With a bit of struggle and against the concerns of the Healers, I sat upright and rewound the footage to see where things fell apart upon the platform.
At the start, everything was fine; the Heros were quick to build up formations, with the Squad Leaders controlling everyone’s positioning as if this were a standard raid, but the moment the tanks (members of Phys- squad went down due to getting smacked around by the monster, everything began collapsing.
In an instant, the NightWalker was among the back liners, delivering one slashing blow after another, batting down the mages like they were bowling pins.
Some people, like Krak, stepped up and tried holding it down with his flamethrower-style skill, but all that did was enrage the NightWalker, who pushed through the fire without any hesitation and knocked him away like a child.
However, the crux of the issue was apparent from my bird’s eye view: the main lynchpin for the battle, the members of Vector-Squad, couldn’t keep up.
Because of their inability to keep eyes on the target, they were struggling to mitigate the monster’s movements and, as such, allowed it to run rampant throughout the lines and teams.
The failures on the part of Vector Squad were bad enough, but even the members of Air, who were known to be the fastest of the Returners, were struggling to simulate what the Trio of Brenden, Dad, and Sonas were able to.
Overall, it was a total clusterfuck of incompetence on the platform. If things continued this way, it would not only tarnish the image I had been building for American Heroes but also diminish the acts we had been doing till this point.
I had seen it in the origin timeline when the Aliens attacked. With the heroes getting obliterated one after another, the public lost all respect for them, and the fragile order that had been built up over the years practically collapsed overnight.
’F…u…cking… INCOMPETENT MORONS!’ I growled into the telepathic link, making everyone connected flinch for a moment before turning to look at me for answers.
’Brenden, Dad, health report now!’ Spinning the wheels of thought in my mind, I demanded a response from them, and either from my tone or the underlying rage they could see building in me, they snapped to it and gave me the answers I sought.
’My PC is near empty, and that hit I took from you earlier rattled me a bit. My stamina is at about 10 percent, but if I start chugging potions, I can be back at full power in minutes.’ Being the first to answer and knowing better than to try and quip with me right now, Brenden didn’t wait for me to tell him what to do and immediately began chugging down potions.
’I am roughly in the same position as your brother; however, I have several fractures in my hands, wrists, and legs. The gear helped, but I put too much stress on my body.’
’Here, I have some high-grade recovery potions. They aren’t as good as Health Potions in the short term, but they’ll boost your regeneration.’ Stepping up, Emilia handed over several small vials of purple liquid, which my father downed like a shot of whiskey. He soon joined Brenden in checking over his gear.
Seeing them getting ready, I swatted away the healers and, with a bit of effort, got to my feet.
"Don’t worry about me; get to work on Sonnasitc right now; he needs to be battle-ready within 5 minutes." Reaching into my belt, I withdrew two small bottles of Beta Grade particle water and pushed them into Piniki’s hands.
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"One is payment for the treatment; the other is for Healing Sonas; things are going to shit on the platform; you saw how that NightWalker was, well even with almost a hundred people up there, they are losing."
"Unlike our squad, who were able to keep up and pin it down, Vector and Air can’t keep eyes on it, so Marek, Jaxx, and Sonas need to get up there asap." Catching hold of Piniki by the shoulders, I spun her around and gave her a little push toward Sonas, who was propped up against a small boulder, watching everything happen with half-open eyes.
Apart from me, he had taken the worst beating out of everyone in our group. Even the small effort expended to get Piniki out of harm’s way when I dropped the particle bombs earlier was a massive strain on the guy, so ever since he left the platform, he’d been in and out of consciousness.
"Fell, I’ll need your aid getting up to the platform again, Marek; you and Jaxx get up there and start controlling that monster’s movement. Castle, I want you to stay down here with the healers and Sonas until he is back on his feet, then ferry everyone up on a disk."
"Nexus, you can’t go up there, you’re too injured!" Of course, Piniki voiced her objection, which was fully expected, all things considered, so I clearly had no other choice but to take advantage of the situation…right?
I mean, it was a picture-perfect hallmark moment, the kind of thing you see only in movies; I would have to be a TOTAL FUCKING FOOL not to, you know….steer down a handful of drones who just so happened to be floating above us, and getting perfect audio and video.
"Piniki, there is no other choice; we are the only ones who know its movement patterns. We fought the monster for over an hour, and everyone up there is in danger. I refuse to let anyone die on my watch."
"But…your injuries…" tears welled up in the Pink healer’s eyes while her hands were held over Sonas, emitting pink light.
"What kind of hero lets injuries stop him from protecting someone? No matter how broken or beaten I am, I will continue to rise back to my feet with a smile on my face until I stop the threat hanging over us, wishing for our demise." Wearing a charming smile and ignoring the snickers in the mind link coming from Emilia, Xilia, and Brenden, I used my Geomancy to wrap both arms and my right leg with Stone braces and turned my back on Piniki.
’Shut the fuck up, and look heroic, everything’s on camera, you idiots.’