Will of Vienna

The air in the Audimax was thick with the scent of dust, heavy sweat, and fresh copper. Step by step, the group moved down the central and side staircases, keeping a tight, rhythmic formation that left the scrambling variants no way through.

„Flanks, close the gaps!“ Michael commanded, his voice sharp and calculating as his eyes tracked three incoming predators attempting to scramble over the shattered wooden desks on the right. „Follow the center!“

On the right staircase, Valerie Wagner stepped forward onto the next tier. She tightened her grip on her wooden spear as she activated her freshly gained talent: **[Kinetic Absorption]**.

A heavy, bone-ridged wolf slammed down from a row of chairs straight toward her chest. Instead of being blown back, Valerie’s body absorbed the impact, but she misjudged the immense surge of energy. The raw force rippled through her frame, grounding her feet so violently that her knees buckled with a painful crack, almost throwing her off balance. Gritting her teeth against the sloppy execution, she redirected the remaining stored force into a clumsy, heavy counter-thrust, her spear tip digging deeply into the creature’s thick chest hide.

Right beside her, Tobias „Tobi“ Berger struggled to find his timing.

„I’ve got the blind spot!“ Tobi yelled, frantically invoking his talent: **[Static Friction]**.

As two smaller variants tried to pivot on the debris to flank Valerie, Tobi thrust his spear into the floorboards between them. The ground frict and somehow locked the monsters‘ paws, but Tobi had placed the area a few inches too close to himself. The sudden traction break on the steep incline sent the heavy wolves tumbling forward, nearly taking Tobi’s legs out as they crashed blindly past him. Alina Sokolov had to awkwardly adjust her stance, her spear whistling through the dark in a frantic double thrust to pin the thrashing, locked targets before they could scramble back up.

On the left staircase, the push was getting heavier, and the uncoordinated use of the new talents was starting to show. More beasts were flooding from the main stage area, their roars bouncing off the high, broken ceiling of the lecture hall.

„They’re crowding the aisle!“ Sebastian Krauss shouted, his breathing ragged as a massive, boar-like variant snapped its jaws inches from his face.

„Back off, Krauss!“ Fabian Lindt barked from a step above. He focused his mind, triggering his talent: **[Freezing]**.

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A freezing mist erupted from the tip of Fabian’s spear, but his lack of control caused the radius to bleed outward. It instantly snapped the ambient temperature around the beast’s hind legs down to sub-zero levels, but it also coated the steps near Sebastian’s boots in a treacherous sheen of frost. The boar-sized monster lost all grip, its hind legs sliding outward as it let out a panicked squeal, while Sebastian had to frantically widen his stance to keep from slipping on his own ally’s ice.

Recovering sloppily, Sebastian activated his own talent: **[Vanguard’s Momentum]**, a passive-active hybrid that increased his thrusting speed based on how many allies were aligned with him. His spear blurred, but the sudden, unaccustomed burst of speed made his aim erratic, grazing the beast’s flank twice before finally driving straight into the soft flesh behind its front leg.

„Mira, keep them from leaping!“ Elena „Leni“ Becker called out, shifting her footing to cover an opening left by a recruit who had overextended.

Mira Demir closed her eyes for a split second, invoking her talent: **[Sound Wave]**. She tried to focus it purely on the front line of the charging pack, but the mental strain was too loose. A high-frequency, uneven screech threw the incoming wolves off balance, but a stray wave of the distortion clipped Leni and Julian „Jules“ Nowak, causing their ears to ring violently. The disoriented wolves veered off course into the smashed wooden rows, but Leni and Jules had to blink through localized dizziness to keep their guard up.

Struggling through the mental static, Jules unleashed his talent **[Perception Tax]**, which deceives the senses of targeted beings and makes him invisible to them. As he was using his skill, his focus slipped for a second, and the talent only lasted half as long as it should have. The wolf-variant looked right past him, but snapped its head back toward him just as Jules stepped into its blind spot. Jules had to rush his attack clumsily, driving his wooden spear into its neck with raw, frantic strength rather than precision.

At the very edge of the left flank, Kilian Wallner—Jakob’s younger cousin—was being pressured by a variant that had managed to leap over a row of desks entirely.

„Jakob, look out!“ Kilian yelled, his voice tightening as he triggered his talent **[Echoing Strike]**. While using his talent his strikes would cause a second strike at the same spot.

Kilian thrust his spear, hitting the beast’s thick shoulder. The phantom vibration mirrored the impact a millisecond later, but because his initial strike had slipped slightly, the second hit landed off-center. The double impact still shattered the monsters shoulder, sending the wolf reeling backward down the steps, but it lacked the clean efficiency of a veteran’s strike.

Jakob Wallner grinned tensely from the center aisle, his spear already humming as he delivered a sharp strike to a charging predator, a localized, sharp pressure wave rippling from the impact point with a dull *thud* to clear the path for his struggling cousin.

The entire lower half of the Audimax was chaotic, a brutal mess of human mistakes saved only by the terrain. Though the ten new talents were being applied with a visible, messy sloppiness, the steep incline of the stairs acted as a safety net, absorbing their mistakes and turning the swarm’s chaotic numbers into a manageable grind.

Michael watched it all unfold, his mind perfectly calm as he registered the mistakes of his „soldiers“. Every part of the plan was rough, but it was working. The room was theirs now.

„Excellent,“ Michael said, his cold voice cutting through the noise of the dying monsters. „The stage is next. Do not break formation. Drive them into the wall.“

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