To my knowledge, the only exception to the Law of Stepping Energy is the interaction between Alpha and Beta Particles, who are, for some unknown reason, able to coexist without any issue.
And before you begin harassing me for the reason WHY I am bringing this up, it’s simple: the current Particle Content of the air around me was just about right for a certain effect to be triggered.
Basically, suppose there are high-ranking particles in the air, mingling with other particles but not enough to trigger the Law of Stepping energy. In that case, it creates a battle between them, which 10/10 times leads to a dispersion of ALL particles.
In lamen terms, it’s possible for me to create a no-man land, and for that…I need some things.
In the open space I had made between the rock box, I quickly pulled out my portable workbench and set it up. This act drew several curses from Brenden as he suddenly got the feeling of being a cornered animal.
’Ok, first things first. If I am to get the components required to make a Defuser, I need to dismantle four of my particle grenades.’ With a wave of my hand, four hockey puck-sized objects appeared on my bench, and when Brenden saw them…well, as you expect, he really went off the deep end.
"OH HELL THE FUCK NO, DAD, CONTROL YOUR SON, HE WANTS TO BLOW US ALL UP! I KNEW IT; I KNEW YOU WERE UP TO NO GOOD; I’M FUCKING OUT OF HERE MAN!" He howled and began storming off in the direction of the safe zone.
Unfortunately for him, I had predicted this to happen, and with a flash of amber eyes and a stomp of my foot, I blocked off the Tunnel, trapping him and causing his foul mouth to get even more annoyingly loud.
"Really, Brenden, were you planning on leaving me behind just because your brother pulled out a couple of particle bombs? Never knew I raised a coward." Chuckling to himself as he finished off the first Rock Box of Zombies, Dad hit Brenden below the belt verbally.
"Whose a coward? Not me, HMPH,"
"Yeah, tell that to those shaking legs of yours; honestly, I don’t know why you’re freaking out so much; these things are only at Alpha-Rank, so you could easily tank the blast," Rolling my eyes, I, too, threw a cheap shot his direction, earning me a glare and some more curses.
My actions caused Dad to step in again, and as he calmed Brenden down, I was in the midst of carefully prying open the outer shell of each puck, exposing the contents of the device to the open air.
Then, using a precision screwdriver and a heating element, I undid the circuitry, connecting the device together and deactivating it completely before moving on and doing the same to the other three; once done, I couldn’t help myself and said.
"See, no harm done, I broke them, so now they are completely disarmed,"
"FUCK YOU!"
"Hahaha! Such a big ass baby,"
BOOMM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM
"Hey….Taylor…"
BOOM BOOM
"Uh-huh," I said without looking up from my work.
"You said we had 45 minutes right…"
"Yeah, so get ready."
"Taylor, I think your timeline is a bit off," Dad said, interjecting in our conversation.
"Hardly; I calculated the power difference in tandem with their forward momentum and…"
BOOOOOOOOOOOMmm
"GOOOAAAAAAAAARRR"
"Oh shit…what’s up with me today," calmly looking over right as a hulking Undead wearing pitch black armor burst through the final wall I had erected; I couldn’t stop myself from wondering if I needed more sleep, or maybe a coffee, because the mistakes were coming one after another.
"High DK-Grade. I don’t know how to feel about him being able to destroy my walls so easily, but it’s no problem for you. Right, little brother, buy me about three no, 5 minutes."
"Buy me like 5 minutes, he says, as if there isn’t a billion Beta ranks right behind this ugly fucker." Brandishing his sword, Brenden rushed forward while activating his talent and causing his muscles to swell.
CLANG
Right as the Death Knight brought his great sword down on the spot, my brother had been standing previously.
With the sounds of battle acting like music in the background, my hands moved from one puck to another as I continued to dismantle them at a rapid pace until they were completely broken down into spare parts.
From there, I took out a soldering kit and a few extra components and started work on a fifth device, one I hadn’t expected to make any time soon, but since the current situation dictated its use, I went to work.
’Eh, I wish I was at Gamma; this thing would work way better and be easier to make than it is now. It’s annoying that I need to use beta and alpha particles, but whatever, the contents of the air are such that they will suffice.’
As I worked at a quick pace, and Brenden was locked in battle with multiple enemies, my Father moved away from the battle to the final couple of Rock boxes.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freeweɓnovēl.coɱ.
Unlike Brenden and I, who needed our full attention, he was pretty much casually slamming his giant hammer down and playing wack-a-mole, with each fall of the Maul crushing multiple heads.
By this point, he had killed off thousands of Undead and was drawing ever closer to the finish line of Progress.
For several tense minutes, no one said a word, and the only sounds were that of skulls being smashed, Brenden’s grunts, and the clashing of metal against rock until finally.
"Done, BRENDEN, GET YOUR ASS OUT OF HERE, MASK ON! SCOOP UP DAD AND HEAD TOWARD THE SAFE ZONE!" scooping up the new device I had cobbled together, I shouted while taking half a second to clean up my workbench and store it away.
"Fucking fuck GOD DAMN IT!" Disengaging from battle, my brother used the force of the Death Knight Grade Undead’s attack to fling himself across the Tunnel before landing not far away from our Father.
Then, with a quick roll, he was back on his feet, sprinting for his life with our Dad tossed over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
Walking to the approximate center of the Tunnel while wearing a twisted smile, I brought my free hand over my face and equipped my Xipher mask; I’d be needing its filtration function after I got done with this.