“Can you go back?”
“No.”
“Then what do we do?”
Again, silence answered his question. They stayed like that, and Drew grew more comfortable in his presence. Two companions in the dark. They were the same, but at the same time very different from each other. Finally, the darkness also faded and there was nothing.
This time when he came back to consciousness, it was in a world with too much light. He squeezed his eyes shut to try to block some of it out. He was laying down on something moderately hard, wood maybe? There were some distant sounds, but nothing in the immediate vicinity. He felt a warm presence on his shoulder; it reminded him of Zoey, but his memories told him that was impossible. Reaching a hand up, he touched it. Hair, long and loose, met his fingers and he gently stroked it, enjoying the softness.
“Drew?” The head under his hand moved and Katie’s voice filled his ears. It was tired and worried. Spoken softly as if unbelieving. “Drew are you awake?”
He tried to respond, but just emitted a dry croak which caused his throat to burn slightly. So, he simply nodded instead.
“One second, let me get you something to drink.” He heard some movement around him, and after a few seconds, something hard was pressed to his lips. He opened them enough to allow a trickle of water in. When he began to cough, the cup was taken away until the fit subsided and then it returned to his lips.
After this repeated a few more times, he felt like his throat was lubricated enough to talk. “What happened?”
“We’re not really sure. You started emitting red light and then went a bit crazy, killed a crap ton of trolls and then collapsed. You’ve been unconscious for almost an entire day.” She reached down and grabbed his hand, holding it in both of hers. “You gonna stay awake for a while? Sarah will want to talk to you.”
He just nodded his head slightly and she squeezed his hand before letting it go again. He could hear footsteps as she left whatever room they were in. He tried to open his eyes again, but it hurt too much. He did sit up though and didn’t feel any pain like he would expect from a head injury. He assumed that whatever was causing his light sensitivity would go away soon enough. He discovered that he was on some sort of raised platform, but there was nothing to lean against, so he just leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees, his hands covering his eyes.
After a few minutes, he heard two sets of footsteps returning to wherever they were. “Drew?” He heard Sarah ask, and he nodded his head.
“Yeah, I’m here, Ma’am.” And he felt the younger girl pull him into a surprisingly more powerful hug than he had been anticipating. He awkwardly hugged her back.
“We were so worried about you. What happened?” Sarah said when she released him from the hug.
“I’m not sure, to be honest. I think maybe I overused my mana. Why is it so bright in here?”
“Oh sorry, here, let me put some of the stones away, I’ve been making them nonstop since you went unconscious. Figured we’d need them for all the new people,” Katie said, and he heard both of them begin to put the glowrocks away.
“Smart. So, what’s our situation? Any more attacks since I was KOed?”
“No, I think you scared them pretty good. Daryl has been doing some scouting. They haven’t left since they retreated. JP and Robbi were about to go in with a couple of the other people who got xatherite from that attack,” Sarah responded.
“We got some?” Drew asked. That was the second set of good news he’d heard since waking up.
“Oh yeah, a bunch. We already slotted everything. I’m afraid, we were worried you…” Sarah trailed off, and he could fill in the gaps. They had slotted them to defend themselves in case he didn’t wake back up.
“Smart, so what did we get?” Drew asked.
“Three reds; JP gathered them and they all created more gun-related attacks which he gave to three of the former soldiers. It should expand our combat capable group quite a bit. We also got a couple violets. One called blood blade which Robbi got, and I got a yellow called Phase Armor. That you can look up if you want,” Sarah said. The light level was already much lower and Drew cautiously looked around. It hurt, but more like waking up to a bunch of 100 lumen lights in your face.
“That’s great. Five total?” Drew asked. Katie had sat down next to him and was looking at his face.
“Yes.”
Drew nodded his head, and now that he could see, called up the map UI. To his surprise, it included Daryl, JP, and Robbi on the list. All three of them labeled as SA, just like Sarah and Katie. “Daryl, JP, and Robbi all showed up on my list; I can look at their xatherite.”
“What? That’s…interesting,” Katie said with a frown.
“Looks like they leveled up and got conscripted into the Protectorate Navy too. I bet they have to be level one for me to see their maps.”
“Well, that’s good news, right? Means we can trust them a little more?” Sarah asked.
“I’ve always trusted Daryl, the other two…” Drew trailed off as he looked at their grids. Daryl’s was shaped like a spider, and he had a respectable number of nodes. He didn’t take the time to count, but it was near 50. Robbi had about the same, but his map was shaped like a man. JPs was the surprise, he had the most of any map but Drew’s at around 60, and his was shaped like a gun.
Finally, he pulled up the information on Sarah’s xatherite. She had placed it in the same formation as group cure and mana jump.
Xatherite Crystal Name: Phase Armor
Xatherite Color: Yellow
Xatherite Grade: Common
Xatherite Rarity: Common
Type: Magic
Effect: Activating phase armor prevents all damage to the users for 90 seconds. Allows the user to intentionally phase through objects for the duration.
Mana recharge time: 18 minutes, 43 seconds.
Chapter Thirty-Seven — Fallout
He had a ton of things to do. “Where are we exactly?” He looked around, but all he saw were Katie’s walls.
“Still in the field where we fought the trolls. Katie’s been reinforcing it when she can, and we’ve been rotating defenders out to get sleep.” Drew nodded and moved to stand up, Katie and Sarah both moving to help him before he waved them off.
“I’m fine. Really. I’ll go cast some refreshing rain on the current watch. Any preferences on energize?” He asked Sarah and she paused for a moment.
“Katie, actually.” Drew turned to look at Katie and realized how tired she looked. Dark bags under her eyes let him know she probably hadn’t slept since he’d collapsed. Moving his fingers through the motions to cast energize, he touched her hand and watched as the weariness sloughed off her in waves as the spell took effect.
“I’m gonna start calling you insta coffee,” Katie said with a sigh of relief. “Man, I could use a cup right now.” Drew and Sarah both laughed.
“How are we on food? What’s the plan for the rescue?” Drew asked. They were down to less than a day before the mana storm; his collapse meant that they were in an even worse position. They had limited supplies of food and a narrow gap of time to get everyone up to the stadium.
“Food is good, might be an issue depending on how bad the prisoners are. If we deal with all the trolls, that shouldn’t be much of an issue either. We can always get more from the exchange,” Sarah said as Drew found his backpack and found a can of chili and the spoon he kept in there. Taking a bite of the cold chili he grimaced slightly, but he was hungry enough to ignore it. Hopefully, the stadium had some sort of method of creating warm food.