Time until next Challenge: 10 days, 12 hours, 21 minutes

  The force of the Skybax-sized diving monster easily tore my son away from my Telekinetic grip, although one vambrace, a boot, and ragged portion of one jean leg were left behind in my ghostly “hands.”

  Twotwo has Micah!

  I blasted out the brief Announcement at full strength, a panicked reaction as I tried to get my oldest son any help I could. Draw Attention got the monster to turn its head back toward me for an instant, but it didn’t meaningfully slow the monster’s escape.

  Gavin reacted immediately, letting go of the dying speed-Titan and flinging himself into the air with incredible power, no doubt assisted by Gravity Null. Unfortunately, the same ability that added to the force of his jump threw him off target, and he went wide of the climbing twotwo. His lengthy tail whipped out, but his reach wasn’t sufficient to grab onto the monster, although his tail-tip blade sliced through part of a wing. Even at this range, the twotwo was hard to see, and only Life Sense made me certain exactly what had happened. Gavin’s hit wasn’t enough to make the monster fall, but it faltered slightly rather than ascending smoothly out of its stoop, and had to start beating its wings to climb higher.

  Micah fought back, too; physical restraints did little to limit his lethality. His Point Defense assistant was shooting repeatedly, and the blue panes of Force Shields and the yellow sparks of Shockwalls began appearing in front of the monster, slowing its ascent further as it had to fight its way through. Maybe slow enough that I could get some weapons up to help with Telekinesis? Analyze said no, but I tried anyway, wanting to be ready to help if the Titan slowed further.

  Hurriedly, I grabbed daggers from a bandolier on my chest and moved them upward. As the blades winged upward, I took a moment to sweep the battlefield. Even with my eldest son in direct danger, tunnel visioning on his predicament seemed like a good way to endanger the rest of my family and friends.

  I checked on them first. Cassie was as safe as she could be nestled in her shell in my right arm, behind the shield I had strapped to the limb, but she was really only as safe as I was. I couldn’t see Byron - he’d been riding in a different vehicle - and Gavin, Vince, and Priya were still fighting, while Anju was streaking off in the air after Micah.

  Micah, watch out! Anju’s coming to help!

  I kept my Announcement on a narrow beam, my own janky version of Mental Speech. Hopefully the heads-up would be enough to keep Micah from frying his friend with an unfortunate Shockwall.

  Okay, that’s my allies. Now, my enemies…

  The acid hippo had appeared from the south, knocking over several trees at the top of the cliff. It didn’t seem inclined to descend, and had halted at the top and was shaking its head, loosing a broad spray of acid over my nearby allies. I grimaced, but dropped one of the daggers I’d sent winging after Micah to snag a loose car door, lifting it high and trying to keep it in the path of as much spray as I could. The spray was forceful enough that my limited Telekinetic strength wasn’t enough to hold the car door in place, and I constantly had to fight to get it back in the path of the deadly liquid.

  Another twotwo had reached us, but it was stooping toward another group, so I ignored it, and the second speedster seemed confused. It had paused on the far side of the snake and seemed uncertain which way to detour around the destroyed section of road. It would take a few steps one way and stop again as the road snake thrashed, causing more damage as it tried to take out the people at its feet with crushing attacks.

  The last thing I noticed made me drop every last one of the weapons I’d sent toward Micah, hurriedly gathering up every piece of loose metal in the area to create an ersatz lightning rod. The sparks around the craggy Titan had multiplied, and Analyze let me know it was less than a second from firing, and our primary defense was 100 feet in the air and climbing.

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  I turned away and shut my eyes, dropping my gun and covering my primary eyes with my free hand. I didn’t have time to drop my shield, tied to my arm as it was, but I dug the rim into the dirt beside me, praying that any electricity that was drawn into it would go down into the earth, rather than through Cassie or me.

  It was almost enough.

  I heard an explosion, which Analyze identified as the electrical components in a car part I’d used as part of my ramshackle lightning rod. That was proof that it had, at least in part, done its job, drawing the charge through itself and into the ground. Unfortunately, all of us were standing on that same ground, and I felt my muscles seize as the indirect strike surged through me. Analyze was kind enough to let me know exactly how badly I’d been harmed: serious burns along the back side of my right arm, which was next to my metal shield; a critical burn the side of my back, where a pouch of gunpowder in my backpack’s pocket had ignited; partial blindness in my less-guarded auxiliary eyes; partial deafness; and neurological injuries that resulted in an approximate 30% reduction to mental processing efficacy and speed.

  I did a close-range Announcement to send a message to Cassie, knowing Pointy would hear it, asking if they were okay. Pointy’s strength and volume had grown to the point where she could speak loud enough to communicate through Cassie’s Summoned Shell with difficulty, even if it wasn’t cracked… and I could now see hairline fractures across the shell’s surface, like a duckling just beginning to hatch.

  “We’re fine!”

  Pointy’s response was barely audible, probably due to the hearing damage I’d just taken, but it eased my heart… a bit. I opened my primary eyes, scanning the sky. Spotting the twotwo that had Micah was easy, but only Analyze let me be certain of its exact outline, and that only because of the peppering of wounds it had taken. Some from Micah, some from Anju, who had caught up and was perched on its back, and many that must have come from our other allies. The idea of someone shooting lethal attacks toward my son made me nervous, but I was far from the only one of my allies with Assisted Strike to aid my gunfire, and many attack abilities got bonuses that allowed the user to exempt allies with enough synergy.

  No, my allies were being careful, and Micah needed help. Blood had oozed out around the points of the twotwos talons where the tips of its claws punctured my oldest son’s armor. I used Draw Attention again, trying to offer any help I could, as I drew my second revolver, but fumbled and dropped it as a residual muscular spasm from the electricity froze my muscles.

  As I reached for the gun, icy crystals began blooming on the twotwo’s flexible neck, which bore a multitude of cuts. The ice was Micah’s work, but the cuts weren’t: my friend’s eldest daughter must have gotten close enough that Micah had been able to shield her from the electric blast, because her movements were swift and confident. She had one arm wrapped around the twotwo, and was using the other to repeatedly stab a dagger into its windpipe.

  The twotwo was tougher than a regular monster, but it lacked the heavy armor of many Titans, relying on its speed and stealth to protect it. Even Analyze couldn’t pinpoint exactly which attack from the pair of nine-year-olds had been the killing blow, but the monster’s wings suddenly slumped. It began dropping like a stone before fading away mid-air.

  My son began plummeting downward, but he’d barely fallen ten feet before Anju grabbed him.

  Another twotwo dove for the pair, its remarkable speed in a downward dive outpacing what even our fastest flyers could do… even when they weren’t burdened by carrying another person.

  Fortunately, the twotwos speed was a double-edged sword. I’d seen them attack frequently enough at this point that Analyze let me know exactly when the twotwo would want to level out the dive to spear the children on its pointed beak, and a flicker of precision-timed Paralyze - barely a tenth of a second - threw its targeting off completely. A basic hologram of a red octagon beneath Micah and Anju had her pause her descent and the Titan swooped beneath them, unable to turn in time to threaten them.

  In seconds, Anju had carried Micah back to us. The bleeding punctures in the shoulders of his breastplate were gruesome, but Vince was ready before they’d even touched ground, and the easing of tension in Micah’s muscles let me know he’d been healed.

  “Thanks,” Micah said.

  “We did it!” Anju shouted. “We soloed it! I saved you!”

  “There were two of us, we didn’t-”

  Anju hugged him, pulling his head against her chest as she drifted a foot above the ground. “Soloed it!”

  Three orders of business!

  1. If you are one of my readers and participating in Royal Road's Writathon, I invite you to post a link to your work in the comments!

  2. It is National Library Week in the US! Visit your library and read a banned book!

  3. I have tentative release dates for my next two books!

  Engineer's Odyssey - July 22 (Audible, eBook)

  Apocalypse Parenting #4: Breaking Rules - August 26 (Audible, eBook, Kindle Unlimited)

  You will note that Engineer's Odyssey will not be going to Kindle Unlimited. This is an experiment, so I can try keeping a title up here on Royal Road, try out Kobo Plus, hopefully get it into Hoopla, etc. I don't really expect this experiment to go well, but I plan to stick with it for the foreseeable future anyway, just so I can have a title I can try out new options with as they become available.

  (Up to Bk. 5, Ch. 28) * * * * * * *