Aiming for in front of the blue light, Adam leveled his flight. He swooped down, straightened out, and then released the brace holding the rivet driver on. It fell to an unoccupied area in front of him. In fact, the whole area around where he was heading was empty. No one wanted to be near what he was trying to grab from another tower that had been set up in advance.

Adam had watched the videos of when Lucas had used it on the yellow cyclops, seeing how destructive the alchemical napalm was. He had also watched the mistakes they had made while developing it when he had been a captive of Cruxannith. Now Adam was trying to pick up several pods of it while flying at breakneck speeds.

The Leputi alchemists had assured him the containers were more solid than before. The mixture was also a bit more stable and better understood. It wouldn't burn quite as long but would reliably ignite upon contact with the air. However, something that destructive should not be used while flying.

Adam would never have authorized this plan if it had been his friends who wanted to do this. It was probably a bit hypocritical of Adam that he had set this up regardless of all the dangers. He hadn't even told many people about it.

As he rocketed towards what he called a tower, which was more of a raised wire frame with a light on top, he lined up his steering. As he approached, he reached out with both hands while still holding the Jetpack's controllers. They had set it up so that he wouldn't have to actually grab anything.

There were two raised metal hoops. They were the width of his shoulders. Putting himself into a Superman pose, both arms in front of him, Adam zipped above the tower, his arms going through the hoops. Using displays from the Rift Menu had made lining up his arms easy for the pickup. Then he turned upwards, flying towards where Tom was.

"Adam here. Pick-up complete. I'm coming to engage, Tom."

"Roger, boss. I can't hook up the chain while keeping them away."

While trying to keep balanced in the air, Adam took the hoop on his left arm and clipped it into the brace that had housed the rivet driver. Attached was a leather bag, made from strong materials, that contained five orbs filled with alchemical napalm. Padding filled the bag to prevent them from possibly breaking against each other as he flew.

Adam took a breath to steady himself. Every move and shift affected his direction with the jetpack. It was very touchy with movements, and all he could do was be thankful that his increased stats allowed him to notice changes and compensate for them.

Once the napalm was secure, he gripped the hoop on his right arm and detached the weapon that had been crafted for him for this mission. It was a crazy combination of other weapons. He was familiar with a halberd, and this weapon was very much not a halberd.

The handle was long, like his war hammer, except thinner and lighter so as not to affect his flight too much. On the bottom third of the handle was a long sword blade. It would allow him to use it as a spear of sorts, for when he needed to thrust or stab.

On the top of the weapon was a hammer. One side of the hammer's head was long and flat. The other side had a thick but short spike, giving him a better chance of penetrating the Drathan skin. Three weapon types combined in a ridiculous way. Adam looked forward to trying them out.

While jetting towards the enemy beasts, he was close enough to the fireworks that they whizzed past his sides. His confidence in the equipment to survive the mundane explosions kept him from worrying, even as the vibrations from the explosions above affected his flight path.

"Brittney here. I'm having trouble getting the chain on the hook and they're approaching me. I'll loop around for a second pass."

"Lucas here. Chain secure. Heading to rendezvous with Brittney."

"Central. Waiting for remaining chains. General, should we reduce the fireworks?"

"No way," said Adam into the radio. "Keep them coming! Snipers too."

"Acknowledged!"

Adam switched off his head lamp. It took him three minutes to get to where Tom should be. A swarm of winged geckos and their riders were circling above the chain, about 50 feet from where Tom was dragging it. Tom himself was just a blur in the darkness thanks to his illusion skills, but spells came from the riders, while their beasts spat small fireballs.

In the moments when fireworks exploded around them, Adam could see the massive chain links that Tom was hauling deforming. The Earth metal wasn't susceptible to heat specifically, but the few magic attacks that hit it were still warping and eroding the chain.

The speed of Adam's jetpack was at the top of the controller's range. He let go of the speed controller and passed the steering to his left hand, taking his weapon in the right. His grip on the weapon choked up near the hammer's head, allowing the blade to extend as far as possible.

"Engaging!" announced Adam into his radio mic.

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He reached the long blade of the weapon to his side. The explosions from the fireworks masked the noise of him approaching. Just before he arrived, one of the flying beasts shrieked and looked up at him. It didn't have time to do anything else.

Adam tilted his body to the left. His blade caught on the throat of the flying gecko and dragged through its belly before coming out. The rider was thrown from his mount, and the beast fell while in its death throes.

Before Adam's blade finished cutting the monster, he had veered the jetpack to the right. His blade swung to his left side, and seconds later it pierced another mount.

The Drathan were shouting, but Adam couldn't hear what they were yelling. He also didn't have enough fine control over his ride to do anything but speed almost straight through the swarm of enemies, dragging his blade over any he could reach. He managed to rip through a wing of another one before he shot out of the group.

Using the Rift Menu without his hands, he opened a display to show behind himself, like a rear-view mirror. Half the enemies were turning to follow him while the rest were trying to decide if they should continue to attack the chain.

"Brittney's chain is secure," came Lucas's voice through the radio.

"I'm almost done," said Tom. "Thanks for the assist, boss!"

"Lucas and Brittney, make a pass through the group attacking Tom's chain. I can't turn enough to engage them again," ordered Adam. "Tom, when you're finished, fly through the group attacking Brittney's chain. You don't need to engage, just get their attention."

"What're you going to do, Adam?" asked Lucas.

"I'm going to give them a bigger target to pay attention to!"

The Drathan behind Adam weren't able to keep up with his speed, but they continued following anyway. Adam flew straight for a few more seconds, until he was no longer underneath of the floating base. Then he pulled down on the steering and his jetpack turned. While his speed took him further from the trailing Drathan, the slow change of direction gave them a better angle to approach him.

Once he was heading straight upwards, Adam continued in that direction until he passed the edge of the base. The top of the base was huge. The edges were poorly lit, but he could see bright lights about a mile inland.

Trees and foliage were all around, but the land itself was perfectly flat. Simple buildings, shelters, and stables were visible once you traveled towards the center. None of the structures were very tall and they all seemed open to the outside.

There was also an army of Drathan up there. Hundreds of them, plus more of the flying beasts both in stables as well as circling above the island, presumably for defense.

Seeing all the armed invaders, Adam's heat pulsed. It throbbed through his body and limbs. The river began to rush and churn.

CONQUER!

"This'll be fun," Adam said with a vicious smile.

"What will be, boss?" asked Tom, not realizing Adam was talking to himself. "I don't want to miss out on a good time."

Adam continued heading upwards, but now he steered above the army of Drathan. A commotion broke out as many Drathan pointed to him, while others wasted no time to fire magic towards him. There was no chance they hit him at the speed he was traveling. Even the defensively flying creatures were surprised by his arrival. They tried to move to intercept him as he continued upwards.

While all that happened, Adam tucked his weapon under his armpit and unclipped the bag he had been dragging. With as much care as possible while rocketing through the sky, he pulled open the drawstring on the bag. Gingerly, he reached in and pulled out an orb.

The strength behind the throw that Adam used was enough to destabilize his path. Adam grunted as he pulled the sack closer to him to make sure the orbs didn't fall from his grasp. Once he regained his balance, he was now positioned above a larger group of Drathan, though further above them.

He grabbed another orb and threw it, then a third before the first even hit. Drathan were pointing at the falling items. The orb closest to them was targeted by one of the charcoal invaders.

About fifteen feet above the Drathan, a fireball hit the falling container. Adam laughed wickedly as the container exploded. The gel inside expanded outwards, igniting from either the air, or the fireball, the fire that bloomed didn't care which had set it off.

The Drathan didn't realize what had happened before they shot down the second orb and flaming gel rained down over a huge group. From there, disciplined panic spread through them as the Drathan tried to use magic to extinguish the fire while getting away from the third orb Adam had thrown.

The spells that were meant to put out the flames managed to feed them, causing them to spread further and faster. Shouts and screams roared out. Healers began casting, failing to overcome the damage done by the all-consuming flames.

Then Adam pulled out the last two orbs and threw them towards the middle of unaffected groups. The Drathan who saw more orbs coming tried to run, but there wasn't much space as they had been gathered together for combat.

Chaos took over those on the ground.

Drathan "Fire Pitcher [37]" slain. 19,512 XP gained. Drathan "Mystic Silencer [29]" slain. 15,296 XP gained.

Drathan that had the napalm on them were running or rolling on the ground. Any movement seemed to spread it. Once the healing and attempts at putting it out failed, the Drathan tried to run.

Drathan "Barrier Supremist [39]" slain. 22,918 XP gained.

Adam chuckled as the kill notifications began coming in. Finally, there was a reason to gather XP.

More fires burst out as the final two orbs landed and spread their flames. No one on the ground could pay him attention as they worked to deal with his attack.

Adam was also far above the base now, and he could see a clearing in the center of it. No buildings or plants were there, though a few Drathan seemed to be standing around a brown pillar and a round orb that was raised above the ground.

Drathan "Augury Guster [33]" slain. 10,425 shared XP gained.

That notification caught Adam's attention. Shared XP.

Glancing down, Adam noticed the previously escaping Drathan were now casting spells to kill those affected by the alchemical napalm. That was their final measure to keep the fires from spreading. With a frown, Adam ignored the continued kill notices coming in.

His angle above the base was good now, and the chasing Drathan flyers weren't about to catch up. Adam reached up and pulled on the quick release level they had installed for him.

The straps holding Adam to the jetpack all detached at once. The jetpack continued upwards, though it quickly began spinning and losing control without someone piloting it. Adam, on the other hand, only continued upwards a few more yards before his momentum ran out. He arched over the position and began to descend.

Tucking his weapon between his knees, Adam pulled some Velcro like strap on either side of his wingsuit to release the wings. He re-grabbed his weapon before spreading his arms. The wings on the suit opened, and Adam headed for the base and all the Drathan waiting below.

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