Chapter 2 - The Node

"Alright everyone ready?" said Beta 1 over her communicator, her voice filled with the hard tone of command

"Beta 2 ready!"

"Beta 3 ready!"

"Beta 4 ready!"

All 20 soldiers said in order until it was finally Aaron's turn, he tightened the straps over his shoulder and called "Loki ready!"

"Siegfried ready!"

With a grunt Beta 1 pulled the lever and opened the Door motioning with the other arm "Go! Go! Go!"

He Jumped out of the plane together with 21 others, the black mirrored surface of their armor shinning from the sun as they nosedived towards the ground at incredible speeds in a tight formation.

Their mission was simple, a small city close to Washington DC had been the spawn point for some kind of minotaur race, horned giant rats and a plague of undead creatures, they were to conquer the city and pave the way to connect two territories under US army control.

They had received a lot of information as they flew, apparently conquering a city in the <system> was much like capture the flag.

There was always a round ball that worked as a core of a territory, the <system> identified it as a node and one always spawned under human control, another node was created for each major spawn point and there was a bigger one acting as the city core. The race that controlled a node could call more monsters out of it.

As far as they knew the human node had been taken over by a minotaur but the city core was still in human hands, though they had no communication with it.

The plan was to land and take over the human core as it would have the lightest resistance for landing, then make a dash for the undead one before their numbers grew too much.

From there they would call army support, divide into 2 teams to take the other nodes before finally meet at the city core. It was a good plan.

As the buildings rushed to meet them in freefall a small text in the corner of his helmet visor flashed with the number 5 starting a countdown.

They quickly spread their formation and, when the count hit 0, opened their parachutes with just the right timing to not get hurt hitting the ground.

They were landing directly into the former human node, it had spawned in a wide park and the place was already filled with red dots representing enemies.

It took less than 5 seconds for one minotaur laying about to notice them, with a loud bellow the creature pointed towards the sky and received one of the 5 missiles released by their transport into the face for his trouble blowing up in a sea of gore.

Five explosions rang into the park blowing groups of minotaurs that had still not reacted but a few crossbow bolts returned fire, almost half as long as a man was tall the projectiles screamed as they cut the air with incredible speed.

Still 70 meters up Eric released his parachute and accelerated fast towards the ground.

Pointing his hand down, fingers spread Aaron sent a hundred invisible strings descending at random, they covered the bolts gently and, pulling violently with both his arms to the side he felt like he was arm wrestling a bear but he succeeded causing the strings to tense and deviate the bolts from their course.

He didn't really need the gesture but it helped him focus and increased his strength.

Aaron rolled his eyes as Eric hit the ground in a classic superhero landing crackling the ground around himself before dashing towards a 2.5 meters tall man with the head of a bull and wicked looking horns.

The minotaur seemed affronted by such puny creature daring to challenge it, with another bellow it charged right back at him head lowered for the collision.

It never came, Erick's sword drew and arc from its sheath to the floor in a diagonal cut separating its head, right arm and shoulder from the rest of the body in a spray of blood.

Now barely 35 meter high all soldiers pointed their guns and started raining bullets upon the unprotected bovines.

Aaron released his own parachute and threw his sword down, manifesting his invisible giant hand by using it as an anchor.

Using its superior strength he eased his fall but still had to roll over to stop, looking to his side at the cracks that spread from Eric's landing he shook his head in envy before pulling two daggers from his legs.

[Congratulations, you have developed a new skill, would you like to name it?]

YES / NO]

"Finally!" looking at the huge minotaur charging his way while holding an axe he shook his head "Whatever, got no time for that"

[New skill has been named by the system as <Titan's hand>]

Materializing his strings he braided them to make them more resistant and used them to tangle the creature's legs, the minotaur tumbled to the ground, it's powerful feet still snapped his strings.

A huge bang sounded inside his head as the forceful destruction of his ability caused a backlash driving a spike of pain through his skull.

Fortunately he was used to pain, not stopping for a single second he jumped over the fallen monster and stabbed it behind the neck

[You have slain minotaur level 3 +60 XP]

By his side Eric bisected his fourth minotaur with a particularly beautiful spinning slash, he frowned "Alright, I refuse to lose to Mr. Perfect."

Manifesting 7 invisible strings he warped 3 around the handle of his Chinese Jian and one around the handles of each throwing knife quickly pulling them out of their sheaths.

A single thought sent all four knives flying towards the crossbow… man… bull? Whatever, two knives pierced the eyes of one of them while a third deflected a particularly accurate bolt flying towards the head of Beta whatever.

Not like Aaron could recognize any of them in their armors.

The last knife slit the throat of the shooter with a flick of his fingers.

With another thought his sword pierced point first into the chest of a charging minotaur, manifesting one more strings he used it to wrap around the arm of another attacker pulling it off balance as he jumped up and stabbed one dagger on its ear.

[You have slain minotaur level 2 x 4 + 220 XP]

[You have learned the ability <multitask>]

The Betas finally landed and started to provide covering fire as both he and Eric dived into the remaining minotaurs. Moving like a tornado of death, his four knives no longer looking for accuracy but whirling around him, slashing off limbs from anything that got too close, his sword then moved in to finish off the wounded by stabbing them on the head or chest Aaron only used his daggers to parry the few monsters who managed to get too close.

When the enemies started to decrease his communicator screamed into his ear "Loki! 6 O'clock!"

Out of reflex a string materialized around his waist and he violently pulled sending himself tumbling to the side as a 3 meter tall monstrosity nearly bowled him over.

The freak was a black skinned minotaur with a nose ring and pierced ears, built like a competitor for Mr. universe, even his muscles had muscles, a simple iron plate covered his chest area.

[You have slain minotaur level 1 x 3 + 150 XP]

[You have slain minotaur level 2 x 7 + 385 XP]

[You have slain minotaur level 3 x 3 + 180 XP]

[your <telekinesis> has gained a level]

[You have learned the ability <dagger mastery>]

[Ulmog – Minotaur guard<ELITE> – Level 8]

"Fuck, it is a named monster!"

"What's Siegfried status!"

"Sorry Beta 1 I got bashed out of the way by the big guy but the armor held!" Came Eric's voice from the communicator.

Annoyed Aaron screamed at them "Stop chatting already and kill the damn cow!"

Lifting it's gigantic hammer Ulmog gave a deafening bellow and charged back at Aaron, he sent two of his knives towards the creature's eye but, with a wave of its hand, they were easily swept aside so hard the strings snapped.

Another painful mental impact hit him and caused him to stumble. He shook his head and materialized 5 strings to wrap around himself before pulling his body into a tree branch.

The creature aborted its charge, its hooves digging into the earth.

Still recovering from the mental backlash he called his companions who had stopped attacking."What the hell Beta 1… Beta 1!"

Seeing all 20 soldiers standing around trembling Ulmog changed his targets and decided to kill the defenseless before they recovered.

"Fucking useless soldiers, Sieg!"

"I got it!" Eric rammed the monster with his shoulder from the side making it take four or five steps to stabilize himself and leaving Eric dazed.

"Are you fucking retarded, look at the size of that thing you idiot!"

"Ugh, not helping Loki!"

Using another string he sent a stone flying towards what he guessed was Beta 1's head, it bounced harmlessly from the helmet but the impact managed to jolt the soldier out of his paralysis "Damn, it just applied a fear effect!"

Seeing that the Einherjar had finally started to recover Aaron pulled his gun and turned back towards Eric.

The fool had actually engaged the minotaur in some kind of duel, "Just shoot it already" taking his own advice he took aim and squeezed the trigger.

[Crippling strike -12% health]

Hitting its left eye was more out of luck than skill in such moving target, despite being a soldier Aaron had far more training in using his power than shooting and the next bullets didn't even register as they bounced off its hardned skin, It must have a ability!

Eric dodged another swing of the giant hammer and retaliated with a two handed slash, drawing blood but still mostly ineffective.

As both he and the soldiers released an entire magazine into the overgrown steak only 36% of its health went down, it also learned to maneuver Eric between itself and the guns slowly retreating to avoid being flanked.

"Sieg can you stop him for a second?"

"I can try, what do you have in mind Loki?"

"We do have grenades don't we?"

"Switch to grenades!" Jumping out of his tree Aaron started running towards the minotaur "NOW!"

Suddenly Eric used both hands to drive his sword through the minotaur's hoof pinning it nearly to the hilt into the ground, jumping back he dodged the bull's full swing and kicked it's arm.

With a hoof pinned down the monster couldn't step back and fell on its ass, 20 grenades fell around it.

The monster still managed to pull the sword out with a grunt and was prepared to jump away when Aaron materialized <Titan's hand> and smashed his skill down on it keeping the creature in place for the 2 full seconds before it flexed its muscles and broke the skills' grip, already too late.

The earthshaking explosion went off at the same time that Aaron fell to his knees, his eyes, nose and ears bleeding from the extreme backlash of his strongest skill "shit I am gonna have a headache"

When the explosion cleared the Minotaur was still struggling to get up, most of its fur was gone and large wounds were left in its flesh, it even had to keep a hand on its neck to avoid bleeding out but it was still alive.

One of the betas had to help him to his feet as Eric snorted.

"Can't believe it is still alive!" taking the massive claymore he chopped down at the now deformed neck and finally decapitated the monster.

[Siegfried has slain a named monster, as you have dealt 20% damage to it +51 XP]

[Congratulations you have reached level 2, as a human you gain 1 attribute point]

Recovering a little from the backlash he took his arm off the Beta's shoulder and walked away massaging his forehead.

Finally stopping in front of a floating black orb Aaron looked at the core for a few seconds before Eric said from behind him "So this is the node?"

"Sure looks like it" extending his hand he held it for a full minute before it changed color to a bright blue.

[Congratulations, Loki from US army guild has claimed this node +100 XP to all guild members in the node's range]

"Shit we got survivors!"