Chapter 61: Gridlock
## Chapter 61: Gridlock
Michael and Julian left the building they'd barricaded themselves in and went looking for a car. Julian's monster came with them, its claws clicking against the pavement as it padded along at his side. The plan was simple enough; find a car, get moving, and reach the Juridicum before anything caught up to them. Michael would drive. Julian would fight from inside, throwing fireballs out the window at anything that got close. His monster would run alongside the car and cover them from outside and prevent the monsters to overthrow the car.
Cars lined the street in both directions, so they didn't have to look long and could begin their plan immediately. They picked one, climbed in, and pulled out onto the road.
It didn't take long before the noise did what it always did. Like it happened with Michael’s first trys, monsters got alerted and came towards them.
But this time it was different. Michael wasn't alone. Julian's monster broke off from the car the moment it saw one closing in, slamming into it and locking together in a snarl of claws and teeth. Michael kept driving, watching the fight shrink in the mirror until the road curved and it disappeared behind them.
Then Julian closed his eyes for a second, and his monster was just gone. The monster his summon had been fighting didn’t even understand what had happened. One moment it was fighting, and the next its opponent had vanished into thin air.
"Oh," Michael said. "That works too?"
"Yeah," Julian said. "Summoning them costs mana. After that, they exist on their own, separate from me, until I call them back. Then I have to spend mana again to bring them out."
"So you don't burn any mana just keeping one summoned." Michael kept his eyes moving, mirror to windshield to mirror. "Every new detail you give me makes this ability sound more broken."
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Julian didn't answer right away. He was speechless for a moment. His talent had always felt natural to him, but thinking about it now, he realised it could have come with a lot of drawbacks. It hadn't, and he felt relieved.
He'd taken the sides for himself without either of them needing to say it out loud — Michael watched front and back, Julian watched left and right.
Then he saw it. Something sprinting in from the side, weaving between the parked cars.
He summoned the monster again mid-motion, and before it had even fully finished forming he was already moving his other hand.
"FIREBALL!"
A ball of fire tore out of his palm and slammed into the thing, knocking it sideways into the door of a parked car.
"Now!" Julian shouted, and the monster he'd just called back threw itself on top of the one he'd burned.
"That thing wasn't catching up to us anyway," Michael said. "Now your monster's the one falling behind."
"I know. I'm not giving up that EXP for free." Julian kept his eyes on the mirror, watching his monster pin the other one down. "I'll let it run behind us and jump anything that tries to catch up. Worst case, that's one less thing chasing us."
"What happens if it loses?"
"Then I lose the mana I spent summoning it."
"That's it?" Michael glanced over. "You don't lose the monster for good? And doesn't summoning it in the first place already cost you mana on top of that?"
Julian looked at him. "You really want to know a lot about my ability. You haven't told me a single thing about yours."
Michael laughed. "Ha — fair enough. Alright. My talent's nothing special, just a stat boost. And my class is—"
The road ahead was a solid wall of cars.
Michael slammed the brakes. Tires screamed against the asphalt and the car jerked to a stop a few feet short of the bumper in front of them.
"Shit, the road is blocked. We need to change the car."
They'd driven straight into a dead traffic jam — cars packed end to end for as far as Michael could see, and not one of them still had a driver behind the wheel. Whoever had been sitting in these seats hadn't made it out. Claw marks dragged across hoods and doors. Windows were punched in, glass scattered across the asphalt in wide fans. Dark stains pooled on the road between the tires, the kind that didn't need explaining. *Don't look at that one,* Michael told himself, and didn't.
They got out and started working their way along the line of cars, weaving between bumpers, heading for the front of the jam where they might find something they could actually drive out of here. The street was silent except for their own footsteps. Every third or fourth car showed the same story — a smashed window, a door torn half off its hinges, upholstery clawed open. Whatever had come through here hadn't been in a hurry.
They'd made it maybe twenty meters when Julian looked back over his shoulder.
"Fuck." He grabbed Michael's arm. "That's bad."
Monsters, ten of them, were closing fast, weaving between the abandoned cars behind them — faster than anything should have been able to move through this mess on foot.
"This is going to be a problem. Come on!"
Julian summoned his monster again without breaking stride, throwing a fireball at the nearest one before it had even finished forming. He caught a second with his spear as it came in low. His monster slammed into a third, dragging it down between two cars. Three of the ten were occupied now. Seven more kept coming, spreading out to close in from both sides at once.
*Michael. Your turn. Do something.*