Another cluster of zombies stumbled into range. David's Halt caught them mid-stride, and he was already reaching for their spirits before they hit the ground. Convert’s boosted efficiency was something he was rapidly becoming accustomed to, and he was just starting to wonder if he would need to experiment with his spirits to keep the killing going when he looked back at the entrance and saw, finally, that people were moving.

  Now his explosive improvement curve was flattening he wanted to give his friends and their new wider team a boost. Turning back, he began to carve a path through the scattered survivors of his initial rampage towards the raid.

  People were still tentative; he could see the fear and hesitation. Despite their earlier wins the last time most of them had faced a massed wave of zombies on this scale they had been overwhelmed, and they had only recently been through the gut-wrenching retrieval of those who died in that fight.

  This time it would be different, David was the monster with the powers of the higher order Nath, and he was on their side.

  Absently he checked his status and made another conscious decision, focusing on his system initiate title, he planned to follow the Heralds advice and round out what he had before indulging with new powers, as much as his inner toddler was screaming for new toys now.

  He slowed, he would continue to shore up his foundations, now the job was to boost those around him.

  He reached Camila first, their Domains crossing and giving him a boost leaving him feeling measurably stronger. She had her trusty crowbar ready. Basically, a four foot iron club in her hands, and one which she could swing with a speed that was terrifying. Suddenly David resolved to put more effort into his Toughness as he imagined that wrecking ball of a weapon, only in hostile hands.

  The others were following and Sarah was already conjuring ice while Charlie called fire.

  Katie and Mark were in with the pack of other raiders who were streaming out of the safety of the terminal now.

  Carl brought up the rear, weapon raised, his southern drawl cutting through the nervous chatter, deliberately.

  "Well hell, David. You weren't kidding about ideal conditions, how many of these can I have for target practice?"

  David gestured expansively even as he used another Halt to stop a group of zombies that got close.

  "Welcome to the farm. Spread out, take your time, make your hits count. I'll maintain control."

  "This is insane," Camila said, but she was already moving forward, reading the situation. "How long can you hold them?"

  "Long enough," David replied. He moved with her and threw Halt again, catching a fresh group of zombies that had been pushing in from the sides. The word came easier now, the magic responding with practiced efficiency. "I'll need to kill some of them to keep going, so don’t kill literally everything I stop. You focus on kills, I'll focus on crowd control."

  Then he turned to the group and called out.

  “Ranged fighters take the right arc. Charlie, Sarah, support them and call if things are starting to look dicey. Melee fighters support them and watch the left. Carl, Mark, Katie, get over here.”

  With that he and most of the core team fanned out ahead of the melee screen and out of the line of fire of the ranged fighters. As they did Charlie unleashed a gout of fire that caught three zombies, the flames spreading across their desiccated flesh. Sarah's ice shards punched through skulls with brutal precision.

  Other ranged fighters joined in with gunfire and spells. More with gunfire he noticed. He took a moment to assess and saw that excluding his three friends there were only four more standing forming the ‘melee screen’ that was a problem for tomorrow. Right now he needed to boost his friends while the others held without his help.

  Camila moved like violence given form, her crowbar brutally efficient while Katie, her face a complex rictus of hate and disgust worked with a machete, swinging like she was using a kitchen cleaver to split ingredients.

  Mark was all power and grace, his chosen melee weapon a hefty wooden handled fire axe he picked up from somewhere, he still managed to make the work almost artistic with his big frame bunching and swinging, occasionally jabbing with the head of the axe if a mobile zombie got close.

  With their Domains overlapping everyone moved with more power and confidence. Behind them Carl picked his shots carefully, each bullet finding a target. No wasted ammunition. No unnecessary risks.

  David watched it all, the ongoing trickle of endorphins from kills not enough to stop his analytical mind, keeping one eye on the other group, even pausing to use the radio and remind them to reach out before they got into trouble.

  His spirits were being deployed more to track and keep track of his allies than to kill now. He shifted and started calling out encouragement even as the arrival of others meant the arrival of death screams now he wasn’t capturing every Nath that died.

  So he sent out more spirits to track any Nath converging on their position. He wasn’t expecting many but he didn’t want to take any risks, especially if more powerful Nath arrived.

  His domain extended outward, and as his little posse moved away from the main group he detached spirits specifically to watch Charlie and Sarah.

  They would need to loop back to overlap domains and get recovery boosts, that would matter over time.

  Everything was going smoothly. People were looking more confident, at least their body language didn’t look so tentative. People were growing. More importantly, he could intervene.

  Despite his vigilance a zombie broke free of paralysis near the edge of their combat zone, Halt starting weaker and breaking down faster farther away from him. The creature shambled towards the shooters, outside their line of fire and too close to David and his companions for them to attack without risking friendly fire.

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  Sarah turned, saw it and hesitated as she saw them beyond it. Before she could decide what to do the four melee fighters intervened. With a scream of defiance one rushed forward, followed a moment later by the other three as they swarmed the zombie weapons raised.

  Four against one it wasn’t even close, though he saw one stagger as they got clipped by a flailing arm as the thing died. Then he was back, refocusing on the enemies all around his little group, trying to manage the complex flow of Magic, Spirits and momentum to keep everyone fighting safely.

  The XP was still flowing in, David had to kill spirits triggering XP gains to use Convert and with that came the familiar wave of energy and endorphins. He became more considered. Remembering both the beating he had taken and his visceral reaction to Camila wielding her crowbar he started to alternate Vitality and Toughness. His Skills needed Attributes to work optimally so this was an easy call.

  His radio crackled and Charlie’s voice came over. “Not a problem yet but I’m below half Magic. Margins are getting thinner bro.”

  Time to switch. The others had gained a nice little boost from culling zombies after he halted them, time to boost Charlie and Sarah.

  "Carl, Camila drop back and support the first group. Mark, Katie you go with them.” Then over the radio. “Time to switch, Sarah, Charlie on me with melee weapons so you can regen some mana. The others will take over for you. Look strong everyone, the more kills you make the stronger you get. Stay in pairs and watch each other’s backs.”

  The tactics shifted with the new personnel. The kill speed of Davids group dropped like a stone now that Charlie and Sarah were using their knight sticks, the two casters needed multiple blows to cause lethal damage and were soon breathing heavily as their lack of physical stats started to show.

  After a few moments David was forced to start killing more zombies personally and called the two pairs of melee fighters forming the second screen up to support them. They advanced and started to kill in earnest.

  “Charlie, make sure you are unlocking your Initiate title, you need more stats, look at how winded you are getting.”

  Rather than reply Charlie glared at him then stepped back, let his eyes unfocus and did something with his system. Unsure whether he had done as requested or not David left him to it.

  This was about power-leveling the raiders, building their confidence, giving them the experience they desperately needed as well as rapid gains of XP.

  The melee pairs were getting more confident as it became clear that David was controlling things around them with brutal efficiency. The fact that, as allies within his domain, he was preternaturally aware of them meant that they were in no real danger.

  He started moving the group round in an arc, covering the back of the ranged fighters but drawing closer to them so he could continue to support the whole team. Taking a moment, he looked round and saw that the tone of the fight had changed there too.

  They now lacked the powerful AOE magic supplied by Sarah and Charlie pressure was slowly building up as zombies got closer. This snowballed as the weaker casters were starting to run dry on mana. Shooters had to reload.

  The first problem came when someone working hastily managed to jam their gun. It was their partner who stopped shooting to help them who called it out.

  “Jam! We got a jammed gun. Cover us!”

  Carl moved in to guide them, his voice calm and instructive. "Don’t point that anywhere you don’t want it to shoot, now try to clear the chamber. No, tap, rack, assess!"

  All the while Carl was putting calm shots into zombies, keeping the pressure off this section of the line. The real problem was where he had been standing a clump of zombies shambled in and while they took hits the less experienced shooters lacking Carl’s powerful skill only managed to land one head shot.

  People started inching back as they approached and the whole line was folding in by the time Camilla and Mark got there.

  Then it was close fighting, as Katie joined them the pressure wasn’t bad, they were killing the zombies. The problem was that the fighters blocked the shooters so more zombies closed through the gap.

  Even as the first shamblers went down more than a dozen more hit them, he heard Camila yell.

  “Boosting!”

  Then she accelerated and started carving through the zombies. Momentum instantly shifted as her already considerable strength now got amplified to the point where even strikes at center mass were devastating. She immediately began pushing further into the zombies with Mark and Katie struggling to keep up and calling to her to back up.

  David split his attention, barely paying attention to his own group as he thought. Trying to read the patterns of the battlefield and making a snap decision.

  “On me. Radio in we are coming to support rebuilding the firing line.”

  Then he went hard. Rapidly draining his Magic to cast.

  “HALT! HALT HALT!”

  The power left him in a wave and locked down more and more zombies. Then he started rapidly draining his Stamina and even Health to boost his Magic.

  “HALT!”

  Finally, the tendrils of his will started ripping spirits free and feeding them to convert. Now he moved quickly heading for the main group as he accelerated his deployment of power.

  “Charlie, Sarah, keep watch on this flank with the fighters while I sort out space for Camila to pull back.”

  Then he was at the lines and pushing through to unleash his power, forced to be more measured as he hadn’t rebuilt his strength yet.

  “HALT!”

  The shift in pressure was immediate, and he shouted to Camila when she didn’t immediately start retreating.

  “Camila, start pulling back and clear the firing lines.”

  “I’ve got this, Dio Mio, Men, always interfering.”

  He realized what the problem was, she was caught up in the endorphin rush and that meant she was feeling good, feeling invincible. He knew that feeling, had needed to fight it earlier and now he addressed it.

  “I know it feels good, making a difference, killing zombies. You have to control it. Pull back and see the bigger picture.” Then he pulled a low blow. “Sarah and Charlie need you to support them protecting everyone’s backs!”

  That got through to her. Grudgingly she started to pull back even as Carl, free to organize, started to pull the group back to be more compact.

  David maintained his lockdown of the cluster of zombies even as shooting resumed. The fight had shifted again and buoyed by the overlapping domains and David’s battlefield control the whole raid was optimistic.

  Seeing their heavy hitters stepping up and relieving pressure let people focus on their own tasks. Confidence was starting to pay dividends.

  David could maintain multiple paralyzed groups, rotate his attention, and still harvest spirits from fresh kills. Convert was doing its job, keeping his Magic pool stable despite the constant expenditure.

  The raiders' kill counts were climbing and their new confidence started to show.

  One of them actually laughed, the sound slightly unhinged but genuine. Another stepped back to take a sip of water and reload, more importantly their partner didn’t unconsciously inch back with them.

  "Keep it up, remember to conserve ammo. If you are a caster who ran out of Magic this is why I want everyone carrying a backup piece!" Carl called out.

  The rotation began in earnest as sustained firepower became key. David became the anchor point, the constant source of control that let everyone else fight safely as more and more people had to resort to something other than their first-choice weapon.

  Suddenly slogans like ‘knives don’t run out of bullets’ make a whole lot more sense as gunners started to report they were down to their last clip, or out of ammo entirely.

  David recognized it. This was the moment when they had to decide. Did they risk it and try to grow to new heights confident in victory, or play it safe?

  A quick scan with his spirits showed him that there were still plenty of zombies left, many fewer but the enemy still had the advantage of numbers.

  Poised on the brink of a decision David remembered the palpable sense of dread, the sheer unknown danger of the border, the headless bodies, some people and knew that they had to risk it.