Chapter 19: Finding Help
[You have died.]
[Regression Activated.]
"You’re the one who made a scene last night. Asking for your own tent like the rest of us weren’t good enough to sleep near."
Lucas’s vision snapped back into focus with the same vertigo as every time before it, cold clinging to his skin, the same broad man standing in the same spot with the same accusation on his lips.
[Player has returned to designated checkpoint.]
[Checkpoint has been restored to the last stable moment prior to death.]
’Talons. My throat. I—’
The memory of dying hit him in a wave of horro— the weight of Avalions converging from every direction, the fire in his own arms going to nothing right when he needed it most, the last thing he’d seen before the dark took him. His hands were shaking again, worse than they had in a long time.
’That’s twice now. Two times this fight’s killed me, and every time I think I’ve got an answer, it finds a new way to take it apart.’
The man in front of him kept talking, oblivious, and Lucas pushed past him without a word this again, already running through the same cold arithmetic that had carried him through the last regression — Colt, the guards, the timing of the patrol’s return.
’I know how to convince Colt fast enough. I know the horde’s coming. What I don’t have is enough hands to actually hold the line once it hits....’
He needed more than three people supporting him. He needed more than Bertram’s machete, Iris’ arrows and Callum’s fading light stretched thin across a battlefield too large for any of them to cover.
’Lora.’
The thought arrived with the force of something obvious he should have reached for sooner.
Another capable fighter, someone with a blade skill of her own, someone who could be another leverage in this battle he’d already died twice to...
He found her exactly where he’d expected...near the water line, alone, just staring blankly at nothy.
Lucas felt a flicker of relief at the familiar shape of her before he’d even properly reached her.
"Lora! I need your help, right now, there’s no time to explain everything but—"
"I’m sorry," she said, blinking at him with guarded confusion. "Do I know you?"
Lucas stopped dead.
’She doesn’t... know me.?’
The realization landed like a punch to his gut, colder than the regression itself had been.
Of course she didn’t. In every version of this battle that actually mattered, they’d met before— after the tent argument, after he’d sat alone nursing his frustration, after she’d approached him, not the other way around.
This time he’d skipped straight to needing her without ever having earned the conversation that made her willing to come
"Right. No. You don’t." He dragged a hand through his hair, forcing his voice level even as urgency clawed at his throat. "Sorry — I know how this sounds. My name’s Lucas. I don’t have time to explain everything, but there’s a horde of beasts headed for this camp right now and I need people who can fight standing with the group when it hits."
Lora’s expression didn’t soften much. "You’re going to have to give me more than that." She folded her hands. "You think I’m just going to follow a stranger out without knowing where or why first?"
"I will.... I promise I will. Just... come with me first." He held out a hand, aware of exactly how insane he sounded. "Please."
Something in his voice must have carried more weight than the words themselves, because after a long moment of visible hesitation, Lora exhaled and fell into step beside him...
***
Iris was on her feet the instant she saw him coming, expression already sharpening with the alarm and suspicion.
"What happened."
"No time. This is Lora — she’s coming with us." Lucas didn’t slow down enough to let anyone process it properly, already dragging both of them toward the thin shade where Bertram and Callum sat waiting. "There’s a horde coming. Bora, Avalion, dozens of each headed straight for camp."
"How do you—" Bertram started, then visibly decided against finishing the question, some old, weary trust settling over his face instead. "How long do we have."
"Not long enough. We need to get to Colt, warn him, and get as many capable fighters as possible converging on his position before it hits. His ability scales with numbers and the more of us near him, the stronger he gets."
Lora’s brow furrowed, glancing between all of them in confusion. "I still don’t understand who any of you are, or why I’m—"
"Please." Lucas’s voice came with urgency more raw than he meant to let it. "I’ll explain everything after. I swear. Right now I just need you to trust me for the next few minutes."
Iris studied him for a long moment — that same careful, look she’d worn before she nodded slowly. "Alright. Let’s go."
They were still hashing out the fastest route toward Colt’s tent, still mid-argument about whether to warn the guards directly or push straight through to Colt himself, when the ground beneath them shuddered with the first impact against the eastern wall.
"That’s them," Bertram said grimly.
[Ding!]
[Warning: Multiple Bora Class Entities Detected.]
[Multiple Avallion Class Entities Detected
[Objective: Survive.]
The camp around them erupted into the same chaos Lucas remembered — screaming, fire catching along canvas, the wall splintering under the horde and this time there was no careful warning delivered in advance, no chance to gather everyone before the wave actually hit. It was already here.
"Move!—" Iris was already running, bow coming up, Bertram and Callum falling in behind her, Lora drawing a curved dagger with the reflexive speed of someone who’d fought for her life more than once...
Lucas ran with them, mind racing through the same desperate calculations... ’get to Colt, gather fighters survive long enough for something to change’...
However, it was in the middle of that half-formed plan that his own system did what it did best.
[ERROR]
[Skill: Ignition has been activated]
"Shit!"
He hadn’t called it. He hadn’t so much as clenched a fist.
"No no no no no!"
Flame erupted around both his hands, roaring brighter than anything he’d summoned on purpose, painting the smoke around him in violent orange light like a flare fired directly at the sky.
"Lucas! What—" Iris’s voice, sharp with alarm.
He didn’t get the chance to answer. Every beast within a hundred yards turned toward the light at once, the horde’s attention snapping onto the single brightest thing in a battlefield full of fire and screaming, and Lucas had half a second to understand exactly what his own malfunctioning skill had just done before the first Bora reached him.
"NO! Get down!"
It didn’t matter. They were already converging, three, four, five shapes breaking from the chaos and driving straight for the light still blazing uncontrolled around his hands, and Lucas didn’t even manage to get Ignition to power down before the weight of the horde crashed into him all at once.
[You have died.]
[Regression Activated.]
***
[Player has returned to designated checkpoint.]
[Checkpoint has been restored to the last stable moment prior to death.]
"—right? Do I know you?"
Lora’s guarded confusion greeted him again, and Lucas stood there a moment longer than strictly necessary this time, letting the fresh weight of dying settle into his chest before he spoke.
"No. You don’t. Not yet." He kept his voice steadier this time, slower, deliberately reeling in the panic that had cost him the last round.
"I’m Lucas. I need your help — there’s a horde coming for the camp and I’ll explain everything, I promise, but I need you to trust me for a few minutes first."
She studied him, still wary. She was about to object when Lucas grabbed her arm.
"What?! Hey— what are you—!"
’There’s no time... we need to move fast..’
Despite her protest, he brought her to Iris, Bertram, and Callum exactly as before, gave the same rushed introduction, watched the same flicker of confusion and reluctant trust pass across Lora’s face and then, instead of immediately pushing the group toward Colt’s tent, Lucas went quiet.
Fully quiet. Motionless, eyes shut, running the last death over and over in his mind — the uncommanded flare, the horde’s attention snapping toward him like a beacon, the shapes converging before he’d even understood what had happened.
’It fired on its own. No mid-command. It just... activated. No input from me at all.’
That had never happened before....
But having a glitched system, it wasn’t unexpected.
Then again, this was new...
This was the system doing something all on its own, without him, at the single worst possible moment it could have chosen.
’If it can fire without my command once, it can do it again. I need a plan that survives my own ability turning against me.’
"Lucas?" Lora’s voice came, careful, uncertain. "Are you—"
Iris cut her off before she could finish—quiet and grim, watching Lucas’s stillness with
an expression that had clearly learned exactly what it meant by now.
"When he’s like this," Iris said, "it means something terrible is about to happen."
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