I Die to Rise: Resurrection System-Chapter 56: Braun Ironside: Buried Alive!

Sam ran through the collapsing guild, her heart pounding in her chest as smoke choked the air and debris rained down around her.

She found them scattered throughout the wreckage: injured guild members, disoriented, bleeding, some trapped under fallen beams.

"Everyone, we need to evacuate!" Sam shouted, her voice cutting through the chaos. "Now!"

A woman groaned from under a pile of debris, her leg pinned. Sam dropped to her knees, shoving rubble aside with frantic strength. "Hold on, I’ve got you." She freed the woman, pulling her up and slinging an arm over her shoulder. "Anyone else? We can’t leave people behind!"

More survivors emerged from the haze... five, then ten... stumbling toward her voice. Sam scanned the faces: the cook from the kitchen, a scout with a twisted ankle, the old mechanic who’d fixed Kurt’s lighter last week. Not fighters, but people. Guild family. "That’s everyone we can find—go, go!"

They followed, stumbling toward her, and Sam herded them together like a shepherd gathering her flock. "This way! Stay together!"

They moved as a group, pushing through smoke and flames, and Sam led them toward the shattered entrance. Her lungs burned, her eyes stung, but she didn’t stop. She couldn’t.

They burst outside into the cool night air, and the group kept running, putting distance between themselves and the guild. "Keep moving! Don’t stop—"

Paul stopped abruptly and turned back. "What the hell is that?!" He pointed skyward, his voice cracking with terror.

Sam followed his gaze and saw it. A massive figure plummeting from the sky, fist raised, descending like a meteor aimed directly at the guild.

"Run!" Sam screamed, but it was too late.

Braun hit the ground and the entire guild building exploded, disintegrating into dust and fire. A shockwave erupted outward, tearing through the street, obliterating everything in its path, and raced toward them with terrifying speed.

"Fuuuu—" Paul’s voice cut off as the shockwave hit, and everyone crouched instinctively, hands over their heads, eyes squeezed shut, bracing for the end.

But it didn’t come.

The shockwave slammed into something invisible and stopped. The roar of destruction muffled, contained. Paul dared to open an eye, wheezing. "Shit..." Somehow. They were alive.

Sam stood at the front of the group, her arms raised, trembling with effort. A translucent barrier surrounded them all as it held back the destructive wave.

Her once-teal eyes now burned azure, a single star gleaming at the corner of each iris, like cosmic voids pulling in the chaos around them.

Blood trickled from her nose, her body trembling with the effort. "I... got it..." she whispered, the barrier flickering.

Then she collapsed, knees buckling, as the shield dissolved into sparks. The group rushed to her side, but Sam was out cold, chest rising faintly.

Paul stared at her eyes, now faded back to normal before it closed shut. "What the hell was that?"

***

Back on the battlefield, the flames swallowed Braun completely, a roaring inferno that turned night into day, and Kurt stood atop the rubble, breathing hard. His vision blurred at the edges, exhaustion clawing at him, but he forced himself to stay upright.

"Come on..." he muttered, wiping sweat from his brow and squinting through the smoke.

Lizzie whispered from below, her voice barely audible. "Did... did that work? Please tell me that worked."

The smoke began to clear and Braun stood in the center of the scorched earth, shirtless now, his clothes incinerated, and burns sizzled across his skin.

But even as they watched, the burns began to heal, the regeneration crawling across his body like living tissue. Then he looked up at Kurt and grinned. "Found you."

The ground cratered beneath him, concrete exploding outward from his sudden take off, and Braun launched himself toward Kurt like a missile.

Kurt’s eyes widened, and he threw himself backward, leaping off the rubble just as Braun’s fist cratered where he’d been standing.

Unfortunately for Kurt, Braun didn’t stop. He leaped again, faster this time, and his hand caught Kurt’s leg mid-air. Kurt felt dread as Braun twisted, reversing their momentum, and slammed him into the ground with enough force to crack the earth.

Osteokinesis hardened his bones just in time, Kinetic Absorption blunted the force, and Strength Aura kept him conscious. But the System flashed urgently.

[SYSTEM ALERT]

[Kinetic Absorption Overloaded]

[Excess force redirected — internal damage sustained]

[NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE DETECTED]

+2 points awarded

[Knockout Prevention Active]

Kurt coughed, blood splattering the ground, and his arms refused to move. His ribs screamed, his spine felt like it had been shattered and reassembled wrong, and his vision swam.

"Shit..." he muttered weakly.

Braun raised him again like a ragdoll for another slam, but jagged bone spikes erupted from Kurt’s leg, stabbing into Braun’s grip. They didn’t pierce deep, but the surprise made him loosen, just enough.

At that instant, Emma fired. A bullet pierced Braun’s arm, the wound bubbling as it began to heal. "Hey asshole!" She shot again, the round zipping through a portal and emerging behind him, grazing his side. "Eyes on me!"

The attacks came faster now, bullets ricocheting through elaborate portal chains, piercing his chest, arm, leg in a symphony of voids. Braun snarled, swatting at the air as wounds multiplied, his regeneration struggling to keep up.

More bullets ricocheted through a web of portals, an elaborate trick-shot sequence that turned Braun into target practice. He twisted and blocked, but the attacks came from too many angles.

Cassandra seized the moment. Her sword flashed, and an ice serpent erupted from the ground, coiling around Braun’s damaged, regenerating body like a constricting anaconda.

<Frozen Strangler>

The serpent wrapped around him tightly, frost spreading across his skin and holding him in place.

"Now Lizzie!" Emma barked.

Lizzie fired her gun, the green projectile slamming into Braun’s chest. His body seized, muscles locking, and he dropped to both knees with a thunderous thud. "Take that, you oversized meathead!"

Braun scanned the battlefield, eyes locking on Lizzie. Realization dawned when he saw the yellow glow enveloping the group, their wounds closing, attacks sharper.

She wasn’t just the buffer and healer prolonging this fight, she also possessed a nasty essence artifact that seemed to affect him. If anyone had to die first...

"Guys... he’s looking at me," Lizzie said, voice rising. "Why do they always do that!?"

Emma and Cassandra leaped in front of her, weapons raised. "Not on our watch," Emma growled.

Braun’s body kept pulling in more ambient essence, streams of energy converging on him from every direction. His skin darkened, turning a deeper, more ominous shade, and the ice serpent restraining him cracked.

Then it shattered completely as a shockwave exploded outward, sending frozen shards flying, and all the damage Emma and Cassandra had inflicted, every hole across his body, every wound, closed up slowly.

"I’m not quite done yet." Kurt pushed himself to his feet, his body already going through a healing process thanks to Lizzie’s ability and glowing yellow from the amp.

Flames ignited around his fists. Braun saw the fire from the corner of his eye but didn’t stop advancing toward Lizzie.

"You already tried that, remember?" Braun said dismissively.

"Yeah, I’m a one trick pony." Kurt didn’t aim at him. Instead, he thrust his hands toward the ground beneath Braun’s feet and released everything.

The concrete melted instantly, turning molten red, and Braun sank into the lava. There was a gurgling sound, a hiss of burning flesh, and then Kurt snapped his fingers.

The lava solidified, hardening into stone and trapping Braun inside. Only one arm remained visible above the surface.

Kurt rushed over to the others, breathing hard. "Fuck, that worked." And Lizzie bounced excitedly. "That was incredible, Kurt!"

Cassandra smiled faintly, her blade still raised. "Not bad. But don’t let your guard down."

They all stared at the hand sticking out of the solidified stone. Nothing happened. Seconds ticked by.

"You think that did it?" Lizzie asked hesitantly.

Emma dismissed Void King, and in its place, a long black spear materialized in her grip. It resembled a trident, gleaming and deadly, with two blue ethereal ribbons coiling around the shaft like living serpents.

<Ten Kings: No. 1 Storm King>

Emma twirled the spear overhead and drove it into the ground. "I highly doubt that."

Thunder rumbled overhead, and storm clouds began to gather.

Then Braun’s finger twitched as the stone around his hand cracked.