He had never imagined himself in a situation like this, as he wasn't even the fighting kind. This was even reflected in his System profile: not a Warrior, but a Sorcerer.
Even as a Sorcerer, he wasn't a very good one; he didn't try to grow his stats or gain more power. He was more of the Wizard kind, as he saw himself, preferring to stay in a safe place and help others with things they struggled to understand.
Professor Hendrick realized his wasted potential as a Sorcerer, the same class as Adam Clay, one of the very powerful Awakened who could literally grow into golems or summon people from a portal. In fear of being away from the safety of his studies, Professor Hendrick hid his class, but he still understood that in a world where most old people died out first to monsters, there was little room for personal growth for someone of his age.
However, this night was the night he had to go out of his comfort zone, as if he weren't already leagues and bounds beyond it, and set foot in the field of battle one last time. The Neanders, he understood, weren't as mindless as the military thought they were, and he alone understood that this whole thing was a rescue operation for one of their own.
If that was truly the case, then it would change everything.
A few minutes ago, all power suddenly blacked out, and even spare batteries and fossil generators didn't work. Even regular fire was struggling to ignite, making it clear it was no natural phenomenon. Not long after, Megan came running to meet with Raj and Ivan, telling the two to get all the firearms they could carry and get ready to join the defense at once. The power outage was actually some sort of superpower the Neanders possessed; it disturbed all electronics and energy-based technology and weapons, setting the stage for a fight where they could have their opponents on equal footing.
Of course, with the physical prowess and sorceries of the Neanders, equal footing meant depriving their opponent of all manner of advantages before squashing them in a relentless melee where the brutish Neanders would undoubtedly have the upper hand.
Understanding this type of revelation, and totally not underestimating his opponent or overestimating himself, Professor Hendrick decided to take matters into his own hands and try to stop the slaughter in a way he himself never thought he would resort to.
"Move! Don't stop or I'll blow your brains out! It won't be a pretty sight, you can believe me."
Holding the Neander not only at gunpoint but also in the barbed binds which the Wartopian Nun kept calling the Harness of Repentance, Professor Hendrick led his prisoner out of town in the cover of darkness, heading towards where he could hear the fight.
He made it very clear to the Neander how lethal the weapon in his hands was, judging by the bleeding thigh and the limp the primitive man was suffering from, in addition to the harness's effect in keeping his movements clearly restricted. However, the Professor wasn't oblivious to the malevolence of men, especially that of the military, so he made sure to cover the Neander well.
Now, he stood face to face with the impending disaster. The professor witnessed the extent of barbarism he hadn't hoped to imagine, just as the golem of Adam Clay collapsed with the powerful throw performed by what seemed to be the alpha of the Neanders' pack.
The attack felled the golem instantly. The alpha then approached, and in the darkness, the professor's aged eyes could only discern the silhouette of a nine-foot-tall, hairy brute whose features immediately brought one name to mind: Bigfoot.
Originally, such a creature was a hoax, but just like the aliens, it seemed to have become a reality. It was monstrous, brutish, and certainly not a party to negotiate with.
Adam Clay was surely buried in the rubble of his own golem. Bigfoot stood on top of it, clearly aware that the pilot was inside. It dug its right foot into the rubble mound, causing the young man beneath to cry out in pain, and almost half of the entire military, the Wartopians, halted their retreat like the tide of the sea, receding into the fray of its currents.
This was more evidence that Adam was vital to the Wartopians; they aimed their bayonets high, shouted their war cries, and rushed at the deadly monster and his army of Neanders, knowing that they were totally unmatched in a melee with the brutes. Almost half the Earthlings followed, save for those whose resolve had broken, and in the middle of it all, he had to make his move.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The Professor aimed a pistol high and intended to squeeze the trigger twice, but the recoil of holding the gun with one hand and his prisoner with another forced a third shot out of his weapon. He retracted his arms right away, terrified of what it could do if he weren't careful with such an artifact of death, but his actions still made everyone look at him and halt.
"STOP IT! ALL OF YOU!" he shouted, and his old voice seemed to have worked some kind of magic on the two parties.
All they could see was the old professor whose eyes were brimming with life despite his age and the cold, and his hand was aiming the gun at the back of a cloaked figure. Only when he pulled back the tarp cover did that person get revealed as the captured Neander to everyone.
"You… You came all the way here for this one… this fighting, this bloodshed… it ends now."
As the professor declared, a dangerous glint showed in the Bigfoot's eyes as it took a step towards the professor, but the latter, in a hurried motion, aimed his gun at the captured Neander's arm before discharging a shot with an echoing bang.
The Neander roared in pain, dropping to his knees and breathing heavily, his eyes locked on the Bigfoot, which was just about to come save him. Every move under the constraint of his binds made him wince, appearing to be in clear distress.
"Not a step closer!" roared the professor, causing the Bigfoot to halt its steps, mysteriously heeding the words as if understanding them.
The tension hung in the air, thick enough that one could feel its static between the Troopers and the Neanders. All the balance was now held by a thread in the Professor's shaking hand. Opposite to him, the Bigfoot showed strange patience as if calculating something on its own.
"I will release this man as long as you let go of the man under that mound." the Professor shouted, pointing at the fallen golem, "If you don't want to see more of your kind suffer, step back, and we'll exchange prisoners."
Despite previous instances where the Neanders had shown understanding, they seemed confused by the more complicated proposition from the professor this time around. Professor Hendrick was quick to pick up on their confusion, seeing that his previous demands, which were short and precise, were easily understood before, unlike this one. Because of this, he decided to simplify it.
"Move back. I let him go, we don't have to fight."
After saying that, the vicious face of the Bigfoot twisted with sudden anger. It suddenly dug its hand into the ground, and without hesitation, it picked Adam up like a small toy from under the ground.
"ARGH!"
"NO!"
"SIR!"
Seeing Adam writhe in agony from the huge hand of the Bigfoot, wrapped around his chest and shoulders, with its rough, earthy texture scraping his face, the Troopers were about to jump at the monster in fear. However, the knowledge of how fragile a human body was and how monstrous those xenos and mutants were made them all halt and bide their time.
"Hold your ground!"
In the midst of this confusion, Elena shot up from the crowd and got closer to Professor Hendrick, who was worried about what she might do almost as much as he was worried about the Neanders. However, Elena showed her usual tact and stood five feet away from the professor.
"We'll do the exchange, Professor. We need to make this work without a mistake." She said, looking between him and the struggling Adam, whose legs were flailing around in the awkward way he was being held by the Neander.
"I'll drive him forward and get Adam back." He replied, getting ready to see this matter through.
"No. You're too valuable to step into direct danger, and those things somehow listen to you, so you stay back and work on communicating." Elena said and dropped the mechanical arm she was using as a blunt weapon, then extended her hand for the pistol.
The Professor hesitated with obvious consideration, but as Elena seemed on board with his plan, he could at least not put himself in direct harm's way, in addition to the fact that he had no plan past the exchange, if it were even possible.
Immediately, he handed the gun to Elena, and she took his place behind the captured Neander.
"Tell them that we are coming to exchange hostages." she said and pushed the captive ahead.
The professor repeated what she asked him to do, and the Neanders showed no hostile reaction towards the exchange, to the best of their ability, despite the screaming and obvious savage intimidation tactics. Elena stepped through the snowfield with the Neander in front of her, clearly upset and resisting. She then looked at the ugly face of the Bigfoot, noticing how its thick lips were twitching into a vicious smile.
Elena's heart almost sank, realizing that this thing had no poker face to speak of. It was smiling as it was brewing a plan in its savage little brain on how to screw them over just as it got what it wanted.
"Shit!" Elena cussed before looking at Adam, whose bent-back head was struggling against the tightening fist of the Bigfoot, "Sir, this thing will double-cross us as soon as we exchange."
Hearing her, Adam wiggled his right hand, which was stuck to his side, and grasped something on his belt. Once his hand was secured on it, he made a thumbs-up gesture, signaling her to proceed.
Having utmost faith in Adam, Elena pushed the captive Neander ahead, and when forty feet from the Bigfoot, all the main actors acted at the same time.
The Bigfoot was the first, as it simply stepped ahead once, covering twenty feet in a single step while its chest was puffing and its mouth blowing cold air at the captive Neander Elena was driving forward.
Feeling the frostbite of a thousand snowstorms, Elena immediately jumped out of the way as the freezing gust of air enveloped the captive Neander, who was completely covered in white mist.
Not a second later, the Neander started screaming and bellowing like a beast, his body shifting against the barbed binds that enveloped him, but strangely, every muscle of his body pushed against the binds, which creaked with the sound of snapping.
In a matter of seconds, the captive Neander was captive no more. His muscles were bulging, his size was growing, and his hair was spreading. Blood poured as the barbed harness scraped against his skin, but its straps soon gave away and snapped with a loud noise just as the man raised his arms in primal fury.
The exchange had gone all wrong; not only that, but Adam was still the unfortunate victim of the Bigfoot. However, he was supposed to have a plan, and Elena was praying for it, just as Megan and fifty of Hendrick's students showed up with firearms and crates of firearms.
"Adam!"
The moment she showed up, Megan's scream echoed through the area, and it was enough of a distraction for the captured Adam to make his move.
His hand moved, and in an instant, something small and unseen flew from his pocket, directly towards the Bigfoot's head. The latter almost reacted despite not looking Adam's way, but it was already too late as that small thing suddenly grew in size almost a hundredfold in a second.
In full view of everyone, a man in peculiar attire materialized above Bigfoot's head. His body was unclothed, his face hidden by an iron mask, and his arms bore broken shackles. The instant he appeared, he embraced the Neanderthal's head, causing a piercing scream from both of them.
Lightning flashed right at that second, dazing everyone immediately, and Adam was dropped from the Bigfoot's hand. Immediately, he jumped as far as he could, landing beside Elena, but before they could even start running, the newly evolved (formerly captive) Neander was right before them, both hands raised and ready to smash them to smithereens.
Elena tried to aim and shoot him, but Adam was faster, enveloping them in a sphere of dirt that turned into an earthen wall before skillfully loosening the earth beneath them and performing a water-like wave to push them away from danger.
He wasn't aiming to retreat; he was aiming to retrieve Captain Creed, who had fallen to the side. Just as the two of them crash-landed near Creed, they found that there were three Neanders trying to haul him away, but were struggling to do so. Elena immediately dispatched one of them with a well-placed bullet in the neck, dropping him in a gurgling mess. Adam took care of the second with an Earth Spike impalement, and the third was about to charge them from behind the others, but Adam tripped him, and Elena shot him down.
Adam used his Earth Wave again, and as he looked back, he saw his Esper Puppet being smashed on top of the Bigfoot's head. However, it had done its purpose and bought him enough time to escape with Creed and Elena on another Earth Wave, under the cover of a volley of bullets from Megan and her classmates, mowing down the first line of Neanders as they gave chase.
Firearms weren't as effective as hoped, with most of the Neanders being immediately incapacitated by bullets, but the monsters they herded effectively tanked the bullets, whereas the bigger Neander variants, like the Bigfoot and the enlarged ones, blocked the bullets with their bare skin, the Bigfoot being completely unbothered.
Adam was about to pick up a firearm for himself and start fighting the moment he returned to the ranks of his men, but it was then that Megan ran towards him.
"ADAM! ADAM! THE BASE HAS POWER!" she cried, causing Adam's eyes to widen, "Solana is operating the Holy Furnace. It is blocking whatever Sorcery is doing to the machines! The entire hill is operational!"
Adam's body almost shivered with surprise, and he stood tall. He exchanged looks with Elena, and the latter nodded to him.
"You're in command. Get our people back to base." Adam said and immediately called a small Golem, one that was enough to carry Captain Creed. He jumped on its shoulder and looked at the battlefield, seeing the Bigfoot walking around, hurling stones and large chunks of earth at the defenders, causing rage to boil inside his chest as he promised, "I'll be back!"
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