Marcel sits in his apartment, meditating on his aura. A daily practice of his for the last two years to better understand and strengthen it. He started shortly after Omar's passing, but it wasn't because if it. Rather, some time after that, Marcel had begun to feel drawn to the idea of better understanding what Omar had given him so many years ago. Before, whenever an urge like this arose in him, he could go to Omar directly and ask for advice on how to train or what he needed to do to improve. But with his death, Marcel couldn't do that anymore. So instead, he started to meditate while using aura, trying to feel it out.
While doing so, he found something within himself; a small voice. At first, it was more like an impulse or a feeling. But the more Marcel focused on it, and trained himself to feel it, the more pronounced and clear it got. Never once did it become like that of another person's voice in his ear, but Marcel could also tell it wasn't his own voice. It emanates from within the aura Omar gave him, hidden deep within his being.
The voice urges Marcel while training, and following it he grows more skilled with aura. Marcel held a ball of aura in his hands, containing it to the size of a golf ball. He understands the intention of the voice. It wants him to make the ball smaller, the size of a marble. Marcel listens, and with great effort, shrinks the ball. He holds it in that state for as long as he can before the aura disperses. Drops of sweat trickle down his forehead, and he wipes them away with his shirt. The voice would urge him to change the size of the ball randomly, necessitating Marcel to quickly adapt to new sizes and shapes on the fly. When he started this training two years ago, he struggled to make the ball at all, let alone hold its shape or control its size with precision. But now, Marcel's control of aura was years ahead of his peers his own age. Though he doesn't know it, Marcel has already become one of the most skillful manipulators of aura in the city.
Atop the city's walls, overlooking the wastelands, stands Oasis King and Oasis Prince. They watch the horizon for monsters. Both men are in their armor, clad head to toe in gear or weapons. King's intel had indicated that a force of at least two thousand would be moving through the area. A horde size not seen since the massacre of the Thirteen Judges hundreds of years prior.
"I'm leaving your team here." King says.
"Why? We should be with you." Johnny says.
"No, this area needs someone to protect it too."
"This is the most well defended part of the wall. There are more men here than anywhere else."
"It has men, but less than two dozen heroes, including your six. They need your help more than we do." King refutes.
"I can't just let you go alone." Johnny says, worried for his father.
"I won't be. Abner will be with me, and Ziba is coordinating everything." King said. "Plus, I'm taking all the other teams to back us up. But we still need to leave a contingent here for safety." King places his hand on Johnny's shoulder. "You're the only person I can trust with this. But if anything happens, call for us. We'll be here in minutes."
With that, King and the rest of the hero group, save for Johnny and his team, load into the transport, and drive to the other side of the city.
Johnny walks down the stairs of the wall, and sees his team, his six personal sidekicks, waiting for him. "You alright Prince?" One man asks.
"My dad has his apron strings to tight."
"He's just worried about you. What father wouldn't be?" Another sidekick says.
"Feels like he doesn't trust us to have his back." Johnny shakes his head. But he knows he's wrong. Johnny understands that his father doesn't want him to rush into a fight so soon after getting his team. He wants him to get his feet wet first, before diving too deep. "Everyone take your positions. I'm moving to point two to get an update." With that, his team gets to work.
At point two, a recon tower on the wall, he climbs up the stairs, shows his badge to the guard, and walks in.
"Any changes?" Johnny asks.
A woman standing over several maps with markings and figurines representing hordes that are pinning down several areas nods at him and answers. "The scouts haven't reported in yet. But our spotters see dust clouds moving in the distance. We estimate a horde size of one-hundred minimum." She points at one of the figures on the map and moves it toward the city. "We estimate this horde will arrive within two hours between points five and seven." She picks up another figure and moves it by the first. "We also predict that this horde will regroup with, what we've been calling, clean plate horde, and begin moving towards the city in tandem."
"How many monsters total?"
"Unknown. Clean plate is an unpredictable factor. But we suspect it has two-three hundred."
"Why clean plate?" Johnny asks.
"Because nothing is left behind when it moves through." She says, and moves the pieces back into their original positions. Just then, someone else walks through the door.
"Scout leader Hernandez of recon group seventeen, reporting." He says and salutes the woman.
"At ease. Report." She says.
"Clean plate has regrouped with two other hordes. Total size estimated at five-hundred. All groups moving towards point five."
"Seven-hundred? That few?" Johnny asks.
"The three groups turned on one another. Only seven-hundred survived."
"How long do we have?" The woman asks.
"Not long ma'am. They were right on our tail. But… it was strange ma'am. They didn't move like normal hordes." The scout explains.
"How so?" Johnny asks.
"Everything they did felt deliberate. When the hordes grouped up, they all were moving in one direction. They didn't start fighting right away, only after about a day of moving nonstop. And the ones that died… some didn't even fight back. They were just letting themselves be eaten."
"What?" The woman asks. "Were they being controlled? Did you see evidence of any monsters with parasites in their heads, like brain locusts, or muscle worms?"
"None of the monsters had any physical abnormalities as far as we could see." The man says. Suddenly, an alarm blares.
"All heroes, be on alert. A horde has been spotted moving on point five. All heroes between point three and point seven, take your positions." The speakers announced.
"You get to your men Oasis Prince. I'll send this information to the other points." She says.
With that, Prince rushes back to his team. He finds them already in their invasion positions, waiting for him. "We've got seven hundred bearing down on point five. Intel says their being controlled. Be on guard. They may be fighting strangely. Self-sacrificing, not fighting to live but to kill."
"Prince, down there." One of his sidekicks says, pointing at a lone man running from three monsters towards the city gates. The gate opens just enough for him to get through, and slam closed just as the monsters try to follow, squishing them between the colossal doors. A stain of red and brown smears the ground. Johnny picks the man up off the ground, and sees he's been badly wounded. He has three large puncture wounds to the chest; one of which bleeds profusely.
"Medic!" A sidekick calls out.
"More are coming." The wounded man says weakly. His mouth covered in his own blood. "Three hundred, from the east. Point one." He coughs and his eyes close. The medics arrive and begin treatment.
"Three hundred more headed for point one? That's a thousand total. If everyone is headed for point five, then point one will be unprotected." One of Johnny's sidekicks says.
"It'll be a slaughter." Another agrees.
"We'll defend it." He points at an officer watching the gate. "You, go tell the commander of point two that a second attack is being launched against point one. And that my team is on route." The man says he understands, and runs off.
"Are we going to call Oasis King for backup?" One of the sidekicks asks.
Johnny thinks for a moment, then answers. "We can't. He's fighting his own horde, thousands strong. And we can't call for backup from our own group because they need all hands to defend point five. It'll just be us." Johnny looks up at the walls, and gets an idea. "Here's the plan: If they make it to point one, the defenses won't hold. So they can't make it to point one. Rather than fighting defensively, let's take the fight to them. Meet them there, and start fighting while retreating. That will buy point five time to clear out their horde and regroup on point one."
"That'll put us dead center of three-hundred monsters."
"True, but thankfully, each of you is worth one-hundred." Johnny says, looking at his six sidekicks.
"We're going to die." One sidekick sighs.
"Wrong. We're going to die saving lives. For every monster you kill, that's a life saved. If we can whittle them down enough, even if point five is still fighting, the even point one can handle them." Johnny takes a deep breath, and sighs. "I will understand if anyone thinks they can't do this. But I'm going. If you need to stay, then stay."
One of his sidekicks, a young man who wields a spear and aura bow, waves his hand dismissively of the idea. "Prince, do whatever you feel is right, that way we'll be doing the right thing too. Because where you go, we go." The others all agree.
"Thank you."
A minute later, Oasis Prince's team is in a transport and moving towards the horde in the east. Within fifteen minutes, they can see the horde in the distance, and begins setting up for their plan. Oasis Prince has a rope tied to his waist and stands on the roof of the transport. The other end of the rope is tied to the roof, preventing him from falling off. The same is true for the only other close range specialist on the team, a large man with heavy plate armor who uses a massive pole-axe as a weapon. Except rather than standing on the top, he is hanging out of the back door. Prince draws his sword as the remaining four members of his team take firing positions in the windows, and the final member readies to slam the accelerator on the transport, which is now facing the opposite direction.
The horde approaches them, kicking up dust from the wasteland as they move. Behind the front line of the horde, almost nothing is visible in the cloud. Only the roaring, snapping, growling, and creaking of various monsters echoes outward. Prince picks up a single spear from beside his foot, and holds it in his free hand. From the dust, a lumbering beast like a crocodile with feathers instead of scales waddles out. Standing on the back of its head is a man wearing a gas mask and robes that cover his body from the sun. Almost nothing of his skin can be seen until he raises one hand to remove the mask and hood from his head. He is a tall, skinny man with several scars on his face, and long white braided hair.
"Hold!" The monster horde comes to a stop about ninety feet from the transport. "I know you!" The gang member calls out.
"Do you?" Prince asks, yelling from the transport's roof.
"Yes! So they sent the son of Oasis King to stop us? Brothers!" He raises two hands into the air, and four more gang members, each riding their own monsters, emerge from the smoke. "Surrender to us, Oasis Prince, and we will- ah!" Oasis Prince raises the spear in his hand and throws it directly through the chest of the man speaking. It hits him, throwing him off the back of the large monster.
One of the other gang members points at the group of heroes and shouts, "Kill them!" All at once, the monsters rush the transport, and the sidekicks give the order to hit the accelerator. The transport lurches forward. By the time it gets to a good speed, the monster horde is within striking range of the transport. But before that, the ranged sidekicks unleash volleys of attacks with aura rifles. Shot after shot is fired, killing several of the closest monsters and gang members who appear to the heroes as the ones controlling the horde. The wind blows past as the fastest of the monsters catch up, only to be struck down by sword and axe. The ranged attackers aim for killing blows, but as the transport swerves to avoid debris in the wastes, some of the shots miss their intended target. However, they are in a target rich environment and their shots find another anyway.
Elsewhere, Oasis King is talking to Wasteland General. "Why aren't we seeing anything? The intel suggested multiple hordes would attack today at points fifty-nine and eight two." King wonders. A moment later, a man rushes into the room.
"Sir! Points five and one are under threat from. A total of around one-thousand, moving as if controlled." The man says.
"Abner, take control here. Teams one and two, with me! Get to the transport!" He orders, and loads everyone up, then starts speeding towards the battle. On the drive there, King thinks about his son, his condition, if he is okay, if he's hurt. His mind is solely focused on Johnny. An overwhelming sense of dread raises in his heart; a familiar feeling, the same as when King's wife died. In an instant, all that fear and pain rushes back, and he relives each and every terrible moment. He remembers the first time he held his son after his mother died… how Johnny cried into King's arms. How broken they both were. And he knows he can't do it again, not alone. Never again…
Twenty awful minutes later, Oasis King arrives with twelve sidekicks, only to find the battle at point one already over. Prince and his team, all of which are alive and mostly unharmed, pull through the gate in a severely damaged transport, covered in monster blood. A man walks up to King to give him a report. "Sir, point one is secured. Your son bought us some time. But we need reinforcements at point five."
"Where's my son?" King ignores him.
"By the gate, sir." King spots Prince and strides forward at him.
"Teams one and two, go with this man." He says, then locks eyes with his son.
"Okay, now I know you're mad, but in my defense," Prince starts to say, but King wraps him in a hug, placing one hand on the back of his head and pulls him close.
King can feel his own heart beating in his chest, but breathes a heavy sigh of relief. "I was so worried." He whispers.
"I'm alright." Prince says, hugging his father.
"I thought I was going to lose you. I can't… I can't lose you too."
"I'm not going anywhere…" Johnny says, "I'm with you till the end. I'll always be by your side."