Chapter 145: Nearly Fell

Julian threw himself sideways as both hollow figures surged forward, the teleportation instinct flaring hot beneath his skin, but the strain of the earlier searching probe had already carved deep into his reserves, and the blink came sluggish, imprecise, landing him several feet short of where he’d intended.

He staggered, knees buckling, catching himself hard against one palm before his balance gave out entirely.

[Host. Reserves critically depleted. Recommend immediate disengagement.]

’can’t,’ Julian thought, forcing himself upright despite the world swimming faint at the edges of his vision. ’not yet.’

Xavier and Ian closed the distance again, faster now, whatever brief crack Julian had provoked apparently sealed back beneath the entity’s absolute control, and Julian barely managed to bring the fan up in time, the impact of Ian’s strike jarring hard enough through his exhausted arms that he nearly dropped the weapon entirely.

"Julian!" Reid’s voice tore through the chaos, closer now, fighting his way past a fresh wave of rogues to reach him.

"stay back," Julian gasped, though the words came out weaker than he intended, exhaustion finally, properly catching up with him after weeks of recovery undone by a single, desperate gamble.

He dodged another coordinated strike, the motion costing him more than it should have, his usual fluid, effortless speed replaced now with something heavier, more labored, every muscle screaming protest against reserves scraped down far past what he’d meant to spend.

Around him, the wider battle had begun deteriorating fast. Julian caught fragmented glimpses of it even through his own narrowed, desperate focus — a cluster of Elite Academy Sentinels stumbling, gray patches blooming sudden and violent across exposed skin, the telltale signs of corruption spreading faster and more aggressively than any ordinary bite wound should have allowed.

"they’re turning!" someone screamed nearby, horror cracking sharp through the chaos. "fall back, they’re turning right in front of us—"

Julian’s stomach dropped, horror crashing through him even as he forced his attention back to the immediate, overwhelming threat directly in front of him. Two more Sentinels collapsed nearby, bodies twisting and convulsing before rising again wrong and hollow-eyed, joining the surrounding horde within seconds rather than the hours such transformations usually required.

’it’s accelerating everything,’ Julian thought grimly, ducking under another strike, exhaustion dragging harder at every motion now. ’the same way it did at the toxic zone. faster. more violent.’

Xavier’s fist caught his shoulder before he could fully recover his stance, the impact sending him stumbling hard, and this time his knees actually buckled, one hand slamming down against the churned, bloody earth to stop himself from going down completely.

’don’t,’ he told himself, forcing his vision to clear despite the exhaustion pulling him toward genuine collapse. ’don’t fall. not now.’

He pushed himself back upright just as Ian’s strike came for him again, and this time he barely managed to twist aside in time, the motion costing him the last reserves of grace his exhausted body had left, stumbling gracelessly out of the strike’s path rather than dodging it cleanly.

"Julian, you need to disengage!" Reid’s voice again, closer now, cutting down a rogue that had strayed too close in his desperate push forward. "you’re not steady enough for this—"

"I know," Julian gritted out, forcing himself back into something resembling a ready stance despite every instinct screaming exhaustion. "I know, just— give me a second—"

There wasn’t a second to give. Xavier and Ian pressed forward again, perfectly synchronized, and Julian barely managed to catch both strikes on the fan’s edge at once, the combined force driving him back several stumbling steps, his exhausted arms screaming protest at the impact.

[Host. This unit strongly recommends immediate retreat. Continued engagement at current reserve levels risks total collapse.]

’if I collapse now,’ Julian thought grimly, forcing himself upright yet again, ’they’ll drag me wherever the entity wants me. that’s exactly what this whole demonstration’s been building toward.’

He caught sight of Jayden fighting his way closer from another direction, gold light flaring desperate and bright as he cut through a fresh cluster of newly-turned Sentinels, horror and grim, focused fury both plain across his exhausted features at the sight of former colleagues now shambling gray and hollow among the horde.

"Julian!" Jayden shouted, voice cracking with urgency. "we need to pull back, the whole line’s collapsing—"

Julian’s mind raced, exhaustion and desperate calculation both warring hard against the mounting chaos surrounding him. Retreating meant abandoning whatever fragile chance remained of reaching Xavier and Ian, of proving the System’s uncertain theory that something of them still survived beneath the entity’s absolute control. Staying meant risking exactly the collapse the System kept warning him against, vulnerable and exposed in the middle of a battle rapidly spiraling beyond anyone’s control.

Xavier’s fist came for him again, and this time Julian’s exhausted reflexes simply weren’t fast enough, the strike catching his ribs with brutal, jarring force that drove the breath clean out of his lungs and sent him crashing hard to the churned earth.

The world spun, pain and exhaustion crashing together in a dizzying wave, and for one long, terrible moment Julian genuinely wasn’t certain he could force himself back up at all.

"Julian!" Reid’s voice, raw with fear now, cutting through the ringing in his ears.

Julian’s fingers dug into the bloody earth, forcing his shaking arms to push, forcing his exhausted, battered body upright through sheer, stubborn refusal to simply stay down. He made it to one knee, breath ragged, vision swimming, Xavier and Ian’s hollow forms already closing the distance again, patient and mechanical and utterly without mercy.

’get up,’ he told himself, the same desperate, stubborn command that had carried him through three years on a collapsing wall, through poison and fever and chains, through everything this world and the last had thrown at him. ’get up, get up, you don’t get to stop now—’

He forced himself fully upright just as both hollow figures reached him, and somewhere beyond the ringing exhaustion and mounting horror, Julian felt something old and unbreakable settle hard and absolute beneath the fear.

’not like this,’ he thought, raising the fan one final time despite his trembling, exhausted grip. ’I refuse to fall like this.’