《Modified Magical Medic》 Prologue: Change is Inevitable I launched three arrows into the minotaurs side before being forced to jump away, as the warrior next to me ran forward. The beast slammed it¡¯s fist down, but with one fell swoop, he severed it¡¯s arm, and shortly after it¡¯s throat once he leapt into the air. As the monster dissolved into ash, we both took a moment to catch our breath, before he said something to me. ¡°For fucks sake, that¡¯s the fifth run without the drop!¡± I snorted as I imagined him raging in his setup at home. ¡°Dude, it¡¯s like a ten percent chance, you¡¯ll get it eventually. Plus it only takes like four minutes to respawn.¡± ¡°Yeah yeah, whatever. Anyways, you down for one more kill?¡± Ian said, and I shook my head. ¡°Can¡¯t, got class in like thirty minutes. I¡¯ll see you tommorow.¡± ¡°Damn, alright. See ya Liam.¡± He said, and disappeared. I scrolled down to the log out screen and hopped off the game, and everything went black. I opened my eyes and took off my vr gear, placing the headset back on my desk. As I got up, I threw on a jacket and headed to the bathroom in my apartment to make sure I looked okay for class. I walked in, pushing my roomates clothes out of the way, and looked in the mirror. My hair was a bit messy, but otherwise I looked pretty much the same as I always did. Short blonde hair, lankey limbs, generic looking face. Mom always said I took more after dad, which was true in a way, but I did get her hair color. He was still visiting my grandparents, so I hadn¡¯t talked to him in a few weeks except on the phone, and I was honestly prefering it. This is why I never liked looking in the mirror for too long, always made me think of bad shit. I left the room, heading to the exit of the apartment. It was decently sized, and rent wasn¡¯t bad with a roommate. Aside from the not picking up after himself, he was pretty much fine. ¡°Can you get those clothes out of the bathroom?¡± I yelled out as I opened up the door to head out. ¡°Got it!¡± He responded, probably in his room gaming or something. ¡°Cool, be back in a couple hours!¡± I said, before walking out the door and heading down the stairs. As I walked into the entrance of the apartment complex, my landlord ambushed me from around the corner. How that old lady could sneak around like that I would never understand. ¡°Liam! You have rent yet?¡± She said, and I groaned to myself. Right, rent had gotten pushed up this month. ¡°I have the money on my desk upstairs, but I have like twenty minutes to get to class with a fifteen minute bus ride, so i¡¯ll get it to you after class, that good?¡± She scowled at me, but nodded, heading upstairs. Work hadn¡¯t been giving me many hours recently, but I still managed. I headed out the front door, seeing the bus pull up to the stop outside. It was about ten in the morning, but since it was the middle of winter in New York it was still slightly dark outside. I sprinted over, getting ready to hop in, when I heard a noise from my phone in my pocket. ¡°Attention citizens, there has been a minor breach. Anyone within 3000 feet of the street shown on the screen, please remain calm and find shelter. A total of three low level entities have been detected, and clean up crews are on the way.¡± A robotic voice said, coming from everyone elses devices as well. Well, fuck, so much for class. Everyone currently on the bus hopped out immediately, heading into the apartment building for shelter. People had mixed emotions, some were panicking while others looked vaguely annoyed. It was easy to tell who had been in a breach before and who hadn¡¯t. Plague had been showing up on earth for years now, but only ever in extremely small numbers. The Zenith, an incredibly technologically advanced race, had arrived to warn us of them back in 2003, and in the twenty five years since then technology had been advancing insanely quick. Normally a set number of guardians would be warped in instantly, but since earth got such little attention from the plague, they just trusted the military to handle it. I started emailing my teacher informing them I was stuck in the breach, when someone bumped into my shoulder. I looked up and saw a cop escorting a couple into the building. He looked rather young, probably new to the job. ¡°Oh shit, my bad.¡± I said, and let them pass. As they did, the cop stayed behind and looked at me. ¡°Kid, you better get inside quick, this isn¡¯t some game.¡± I nodded and went to follow him inside, but I was interupted by a high pitched shriek, and everyone who was outside whipped their heads over to the noise. A woman was maybe thirty feet away, pointing at something. I had seen videos of plague appearing, but it was harder to understand in person. It was like my vision was drawn away from the area as light bent around it, before suddenly everything snapped back into focus and something was laying there. It was green, laying in a coil. Some kind of snake? Was there a kind of plague that looked like a snake? I got the answer to that question very quickly, as the creature opened it¡¯s eyes. All fifty seven of them, on every inch of it¡¯s body each under a large scale. Everyone who was outside at that point sprinted inside, except for me and the cop, who were just standing still staring at the thing in confusion. It looked over at the woman, and that seemed to break her stupor. She started running towards the apartment building, as the plague entity suddenly snapped into movement, slithering behind her faster then I expected. I looked over at the cop, who was still just staring at it. ¡°Do something!¡± I yelled, as he sat there dumbfounded ¡°Uh, I don¡¯t-¡° ¡°For fuck¡¯s sake!¡± In a rash decision that I do not regret to this day, I reached down and grabbed the cops gun out of his holster. Even that didn¡¯t seem to wake him up, as I dropped to one knee and aimed at the snake. The woman either understood what was happening or got scared, and thankfully moved to the side onto the street. Before the snake could follow behind her, I fired twice into it with the pistol. The recoil wasn¡¯t horrible, but it still had me gritting my teeth. The snake did slow down, but only enough so that it could turn to whatever had shot it, and began rocketing towards me. I barely heard the cop yelling in the background as I fully unloaded the clip into the snake as it moved closer. With each shot a few of the eyes burst with blood, before eventually about thirty feet away it stopped, limping forward a few inches before it¡¯s eyes all closed. The woman sprinted past me into the building, and as I turned around I noticed the cop had too. For once in my life, I was very glad my father had taught me how to shoot a gun. I turned the safety back on and caught my breath. I had just killed an entity. If I didn¡¯t get arrested for taking a cops gun, I might get an award or something! Anyways, it was about time to head inside. Or it would have been, had something not hit my stomach at about forty miles an hour and sent me flying twenty feet across the sidewalk. I barely managed to grab my head so that my hands took the impact on the concrete instead of it, but it still hurt like all hell. I looked at whatever had attacked me, and saw another green creature, what looked like some kind of small winged feral cat. It sped towards me, and I looked around to see the gun sitting next to me. I grabbed it, switched the safety off, and whirled toward the entity, but I had to duck as it swept down at me. I got up as it turned around, and ran into an alley nearby. As I did, I could tell something was wrong as I felt a searing pain with every step, but I had to ignore it for the moment. I whipped around to see the flying thing diving down for another attack. I pointed the gun at it and pulled the trigger. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Click. ¡°Oh.¡± I said, my tone oddly calmer then I felt. I forgot I had already shot the whole clip. Well, I guess this wasn¡¯t the worst way to die. Would have liked to at least finish college though. I closed my eyes as it sped closer to me. ¡°It doesn¡¯t have to be the end you know.¡± I opened my eyes, and tried to look around for the voice I had just heard. For some reason, I couldn¡¯t move my body, and as I stared forward I realized the entity in front of me was moving incredibly slowly for some reason. ¡°Don¡¯t be alarmed. You won¡¯t be able to see me yet, i¡¯m simply speaking in your head for the moment. I am a contractor, and after watching you for some time I believe you have the right qualities to become a guardian.¡± The voice said, as though it was right next to me. It was very gender neutral and spoke with a pleasant but robotic tone. I tried to yell and ask it what was happening, but my mouth was also not moving. ¡°Again, still just in your head. I¡¯ve slowed down our conversation so you don¡¯t die before we can finish this contract. As you might know, a guardian fights against the plague, much like what you¡¯re doing right now. Unfortunately, we don¡¯t have much time for me to explain more, so instead i¡¯ll just say that accepting this contract will mean you won¡¯t die right here. Will you accept?¡± I tried to think about this logically for a moment, but the a chance to survive was too good to not take. ¡°Alright, fine! But since I was forced into this contract to survive, I should have the right to rescind it later!¡± I thought, and I felt as though I heard the voice chuckle. ¡°I¡¯m afraid it doesn¡¯t work that way, but I do appreciate the thought. It shows me you think your actions through. Alright, with this conversation, your fate is sealed. Welcome, new guardian, to a battle against hell itself. Join your siblings in arms and fight for a better tommorow.¡± It said, and as it did, I felt some kind of surge through my body, like my blood was on fire and my brain had short circuted. As I felt myself grasp reality again, I saw the entity was still coming at me in slow motion. ¡°Uh, do you have a plan to deal with this?¡± I asked the voice. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry about that. New guardian awakenings tend to be rather destructive to any plague entities nearby. Exiting thought acceleration protocol in 3, 2, 1.¡± As it said this, I saw the entity suddenly speed forward. At the same time, I felt the surge run through me again, and I keeled over in pain. Then, right before it reached me, a white light shot out from me, and it enveloped the area around me. As it touched the entity, it disintegrated, fading into dust, and I could do nothing but simply wait for the feeling to stop. Suddenly, I found myself standing in the middle of a room. I looked around confused, and noticed I could move again, and the pain I had felt was gone. I swore that I knew this place, but how the hell did I get here? Suddenly, I realized it was my grandparents house. It was what one would expect from an older traditional home in Japan, but I always found it comforting as a kid, despite how run down most of it was. I recognized the specific room I was in, and looked towards one of the walls. In a glass display case sat an extremely old looking mask, styled after a fox. As I looked at it, three people walked into the room. My father, grandfather, and a younger me walked past me, ignoring me completely. Was I looking at a memory? I could only guess this had to do with me becoming a guardian. I looked to be about six years old, so this must have been right around when we first moved to Japan. My father led me by the hand up to the display case. Usually he was and still is a stern man with a near constant glare, but whenever he was showing me things about our culture, he seemed to lighten up. The only other times he would do that was when he was with mom. ¡°Liam, be very careful in this room, okay? A member of our family made this mask a very long time ago, so you cannot touch it. It¡¯s one of the first masks of it¡¯s kind, and it was used for ceremonies and celebration by hundreds of different women.¡± The younger version of me nodded, looking at the mask in awe. I remember even as a child understanding the signifigance of it, more then just a family heirloom. Even now, I was still entranced by it. The design was a lot like many other kabuki fox masks, but the material was clearly incredibly old, and something about the design just spoke to me. Apparently my grandfather was offered a lot of money to donate it to a museum, but seeing as he was already rich, he always rejected those offers. My father led younger me off to see the rest of the house, with my grandfather following behind saying something in japanese to him. He always talked so fast I could barely understand him. I eventually walked forward, deciding that if this was a memory I might as well finally try on that mask. As I took a step forward, I felt the world lurch, and I realized the end of the room had gotten farther away from me. After half a minute of trying to get to the mask, I got frusturated and just started running towards it, and eventually I started to make progress. But while I was moving closer, something felt wrong with my body. It wasn¡¯t painful, but I could physically feel ligaments and bones in my body breaking down and then rearranging themselves. Before I could look down to see what was happening, out of nowhere, some kind of purple streak appeared inside the display case like something out of a video game. A hand shot out of the streak, grabbing onto the mask, and it pulled it in before I could reach it. As this happened, I tried to call out to whoever or whatever just took my families heirloom, but I collapsed to my knees as what was happening to my body got to be too much, and the world went black. Then, color returned, and I was back in the alley. Was that all just a dream, or was it some kind of vision? I slowly picked myself up, and it was clear that my injuries hadn¡¯t magically healed themselves despite that event. ¡°Computer voice? Do you know- ugh, my throat hurts. Wait, what¡¯s wrong with my voice?¡± I asked, coughing to clear my throat as it sounded much higher pitched then usual. ¡°Hello Liam, I see the contract went through successfully on your end- oh my.¡± The voice said, now sounding destinctly more feminine. ¡°What? Does this have to do with me being injured?¡± I said, immediately realizing how stupid that was. Why would a cracked rib or internal bleeding make my voice higher? ¡°Well, you see¡­hey, why don¡¯t I activate your hud for you? That will let you warp directly to your countries Zenith Guardian facility!¡± It said, sounding oddly panicked for what I assumed was an AI. I simply nodded, and suddenly a message box like out of a video game appeared in front of my face. Hello new Guardian! We understand you may be confused by your current situation, so simply press this button to be warped to the nearest Zenith facility, where an expert will let you know more about what¡¯s going on! Do you accept? Baffled, I clicked yes, but nothing seemed to happen. ¡°It didn¡¯t seem to wo-¡° I was cut off as a blue rift in space appeared underneath my feet similar to the purple streak I saw before, and I fell into it, screaming in my still oddly high pitched voice. The inside of the portal was just blue for miles in any direction, and I was only inside for a few seconds before I landed on my back in some kind of building. Im not sure exactly what I was expecting from a Zenith building, but this wasn¡¯t it. The room was cramped, looking more like the floor of a typical office building. I looked up and saw a Zenith sitting in a chair, looking at a screen of some kind. Zenith are birdlike creatures, covered head to toe in feathers, and while they had claws for hands, on their legs they had hooves, and their beaks were very short. The one sitting down, who had grey and white feathers, looked down at me as I fell in, and their eyes widened. ¡°Oh shit, finally! Xino, get in here, theres a new Guardian!¡± They said in a more masculine voice, sounding less like a hyper intelligent being and more like your typical teenager. ¡°Wait, really? I¡¯ll be right there!¡± I heard a feminine voice call out from a seperate hallway, and another person ran around the corner. They were much shorter then the first person, but had the same color plumage. ¡°Wow, you weren¡¯t lying! Hi, i¡¯m Xino, this is my brother Tritan, and welcome to your first day as a guardian! And you are miss¡­¡± She said, waving her hand as though I was supposed to talk. ¡°I¡¯m Liam. Wait, did you say miss?¡± ¡°Yes, it¡¯s proper for us to call you by any honorifics.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine, but i¡¯m not a¡­¡± I trailed off as I looked down, noticing something just slightly odd. ¡°Someone better explain why I have breasts in the next thirty seconds.¡± I said, looking down at the decently large chest I now for some reason had attached to me, as well as the rest of my suddenly very feminine body. Xino looked at me wide eyed. ¡°You didn¡¯t know about the transformation?¡± ¡°The what?!¡± I angrily questioned, and her brother got up and stood next to her. ¡°If she¡¯s upset about that, she¡¯s really not gonna like the tail.¡± ¡°THE WHAT?!¡± Chapter 1: Knowledge is Power A tail. I had a fucking tail. Sticking out over the edge of my pants, thankfully not exposing anything, was an absurdly fluffy yellow fox tail. I was too concerned with other things to notice earlier, but now I realized I could feel it, almost like another limb. Oh, and I also looked like a woman apparently. ¡°What the fuck does the transformation mean?!¡± I yelled at Xino, as the woman flinched. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, it¡¯s normal protocol for your contractor to inform you of this! When you become a guardian, your body transforms to adjust to using magic freely, and that transformation varies depending on each person. Contractor, would you explain why you didn¡¯t tell her about this?¡± She said. Suddenly, I saw a glowing light appear at the desk nearby and jumped back in surprise. Out of nowhere a small cartoonish looking yellow fox that had stars for pupils appeared on the desk. ¡°Sorry, I was just getting used to having a physical form again. My guardian was in danger, so I had limited time to offer them the contract. We will be going over things now with you all. Speaking of which, I would recommend offering them physical aid, as they are quite injured." "What?! Tritan, get the med kit, quickly!" Xino said, and her brother hurried into another room. ¡°Why is that fox talking and where did it come from?¡± I said, and it looked over at me, as I tried my best to not think about my injuries before the pain set in again. ¡°Since you accepted the contract, I can now take on a body using your innate magic.¡± ¡°Wait, hang on, she said magic earlier too. Is magic real?¡± I asked, and Xino nodded at me. I looked at her for a minute, before putting my head down on the desk in front of me. She could clearly tell I wasn''t taking this information well and walked over with her brother''s chair. ¡°I¡¯m sorry if this is a lot to deal with. You want to sit down while we get you patched up?¡± She asked, and I eventually nodded, lifting my head up and sitting down. I accidentally sat directly on my tail, so I tried moving it out of the way. As it turns out, I did have a limited amount of control over it, and I managed to move it to the side. Her brother came back around the corner with a kit, and as he reached into it, he grabbed what looked like some kind of patch. "Here, point out where you got injured- oh, never mind, that''s pretty obvious." He said as a lifted up my shirt slightly, barely catching myself in time from lifting it too high. I saw the side of my stomach where that entity hit me was completely purple as he walked over to me and kneeled down. "You know, I never thought I''d get to use that medical training! Guess that wasn''t a big waste of time." He said as he opened some kind of patch before sticking it on my stomach, and a wave of coolness spread over the area before it went numb. Xino grabbed another chair and sat down in front of me. ¡°Okay, I think it would be best if I describe the basics of the contract you just entered, and later your contractor can explain the more detailed elements. As I said earlier, my name is Xino, and me and my brother Tritan are the official Guardian Relations Experts of your country. Normally there would be a much bigger team here, but Earth is a very low profile planet so Zenith presence is limited. I have a few years of experience working with guardians, but my brother just started last month, so you¡¯ll have to excuse him on his communication skills.¡± She said, her brother making some kind of hand sign at her that, funnily enough, could only be equated to flipping the bird with his talons. The fox, who was apparently the voice that had made the contract with me, jumped over into my lap and laid down, which did actually comfort me a bit. ¡°To start with, yes, magic is real. We tend to keep it secret for a number of years after we first make content with a planet if they don''t have any invasions, as it¡¯s a hard enough adjusting period with just the technology. It usually gets revealed on the twenty fifth anniversary of our arrival on a planet, so you would have been informed in about a month or two anyways. Until then, please try not to say anything about it.¡± ¡°So, its full on actual magic? Not just like science or something?¡± I asked, and she thought about it for a moment. ¡°I mean, everything is science, and there are tons of fields of study related to magic. It¡¯s best to think of it as sort of another force of the universe, like gravity and magnetism. Every species naturally collects mana in their bodies while they live, and with proper equipment and training anyone can use it to do basic functions like making small items or lighting candles. As a guardian however, you are special. Due to the transformation you went through, you can use magic much easier, and can use some spells without having to actually learn how to use them. In fact, guardians each have special magical abilities that can''t be replicated by anyone else, but your contractor can tell you more about that. Would you mind showing her? Or them? I''m not sure what to call you right now." She said, and the little fox looked up at me. ¡°One second, let me check. Also, I will begin thinking of a new name so that you do not have to keep calling me contractor." As it said this, another box appeared in front of me, this time displaying some kind of information sheet.
GUARDIAN INFORMATION
Name: Liam Inoue Guardian Persona: None
Point Total: 150 View Purchase History Sign: Event Horizon Sign Abilities: Adjust Density
Class: Unavailable (Amethyst Rank) View Class Details Spells: None
Tomes: None Catalogues: None
Cybernetics Installed: None Condition: Moderately Injured
Note: Gravity Magic is normally an unusable form of magic and can be highly dangerous and hard to control. Any guardian with access to it is obligated to take as much care as possible when using this in the presence of civilians. I was obviously confused by what I was seeing, but a few things stuck out to me in particular, and I looked away from the screen to the fox. "What''s up with gravity magic? And why don''t I have a class?" "I''ll explain the classes first. There are different tiers of power to guardians, starting at Amethyst. Once you get more experience fighting the plague and using magic, you''ll rank up to Aquamarine, where you''ll get to choose your own class based off of how you fought up to that point. The classes provide specific buffs you can choose from and get more advanced as time goes on." "Oh, so it really is like a video game?" I asked, and the fox nodded. "Correct. The system actually changes visuals for each user to align with something familiar to them, which for most people on Earth would be games. As for your first question, I have disabled access to the ability you got to start out, as misusing it could injure you. Gravity is not normally able to be altered through magic, but many guardians have broken the established laws of magic in the past. The ability you started with allows you to change the density of your body, making you lighter or heavier at will. Later you¡¯ll be able to make your own abilities.¡± "That, actually sounds kinda awesome. But I don''t want to just float off into space, so you should probably keep it disabled for now. More importantly, how the hell do I get back to my old body?" I asked, and the fox thought about it for a moment. "It depends on what you mean by your old body. Certain elements of the transformation, like the ears and tail, are irreversible. However, with the right catalogues, you could purchase items that would allow you to look like your more masculine old form. You gain points whenever you kill an entity, or when you help save someone from the plague. You then use these points to purchase catalogues and tomes, which give you access to spells and items to purchase." "I''m not sure how I feel about being stuck with a tail for the rest of my life, but I would at least like to go back to...hang on, did you say ears?" I said, reaching up to my head. Sure enough, I felt a pair of rather fluffy ears there, which moved when I touched them. Of course I had fox ears too, at this point that shouldn''t have surprised me. "Is there a mirror somewhere around here, cause I''d like to actually see what my body looks like right now." Xino nodded, leading me over to a bathroom nearby. She waited outside as I walked in and headed over to the sink and looked into the mirror. I don''t know what I was expecting, but what I saw left me feeling very strange. My hair was still the same color, but it now went down to damn near the center of my back, and my face was much softer. All the sternness of the features I had gotten from my father had softened, and my pupils were now slits. Combined with the ears and the tail, I had to admit I looked rather cute, but something else about my face was throwing me off. I tried my best to ignore the other elements of my change for the moment, and looked for my contractor, who was currently on the floor next to me chasing their own tail. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. "Uh, can I ask a question? How does this whole, transformation thing decide what I look like?" "That information is restricted. Any details on the selection process were locked by the people who created me and my family many years ago. There are reasons behind your transformation''s specifics, but I am not allowed to know them, I just know they exist. What do you think of the name Celeste?" "You mean, like the game? It''s not bad, if you like it go for it. Wait, who made you, the Zenith?" "No, it was many years before they began exploring the universe. Most just refer to them as The Ones Before, as we don''t know what they actually called themselves. Well, I do know, but I can''t access those memories. But they made us to help fight off the plague, and we allow you to break the rules of magic and purchase Zenith technology." "Huh, well I guess if they''re alive somewhere we owe them a big thanks. By the way, what should I call you right now, pronoun wise? Cause I have no clue what the difference between male and female foxes are." "Over the many years and hundreds of guardians I''ve selected, I have been every gender that you have on this planet and then some. But I think I feel more female this time, so let''s go with that. What about you?" She asked me, and I thought about it for a moment. "...I''m not sure. I mean, I''ve been a guy all my life, but I don''t feel very masculine right now. I guess I could try out being a woman. I''d probably want to choose a new name too then." I found it rather odd to say, but it was true. It was hard to call myself a man when I looked so, womanly. Celeste looked up at me from the floor. "You can do whatever makes you comfortable. Although, if I could make a suggestion? A very popular Zenith name is Liara, in your language it roughly translates to Sky. It''s also rather close to your old name." "There are people called Liara on Earth too! I think so at least. But I actually don''t hate the sound of that. Alright, for now I''ll be Liara and you''ll be Celeste. Let''s just hope my father doesn''t find out about this for a while, otherwise I''ll just be dead." "That''s the spirit! Now, can we please leave this bathroom, it''s rather disgusting." Celeste said, and I looked around for a moment before grimacing. I quickly headed outside, and Xino looked over at me as I did. "You all good now?" "Yeah, I think so. Just, call me Liara for now. Figure if I''m gonna be stuck like this for a while, might as well embrace it somewhat. So now what happens? It''s not like Earth has a lot of plague for me to kill." "Oh, that''s actually the last thing I needed to talk with you about. Follow me please." She said, and we began walking back to the main area. I was still a little weirded out by the main area of support for guardians on Earth being a cramped office space. "So, the way this works is, any planets that don''t have repeated invasions, guardians from there are instead sent to other planets to help with their invasions. It works on a lottery system, so we check to see what levels and number of guardians will be needed and select random ones in a certain radius. Then you''re teleported right there!" She said as we headed back into the main room, her brother still just tapping away at his tablet. "Wait, so I could just get pulled away at any moment? What if I''m in class or something?" "Well as a guardian, the excuse of being busy saving lives is basically enough to get you out of any obligation legally, but if that seems intrusive there is another option. Tritan, if you could show her?" Her brother looked over annoyed and leaned over showing me his tablet. "Here, this is a list of current invasions happening close enough to this planet that we could warp you easily. If you volunteer to help out there, then when we randomly decide who gets chosen for an invasion and your name comes up, we skip over you once. Unless it''s a planet destroying invasion, then we just call in everyone. If you wanted, we could send you right now. Did you have plans today or something?" "Well I was planning on going to class, but seeing as I was almost killed, I don''t think they''ll care much if I skip today. What all do I need to do before I head out?" I asked Celeste, who began pulling up menus in my face. "My recommendations would be to acquire a weapon and a translation device before we set off. There are over ten million different languages spoken across the universe, so a translator is necessary. And some new clothes, those aren''t exactly your size anymore." I looked down at my clothes, which somehow looked smaller than they did before. Huh, who knew getting turned into a woman would make me taller. I looked through the menus Celeste had pulled up, which all had graphics of the different catalogues I was supposed to purchase from. I just went along with whatever was there and bought the three she had selected. Battle Clothing Tier Amethyst Unlocked for 30 Points, New Total: 120 Weapons and Ammunition Tier Amethyst Unlocked for 30 Points, New Total: 90 Basic Cybernetics Tier Amethyst Unlocked for 30 Points, New Total: 60 "Alright, you''ll want to purchase the Nano Translator Mark 1 for 10 points from that catalogue. Once you buy it, the hardware will be installed directly into your brain. Before you worry about that, the hardware is the size of a few grains of sand. After that, we''ll need to discuss the type of weapon you''ll want to use, and your branding." She said as I purchased the translator, feeling a slight headache for a moment. "I''m sorry, my branding?" "Correct. Almost every guardian has a specific theme to their equipment and clothing. It both inspires an idea of heroics to civilians and allows for easy sponsorship opportunities. Now, unless you have any major objections, I think it''s fairly obvious we should play into the fox elements of your transformation. How would you feel about a shrine maiden style design?" "Um, I''m not sure. To be honest, as a kid I always wanted to try on one of those outfits, but that does seem a little odd to be fighting in." "Well, let me make up a mockup of the design I was thinking of for you, and we can go from there! Meanwhile, what weapon would you be thinking of using? I know you can shoot a gun rather well, but I would still recommend a melee weapon to start, as it helps you get used to them. In the later tiers melee weapons often highly outrank ranged weaponry due to the usage of magic." "I guess any type of weapon would be fine? I''d prefer something with a longer range, I don''t want one of those things slamming into me again." I asked, and Celeste thought for a moment before I saw a popup appear. Basic Glaive Purchased for 20 Points, New Total: 30 Suddenly, a seven foot long pole with a blade attached to the end appeared in front of me, and I barely had time to catch it as it fell. I thought it would take me to the ground, but it was surprisingly light. "You could warn a girl before you drop a weapon on her skull! Why is this thing not that heavy?" "That''s part of the transformation, it brings you to the peak physicality of your species. If you want to store it in your inventory just put it behind your back and let go, and you can retrieve it later. You can store almost anything in there, but it''s mainly for weapons and outfits. Speaking of which, take a look at the design I made for you." As she said this, a model of me appeared on a computer nearby, wearing the newly designed outfit. It was clearly inspired by a traditional shrine maiden dress, but it had a few clear alterations. It had black and gold accents all along the red and white base and opened up on the sides to show my legs, which were covered up by a pair of sleek black leggings. While it did make me blush rather heavily, I had to admit it looked good. Tritan whistled when he saw it. "Wow, looks amazing- OW! I was just complimenting her outfit." He said as his sister smacked the back of his head. I looked at it a little more and turned to Celeste. "Well, it''s a little revealing. I mean, half of my arms are exposed in the sleeves, wont that get me injured?" "You''ll quickly reach a point where your body is more durable than any non-specialized armor once you begin using magic. Here, if you want, I can buy it right now and it will auto equip to you. Don''t worry, it creates a visual so no one can see you change." "Well, I guess so-" Before I could finish my sentence, a white light flashed around me, and when I opened my eyes again, I was wearing the outfit. Outfit Set Purchased for 10 Points, New Total: 20 "Okay, new rule, you''ll give me some notice before buying something! I''ll die of a heart attack before I can even see an invasion! Anyways, how do I look?" I asked. Tritan opened his mouth, but his sister moved towards him and he stopped before he said anything. "You look great! Now, do you two have everything you need? Once you''re in there, you won''t be able to purchase anything unless you¡¯re not in danger. You get one purchase per day mid combat, it has to do with warping technology and movement. The death toll for guardians went up one percent when they introduced that rule." "What? Then why the hell did they keep it?" "The death toll for civilians went down by forty percent. Trust me, you don''t want to mess with warping tech, much less the magic. Well, you both ready?" Xino asked, and me and Celeste both nodded. Tritan grabbed his tablet and showed me a few possible invasions I could help with. "Here, how about this one? It''s on a planet called Aurelon, just started a few minutes ago, atmosphere and gravity are about the same as Earth''s.¡± Tritan said, pointing it out. From a larger view the planet looked a lot like Jupiter, but smaller and with a single ring around it. ¡±And a it''s not entirely made of water! The last guardian I worked with on Earth complained about the water planets a lot. I miss that guy." Xino said. I tried to remember who the last guardian on Earth was, but I wasn''t able to, so I just nodded and looked over to Celeste who did the same. Tritan hit a few buttons as he and his sister backed away from us. "Alright, and... done! Good luck!" He said, and I looked around for a moment. "Nothing happen-" I realized while I was speaking that I should really learn to keep my mouth shut. Another portal opened up underneath my feet as Celeste disappeared, and after a few seconds I fell on the ground. I grabbed my glaive off the ground and looked around, realizing I was on top of a building. The architecture seemed to be similar to skyscrapers back on earth, but the planet was clearly different. The sky was an odd green color and the air felt odd to breath, like it was heavier than normal. I walked over to the edge and looked at the city. "Welcome to your first invasion Liara. There''s a reason I called these battles a fight against hell." Celeste said in my head as I watched the streets from above. Plague entities walked around in large groups, and across the city I could see some kind of mech suit flying overhead raining bombs. "This is insane, how am I supposed to help here?!" I asked, admittedly extremely frightened. The monsters down there looked absurd. There were giant spiders, some kind of insect thing with giant pincers. I mean, one of them was at least thirty feet tall! "Don''t worry, street clearing is only recommended for guardians Jasper rank and above, and only if their skillsets are suited for it. For lower level guardians, your priorities should be clearing out buildings where civilians are and getting them to safety. Looking at the camera feeds in the building below us, there are around three hundred people hiding in shelters. They don''t seem to be in immediate danger, but that could change any minute, so let''s move quickly now!" "Any chance I can take back this contract and just go home?" "You already bought the outfit, you''re stuck now." She said, and I was starting to get rather annoyed of her speaking in my head. "I should have just taken the death by flying cat." "Oh, well there''s actually a few flying overhead right now if you want-" "Okay, lets head inside this building and help people now!" I yelled, sprinting for the door that led off the roof, as I swore I was hearing some kind of howl behind me. "Knew that one would work." Chapter 2: Snake Eyes "So, what kind of place is this anyways?" I asked Celeste as I walked down the stairs to the top floor of the building. "From what I can see on the camera feeds here, it looks like an entertainment complex. It has a lot of different activities, mostly games, and a large casino." "Isn''t this place like fifteen stories tall? Great, I''m in the largest arcade in the universe and the only game I get to play is the one where I try not to get my head cut off." "Actually, the largest arcade in the universe is over a mile tall." Celeste said, and I had to process that for a moment. "Man, I gotta learn how to use that portal magic they''ve been shunting me around with." I opened the door at the bottom of the staircase, and saw it led to some kind of maintenance tunnels. As I walked around, I started getting nervous that something was about to jump out at me. "Hey, if you see anything on those cameras warn me in advance." "Already planning on it. Our first goal here should be to get you used to killing entities. Once you''re all warmed up, we''ll go check the three shelters here and inform them of our presence. Then we''ll communicate with local military and other nearby guardians to get them a transport to a more permanent shelter." "Okay, that doesn''t sound awful. I somehow doubt it''ll be that easy though." "It''s best to assume things will go wrong somehow in most scenarios. Alright, head through that door in front of you and be ready, there''s two Watchers on the other side. That''s the snake you killed earlier. They move rather quickly but tend to stay on straight paths, so just get ready to swing when it''s in front of you." I nervously peeked through the door and saw two snakes sitting in front of some kind of slot machine. I guessed that this was the casino area of the building and thought of something. Instead of walking out, I threw the door open and jumped back, and I heard a loud thud as the door slammed into the wall. As this happened, I realized it was much louder than normal, and I could slightly hear one of the Watchers sliding up to the door. I waited a few seconds till I saw its head peek through the door and stabbed out with my glaive. It saw me, but only had enough time to screech before the blade pierced it, killing it on the spot. I could barely lift my weapon back up before the other one slid around the corner, all its eyes locked on me. It sailed through the air at me, and if I had more experience using weapons, I could have easily cut it in half. Instead, I dropped the glaive and ducked, grabbing onto its tail as it passed overhead, but the thing was somehow stronger than me and slid right out. "Let me use that density power!" I thought, and clearly Celeste heard me as I felt some kind of odd sensation that seemed like it had been locked away before now. The watcher whipped around, and as it did it tried to slam its tail into my head. Instinctively, I urged my body to get heavier, and as I did I held my hand up and let the tail hit it. I felt the impact, yet I didn''t feel any pain and quickly closed my hand around it. The thing screeched like the other one did, and its head rushed towards me, but I just whipped its tail to the left and the head followed, slamming into a wall as it cracked the concrete. It limped over, clearly dazed, and I stepped forward and stepped on its head. I was expecting to have to stomp multiple times, but its exploded on the first hit, and the ground nearly caved in beneath me. I rushed backwards, each step thudding before I realized I needed to make myself lighter. 2 Entities Killed, New Point Total: 28 "Jesus, I didn''t think it would make me that much stronger! Why didn''t that make it harder for me to walk?" "Well, since the ability increases your density using magic, it also magically enhances your muscle density up to a point. How do you feel after your first real kills as a guardian?" "Honestly? A mix of scared and excited. I like fighting, but I''m used to humans, not monsters. But I can''t lie and say it''s not kinda fun feeling that strong." I said as I picked my glaive back up and headed into the casino, watching out for any more entities. "I wanted to ask you about that, you seem oddly competent at fighting for having just started out. Why is that?" She asked as we walked through. "You''re in my head aren''t you? Can''t you just look through my memories?" "I could, but that would be extremely immoral." As she said this, I sighed, hoping I wouldn''t have to explain too deeply. "It was my dad. When I was a kid, he got me involved in a ton of self-defense stuff. He taught me how to shoot a gun, enrolled me in taekwondo, and a lot of other stuff. I usually just tell people he was trying to make me a super soldier." I said, chuckling a bit to myself. "But why did he actually do it?" Celeste asked, and I simply stopped talking for a moment, checking my surroundings. I wasn''t sure what I was looking for, but I didn''t see anything that seemed like it would be a shelter. The casino looked normal with gaudy red carpets and gold accents on everything, except all of the slots had branding for things I had never seen before, which I assumed was popular media on this planet. After a minute of silence, Celeste spoke up again. "I''m sorry, is that not something you want to talk about?" "Not particularly, no." "Alright, I won''t bring it up again. Did you enjoy these activities? Oh, also the first shelter for this building is on this floor, a decent bit ahead and to the right." "Thanks for the heads up. And sure, I had fun with them. You don''t get up to the fourth black belt in a martial art if you don''t enjoy it. Well, technically I''m at the third right now, the test for the fourth is in a few months. Although they might have to modify it now that I''m a guardian." I said, heading through a more open area of the casino. As I walked through, I heard a noise ahead of me, and saw some kind of dog run out from underneath a table. It was green, which I was starting to realize would be a trend for these entities, but other than that it mostly just looked like a normal wolf. I felt a little bad about killing a dog, but as it started running at me, I figured I didn''t have much of a choice and raised my glaive. Suddenly, the dogs body seemed to dissolve partially as part of it quickly began to move to the side and started reforming next to it, and after about a second there were two dogs running at me, each slightly smaller than the first one was. "They can clone themselves?!" I exclaimed, but there wasn''t enough time for a response before one of them lunged at me. I reflexively pulled the glaive up, and the dog wasn''t able to move out of the way in the air to avoid it, as the razor-sharp blade sliced it cleanly into two pieces. The other dog followed behind it almost immediately, and I tried to spin the blunt end of the glaive to knock it away, but I missed, and the thing latched onto my leg. Pain shot up it instantly, which oddly didn''t make me distracted or scared, just absurdly aggravated. I raised both my hands up and formed them into one large fist, increasing my weight as I slammed my hands into its head. Its entire body exploded into the same liquid it formed from, and I decreased my weight as I kneeled down to look at my leg. Two Entities Killed, New Point Total: 48 "Celeste, tell me how I can heal this, cause it hurts like hell!" The wound was bleeding through my outfit, but thankfully I could stand on it. "Stop yelling, you''ll just bring more over! We can either get a catalogue with medical items, or we can get a tome with a healing spell available, which do you want?" Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. "I don''t know, the spell I guess, just hurry it up!" Starter Spell Tome Unlocked for 30 Points, New Total: 18 "Alright, now hurry and purchase...what the hell is that?" Confused, I looked up and saw something standing across the room about a hundred feet from me. It had scythes for hands like a mantis, but its body structure was more humanoid with armor plating all over its body. Its head was covered in black hair, obscuring what looked like a reptilian face. The entity didn''t move as I reached for my glaive and backed away. "Celeste, you''re the one who''s supposed to know about these things, so why are you asking me what that is?!" "I don''t know, I''ve never seen an entity like that before and I can''t access my usual database during an invasion without a computer! I didn''t see it anywhere on the cameras before this." "Well, at least it doesn''t seem too dangerous. It''s not even trying to move towards me." I said, watching the creature as I began walking backwards towards the area the shelter was in. As I did, the entity opened its mouth, and a voice came out. "Can you help me? I need someone to help me!" It said, its voice sounding like multiple people were speaking at once. I stopped moving for a moment, staring at the creature. "Nope, fuck this, I''m out of here." I said as I turned around and began moving at a faster pace. As I did, I heard some kind of whooshing noise behind me, and I jumped to the left and turned my head, seeing some type of pointed vine fly past me. I looked back and saw it was emerging from the chest of the entity, and it retracted back as the creature silently began sprinting after me. I immediately bolted the other direction while putting away my glaive, ignoring the pain in my leg completely. I turned a corner and saw a room that opened up in the center to show the floors below, and on the other side was a large steel door with glowing red emergency lights next to it. I kept moving towards the shelter, but as I looked back, I saw the entity was gaining on me quickly. I opened up the purchasing menu to try and find a spell to help me survive, and clicked on the one that seemed like it would do the most damage. Minor Explosion Purchased for 15 Points, New Total: 3 As I bought it, I felt the same shock of knowledge I had felt before when I first used my ability, and whipped around to face the entity that was chasing me. I wasn''t sure if this would damage myself or not, but I somehow knew the spell had limited range, and I would be a lot more damaged if that thing actually did cut my head off. I put both my hands side by side facing out in a cone shape, feeling the mana in my body running through my bloodstream, and I quickly directed it to my hands while picturing the spell. An orange glow formed around them, and as the creature leapt at me, I let go of the energy. "Die!" My arms flew back as the mana formed into heat, and I was shoved backwards ten feet as an explosion blasted the entity in the face. My ears rang as I looked at the area, and I smiled to myself as I couldn''t see the entity through the smoke. "You know, I could get used to killing these- oh fuck me." Horrifyingly, as the smoke cleared I saw the creature was virtually unharmed, although it had been knocked back a fair distance. It quickly recovered, standing up and bounding towards me again as I ran for the shelter. The path looked clear, but as I started running around the ring showing the lower floors, two of the dogs from before leapt out from behind a bar in front of me, cutting off my exit. If I stopped to deal with them, the entity behind me would just catch up and kill me, and I had already moved too far around the ring to go the other way. "Shit, how do these things know where the camera blind spots are?! You only have enough mana left for one blast, try and hit them both!" "That''ll push me back into that thing!" I screamed, recognizing how screwed I really was. I was ready to try jumping over the rail and seeing if I could make myself light enough that I wouldn''t get hurt, but as I thought of that I had another idea. I looked up, seeing the ceiling was thankfully quite high up from where I was standing, as the ring had a large domed skylight above it. I ran right for the dogs, deciding I may as well try this despite how stupid it seemed in my head. I could vaguely hear Celeste protesting, but I ignored her as the dogs got close enough to leap at me. As they did, I made myself lighter before jumping in the air, getting above the two dogs who turned around as I put my hands together again. I shoved the mana into my hands as fast as I could, trying to angle myself so my back was facing the shelter, and I released the spell before they could get out of the way. As the explosion went off, I saw the dogs get eviscerated by the spell as it propelled my now much lighter body, and I immediately began flying backwards at a dangerously high speed. I spun a few times in the air before I eventually righted myself enough to see where I was flying and saw that while I was headed for the shelter, I was going to slam into the wall before I slowed down. I tried my best not to scream as I quickly changed to the minimum density I could, and as I did I crashed into the wall about twenty feet above the shelter. I heard a horrible snapping sound as pain shot up my right arm, and I slowly fell down to the ground. I got up and looked at the shelter to figure out how to get in. Two Entities Killed, New Point Total: 23 "Put your hand on that pad!" Celeste yelled, and as I looked around, I saw the pad she was talking about and slammed my palm into it. The pad began to glow as it scanned my hand, and after a second I heard a beep come from it as a voice emanated from a speaker on the door. "Guardian recognized, you will have five seconds to enter once this message ends. Ensure no plague breach the shelter as you do so." As the voice stopped the doors began making a ton of noise before they slid open like an elevator, and I slipped inside. I turned around, seeing the entity not that far behind me running for the shelter. I took my glaive out from my inventory and counted the seconds as it charged closer and closer. It made a final leap as the doors began sliding closed, and thankfully they slammed shut before it could get inside. I heard what sounded like a crowd screaming as the thing banged on the door, but it held firm. I took a deep breath and leaned against the wall next to the door, sliding down it as I exhaled. "Um, hello." I whipped my head around and saw a woman in what looked like a security guard uniform. She looked human aside from some black streaks on her cheeks and around her eyes. She had dark skin and short brown hair, and even while I was leaning I had to look down at her, so either I was taller than I thought or she was very short. "Hey." I said, sounding completely exhausted. "You okay? You look hurt." She said, and I stared at her dumbfounded for a few seconds. "Yeah, I''m a little hurt. How could you tell?" I sarcastically pointed at my broken arm, and she winced as she looked at my injuries. "Well, we don''t have any medical supplies left, but we''ll see what we can do. Follow me." She began walking down the short hallway to the rest of the shelter, and after a moment I sighed and began walking after her, muttering as I followed. "Celeste, next time I try and make myself a human cannonball, talk me out of it." "I make no promises." Chapter 3: Medic in Training The shelter looked a lot different than I thought it would, although most of my expectations were from sci-fi movies. I thought it would be some advanced bunker, but instead it looked more like an average military sleeping area, with bunk beds everywhere holding people. From what I could tell there were about sixty or so people in here, and a lot of them were in various states of injury, with people attending to their wounds. It was a mix of different species, some of which seemed like normal humans, and others that I had never seen before. A mother who had similar marks on her face as the security guard was attending to her child, who almost looked like they were melting. They had the top half of a normal young boy, except for the fact that their skin was blue, and their body flowed down into a pool of some kind of liquid. He looked to be injured in some way, although how I had no clue. "How are there so few people in here? This place had to be packed." I asked the woman who had been leading me around. "It was." She didn''t elaborate further, which helped me realize what she meant. The rest of the people didn''t make it to the shelter. This building could hold thousands, but only three hundred people made it to safety. I thought back to that thing that chased me before. It could clearly mimic people''s voices, but how many? Who all did it kill before it got to me? I thought about this, as my non broken hand clenched my weapon so hard I could hear the handle start to creak. I hadn''t been sure of much since I became a guardian, but now I was sure of two things; that entity was dying today, and there wouldn''t be a single other casualty in this building. "Celeste, buy that healing spell, now." I wasn''t sure how, but I swore I could see her nod, and after a second a pop up appeared. Minor Recover Purchased for 15 Points, New Total: 8 I walked over to the two people, feeling the usual sense of knowledge that came with getting a spell. It seemed as though purchasing it gives you the basic knowledge on how to cast the spell, but any variations on its usage would have to be figured out yourself. This spell would heal any minor injuries instantly and some moderate ones over a few casts. "Excuse me, ma''am? I''m a guardian, if you want I can help heal your child." The woman moved in front of her child at first, but as she realized I was a guardian she smiled and walked to the side. I held out my hand, pushing mana throughout it and directing it over the kid''s wounds. As I did, I saw part of the child''s body reform from nothing, and he looked much better than before. "Sorry, is he okay now? I''m slightly new to this, so I haven''t met someone of your species before." I asked the mother, and she nodded, looking over her child to make sure he was alright. I gave her a smile and went to walk back over to the guard, but as I did my legs gave out from under me. She raced forward and caught me, laying me down on a nearby bed. I hadn''t noticed it until now, but I felt exhausted in a way I never had before. "Excuse me, can this guardians AI tell me what''s wrong with her? Aside from the obvious injuries." The guard asked, and Celeste appeared in a spark of light. "She is not used to using magic, and she accidentally used up all her mana with that healing spell. She should be fine to repair her own injuries in around ten minutes." "Hang on, I''ve got to heal everyone else first." I said, sitting up in the bed, but the guard pushed me down as Celeste shook her head at me. "While that''s admirable, we are on a time limit here, these shelters can only stay powered for so long before something big enough to break in arrives. Once you heal yourself, your body can devote the rest of its energy to restoring your mana. Relax for a minute, then we can heal you and anyone who''s critically injured." Celeste said, sitting directly on my chest. The guard looked at me and shrugged. "You heard the fox, can''t let you move. Names Mia by the way. You said you''re new to this?" "Yeah, I''m Liara, just started today. I''m just mostly used to seeing humans and a couple Zenith, so this is a bit jarring for me. Um, sorry if this is rude, but are you the same species as that woman and her child?" "Perfectly reasonable question, and yes, I am. We''re called Maneel, and we start out life as a small bit of solid matter inside a bunch of liquid. As we get older, we can form ourselves a more solid body, but if we ever need we can shift back into mostly liquid." I watched as her hand shifted to some kind of purple slime and back again. "That''s awesome! I really should look more into all the different species in the universe if I''m going to be doing this for long. So, is this your first invasion too?" I asked her, and her eyes widened. "You''ve never even been in an invasion? Wow, no wonder you''re so confused. You must be from one of those planets that only get breaches, huh?" "Guilty as charged. I''m from Earth, we''re the newest addition to the whole plague thing. I did almost die in a breach though, if that counts for something." "That definitely counts. I''ve been in a couple, but nothing this bad. I work as security here, have for the last five years. We were doing fine evacuating people to the shelter, until that thing showed up." She said, a sort of haunted look in her eyes. It was bad enough fighting that thing when you had a guardian''s body and magic, let alone just being a normal human. "I''m assuming you mean that mimic thing. I put an explosion directly into its face and it didn''t leave a scratch. Speaking of which, is there a computer in here? Celeste wanted to look up if that entity is in the database." I asked, and she nodded. Celeste hopped on her shoulder and the two walked off to a side room nearby. As I waited for them to come back, I looked around the room. At this point, everyone had noticed me, and they could clearly tell I was a guardian as they were staring at me. I blushed a bit, and a decent number of people realized they were being rude and looked away. I suddenly felt a tap on my shoulder, and as I looked over I saw the kid from before standing next to the bed. "Um, my mom says I should say thank you. Thanks." "Aww, no problem buddy." "Can you help my dad too?" "Of course! Where is he?" I said, sitting up a bit and looking around. As he said this, his mothers face fell, and she looked away. "He''s still outside." My heart sank as I realized what he meant, but I tried my best to keep a kind look on my face. "Don''t worry, if I see him out there, I''ll be sure to get him back here safe and sound." He smiled and ran back over to his mother, talking about how I was his fourth favorite guardian now. I realized these ears must have come with enhanced senses, because I normally had awful hearing. Guess that was one benefit to being a fox girl. "You seem to be adapting to this quickly." I turned around to see Mia and Celeste had returned. I rubbed the back of my head awkwardly, a little embarrassed they had seen my attempt at being heroic. "I mean, I just think kids deserve to have hope, and unfortunately I''m the only one here who can help." Mia put a hand on my shoulder as Celeste jumped down onto the bed. "It''s nice. A guardian is supposed to help people feel like things are going to be okay. Now, Celeste, tell her what we learned about that thing." "Right. It''s called a Recorder, and the reason I''ve never seen it before is because it only started showing up in the last two years. After my last contract ended, I took a few years off and worked as an AI for Zenith response teams." "Who was your last contract with?" Mia asked her, and she simply looked away. "Technically I can only give that information to my guardian, but I would rather not speak on it if that''s okay." She said. Mia looked at me, and I simply nodded. "You respect my privacy, I''ll respect yours. Now, how are we gonna kill this thing?" "That''s the problem. There is nothing in your current catalogues that could harm that creature. It has a malleable body that can adapt to damage extremely well. And that''s just the start, it can mimic its victim''s voices, and it''s smart enough to coordinate and lead other plague. The only benefit is that it tends to scare off other smaller plague, as it enjoys hunting in a smaller group. The best option at the moment is to gain more points as we venture down to the lower levels and then try and find something that could hurt it." "How durable are we talking here?" "There are five commonly accepted tiers of strength for plague. First is LEPTH, which is the lowest. A low tier LEPTH is killable by anyone with the lowest tier of weaponry, while a high tier would need a group of people with lowest tier weaponry. Then there''s SAIA. A low tier SAIA would take a squad of trained soldiers with lowest tier weaponry, and a high tier would need a squad with low tier weaponry." "What''s an example of low tier weaponry?" "The best example of a low tier weapon from Earth would be an AR-16." "Holy shit, this thing could tank a squad of soldiers with assault rifles?" I said, and she shook her head. "No, that creature is actually a low tier MASAL. That''s the next grade up. It would require a trained soldier with powerful explosive weaponry, or plasma weapons, which you don''t have access to at the moment." "Jesus. This thing doesn''t seem all that strong even if it is durable, why is it ranked so high?" "The rankings matter within the context of the entity. Certain entities that are rather easy to take down alone have special abilities that could kill crowds of people within seconds, so they are ranked higher. This entities structure is what makes it so highly ranked, despite its low group killing power." Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. "Well, fuck. There''s gotta be something. Oh, what if I made another ability? Earlier Xino said you could help me do that!" "While that might work, you would have to learn how to use your mana to enhance your body first. It naturally happens in smaller amounts, but using it actively makes the effect much more powerful. That would take time we don''t have." Celeste said, and I sighed, accepting I wasn''t killing that thing for a while. I started casting my healing spell on myself, and after two casts I could move my arm without any pain. "Alright, what''s the best way for me to get points? I can fight a few of those things at once, but that''s still pretty slow." I said, standing up and stretching. It seemed like there wasn''t anyone else in a critical condition, so I was getting ready to head out. "The best option would be to acquire some form of area of effect damage, as the lower floors will be infested much worse then this floor. The Recorder scared off most of the weaker entities up here. Unfortunately, you don''t have enough points for anything, so we might have to figure out something else." I thought to myself for a moment, before an idea came to me. "There was a bar on the way here, and this place probably has a ton more right?" "I can see each floor has its own bar on the cameras, plus a few specialty ones. Why?" "How much info does your database have?" "Anything you would need to know about killing plague. I ask again, why?" She asked, and I grinned. "Do you know how to make Molotov cocktails?" Despite not exactly knowing the face language of a fox, I could tell her expression had turned worried. "...unfortunately, yes." "Then it''s time to stock up." I said, heading over to Mia to let her know we were leaving. I walked into the room with the computer and saw her talking to someone over a headset. "You''re going to what? Okay, just calm down and we can- hello? They hung up on me!" She said, taking off the headset and throwing it to the side. "Hell was up with that?" "Oh, good, you haven''t left yet. Listen, shit isn''t going great in the lower floor''s shelters. There''s one on the seventh floor and one on the first. The seventh floor is doing fine, but some asshat closed the doors too early, and a full group of people got stuck outside. Thankfully some of them were security, so they could communicate with the people in the shelter. Right now, they''re all held up inside a store nearby the shelter, but there''s a lot of entities outside, so you need to get down there now." "That''s not great. What about the other one?" I asked, and she sighed pointing at the headset. "That''s who I was just talking to. Some of the people inside are scared cause there''s a big entity outside. Not big enough to break in mind you, but still dangerous. Some kind of gorilla looking thing. So, a few people tried to step up and claim themselves as leaders of the shelter over the security. They somehow beat my coworker''s asses and tied them up, and now they''re gonna try some stupid shit decently soon." She said, and I realized how bad that situation could turn in an instant. If they got some of the guns the security had, that could turn lethal quick. "Alright, first things first, the people outside need to be rescued. After that I''ll sprint down to the first floor and see what I can do." "Sounds good. While you''re doing that, I''ll get everyone up here organized to leave. Just say the word once you''ve got a safe point for us to meet up ready." She said, and I nodded, getting ready to walk out the door. "And kid? Don''t get killed out there. I''ve only met a couple guardians before, but you seem like you understand what it really takes to be one. I don''t want to see you go out too soon." Mia said, and I turned to her, smiling as I gave her a thumbs up. "Don''t worry, I won''t get myself killed. Just gotta go burn some plague alive." I said, walking out the door of the room to the front of the shelter. "You''re going to WHAT?!" I heard her yell behind me, and I laughed slightly. I put my hand on the pad near the door, summoning my glaive. "How are things looking Celeste, anything waiting outside?" "If the Recorder is still around, I can''t see it anywhere. Best bet would be to quietly jump down the center ring and head down a floor, then head to the bar there. Once we get these Molotov''s so you can burn yourself alive, we''ll head for the stairwell down to the seventh floor." "I''m not stupid, I won''t burn myself alive... but just to be clear, this outfit is fire resistant, right?" "Thankfully yes. Door''s opening up right now, watch yourself." She said, and as the doors slid open I sprinted to the inner ring and jumped down it, making myself much lighter. I slowly drifted down and caught the bar around the floor below, climbing into it. This floor seemed to be more about arcade games rather than slot machines, and I could see what Celeste meant when she said the other floors had more entities. I could see a wide variety of creatures roaming around, and I quickly slipped behind a few arcade machines before anything saw me. "Bar is about two hundred meters west, and you''ll have to find a way through a decently sized pack of Bashers." "What''s a basher?" "The cat that almost killed you." "Fucking flying cats. Alright, let''s get moving." I moved through the arcade, keeping as silent as possible as I went. On a couple occasions I was able to catch an entity off guard and stabbed them before they could see me. I got a couple dogs, and some kind of jellyfish looking one that could apparently spit acid when you don''t kill it instantly. Three Entities Killed, New Point Total: 33 Eventually, I made it to a bar that looked the same as the one from the floor above, and sure enough, I could see about ten of those flying cats. "Alright, does that weapons catalogue have any guns?" "Yes, what are your specifications for the gun?" "Anything that can shoot fast and isn''t absurdly hard to control." I said, and she scanned through the catalogue highlighting a few options. "My main recommendation, if you aren''t averse to using fully automatic weapons, would be the Stellaris Machine Loaded Sub Machine Gun 17. It can automatically reload for you once you place a magazine in, and it should get through those Bashers with ease. It might bring some attention over to you however, so I would also recommend purchasing a silencer to go with it. Should eliminate eighty percent of the noise." That all sounded good to me, so I purchased the gun with the silencer attachment, and five magazines of ammo. ML-SMG-17 Purchased for 15 Points, New Total: 18 Silencer Attachment Purchased for 3 Points, New Total: 15 SMG Ammo x5 Purchased for 5 Points, New Total: 10 It all appeared in front of me, and I took a second to pop the silencer on and place a magazine in. The gun locked it in place and racked the charging handle for me, so I switched it to fully automatic and took off the safety. I whipped around the corner, got down on one knee and started spraying into the entities. I shredded through three of them near silently before any of them even noticed what was happening, and by then it was too late. I took out the next six cleanly but had to focus a bit to get the last one as it flew towards me. One bullet to the head took it down about thirty feet from me, and I quickly checked my surroundings. It didn''t seem as though anything had heard the noise, so I quickly vaulted over the bar. Ten Entities Killed, New Total: 40 "Alright, grab those bottles and pour some of the alcohol out, then stuff those cleaning rags in them. Make sure none of the liquid is touching the rag, otherwise it will explode in your hand." I followed Celestes advice, and in a few minutes, I had five homemade Molotov''s ready to go. I tucked them all away in my inventory, so they could be ready for use later. "Perfect, time to head down to the seventh floor. But first, let''s test this out." There were some entities nearby, but thankfully none of them had spotted me yet. I reloaded my SMG and shot a bullet into the screen of a nearby arcade machine that looked suspiciously like Donkey Kong. The screen shattered and the machine began to spark, and I quickly ducked my head down. I waited about a minute before Celeste spoke to me again. "Got three Cloners and five Stingers gathered around the machine. How are you going to light the cloth?" She said, and I looked up to see five of those jellyfish entities and three of the dogs investigating the machine. I pulled a Molotov out of my inventory and pushed some mana into my hand. I focused it into my finger and put it against the rag, and when I released the mana, a tiny explosion went off, setting the rag ablaze. I chucked the bottle as hard as I could, and it smashed into one of the jellyfish. The liquid splashed and spread over the other entities, who all caught on fire. The dogs, being slightly smarter, tried to roll on the ground to put it out, but they didn''t manage in time before all of the creatures damn near melted. Eight Entities Killed, New Total: 95 "Wow, that was effective. Uh, the sprinklers will put that out right?" I pointed at the fire still burning on the ground. I started heading out, as the dying noises of the entities was sure to draw some more attention. "Eventually. Now hurry, we don''t know how long those people have left." "Right. Man, I''m really glad these outfits don''t catch fire." "Oh, they do, they just don''t burn easily." "...this may have been a mistake." I said, heading for the stairwell, making sure to keep that thought in mind. Chapter 4: Head On As I headed down the stairwell, I browsed through the catalogues I currently had. The one I was most interested in was the cybernetics, as it looked like it would be the quickest power upgrade I could get. "Hey Celeste, how am I supposed to contact another guardian anyways? You said the internet and other stuff doesn''t work during an invasion." "There''s some technology specifically designed for communication between guardians in your cybernetics catalogue, shouldn''t cost you too much. I''d recommend buying anything else you want before we get down to the seventh floor, as it may take some time to install." I took a look at the implant she had suggested, which seemed to have a variety of features along with being able to contact other guardians. I bought it, then took a look at some of the muscle enhancers. While I could kill these weak entities in one shot, the problem now was speed. I needed to be quick enough to get the rest, so I decided I would grab a pair of the cheapest option for my arms and legs. Grade 1 Guardian Communicator Purchased for 20 Points, New Total: 75 Grade 1 Fast Twitch Muscle Enhancement x2 Purchased for 50 Points, New Total: 25 The communicator acted the same as the translator had, giving me a slight headache as it installed in my brain. When it finished, a few things popped up in my vision, including a clock and the current weather. Thankfully I could turn it off if I needed. The other enhancements seemed to work different, as four syringes appeared on the ground in front of me, and I scrambled to grab them before they rolled down the stairs. "You''ll want to inject one of those into each of your thighs and near your shoulders. It will sting, but after a few minutes they should be good to go." I followed Celeste''s instruction, and after a minute I felt whatever nanomachines were working down there start to take effect. It did hurt quite a bit, but I just bit my lip and kept walking down the stairs. While I did, I decided I would try and give a nearby guardian a ring, since I was going to need some help later anyway. I just pictured sending out a call to the nearest person, and after a second, I heard a very generic ringing sound play over. "Is this gonna take a while?" "Possibly, often higher ranked guardians tend not to interact with lower ranked ones." As she finished the sentence, the ringing noise stopped. "Hey, who am I speakin to?" A rather husky but still distinctly feminine voice came over the phone. "Or they could answer right away, that works too." "Uh, hi, the name''s Liara? I need some help evacuating an entertainment center in maybe a few hours." I said as I made it to the door to the seventh floor. I would wait here a couple more minutes just to make sure the muscle enhancers were fully installed. "Liara''s a bit of a weird persona, but alright. Name''s Arc Angel, nice to meet you." "Huh? Oh, no, my name is Liara. I don''t have a guardian name yet." I heard the woman gasp slightly, and suddenly a picture of her face appeared in the corner of my vision, making me jump. She looked like a succubus from a video game, with cherry red skin and two curved horns on either side of her head, and her facial features were honestly stunningly beautiful. "Yes! I finally got to a newbie first! Also wow, you are adorable, love the ears. Anyways, you know what that means? I get to help you pick out your name!" She said, and I stared at her, incredibly confused by this conversation. "...gonna be fully honest, I didn''t hear anything after adorable. What was that?" "You see, a guardian gets their name from the first experienced guardian they meet! I got my name from the guy with the mech suit up there, because I use electricity and, well, I look like a demon. A bit ironic for my tastes, but I''ve grown to love it." "You know that guy? And wait, I don''t even get to pick my own name?" "Oh yeah, me and Fortress go way back. And of course you get to pick the name, I can''t just give you some joke name. It''s just a fun little tradition. Anyways, you mind if I call you back? I''ve got like eight things chasing me right now." I perked my ears up and noticed I could hear a bunch of stomping in the background. "Uh, yeah, go ahead. I''ve got some people to go save anyways. Call me in ten minutes." I said, hanging up the phone. She seemed like, a lot to deal with. But hey, at least she was nice. "It seems we are rather lucky." "Yeah, I''m glad we found someone actually helpful instead of some asshole who''s just worried about points." "You misunderstand, I meant we are lucky there are no entities that look like beautiful women, as they appear to be your weakness." My face turned slightly red, and I wished Celeste was in her physical form so I could take a kick at her. "For the record, it would be beautiful people, not just women." "While that is nice to know, there are people in mortal peril at the moment." "You brought it up- ugh, whatever!" I tested out the new enhancements with a few practice jabs. Sure enough, they came out more than twice as fast as before. Now they would really need to modify that next taekwondo test. I opened up the door and headed out onto the seventh floor, pulling out my new gun as I walked. This floor seemed to be more of a shopping area, and it had a lot of variety. There were electronic stores, clothing stores, and some I wasn''t even sure what they sold. As I walked, I tried to sneak around like earlier, but after a few minutes a Basher flying around noticed me and made this horrible howling sound. I popped a new magazine into my gun and took it out of the sky, but at that point it was too late, and I saw a decently sized horde of entities approaching me from across the room. I sprayed into the crowd and managed to take down a few of them, but before long something that looked like a venus fly trap with legs shot a ball of what appeared to be acid at me, and I quickly lowered my weight and hopped into the air. I made it about twenty feet vertically and looked down at the horde below, as most of them just stared up at me angrily. "Heh, can''t exactly get me up here can t-" Somehow not learning when to shut my mouth, as I said this a Basher flew directly into my face, sending me spiraling off in some random direction as my vision blurred. When I could see clearly again, I saw I had slowed down and was about to hit the floor a decent bit away from where I started. Fortunately, I wasn''t moving too fast, so I caught myself and landed on my feet, and I also managed to keep my grip on my gun. Unfortunately, the horde was moving a lot faster then I was falling, and they were now clearly not screwing around. I pulled a bottle out of my inventory and lit it up, throwing it towards the horde. A few of them dodged, but a majority of the slower ones got hit, and they began burning. However, I had failed to accommodate for one thing. Fire doesn''t kill immediately, and these entities seemed like they were willing to take me down with them. So I had about five seconds before about five monsters jumped at me, and ten second before thirty two monsters actively on fire jumped at me. First, I shot down the few Bashers trying to get at me and took a few shots at the closer entities. I then executed my incredible new strategy, running away like a coward, albeit one that was still alive. As I did, I expected to start losing my lead on the horde, but the muscle enhancers had done just as good a job on my legs as they did my arms, and I blasted down the room before coming across what looked like a food court, and I could see on the opposite side of the room the shelter on this floor. That did however leave me with one question, where the hell was the crowd of people needing saving. "Wait a minute...did I accidentally get the attention of the entities that they were hiding from?" I asked Celeste. "From what I''m seeing, yes. The crowd was inside a store nearby when that Basher revealed your position." I sighed, realizing I would have to go back the way I came, which was filled with some unfortunately not yet dead entities. 11 Entities Killed, New Total: 88 Well, I guess some of the entities were dead. I turned around and saw that while I had gotten some of them, there was a very annoyingly placed fountain in the middle of the ring of stores, and some of the smarter ones had gotten in there. And to make things worse, I couldn''t just gun the rest of them down, as they had realized what I was doing and were ducking behind cover as they ran. "Celeste, warn me if they do anything crazy or get too close, I''m going to try and buy something to give me an advantage." I pulled out my glaive and looked through my catalogues to see if they had anything that could help. While I was looking in the tome section, I noticed something intriguing. "Well, you know what they say. If at first you don''t succeed, light it on fire again." I purchased the basic fire spell and then went to see if I could grab any helpful weapons. I saw a section called Modifications, and as I clicked on it, a list of my current weapons appeared. I clicked on the glaive and saw a few options pop up, one of which was a second retractable blade, which seemed helpful, so I got it as well. Minor Flame Purchased for 15 Points, New Total: 73 Retractable Blade Modifier Purchased for 12 Points, New Total: 61 "How do I use this? Oh, that''s how!" I said, pressing a button that had formed on the side of the glaive. The bottom end folded in on itself before a second blade shot out, so there was now a blade on either end. I gave a few test swings, looking back to see what was happening with the entities. The ones that were left were mostly the wolves with a few Watchers in the mix, so they were keeping their distance. "Alright, I''m getting pretty sick of running away today. Time to get some real hand to hand experience. Well, they don''t have hands but...who am I arguing with?" I shook my head, realizing I was just making myself nervous, and sprinted out towards the remaining horde. Most of them were still in the fountain putting themselves out, but the rest got into position to attack as I came near. I sprang forward and cut one of the wolves before it could react, and as the one next to it began to multiply I brought the other end of the glaive up and sliced through its head. I heard a hiss behind me and ducked as a watcher sailed over me, and I stabbed up, catching it in mid air. It stayed speared onto the end of my glaive as three more entities came towards me from my left. One was just another Cloner, but the other two looked like giant hornets, and I was immediately not a fan. As they came forward, I threw my glaive straight up and put my hands together, charging up an explosion. They somehow recognized this and lined up, the Cloner in front trying to shield the other two with its body. It was too late to let the spell go, so I instead just put my hands closer together so the gap in the middle was narrower. This funneled the explosion, and instead of just killing the wolf and knocking the other two back, it ripped a hole through all three and went about ten feet past them as well. That was probably a good trick to remember for the future. I grabbed my glaive from midair and turned to the fountain to see they had finally finished being on fire and were quickly heading for me. One of them was the plant entity from earlier, which proceeded to spit more acid at me. I cut the ball of acid in half, but that turned out to be very stupid, as it didn''t split fast enough and a decent amount splashed onto my arms. My outfit got most of the damage, but I still felt a decent amount start to burn on my skin, and I restrained myself from giving a slight scream as it did. Before I could do anything else, I heard a ringing noise and out of nowhere I heard a robotic voice. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Answering Call As it said this, Arc Angels face appeared in the corner of my vision. "Hey! Is this a bad time?" "YES!" I screamed, dropping my glaive and casting a quick healing spell on myself with one hand as I increased my density and grabbed a jumping Cloner by the neck with my other hand. I threw it at the plant and they both smashed into each other, which I hoped had put them both out of commission. Another hornet came down at me from above, so I moved my head to the side to dodge and threw a jab into the side of its abdomen. It dented and the bug rocketed away, skidding along the ground. The last things running at me was another large pack of wolves, so I just picked up my glaive and held out one hand, pouring mana into it before a jet of fire burst from it, clearly much hotter than the Molotov''s from earlier were burning. Instead of simply lighting them on fire, it essentially melted them, and I was able to get all of them before I started feeling exhausted like before. I panted and looked around, seeing no more enemies. "Okay, I think now we''re good to tal- FUCKING CATS!" I screamed as another Basher came down at me, and I grabbed it by the tail and slammed it into the ground, stomping on its head. I huffed in anger, but this time it did seem like things were actually over. 23 Entities Killed, New Point Total: 193 "Uh, should I call back?" Arc Angel asked, and I shook my head. "No, sorry, just dealt with a giant horde. Gotta go talk to some civilians in a sec, but we can talk while I head over there." "Oh cool! How many did you kill?" She asked oddly happily as I walked back over to where this had all started. I could see some people walking out of a game store, clearly scared and confused. "Like ten of those wolves, five hornet things, these annoying plants that spat acid. Got over a hundred points for it though." "Not bad for an early killing session! How did you deal with them all at once, any aoe?" "Yeah, I got some fire magic and explosion magic. Also this cool glaive and this gun." "I considered using fire magic at first, but my ability has to do with electricity, and honestly with the whole demon thing it felt a bit cliche. Speaking of which, before you talk to those people, let''s figure out your name!" "Are you sure? I''m only like forty feet away." I looked over at the civilians, who were waving at me, and I held up my hand trying to somehow signal that I was talking to someone. Arc rolled her eyes at me but nodded. "Alright fine, go lead them to the shelter first. I''ve got some time to kill anyways, the people here are still trying to get everyone ready to head out." I nodded and ran over to the crowd. They were clearly relieved to see me, but I noticed the group was oddly small. "Hey there, you''re all going to be safe. My names Liara, I was told you guys needed help. Although I thought there would be more of you." I said. and one of the security ran up to me from the back of the group. "We have more people, but they''re too injured to walk. Can you help with that?" "Shit, lead me to them, quick." He ran towards the store they were in before and I followed. It was some kind of merchandize store, but my lack of alien pop culture knowledge led me to not recognize any characters. In the corner, I saw people tending to the injured. Some of them looked not too bad, but one older looking Zenith was writhing around in pain. I bolted over to him but didn''t notice any obvious wounds. "What happened to him?" I asked the woman standing next to him, who I assumed was his wife. "I don''t know, he didn''t seem like anything was wrong earlier! Then he said he felt bad, but he didn''t want to take time from the actual injured people. And out of nowhere he collapsed." "Really regretting not going to med school right now! I can''t heal him unless I know what''s wrong. Celeste, is there a spell that can diagnose people?" "There is, and you could afford the tome currently." "Get it and throw in some kind of poison removal spell while you''re at it. I get the feeling this might be something like that." Basic Medical Tome Tier Amethyst Unlocked for 30 Points, New Total: 163 Diagnose Purchased for 20 Points, New Total: 143 Minor Cleanse Purchased for 25 Points, New Total: 118 As I cast the diagnose spell, it was like I had an x ray of his entire body, and little text bubbles appeared in my vision pointing out issues. I severely doubted his celiacs disease was causing this problem, so I looked deeper and saw his blood had some odd mixture in it. "Yep, just what I thought. He must have been stung by one of those hornets or something on the way in." I cast the cleansing spell, and I saw the toxin get flushed out of his body through his skin. His wife backed up as it began leaking out of his pores, and eventually he stopped moving and seemingly passed out. "Alright. Celeste, how do I get more mana? Cause if I cast another spell then they''re gonna have one more person to carry to the shelter." I said, woozily standing up. I had clearly exerted myself too much. "In the long term, the only way is to practice and build up your mana stores. There are certain enhancers you could use temporarily, but at your level they would wreck your body for a while, so unless it''s a life-or-death emergency, I will not purchase them nor tell you how to." I groaned but relented, shakily walking over to the group of guards by the door. "Listen, I''ve done what I can for now, but we can''t safely get these people out until I heal a chunk of them, and there''s at least twenty people in there who need healing. I need some time to recharge, so we''ll have to hold out here for now." "Well how the hell are we going to do that? You got that horde out of here, but you made so much noise doing it who knows how quickly more will be back?!" A human looking guard said, getting annoyingly close to my face. "Calm down bud, I have some ideas. You guys know how to shoot guns right?" I asked, and while I expected a swift yes, most of them simply stared at me blankly, with only two people raising their hands. "I can now see why there were so many casualties in this place.¡± ¡°Sorry, only the higher level guards are given firearm training.¡± A Zenith girl who had been one of the ones who raised their hand said. ¡°It¡¯s fine, we¡¯ll make it work. Celeste, can I buy things that shoot guns instead?" "You have a few options for that. Would you prefer turrets or something more mobile that can''t be easily destroyed like a drone?" "Let''s go with drones, can''t exactly afford to lose my deposit on these things. What gun would you recommend for the ones who can shoot and the drones?" "A lighter option would be best for both, as we do not need a mistake to happen and more injuries to occur mid combat. There are a variety of pistols available in your basic weapon catalogue, and for extra you can have one that shoots homing projectiles to make it easier for them." I thought for a moment, looking through the options and the cost. "Alright, let''s get two homing pistols for the guards, and two more powerful pistols for two drones." Basic Robotics Catalogue Tier Amethyst Unlocked for 30 Points, New Total: 88 Automatic Assault Drone x2 Purchased for 40 Points, New Total: 48 A-33 Tracker Magnum x2 Purchased for 30 Points, New Total: 18 "Shit, ran out of points, need like two more for the drone guns." I scratched my head wondering what to do, before one of the guards pointed in the air. "Well, you could kill that one?" She pointed up at another Basher, which I swore was staring at me with hate in its eyes as it flew above us. "I am going to eradicate these fucking cats from the universe someday." I pulled out one of the new pistols and shot it between the eyes. Entity Killed, New Total: 20 M-1911 x2 Purchased for 20 Points, New Total: 0 "Ooh, going for an Earth classic on the guns I see, very nice choice Celeste." I looked back to where everything had appeared, and picked up the two drones. They had orbs for a main body with a camera on top and eight long wiry arms sticking out, complete with fans at the top for it to fly. "Let''s see, I''ll call you Mars, and I''ll call you Venus! Welcome to the team you two!" I said holding up the two drones, that upon hearing my voice activated and began floating in midair. I turned to the guards, who were all staring at me perplexed. "Oh what, a girl isn''t allowed to have some fun every now and then? Besides, it''ll be good for branding. Now, non-shooters, head back into the store." They walked back inside, and I handed the remaining Zenith girl and human man a gun each. "How do you know we won''t just shoot you?" The man who had been yelling at me earlier asked, and I slowly turned to look at him. "I did not consider it. I should hope you would do the same. I mean, I just saved your life." I said, and he looked away flustered. "I just meant because we were arguing earlier, sorry." "No hard feelings bud, this is a stressful situation. I know I joked earlier about the casualties, but you guys have done good keeping everyone as safe as you can here." The man smiled as I said this, and I simply gave him a slight nod. "As heartwarming as this conversation is, our time for talking has just about run out. Give those pistols to the drones and get ready to start killing." I nodded and held up the guns, which the drones snatched out of my hands. "Alright gang, we got company. I couldn''t afford extra ammo, so once we kill a few then I''ll buy you some extra. Just listen to what I say, watch all angles, and for christ''s sake don''t shoot each other. I didn''t give you a homing pistol so you could still somehow hurt yourselves." As I said this, the Zenith girl held up her hand, and I pointed at her. "Sorry, who''s christ?" "...don''t worry about it. Although if we don''t survive this next push, you might be seeing him." "Is he a medic of some kind-" "Get ready to fight!" I yelled as three more of those hornets rounded the corner. I could tell this was going to be a long standoff. Chapter 5: Not Enough The next hour was a combination of terrifying and utterly boring. The process for the defense was simple, a wave of entities would come in, we would clean them up with usually no issues, and then I would head inside and begin healing someone while the others kept watch. There was a certain rhythm to it I found interesting, how waves would come in at certain times with certain group sizes and combinations of entities. Of course there was some randomness to it, but the idea that these things understood some concept of strategy fascinated me. I asked Celeste to track the statistics of it all just in case I ever wanted to look at it. After a while had passed, I had gotten back up to a decent amount of points, 323 after buying extra ammo for everyone. Thankfully, the homing pistols did the job, and I was quickly growing attached to Mars and Venus. As I stood over man with a broken leg, casting yet another healing spell on him, I got a call back from Arc Angel. "Hey, just checking in with you. Should be ready to leave in an hour or so, you busy?" "Not busy enough we can''t talk. So, you wanna get this whole name thing done finally?" As I said this, I saw her face light up in joy. She really must have been bored waiting for me. "Yes! Okay so, obviously we have to stick in line with your whole adorable fox girl thing, but is there anything else important that might be marketable, or anything we should stay away from?" She said, and I finished healing the man and walked to a corner of the store to talk about this in private. People tend to give you weird looks when you talk to thin air. "There is something we should try and avoid. I didn''t exactly look like this before my transformation." She giggled as I said this. "Well yeah, I assumed so. Earth doesn''t have the best prosthetics yet, so I figured that was part of it." I had to process what she meant for a second. I guess in some places you could just, get fox ears surgically. That was admittedly rather cool. "Well, that''s not exactly what I meant. I looked a lot less feminine before today, if you catch my drift." I saw her squint at me for a moment before speaking. "Can''t say that I- OH! Now I get it! I can understand why you would want that to be low profile, don''t want your deadname or anything out there." "Exactly! ...wait, what? No, I didn''t choose this! It just came with the ears and the tail." "But you said your names Liara, right? And you''re going by she/her?" "Well, yes, but I mean... look at me!" I gestured down to my chest, which was still distinctly female. "Trust me hun, I''m pretty sure me and everyone else have been. It''s a good thing we get our physical abilities boosted, cause you definitely needed that extra back strength." I felt a blush erupt on my face as she said that, and I looked down at myself. I knew I should feel annoyed that she was talking about my body like that, but all I felt was a weird sense of pride I didn''t really understand at the time. "To be honest, I kind of forgot how big these things were. Are they that noticeable? Hang on, don''t answer that, that''s not the point of this conversation! I didn''t pick this body, just like I didn''t choose to get fox ears. I''m not exactly a real woman." "Liara, you do know people change their bodies all the time, that doesn''t make you or them not real women." "I know trans people exist, I''m not a moron! I''m just saying I had no control over this." I noticed as I said this a few people looked over at me oddly. I must have been getting a bit too loud. "Okay, but do you like your new body?" Arc said, and this made me stop and think for a moment. I wasn''t sure I felt strongly one way or the other about it, but obviously I preferred my old body. Although the enhanced hearing was really useful, and I did like my new hair. I always had trouble growing it out before, and now it was rather nice looking. I realized this was going to take a lot of thinking to fully figure out, and I didn''t have much time at the moment. "Listen, Arc, I understand what you''re trying to say here, but I''m fine. I''m just Liara right now because it''s easier than explaining things to everyone I meet. Could we please just get back to the naming thing?" "Alright, but you should talk to a friend of mine later. So, no mentioning of your past in the name or branding, got it. So, there''s a couple directions we could go for with this. We could focus on your abilities and work the whole fox angle into it, or we could go primarily for the fox elements." "Let''s stick with just the fox part, I can''t think of anything revolving around gravity that isn''t just a pun." "Ooh, you use gravity magic? I''ve never seen that before, you''ll have to show me. Anyways, let''s start thinking of a name. Are there any myths about foxes on Earth?" I didn''t even have to think for a moment before multiple ideas popped into my head. "A ton actually. They''re related to trickery usually, and also funnily enough transformation. There''s kitsunes, they''re messengers of the deity Inari, little trickster spirits that can turn into people and have multiple tails." "And what about that god? Is he a fox?" "Inari? No, but they are sort of the god of foxes. Also their gender is weird, sometimes they''re depicted as a man and sometimes a woman, it depends on the period." She smiled at me as I said this, and I looked at her confused for a moment. "So then that fits perfectly! You aren''t a full fox, just a fox girl, and you also had a gender change." I realized what she meant and simply shook my head annoyed. I had to admit she wasn''t wrong though; Inari did fit pretty well. "I guess that does work. Plus, Inari is a Japanese deity, and I am half Japanese. Oh, that''s a country on Earth in case you didn''t know." "Well, that''s settled then, nice to meet you Inari! And I actually do know about Japan, they make all those weird cartoons that got super popular recently." "Have they? I thought people around the universe would have other things to watch. I guess Earth media is pretty interesting for people that aren''t humans." I said, and she gave me a confused look much like the one I gave her earlier. "There are a lot of humans that aren''t from Earth you know. What did you think I was?" I simply stared at her blankly for a moment. "To be honest, the whole demon thing made me not think about it. And I have seen some humans, but I never actually considered why they were here." That was one of the most jarring shifts to the science scene when the Zenith came to Earth. Evolution, while a real thing, never really happened with humans, and instead planets were seeded with sentient species by some unknown group a long time ago. I had assumed Earth was the only one seeded with humans, but I guess I was wrong. "Well, I am a human in case you were wondering. I''m usually too busy to be looking at stuff on the data-union, but apparently Earth''s media is getting pretty popular. Which is weird, cause I don''t think you guys even have the data-union yet. They usually only set it up when a planet starts getting invasions, otherwise they''ll just use it for communication purposes, so I guess someone''s been leaking it out there." "I''m sorry, are you telling me there''s a version of the internet but for the entire universe, and no one told me?" "If the internet is what I think it is, then yes. Now that you''re a guardian, you can probably just buy the hardware to access it yourself though. The VR stuff can get really expensive even for a guardian, but it''s useful to invest into." I was now much more interested in finishing this invasion quickly so I could start looking through all of that. "I have so many things I need to do after this. Hang on, Celeste, any updates on the next wave?" I said, realizing that it was about time to head back out. Celeste popped up on my shoulder and looked at me. "Negative, it appears this wave will be taking a bit longer to arrive. Feel free to continue your conversation, I''ll inform you when your mana levels are back up to normal." "Well that''s good at least. Oh, speaking of mana levels, I had a question for you Arc. How do you use mana to make yourself stronger? I wanted to make another ability earlier but apparently I have to learn how to do that first." "That''s really easy actually! Well, it isn''t, but it is easy to get started. You know how you push mana around your body to cast spells? Just feel out your mana and do that, moving it through your body in circles. Once you get used to moving it, push it into whatever part of your body you need and hold it there." I nodded and closed my eyes, focusing on feeling out the mana in my body. After a moment, I saw what looked like a river of violet petals come into focus, flowing uncontrollably through my veins. I imagined reaching out a hand to tug at it, and I found it was much harder to control then the more instinctive use of spellcasting. If I tried to change its path directly, it ripped away from me and actually hurt a decent bit. Instead, I tried to change the direction it was flowing gradually. After a few tries, I got it flowing into a sort of whirlpool near my chest, and then directed the energy to my arm. Right as it reached my arm, I grabbed a hold of it as tightly as I could and opened my eyes. As I did, I saw my arm was coated in purple energy, and I did a quick test jab. I punched at the wall in front of me, not too hard in case I screwed up somehow. My fist slammed into the wall, leaving a rather large dent with cracks spiderwebbing out from it, and I felt no real pain in my hand. Arc gave me a celebratory clap. "Congrats! I wasn''t expecting you to get that so soon, it took me a few hours of trying to get it to hold still." "Well, I doubt I''ll be able to use it consistently for now, but it wasn''t as hard as I thought. Just gotta work with the river, let it flow where it needs to." "A river? I see it more as an electric current, but I guess everyone visualizes differently. Anyways, if you tried to make an ability before it would have gave you a little message saying no, but now you should be fine. Just think about what you want the ability to do, and your Contractor should work with the system for the rest." I looked at Celeste, who nodded to confirm that was how it worked. I noticed that the guards outside were starting to get a little restless, so I knew I needed to finish up this conversation quickly. "As a basic rule, I recommend not making more than four abilities per guardian rank. Since you instinctively know how to use most of them, making too many abilities can stifle your decision making. As she said, all you have to do is relay to me somehow what the ability you have in mind does, and I can make suggestions on how to improve it. An ability having drawbacks and weaknesses can actually amplify what you can do with it, but for now just try something small, we can change it later if we need to." Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. "Well, I could, uh... I''ve got nothing. Arc, any ideas?" Before she could say anything, I heard shouting in the background of the call, and she looked to the side annoyed. "Ugh, sorry, I''ve gotta deal with this. Call me when you''ve got all those people ready to evacuate." She hung up and I was left just staring at the naming screen. I hoped she was okay, but she seemed like she was fine. Suddenly, I felt something tapping on my shoulder. I turned around to face the person and noticed she looked oddly scared. "Um, miss, can I ask why you''re punching walls and talking to yourself?" I looked over at the dent in the wall and awkwardly put a hand behind my head and chuckled. "Sorry, was just trying something that a friend of mine was teaching me over the phone. My bad if I scared you or anyone else." I walked past her through the store, muttering apologies as I headed out the front door where I saw the two guards sitting around anxiously. The Zenith girl gave me a wave as I walked out, and I looked around. I only saw the corpses of previously killed entities lying around. I decided to focus on listening a little closer to see if I could hear any hornets buzzing around. "What are you doin?" The girl practically yelled in my ear, and I jumped damn near five feet in the air in shock as my ears started ringing. "I''m trying to listen to any sounds nearby, I have really good hearing. Things just seem strangely quiet right now. Celeste, how are things looking on the cameras?" "I actually don''t see a lot at the moment, it appears the remaining entities have begun clearing out." She said, and something about that made me nervous. Once the ringing noise faded, I tried listening in again, and I could very clearly hear entities making noise across the floor. "I still hear things, are you sure there aren''t more... wait a minute, what does the top floor look like right now?" "One second, let me check... here we go, it appears to have filled back up with entities after we left." I felt my stomach drop as she said this, and I whipped around, sprinting into the store. There were only a couple more injured people, so I dashed over to the one who looked the most physically able, who was some type of insectoid race I hadn''t heard of before. I quickly healed them and looked around at the crowd. "Alright people, listen up! Everyone grab your things, we''re heading towards the shelter. Anyone who can lift a decent amount of weight, work together and help carry anyone who''s still injured. We leave in a minute and a half!" I yelled before running back outside, making sure Venus and Mars were still okay. The human guard looked at me like I was insane. "What the hell are you doing, I thought we were supposed to get everyone healthy before we left?" "I must admit, I am also quite confused. Why are you in such a hurry?" Celeste said, and I turned to face her as she walked behind me on the floor. "Because we''re screwed if we don''t leave right now! There''s still a decent amount of entities on this floor, but we can''t see any of them on the cameras, and the top floor is suddenly filled to the brim! That means that fucking recorder is down here, it''s the only entity that would know where the cameras are!" The guards looked at me confused, while I saw Celeste take a moment to think about it before her face filled with dread. "How did I not notice that?! Get everyone out of here now!" She said, and I nodded before she disappeared back into my head. The guards seemed confused but nodded as I ran back into the store. The crowd was clearly rather panicked, but thankfully they seemed to understand that this was an emergency, and I saw people helping out the injured in whatever ways they could. "Okay everyone! Walk out of the store calmly and stay ahead of me and the other escorts. It''s a straight shot to the shelter, so just move as quick as you can without falling over! If you hear anything behind you, we have it handled, if you see anything in front of you, this pair of drones will take care of it. Let''s go!" I stepped to the side as people began filing out of the store. Once they were all out I followed behind them and sent Venus and Mars to the front of the crowd. Me and the two guards walked behind them in formation. "Horde incoming, right behind you!" I turned and was immediately terrified, seeing a pack of entities even bigger than the one I had fought earlier, maybe fifty or more. I called Venus back over and left Mars at the front just in case and began unloading into the horde. The civilians instantly panicked, but thankfully this only encouraged them to move faster. We managed to shoot down about ten or before a few of the acid spitters forced us to start running towards the shelter ourselves. As the guards continued sprinting, I stayed behind, pulling out my last two Molotov''s as I chucked both in the air before casting a plume of fire over the horde. The fire caused the two bottles to explode, and the flaming liquid rained down over a majority of the entities, heated further by the fire magic. The good news was a large number of entities died on the spot. Unfortunately, the fire was clearly a bit too much, and it quickly set off the safety systems of the building, as water began spraying out immediately. I jumped backwards with as much force as I could while making myself lighter, and as I leaped into the air, I used the vantage point to assess the situation. It looked like there were no entities in the path of the shelter, so that was good, and we had already managed to clear out about sixty percent of the horde. The problem was, I still had no clue where that damn recorder was. As I began falling back down, I started shooting some of the flying entities who were trying to clear past me to the crowd. I heard Celeste shout a warning and looked to my right to see a ball of acid coming right for me, so I increased my density. I managed to fall just under it before hitting the ground, and while I felt a little pain, I could tell I hadn''t hurt myself too badly from the fall. There was about fifty feet from the horde to me, and then maybe another hundred feet from me to the crowd. The guards, noticing that things were starting to turn in our favor, began unloading into the crowd again, giving me the opportunity to run back and meet up with them. The crowd had made it to the shelter, so I jumped ahead and slammed my palm on the door. "The door only opens for five seconds, so the front half goes now, and the second half goes next!" I yelled to the crowd as the door opened. People began pushing past each other to get in, and I counted down the seconds before going into my inventory and pulling out my glaive, dropping it down to block the rest of them as the door slammed shut. I turned back and was extremely relieved to see that the escort squad and the drones had managed to clean up most of the entities and were just busy picking off some stragglers. Somehow, we had managed to actually get through this thing. 52 Entities Killed, New Point Total: 895 "You two, you''re going in now!" They both booked it over as I put my hand on the door again, and as it popped open the remaining civilians headed inside, with me staying behind to clear up the rest. As the two guards sprinted in, the Zenith girl turned to me. "Stay safe out there-" Her sentence cut off as she made an odd choking noise for some reason. I looked down slightly and found the reason why. A pointed vine was sticking out of her chest, and I saw the gun I had given her fall out of her hands as the doors slammed shut, and the vine retracted. I turned around slowly and saw the recorder from earlier standing in the middle of the room as Venus and Mars blasted it with no effect. It looked at me and unhinged its jaw before the horrifying voice from earlier came out. "Stay safe out there!" It mimicked with her voice added to the mixture, and I could see that it was smiling at me. It knew what it was doing, and it enjoyed it. I felt any fear I had from seeing this monster leave me as my mind focused on one thing. I had already failed one objective by letting someone else die, but I wasn''t going to fail the other one. This thing was going to be dead by the end of the night. I launched forward as I pushed the button to activate the second blade on my glaive, and I saw two more tendrils shoot out absurdly fast towards me. I ducked under one and sliced out at the other, and thankfully the glaive managed to cut through it easily. The recorder leaped towards me, preparing one of its hooked hands to stab out as it fell, and I focused on flowing as much mana into my arm as I could. As I did, I saw it reach out and extend over the glaive, coating it in the same energy as I swung against the scythe while increasing my density. We clashed as it nearly fell on top of me, and after a brief struggle I managed to slash through the scythe, lopping it in half, and continued the attack by stabbing at its head. Another tendril shot out of its stomach, forcing me to dodge to the side as it scraped against me, leaving a small laceration as it went. The recorder jumped back, screeching at me while looking at its severed hand. This was where everything fell apart. Before I could rush in to attack again, I saw the remaining half of its hand begin to bubble, and it quickly began healing itself. I followed suit, healing the cut from earlier, but I could tell I was almost out of mana and this thing didn''t seem to have a limit to its healing. "Get out of there! You aren''t winning this, don''t get yourself killed for nothing!" I almost got a headache from how overpowering Celeste''s voice was in my head, and I took a second to look around. The recorder was clearly about to send more tendrils at me, and my two drones were just fruitlessly emptying mags into it. I had to accept the facts. I wasn''t going to be able to kill it right now. "Dammit, fine!" I decreased my density back down and sent Venus and Mars back to my inventory, sprinting for the ring to the lower levels. I heard the same noise of the tendrils flying towards me and jumped as they flew under me, and I sailed over the railing, headed for the ground floor. As I slowly drifted down, I saw the recorder look over the edge at me. I figured it would try and jump after me, but all it did was lift up one of its scythes and give a wave as it had that same grin on its face as before. I was furious, but there was nothing I could do. I gently landed on the first floor, and as I did, I saw there were a number of entities down here that hadn''t noticed me yet. I had a decision to make. I could either get somewhere safe and process what had just happened, or simply get to killing. It was a rather easy choice. I pulled out my glaive and sprinted towards the nearest plague, hoping to lose myself in the battle. Chapter 6: Taking Control "Inari." I ducked as a bird creature swooped down at me before shooting it twice in the stomach. I turned back around and stabbed at a cloner, glaive in one hand, gun in the other. Above me Venus and Mars were trying their best to take down the aerial entities, but they had to dodge too much to be consistent. "Inari!" I took a few shots at the flying entities before dodging to the side as an entity that looked like a bear clawed at the space where I just was. It had a giant dislocated jaw with rows of teeth lining it. I pushed mana into my palm and blasted a beam of fire at it, melting half its face off before it could even react. "LIARA!" Celeste yelled at me, and I growled looking around for the rest of the entities. "What?!" "Calm down! You''ve basically cleared out most of this floor already, and if you don''t heal yourself now you''re going to get an infection!" I dismissed her as I scanned the area for more plague, but after a moment I realized she was right, and all that was left was the corpses of the already dead entities. I looked down at myself, realizing I was covered in wounds, and collapsed onto my back. I stared up at the ceiling as I began casting a healing spell on myself. 33 Entities Killed, New Total: 1143 + Tier 1 Gem "Liara, talk to me. Are you okay?" "I don''t want to talk right now. We need to get moving after I''m done with this." "I can''t in good conscious let you continue until you talk to me. Liara, you did everything you could." She said, and I simply continued staring at the ceiling. "...can you contact the shelter?" "I can. Do you want me to?" I nodded, and after a second I heard the usual ringing noise. Eventually, someone responded. "Hello, this is the chief of security of the Misan Entertainment Center, can I ask who this is?" "This is Inari, the guardian who just escorted civilians over." I heard the man gasp over the phone and shout something to someone in the background. "My apologies, I''m very glad to hear from you. We expected to see you after the civilians arrived, but I''m glad to hear you''re okay." "Sure. The guards who came in at the end, what happened to them?" There was a moment of silence before he came back over the line. "I''m sorry, you did everything you could. I was watching the cameras, she was hit directly in the heart. No guardian could have brought her back at that point. The other guard is fine and there were no other casualties." "...what was her name? I never asked." I said, trying to keep my voice steady. "It was Naomi." "Give me her families contact information. Once this invasion is finished, I''ll inform them of what happened myself." "If I may, she was working here to help pay off some debt her family owed. Her father used to gamble here often, she told me about it. Should I inform them of the transfer of debt, or will you?" He said, and I wished he was in front of me so he could see the disgusted look I wanted to give him. "Clear the debt. Take it up with your boss, the owner, whoever, they aren''t giving this place a single cent after today." "A, cent? Ma''am, the debt was over twenty thousand credits, I can''t just get it forgiven." "Celeste, how much is that in dollars?" "There is no exchange rate between the two, but in buying power it would be about fifteen thousand dollars." "Listen, I''ll talk to whoever I need to once this is all over, but that debt is being cleared, tell them a guardian ordered it." I said, standing up from the floor. "I''m sorry but it''s just not-" "I will have my contractor hack into the bank account of whatever corporate entity owns this building, and if I see so much as one credit get transferred from her family to it, I will personally burn this building to the ground with the CEO of the company in it." There was another moment of silence before I heard him walk away from the phone, yelling to someone in the background to get his boss in the room. "Um, of course miss Inari, I''ll get right on that. Am I okay to forward you to anyone who needs to discuss this matter?" "You are. Now get everyone ready to leave, when I arrive back at the shelter we''ll head out. Over and out." I hung up the phone, sighing. "I''m not going to get in trouble for saying all of that right?" "You''re a guardian, you have almost complete immunity to any law. Even if you actually did burn the building down, as long as you disputed the charge you could most likely avoid punishment. I must say however, that was quite a shock to hear." "Well, what can I say, I''m not a fan of exploitation. Just because I''m not marching around yelling death to capitalism doesn''t mean I''ll let some bullshit like that stand." "Well, I''m sure Naomi''s family will be happy." She said, and I began heading for the shelter sighing. The first floor was clearly smaller than the rest, mainly focused on the entrance, so I assumed the shelter would be around there. "Yeah, I hope they will. God, I can''t believe I never asked her name. She risked her life for those people." "Thinking about this isn''t going to help. Just stay calm and get ready. I found the shelter, but there''s a rather large issue." In the corner of my vision a screen popped up showing the camera feed. Sitting directly outside the shelter, banging on the door, was an almost twelve-foot-tall gorilla like creature. It had spikes running up and down its whole body, and it was clearly powerful despite the fact it wasn''t even denting the door. "Yeah, I''m guessing the drones aren''t gonna cut it here. I''m sure I can buy something better, I have a ton of points. Also, what the hell is a gem?" "Those are required to certain higher tier catalogues and tomes. It encourages guardians to specialize in their builds so there are a variety of skill sets in any given invasion." "Huh, alright then. Would I need a gem for the next tier up of fire magic? Or what about explosions?" "Actually, those are both labeled under the broad category of Heat magic, so you would be able to get both in one tome. The next specific tome would need a gem however." I looked through the available tomes, switching the display to only show combat relevant ones. I doubted I would need cooking spells any time soon after all. Nothing stuck out to me more than that, and I couldn''t rely on my shoddy weapon skills enough to buy a higher tier of that yet, so I decided the heat magic tome was the best option. Apprentice Heat Magic Tome Unlocked for 150 Points and 1 Tier 1 Gem, New Total: 993 I took a look through the tome and quickly realized there was a reason these things required gems. Some of these spells sounded absurdly dangerous. I briefly looked at something called Firestorm before realizing it was more aoe, and eventually saw one that piqued my interest. Imbue Weapon: Heat Generation This spell allows the user to envelop their weapon in flame or cause an explosion at any spot on the weapon. Higher tiers of this spell will require weapons with suitable material for imbuing for full efficiency. "Well, if I was better with weapons this sounds like it would be really useful." "Are you sure there aren''t any weapons you would be more comfortable with?" "No, this glaive is probably the closest I''ll get. I do know how to use some certain weapons like a staff, but adding a blade to the end really throws off the weight." I took a moment to look at different weapons before buying anything, not seeing anything I was happy with. As I looked, I checked the modifications for my glaive again and saw something interesting. Dual Wield Modifier Only purchasable after Retractable Blade Modifier is purchased. Allows weapon to split in the middle, letting user dual wield each half. Also allows for adjusting length of weapon so they can be easily held. "Huh, that actually gives me an idea. Is there a catalogue for weapon crafting and things like that?" "There are, what would you require?" "I''d need a chain that''s durable and can be adjusted length wise, and some strong adhesive." I said, and after a moment I saw Celeste purchase two catalogues and the items I had requested. I then purchased the modifier along with them. Basic Repair Catalogue Tier Amethyst Unlocked for 30 Points, New Total: 963 Magic Utilities Catalogue Tier Amethyst Unlocked for 50 Points, New Total: 913 Ever Moving Chain and Weapon Grade Adhesive Purchased for 45 Points, New Total: 868 Dual Wield Modifier Purchased for 50 Points, New Total: 818 "If you push some mana into the chain, it will extend and shrink at will, and it can go up to three hundred feet at a time." I nodded and got to work. I pressed the new button that had appeared on my glaive and it preceded to split into two pieces, each with their own blade. I had hoped the inside of the glaive was hollow so the blades could slide back in, and thankfully I was right. I put adhesive on either side of the chain and stuck them onto the interior of each half glaive. I waited a minute for it to dry as I admired my work. I wasn¡¯t exactly a blacksmith but I had done a decent enough job. "Can I ask what the purpose of this was?" "How about I show you instead?" I said, grabbing the two ends that were now connected by chain. I hit the button on each to retract the blades to make sure I wouldn''t get hurt and shrunk the chain down to a smaller size. I then held one end above my shoulder and began spinning it, passing it back and forth between my hands while making sure to keep the momentum between them going as I snapped out with them, the air cracking before I brought them back to me. "Did you just turn that glaive into nunchucks?" "Yep, I have a lot of experience with them actually, mostly because they look cool. Let me try something." I sent the blade back out on one end and grabbed the other while extending the chain a bit, before spinning it like before. I swung out again from above, and watched as the blade sailed through the air before slicing down exactly where I was aiming for. "Wow, you do seem to be much better at that then I thought you would be. You know, there''s actually a rather high tier weapon that''s similar to this, two higher quality swords connected by a chain. You seem to have created a cheaper but weaker version of it." "Well remind me when I can buy that weapon, because this is great! Now I just need to get better at mana enhancement." I reconnected the two ends and saw the extended chain fall out of the end without the blade. That could also be useful. I put away the glaive and went back to the tome, before I decided to buy a couple spells to start. Flame Pillar Purchased for 75 Points, New Total: 743 Imbue Weapon: Heat Generation Purchased for 100 Points, New Total: 643 After I finished my little upgrade shopping spree, I took a moment to look over everything I had acquired up until this point.
GUARDIAN INFORMATION
Name: Liara Inoue Guardian Persona: Inari
Point Total: 643 View Purchase History Sign: Event Horizon Sign Abilities: Adjust Density
Class: Unavailable (Amethyst Rank) View Class Details This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Spells: Minor Explosion, Minor Flame, Minor Recover, Diagnose, Minor Cleanse, Flame Pillar, Imbue Weapon
Tomes: Starter Spell Tome, Basic Medical Tome, Apprentice Heat Magic Tome Catalogues: Magic Utilities, Basic Repair, Weapons and Ammunition, Battle Clothing, Basic Cybernetics, Basic Robotics
Cybernetics Installed: Fast Twitch Muscle Enhancer x2, Guardian Communicator, Nano Transmitter Condition: Stable
Well, it was certainly more than I had a few hours ago. Whether it would be enough, we would have to see. The shelter was by the entrance like I thought, and as I walked into the room trying to make as little noise as possible, I saw the giant entity banging on the door. I was considering how I should approach killing it, when I looked down at the chain on my glaive. I considered something for a moment before deciding I should try it. I looked around for any vantage point, noticing a statue of some kind of boat sitting in the middle of the room. I lowered my density and hopped up on the bow of the ship. Oddly fitting for what I was about to do. I held my glaive by the midsection and extended the chain by a decent amount. I pushed a small amount of mana into my hand to cast the fire enchantment spell and locked the rest of the mana in my arm for strength. As I let the spell go, I was surprised to feel an incredible surge of heat as a plume of fire began moving around the weapon. I aimed the weapon towards the entity and increased my density, before throwing the weapon like a harpoon towards the creature. The glaive rocketed towards it, propelled by the fire to be nearly as fast as a bullet, and I grabbed the chain as it flew away and extended it so I could keep a hold on the weapon. Unfortunately, I wasn''t exactly an Olympic javelin thrower, and the attack that was meant for its head flew into its midsection as it blew a gaping hole in its stomach, big enough I could walk through it. The creature let out a horrible screech and turned around to face me. I went to pull the weapon back and attack from there, when something I wasn''t expecting made things much harder. The gorilla entity grabbed my glaive as it flew back towards me, and I slowly looked down at the chain I was still holding. "Well, shit." I said, trying to let go as fast as I could, but it managed to yank the weapon back before I let go with my left hand, and I found myself flying through the air. This thing was apparently absurdly strong, and I quickly recognized that if I didn''t lower my density, I would find myself hitting the ground at speed similar to a sports car while weighing somewhere around eight hundred pounds. I decreased my density, which led to me staying neutral in the air as opposed to falling. This did bring up a new problem, as I was hurtling towards a giant spiked gorilla that was about to swat me out of the air like a fly. I quickly pushed some mana into my hands and cast the other spell I had purchased, Flame Pillar. It was similar to the other fire spell I had, but I could choose where the fire manifests as opposed to it shooting directly from my hands. Come to think of it, could I make spells come out of my feet? Worries for a less deadly time. I focused on the spot the monster was standing on and let the spell fly as a jet of blue flame appeared out of thin air underneath it. The entity jumped to the side as it caught fire and began attempting to pat itself down, so I took the opportunity to increase my weight a little bit and slide onto the ground. I stumbled a bit and almost fell. but managed to skid to a stop rather close to the gorilla, which was now finished putting out the fire and was instead charging towards me. I quickly switched the glaive to its chain form and whipped a strike out while imbuing it with fire. It sliced through the entities arm as it attempted to launch itself towards me, causing it to tumble across the ground. I lowered my density and jumped above it, casting one more fire pillar in its path. It wasn''t able to stop itself in time before it hit the fire, and it was engulfed in flames as it tried to crawl away with its one remaining useful arm. I walked over and pulled out my SMG, putting it out of its misery. Entity Killed, New Total: 693 I stared at the burning corpse of the creature for a moment before walking over to the shelter. "You know, I think I like lighting things on fire a little too much. But hey, at least I have a weapon I¡¯m good at using now.¡± "When it comes to entities, there is no such thing as too much fire. Although, I would watch out around civilians." I nodded and put my hand on the sensor, and quickly the door opened up. I walked in and noticed I could already hear a commotion from deeper in the shelter. Clearly my arrival had caused something to happen. I carefully walked through the hall to the main area, and when I arrived, I saw a group of people standing waiting for me. I noticed the beds were all taken by older citizens, and the main group was made of only the strongest looking people in the room. Notably I also couldn''t see any guards, and the group clearly had weapons on them. I put my hands up as I walked forward. "Hey there, name''s Inari, I just took care of the big guy outside." I said, and a male Maneel walked forward, presumably the leader of the group. He had paler skin with oddly vibrant blue hair, but his stature was rather imposing. He was almost as tall as me, and clearly physically fit. I really needed to check how tall I was. "While I am glad to hear it, we don''t need any more assistance. We''re already working on calling the military over here for an escort out of here." "That''s good, but I kind of already got the other two shelters ready to go, and I''m able to contact them directly, so it would be in everyone''s best interest if you just waited." She said, and the man looked at her, frustration apparent in his expression. "As I''ve said, we are fine. Please leave, and nothing else will happen." "Listen, if this is about the whole revolting thing, I get it, you guys were panicked. Unless you killed someone, I can probably get you out of any repercussions-" She was interrupted as the main raised a pistol up and pointed it at her. "I''m going to ask one more time for you to leave. After that, I''ll be forced to use this." "Alright, let''s calm down. Besides, a bullet isn''t going to do much to a guardian." As I said this, I quickly asked Celeste in my head if that was true. "You would probably be able to take a few shots before they began piercing your skin, but even then, those shots would likely break bones and cause internal bleeding." Okay, new strategy, don''t get shot. As I was figuring out how to get out of this situation, one of the other men in the group walked beside the leader. "Ian, man, this is getting absurd. She said she can get us off the hook, let''s just trust her!" The leader, presumably Ian, wheeled around to face his friend. "Shut up! We''re in too deep at this point!" "This isn''t worth it anymore-" Before he could finish, Ian took the pistol and moved it from me to the other man, and quickly everyone began drawing their weapons. I realized this was quickly spiraling out of control. "ALRIGHT! Everyone, put your god damn weapons down!" Thankfully, while I was a cute fox girl, I was also somewhere close to seven feet tall and had a decently imposing voice if I needed to, so most everyone was intimidated and quickly dropped their guns, aside from Ian and the other man, who were still locked in a standoff. Everyone backed away from them while I talked to Celeste in my head as quick as I could before things got worse. "Celeste, this is getting ridiculous. I have an idea, but I need some help with it." I quickly described what I would need, and after Celeste confirmed it was possible, I got a notification showing everything had gone right. Ability Created: Gravity Manipulation This ability allows the user to control gravity, affecting its force and direction down to an incredibly precise level. This lets the user pick up and throw objects and people, slow enemy''s movements, and much more. I obtained some basic knowledge on using the ability and looked back up at the two men who were yelling at each other. "Okay, that''s it. You two are going to drop your weapons, now! After that, Ian, you are going to apologize for threatening this man!" I said, and Ian scoffed as he turned to look at me. Before he could say anything, the two suddenly felt their weapons drop to the ground with a thud as I pulled them out of their hands remotely. Surprised, Ian dived for his, but saw it slide across the room over to me along with the other pistol, as I put my foot down on one. "Ian, apologize." "Fuck you! I''m not going to apologize to this asshole!" "Wrong answer." I said, and I held my hand out towards Ian. He slammed into the ground, feeling bones crack, not from the fall but the pressure mounting on his back. He quickly tried to stand up, but as he did, he suddenly felt himself crashing back down to the ground. He struggled as he tried to rise again and again, but he felt the force getting stronger and stronger as he did. "I''m sorry, I''m fucking sorry, just stop this!" I dropped my hand down and the force pulling him subsided, and I took the time to pull all the other weapons I could behind me. Ian tried to scramble away but was stopped by a few of the other people. "Good. Now, someone is going to explain to me what the hell happened here, and maybe then I''ll keep you guys from facing legal trouble." Everyone in the room was clearly terrified at this point, and the other man walked up to me. "Um, thank you? What the hell did you do to him?" "It''s a guardian thing, don''t worry about it. Now talk. And someone go tie up that guy." The people who had stopped Ian began restraining him and I lifted all the weapons over to me and put them into my inventory for the time being. "Well, there''s typically a reward associated with a civilian helping other civilians get to safety in an invasion. Me and my friend Ian were just hanging out here when everything happened, and once we got into the shelter, he convinced us we could make a lot of money if we escorted everyone by ourselves. So, we sort of knocked out all the guards and took their weapons. That big thing outside stopped us right before we were going to leave." "Okay, here''s what''s going to happen. I''ll go and get all the guards back into shape and give them their weapons back, and all of you will stay here while I take care of some final business. Then, once I finish everything, we will leave, and we won''t discuss this with the police. If anyone says anything, Ian was the only one who tried to do anything. To make sure you all act properly, I''ll be leaving behind this." I said, taking out Mars and letting him hover in midair. If anything happened, he would send a ping to Celeste immediately. A few dissenting voices started yelling at me but were quickly silenced as Mars took his gun out of his chassis. Of course, they didn''t know that he wouldn''t actually fire it unless I said so, but I wasn''t about to tell them that anytime soon. I walked over to where I knew the computer room was, and quickly found a few other people in the room standing watch over about twelve tied up guards. "Where the hell did you guys even get this much rope? You know what, never mind, I don''t care." The remaining armed civilians who weren''t in the loop quickly raised their weapons, but as they did, they felt the guns fly out of their hands towards me, and as soon as they reached me they flew directly into my inventory with a visual as though they had fallen into a pool of liquid and vanished. The rebels raised their hands, and I pointed outside to the main room. They ran out as fast as they could, and I used my ability to begin untying half the guards while directly untying the other half. Turns out, having what is essentially better telekinesis was absurdly useful. As I took the cloth blocking their mouths, the guards immediately began yelling in outrage over what had happened to them, and what I assumed was a commanding guard due to the badge on his chest walked up to me. "Ma''am, I am so sorry you had to deal with this. We will handle everything from here." He said, and I raised my hand. "It''s fine. I am a little confused on how those guys got you all, but we don''t have time for that. Only the one in charge is getting punished, the rest were just idiots. If you don''t like, I can do one of two things. Either I can tell your boss not to fire you, or I can say nothing. Which would you prefer?" The guards swiftly changed their opinions on the people who had attacked them, and I smiled as I looked towards the one in charge. "Unless you have anyone in immediate medical distress, get everyone ready to go. Once I purchase a few things, I''m leaving." "Sounds good. Where are you heading next?" "I''ve got one last thing to take care of before we leave." I said, taking a look at the cameras, seeing the first floor was suddenly much emptier than it was earlier. It was time to make good on my promise from earlier. Update Notice Hey Yall, just wanted to give an update on whats happening with this series. After last chapter, I had to deal with usual end of college year bs, got through finals week and decided to take a break. I¡¯ve been working on new chapters while looking for a job, but I recently found out my pregnant sister lost her child. I really can¡¯t focus on writing right now with all these other things going on, so I can¡¯t confirm when the next chapter will be out. Just wanted to let you know whats happening. This will continue, I just dont know when. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Chapter 7: Finish What You Start Basic Explosives Catalogue Tier Amethyst Unlocked for 30 Points, New Total: 663 I took a look through the new catalogue, trying to find what I needed for this hunt. I eventually found something I thought might be good enough. FS33 Explosive: A handheld incendiary explosive that releases a burst of extremely high intensity fire in a small location. It is made so that the fire spreads much slower as to be safe for usage indoors, but it is still recommended that you purchase a suitable extinguisher, as the flame can burn at high temperatures for multiple hours at a time. I took a look and saw that there was a grenade that is made for putting out fires, and for some reason they were only one point each, which was confusing but helpful. Celeste explained later that certain essential items for saving lives are forced to be basically free, otherwise there would be a lot more civilian casualties. FS33 x2 Purchased for 60 Points, New Total: 603 Extinguishing Foam Grenade x2 Purchased for 2 Points, New Total: 601 As they popped into existence, I tucked them away into my inventory as I heard Celeste speak in my head. ¡±What exactly are you planning to with that?¡± She said as I stood up, getting a quick stretch in. ¡°Well, I figure if that thing can regenerate, the best way to take it down would be to burn it until it can¡¯t anymore.¡± I said, heading for the door of the shelter. ¡±You don¡¯t have to do this you know.¡± ¡±Yep, I am aware of that.¡± ¡±And you are going to do it anyway?¡± ¡±Correct.¡± I said, and Celeste sighed. ¡±As much as I think this is a bad idea, it is my job to keep you alive, so I¡¯ll help however I can.¡± I smiled and gave a quick nod as I popped open the door to the rest of the building and dashed out. The first floor looked pretty much the same as before, the only difference being the giant entity corpse had vanished from underneath the large archway of the entrance. I realized I didn''t actually know what happened to bodies of entities when they died, but seeing as I hadn''t seen a ton of corpses laying around, I just assumed they dissolved after a while. As I had seen on the cameras, the first floor was completely cleared out, but this time I couldn''t hear anything more than some sort of shuffling. I knew that damn Recorder could be incredibly silent when it wanted to be, so I simply took out my glaive and switch it to chain mode, spinning it casually as I walked forward past the weird boat statue. For some reason, I stopped and looked towards the statue for a bit. This floor was easily the most open floor plan of the building, no stalls or corners to hide around. So, if you were trying to hide from cameras and people walking on the ground, where better to hide then an elevated statue? You could simply lie down, and no one could see you from below. Realizing this, I turned away slowly and began walking away. As I did, I strained my ears as hard as I could and waited until I heard it stand up, hoping I wasn''t just overthinking things. Sure enough, I immediately heard a very slight rush of air behind me, and without even looking first, I shoved enough mana into the blade to cast a fire enchantment spell and whipped around, snapping out with my weapon as I did. I saw the Recorder not on the statue, but instead leaping off of it towards me, blades outstretched to try and sever a limb. Due to me getting both the speed of the creature and how long it would take the chain to spin around wrong, I saw that I was going to miss the damn thing entirely if I didn''t do something, so I reached out a hand and used gravity manipulation to send the blade even faster through the air. Just before the entity got into the sweet spot where I couldn''t hit it, the burning blade slid through the air and sank into its shoulder, slicing through it completely. For a moment I thought it would keep going and cut the thing in two pieces, but the Recorder bent backwards in midair and managed to slip off the blade before it made it past its neck. It spiraled as it flew forward, and I jumped back as it slammed into the floor with another horrible screech. I held my hands out and cast a Flame Pillar, adding to the fire from my weapon, and the recorders flesh bubbled as its regeneration fought against the fire. As I was deciding the next course of action, I heard Celeste''s voice shout out to me. "Three more entities coming from the same spot!" She yelled, and I looked up to see three Cloners jump off the statue and begin charging for me. I tried to use my gravity manipulation to smash one into the other, but as I did, I felt something I couldn''t really understand. In the same way feeling out my mana was like a different sense, I sensed something inside the entity fight back against the mana fueling the ability. Thankfully it was weaker, but it still negated the effect enough that instead of throwing the two Cloners into each other, it just made the first one tumble a bit and roll into the second. The second stumbled but recovered, while the first one stayed on the floor trying to regain its bearings. I switched my weapon back to glaive mode and stabbed through the closest one, then pulled out Venus, letting him take care of the last two as I turned to look back at the Recorder, all I saw was a vine shooting towards my head. "Shit!" I ducked down as quick as I could, throwing myself to the side as I heard more flying out. I recalled Venus back to my inventory before he got hit, and thankfully he had already managed to gun down the last two Cloners. I sprinted forward as the Recorder, now unfortunately fully regenerated and standing about forty feet away, began sending out more and more of its tendrils, creating a sort of web in front of it. I jumped over one and immediately increased my weight, dropping down to avoid another that would have hit me in midair, slicing through another as I did. Halfway to the entity, I realized there were too many of these tendrils to dodge before I would have to take a hit and looked around for a solution. I looked behind it and saw the statue that had helped the entities before. Well, maybe now it could help me. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. "Celeste, how heavy is that statue?" I asked her in my head and ducked to the side as I saw her running some calculations in the corner of my vision. This vision overlay from the communicator was more helpful than I thought. "Best estimate I have is about two tons!" "Well, if nothing else this''ll be a good litmus test!" Before she could question what I had meant, I increased my weight as much as I could and hurled my glaive forward. The Recorder, much more agile than the giant entity from earlier, simply tilted to the side to avoid it, but that wasn''t my target. The blade ripped into the base of the statue, sending cracks throughout it. As I slammed my feet down into the ground and yanked on the chain, I also pulled as hard as I could with my gravity manipulation. I felt something in my arms crack as another tendril flew towards me, and I unfortunately wasn''t able to fully dodge it as it pierced through my stomach. I tried my best not to scream as pain radiated through my body and gave one last pull as the base of the statue collapsed and the rest tipped over, heading right for the Recorder. It turned back at the noise and screeched again, trying to jump out of the way, but I reached down and held the vine in my stomach, keeping the entity in place long enough for the statue to collapse on top of it. The statue smashed into the ground, leaving a small crater filled with a pile of rubble in its wake as my glaive landed at my feet. Okay, so that was a valuable learning experience. Good news is, I can pull down a four thousand pound statue. Bad news, I definitely broke some bones doing that. I cast a healing spell on myself, focusing on my arms instead of the stomach injury as my spoils of war appeared in front of me while I picked up my weapon. Three Entities Killed, New Point Total: 631 "Hang on, three? Did one of those weak ones slip away or somethi-" My very stupidly timed thought was interrupted by the rubble of the statue exploding outward as the Recorder stoop up, dozens of tendrils floating out of it. I was able to reflexively catch anything flying towards me psychically, for lack of a better term, but I could tell the situation was bad. While the Recorder looked like it was on its last legs, it was actively patching itself back up, and somehow its form was even bulkier looking then before. I launched some of the rubble back at it as a distraction while I quickly sent my mana down to my legs. I decided now was as good a time as any to answer my earlier question as I prepared an explosion spell, this time at the bottom of my feet as I lowered my weight. Thankfully as it turns out, legs can indeed cast spells, and I immediately rocketed forward, this time much more stable than before. The Recorder, now out of the small crater, smashed through the rubble I had thrown and sent multiple extremely sharp looking vines at me. I switched my glaive back to chain mode and spun one end as fast as I could, slicing through a few of the incoming projectiles as I twisted around the last one, and I went back to glaive mode as I reached the entity. It lifted its arms back to slice my head off as I stabbed the end of the glaive into its stomach, seemingly doing nothing. With one hand I grabbed the chain and with the other, charged up another explosion spell and sent myself flying backwards, barely slipping underneath the scythes. I increased my weight, landing back on the ground as I looked and saw the entity had already healed the wound. As I had thought it might, it repaired around the weapon, seemingly trapping it inside its body. It gave a disgusting smile, clearly thinking it had taken away my only means of defense, not realizing this was exactly what I wanted. Before it could do anything else, I pulled the chain to the side. The creature looked down as it saw the chain ripple, but unfortunately for it, it wasn''t nearly as heavy as the statue, and it was quickly pulled through the air, sending out tendrils into the floor to try and stop itself to no avail. I spun it in a circle around me a few times, building momentum, before lifting the chain up directly over my head, the entity following the whole time. With what I meant to be a deep yell, which ended up sounding more like an animal growling, I slammed my foot down and pulled the chain with as much force as I could. The Recorder slammed into the ground, leaving a dent slightly smaller than the crater from earlier. I ran over and got ready to arm one of the explosives, but as I did the entity leaped out of the crater, readying its scythes to make one last ditch effort to finish me. I looked over and saw some more of the rubble from the fountain sitting nearby, and psychically threw it the Recorders path. The rocks slammed into its legs sending it tumbling, and as it reached me, I sent as much mana as I could into my fist. I hit the entity in its boney jaw at the exact same time the mana reached my hand, and as I did, I noticed something I hadn''t before. Whenever I used mana to strengthen my attacks, I usually lost a lot of it in the transfer to specific body parts. But here, I had managed to do it just quickly enough to not lose anything, and I saw the usual pale purple aura my mana powered attacks have amplified by an absurd degree, a wave of violet flowing out as the entity rocketed backwards, falling back down into the crater from before. A regular punch managed to be stronger than slamming it down from twenty feet in the air! Taking advantage of the opportunity, I armed a grenade and rushed over, throwing it directly into the hole. The Recorder tried to stand up, but as it did the FS33 exploded on top of it, bathing it in fire that I could feel from where I was standing. I threw the other one as I pulled out Venus and my SMG, as we both began spraying into the entity from above. "Help...me!" The entity let out in its sickening multitude of voices as it walked towards me through the fire, actively melting as it did. "Just fucking die already!" I screamed as I used the last of my mana to cast one more Flame Pillar directly on top of it. It let out it''s horrifying screech one last time as the amorphous material that made up its body liquified fully, before burning away completely. I pulled a foam dispenser and threw it out on to the fire, where it proceeded to spin around, shooting out a viscous liquid that expanded into foam, extinguishing most of the fire. I fell backwards as it did, looking up at the different floors above me as I finally got a chance to breath. I noticed what looked like flower petals falling from the sky, the same shade of violet as my mana, and as they hit the ground they vanished. I simply stared at them as I finally got the message declaring my victory. MASAL Tier Entity Killed: As this entity is far above the expected grade for a Guardian of your rank, you will receive additional rewards. New Point Total: 1433 + 2 Tier 1 Gems I had won. I thought of every person that monster had killed, and mentally apologized to them that I couldn''t do it sooner. I just hoped that they could see it finally get what was coming to it, wherever they were. Congratulations Guardian! You have reached the rank of Aquamarine, and with it, you have gained access to a class! Click here to see a list of classes available to you! Well, that was good! Now all I had to do was deal with this class stuff, and finally get everyone else the hell out of this nightmare of a building. Oh, and fix this hole in my stomach. Yeah, that really hurt now that I thought of it. Chapter 8: A Class and A Past As I sat there, wondering what I should do first, Celeste actually made the decision for me. "Heal the hole in your stomach moron!" She said, and I immediately jumped up from where I was laying down, casting a healing spell on myself as I did. I probably should have dealt with that to begin with, and I was very glad to feel the pain from it fade away. I took a look and saw the crater had at this point mostly stopped burning, so that shouldn''t be an issue. "You don''t have to be rude about it you know." "I''m not going to watch you beat the odds like that then die to an infection because you were stuck in your own head, now get to somewhere safer and I can explain the class system for you." I nodded and decided the best option would be to go check on the shelter back on the top floor, heading over to the staircase. After several flights of stairs and much complaining from my already tired body, I made it to the door of the shelter. I popped it open and ran in, sitting down in the hallway leading to the main area. As I clicked on the notification from earlier talking about classes, a list of them appeared on screen, separated into different categories.
Common Tier: These classes are offered to every Guardian Fighter Brawler Mage Marksman
Uncommon Tier: These classes are offered for achieving specific tasks. Medic Pyromancer Martial Artist Weapon Master Technician Scout
Rare Tier: These classes are offered for specific tasks being completed many times. Explosive Expert Fire Cleric Monk
Legendary Tier: These classes are given out for extremely specific and hard to complete tasks. Monster Hunter Battle Medic
Mythic Tier: If you are offered one of these classes, it means you have progressed as a guardian much faster than others and are willing to take extreme risks. These classes are the strongest there are, but they each have extreme drawbacks, so take caution when choosing. Avenger Star Cleric
"Uh, am I supposed to have two of those mythic classes?" "Normally no, but it''s not a bad thing to have options. So, the classes give you some enhancements and extra skills to start, but after that you''ll have to level them up. The first few levels will just be killing a certain number of enemies, but after that the requirements get more specific. When you do level up, you get a few different choices of new abilities to gain, passive or otherwise, and eventually you usually get the option to choose a specific specialization. Let''s take a look at some of the classes and I''ll run you through the ones I''ve seen." She said, and so I tapped on the ones at the top to see what they did. It turns out, the common classes were pretty lame to start, providing basic bonuses to either physical weapons, martial arts, ranged weapons or magic. Celeste told me they actually could get pretty good later on if you chose the right specialties, but I wasn''t going to waste my time on them. The uncommon tier was similarly disappointing, but it was actually interesting seeing all the requirements to obtain classes. You could get a class for healing people, burning things, even just observing your surroundings well enough. The Explosive Expert in the rare tier did seem interesting, but having to buy all those grenades seemed expensive, and I was worried about collateral damage. I almost took the Monk class straight away, as the many hours I had spent watching anime as a child compelled me, but Celeste convinced me to look at the rest of the classes first. The epic tier was where things started getting really crazy. I took a look at the Battle Medic first, and it seemed like a rather nice fit. Battle Medic: Legendary Tier Class The Medic is one of the most important members of a team or rescue effort, keeping people healthy for the fights to come, but they often have the problem of being frail without things to compensate. The Battle Medic solves this issue by balancing the healing power of a Medic with extra staying power and physical prowess. This does make them slightly worse healers, but they can stay around for much longer. Obtainment Method: Heal a certain amount of people and kill a certain number of entities within a small timeframe. Benefits: Increase to Durability, Increase to Strength, Increase to Mana Capacity, Small Increase to Healing Power, Bonuses to Unarmed Combat Access to Spell: Regen* Note: Any abilities with an * next to them scale with your rank. "Well, that seems pretty much perfect right? That''s everything I want to do." I said, and Celeste squinted at the menu, having popped out onto my shoulder a little bit ago "That''s true, but we should still look through the rest first. I''ve only ever seen one Guardian get a Mythic class, and it wasn''t either of these, so getting information on them will be useful. The Mythic ones also tell you how many people ever took the class, so if that information isn''t already in our database, I''d like to add it." I shrugged but went along with it, taking a peek at the Monster Hunter class. It was offered for killing a tier of entity higher than SAIA, but the bonuses were honestly way too boring for me, just generic stat and weapon bonuses for killing large entities. I finally got to the Mythic Tier and opened up Avenger first. Avenger: Mythic Tier Class Claimed by 54 Guardians, 4 Currently Active An Avenger gains fuel from hatred, always fighting in remembrance of those who have fallen. To obtain this class, one must go through sorrow and heartbreak, having to kill an entity far above one''s level that has also slain those who the Guardian wished to prote- I closed the window in a flash, looking away from the menu as Celeste turned to me. "I''m sorry. I''m guessing you don''t want to be reminded of what happened?" Celeste nodded, and I shook my head, suddenly feeling the exhaustion from all my previous battles kick in. "It''s not that. I just... I didn''t like how much I wanted to kill that thing. I didn''t enjoy it, but I don''t think I''ve ever felt more animosity towards something. I don''t want that to be my entire life. I''m sorry, this is stupid, let''s read the rest." I went to open the description again, but Celeste put a paw on my hand, stopping me. "Liara, no, that is entirely fair. Setting boundaries in this job is important, this class most likely takes a very specific kind of person, and if that''s not you it''s fine. Let''s just take a look at the last option." I smiled at Celeste, my eyes admittedly feeling a lot less dry than usual and clicked on the Star Cleric. I assumed it would be some fire-based healer from the name, but the description told a more complicated story. Star Cleric: Mythic Tier Class Claimed by 4 Guardians, 0 Currently Active A Guardian, at its core, is a protector. They are meant to find those who cannot help themselves, and keep them safe, at any cost. The Star Cleric takes this to the furthest extent possible for a Guardian. To be a Star Cleric is to be like a star itself, burning brightly for a time before eventually fading out. They receive massive benefits to combat, healing, magical ability and mana capacity, but these come at a great cost. Their ability to heal themselves is decreased immensely, and these benefits, aside from the mana capacity are weakened severely until activated via Metamorphosis, a unique ability only Star Clerics can access. This ability allows the user to temporarily access the full extent of their power, and also physically transforms the user''s body. "Ugh, another transformation? I already got turned into a chick today, just because I like having big legs doesn''t mean I want to roll the dice again." "Keep reading, the description is a lot longer than the rest were, it most likely goes into detail on that. Hang on, what did you say you liked?" "...no idea what you mean, let''s get back to reading!" I looked back to the description, blushing while trying to forget I ever said that. The power granted by this ability, along with the aforementioned physical changes, come in evolving stages, which manifest differently for every user. But even these benefits don''t come for free, as when the ability is activated, a strain is placed on the user that continuously grows as they use it, which also changes depending on the user. They may slowly lose control of their actions, fully devolving into an animalistic rampage, or they could begin to lose more and more physical feeling in their body, before eventually being unable to move in the slightest. It is imperative that if someone chooses this class, they must have other Guardians they trust helping them in combat. Star Clerics are sacrificial in nature, made to give every single thing they can to help their teammates, in the hopes that when the light they shine inevitably burns out, the people they trust are ready to save them in return. Obtainment Method: Heal enough people and kill an entity above a certain rank. These requirements get exponentially harder over time, starting from when you first form your contract. Benefits: Minor/Major Increase to All Physical Abilities, Minor/Major Increase to Magical Potency, Major Increase to Mana Capacity, Major Increase to Healing Potency, Major Decrease to Self-Healing Potency, Access to Metamorphosis*, Access to Various Other Abilities Note: Any abilities with an * next to them scale with your rank. Note Two: Unlike other classes, this class has no specializations. Instead, abilities are made depending on how Metamorphosis manifests in the user. "Well, that''s slightly disappointing. I was hoping for more with the Mythic classes, but I suppose there is a reason they are given to risk takers. So, it seems our choices are between the Monk and the Battle Medic." Celeste said. I gave her the most baffled look I could manage. "Are you crazy? This class sounds absurdly good, it''s pretty clearly the best option." "Inari, I am not going to let you choose that class. As powerful as it seems, it is also absurdly dangerous, and you have access to other good options. I was mostly interested in reading the Mythic classes for the database information, I planned on dissuading you from choosing any Mythic class. But from the looks of it, taking that class is even more risky and stupid then most Mythic classes. Besides, you already said you wanted the monk class, didn''t you want to shoot a turtle out of your hands or something?" "What? No, that''s just the name of the attack." "Well, being a Monk will let you do it, so it''s settled!" Celeste said, sounding oddly panicked while she swiped through the menu as quick as she could. I snapped out with my right arm and grabbed her off my shoulder, before sitting her small fox form beside me. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. "Celeste, while that is a dream I''ve had ever since I was a child, it''s just something I think is cool. If I''m going to be out there saving lives, I want to have the best tools to do it. If that means putting myself in a bit of danger, I''m willing to do that." "I said no, Liara. In the small time that I''ve known you, you have proven yourself to be far too willing to risk negative impacts to your well-being just to help others." "Well yeah, that''s literally my job now, of course I''m fine with doing that!" "You cannot help anyone if you are dead, and from what I''ve seen it will be a miracle if you live another ten minutes if you don''t listen to me!" At this point, I was standing up as Celeste was somehow floating in midair in front of me, both of us quickly raising the volume of our voices. "Do you really think I''m that incompetent? Why the hell would you choose me as a Guardian if you think I can''t take care of myself?!" "Obviously you can take care of yourself, I wouldn''t offer a contract to someone who isn''t ready to do what you''ve done today!" "Then why are you treating me like this?!" "Because I refuse to lose another fucking person I care about to their own moronic self-sacrificing tendencies!" Celeste screamed, her fox form distorting into a blob of pure mana, shaking with rage. I instantly dropped to the ground and crawled backwards away from her, eventually reaching the exit to the shelter before curling up into a ball and shutting my eyes. "I''m sorry I''m so sorry I promise I''ll fight back just please stop yelling!" I said absurdly fast, tears already streaming down my cheeks. Why did it always have to get like this I just wanted to relax for once why I can''t just be a normal person- "Liara! Just calm down for me, everything''s fine, no one''s gonna yell anymore." A voice said, cutting through the alarms ringing in my brain as I felt someone wrap their arms around me, stroking my head. I managed to open my eyes and saw Mia, the guard from earlier holding me, an extremely concerned look on her face. I put my head into her shoulder and sobbed, trying to make myself remember what was really happening. I was in an entertainment center on another planet, I wasn''t back there, I was fine. After a little bit of time passed, I felt composed enough to lean back look at Mia again, noticing Celeste wasn''t behind her "Fuck, I''m sorry about that. I, uh..." I tried to take a moment to say what I wanted, but she simply shook her head. "Hey, it''s alright. I know you didn''t freak out that badly just because of that contractor of yours, but I don''t need to know why. You feeling any better?" I gave as much of a smile to her as I could and nodded. "Yeah, I think I am." "Glad to hear it. Now then, contractor, I know you can hear me. Quit hiding in her head and get the hell out here." She said, and after a moment Celeste reappeared, head lowered in shame. "I''m sorry. I didn''t think that would cause that big of a reaction from you, but I should not have lost my temper in the first place. I am a machine first and foremost, my sentience is just to help with my tasks, so I should make sure my emotions are not inhibiting that." I sighed and put a hand on her head, absentmindedly scratching it. It didn''t feel like normal fur, but it was nice. "Celeste, you''re fine. I''m not gonna say that was okay, it wasn''t, but you''re allowed to have emotions and make mistakes. I was yelling at you the same way, I just reacted worse." "I am sorry about this as well, but I do have to ask what that was about, just to make sure it will not affect you mid combat." She said. Mia went to interject but I held a hand up, and she backed off. "Listen, you just said something that was really similar to something I''ve had yelled at me before. It''s a really bad memory, but I didn''t know it affected me that badly. As long as you stay away from that subject matter, we should be fine." "Okay. I suppose I should explain why I said that. And don''t say that I don''t have to, I owe you an explanation at this point. I don''t know if it''s a problem with how I''m programmed or what, but I have a history of Guardians I choose sacrificing themselves for others. I know that''s what a Guardian is supposed to do, but I cared about all of them. I was their main line of support, I should have been able to do enough so they didn''t have to sacrifice themselves." Celeste was clearly getting more and more distressed, so I turned to look at her fox form. "I don''t know the full story with all of those people, but I know they were all capable of making their own choices. If they genuinely thought that was the best way to save people, then that was their call to make. You don''t need to blame yourself for that." "I don''t know how much that really helps, but it does feel nice to hear you say that." "I understand I''m not going to fix your issues with one conversation Celeste, it''s fine. I''m guessing that''s why you took a break for a few years?" I asked her, and she nodded. "You are correct. It did help a lot, but now I''m worried that everything is going to go the same way again." "Listen, if you don''t want me to take this class I won''t. But I can''t do my job as effectively as I could if I don''t have your full trust in me. I need you to know that I can understand my own limits, and if I ever don''t, I trust you to be able to tell me. How does that sound?" She took a moment to think, before eventually looking back up at me. "Okay. I trust you. It''s your call in the end, choose whatever you think is best." I smiled and gave her another head scratch as I looked back at the menu, Mia looking over as well. I moved back down to the Star Cleric and clicked on it, scrolling to the bottom and selecting the choose option. It gave another brief warning which I read and then clicked past. You have selected your new class: Star Cleric Please wait one moment... "Eh? Celeste what am I waiting for?" I turned to look back at her, but she was gone. Or rather, I wasn''t where I was supposed to be. I was on a street corner in the beginnings of the night and judging from all the people walking around and the decorations, I assumed it was some kind of festival. There were all kinds of festivals happening in and around Tokyo all the time, so it took me a moment to place what it was. It was rather hot outside, so it must take place during the summer, and I was pretty sure I could see the diet building pretty far in the distance. Since there was a parade going on, I assumed this must be the Sando Matsuri, but considering it was the middle of January, I wasn''t entirely sure this was all exactly real. My theory was proven when eight year old me walked around the corner, holding my father''s hand as we watched the parade. So, this was clearly another memory, but why the hell was I here? I walked over to my younger self and was thankful no one could see me, as the appearance of a real life kitsune at a festival like this would probably cause a lot of panic. The young me looked up at my father and pointed over to a group of women dressed in yukatas, doing some kind of traditional dance I didn''t know the name of. I heard myself try to speak in Japanese to start, but after fumbling for a bit they just ended up switching back to English. It was funny that I only got the hang of Japanese after I left Japan. "Dad, what kind of dance are those girls doing?" I asked him excitedly, and he looked over and smiled. "I''m not sure bud, there''s quite a few dances like that at different festivals, but we could look it up later if you want. They must have practiced for a while, they''re very good at it." "I know! I wanna do that when I get old enough!" I said, and my dad chuckled. "Well, usually men and women have different dances, so why don''t we go look around and see if we can find a group doing that version instead?" He said, and I watched my enthusiasm deflate immediately. "Oh, okay then." I said dejectedly, knowing better then to try and push back on that. I actually didn''t remember talking to my dad about that on that night. That felt like something I should remember, but I decided to push that thought to the side now. I could worry about the implications of that, well, never. "Let''s find your mother first, I don''t know how we keep losing her in this. Oh, never mind. Honey!" My dad yelled, waving over to someone. My heart sank, and I whipped around to what he was looking at. Sure enough, there was my mother, looking as beautiful as she always did. She wore a traditional yukata, despite the fact she wasn''t from Japan. She always tried her best to adapt to my dad''s culture, he said that was one of the reasons he married her. She had long blonde hair the same way I did now, and she was around the same height as my father, so she was extremely tall for a woman at around 6,2. I realized now why my face looked odd to me in the mirror, it was like a younger version of hers. I could already feel my eyes tearing up, and I knew hearing her voice would be too much, so I walked away quickly, losing myself in the crowd. I was waiting for the moment everything got weird again like the last memory, but it didn''t seem to be happening, so I just kept walking and enjoyed the different sights. "Excuse me, miss?" Someone said in Japanese. I kept walking, assuming it was just more idle chatter, but for some reason it sounded a lot louder than everything else. Weird that my super hearing didn''t work in a memory, but oh well. "Miss? Over here!" Okay, that time I know that sounded louder. I turned around to see a woman wearing a normal looking yukata, but she held a mask over her face. It was a kabuki mask, a lot different looking then the one my grandfather had in my last memory, but the woman was clearly looking at me. I slowly walked over to her, extremely confused. "Um, hello? How exactly can you see me?" I asked back in Japanese, a little slower than I''d like. I really needed to practice more. "This dream of yours is powered by your own magic, and Guardians aren''t the only ones able to use magic. I simply snuck my way in. I, or should I say we, have been tracking you ever since we felt you come into existence a few hours ago. I have to say, I actually wasn''t expecting this to work over such a large distance, but I am glad it did." She said, moving out of the shadows where she was standing. I was somehow more confused than I was before. "Okay then, new question, who the hell are you?" I asked, and the woman smiled and took off her mask, revealing... someone I had never met before. I don''t know what I was expecting. She looked like your average Japanese woman, except her eyes were slits, much like mine. "Who I am is not important, what matters more is who are we. And we are what you can call your sisters in kin. We simply wished to send a message to you to let you know you should come find us. Take this and memorize it." She handed me a slip of paper with what appeared to be an address on it, and I looked back up at her. "Okay, I have absolutely zero clue what¡¯s happening here. I was told regular people could barely do magic even with tools, how are you doing this?¡± I asked, but as I did, I felt an odd pulse in the air. The woman looked around as this happened and turned back to me. "It seems we are out of time, the systems you Guardians use must know what we''ve done. Trust me Inari, we wish to help you, and you will have to find us so we can do so. I¡¯ll see you soon, keep a good hold of that." ¡±Wait, you haven¡¯t answered anything! At least give me a name!¡± ¡°You can call me Yui.¡± As she said this, I felt the pulse from earlier happen again, and suddenly I felt everything go black. When I opened my eyes, I was simply inside the hallway of the shelter with Mia looking at me in shock. "What the fuck was that?! You just disappeared for two minutes! Your little fox just said you were fine then vanished!" I went to respond to her, but as I did Celeste''s voice rang out in my head. "Don''t tell her about what just happened! I cannot explain why right now, but it is important she does not know about what you just went through at the moment. You should be able to explain it to her later." She said, and while I wanted to fight her on it, I figured it wasn''t worth it for now, and looked back over to Mia. "Uh, for some reason I can''t tell you right now. But yeah, I am fine, don''t worry. Now come on, let''s go get these people ready." "You cannot possibly think I''m just gonna forget about that happening!" She yelled as I began to walk back into the shelter. "Trust me, I''ll tell you later. For now, I gotta call a friend, get everyone rounded up." I said, getting ready to call Arc. It was time to get these people the hell out of here. Chapter 9: Help Has Arrived "First, we need to discuss... what are you holding?" Celeste asked as I walked forward. I looked down and saw I was somehow still holding the note that the woman from my flashback handed me. That shouldn''t be possible, but at this point I was pretty sure damn near anything was possible. "Yeah, about that, I need to fill you in on what happened just now." As I explained how I had somehow managed to talk to someone in my flashback, I took a moment to feel out the changes to myself. I felt a little different physically, certainly better but not by much, but the real jump in strength was with my mana. Before, I had enough mana to cast maybe five spells in a row, while mixing in a few mana powered physical strikes. Now, I easily had maybe five times that amount, and it seemed like I had plenty of room to go. I had thought it would simply increase my body''s ability to store mana, but instead it seemed like it let me absorb more potent mana from the space around me, while keeping the amount of space it took up the same. Come to think of it, I noticed now I could sort of sense the mana in the air like I could my own mana, although they had some distinct differences. The mana in the air felt harsher, almost uncontrollable, and yet it seemed to simply exist in the air while not actually affecting much. I guess that''s why our bodies had to take it in and convert it into our own. As I finished explaining the whole story, excluding certain personal elements I didn''t feel comfortable sharing with Celeste, I felt her express true confusion for the second time since I had known her. "Inari, absolutely nothing you just described should be possible." She said, and I gave a slight chuckle as I walked around making sure all the civilians were in a medically right state to leave. "Well, I don''t know what to tell you, it happened. I have the note to prove it!" I said, sticking it in my inventory, which made the man I was healing look at it in awe. I kept forgetting that people were very much so not used to being around Guardians, I''d have to remember that in the future. I decided I should leave memorizing the note for later, as there was a chance I might drop it somewhere or forget the address in the stress of a fight. "I suppose you do. I''ve just never heard of anyone other than a Guardian using magic except in extremely controlled scenarios. Hey, I just realized, how did she know your name?" "Huh? What do you mean?" "I mean, you chose the name Inari while you were on this planet. How did she know what your Guardian name was?" Celeste asked, and I stood there for a second thinking about that. "You know, I have absolutely no idea. I mean, I guess she was Japanese too, and I do have the whole fox thing going on, but she didn''t exactly seem like she was guessing." That seemed, much more concerning than her wanting me to see her. Oh, and my "sisters in kin", whatever that meant. I did always kind of want a sibling. "Alright, I think this is something we should leave for once this invasion is over. For now, we need to focus on getting these people ready to go." "Right, right. By the way, why couldn''t I tell Mia about my flashback? You seemed pretty adamant about the fact that I couldn''t." "They are called Insights, and I cannot tell you at the moment why. Mia is a special case, anyone else you can talk to about it, just not her. That will change at some point, but for now just focus on this." Celeste said, and I rolled my eyes. "Alright, fine, but this better be for a good reason. Also, how did she see my menu?" Now that I thought of it, she was reading from my menu when I chose a class. I hadn''t seen anyone else be able to do that. "Please stop asking questions now." "If I don''t get an explanation for any of this, I''m gonna be pretty mad." I took a look around the shelter, and it seemed like everyone was at least physically ready to go. Mia was talking with another guard, and before too long they both split up and began getting everyone''s attention. Seemed like all that was left was getting anyone who could be helpful armed, and maybe buying a few more drones for the squad. I took a look in my inventory to pull out Venus and Mars, but I only saw Venus. Where was- "Oh my god I left Mars on the first floor!" I yelled by accident, spooking a few people around me. I had Celeste check his camera to see that he was still fine, and that most of the people on the first floor were ignoring him anyways. At the very least, they seemed like they had calmed down from before, so I decided to just recall him and place a call to Arc, this time walking into a corner as Mia and the rest of the guards got everyone in a group. After a few rings, she picked up. "What is it?" She said, decidedly in a worse mood then before. "Uh, about to get everyone ready to go. Just going to get the people out of each shelter now. What''s going on over there that''s got you all worked up?" I asked, and she sighed while looking over her shoulder. "Sorry, it''s nothing. These people are just a bunch of morons, been absurdly annoying to get them wrangled up." "Yeah, I''ve had some problems of my own. You have any casualties?" "Other than before I got here? Nah. What about you?" As she asked this, I simply looked away from the camera for a bit, taking a moment to browse through my drone catalogue. When I looked back, it seemed like she had gotten the message. "Hey, don''t beat yourself up over it. You can''t be perfect in this line of business, and you''re dealing with a tougher situation then most do in a first invasion. By the way, is everything good in there entity wise? You aren''t gonna have any problems transporting the people, right?" She asked, and I shrugged. "Eh, probably not? There was a Recorder earlier that was causing issues, but I took care of it. Got me to Aquamarine tier too." I said, and Arc just stared at me blankly for a few seconds. "I''m sorry, what? You killed a Recorder, and got to Aquamarine in three hours of your first invasion? It took me three invasions to get there!" "What can I say, I''m both stupid enough to try something obscenely dangerous and smart enough to survive it. I chose my class, but it seems like it won''t provide me much more than a ton of mana until I use this ability, but it''s not really safe to try it right now. What class do you have?" "Oh, I''m a Samurai, it''s a rare class. I''m planning on specializing into something more electric focused, only a couple more class levels till I do. You''ll learn about that whole system once you kill some more entities. For now, it''s time to get to the most annoying step of this. So, how are we deciding who''s gonna deal with the military?" Well shit, I didn''t think about that. It sounded like an extreme hassle, but at the end of the day I did need to learn how. "Uh, rock paper scissors?" I asked her, but before she could respond Celeste popped up in front of me. "Inari, you''re doing it. You have to know how for later." "Ugh, fine! So, what do I do here?" I asked Arc, who was seemingly cheering about the fact she didn''t have to do it. "Oh yeah, so all you gotta do is call the nearest military frequency. If there''s nothing insane going on, they usually should send a set of vehicles and people to defend it for all the civilians. Just get everyone to the exit when they''re ready and the entities outside have calmed down a bit and help defend everyone while they drive over to me. Then we''ll all probably head back to whatever safehouse they''ve set up, eight hundred people is about the limit of what one convoy can transport." "So the military can defend against all those entities in the streets by themselves?" "Hell no! They usually have a Guardian specifically to help them clear a path to us to begin with. Plus, that''s why people like Fortress are out there culling the herd." She said, and it made me think for a moment. This whole system was starting to make a lot more sense to me, it wasn''t just every man for himself, all these Guardians had specific roles. I still wasn''t sure which one was perfect for me, but I had time to figure it out. "Alright, I''ll get to calling the military. By the way, let me know in advance if you have any really injured people, I''ll save a bit of mana so I can get them healed up." I said, and Arc gave me the widest smile I''ve ever seen. "Holy shit, you are a fuckin saint! I was gonna have to waste so many points on healing items before I left just in case anyone got hurt! Hell, I''ve already spent like eight hundred points just this invasion on it!" "Jesus, just get a basic healing spell!" "Don''t know who that is, but I do have one. I''m just really not that proficient in it, and there''s a lot of shit it can''t help with unless you invest in it more. I''ve already passed the point where it''s worth it honestly, but having a medic around is always awesome! We should stick together more often, maybe you can join me, Fortress and another friend of ours in an invasion next time." I blushed a bit at her compliment, but her offer honestly did sound nice. Having some consistent allies did seem pretty much necessary if my class description wasn''t lying to me. "We can discuss that later, for now I''ve got to make a call." "Alright, just link me into the call when you''ve got it all sorted out. See ya soon cutie!" She said, ending the call. This woman was going to be the death of me, I swear. I was thankful that Celeste had chosen not to comment on how that conversation has ended as I looked back, seeing that everyone was seemingly ready to go. As I turned to Mia and waved her over, she saw me and broke off from the group. "Hey, you almost ready?" She asked, and I nodded. "Yeah, should be close. How many of your people are capable of handling a gun?" "Me and about four others." "Alright, I''ll grab you guys some easy to handle weapons and some extra ammo. I also think I might grab a few more drones to help out with any crowd clearing." I took out Venus and Mars, and then looked at my drone catalogue. "If you want, you can afford the next robotics catalogue, should have some interesting cybernetics as well as some better drones. It will take a tier one gem however." Celeste said in my head, which I pondered a bit. "I don''t know if I really want to give up my two buddies though, I''ve grown kind of attached to them." "That''s the best part, you don''t have to. You can choose to upgrade them for cheaper than it is to purchase new ones!" "Well in that case, sounds like a great deal! I''ll take it!" I said, scrolling through my menu to buy the new catalogue. Robotics Catalogue Tier Aquamarine Purchased for 200 Points and 1 Tier 1 Gem, New Total: 1233 I took a minute to look through some of the other items in the catalogue, noticing that there were options for prosthetics. Hopefully I wouldn''t need that, but it seemed useful to have in the long run. I found the upgraded version of my drones and grabbed one, while also clicking the option to upgrade my current two. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Automatic Assault Drone Mk.2 Purchased for 120 Points, New Total: 1113 Automatic Assault Drone Upgrade x2 Purchased for 120 Points, New Total: 993 I watched as Venus and Mars disappeared for a moment, before popping back into the room with a brand new look. The orb that made up their main body was much larger, as were the arms on the side, and they now had a sleek black look to them. I also saw I could customize all of their looks, which I planned on doing later. They clearly looked like they could hold some much better weapons, so I scrolled through the weapons catalogue and got them an option Celeste recommended along with the guns the guards would need. A-33 Tracker Magnum x2 Purchased for 30 Points, New Total: 963 A-33 Magazine x40 Purchased for 40 Points, New Total: 923 Lancer Assault Rifle x4 Purchased for 280 Points, New Total: 643 Points AR Ammo x20 Purchased for 20 Points, New Total: 623 "I sure hope you guys do your jobs well, cause this was quite an expensive endeavor. Alright, Venus, Mars, meet your new sister Neptune!" I said, pulling out the last drone while handing them all their rifles and ammo, keeping the last one for myself. Mia quickly distributed the magnums and some ammo out while I kept the rest in my inventory. If we had managed to take care of that horde earlier with much less, I severely doubted we would have any problems now. I turned and looked back to the crowd to make sure everyone was fine, and saw that a lot of them were simply staring at me and smiling. I was confused at first, then realized, I was their only source of help in this place, and they clearly thought I had a handle on things. That thought made me smile back at them and walk up to the group of about sixty or so people. "Alright everyone, it''s about time for us to leave this place. I want everyone to stay calm and follow either my orders, or Mia''s orders. She''s the woman standing next to me. You will probably hear gunshots, but that''s normal. It just means we are taking care of anything that could become a problem. The guards here specifically have weapons designed to track enemies and avoid anything else, and my little squad here is programmed to never shoot if there could be civilian casualties. Now, follow me!" I said, and the crowd began talking amongst themselves excitedly as I walked toward the exit with Mia. "Alright, you stay up here with me, the rest of your squad should take spots on every side of the crowd. We head straight for the stairwell, only way to get down. I''ll send one of the drones to clear it out incase there''s anything lurking in there, and then we''ll all head to the seventh floor and get them. They already know we''re on our way?" I asked her, and she nodded. "Called em a couple minutes ago. The second we get that door open, they should start heading out." "Sounds good. On the way, I''ve got to make a call, so if I zone out or something just tap me on the shoulder." I put my hand on the pad and got the door open, sending out the first group of people while walking out myself. After a couple more cycles, we managed to get everyone out onto the main area of the fifteenth floor. Thankfully, the stairwell wasn''t very far away, but I already saw there were a few entities ahead. I figured instead of scaring everyone with a bunch of gunfire, it would be better to show off a bit to help everyone realize I knew what I was doing. I held out my hand and charged up a Flame Pillar spell, this time devoting about twice as much mana to it as I usually did, and combined with the extra potency from my class, the spell was absurdly powerful, way than usual. It spread out and roasted the few minor entities in the way, and I heard multiple people in the crowd gasp, a few even screaming. I turned back and gave everyone a smile. "Don''t worry folks, I''ve got it all handled. Let''s go!" I said, leading the charge to the stairway. As we easily made it, I sent Venus in to scout it out and make sure any entities in there were taken and got Celeste to find the nearest military station to call. It took a few tries, but eventually I got through. 3 Entities Killed, New Total: 638 "This is Safe Haven 0-75 of Starbound PMC, who am I speaking to?" I heard a man speak over the phone with an oddly bored tone. "This is the Guardian Inari, looking for military transport for about eight hundred people spread out between myself and another Guardian, Arc Angel. We are in close proximity to each other, I am in the Misan Entertainment Center." I said, and he didn''t say anything back for a bit, but eventually he responded. "Alright Inari, I''m connecting you to a specialist who''s leading rescue operations at the moment. Hold one second." He said, and after a few seconds I saw a face pop up in the corner of my vision. The person was clearly much older than me, somewhere in her late forties or so, and she was riddled with scars. She had very dark skin and a mess of brown hair that was longer than I would expect from someone in combat so often. "Inari, right? I''m Captain Nianshi, I''ll be the one heading over to help you out." She said, her voice extremely gruff. I could just tell that this woman had a lot of experience in combat, so I was feeling pretty confident in our odds of getting out of here with no casualties. "Nice to meet you captain, I''ve currently got about sixty people with me, about to head downstairs and get the remaining civilians. How quick can you get to us?" "Lucky for you, we were already planning on heading down that way, so our ETA is looking to be around eight minutes. Why don''t you loop that other Guardian into the call now, need to know more about her scenario. She''s got the majority of your people after all." I nodded and linked Arc into the call as Venus returned, confirming there weren''t any entities in the stairwell at all. In the meantime, Mars and Neptune had taken out a couple stray flying entities around, and thankfully everyone seemed to be staying rather calm. Eventually, Arc picked up the call. Three Entities Killed, New Total: 663 "Hey, you got everything ready? Oh, you must be the escort. Names Arc Angel, I''m sending my building''s location." Arc said, her voice suddenly losing all of it''s normal cheeriness. I guess she just didn''t like the military, which I suppose I understood. Nianshi seemed to be nice enough though, so I doubted we''d have any problems. I began walking down the stairs ahead of the group of civilians, who all followed me down to the seventh floor, albeit slowly. "Glad to see it. Alright, we''ll stop by Inari''s spot first, then go to yours. We''re currently being escorted by- eh, what''s that? What do you mean don''t tell them? Whatever, I don''t get paid enough for this." The captain said, turning back to talk to someone. "Sorry, what''s going on?" I asked, and she turned her head back around and sighed. "The Guardian here apparently doesn''t want you to know who they are yet. No clue why, but I''m not questioning it. Just know they''re capable. We''ll call you back when we''ve arrived Inari. Captain Nianshi signing off." She said, dropping out of the call. Arc rolled her eyes. "I''m gonna head out too, gotta get these morons ready." She said, also leaving the call. I focused a little more on my environment and saw we had made it to the seventh floor, although the stairwell was already a bit packed, which wasn''t great. I turned to Mia, making a plan in my head. "Alright, you take this crowd down to the bottom of the stairs. I''m going to go get everyone on this floor. When you hear me yell down to you from up here, take everyone and send them out onto the front floor. I''ll have two of the drones clear the floor out for you." I said, and she nodded and began leading everyone downstairs. Meanwhile, I headed out the door with Neptune in tow, the other two following the crowd down. I sprinted through the seventh floor as quickly as I could, which really went to show the physical improvements from my class. Even without the Metamorphosis skill, I was much faster than before. I had to guess that I was easily running over forty miles per hour. The entities on the floor weren''t exactly ignoring me, but I simply took out my rifle as me and Neptune fired into the small horde that had amassed. I realized I had adapted to seeing tons of these things die rather quickly. The fact they didn''t spray blood or anything when they died helped a lot. Pretty quickly, the rest of the entities actually started running away, clearly realizing they were outmatched. Without someone telling them what to do, these guys were a lot more uncoordinated. 12 Entities Killed, New Total: 712 I quickly popped open the door and saw the security guard from earlier who I had given a magnum walk out, along with who I assumed was the chief of security. "Bring everyone out and be quick. Rest of the people are waiting downstairs." I said, taking a moment to give a glare to the chief, who jumped slightly and turned around as I opened the door again. As we went through the cycles of getting everyone ready, I noticed a guard walking out with a body wrapped in a tarp. I quickly realized who it was and looked away, before I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned and saw the man from earlier, doing his best to give me a comforting look. I simply nodded to him, saying nothing. Eventually everyone got out of the shelter, this time over a hundred people stepping out. This was the first time I realized just how many people a crowd like this was, and I was slightly worried about the ride over to Arc''s building now. At least I''d finally have another Guardian backing me up. I began leading everyone back to the stairwell the same as before, as the entities from earlier looked at them with renewed interest. Thankfully, a few warning shots was all it took to send them running again as I dipped back into the stairwell. "Alright Mia, send them down!" I heard the crowd in the stairwell begin moving, and I let the group with me begin funneling in. We quickly got everyone down and onto the first floor, where Mia and the rest of the guards were cleaning up any entities below. I joined in, finishing off the remaining weak entities before heading over to the shelter by the entrance of the center. 9 Entities Killed, New Total: 755 As I walked up, I looked through the shattered glass doors leading outside, seeing a few military vehicles pull up right on schedule. It looked like we were almost done with a good portion of this rescue mission. I doubted the invasion was going to be over anytime soon, but saving all these people was going to be a big step. I began letting everyone out of the last shelter as I heard a familiar voice call out to me. "Good to see you Inari! Now, how about we get these people out of here. Everyone! Follow me outside, we have plenty of vehicles out here to take you somewhere safe!" Captain Nianshi said, the crowd bursting out into cheers. Now that was a sound I could get used to. Chapter 10: What Could Go Wrong? "Single file lines everyone, things aren''t gonna stay this quiet for long, so we need to get movin!" Nianshi yelled as I walked outside to see what the situation on the street was. When I had looked earlier, it was a nightmare down here, the streets packed with entities. Now, I could see that while the myriad of soldiers around here were still picking off certain entities, everything seemed a lot calmer, mostly due to what seemed like giant green walls blocking off parts of the road. I looked a little closer and realized they weren''t walls, they were plants. As I did, I heard a voice behind me. "Admiring my work? It''s always a hassle trying to get through the concrete, but I make it work." I turned around to see a woman who looked to be around the same age as me and Arc Angel, with long blue hair and slightly pale green skin. She was wearing an oddly revealing outfit, consisting of a dark black top covering up her chest while exposing her stomach and back, and a baggy pair of white pants. "Oh, hey! I''m Inari, I assume you''re the mystery Guardian who refuses to be named?" "That would be correct, but as long as you don''t tell the other Guardian we''re about to go help who I am, I can tell you about myself. Name''s Blossom, Jasper Tier Guardian. If you couldn''t guess already, I can control plants, among other things." She said, and suddenly her whole outfit made a lot more sense. "I see, I''m guessing you can get energy from the sun or something like that?" I said, and she looked at me surprised for a minute and smiled. "Wow, not bad, you catch on quick. Now, we need to focus on getting this convoy more secure. We''re going to draw a lot more attention with all these civilians coming with us. I can clear out the streets pretty well, but the air is really where we''re lacking right now." She said, and I turned to take a scan of the whole convoy. There were a ton of armored trucks the civilians were loading into, as well as some separate attack vehicles with turrets on the back, and the soldiers seemed like they could handle their own. Still, I didn''t want to leave much to chance, so I took a look in my catalogues for a minute. "Well, I can grab an AOE spell to help with that, and I already have a few drones to help, but we''ll probably need more than that. How about some automated turrets? We can place them on top of the vehicles." "Sounds good to me. I don''t dip into tech much, more of a friend''s specialty, so I don''t have many good options there." "Don''t worry, I have a catalogue for it. You can focus on clearing out the actual path." I said, scrolling through my robotics catalogue. Thankfully, they didn''t separate drones and turrets into two catalogues, so I quickly grabbed two of the best looking option. It was a turret that used magnetism to somehow generate it''s own ammo, and it could also lock itself in place on any metal structure, which would hopefully reduce the kickback on the people inside the vehicles. While I was there, I also grabbed the AOE spell I had been looking at earlier. Mag Lock Turret x2 Purchased for 600 Points, New Total: 155 Firestorm Purchased for 150 Points, New Total: 5 As I bought the two turrets and they appeared in front of me, a few soldiers walked over and picked them up, looking at me expectedly. "Oh, uh, place one on that truck at the front, one on the truck at the tail end. Make sure they''re locked in place correctly." I said, and the soldiers nodded and followed my orders. The feeling of someone actually listening to what I was saying slightly made up for the heartache of spending every single point I had, but it was worth it to keep these people safe. I went to turn back to talk to Blossom more, but as I did, I heard something rumbling beneath my feet. I instinctively ran forward and grabbed Blossom, shoving her out of the way as something burrowed out of the ground underneath us. It looked like a giant worm with two pincers on either side of its mouth, and it was easily over twenty feet tall. At this point, most of the civilians were already inside vehicles, and the ones who weren''t were being quickly corralled by some soldiers, while the rest of them began firing at the giant creature in front of us. As we both recovered our balance, Blossom looked up at the thing and swore. "Fuck me, I must have led it here by moving my plants so much. I can take care of it, but I''m gonna have to use the plants from a wall, so you take care of anything incoming!" She said, leaping forward while stretching a hand out. The vines that made up a major portion of the north wall lifted up, whipping out and slamming into the giant creature before it could take a bite out of one of the larger vehicles. As the wall opened, a horde larger than one I had ever tried to kill charged forward. It wasn''t nearly as bad as what I saw earlier in the streets, but it was still massive, with numbers nearing the hundreds. "Everyone, pull the vehicles forward, as far from the horde as you can get!" I yelled, the soldiers following my orders and pulling forward. I lightened myself and jumped in the air to get out of the way as they did, and immediately gave the go ahead for all of my drones and turrets to begin unloading once I saw there were no civilians in the line of fire. From one end of the wall to the horde, we had a couple hundred feet before they actually reached any vehicles, but I wasn''t taking any chances. I charged up my new spell as the battlefield erupted into chaos, and as I unleashed it, a patch of fire about thirty feet wide erupted from the ground, spreading out and lighting a decent portion of the entities on fire. I dropped back down to the ground and pulled out my own rifle, focusing on shooting the nearest targets, and as I did, I saw something that severely complicated matters. One of the giant gorilla creatures from before had picked up an abandoned car, and suddenly hurled it forward towards us. I traced its path and saw it was heading for one of the guards from the shelter on the top floor, who was too busy shooting to notice it. I sprinted forward, not sure if I would have enough time to help, but before I could reach him, I saw Mia shove him out of the way as the car barreled towards her. She whipped her head around to stare at the projectile, her eyes stuck on it. Panicking, I shoved as much mana as I physically could into my hand and used my gravity manipulation. I felt the velocity of the car pull against my hand, but before it could reach Mia, it stopped in midair. I was incredibly relieved and went to turn back to the horde, when suddenly I saw Mia explode. Not like she would have if the car had hit her, but instead in white light, exactly like I had when I first agreed to my contract. Just as suddenly as this happened, Mia vanished from thin air. I was baffled, but I heard Celeste yell in my head. "I''ll explain what happened later, clear out the horde for now!" She said, and I managed to snap myself back into concentration, looking back at the horde. It was mostly thinned out now, save for a few very large entities. The giant worm from earlier was currently being strangled by two giant vines, so I wasn''t worried about that. I took the car I was still psychically holding and launched it back at the gorilla, and it screeched before the car slammed into it, caving its head in. One large entity that looked like a mix of a crab and a spider had managed to make it farther than the others, before Nianshi rushed past me, faster than I had ever seen any regular human move. I noticed now that she was wearing some sort of metal exoskeleton under her armor, and as the crab went to step on her, she caught its leg and ripped it to the ground, beating its shell with her fists. So, new idea, don''t fuck with the captain. I focused my efforts back on blasting the last few entities in the horde, which was already starting to grow back as more entities came from around street corners. Thankfully, a vine slammed into the remaining entities as Blossom rebuilt the wall from earlier. It seemed like we had managed to get through this without any casualties, which was a win in my book. 73 Entities Killed, New Total: 984 + 1 Tier 1 Gem "Everyone okay?" I yelled out over the crowd, and I heard mostly affirmations with a few people yelling about injuries. As I sprinted around healing up whoever I could, I already felt exhausted. I really needed to get a second to catch my breath. Thankfully, my turrets were still taking care of any smaller flying entities who tried to poke their way around the wall. I spoke to Celeste as I finished healing the last of the majorly injured people while Blossom focused on getting ready to move her walls so we could get to Arc Angels building. "So, you want to explain what the hell just happened to Mia?" I asked her, but before she could answer, there was another flash as Mia appeared back where she was standing earlier, dropping onto the ground. "Why don''t you ask her yourself?" Celeste said as I ran over to her, lending a hand. As she stood up, I realized she looked way different than before. Her hair, before just brown wavy locks, now looked like floating gel, constantly shifting in color. The markings on her eyes and cheeks were now much more pronounced, and there were quite a few other small adjustments here and there that made her look much younger than before. "What in the absolute hell happened to you?" I asked her as she dusted herself off, and she looked up at me just as confused as I was. "I was about to die, but then there was this voice, and it talked about a contract? Next thing I know I''m going back in time!" She said, her voice sounding almost like she was underwater, and I suddenly realized what had happened. "Well then, welcome to the team Mia! Or wait, I technically met you first, so I get to help you pick your Guardian name! Ooh, I see why Arc was excited about this!" Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. "Yeah, guess that''s why your contractor said not to tell me about that weird vision or whatever. Hey, what the hell do I look like? The only thing I can tell changed is this weird ass new voice." She said as Blossom walked over. "What''s going on over here?" "Mia''s a Guardian now!" I replied. "Dibs on naming her." "Too late, already called it." I said, and Blossom swore under her breath. She proceeded to pull out a mirror for Mia to hold, and as she looked at herself, she went from confused to pleased rather quickly. "Wow, I look ten years younger! The hair is a bit weird, but not bad!" She said, appreciating her new looks. I was glad someone actually enjoyed their transformation. Eventually, Nianshi walked up to us, looking very tired. "As much as I like knowing we have another Guardian to help us out, this is a real bad scenario for us to be standing around in, we need to move." She said, and I nodded looking at Mia. "Come on, we can ride on top of one of the trucks, I''ll explain some stuff on the way. Blossom, you got the road covered?" I asked her, and she nodded. I hopped on top of one of the front trucks with Mia, who seemed less then excited at the prospect of riding on top of a moving vehicle, as Celeste popped out next to us. "I''m sorry I couldn''t inform you of what was happening, but Mia''s current contractor notified me that his previous Guardian had passed away in this invasion, and he was considering her. One of our main duties is making sure no one interferes in the contracting process." Celeste said, and after a moment what looked like a small sea creature popped into the air next to Mia. I had never seen the creature before, but it looked similar to a cephalopod. A deep voice rang out from it. "Yes, thank you for not saying anything. I am Mono, Mia''s current contractor. If you could handle keeping her safe as this vehicle moves, I will explain to her the basics of being a Guardian." He said, and I gave him a quick nod. "Nice to meet you Mono! Mia, this is going to be a long conversation, so don''t worry about trying to fight. I can take care of things. Alright then, everyone ready to head out?" I yelled to the crew. After everyone confirmed they were prepared to go, Nianshi turned to Blossom as she stepped inside on of the larger vehicles. "Flower girl, lift up the walls and let''s get movin!" "Not my name!" Blossom yelled as the plant wall in front of us lifted up and another surge of entities made their way towards us. This time, they didn''t last very long, mostly due to a giant vine sending half the horde into near orbit. Alright, guess the rule is don''t fuck with the captain or Blossom. As we rode through the streets, I focused on shooting down anything in the air, which now that we were moving was a lot. Along with the cats from earlier, there was a flock of giant birds, more of the big wasps, and I got severely scared by what looked like a flying jellyfish before it just passed over us. I also managed to get another look at Fortress, who was still flying around in that mech suit. He must have spent an absurd number of points on that thing. 35 Entities Killed, New Total: 1487 Eventually, we made it in front of the building Arc was stationed at, which was just a rather large office building. The entrance was oddly clear, but I assumed Arc must have walked around here earlier and cleared it out for us. As we pulled up and Blossom raised up some more plants to wall off the area, I walked over to the entrance and saw Arc leading out an absurdly large group of people. Nianshi hopped out of her vehicle and took over for Arc as she walked up to me. I saw she was wearing the most sensible outfit I had ever seen for a Guardian, just a cool blue jacket with a white undershirt and jeans. "Inari, glad I can finally get a better look at you. Extremely glad in fact. You''re a lot taller than you looked on the call." She said, giving my outfit a once over as I blushed. "Wow, already flirting with other women? I''m starting to question if I should have even come." I heard Blossom say walking up behind me, and as I turned around confused, Arc gasped, sprinting past me before pulling her into a hug. "Petal! What are you doing here, I thought you couldn''t make it!" "Appointment got cancelled, so I figured I''d hop in early and surprise you and Fortress. Don''t worry, I kept myself safe. Your new friend helped a lot with that actually." She said, giving Arc a quick kiss on the forehead before the two looked back over to me. "Oh, you must be so confused! Inari, this is Blossom, my girlfriend! Normally me, her and Fortress do our invasions together, but she was supposed to be busy this time!" Arc said, and I nodded, still decently confused. "Right, yeah. And Fortress is..." I asked, hoping they would fill in the blank. "He''s our partner, and yes, I do mean that in both ways." Blossom said, and now everything made much more sense. So, they were all just in a poly relationship. Cool! Although now I was slightly upset that Arc had been flirting with me for that whole time while she had two partners, but I suppose that was my problem, not theirs. I was about to ask some more questions when I noticed a lot of the people walking out of Arc''s building were rather injured, so I simply walked over and began healing people one at a time while the other two talked. After people began getting packed into their vehicles, I noticed it was going to get pretty cramped, so we would have to be extra careful on the way back to the safehouse they had set up. "Hey, uh, think we might have a problem here!" I heard Mia yell from across the street. I looked over and saw she was sitting on top of a pile of something. As I walked closer to her, I realized it was some type of foam or something similar. How she had gotten it I had no idea. "What is it? Also, what''s with all this?" I said, jumping up next to her. "Oh yeah, I can make gel. Part of my abilities, I guess. Haven''t exactly figured out what to do with it yet, but that''s not important. You see that?" She said, pointing out in the distance. Her gel pile was big enough to see over the wall, and I quickly noticed what the problem was. A couple blocks away, I could see a towering figure, at least forty feet tall if not taller, covered in green shaggy fur. It had two horns on either side of its head, closer to antlers than anything else, and its face was incredibly bony and disgusting. It thankfully didn''t seem to notice us, and it was moving incredibly slowly. "Hey, you two! We definitely do have a problem, get over here!" I yelled back to Arc and Blossom, who both took a second to realize what was going on before rushing over. A crack in the ground opened up as Blossom made a large stem that the two stood on to reach our height. They each took a moment to survey the situation, realizing it was probably bad. "Shit, I don''t think I''ve ever even seen one of those things before. We are not taking the chances of fighting that thing, we''ll have to go back the way we came." Blossom said, a worried look on her face. "Isn''t the way back swarmed? How the hell are we gonna get through?" I asked her, and she took a minute to think. "Alright, two of us will go and clear out the way back, and the other two will stay here and stand guard. I have to be here to keep the walls up, and Mia isn''t ready to handle that, so that leaves you two." She said. Arc nodded, while I was a little more worried. "Yeah, I''m already kind of low on mana, and I''m not exactly as strong as you two." "Oh, why don''t you use that skill? You said it makes you stronger right, and even if it''s dangerous we need all the help we can get." Arc said, and I thought about it for a moment. I supposed this was a good moment to test it, but I figured I should check with Celeste about it first. "I see no reason why now would be a bad time to test it out, go ahead. Just make sure the other Guardian with you keeps a good eye on you." She said, and I nodded before thinking about the skill. It seemed like all I had to do to activate it was to try, so I simply thought about using Metamorphosis. As I did, I immediately regretted it. I felt fire run through my veins as I fell to my knees, the other girls around me saying things I couldn''t understand through the pain. After a moment, everything shifted. The feeling like my blood was boiling didn''t hurt anymore, it felt incredible. I stood up as the rest of the crew backed up, giving me space. I looked at myself to see what had changed. The most obvious was, I now had a second tail next to my first one. On top of that, both the fur of the tails and my hair had shifted in color, looking more red then yellow now, and I felt hot to the touch. While those might have been the only appearance changes that I noticed, I felt absurdly different. I knew I was massively stronger now, and the mana in my body had shifted into a raging tide of violet, yet I still felt like I had just as much control over it as before, maybe even better. "Uh, Inari, you alright?" Arc asked me, putting a hand on my shoulder. I looked over at her and grinned, which for some reason caused her to recoil. Huh, odd, wonder why. You know what, it doesn''t matter! I had a job to do. "I''m way better then alright! Whoever kills more entities owes the other anything under two thousand points!" I said, sprinting towards the back of the street and leaping over the wall, clearing the twenty foot tall bramble of vines without even lowering my weight. I heard Arc shout something as she ran after me, but I didn''t have time to wait around to respond. This was about to be fun! Chapter 11: Everything Goes Wrong I grabbed my glaive from my inventory as I landed on the ground, in the middle of a rather large pack of entities scratching at the wall behind me. They all turned to look as I landed and switched my glaive to chain mode, channeling a fire enchantment spell on the blade, and before they could do anything I spun in a circle while whipping the chain around, shredding everything around me in a whirlwind of flame and gore. At the very least, these things didn''t have any blood. I whipped the blade back and began spinning it in a circle as every entity on the street noticed me and began charging at me. I lashed out and sliced through an incoming Cloner, sprinting forward and jumping in the air as three entities charged me from different angles, moving my blade psychically so it killed all three at once before pulling the chain back and switching to glaive mode. I spun around and threw it forward, the blades whirling and mowing through a section of the horde as I cast a Firestorm. The entire street was engulfed in flames, incinerating anything that was left, and I started sprinting forward again, grabbing my glaive on the way, shoving it back in my inventory. I was moving way faster than normal, but it still wasn''t fast enough for my liking, so I cast a small explosion spell with every step I took, launching me forward. Sure, it left a bunch of dents in the ground, but that wasn''t my problem! As I whipped around a corner, I felt something slam into my head, and I got sent backwards into a building, cracking the wall I hit. It hurt, but not nearly as much as I would have thought, and as I looked up, I saw one of those bear entities had hip checked me once I turned the corner. "So that''s how you wanna play huh? Alright, I can handle that!" I yelled, launching myself towards it with an explosion. I heard Celeste yelling something in the back of my head but ignored it for now as I flew forward. The entity reached out a hand and swiped at me, so I twisted in midair to avoid it, adding an extra spin as I slammed my heel down into its head, knocking it to the ground. I cast another explosion as I landed, sending me forward towards more entities while also killing the one beneath me. This class was the best! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POV (Fortress) I was doing my usual thing, flying high enough that most entities couldn''t mess with me while shooting out the occasional missile or bomb into the crowd on the street when I got a call. I answered to see Arcs face pop up in the corner of my suits HUD. "Oh, hey Spark, you doing okay? Also, did I see Petal down there or am I going crazy?" I asked her. "No time! Look back at where we just saw us, do you see someone running around down there?!" She yelled, clearly in a panic. Confused, I looked down at the street, expecting to have a hard time noticing whoever she was talking about, but it was actually rather easy. I saw a girl with reddish-blond hair sprinting down a street at some pretty crazy speeds. Not as fast as someone like Arc, but pretty quick. That didn''t even begin to explain the full oddness of this woman though. She had a set of some kind of animal ears and two tails, which wasn''t too odd for a Guardian, but she was also glowing. I quickly realized it wasn''t magic, she was literally so hot that she put off light. She was also constantly exploding, or at least that''s what it looked like. She was most likely just using magic to create explosions, but still, whoever this woman was had me intrigued. Oh, and not to mention she was absurdly tall. She would probably be taller than me even with my suit, damn near eight feet tall. At the moment, it looked like she was just street clearing, absolutely tearing her way through multiple hordes. "You mean the glowing girl with the ears? Yeah, I see her. That the person you mentioned earlier?" "Yes, follow her! Her names Inari, she used some kind of class skill and now she''s pretty much gone crazy!" Arc said. That sounded extremely not good, so I turned around and launched towards Inari, following her from a slight distance. "What kind of crazy? The kind where she''s going to kill civilians, or just acting weird?" I asked Arc. "I don''t think she''s gonna do anything bad, I''m mostly worried she''s gonna get herself killed. I''m on my way right now, just make sure she stays safe, maybe hold her down or something if you have to!" "Hun, with all due respect, I am not touching that woman." "This isn''t a joke, she''s a brand-new Guardian, she could really hurt herself!" She said, and I watched as Inari grabbed an entity double her height and threw it into the air, before ripping a chunk out of a nearby building and launching it into the entity without even touching it. "Yeah, I think she''ll be fine. Don''t worry, I''ll intervene if anything bad happens. See you soon." "Alright, I''ll be there quick as I can!" She ended the call, and I continued following Inari for a bit, occasionally attacking some passing entities before I heard a screech behind me, and I heard the voice of my contractor through my suit''s speaker. "Large flying entity directly behind you, initiate evasive maneuvers." Prime said, and I rocketed upwards as the entity flew underneath me, charging forward instead of continuing keeping chase. I looked over to see the entity looked ancient, like an animal from thousands of years in the past. It had bone plating surrounding its whole body, which had a lot of reptilian elements. It flew right past me, heading directly for Inari. "Uh oh. Prime, what was that?" "Database indicates that is a Aerialudon, an entity at the highest level of MASAL. It is extremely durable, and it can shed its bone plating to use as projectiles, regrowing the plating rather fast." Well, that was bad. There was no way Inari could handle that by herself, I doubted I could even take it on my own. I increased my speed and followed it, trying to gain on it before it reached her. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POV (Inari) As I burned one of the giant gorilla entities with a Flame Pillar, I heard a roar behind me. I whipped around at the noise and saw what looked like an armored pterodactyl absolutely tearing through the sky towards me. I turned around and got ready to try and hit it out of the air, but the closer it got the more I realized this was a superbly bad idea. As I was frantically coming up with a plan to get away from this thing, the person I now knew was Fortress slammed into it from the side, knocking it into a nearby park area. As he did, he landed on the ground in front of me. His mech suit was an incredibly deep black color with red and silver accents, as well as grooves all over it presumably hiding things like the bombs he was dropping earlier. When he landed, the face plate of his mask folded back, revealing his face. He had very dark skin, and his facial features were rather sharp while still looking relatively young, although he did still seem slightly older than me. His thick black hair was braided back into a sort of ponytail, and as I noticed he had a decent few scars mainly over his forehead he gave me a smile. "Inari, right? Arc''s been telling me about you all day." He said, holding out a hand to shake. I reached out and grabbed it, casting a healing spell as thanks while I did. "Yep, that''s me. Nice to finally meet you Fortress, I can see why Arc and Blossom like you so much! Wait, that''s not important right now, we gotta kill that thing! Wanna make a bet on it?" I asked him, my mouth moving a mile a minute. He gave me an odd look as I talked, before eventually grinning mischievously. "I think I''m going to like you. Alright, what''s the bet?" "Whoever does more damage to that thing has to buy the other something nice! Our contractors can track it for us, right Celeste?" I asked her, as her fox form appeared in front of me. "Oh, so NOW you want to listen to me! You need to stop before- AHHHHH!" Celeste screamed as I lightly smacked her mana made body. It flew into the air, vanishing out of sight after a moment. Fortress blinked slowly as he stared at me. ¡±Is she gonna be okay?¡± "She''ll handle it! Now, what''s the strongest weapon you''ve got in that thing?" I asked Fortress, who was still clearly confused by what just happened with Celeste. "Oh, uh, my railcannon is probably the best I have, its going to take a bit to charge up while we fight though. Is she okay?" "Yeah, she''s fine. Now, get that thing charging. I''m gonna go up there and take this thing on, you shoot some of those missiles or whatever." I said, watching the entity recover off the ground and soar into the air. I slammed my foot down and broke a big enough chunk of the street off that I could stand on. I hopped on top of it and lifted it into the air with gravity manipulation, rocketing towards the entity. As I did, I heard whooshing noises behind me, and after a moment a few projectiles sped past me and connected with the entity, sending it reeling as it began to fall towards the ground. I hopped off my rock and cast an explosion as I fell towards it, landing on it as I began beating at the now exposed flesh on its body. It let out a howl and regained its balance, shifting to the right and scraping into a side of a building. I felt some extreme pain as my right arm slammed into the wall and I fell off the entity. I quickly pulled out my glaive and switch it to chain mode, throwing out one end so it stabbed into the stomach of the creature. I held on as the chain tightened and I swung forward, following along with it. After I got my bearings, I pulled myself forward, swinging with the chain and looping around, getting back above the creature as I ripped the other end of the chain out. As I dropped down onto it I cast an explosion to propel myself and switched to glaive mode, slamming the handle into its back. This time, it fully lost control of its flight and fell to the ground, landing on the street and crushing a decent amount of entities. As it did, Fortress flew in behind it and grabbed its tail, spinning it around and slamming it into the ground before throwing it back into the air. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. I lowered my density and floated back to the ground, but unfortunately the fight wasn''t over yet. It somehow still managed to regain its flight control and swung a wing out at us, as multiple of its scales launched out towards the two of us. I caught most of them with gravity manipulation, but a few veered off and slammed into nearby buildings. I realized now we needed to end this quick, if it kept causing damage to buildings it could make one fall over, and at that point a shelter wouldn''t matter for the people inside. "Alright, get that cannon ready! For now, throw me!" I yelled at Fortress. "Listen, I''m strong, but I don''t think I''m strong enough to- oh wow, you are surprisingly light!" He said as I jumped into his arms. "It changes frequently, now go!" He nodded and spun around a few times before chucking me as hard as he could towards the entity, which had already begun flying down at me. I cast another explosion as I flew, dodging the entity''s beak as it tried to bite at me, and I immediately increased my density and slammed into it with my right shoulder. This would prove to be a severe mistake, but in the moment, it worked. Me and the entity both rocketed down to the ground, slamming into the street and leaving a rather large crater. I yelled and cast two more explosions with each hand, this time putting in enough mana that they would deal some real damage. When the explosions went off, the scales of the creature shattered, and the crater we were in got even deeper. I immediately jumped into the air while decreasing my weight, using gravity manipulation to bury most of the entity in a pile of rubble. It screeched as it tried to get itself unstuck, and I looked back at Fortress. "Do it now!" "Got it!" He yelled, flying over as his right arm morphed into an extremely large cannon, glowing light inside of it. He pointed it down at the crater as I soared out of the way, and after a moment a red beam erupted from the cannon, getting larger as it traveled. It reached the entity and began evaporating it, light seeping out through cracks in the ground as it dug the hole in the ground even deeper. Once it finished, Fortress flew over to me, and we both looked at each other. "So uh, call it a tie?" I asked him, and after a moment he nodded, the two of us clearly exhausted. "That works for me. Hey, you can heal yourself, right? You don''t look too good right now." "Eh? What''s wrong?" "You''re kind of, melting?" He said. I scoffed a bit looking down at myself. Why they hell would I be- oh dear god I was melting. It thankfully wasn''t anything like I was actually on fire, instead it looked like I was a cartoon character melting in the heat, my body feeling like liquid. I immediately realized something was wrong and turned off Metamorphosis, casting a healing spell on myself as the exhaustion of battle hit me. I would have collapsed if Fortress didn''t catch me, quickly taking off into the air. "You all good now? You need some more medical attention or can you take care of it? Either way, we''re going to go back and see Arc, she''s worried about you." "Ugh, one second." I said, scrolling through my tome options and buying the best healing option I had available. Medical Tome Tier Aquamarine Purchased for 200 Points and 1 Tier 1 Gem, New Total: 7684 + 6 Tier 1 Gems Holy shit, I guess I killed more things than I thought. I immediately snagged a couple useful spells and cast them on myself. Regen Purchased for 130 Points, New Total: 7554 Recover Purchased for 150 Points, New Total: 7404 As I healed myself, the melting from earlier mostly subsided. The regen spell gave constant healing over a period of time, so that would be useful. I turned to look at Fortress as we flew. "Hey, uh, sorry about all that. I think I kind of got lost there for a bit." "Not sure that I''m the one you should be apologizing to." "What do you- oh no, Celeste!" As I said her name, her fox form appeared in front of me. "You are the absolute worst!" "Celeste, I''m so sorry! I don''t know why I did all that, that skill made me act crazy." I said, and she sighed. "You are forgiven, if only because I said the skill was fine to use. For now, we are only using that in dire situations, any other times it''ll be locked. There was actually another stage of it you could have accessed, but I locked that down the second I realized what was happening. For now, just go check in with the rest of the Guardians." "Alright, sounds good. Fortress, we almost there?" I asked, and he nodded. I turned to see what looked like a bolt of lightning zipping through the streets, slashing through entities. We landed on the ground as behind us the caravan pulled in, Blossom raising her walls up to block the streets while Arc cleared everything else. I looked around the area, seeing this was clearly the military shelter. There were a ton of soldiers protecting a large doorway that led down into what I assumed was a bunker. As I freed myself from Fortresses arms, Arc ran up to me and proceeded to replace them with her own pair of arms, wrapping herself around me. "Liara, are you okay?! You went nuts back there, and why are you so hot?!" She said, pulling herself off me. I guess I still had that heat from earlier, that was probably what was causing the melting. Guess I knew what the class downside was now. "Yeah, sorry, that skill came with some downsides. Hey, at least we have an idea of what it does now! Fortress helped me out and I managed to get myself all healed up." "What about your arm though?" She asked. Puzzled, I looked down at my right arm to see it was still in the same melted state as before. "Huh, that''s odd. One second, let me check something." I cast Diagnosis on my arm, and while my arm clearly looked messed up, it seemed like it should be healing. However, a pop up appeared in my vision as I used the spell. Injury too severe for this tier of healing. Recommendation: Replace arm with prosthetic as soon as possible if higher tier medical care is not avaliable. "Oh fuck, that''s not good." I said as Blossom and Nianshi led everyone inside the bunker. Fortress bent down and took a look at my arm. Now that I was back to normal, I could tell he was probably about the same height as me without his suit. "I''m guessing you''re getting the same readings as I am?" He said. I nodded, assuming he must have some way to get medical information with his suit. "Yeah. I may have damaged this arm a bit too much." "So, what does that mean? They have a medical office down there, we can have them take a look at it." Arc said. I nodded and followed her down. Fortress waved as we walked away. "I''ll do some more cleaning up here, see you in a bit!" He said, rocketing off again. I already liked that guy a lot. Arc and I stepped down the stairs down to the bunker, squeezing past the citizens also heading down. As we hit the bottom, I realized it was essentially another version of the shelters in buildings, but absurdly large. Arc asked a soldier for directions, and he nodded, leading us towards the medical area. There were a ton of people in beds in various states of injury, and as I walked in a male medic in proper medical gear looked up at us. "We can''t take any more patients that aren''t dying right now, so... what the hell happened to you?" He asked, turning away from the patient he was working on, who seemed rather annoyed. I walked up and tried to cast a spell with my right arm, but I realized it now wasn''t even responding, the feeling in it having faded. I quickly just cast the spell with my left hand and saw as the persons scrapes and cuts began mending themselves. They smiled and gave me a thanks as they stood up, and I immediately sat down in their place on the bed they had occupied as the doctor began taking a look at me. "So, you want to answer my question?" He asked. "Oh, sorry. I have a skill that makes me stronger, but it has some drawbacks. Turns out, one of those drawbacks is making me melt, and I took some damage on my arm while I was fighting. I tried healing it myself, but it wasn''t working, apparently the healing wasn''t strong enough." "Yeah, I would imagine so, you absolutely wrecked your shoulder. I don''t know how your arm is even attached right now! I''m more of a scientist then a doctor, I mostly just fill in during invasions, but this is still one of the worst injuries I''ve ever seen. I mean, if you just pulled on this too hard it-" I heard a thud as he examined my arm, and everything went silent for a moment. I slowly looked down to my right to see nothing. There''s, usually supposed to be an arm there. Oh, there it was! On the floor! I instantly vomited, barely able to move so it didn''t land on myself, and the whole room went into a panic. People started yelling, Arc was screaming at the doctor as pain started shooting up what was left of my shoulder, blood practically gushing out of it. "CELESTE!¡± I screamed through the pain as she appeared in front of us. "Alright, I''m getting the highest quality prosthetic possible! This is going to hurt, someone get her some painkillers!" She yelled to the medics around us. Prosthetics Catalogue Tier Aquamarine Unlocked for 300 Points + 1 Tier 1 Gem, New Total: 7104 + 5 Tier 1 Gems SB Enhanced Limb Replacement (Right Arm) Purchased for 400 Points, New Total: 6704 I felt someone inject something into my left arm as a wiry looking piece of metal appeared in front of me, Arc grabbing it immediately while my body went numb. "Hold it up to her right arm and click that button, it will do the rest!" Celeste said. Arc followed her orders, and as she clicked the button the arm shot out multiple steel wires, digging into my shoulder. Even through the painkillers, this still hurt like hell, but I just sat through it as I watched the arm begin implanting itself into my body, before it eventually began changing its color and texture to replicate skin and muscle. I think a few people passed out watching it, but in the end, it looked almost like my old arm. It wasn''t perfectly sized or colored, but it looked about right. I turned to Arc as it finished, the full weight of the day catching up to me. "I''m just, gonna take a nap now. Wake me up in a flower." I wasn''t sure that was the right word, but it didn''t matter, as I passed out, thankfully falling backwards away from the puddle of vomit on the ground. Then everything went black. Chapter 12: Time for a Talk I actually had a decent sleep session for a bit, no dreams or nightmares, just inky blackness and rest. Unfortunately, it was interrupted by a stabbing pain in my right arm. I woke up instantly, lifting my arm back to slam into whatever was attacking me, but before I could someone caught my arm and held me down. I thrashed around, trying to break free from the hold I was in. "Inari, calm down! It''s me!" I heard a familiar voice say, snapping me out of my panic. I looked over to see Arc holding me down on the bed I had passed out on earlier. I still felt the sharp pain in my arm, and as I looked back over at it, I remembered everything that happened. Now that I was able to look at my new arm better, it was very obviously a prosthetic. A very good one, but clearly not a natural part of my body. "Sorry about that. I just... did that really happen?" I asked her, and she nodded, pulling me into a hug while avoiding touching my new arm. I put my head on her shoulder, trying my best not to tear up as I felt myself relax into her arm. I pulled back after a bit, looking around the room again. Most of the people from earlier had seemingly left, probably because of what happened. The doctor from earlier was still here though, looking at me with concern. I realized he was probably the one that touched my arm and woke me up. "Can I get some more painkillers or something? This arm is killing me." I asked, and the look of concern on the doctor''s face only got worse. Celeste appeared in front of me, an incredibly sad look on her face. "Inari, that''s phantom pain. It most likely isn''t going to go away with painkillers." "What?! I have a new arm! It has touch sensitivity, how the hell do I have phantom pain?" "From what I can tell, your body is having a hard time recognizing it as your own arm. Chances are it will come and go for a while." She said. I glanced over at the doctor from earlier, and I felt myself getting angrier. This asshole ripped my arm off in front of me, and he was just standing here watching me! I pulled myself off the table and walked towards him as he stumbled backwards, terrified. "Inari! Let''s not do this here!" Arc said, appearing next to me. I looked back and saw a blue trail in between where she used to be and where she was now. Damn, that girl was fast. I looked back at the doctor, cowering on the ground, and I realized I needed to stop. This wasn''t his fault, my arm was gone either way. "Right, sorry. It''s my fault for hurting myself. Guess that''s just a good lesson for a Guardian, right?" I said to Arc, who looked at me in shock. "You are taking this much better than I thought you would. Does this not freak you out?" She asked, and I thought about it for a moment. "Depends on what you mean. The arm itself doesn''t freak me out at all. I''ve never had a problem with the idea of modifying my body or anything. But uh, I probably will have nightmares about watching my arm fall off for the rest of my life." "I''m sorry. For what it''s worth, I''ll probably also have nightmares about that." She said, making me feel kind of bad. She shouldn''t have to deal with that because of me. I mean, it was rather horrifying. I remembered seeing strands of the old arm still hanging off the shoulder- oh shit, I should not be thinking about this. I pushed Arc to the side and ran over to a nearby trash can, vomiting again. Someone came over and rubbed my back, which I was extremely thankful for. After a minute, I looked back up to see Mia standing over me, holding a washcloth. I used it to clean myself up and looked at her. "Thanks. Sorry I made your first day as a Guardian so shitty." "Liara, you''ve been a Guardian for a few hours more than me. Don''t you dare try and blame yourself for anything, I''m doing fine. Besides, I got out and did some work while you were asleep." "Oh shit, how long was I asleep?" I said, and she shrugged, looking at a clock nearby. "Couple hours? Invasions still going, but we''re near the end probably." She said, pulling me over to a more private area, Arc following as well. "Dammit, I could have been out there helping people! Instead, I''m in here losing limbs because I can''t control myself." I said, and as I did, I felt Mia put both her hands on my shoulders, shoving me into a nearby chair as her and Arc glared at me. Celeste stared at me as well, the same sad look as before. "I am going to say this once, Liara. I said earlier I didn''t want you to die too soon, because you really do seem like you can make it far as a Guardian. But you are not the strongest Guardian in the universe. You aren''t Warforger, you literally got started on the same day I did. So, take a minute to calm the hell down. You don''t need to throw yourself into danger at every opportunity." Mia said. "That''s literally our jobs now! What else am I supposed to do, it''s not like I knew the skill would do that!" I yelled back. Arc immediately shifted into anger when she heard this, I could tell she was fuming. "This isn''t about that! It''s about the fact that you just lost your arm, and the first thing you do is make yourself feel like shit for resting! You aren''t going to save every person on this planet, so just relax for five minutes and keep yourself safe!" Arc said. I went to yell back something stupid, but I turned and looked at Celeste and thought about something. I had promised Celeste I wouldn''t throw my life away like her other Guardians had. And here I was, having just injured myself severely and trying to find excuses to keep fighting. Shit, I was being a moron. "I''m sorry. To all of you guys. I''ve only known you for half a day and I''m already making you worry about me, that''s not fair. I just, I feel like if I have the power to do something, and I don''t, that''s bad." I said, and as I did Arc and Mia both crouched down to look at me in the eyes. They didn''t have to go very far down though. I was almost eye level with them while sitting down. "I understand that, but you''ve already done plenty. In five hours, you saved maybe a thousand people. More if you just count those turrets and those drones you put up, the convoys would have never made the trips without those helping. But there are people who care about you, and you don''t want them to mourn you just because you thought you were bad for not saving one more person." Arc said, and I scoffed. "I really don''t have that many people who care about me Arc, trust me." I said, and Arc looked at me like I was a moron. "What about me, huh? I care about you! Celeste cares about you! And I don''t know about Mia, or Fortress and Blossom, but I know at the very least, they want to care about you! They want to learn more about you, see you grow as a Guardian, and they can''t do that if you''re dead. So please, just be careful." She said. I simply looked at her, stunned. "...do you really care about me? We just met. I thought you meant like, my parents cared about me." I said, and it was her turn to scoff at me this time. "Inari, I am very much aware that a lot of peoples parents don''t give a shit about them. Me and Fortress are both orphans, we don''t even have parents. I''m guessing it''s a similar situation for you?" She said, and I nodded. "I don''t really want to talk about it. I''ll just say, my mom''s dead and I don''t talk with my dad very often. I... I want to know more about you guys too. Listen, how about this. I''ll just stay here for the rest of the invasion and help heal any injured people. And after this, maybe me and Mia could join you guys in future invasions? You can tell me if I''m pushing myself too hard. We could have a safe word or something. If you guys say anything, I''ll stop fighting and take a backseat right away." I said, and I saw Mia and Arc both smile at that. "Fuck it, I''d be down. You guys seem pretty cool, I''d be fine with joining. By the way, how the hell does that work? I thought you got shoved into invasions randomly?" Mia said, turning to Arc. "Oh, well you can make what''s called a Party, and join invasions that way. So, we all decide together what invasions we want to do and join them at the same time. We still get random invasions on occasion, but in that case, we all still join together, it just rolls for us as one collective entity. It''s how a lot of those big Guardian team''s work. But yeah, I''ll ask Blossom and Fortress if you guys can join. I mean, I''m sure they''ll say yes, but I still should ask." She said, and I nodded. As her and Mia began discussing more about the whole Party, I looked down to Celeste, who still hadn''t said anything. "I really am sorry. I think I might have some issues I need to work out." "I understand. I can''t forgive you just yet, but if you genuinely try to keep yourself safe, that would be enough. Can I ask why you think you have these issues?" Celeste asked, and I felt my face go stone cold. "No. Not yet at least." "Okay then. I still think you should go to a therapist if you aren''t seeing one already." She said, and I rolled my eyes. "Celeste, therapy is for people with real mental problems, I just have some bad tendencies." I said. As I did, both Arc and Mia looked at me like I was insane. "Uh, that is definitely not true. Anyone can go to therapy Inari. Also, I was positive you were neurodivergent in some way, have you never been diagnosed?" Arc said. Well, that was rude! I was a completely normal person! "No, because why would I go get diagnosed? I''m fine, everyone''s a little weird." I said, and Mia raised an eyebrow. "Let me guess, some asshole told you that when you were a kid and now you think it''s actually true?" "Hey! I... I mean, yeah that''s true, but they weren''t wrong!" I tried to rebuke. Everyone else just gave me the same look, which made me feel severely stupid. I huffed and walked away, going over to the main area of the medical room. The doctor from earlier saw me and got scared again, but I held up my hand. "I''m sorry. I shouldn''t have gotten so angry at you earlier. I really don''t think you could have done much." I said, and after a moment he nodded. "It''s alright. My names James, by the way. I normally do research for this PMC, but I also fill in as a medic if they need. You mind helping me out with these patients?" I nodded, getting started on healing everyone. Over the next couple hours, I talked to Arc and the rest of the Guardians here while I healed people. I also recalled my drones, who I realized were still just floating with the military group out of ammo. While I was here, I ended up having to heal a few Guardians who I had never met before. Turns out, Guardians are usually pretty chill people. After I had finished healing someone with a ton of bite wounds, the captain from earlier walked up to me. "Inari. I and all my men appreciate the help earlier. You doing okay after the whole, incident?" Nianshi asked, and I nodded. "Yeah, I''m mostly fine now. Kind of hurts, but I''ll get used to it. Oh, I wanted to ask you something. What''s up with that suit you''re wearing? You aren''t a Guardian, right?" Nianshi gave me a cocky grin and flexed her arm. "Nope, that was all me. And the suit obviously. This is a special exoskeleton designed by our research team, it''s similar to that arm you bought there. At Starbound, we''re working on making people less dependent on Guardians. Makes me about as strong as a high-end Aquamarine ranked Guardian, and it has some other special tricks." "That sounds amazing!" I exclaimed. I was all for having people be able to defend themselves without a Guardian necessary. "Sure is. You should come by the lab sometime, it''s basically right above us. I offered to that Blossom girl too if you both want to see everything." "Well, I''d have to ask her, but that sounds like a fun time." I said. Before Nianshi could respond, a popup appeared in my vision. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Invasion Complete Thank you to all the Guardians who fought today. Invasion Stats for Inari: Entities Killed: 638 Civilians Saved: 976 Points Gained for Personal Efforts to Save Civilians: 5783 + 1 Tier 2 Gem, New Total: 12487 Would you like to stay for an extra twenty-four hours to assist in cleanup? Extra points will be awarded if done. Yes/No "Uh, Celeste, mind explaining this to me?" I said, walking into a corner as people began cheering at the end of the invasion. "Oh, that''s rather simple. If you stay an extra amount of time after an invasion and help clean up any remaining entities, or just do anything helpful, you will get extra points. It''s not mandatory though." She said. Well, I didn''t really feel like going home yet, so I selected the yes option. Unfortunately, this did mean I would have to do one thing. I sighed as I tried to make a call to a very familiar number. "Hey, what''s up?" My roommate said as he picked up the phone. "Hey Jake, It''s Liam. If anyone calls and asks where the hell I am, just tell them I went on a day trip or something." I said, cringing at the use of my old name. "Uh, okay? Why do you sound so weird, and what''s up with the new number?" He said. "Alright, don''t tell anyone about this, but I''m a Guardian now. I''m not even on Earth at the moment." "Uh huh, sure. Anyways, I''ll tell everyone you went somewhere. What about your work?" He said mockingly. Clearly, he didn''t actually believe me, but that was honestly fine. "Don''t care, quitting anyways. See ya." I said, ending the call. I was very glad I didn''t have to work that shitty job anymore. I went back to healing people up before someone tapped on my shoulder a few minutes later. I turned around to see Fortress standing behind me. "Hey Fortress! Did Arc talk to you and Blossom yet? By the way, where is she anyways?" "Arc? She was feeling pretty beat, so she decided to head home. Me and Blossom are going to help with rebuilding a lot of destroyed things. And yes, she did talk to us. We would be happy if you and Mia joined with us. By the way, you never gave her a name, so Blossom did it while you were asleep." "Dammit, I wanted to name her! What did she choose?" "Jetstream." He said, and I paused for a moment. "...ugh, that''s actually pretty good. Anyways, what''s up?" "Arc said I should speak to you about something before she left. Something about talking some sense into you about your transformation? I didn''t really get what she meant." He said, and I racked my brain confused. After a moment, I realized what he meant. "Ugh, I know what she''s talking about. It''s nothing, but I wanted to have a chat anyways." I said, and he nodded. "This probably isn''t the best place for it. You good to stop here?" He asked, and I turned to James. He nodded, so I turned back and gave Fortress a thumbs up. He started walking out of the bunker, and I followed him. When we made it up to the surface, he held out his arms. "Would you want to check out the view from the top of the building? I think the sun is just setting now, I can fly us up." "Sure, sounds good. But I don''t need the help, one sec." I said, decreasing my density and casting an explosion under my feet. I launched into the air, flying up past the top of the building, and I increased my weight to fall back down onto the roof. As I did, I saw Fortress fly up next to me, landing on the edge. He sat down and threw his legs over the side, patting the spot next to him. I sat down and did the same. "How much did you spend on that armor?" I asked him, and he smiled. "About fifty thousand points, but that''s because it works with my sign. I can manipulate technology much easier than normal. This suit is my pride and joy, I don''t dip too deep into magic. So, what did Arc want us to talk about exactly." "Do we have to focus on this?" "She seemed pretty adamant." He said. I sighed, preparing for a very annoying conversation. "Ugh, fine. So, before I became a Guardian, I didn''t look like this. I looked a lot more masculine." "Oh, I see. So, you''re trans?" "See, that''s what I was saying to her! I didn''t choose this body! I''m just using a new name and pronouns because it''s easier." I said. He nodded but looked at me like he was trying to glean something. "I get that. But you know, these transformations aren''t random. I mean, sometimes they make people look insane, but I''ve never met someone who didn''t enjoy the way their transformation changed them. How do you feel about it?" He asked, and I groaned. "I can''t exactly say I''m a fan! I was fine before. I mean, I do like the hair, I could never grow my hair out very well before. And the ears and the tail are honestly cool now that I''m more used to it. But like, look at this chest! It''s absurd! Well, the extra weight does kind of feel nice. And I guess my face is really pretty now, I look a lot like my mom now. Oh, and being this tall is fun." I said, rambling on. Fortress gave me a smirk. "So, what I''m hearing is that you enjoy your new body?" "Well, uh... fuck. Maybe I do like this. But that doesn''t make me trans! I mean, imagine if I went up to an actual trans person and tried to tell them about this, we''d have nothing in common!" I said, and he just kept smirking at me. I stared at him confused, before something occurred to me. Why exactly did Arc think Fortress was the best person to talk to me about this? "You''ll get there eventually." He said jokingly. "What is that even supposed to- OH! You mean, you''re..." I asked, and he nodded. "It''s not a huge deal, most people know. And I actually was in the process of transitioning before I became a Guardian. It just sort of skipped over the whole process" "Well, in that case I''m very happy for you! I''m glad that you got to have the body you always wanted." I said, and he grimaced. "Yeah, about that, I should probably warn you about something. These transformations can do a lot, but they aren''t perfect. You should go get a checkup soon just in case, but I think this is the same for everyone. The reproductive organs aren''t transferable, so I can''t have kids, and you probably couldn''t carry a child, even if you have a womb." Oh. Well, that kind of sucked, but it was whatever. It''s not like I had thought about that really, it was fine. I tried to respond but couldn''t really get out the words for some reason, I just kept choking up. Fortress leaned over and pulled me into a hug. As he did, I broke down into tears, not understanding why I was crying. I didn''t actually care about this, did I? "It''s okay, I''ve been through this too." He said, holding me tightly to his chest. After I had pretty much cried myself out, I looked back up at him, "I just- I don''t get it. Why do I care so much about this? I thought I didn''t even want to be a mom, even before all of this happened." "Even if you accept that something isn''t going to happen, it can still hurt if something gets your hopes up. And I think the fact that you thought about being a mother before you went through this, might show you need to think about this a little more." Shit, I did say that. Maybe I really did need to think about this more closely. "But I mean... you knew about yourself before you became a Guardian. I just happened to stumble into this. Wouldn''t it be weird to call myself trans?" "Liara, there are as many different kinds of trans people as there are trans people. Everyone gets there differently. And I''m not saying you have to be trans, whatever you decide on is your choice and anyone who isn''t an asshole will respect that. I just think I see a lot of myself in you." "Well, you seem like a pretty great guy, so I''ll take that as a compliment." I said, and he chuckled. I leaned back and took a look at the sky as the sun was setting, the colors mixing in a way that made the sky look yellow. I thought to myself for a bit as me and Fortress sat together, not saying anything. After a bit, I heard something happening below us, and I looked down to see a giant vine shoot up next to us as Blossom hopped off of it onto the roof. "You two seem like you''re having fun. What''s the topic of discussion?" She said, sitting down next to Fortress while throwing an arm over his shoulder. "Oh, the usual. Gender woes." He said, pulling her in as she laughed. "A true classic. You doing alright Inari?" "Oh, yeah. I''m all good, just have a lot to think about. By the way, I wanted to ask you guys something. Could you tell Arc to stop flirting with me?" I asked her. Both of them looked at me confused. "Uh, I guess so. We just sort of thought you swung that way." Blossom said. "What? No, I''m pansexual, I like anyone. It''s just, she''s in a relationship with you guys. I''m sure she flirts with everyone, but it makes me a bit uncomfortable when I know you guys are with her." I said. Fortress''s eyes widened and Blossom looked like she was about to burst out laughing. "Inari, she doesn''t flirt with everyone. She''s actually interested in you." Fortress said, and my brain proceeded to shut down. "...what." "She told us she was! Did you really think she was just being nice or something?" He said as Blossom exploded into laughter. "I mean, kind of, yeah! I wasn''t exactly aware you guys would be okay with that, how would that even work?" "We''re extremely open Inari. If she wants to have fun with you while still dating us, that''s fine. But she actually asked us if we''d consider sort of, adding you into our group." He said. I thought about that for a moment, before blushing heavily. "We just met like, today!" "Well yeah, we both said we would want to get to know you more first. But she seems pretty enthusiastic about it, and we wouldn''t exactly be opposed to talking about it in the future." As he said this, Blossom recovered from her laughing fit and turned to me. "Besides, I can tell you that there''s definitely no problems in the attraction part of it. We all agree that you are extremely good looking." She said. If I was blushing hard before, I now imagined I looked like a tomato. "I, uh, I''m glad to hear it? This is kind of a lot." "Don''t worry. Like he said, we want to get to know you more first. We were just putting it all out on the table, so we all understand what''s happening." She said, and I nodded. I thought about the idea to myself, and it honestly sounded amazing. I barely had any experience, but the idea of being with three people who were all so cool seemed incredible. Plus, I also wasn''t having any problems with the attraction side of things either. "I''ll think about it tonight. In the meantime, I need to get some sleep, today has been insane." I said, and they both nodded. "We''re probably gonna call it a night too. They set up a nearby hotel for anyone important to stay in, you can get a room there." Blossom said. The two of them hopped off the roof, landing in their own ways and waved down to me. I decreased my weight and floated down, following the two of them across the city. It took a little while to get there, and while I walked, I took a look around the city. This place probably looked pretty cool when it wasn''t invaded, but right now it was clearly trashed. They would probably be rebuilding for years after this. We eventually made it to the hotel, and each got set up with our own rooms. I waved them goodnight and headed into mine, tired out of my mind. "Celeste, do me a favor and make sure nothing wakes me up. I''m about to sleep like a rock." "I''ll handle it. Have a good night''s rest Inari, you earned it." She said as I laid down, falling asleep almost immediately. God, this bed was comfy. Chapter 13: Detective Inari, On The Scene As I mowed down a few entities that were standing in my path, I sprinted forward, ducking into a hallway away from the other monsters pursuing me. I looked up to see the hallway looked like on you''d find in a rather large house, many different doors lined up across it. I took a second to reload my gun and started walking forward. "Hey Celeste, got any idea what''s in here? ...Celeste? You there?" I asked, not getting a response back from my contractor. Hey, come to think of it, where was I anyways? It was clearly mid invasion, but I didn''t actually know where I was and why I was here. Thinking about this, I popped open a door on my left and peeked into the room. The inside was just gray, a featureless void with nothing in it but a single person. A young child stood in the middle of the room, the same one I had healed earlier when the invasion first started. I walked over to him, extremely confused. "Hey little guy, what''s wrong? Why are you all alone?" I asked him, he turned and looked at me with a pained expression. "I don''t know. My dad was supposed to be here, but he''s not. Did you see him?" He asked. I remembered back to the conversation we had earlier, and I sighed. "I''m sorry buddy, but I don''t think he''s coming back." As I said this, the boy''s expression turned to anger, his eyes filling with rage as he glared at me. "You told me you''d help him! Why didn''t you do something?!" "He was already gone when you asked. I just, I didn''t want you to have to deal with that and the invasion at the same time. I''ve been through something similar myself-" "I don''t care! He''s never coming back, and you did nothing! I hate you!" The kid screamed. I went to put my hand on his shoulder, but as I did, something began pulling on me. I struggled against it for a moment, but I inevitably ended up getting launched back out of the room, as the door slammed shut. I brushed myself off and looked on at the hall. I realized something was strange here and quickly came to a conclusion. "Alright, I get what this is. You want me to go through all these rooms, and everyone will say I''m an asshole and I should be dead. Not gonna happen, I''ll just sit here and wait to wake up." I said to the empty air around me. This was obviously just some kind of nightmare, so there was no point in indulging my brain in this self hating fantasy. As I sat down and leaned against a wall, I looked around to see if there was anything else interesting happening. As I turned left, I heard a noise over my right shoulder. "Can you help me?" I heard as a mangled cluster of voices whispered into my ear. I whipped around, seeing nothing to my right. As I did, I heard the same voices on the left. "Stay safe out there!" It said as I turned again, seeing nothing. The walls began to fade away, leaving me in the same gray void as before. I focused on my ears, trying to hear any movements possible as I searched for the obvious Recorder that was stalking me. After a few moments, I heard footsteps behind me, and I spun around to see it charging at me, letting out another screech. I held out my right arm to charge up a spell and blast its head off, but as I did, I felt the mana push out into the air. I looked down and saw my right arm was missing again, a bleeding stump being all that remained. I lifted my head up just in time to scream as I saw a scythed hand slice through my head. "Hey! You okay?!" I heard out of nowhere. I looked up to see Arc staring down at me, my panic slowly fading. I reached up and wrapped my arms around her, feeling her do the same. "God, I just had the worst nightmare. There was a Recorder, and-" I was interrupted as Arc shushed me, putting my head on her shoulder. "Hey, it''s okay, it was just a dream. You just dozed off for a bit there. Now, you ready for this?" "Thanks, I think I''m fine now. Wait, ready for what?" I asked her, backing up and looking around a bit. It looked like we were in some kind of high end clothing store. "To try on all the stuff we picked out dummy! Come on!" She said, giggling and pulling me by the hand to a changing booth. She put a set of clothes in my hand and shoved me in, shutting the door. "Hang on, I don''t know if I''m super comfortable with this!" I yelled over the door as Arc just continued laughing. "Don''t worry, you''ll look great! Just put it on!" I groaned in annoyance, but complied with her request, looking down at the clothes she had picked out. I stripped down first before pulling up the tights that went with the outfit, similar to the ones that went with my Guardian costume. I slid into the frilly black skirt, and then pulled on the dark blue short sleeved sweater. Finally, I put on a black jacket over it all and looked at myself in the mirror. Holy shit, I was gorgeous! Arc really knew her stuff when it came to fashion. I spun around a bit, giggling as my skirt swooshed around me. After a moment, Arc pushed open the door. "Wow, you look incredible! You shouldn''t have been so worried before!" "You''re right, that was stupid. I gotta take a picture of this!" I said, pulling out my phone. I tried switching to the camera app, but the phone just kept bugging out, tapping on other apps instead. I growled a bit and kept trying, looking up at the time. The clock on the phone just kept switching over and over again, going from 8:32 AM to 13:35 PM out of nowhere. Wait, I didn''t have my phone in military time, there shouldn''t be a thirteen in there! Come to think of it, didn''t Arc go home early yesterday? "Oh god fucking dammit, I''m still dreaming!" I yelled as Arc looked at me funny. "What are you talking about?" She said. Instead of listening, I turned around and stared at a wall. "Nope, not doing this! You''re just a part of my imagination!" "Inari." "I''m not listening!" I yelled at her, still staring at the wall. I had gotten rather good at discerning dreams from reality as a kid, and I could clearly tell this was all fake. "Inari!" "I don''t care what a fake person has to say!" "INARI"! ---------------------------------------------- I jolted awake, falling out of bed and hitting my head rather hard. I sprang up, looking around the room to see the door had been kicked open. Blossom was standing there with someone leaning on her shoulder. After a moment, I remembered him as a Guardian I had met yesterday while healing civilians, but I couldn''t recall his name. Blossom sprinted forward, dumping him on my bed. "What in the absolute fuck is going on?!" I yelled, but she simply turned and dragged me over to him. "Heal him, quick!" Confused, I looked down to see the man had no visible injures on him. Even his outfit, which was a sort of green spandex suit with a logo on it, was completely fine. However, he was twitching erratically, and he was foaming at the mouth slightly. "Shit, is he having a seizure?" I said, casting Diagnose right away. As I did, I saw something that both confused and terrified me. The man was clearly dying, but the cause wasn''t shown to me with the spell. Instead, as I looked, I saw he looked empty. The mana that I now could see permeating people''s bodies, whether they be Guardians or civilians, was simply gone. I focused a bit more and saw it almost looked like he was trying to draw in more mana but couldn''t. As I looked, I saw his heart suddenly slow down to a crawl. "Give me some space! Celeste, figure out what''s going on, I''ll try to keep him alive!" I yelled out, shoving Blossom to the side as I leaned over the man. I could feel Celeste checking things in my mind as I began giving him chest compressions, trying to manually pump his heart, but it was as though his whole body had just frozen. Even as I cast multiple healing spells, nothing was changing. Without his mana, his body had simply begun shutting down. After a minute, I simply stopped, staring down at the man. "Is he..." Blossom said, her meaning obvious. I nodded, blood rushing to my head in anger. I couldn''t fucking do anything, and this was supposed to be my god damn job! "What the fuck happened Blossom?!" "I don''t know! I just heard some people yelling while I was patching up a building, and when I walked over, I saw him on the ground with a crowd around him. You were the closest healer I knew so I brought him here! What even happened to him?" "He didn''t have any mana. I mean, none, not a single drop." I said, and Blossom looked at me horrified. "That''s not possible! Sometimes civilians can lose all their mana in an entity attack, but he''s a Guardian! He should always have enough to at least stay alive!" "I don''t know what the hell I''m supposed to tell you Blossom! He doesn''t have any mana, so his body just started shutting down, and now there''s a dead man in my hotel room! How am I supposed to explain this when the police show up?!" I screamed. I had woken up two minutes ago, and I already watched someone die. As I was raging, Celeste spoke to me in my head. "I already called law enforcement and explained the situation. They are busy due to the invasion, so we can either wait a long time for them to come and retrieve the body, or we can deal with this ourselves." She said. I sighed, realizing what I was going to have to do. I turned back to Blossom, trying my best not to look at the man. "Alright, Celeste said the cops won''t be here for a while, so we should take care of this ourselves. Does Fortress know about this yet?" I asked her, and she nodded. "I called him on the way here." "Good. Call him again and ask if he would be okay with delivering the body to the police." "Okay, but what are we going to do?" She asked. I looked outside, seeing the crowd she had mentioned earlier standing on a street corner. Even from here, with my absurd hearing I could clearly tell they were discussing what had just happened. "We''re gonna go find out why this happened. I have a feeling this wasn''t just some freak medical accident. Could be some kind of entity that absorbs mana, could be something else. Either way, we need to figure it out ourselves before someone else dies." I said, turning back to look at the body. "I guess that''s all we can do. Alright, Ivy, can you figure out who this Guardian, maybe where he was before all this?" Blossom said as her contractor appeared next to her. They looked like a little daisy with a face, and if there wasn''t a dead man on my bed, I might have thought it was a lot more adorable. Ivy took a moment to look down at the body, clearly going through their database. "Looks like his name is Greenwhip, he was an Aquamarine tier Guardian. The surveillance systems around here are mostly down right now, so I can''t find much of him on the cameras." They said. I nodded and turned around back to the window. "Then we''ll have to just head down there and- ah!" I said, jumping back as Fortress appeared in the window. How the hell did he get here so quickly?! If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. "Sorry about that. Where is he?" I popped open the window and pointed at him on the bed. Fortress simply bowed his head slightly when he reached the man, then picked him up and flew out the window. "He seemed, very casual about that, is this just normal for you all?" I asked Blossom. She stood up and nodded, before opening the front door and putting a hastily scribbled note on it. "Unfortunately, yeah. Which way are we heading out?" She nodded over to both the door and the window. I thought about it for a minute before turning back to the window. "You head out the normal way, I want to get down there before people start walking off." "Sounds good." Blossom said, walking out the door as I hopped out the window. I heard a few people gasp before they realized I was floating down extremely slowly. I dropped to the ground, seeing the crowd was now staring at me. This was going to be a long day. "Alright, does anyone have any information about the man involved in the incident just now?" I asked, and immediately the whole crowd began speaking frantically, making my ears ring as I took in all the information. Okay, this was getting me nowhere, and now my head just hurt. I needed some way to focus on specific noises, so I decided to try moving some mana into my ears. My hearing somehow got even better, but also I felt as though I could comprehend what I was hearing a little better. I pointed at the back of the crowd to a man in construction gear. The only people outside right now were there contributing to the rebuilding of the city. "Everyone else, quiet down. You, repeat what you were saying." I said as I walked through the crowd towards him. I once again thanked my absurdly large stature as the crowd immediately parted around me. "Uh, I work for a construction company, we got called in on overtime to help patch some things up. Last I saw that guy, he was with one of my coworkers helping him out." "Perfect. Where can I find this coworker?" "Well, his name''s Kri, he''s working on repairs in the entertainment district, couple blocks from here. I can give you directions if you need." He said while pulling out his phone. I raised my hand, stopping him. "I''m already familiar with the area. Don''t worry everyone, this has become official Guardian business, and we will have it handled shortly. My name''s Inari. Oh, and my friend right here is Blossom." I said as Blossom finally walked out the hotel''s main entrance. "Is uh, is the guy gonna be okay? He didn''t look too hot." The construction worker asked me. I tried my best to keep a neutral face as I looked at him. "He''s being taken somewhere at this moment. Now, let''s go Blossom." I walked back past the crowd over to her as she looked at me confused. "The hell did I miss?" She said, muttering under her breath. This enhanced hearing really didn''t fuck around. "Just getting us a lead. Now come on, we''re heading back over to the area we were in last night, gotta find someone else." I said, walking alongside her towards the area. "And how exactly are we going to find him once we get there?" She asked. I pointed up to my ears, noticing they actually moved a lot involuntarily. Shit, did I wag my tail too? I really hoped that wasn''t the case. "I got his name, we''ll just walk around till I hear someone say it." "How strong is that hearing of yours anyways?" "Right now? I could probably hear a pin drop in the middle of time square from a hundred yards away." I said, and she just stared at me blankly. "Is that like, a place?" "Oh, right, you don''t know much about earth. Yes, it''s a place, and it''s crowded as hell." I said, and I saw her realize what I meant. "Ah, that does make more sense. All my transformation did was make my photosynthetic. Which I''m not complaining about, it is pretty awesome, but still. Also, I feel like you don''t understand how this translator works." "Eh? What do you mean?" "I mean, when you say things that don''t have translations in my language, it just spits them out in your language instead, so I have essentially zero clue what you are saying. Like, try turning off your translator right now." She said. Confused, I asked Celeste to turn it off as we kept walking. "Alright, now what?" I asked her. She spoke again, but I didn''t understand a word out of her mouth. The language she was speaking sounded nothing like any language I''d ever heard on Earth, with a lot of weird buzzing sounds I didn''t know people could make. I turned the translator back on after a moment. "Uh, yeah, I see what you mean. We speak very different languages." "Exactly. I''m not saying stop mentioning them, but don''t be surprised when people don''t understand you." "That''s fair. Hey, how does it translate my voice anyways?" I asked her. I realized now I had never questioned that at all. "Oh, it just automatically translates what you wanted to say and gives you the words in the language it thinks is needed. Then your body naturally handles the rest." She said. Man, technology was very odd. I took a look around the city as we walked, noticing a lot of Guardians around helping in the reconstruction efforts. There were people carrying giant steel beams on each shoulder, items constantly spawning into existence, and magic being used everywhere. I felt a newfound appreciation for Guardians that I hadn''t felt before, before I very stupidly realized that I was one now. "So, you at least get a good night''s sleep?" Blossom asked me. "Oh, yeah. Just a few weird dreams." "What were they about?" "Oh, hey look, I think that''s the guy!" I said, ignoring her question as best as I could. I jogged over to another construction worker who was talking with someone. This guy appeared to be of some kind of bug race I hadn''t seen before, with large mandibles on either side of his face. "Excuse me, are you Kri?" I said. He turned to me, and presumably gave me a look of confusion. Well, it could have been anger or hunger for all I knew, I wasn''t used to reading the faces of insects. "That would be me, how can I help you?" he said, his voice sounding like he was vibrating. "The names Inari, I just wanted to know if you have any information about Greenwhip. Some people said you were working with him earlier." "Oh, that guy? Yeah, he was helping me rebuild a busted wall in that alley over there, when all of a sudden, he complained about something poking him. We both forgot about it quick, but a minute or so later he said he wasn''t feelin great and went to head off to a medic. Is he okay?" He said, pointing over to a nearby alley. "Listen, was there anyone else in the alley with you?" Blossom asked him, and he nodded. "Oh yeah, tons of people. It connects two pretty major streets, so people cut across it all the time. He complained right when a group of people walked past." I made sure Celeste was copying all of this information down as I listened, looking over at the currently empty alley. "Alright, thank you. If you remember anything else, we''ll be right over there." I said, walking over to the alley. Blossom followed as I began searching around for anything specific. The alley was oddly clean, with no trash and just a bit of rubble everywhere. Guess this city really cared about its public image. Blossom brought out a few vines and had them sweep over the area for anything, before one came back holding something. "Found something. Looks like a syringe." She said, sending the vine over to me so I could take a look. "Well, I guess it could just be from someone using drugs, but he did say Greenwhip complained about being poked. Celeste, is there anywhere nearby where someone could get syringes?" I asked her. She popped out and took a moment to look over everything before coming to a conclusion. "There certainly is, but not of this brand. Look at the logo on the side, Sepifora. They sell medical supplies, but they are a wholesale supplier. The only people buying these are buying them in the thousands. Also, I''ve done an analysis of the remaining contents of the syringe. There are trace elements of something I cannot identify whatsoever, but nothing else. " She said. I thought about that for a moment. That eliminated anything small, like a pharmacy. So really, it came down to two likely options for me, both of which might be working on unknown chemical formulas. "Where''s the nearest hospital around here?" I asked Celeste. "Around seven miles away." "Not too far. And the nearest research lab?" "Well, it depends on what type of research you mean. There aren''t any primarily medical research labs around here, but the nearest lab of any kind would be in the Starbound facility. They develop different military technologies, but they also have a small medical section. I believe that''s where they make prosthetics, like your current arm." I looked down at my arm, moving it around a bit. I guess Starbound just knew how to make quality robotics. "I''m pretty sure that''s like, a block away at most. You think this is somehow relevant?" Blossom asked me, and I nodded. "This needle is definitely used, and it had something in it that Celeste can''t identify. That means it must be something experimental, and its being made somewhere that buys this specific brand of syringe. The only questions left are, what was it, and why would the person who had it use it on a Guardian?" "Well, that Nianshi chick kept talking about how they wanted to make people less dependent on Guardians, and she worked for Starbound. Maybe this has something to do with it? I don''t know, could be anything really." Blossom said, clearly not confident in her answer, but it made me pause for a moment. "Hang on, that actually might be true. She offered to show you around their facility, right? She asked me the same thing." I said, and Blossom nodded. "Yeah, only people she didn''t offer it to were Fortress and Arc. I think she just didn''t work with Fortress at all because he was out, and Arc hates dealing with the military, so she was kind of a prick to her." "Okay. Call Fortress again and tell him we might be into some trouble soon." Blossom looked at me extremely concerned. "Uh, can I ask why that might be?" She asked me. "I think we ought to call Nianshi and take her up on her offer. Gives us a chance to take a peek around that facility. If there''s anything related to this, we can find it." "Investigating a private military company behind their backs? I can''t see any way that this could go wrong." Blossom said sarcastically, tying her blue hair up into a ponytail. She was admittedly right, but at the time it seemed like the only option. We were tough anyways, I doubted things could go that poorly. Chapter 14: Calm Before the Storm I walked out of the alley as Blossom finished up her call with Nianshi, covering my eyes as they adjusted to the mid-day sunlight. Blossom followed, smiling as the light hit her. Right, photosynthetic. She took out a few clips that looked like flowers and tied her hair up into a side ponytail. "Alright, she said they should be ready for a tour in a couple hours, so we have some time to kill. You wanna go look around, grab a coffee or something? Maybe look at some new clothes?" She said, putting her phone away. "I mean, I already have this outfit" "That''s, sort of my point. It''s really nasty, look at it." I looked down confused and realized she was right. The shrine outfit was half ripped apart, covered in blood. "Oh. That''s why people have been staring at me, isn''t it?" I said, slightly blushing. I thought it was just because I was a Guardian. "Well no shit. I mean it''s kinda normal for Guardians to look like that, but it''s still more than a little weird to walk around with blood on your clothes." "What do I do with this outfit then?" "Oh, you can just have your contractor warp it into your inventory. Actually, you can instantly change into any clothes in your inventory if you ask them to do it, watch." She said, clapping her hands. As she did, light flashed out from her, and when I looked back, she was wearing an entirely different jacket. "For fucks sake, mind warning me before you do that?! It''s like a god damn flashbang!" "My bad, forgot about that. Now come on, let''s go find you something to wear!" She said, walking off in a random direction. She turned back to see if I was following, and I just stared at her baffled. "Do you think stores are going to be open right now?" I asked her. I saw her ponder that for a moment, her brain clearly working overtime. "Well... huh. Didn''t think about that honestly. Alright fine, just buy something off of a catalogue. You have to show me what it is first though." She said, walking back over to me and taking a peek at my catalogue as I scrolled through it. The battle clothing catalogue had both a personal designing option as well as premade pieces, so I decided to just grab a hoodie and jeans. As I went to purchase it, Blossom reached over and held my arm in place. I struggled for a moment, but there was a reason she was a higher tier then me. "You cannot be serious." "What? It''s comfortable and looks normal." I said, getting rather annoyed. She simply rolled her eyes at me and pointed at the button to clear my choices. "I know you haven''t been honorarily inducted into the halls of womanhood for very long, but one thing you''ve got to learn quick is finding your own style. If casual comfy clothes end up being what you like most, great, but for now you should try and experiment a bit. Especially since you aren''t planning on changing how you look anytime soon, right?" I glared at her for a moment, but all I could do was be upset, because I had to admit she had a point. "Well then, what do you think I should buy?" "You ever worn a skirt before?" "We are about to investigate a military base to find evidence for a possible murder, and you want me to wear a skirt?" Blossom just smiled at me and shrugged her shoulders. "Sure, why not? Looking more casual will probably help us anyways. Plus, you know you''d look good as hell in it." I blushed a bit at her obvious flirting and sighed. "If I die in a skirt, I''m going to haunt you for the rest of your life." "And you''ll look very pretty while you do it. Now, what colors look good on you?" She said, trying to scroll through the menu. As she did, her hand simply went through it, as it wasn''t her menu. "Maybe black? I also like blue." "And yet your Guardian outfit is white and red." "I didn''t design that, Celeste did. Oh hey, I actually kind of like that one." I said, adding it in to my cart. We looked around a bit and eventually found a sweater that I thought looked nice along with some boots. I decided that this should be good for now and went to buy it, but as I did blossom looked at me funny. "What now?" "Are you just, not buying anything to go under all that?" "Oh, right. Never shopped for anything like that, believe it or not. Or well, I guess this outfit did come with a set, but you know what I mean. What size am I Celeste?" I asked Celeste, her avatar sitting on my shoulder looking at the screen. "Hm? You are a 36 E cup." Celeste mentioned casually, swiping over to the proper section. Blossom made some sort of surprised choking noise and whipped around to look at me. "Holy shit- I mean, uh, interesting! That''s, bigger than average.¡± Blossom said, looking away while trying to recover from her outburst. I simply glared at her with disgust, half mocking half real. After selecting a plain black pair, I finally purchased everything. Basic Clothing x5 Purchased for 5 Points, New Total: 12482 "Cool. Now just ask your Contractor to shift outfits, and you should be good!" "Hang on, I want to do something." I said, whispering something to Celeste. While she called my idea pointless, she agreed to do it. I lifted my hand above my head and snapped, and as I did the same light that Blossom had when she changed clothes emanated out, and once it faded, I was in my new outfit. Blossom gave me a deadpan look, but after a moment she started chuckling. "You are such a fucking nerd." She said playfully. "Correct. Do you have a mirror?" "Yeah, but you can just look in a window." Blossom pointed over at a nearby building with display windows intact. I walked over and took a look at my reflection. I had to squint a bit because, you know, it was a window, not a mirror. "O-oh. Uh, that''s... interesting." I said, heat rising to my face, that same prideful feeling from before bubbling up. Blossom stood next to me, very obviously taking in my appearance. "How do you feel?" "Good, I think. I mean, I did like how I looked in men''s clothes to, but this isn''t bad at all. Do I look okay to you?" I asked her, and she smiled at me in a way that immediately made my blush five times worse. "I''ll be fully honest with you, you could wear Fortresses bulky ass mech suit and still look hot as hell. So yes, you look very good." "How are you just so confident saying stuff like that? We met yesterday, I don''t even know your name!" Blossom casually shrugged, putting her hands behind her head. "I don''t see a reason not to be really. I think you''re cute, and I also enjoy being around you, at least so far. I feel like making it known, so I do. And you do know my real name." "Wait, I do? How?" "Well... hang on, is this store open?" Blossom pointed at the window we had been standing next to, and I looked over, realizing it was a small clothing store. Sure enough, there were people inside shopping, presumably Guardians from their appearances. There were actually quite a few different clothing options I had never seen before in the windows, both from different fashion trends then Earth, and accommodating for different species. "Huh. I guess it is." "I knew there would be a store open right now!" "No you didn''t! You just didn''t think about it, you said so!" I said, but she clearly wasn''t listening. "Show me a recording or it didn''t happen. Now come on, let''s go find a coffee shop or something so we can talk." She began walking down the street, basking in the sunlight pouring in from the green sky. I followed along, rolling my eyes. "Just because there was one store open doesn''t mean a cafe will-" "There''s one!" Blossom pointed over to a building where a few people were sitting outside, chatting and drinking coffee. "Oh come on! Who the fuck opens up their coffee shop twelve hours after the city was almost destroyed?!" "Let''s go find out!" We walked over and headed inside the coffee shop, seeing five or so Guardians and a few regular people inside, discussing different tasks that would need to be completed. The interior was almost like a log cabin, the wooden walls and dim lighting making a very comfortable atmosphere. The cafe was also much larger than a normal one, and I quickly realized why this place was open, as well as why it was so large when the person working the counter turned around. The woman working the counter was even taller than me, mostly due to the giant spider''s abdomen that made up the lower half of the body, of what variety I had no clue. The spider section was black, with small purple markings along the legs, which led up to her torso. On her more human section, she had incredibly pale skin and bone white hair covering her rather soft and feminine face. She had four arms as well, which stuck out of what looked like a custom made top, fully covering her chest while allowing her arms to be free, similar to what Blossom was wearing. As she turned and looked down at me with her ruby red eyes, she smiled and gave a small wave. "Hi, welcome to the Weavers Web! What can I get for you two?" She said, her voice incredibly sweet and melodic. All of a sudden, I felt very glad to not be afraid of spiders. The woman giggled, placing one of her hands over her mouth. "Oh yes, I understand my form can be a bit odd at first!" "Holy shit I just said that out loud. I''m so sorry, that was absurdly rude!" I apologized profusely, but she simply waved me off. "It''s perfectly fine dear, I assume you¡¯re a newer Guardian?" She asked me, and I nodded, still feeling bad about what I said. "Is it that easy to tell?" "Yes." Her and Blossom both said at the same time, Blossoms sounding smug while the other woman''s tone was much more lighthearted. I just sighed as they both laughed. "Don''t worry, you''ll get used to it soon. My name is Weaver, as you may have been able to tell!" "I''m Inari, that''s Blossom. Surprised anything is open around here to be honest." "Well, I was also surprised to have an invasion in the city I live! Although, to be honest I have been considering moving to Nexus recently. I designed this place with Guardians in mind, but there just aren¡¯t a lot of us here." She said, wiping down the counter with a couple arms while she leaned on another set. "I''d love to have a nice coffee shop in walking distance. Oh yeah, Inari, Nexus is like the most advanced city in the universe. It''s got a ten percent Guardian population, higher than anywhere else. That''s where me and the other two live obviously. Oh right, coffee! Can I get a-" Blossom proceeded to speak in the same language as earlier, which severely startled me. Weaver simply smiled and nodded before turning to me. "And for you?" "Uh, what did she just order? I don''t think I heard it properly." "Oh, her drink? It''s a dark roast with milk and-" She proceeded to speak in the same language as Blossom, saying what I assumed to be a different word. I stared forward at her blankly for a moment before I mentally spoke to Celeste. "I am so fucking lost right now, please help." "You probably wouldn''t be able to pronounce the word, the closest equivalent on Earth would be tea or a fruit juice, which are two very different things. It''s quite specific." She said. Well, that explained whatever the hell was going on there. I realized I should probably just get my order and ask Blossom about it later. "Okay, uh, let me just get an iced coffee with two sugars and no cream, feel free to surprise me on the blend.¡± Weaver nodded as I gave my order and immediately got to work with two of her arms. ¡±You two can go ahead and sit down, I¡¯ll call your name when it¡¯s ready! Oh, and that¡¯ll be six credits!¡± She said as she began preparing both our orders. It was at this moment I remembered something that was rather important. I turned to Blossom and sheepishly rose my hand up to get her attention. ¡±Hey, so uh, I don¡¯t exactly have any money. Would you mind-¡° before I could even finish, Blossom cut me off by tapping a little icon on the tablet for paying in front of her. Out of nowhere a little cartoon flower appeared on her shoulder, looking down at the tablet while smiling. It made a little beeping noise and turned to Blossom. ¡°Payment processed!¡± It chirped as Blossom gave it a little pat on the head. ¡±Thanks Sprout!¡± She said, as what I could only assume was her contractor beeped again and vanished. Blossom walked over to a nearby table for two inside, a decent bit away from the large group discussing reconstruction efforts, and I followed her over and took a seat across from her. ¡±Sorry about that. I¡¯ll pay you back when I can.¡± I said, and she simply raised an eyebrow in return. ¡±It¡¯s six credits, I¡¯m not gonna hound you over it.¡± I groaned at her joke. ¡±Please do not do fox puns with me.¡± She tilted her head, looking at me confused.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°You know, you said hound me, foxes are canines, so¡­ never mind. This translator thing makes no god damn sense sometimes.¡± Blossom giggled as she realized what had happened. ¡±Yeah, it can be a bit odd sometimes. It usually just searches for the best replacement in whatever language you have it set to, so sometimes you get weird coincidences like phrases that have the same meaning.¡± ¡°Oh yeah, what the hell is in your order? I wasn¡¯t able to get a translation on any of that. Celeste said the closest thing we have on Earth is like, fruit juice or tea?¡± I asked her. Blossom perked up, clearly interested. ¡°Really, you guys don¡¯t have anything like that where you come from? It¡¯s like juice pressed from the bark of a certain kind of tree. It¡¯s slightly sweet and bitter at the same time, the flavor¡¯s super unique.¡± ¡±Pretty sure we don¡¯t have anhthing like that. Sounds like the closest thing we would have would be tree sap.¡± ¡°Interesting! I¡¯ve heard about that stuff but I¡¯ve never tried anything made with it. Apparently it¡¯s really bitter and kinda gross.¡± She said, and I smiled as I realized I finally had something to introduce her to instead of the opposite. ¡±Once we get done with this, I¡¯ll take you out to try some pancakes on Earth. You cover them in this syrup made from maple sap, it¡¯s amazing.¡± She grinned and leaned forward. ¡±Sounds like a good time to me! In exchange, I¡¯ll answer any leftover questions you have about all this Guardian buisness. That work for you?¡± ¡±Sounds fine to me.¡± I said, and she held out her hand. ¡°Then a deal¡¯s a deal!¡± I looked down at her hand incredulously. ¡±Do we really need to shake on it? It¡¯s barely a deal, I basically just asked you out on a date.¡± I said, and she slowly looked down at her hand before looking back up. ¡±You make a fair point, but it¡¯s too late for me to pull my arm back, I¡¯m in it for the long haul at this point.¡± She said, holding her hand there. I stared her down for a solid ten seconds as we both sat there unmoving, before eventually I broke and started laughing. ¡±Alright fine, you win. It¡¯s a deal.¡± I reached out and shook her hand. Her grip was actually rather strong, which I suppose is to be expected of a Guardian. ¡°Oh, I just remembered, you said earlier I knew your real name. What¡¯s that about?¡± ¡°Well think about it. What could my name possibly be that I would have already told you?¡± I thought for a moment. Her Guardian name is Blossom, but otherwise she hasn¡¯t said anything about a name. Unless¡­ ¡±Oh god dammit, did you just use your real name as your Guardian name?¡± Blossom started laughing as I groaned. ¡°In my defense, I didn¡¯t name myself. I just told the first Guardian I met my real name and they went ¡°Your name¡¯s Blossom and you have plant magic? Well there you go!¡± ¡±And you didn¡¯t argue with them for a different one?¡± ¡±Well uh, no. I was kind of so confused at the time from the transformation and everything that I just went along with it. In hindsight, could have been a bit more creative. Now I mostly keep it cause the Guardian who gave it to me passed away.¡± She said, her face falling slightly. Suddenly I felt like a major jackass. ¡±Shit, I¡¯m sorry. I didn¡¯t realize it meant that much to you.¡± I apologized. Blossom just put her hand up casually. ¡°No, it¡¯s fine. It is pretty dumb. I just really miss that guy. Blindside was one hell of a Guardian.¡± She looked out a nearby window as she talked, gazing at nothing in particular with a nostalgic look in her eye. Before I could say anything else, I heard Weaver start yelling. ¡±Order for Inari and Blossom!¡± She turned to us and waved, cups in two of her hands. Blossom started to stand up to go grab them, but I simply waved my hand and used my gravity manipulation to pull the coffee towards us. Weaver made a rather adorable gasp as the coffee cups flew out of her hands, and I concentrated as I slowly manuvered them over to the table. Blossom looked down at me impressed, and quickly got back in her seat. ¡±Damn, not bad. You¡¯ve got pretty fine control of that.¡± She said, and I took a moment to feel proud of myself. ¡±Thanks! It¡¯s a lot harder to do the little things with that ability as opposed to like, just chucking a car at someone.¡± ¡±Have you thrown a car at someone before?¡± ¡°Well, no, but I did pull down this big ass statue. Huh, now that I think about it I wonder how much I could bench. I probably could actually lift a car, even without that insane mode.¡± I said, taking a sip of my coffee. Whatever type of roast Weaver had used was actually pretty great, a little earthy and not very bitter. ¡±Yeah, you¡¯ll probably need really specialzed training gear if you hit the gym a lot. Fortress can tell you more about that.¡± ¡±Is he a big weightlifter or something?¡± ¡±Well his suit weighs like, three tons, so strength training is rather important to him. It has hydraulics or whatever to help, but he¡¯s still really strong- ah, dammit!¡± Blossom took a sip of her coffee without thinking and yelped, burning her tongue. I rolled my eyes as she fanned it dramatically and put a hand on her cheek, casting a small healing spell. After a second her eyes went wide, and she looked at me. ¡°Oh wow, that¡¯s way better, thanks!¡± ¡±I saw you kill a thirty foot tall worm monster last night, but a hot coffee has you acting like you got shot. You are somethin else Blossom.¡± For the first time since I met her, Blossom actually looked flustered and started stammering. ¡°Excuse you! I didn¡¯t exactly have any mana going to my tongue! For your information, a regular bullet would pretty much just bounce off of me, even if it drained my mana a bit.¡± ¡°Okay, that is actually cool. I¡¯m still trying to get the hang on all this magic stuff. Is there some easier way to train using it, or is it really just a learn as you go type of thing?¡± ¡±Little bit of both I guess? You can make your own spells if you know what you¡¯re doing, and you can train your mana, but it really is easier to learn by doing it.¡± She said, casually reaching out her hand and gesturing to a nearby plant sitting on a windowsill. As she finished her gesture, the plant began to grow, flowers sprouting from it¡¯s base. I stared at it in awe for a moment before turning back to her. ¡±Magic really is amazing. And you said you could train your mana? What does that mean?¡± ¡±You know how you normally move mana through your body to attack and all that? Basically, you just continually move your mana through your entire body, and then return it to your starting point and do it again. That¡¯ll gradually expand your bodies ability to store mana, but remember, it¡¯s still a work out. It¡¯s gonna hurt a bit, and it¡¯ll make you tired. You got any other questions on magic?¡± She asked, sipping her coffee, which she thankfully didn¡¯t burn herself with this time. I thought for a moment, compiling a few questions I had in my head. ¡±Okay, so, earlier I was fighting this entity. I went in to punch it, and as I moved the mana, I felt like I somehow did it in a way that was more efficient, if that makes any sense. When the punch landed, there was this big purple light, and afterwards a bunch of flower petals fell from the sky. Any idea what the hell that was?¡± I asked her, and after a couple of seconds she looked at me and grinned almost mischeviously. ¡°Well well well, that might be a new record, least as far as I know. Never seen someone use Divergent Impact that quickly, most people don¡¯t end up figuring out it exists until they hit Aquamarine.¡± ¡±¡­that, doesn¡¯t really answer my question. What is it?¡± ¡°Like I said, it¡¯s called Divergent Impact. Basically, when you move mana through your body you lose some amount in the transfer, just how it works. But if you can move the mana precisely enough, while also moving it absurdly fast, all that mana that would have been lost gets shoved out into the point of contact, making whatever attack you were doing way stronger. It also tends to leave behind some sort of sign based on what you percieve your mana as looking like, which is probably what those flower petals were.¡± ¡±Well, that¡¯s certainly interesting. So all you have to do is move your mana in the right way and you get absurdly stronger hits?¡± Blossom scoffed slightly, crossing her legs as she leaned back in her chair. ¡°Yeah, no. It¡¯s not as simple as you think it is. There isn¡¯t one correct way to move that energy efficiently, it changes based on literally thousands of different factors. Whether or not you ate breakfast that morning could change how you need to make the energy flow. Think of it less like an ability and more like an occasional bonus, like in a game when you randomly get extra damage on a hit.¡± I considered that for a moment. It seemed like something I should look into on my own time, but it probably wouldn¡¯t be that important in the near future. ¡±Alright then. There was another thing that was confusing me though. I tried using my ability to lift some entities into the air, but when I did, it almost felt like something was fighting against me. Can entities use magic or something?¡± ¡±Ah, that one is a little trickier to explain. I think it¡¯s best if I first give you an example. Let¡¯s use your gravity ability for this. Now, that ability seems pretty insane right? You can just lift people into the air, make them go wherever you want right?¡± She asked, and I nodded, unsure of where she was going with this. ¡°I mean, yeah? I made some guy fall to the ground pretty easily. What¡¯s your point?¡± ¡±I¡¯m getting there, hold on. Now, I have a question for you. When you used that ability, did you directly make that guy fall down? Or did you increase the gravity of the area around him?¡± ¡±Well, the second one I guess. The first one seems a lot more complicated.¡± As I said this, Blossom stood up from her seat. ¡±Okay then, I want you to try and do that to me. Use that ability to make my body heavier and force me to the ground.¡± I simply stared at her, unsure if she was joking or not. ¡±Are you sure about this? It doesn¡¯t seem like it¡¯s very pleasant to deal with.¡± ¡±Go for it, just trust me on this.¡± Oh well, it was her choice. I shrugged and reached out a hand to use gravity manipulation on her, when all of a sudden it felt like my ability just, stopped. Not that she resisted it somehow, but that my ability just could not function in this context, no matter how much effort I put into it. ¡±What the hell is this?¡± I asked as I kept trying, and she simply grinned. ¡±This, my friend, is what we Guardians like to call, the ¡°No Bullshit Effect!¡± ¡°¡­you¡¯re fucking with me right?¡± ¡±Nope! It does have an actual scientific name, but Guardians just call it that so it¡¯s easier to say. It¡¯s one of the fundamental rules of magic, and of the universe really. In simple wording, the law states that mana is unable to negatively affect itself. What this means in terms of magic is, you cannot directly target another living being with harmful magic. Now, what is considered harmful and what isn¡¯t is pretty much a case by case basis, but healing magic is generally always okay.¡± I thought about this new informatjon for a moment as Blossom messed around with her hair. ¡°Okay, that kind of makes sense? But then why the hell do you call it the No Bullshit effect?¡± ¡±Because, it means if you ever fight someone with magic, they can¡¯t use some bullshit on you. You can¡¯t snap your fingers and make someone fall asleep, you can¡¯t summon an object inside someones body and make them explode, and you can¡¯t directly change anything about someones body, like its gravity. The whole point of magic is essentially turning mana into a form that can tangibly affect the world. You can¡¯t just light someone on fire, so you make a big pillar of flame instead.¡± ¡±But when I was trying to move those entities, I wasn¡¯t changing their gravity, I was changing gravity around them. Why didn¡¯t that work?¡± ¡±That¡¯s the more complicated part. One of the best way¡¯s of stopping another Guardians abilities is just, sending out a big pulse of mana around you. It basically disrupts whatever they were doing. Entities don¡¯t have mana, but they kind of follow the rules of magic, so they are constantly doing that. I¡¯ll admit I¡¯m not very knowledgeable on that specific subject, a more scientific Guardian could probably give you a better explanation.¡± ¡±Huh. Well, thanks for explaining anyways. I did have some questions about like, being a woman, but some of those seem more like questions for a doctor.¡± I said as Blossom sat down, stretching her arms as sunlight poured through the window onto her. ¡±Yeah, I could recommend you a good general doctor who works with fem Guardians. You will have to go to a different planet, but that¡¯s kind of the norm for Guardians.¡± ¡±Thanks. You know, it sucks I can¡¯t have kids, but at least I won¡¯t get periods either. That always seemed awful.¡± ¡±Oh, uh, you probably still will. No bleeding, but stomach cramps and stuff are still very possible for you.¡± ¡±Aw what?! That¡¯s bullshit!¡± I yelled, slamming my hand on the table. Everyone else in the cafe proceeded to turn to our table, making me immediately regret my actions. For her part, Blossom just laughed and put a hand on the table, steadying it. ¡±It kind of is. You¡¯ll come to learn a lot of being a woman is dealing with different bullshit. But hey, I enjoy it, and I¡¯m sure you will too!¡± I looked down at myself, taking in my new outfit some more. I, did look rather good. ¡±Yeah, I think you might be right.¡±