Chapter 235: Hard Decisions

December 27th, 625

I frowned and puffed some smoke while looking at the gathering crowds, snow falling atop their bodies as many of them slept. The attacks were definitely picking up. I could feel the threat in the distance growing. 

If we were leaving, it needed to be within the next 30 minutes. 

The last helicopters had been forced to leave as they had run short on fuel. I had contacted Sawn and he said that he had sent all he could get, so we would be on our own for a while until the ones that recharged could get back to us. 

The main goal was to simply run and buy time. The second goal was to get to the Black Forest south of us, around 40 miles away according to the Owlykat, if we really had to. Umara’s squad and I were the only combat capable humans. We had 97 Flickers as reinforcements, and 62 of them could be ridden. 

And we had to get 455 villagers to the black forest, the rest either dead or evacuated.

It looked just about impossible. I knew for a fact that many would die along the way. I had my plans regarding that but it would be risky no matter what. 

All of the villagers still here were either elderly or older, few of them physically adept. I had attempted to find wagons and carts to pile people into but we had only found two. 70% of the village was leveled in some way and that meant most of the raggedy wooden carts were leveled with it. 

By my estimations, the rest of the villagers would be able to get picked up by the helicopters with their next wave. Once they got back we’d be clear. The hard part was surviving until then. 

It was either hunker down and fight them off until then, or make a tactical retreat, fighting them off where I could use my full firepower, and survive long enough to get picked up. 

Either way it was a fight for our lives, and the snow coming down was looking like it was going to make things more difficult for me. 

I brought up my hand, my Aura and Psyka drawing a complex formation above my palm. It would be the key to ensuring the outcome of greatest good would be achieved while preventing any interference and dissent, as well as possible future trials. 

I looked around one more time. The night falling meant that fewer monsters were charging straight into the village, but they were coming all the same. Tana and Jaya were holding the perimeter. 

I finally jumped off the building I was on, touching Umara and Feiden’s mind with my Aura, gently waking them up. 

Then I dropped into the square that held all the villagers, taking out a pistol and firing it into the air. 

“Everyone get up! It’s time to leave!”

The villagers, either already awake or no longer sleeping, started to scramble to their feet. The Owlykat Daywisp came flying over, landing on the ground next to me, nearly invisible in the night besides its glimmering blue eyes. 

“Are we beginning?”

“Yes. Herd everyone toward the edge of the village.”

“Understood.”

He flew back into the air as I started yelling out commands, my voice carried directly into the villagers’ minds. It was amazing how vulnerable to power they were, how god-like I felt before one. It was no wonder they nearly worshipped Magi. 

Umara and Feiden came walking over before long. I glimpsed Umara’s witch hat, nodding to her as the crowds started getting herded by the surrounding Flickers. They knew what to do, it was just that it needed to happen now. I wouldn’t allow any stragglers, and I certainly didn’t allow any of them to bring possessions. The less weight, the faster we were going. 

I suddenly looked over and saw some people arguing about who would get to ride the two wagons we found. I hurried over, everyone going silent when I stepped in. 

I pointed, singling out a group of older people 

“I want all of you in this area to board the two wagons! Now! Everyone else, keep fucking walking!”

My perceived anger kept anybody from resisting or arguing, a little bit of Aura plenty to keep them at bay. Even normal humans had it, could feel it, though not well unless you shoved yours down their throat. 

Some villagers were quickly piled in, many of them older and more frail. I kept everyone moving, the small bit of chaos acting as a distraction from the real issue at hand. 

We gradually made it to the edge of the village. I saw Jaya slinging spells at some incoming monsters, the movement of hundreds naturally drawing attention. 

Then we stepped beyond the village, the hundreds clustering together. The snow was a bit thick, enough to slow walking speed noticeably. It was cold as shit, dark, and everyone was tired and weary. 

The two wagons were hooked up to two flickers, and they moved to the front, naturally faster than the rest. Two large covers were over both of them obscuring those inside from view and protecting them from the snow. 

I let out a long breath, looking back at the village one more time before pointing. 

“Forward! We make our retreat now!”

Like that, the Flickers all started moving, bringing up the rear and pushing the villagers along. Everyone started marching, their pace picking up when we heard some sharp screams from incoming monsters. 

My view of the surroundings, clear as day despite the night snow, saw all the monsters that came from behind us. I brought Totenstahl around, its red glow like a beacon in the night. 

There were hundreds of monsters, and now that we were wide in the open, they were looking at us like sheep to the slaughter. 

I yelled. 

“Umara and Jaya! Defensive spells only! Tana and Feiden, bring up the flanks! Daywisp, keep your flickers exactly where I told you! We’re going dark!”

I got a few affirmative copies, and then I let my Aura bloom. 

It didn’t remain just above my body. It dispersed into the surroundings, encompassing our entire escort, every villager, every flicker. 

And then, their fields of view narrowed, darkness descending and limiting everyone’s line of sight to just several feet around them. 

All except for Umara’s squad and I. I instead gave them a highlighted vision of every monster I could see or detect. 

The important part was that the villagers and flickers would remain in their own little bubble of darkness. They knew the way forward. They were following the two carts, which I allowed them to clearly see. I was also forcing them, with Daywisp’s help, to hold a certain line and pace, never falling behind it. Like that, they were ignorantly retreating. 

I saw another thousand monsters come out from the village. I pulled Totenstahl’s trigger, raking the incoming monsters in front of me. I would be the one handling the crowds for now. Later, when we were lighter, everyone else would get to step in. 

“Keep moving!”

The villagers moved pretty quickly, trudging along as fast as they could without outright jogging or running. Many of them were already tired after just a few minutes but I didn’t worry about that. 

We got a distance away from the village and I could see many more thousands of monsters starting to head over. Many of them were still coming down from the mountains, from the Stronghold, but they were coming, and they knew we were out here. I also picked up on some Royals. We had only encountered a couple before but that was because we were entrenched in the village. 

Now we were ripe for slaughter. 

I saw one of the Royals flank to the side, sprinting across the snow before planting and bringing together some poisoned elements, the formation of a spell. 

“Feiden, go!”

I called, Feiden snapping forward right as the spell was released. 

I saw one of Umara’s spells fly out right after, intercepting the Royal’s attack and detonating it in the air. 

No harm done, and Feiden quickly killed it, coming right back to position. 

“Good. Keep that up and this will be smooth.”

I said that, but then another thousand monsters started pouring towards us, what seemed like an endless stream going through the village. I could also see Scouts showing themselves in the distance. They had been watching us, and now they were relaying our retreat. 

At some point we crossed a mile. 

Only an eternity left to go.

The villagers slowed a bit after the first mile and found a more realistic pace. The old gravitated toward the back, moving just a bit slower, exerting themselves far more. 

Mile 2 came. 

Totenstahl fired almost unceasingly, each bullet weakly empowered yet still shredding through the incoming forces. They started spreading out more though, covering more land and thus preventing me from taking out clusters at a time. Feiden and Tana had to start killing those that tried to flank. 

Then we reached mile three, and we got another challenger. 

I saw the Royal streak down our side, toward Tana. She jumped forward to meet it and Umara filled the gap as I kept firing forward. 

They did battle for some minutes until Tana finished it and came back. Yet Umara couldn’t back out, continuing to kill monsters, Tana unable to handle them all. Clusters of Flickers moved to reinforce, many of them casting elemental spells to knock away the hordes. 

I counted roughly 4 thousand monsters in my immediate field of view, all of them chasing after us and only delayed or hampered due to my wall of supersonic lead. I could see Royals in the distance sending more our way. They were just hanging back and watching, wearing us down with numbers. 

I had more than enough energy to give. 

However, mile 4 was when things got dicey. 

I glanced back, continuing to fire, seeing an old couple start stumbling, sweating. 

There hadn’t been nearly enough room on the two wagons for all of them, and the large group was starting to spread out. Everyone continued walking at their own pace but those paces were different depending on how physically capable they were. Naturally, those too old for this kind of exertion would fall to the back, and eventually, be unable to continue. 

I knew that. I didn’t know if Daywisp had thought of it when he brought this plan to me but it was under my control now, and I would do things my way. 

Some of the Flickers started falling back with them, trying to maintain a protective line around the couple, but I yelled in response. 

“Stay up there! Don’t fall back! Get the others moving faster!”

My Aura translated my intentions, even if they couldn’t understand my words. They did as I said and moved back up, maintaining their line, unable to see how close the monsters were getting. 

The elderly couple did not, could not, follow. 

Totenstahl heated up a bit more as I dumped more power into each bullet, but the monsters kept coming, drowning out my unceasing barrage with hide and blood, pushing closer and closer to us. 

I knew the first 10 miles would be the hardest. I knew that once we got far enough the monsters would probably stop following. We wouldn’t have to make it all the way to the Dark Forest. 

But until then, this would be a problem I had to deal with the hard way. 

The line of monsters fell back a bit more as I amped the Psyka and cut them all down, but there were more to take their place. 

I silently watched the old couple. They trudged forward, step by step, but they were tired. I was sure that their entire bodies ached and burned. I could imagine how scared they were. They could hear the monsters behind them even if they couldn’t see them. I didn’t let them see. Didn’t let them know how much closer they were getting to being torn apart. 

I just kept my mouth shut, continued firing, continued watching them fall farther and farther back. 

Jaya eventually yelled. 

“John?! Are we going to slow down?!”

“You’re going to keep your eyes forward and hold pace!”

“But-!”

“Jaya!”

I turned and looked at her. I could see the worry on her face, my voice transmitted into her ears and mind. 

“This isn’t your problem to worry about.”

After saying that I looked back at the old couple, having fallen behind enough that I saw them in front of me as I glided backward and fired, even though I was the rearmost man. 

I saw the wife roll her ankle as it was happening, and in that split second I took out my pistol. 

The monsters lunged forward at them. The couple couldn’t see the monsters, the husband stopping with his wife when she rolled her ankle. I knew he would do that. I knew what would happen three seconds after Daywisp had finished his first sentence regarding this plan. 

So I fired, twice, sending two rounds through their heads. They both hit the floor before the monsters reached them, tearing into their bodies and ripping them apart. 

The pistol went away, horror permeating Jaya’s Aura. I could sense Daywisp in the air as well, watching me, uncertain and fearful. But it seemed he had enough sense to commit and keep his beak shut. 

“Keep moving!”

I never stopped firing, and we never stopped moving. We reached mile 5, taking a whopping two hours to do so, and more of the elderly started falling behind. 

Couple by couple, group by group, they would stumble or fall. I made sure they knew the monsters were getting closer whenever they slowed. I made sure they knew how far away the front of the pack was. They knew that slowing too much would mean their death. I would even show them glimpses of the monsters, how close they were.

Some of them cried out to me for help. Those of them were desperate, unwilling to die during the last stretch. Others were more peaceful, some outright giving up with their spouse and falling to their knees, praying for just a few seconds. 

All of them received my bullet to the head, armed with a bit of extra Psyka for good measure, snuffing out their mind even if it didn’t kill them outright. 

This was my mercy to them, my apology in a way. They didn’t deserve to bear the pain of being torn apart. They didn’t deserve to die at all. It was the fault of their failure of a military. 

But that military had collapsed, had paid for their failure with rivers of blood, and I could only do what I could do make sure that the most amount of people got out as possible. If I couldn’t get these people out, then I’d at least make sure they didn’t suffer horrific agony in their last moments. 

More miles passed and by mile 9, I had killed 84 more people, what seemed like most of the elderly. 

“HOLD THE LINE!”

Totenstahl burned with hatred as we reached the bottom of a hill, the monsters behind us coming from above. Some of them jumped into the air and sailed to our front while poisonous spells were slung into the crowds. I was forced to leave protection to Jaya and Umara, as well as many Flickers that had been forced to join the battle and bolster our line. I had to continue killing as many as possible. 

But I had cut down most of the fodder. What was coming now was the main force, the final monsters those Royals wanted to use to wear us out. We couldn’t go to them though. We had to hold our line, which we were barely doing, and didn’t have the room to break off and kill the royals. 

Numbers, numbers, numbers. Someday I would render numbers obsolete. I was already in the process of doing so. 

May this be the last battle I fight without my machines of war. 

I took in heavier breaths, cigar still in my mouth as I focused fire on a mutated monster that launched itself toward me and reached out with claws of metal, honed to a razor’s edge. 

It was cut in two with bullets before it could touch me. 

I dodged out of the way of the corpse, getting farther away from the base of the hill, tracking four villagers who had lagged behind the rest. 

I couldn’t buy them any more space. They were almost 20 yards from me and it was now too late for escape.

Two of them were weeping in fear, close enough to see the incoming hordes of monsters, the others scrambling to get themselves forward. One had an injury, one was a bit fat, the other two were too caught up with the others. 

I put bullets in all of their heads, their bodies dropping, hitting the floor, quickly being drowned by monstrous claws. 

I used my boots to fly backwards, creating some more distance, continuing to run and gun. 

We reached mile 10. 

The monsters coming over the hill were growing sparse. I could see the most powerful Auras, three Royals, cresting the hill and looking down on us like dogs.

And one Corrupted stood with them, the most powerful of them. 

That meant there were few behind them. We were getting to the end. 

With the distance I created I suddenly exchanged Totenstahl with the Mk 13 Mod 7 sniper rifle. I took quick aim, came to a full stop even as monsters lunged toward me, and let out a single breath. 

The trigger snapped back, and the bullet sailed straight through the nose and nasal cavity of an Authority 9 Royal, severing its brainstem and dropping it like a ragdoll. 

The three others raised their defenses right after but I hardly cared. The sniper went away, Totenstahl came back out, and I continued to evade, throwing out a clone for the nearest monster to get distracted by. 

I got a read on every single person and monster around me, did some quick estimations, and then gave out the command. 

“Umara! Feiden! Get up there and kill those Royals! We’ll kill the rest!”

“Roger!”

The two shot forward. I knew they could handle themselves. 

Totenstahl burned brighter as I swept through the rest of the monsters. At some point I no longer had to back up, holding my ground against what remained of the hordes. 

Umara and Feiden focused primarily on evasion, making sure they couldn’t get pinned down by the Corrupted. But it wasn’t Authority 10 so I knew they would have no issue doing that. 

And they managed to kill two Royals before I gave another command. 

“Jaya, join them!”

She silently moved forward, Tana and I closing in together, killing the rest. 

Once there were only around two hundred left I shouted to her. 

“Tana, go! I got the rest!”

She killed one more enemy before disappearing, shooting toward the fight, and reappearing to deliver the killing blow on the last Royal. 

Now it was just the Corrupted, and they could handle that themselves. 

I just made sure to kill every last monster in the area alongside the Flickers. I had released my spell upon the rest of the villagers, all of them turned to see the battle and piles of thousands of monster corpses, no longer walking. 

And I finished off the last beast right as Umara’s squad finished off the Corrupted. 

Umara stashed their bodies before they all came down to my side. I calmed myself, Totenstahl releasing steam as the snow fell on it, my heavy breath combined with my burning cigar to release smoke and vapor in front of me. 

I suddenly glanced off into the distance. 

The sun was up, clouds parting to reveal divine rays of light beaming down upon the surrounding frozen land. 

I looked at the hill, sensing no more monsters coming. There were some behind the hill but they weren’t approaching since we killed the Royals and Corrupted. 

I felt no threat, no danger. We were only 10 miles away from the village but it was far enough and technical enough to break line of sight.

We still needed to move, create more distance for the sake of safety, but I considered this a mission success. 

I glanced at the others as they came to stand closer to me. 

“How is everyone?”

“Tired.”

“Same.”

“I took a few hits but I’m fine.”

“Mm. Jaya?”
I looked at her. She had tear streaks on her face. I knew she had been mortified by what I’d done but I didn’t care much about what she thought of my actions. I did what I had to. 

She nodded, muttering quietly. 

“I’m fine.”

“Good.”

I turned, taking steps toward the crowd of villagers and Flickers. A quick count told me that there were 288 villagers left. 

167 had died.

I had killed 96 of them. 

I dwelled on it for a fraction of a second before waving my arm, shouting.

“Let’s keep moving!”

……

…

Several hours later and around mile 16, I got the call on my Aerial. 

Not long after that, the first helicopters came. 

Three of them descended from the skies. Some of the villagers cheered, many others cried. 

We stuffed as many as we could into those three, amounting to about 210 after literally packing them like sardines. Just like that, the majority were out and safe. 

I decided that no more walking was necessary. Instead, we waited for the last helicopters. 

Another five hours and two more arrived. We packed the first with all the remaining villagers and sent them off, leaving one left for us. 

Daywisp flew over to me. 

“I suppose we have succeeded, John.”

“We have. Do you and your flickers need a ride?”

“No. We will continue heading to the Forest ourselves.”

“Then this is where we part ways. I thank you for the reinforcements. It was timely.”

Daywisp didn’t immediately respond, a few feathers ruffling before he spoke. 

“…I don’t know if what you did was right. It was a mercy, to die so quickly. But I wonder if they had to die at all.”

“We were going to pay a price no matter what. I was prepared for even more to die if we had stayed. That was before you and your Flickers appeared. I went with this plan because you were there to help, but I had no illusions about what I’d need to do. This way, we’ve come out with the most valuable lives.”

“You consider those people lesser than the others? What about us?”

“You were more valuable than all those villages because you are capable of fighting the Scourge. Just like me and my squad were more valuable than them. I wasn’t going to truly risk any of our lives, and although a few of your Flickers died, I made sure to keep it at a minimum. That’s why I forced you to maintain a certain line. My goal was to preserve combat power.”

Daywisp looked down, conflicted. 

“…I understand why you made those decisions. But I still don’t know if it’s right.”

“I think it’s really simple. The value a life holds lies in the amount of damage it can do to the Scourge, directly or indirectly. Because if we can’t fight the Scourge, there won’t be any life at all.”

“But is that right? Truly? I may not know much about humans but I know that someone like you would be called mad for what you’ve done today. I’ve not even heard of others who would do those things.”

My eyes narrowed. 

“Then you’ve just never heard of anyone with enough will to make the hard decisions. I don’t allow the inadequacy of others to cloud my judgement. But… I do understand what you’re saying. Believe me, I hate it too. Such logic has cost me many good people over the last month.”

I turned, boarding the helicopter. The others followed. 

I waved to the Owlykat. 

“Stay safe, Daywisp.”

“…You as well, John.”

With that I closed the hatch, giving the pilot the signal and lifting off. 

Our destination was the nearest city, where Sawn, and I’m sure many others, were waiting for us.

The Battle of the Treehouse was over. The northwestern front had fallen. Hundreds of thousands had died over the course of two months. Most of those died within just two days. 

My fight here was officially over, and I only had four with me in the end. 

I looked down at my hand, the patch of the Snow Doves in it. 

A part of my brain stung when I saw it. Another part went numb. 

I silently put the patch away. 

I had a lot of work to do when I got home. 

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