, ramming right into the worm instead. The beast was slammed on top of a container and began to writhe, trying to get the huge bird off.

Realizing this was his chance, Kobe pushed energy into a field, and the shovel rumbled forward, but he could tell it wasn't nearly enough.

"Get over here! I need your help!"

Tasha flew over with a mobile MAFT, throwing it over to him, then levitating a wounded centipede closer. He strapped it on and quickly blasted it to refill his PE and then they got to work.

"On three!" He called out.

There was no trace of the Pterodactyl anymore, the worm must have consumed it in the meantime, now already slithering toward them with scary speed.

"One!"

It reared up, showing its many curved black teeth, each the size of a dagger. Kobe swallowed, deciding to count faster.

"Two, three!"

The worm lunged, but as they pushed all their PE into the huge shovel, it rocketed forward and caught it right in the maw. The dense metal scoop blasted on with unstoppable momentum, pulling the worm along with it, until it crashed loudly into the town wall.

They watched in tense anticipation, but when it didn't move anymore, they both allowed themselves to drop down to the ground.

"That should do it," Kobe breathed.

Tasha nodded, giving him a tired smile as she put her hand on his. He smiled back.

Then she vomited.

"Thanks for turning the other way," he said as he rubbed her back, then pausing with a frown. "Wait, are you the one who puked on my boots?"

"No comment," Tasha said after wiping her mouth.

Kobe chuckled, looking around the town. It looked like most of the beasts were dead. But hadn't there been another worm before? He began to look around and began to push himself up with a groan, until loud blasts from beyond the walls drew their attention.

Stolen story; please report.

"We should go check what our anonymous hero is up to," Tasha suggested.

They used their Abilities to pull themselves up to the battlements, Tasha managing it a lot more smoothly than Kobe, who jerked up and down and nearly fell back down to the ground.

Out on the green plain surrounding the town, there were scattered beast corpses for as far they could see. In the middle of the piles of corpses, the young man still fought, white blades flashing as he spun between a mix of the worms and huge, six-legged furry creatures with long necks and vicious teeth.

Kobe whistled appreciatively as the man sped up even while spinning, his blades catching on the side of a worm, seeming to propel him forward with each cut along the length of the beast. It collapsed when he passed, guts spilling out its side, but even then he didn't slow down, leaping up and forward to cut through one of the furry beasts' long necks.

"It's like someone launched a Beyblade down there."

As he dodged between two worms, a handful of the huge furry beasts managed to surround him. They reared their heads back slightly, then snapped forward and breathed fire.

"What the fu-"

The young man leapt up and away from the flames, leaving some strange object behind. They gaped as that thing seemed to suck in all the surrounding flames, then flinched back as it suddenly exploded, leaving behind a scorched crater with two burnt worms.

He seemed to finally be slowing down as he took care of the final beasts, neatly dodging their strikes and decapitating them one by one. After the last one went down, he fell to his knees, chest heaving as he let his head hang back, arms hanging limply by his side.

"I hope it's over. He deserves a rest," Tasha said, to which Kobe nodded.

But after a few minutes, something appeared on the horizon, quickly approaching from the desert zone. Another wave of beasts. It looked like some kind of oversized lizard, completely covered in spikes and thorns.

The young man remained in the same position. As they watched, his image flickered somehow, his arm and part of his head changing to something white.

Kobe and Tasha exchanged a look.

"Shit."

***

Hour after hour, Barry had been thinking that his next step would be the last. Yet each time again, his body had surprised him with its resilience.

His muscles had been burning since the first day of fighting. Then, the burning had transitioned into sharp, stabbing pains, which in the last day became more like a dull ache. The last few hours, his body had just been numb. But somehow, against his every expectation, it had still kept moving long after he'd lost faith, perhaps leaning on something like muscle memory.

That's why he'd been genuinely surprised when his body finally refused to move. No matter how much energy he pumped into them, his muscles would barely even twitch anymore. Adding Durability also didn't seem to change anything at this point. He figured it just made the fiber and bones sturdier, but wouldn't fix what was broken.

Drifting in and out of consciousness, he could faintly feel another wave coming in the distance. He could only hope he'd done enough. He'd earned a bit of rest.

After drifting off for a bit, the sound of approaching footsteps and a hand on his shoulder brought him back to his body.

"Hey," someone said. An unknown male voice. "You want some water?"

Barry's eyelid fluttered, but it didn't open. He tried to speak, to say yes, but only a dry wheeze came out.

"I'll take that as a yes."

Cold fluid flowed past his lips and he managed to swallow it without choking. There was something rejuvenating about the cold water flowing down his throat.

"Thanks for saving us, by the way," the voice said.

With a mental effort, he let his vision come back, not needing to open his actual eye as he had an artificial one now. An obviously exhausted and wounded black man was standing next to him, looking out at the desert with a grin.

"You looked pretty cool out there. I think you may have even inspired some fans."

"You're… welcome," Barry croaked.

The man looked him over, considering.

"Think you have one last dance in you?"

Barry tried to shake his head, but it refused to budge.

"Can't… move…"

The man nodded, scratching at the back of his head as he frowned at the approaching beast wave. From the rumbling sounds, it was getting closer.

"I think these ones might be even tougher than the last. But we'll do what we can."

The man paused, looking back at Barry with a confident smile.

"I'll take you back into the town, then. It'll be safer that way. Although… You know, my late grandma used to work as a composer. She used to tell me that her best ideas would come when she was totally exhausted at the end of a long day. It may not be time to throw in the towel yet."

The man crouched down, fiddling with something and then touching Barry's arm. He recognized the sounds of the straps of a Fixer Upper. That wasn't a bad idea, he could probably use some healing.

Barry had plenty of PE, but his offensive Abilities were lackluster. But as he considered the man's words, a few ideas did come to him. It was worth a shot.

"There's… something. But you'll… have to get back. Into the town."

He looked Barry over again, then slowly nodded.

"We'll be ready to help."

With a monumental effort of will, Barry managed to slowly bring his head up. A group of huge, horned lizards were stampeding towards the town. Manipulating his vision to show the view from the north, he spotted some other creatures coming in from there as well, some kind of blue yetis.

First, he'd need to gather them all in one spot. Feeling like he was floating on the edge of being unconscious, he began to weave light together into a grand illusion. To the north, a shimmering stone wall rose out of nothing, obscuring the town behind it, so that the yetis would be easier drawn away.

A good distance away from him, in a spot where both the yetis and lizards would clearly see, he conjured his own image, bright and clear, waving its hands. He raised some more walls to herd all the beasts to roughly that same spot, then he began adding sound to make it so that the illusionary Barry was screaming at the beasts.

All of this would have been impossible without the strengthened connection to the PE Node from his prosthetics. But now came the hard part. Just blasting them with concentrated light and sound would not be enough. He needed the stop the sound from dissipating, somehow.

Riding that nearly dream-like state, following his intuition, he began to build a wall of sound energy. The wall wasn't actually made up of sound, but of a working of energy. It felt like he was speaking to the energy, imbuing his intent into it in order to plant a lasting effect. It was a simple one; this wall would strengthen any sound waves as it bounced them back.

He worked quickly, weaving more walls of light and sound. The mindless beasts avoided them, not knowing them for illusions. Barry repeated the effect until he'd built three walls, leaving one side open to let the beasts stream in, then finally added a ceiling. At the exit stood his image, drawing the growling beasts toward it.

With his PE Capacity thoroughly emptied, he threw a few thousand Value into PE Capacity, bringing him well over 3000KJ, then he converted one of the nearby corpses into PE.

Now for a bit of sound to kick things off. With a final, agonizing effort, he drew air into his lungs and cupped his white hand in front of his mouth.

Then, he roared.

It was a guttural scream that carried all of his pain from the last months. He guided that sound forward as he empowered it, pushing it into the box he'd woven like a lit fuse. It grew on the way into a thundering sound that shook the ground, until it entered in between the walls, where it became distorted and muted for anyone listening from the outside.

But inside, the soundwaves grew only stronger with each bounce. The beasts shook their heads as the sound vibrated through them. Barry focused, dumping all of his PE into it, converting another corpse and then dumping the fresh energy in once again.

The ground cracked and rumbled as the waves continued to build, blood spurting from the beasts' eyes and ears.

It grew exponentially, taking just a moment before the ground was churning, the ground itself quivering as if tectonic plates were shifting below.

Carapace cracked and organs burst, some of the beasts seemingly exploding from the raw energy of the blast. The gore danced along with patches of churned soil, everything constantly in motion, vibrating with high intensity. Then, one of the walls gave out and the whole working collapsed.

Instantly, the ground exploded into a gigantic crater as a massive shockwave blasted out, a wall of air slamming into Barry to send him rolling over the ground. The knee-high grass flattened as the wave continued on to shake the town walls, the closest section of wall cracking and collapsing. Inside of the town, people cried out as they dug their palms into their ears, stone cracking and every single object made of glass shattering.

But after that deafening burst of destruction, before the moans and cries rose again from in the town, there was brief moment of blessed silence. With a faint smile on his lips, Barry finally let the darkness embrace him.

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