Changeling

(67): Running Gauntlet

Sashimi showed up as the squad progressed through the forest, pressing through brambles and ferns under the distant canopy. The damn shark immediately started to circle the group with lazy, predatory grace and though the others didn’t seem to mind, Nestra knew exactly what was going on. A last glance towards Valerian actually proved that, although he did look back as ordered, he hadn’t realized they were being stalked. Nestra had no idea how he could miss the three meter long abyssal Great White-shaped hunter but whatever. Maybe his helmet was blocking the view? It looked brand new.

“Looks like our overshark is here. If you will give me a minute, I need to clarify something.”

Nestra dropped her mask after a last check that they were alone. She hissed at the emergency ration with all the impatience she was feeling.

“Listen here you ugly handbag, don’t think you can defeat me because I’m wearing a mask. Touch that form and I’ll eat you alive with soy sauce, and then I’ll make soup out of your whiskers, you oversized back scratcher!”

The void abomination retreated to Helena’s side in sullen silence. Nestra had to listen to her own sister treacherously complimenting that creature on her grace and buoyancy. Meanwhile, Nestra had to keep an eye out on the left flank but this was the beginning of the raid, and things would move slowly until they found the encampment.

It would take another five minutes to get there at their brisk pace. The stroll through the forest proved surprisingly pleasant, and its earthy perfumes rich and refreshing after the smell of the city. It would change soo though. The path forward climbed to a ridge. Nestra had to poke Camille on the shoulder to remind them to slow down and stop there.

Below them, a small encampment waited on a hillock in the middle of a clearing, lazily fortified and poorly guarded. The running gauntlet was a fairy court war kind of world where the shorter humanoids fought endlessly in conflict without pause or mercy. This was yet another encampment of lesser fae, their armor and weapons crude and poorly decorated. Pennants in red and blue bearing the head of an unknown creature flapped weakly in the low wind. Tents had been planted haphazardly around a large, bubbling cauldron in which pieces of enemy fae simmered. Nestra could spot toes and the occasional thigh surfacing from the brown slurry. A dozen guards paid lukewarm attention to their surroundings while the rest fed or rested. Only four of them, arrayed around a flag, maintained their vigilance. The flag itself stood proudly at the center of a magical circle, its shaft decorated with gold filigree. It was the camp’s only fancy-looking element.

Nestra had to tap on Camille's shoulder again to make them pay attention, then her command signs only elicited a confused blink.

Nestra realized Camille didn’t know standard hand signals. Valerian was also by their side, looking front while he should have been looking back. That was his job, and fae courtiers were known for their ambushes and scouting. She was leading a team of greenhorns. She had to come to a decision. She could give up the raid, but that sounded like a bad idea between the imminent break and the fact it would reflect on Camille’s file. Or she could turn those idiots into a team on the fly.

“Alright, let’s go.”

People looked at Camille until they realized they were supposed to take point. Camille then raced over the ridge at a dead sprint, too fast for the D-class to match. Nestra and Helena followed with Valerian outpacing them before he remembered his role.

Camille jumped over the fae barricade just as the first of their sentries screamed in alarm. Nestra was forced to spread out among the foot soldiers to reach the archers getting out of their tents. They fought with viciousness and a grace that made them more dangerous than their small size would suggest, but since they were as tall as the average eight-years old, their wiry strength still wasn’t much to an adult gleam. The fae’s near-human traits, grotesquely deformed into cruel sneers, made her mind plunge into the uncanny valley, especially when they died. It was not an issue she’d had in her Aszhii form.

Valerian maintained position properly but he was late detecting the patrol charging them from behind. Nestra had to scream at him to use the pain spell.

He hesitated. The patrol was just six scrawny fae with shit bows and pathetic spears. He and Helena intercepted them, running down the fleeing archer a moment later. Sashimi swooped down to nab a runner, not even taking the time to eat him. She felt utterly bored. At least no one had been even remotely threatened by arrows since Camille had blocked anything dangerous with their barrier.

Nestra made a gesture to gather, one Camille understood when everyone else came close.

“Well, that went well. And fast,” Helena said, flushed with excitement.

Camille and Valerian didn’t speak. They must have felt Nestra’s annoyance. It had gone very poorly. The only person who’d done their job well was Helena. Sashimi came close second.

Nestra was officially the leader. She harbored no illusion that this was anyone’s fault but her own. Shinran’s training facilities often threw her with unknown squads as leadership exercises to test her adaptability. Or perhaps the facility didn’t know how to make Aszhii into squad leaders. What mattered the most here was that a squad had to be prepared before they went into battle. The moment the first arrows started to fly, it was far too late to iron out the flaws. It was Nestra’s own Riel-damned fault for not making sure it was the case. She’d let Camille’s guard piss her off.

“It’s my fault. I failed to prepare you, or at least test for basic capabilities.”

Helena’s excitement crumbled.

“Camille, you don’t know tactical gestures. Right?”

“No… I mean, I know some from watching military vids.”

They had the decency to blush.

“What do you know about being pointperson?” Nestra asked next.

“Errr… it means I go in front?”

The revelation was received by the Thresholders with stunned silence.

“They don’t teach squad tactics in the enclaves?” Helena gasped.

“I was not trained to lead squads,” Camille explained a little too quickly.

“It’s alright,” Nestra said. “It’s ok. You did well with the barriers. Look, you and I are going to swap. I’ll take point. You cover the left flank. Just make sure to stay between Valerian and I. Cover him as much as you can. When we fight with a group, help me as you can but again, do not stray far.”

Nestra turned to Helena.

“You did well.”

“Thanks. Err. Any feedback?”

“Not at the stage, no. Valerian, two things. When I say you cover the back, I mean your eyes are out there except when you briefly check on me every three seconds or so, but no more. Alright?”

“Yes. Sorry.”

“You also didn’t cast the crowd control spell when I asked you to.”

“I, uh, sorry, I didn’t see the —”

“If I’m the squad leader and I give an order, you do not question it. You might be missing something. In this case, we might have had to disable them because another squad was on the way.”

“But I know how the portal world works…”

“Every portal has its surprises. The surprise isn’t supposed to come from teammates. Either you follow when I call the shots, or this is the last time we work together as a team. Look, this isn’t like our previous portals and you’re no longer a healer. You’re a controller and a buffer. That’s what you wanted, right? ”

“Sorry, I got you.”

He looked very embarrassed which made Nestra mellow a little.

“I was going to gauge your reaction time under threat and new area of effect since you’ve made a lot of progress lately. Now I don’t know for sure. Do you?”

“I, err. I haven’t tried it in combat, not recently.”

Nestra chewed on this. The running gauntlet would be difficult. They had more than enough individual power to push through, but… this total lack of coordination…

She grit her teeth. She could do it.

“Right. Here is what we’re going to do. Helena, teach Camille the basic signs. I want to test Valerian once or twice on the bodies. After that, loot the place. Do not approach the flag.”

“Of course,” Helena replied in a serious voice.

“This pain spell, does it do what it says it does?” Camille asked.

“Yes,” Valerian replied “I can pick who gets affected so don’t worry about it.”

“But it won’t work on the dead…”

Valerian shook his head.

“They still have a nervous system, at least when they’re fresh. Nestra’s right. Let’s just get this done.”

***

Nestra found that she was much more comfortable calling shots and organizing people in her human form, which made her wonder what would happen if she tried that one in Shinran’s facility. Her Aszhii self was much more single-minded and overall a much better hunter, but squad tactics weren’t really her jam. A few tests confirmed that Valerian’s range was about fifty meters at a low cost which was honestly insane for a crowd control spell. The only downside was that it was non lethal. Monsters would recover pretty quickly. The tents yielded some precious metals and a few exercises let the team move more fluidly. It had only taken ten minutes or so to reach that point. Nestra was confident she could achieve more but it was most likely only a question of time before more patrols returned, then the gauntlet would start no matter what.

“I’m going to call it. Have one last drink, check your gear, then we get it started.”

The rest of the squad patiently did as she asked. The mood had shifted when people realized how serious Nestra was about the whole affair. Once they were ready, Nestra signed that they should go. She grabbed the engraved flag before shoving it on a prepared spot at the back of her armor.

Nothing happened. No loud sounds, no baying cry, but Nestra knew the alarm was out by the way the circle glyphs shimmered. Without a word, she jogged towards the only path out of the clearing, her team behind her. Sashimi was out of view for now, but Nestra knew the squall would return.

The gleams fell into an easy jog. Again, nothing seemed out of the ordinary at first. The weather remained pleasant. A light wind made the leaves flutter in calm rustles. Only the practiced breath of her team and their boots on the path broke the monotony. The trees had returned, as tall as ever, and the canopies sometimes darkened the path to near-night level but that was barely an inconvenience. After five minutes or so, a refreshing wave filled Nestra’s muscles: Valerian’s first buff. Their speed increased. After another minute they heard the horns.

Angry bugles emerged from behind them by one, two and soon numbers so high they merged into each other. More concerning, some of those calls came from in front of them.

“Timer, five minutes,” she reminded her team though they probably didn’t need it, but Shinran’s pet AI told her soldiers found reminders comforting.

It was all she could do to maintain the pace when the others clearly wanted to go faster. It was a bad idea. Buff or not, they would regret wasting every drop of energy they spent right now. Soon, the slope moved a little uphill. All the while, Nestra looked back. Her team was following her instructions. They were keeping an eye on their respective direction while turning back to her on occasion.

“Time. Val, watch out.”

“I think I got movement back.”

“Copy.”

The horns grew closer, making Nestra feel like a pre-Incursion rabbit. Or was it a fox? She kept her eyes mostly forward though there should be nothing there yet. Part of her mind couldn’t help but wander back to similar exercises she’d done. In her human form, her senses were more dull, her vision weaker though her hearing felt the same. It was like searching in the dark with mittens on. She didn’t accelerate even when the burgles sounded very close. She could see distant ferns to her left moving as something fast went through them.

“Contact.”

Nestra took a fast glance back. Large groups of hunting fae waving poorly made weapons were running after them, panting, hissing, screeching, and babbling in the coarsest version of their harmonious language. Larger fae in dull mail commanded them, riding chimeric creatures somewhere between goats and elks. Some had two heads. Those were the horn blowers. Their spears and bows marked them as hunters, and Nestra’s group as prey. The Aszhii in her twitched, begging to be let out. Begging to teach them about their dire misconception, but she held herself in. This was practice.

A low hiss escaped her lips as she kept running, but then the first arrows flew. The enemy was not worth it. Too weak. Valerian and Camille called the missiles as they arrived, a constant peppering that surrounded them. Interestingly, most attacks missed.

“Got that one,” Valerian announced, and something pinged on his shield.

“Movement up ahead,” Nestra said. “Helena?”

“With you.”

The right flank was the calm one so Helena would help her often. A dozen exhausted foot fae formed a half circle on the path in front of them while a hunter stopped behind them, aiming his bow.

“I got him,” Helena said.

“Ok.”

Nestra moved, then twisted her torso to allow the arrow to clang uselessly against the Bellerophon chestplate. A moment later, they crashed through the spear wall like a pair of boars. Nestra tore through the tired spearmen without stopping. Helena charged the hunter, who charged back with a screech of hatred.

“Hah!”

Nestra felt her sister channel strength. Her shield smacked into the chimera and the spear-wielding fae with a ghastly crack of broken bones. The mount fell with a piteous whine while the fae’s reflexes allowed it to jump deftly so he wouldn’t be crushed. It worked for the corpse of its ride. It didn’t work with the axe. One chop. Two chops. The pair were dead. The Palladians had barely slowed.

“Shame,” Helena breathed. “Shame we can’t loot ’em.”

“Focus,” Nestra chided.

“Sorry.”

“They’re catching up,” Valerian calmly warned.

Behind, some of the fae were stumbling, the others panting like no tomorrow. They’d been sprinting for twenty minutes now to keep with their long-legged foes. One of the hunters speared a laggard without mercy. The others didn’t even flinch.

Nestra elected not to call the shots.

“Val, when you decide the lead one’s close enough, cast,” she told Valerian.

“Got it.”

WIth one last desperate push, the horde of fae caught up, twisted mouths foaming, eyes bloodshot. Nestra felt when Valerian took hold of his own energy. The gentle touch that helped her move faster turned sharper, colder. Something at the edge of her hearing set her teeth on edge, or maybe it was just an illusion.

Valerian’s voice was vicious.

“Suffer.”

The wave crashed. Fae recoiled and the thrill of the hunt was replaced by a cacophony of screams, an ode to agony. Some of the fae clawed their own faces. Others simply collapsed. The chimerae turned on each other, lashing out. One turned on its hunter.

Nestra called for ice, slowing down a little. Her trick allowed the white javelin to form faster, then she hurled it at two chimeras locked in battle. The projectile exploded. The monsters jerked and fell, pierced and dying.

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“Nice combo,” Valerian said.

The hunters were notoriously hard to pin down according to the file.

“Right, let’s do it again next time,” Nestra said as she returned her attention to the front.

In the next hours, errant squads tried to stop them five more times, and the tide following them caught up thrice. On every occasion, the small group repeated what they’d done and moved on. Helena also had to repel two lone attacks on the right flank which she did with calm efficiency. The way she worked made Nestra very proud. She only worried that they were not seeing a lot of hunters compared to what the file said, until she spotted the hint of a tail far above Helena. The shark was eating well. Everything went well until they reached a plateau, and ruins. The calls of the horns behind them slowed down.

“Alright everyone,” Nestra said. “Slow down, shields up, and watch for traps.”

Nestra checked her mana and decided she had enough for an armor reinforcement. Ice crept over the Bellerophon, covering it in an uneven layer of ice that looked like permafrost cut with an axe. And to think her mom could imitate designer clothes… Right.

“Does anybody need to stop right now?”

Everyone was fine thanks to Valerian. Nestra herself only felt some sort of deep-seated fatigue, like she’d been sleep deprived for a week but then had one good night, and would need another. She inspected her surroundings with attention.

It was bright here under a strange orange sky. The ruins were very much like what the files described but no pictures or description could do it justice. Cyclopean pillars and monumental arches dwarfed even the trees behind them, their surface pitted and dulled by millenia of rain. Bushes and lianas climbed them hesitantly, stopping below a certain height and leaving bare the faded imprints of ancient faces or complex frescoes, their details now lost to the ages. There was an ancient grandeur to the place that filled Nestra’s mind with peace and perhaps a hint of reverence. Even if this was just a portal world that the universe would later swallow, those structures were memories, distant shades of something real, something grand and, perhaps, something forgotten. The calm she felt was hard to reconcile with the twisted faces of its inhabitants.

Her gaze lowered back to the ground floor where moss and broken slabs competed for surface. It didn’t take long for her to spot glyphs on a nearby wall.

“Trap. Left side. I got it.”

She carefully moved to the base of a massive column. The triggers were glyphs rather than mechanical ones, but the trap itself was a very basic, hidden crossbow. It took a minimum amount of effort to deactivate the trigger glyph with a burst of her mana. The construct flickered, now harmless. She turned to see her team inspecting her with surprised looks.

“What did I tell you? Eyes up.”

Someone might have said ‘hardass’. Her vigilance was rewarded five minutes later as they moved through the ruins though. A light blue barrier stopped a dart.

“I saw it. Well camouflaged.”

“Yeah. I think Val and I can take the next one,” Nestra replied.

“I’ll be ready,” Valerian told her.

“Just don’t aim that thing at me,” Helena said with a shiver. “Looks real painful.”

Nestra and Valerian exchanged a glance. It was an old complaint of his that third degree burns were probably just as painful but nobody gave firebugs a bad press. It wasn’t fair.

“I can’t do it to you,” he said. “I literally can’t.”

“Huh? Why, human resistance?”

“No. I don’t hate you.”

“That’s comforting. Who’s your favorite artist so I don’t thrash them by accident?”

“Alright, that’s enough,” Nestra said. “We can take a break soon. For now, eyes open.”

Their progress was slow but steady. Nestra managed to keep a systematic approach to trap detection that worked well though she got comments on her ‘surprising mastery of mana’. The next creature to try and poison her got caught in Valerian’s area of effect. The screeches were only too familiar.

It still took Nestra a second to manifest the spike.

“I can—”

“No,” Nestra replied, holding back her sister. “Traps.”

“Okay.”

The creature died. After that, Nestra found two more traps, one gas and one spell, and then they inspected the body.

It was another fae, even scrawnier and weaker than the others. Its tattered garb was strangely reminiscent of a ghillie suit but there was some subtle mana signature to them that made the fae all but invisible.

“Loot?” Helena offered.

“I don’t think they’re mentioned in the file but yeah, loot.”

After another twenty minutes of grueling efforts and another camouflaged fae, the ruins widened, then the squad was faced with a large, circular esplanade surrounded by tall walls that gave it the likeness of a coliseum.

It seemed that time and vegetation had spared the vast open space. The ground was made of tiny black and white squares arranged with painstaking attention to form a beautiful and strange landscape of grass, or perhaps it was a field of seaweed, or… or something else. Nestra blinked. Helena had her mouth slightly open, abyssal eyes widened.

“Wake up,” Nestra said.

“Oh. Sorry. Pretty, right?”

The two sisters agreed, though the other too didn’t comment. Their attention was on the central figure of the plaza.

Nestra wasn’t sure if it was a titanic tree so massive it ought to have collapsed on itself, or something else. The trunk had the shape of an ancient man of impossible age, his traits strangely elfin yet completely missing that cruel quality the other fae seemed to have. There was something deeply benevolent about the tree that pervaded the surrounded space, something so universally kind, Nestra believed it didn’t belong in a portal. Portal monsters were irredeemably hostile, even the smart ones. Their cunning and intellect only served to further their hatred of any and all intruders, especially Aszhii apparently. The fact something managed to stay peaceful in such an environment was just mind-boggling. Or Nestra was completely mistaken and this was just some ancient compulsion effect. Either or.

“This is the safe zone, yes?” Camille asked.

Their eyes swept the plaza for anything out of place, which was good.

“The file said they wouldn’t follow us here. Looked like they were right,” Valerian said.

“Is anybody hurt?” Nestra asked.

“Nobody is hurt,” Valerian replied before anyone else could. “I have been monitoring your conditions.”

“I’m good to go, actually!” Helena said.

“My buff will keep everyone well but you’ll feel a deep exhaustion when I stop. You should all eat and drink right now. I can’t replace nutrients.”

They had packed some basic rations, not the kind used when raiders planned on camping somewhere but the quick and dirty bags filled with, basically, sugar. Nestra almost threw the packet as people tended to do but reassessed. Littering here just felt wrong. Even if the place would cease to exist soon enough.

“Do you think our used supplies just, like, end up floating in the void somewhere?” Helena asked.

That was a good question.

“No one has ever resolved the question of where matter used in portals even comes from so… where does it ever go back to? I think someone calculated that the energy stored in a single large portal would be enough to power the sun. I forgot for how long though,” Valerian said.

“How did they measure that?”

“Well, so when a hydrogen bomb with a yield of 50 megatons explodes, basically it means hydrogen isotopes fuse into helium atoms. I forgot the formula but basically the, ah, the total weight of materials at the end of the reaction is a bit over two kilograms lighter. That means a massive nuclear explosion is the energy contained in two kilograms of matter.”

“Wow.”

“So where does all this energy even come from?” Valerian asked. “Is it created ex nihilo? And how?”

Helena considered the question in silence for a while.

“What do you think?” She eventually asked Nestra.

“We don’t respect the laws of physics,” Nestra reminded her. “By all means, all of us are spending a lot more energy than we’re consuming by a large amount because mana is a thing. Even then, I don’t believe mana follows scientific principles the way we understand them.”

“Some spells do,” Camille commented.

Nestra nodded.

“True enough, especially barriers. But then you have exotic elements like ice that are both water and the lack of heat. Heat, at the atomic level, is motion. So the element is both about a state of water and low energy at the atomic level which… makes no sense. It’s dream logic, at best.”

“It might be something we haven’t discovered yet,” Camille said.

“Maybe.”

Nestra shrugged. She was willing to keep an open mind.

“There have to be rules… surely?” Camille said without much conviction.

They sighed then pulled at the orange fabric poking from under their armor’s collar.

The rest of the discussion stopped when Sashimi swooped down to snatch up pieces of jerky Helena was throwing in the air. If Nestra wasn’t sure the damn void abomination was a fundamentally malignant lifeform, she could have been deluded into thinking they were playing. After emptying two bags, the squall regurgitated two cores at Helena before swimming away contentedly. Helena thanked the beast, already digging through the disgusting sludge that used to be hunter meat like it was nothing.

“They’re mine. She gave them to me. You all saw that!”

“Well there are no rules for eldritch reinforcements so…” Nestra hesitated.

“We wouldn’t have gotten the cores anyway,” Camille remarked with philosophy.

“The young ones need starting money. Especially those that go through axes like Gidung goes through PR teams. Anyway, anyone need a last check up?”

Nestra shook her head. Everyone else was ready after they cleaned up the blood from their weapons.

“We’re still ahead of the curve. Let’s go.”

They moved on. The ruins abruptly stopped but the slope went up towards nearby mountains, the distant ones topped by shiny snow. Teams that rested for too long would have to fight through a veritable gauntlet, but it looked like the bulk of the fae had yet to catch up to them. Nestra led the way with the stolen flag still attached to her back. They were intercepted by patrols but those were no match. Nestra had people swap positions so they’d get practice. Both Valerian and Helena loved taking point, Nestra assumed, for similar reasons.

The horde eventually caught up, mostly hunters but a few patrols as well. Few of them could keep pace with the squad and those who barred their way were easily slaughtered. Their escape filled the hunters with rage. Sometimes, they tried to charge in groups of three which made Valerian and Nestra’s combo that much more deadly. Camille also intercepted all their arrows without fail. It still took close to two hours of constant racing for the forest to fully fall behind. They finally spotted the final fort ahead. As they approached, the fae all kept their distance though when Nestra looked back, she could still see their bilious eyes following them with absolute hatred.

“Ok. We’re arriving at the fort.”

“Fucking finally,” helena huffed.

She was barely out of breath, even as the weakest gleam around, but there were pockets under her eyes that made Nestra worried.

“I’m fine,” Helena assured her.

“She will be fine while the buff holds. She will just need sleep after that. A lot of sleep. There will be no long term effects except for exhaustion,” Valerian assured them.

“Alright. Let’s get the fort started. We don’t have much time.”

This was the end of the road. Literally speaking. The exit portal was here, but the guardian was not. They would come later at the head of a large number of soldiers. Speed was the name of the game here, and Nestra’s team had been fast enough thanks to Valerian. That meant they would have more time to prepare after a relatively calm race. The first team had apparently lost two raiders figuring it out.

The fort was basic and its architecture was what you got when someone piled the stones they found into a ‘functional’ state. There was a gate, made of wood, and a single rampart. The keep was more of a cube with a tunnel leading deeper in. It was a perfect chokepoint against the hordes of lowly foot soldiers that would come after them, but first, the defenses. Atop the ramparts, strange constructs waited, most of them somewhere between futuristic guns and old-school ballistae with a shielded cockpit and some heavy mechanism. Nestra dropped the flag in a nearby base — it was required to provoke the guardian into attacking head on.

“Right.”

The largest ballistae, she ignored. It required a level of arcane knowledge to operate that she simply didn’t have, one that even enhanced classes couldn’t make her understand in months. Two more were very basic so Camille and Valerian would have no difficulty using them. Both of them were already shoving enchanted rods in the barrels next to them when she approached to explain the commands.

“How did you know that?” Camille asked, reasonably impressed.

“They’re used against raiders in fae worlds and I thought they were neat when I was younger. Of course, they’re weaker than what combat walkers can do with mundane material but, you know, still cool to have considering we’re all close quarter fighters.”

“The blender squad!” Helena roared from the other side of the battlements.

“That’s us. Now for the large ones.”

The last pair was of medium size, and the rods it used looked like carefully enchanted javelins of which there were only twenty. They looked a little rusted, as if they’d been left there for too long.

“Do you think we could sell them?” Helena asked, but Nestra bonked her over the head.

“Ow.”

“Survival first, money second. What do you even need all this money for? You live in a compound with free food.”

“I want my own den! With a smaller naval cannon!”

Nestra was about to protest when she realized… was this how her mom felt when a request seemed unreasonable? Could Nestra even deny her little sister the right to static artillery from the comfort of her own home? It would be hypocrisy. Hypocrisy of the highest order.

“I mean. Okay. But portal clear first.”

Nestra inspected the glyphs. They were more or less what she expected — their operations not being mentioned in the file. The usual team just preferred to hole up in the keep which was safe but kinda limp, if she were honest. She activated the construct, removed the safety, and started shoving missiles in the loading port when Helena barged into her personal space

“What? How? How did you manage to activate that? I thought it took a dedicated mage to even start it?”

“I wasn’t sure I could do it so our plan didn’t hinge on them.”

“That’s not the point. When did you ever learn about those glyphs? I don’t recognize them.”

Nestra frowned with clear annoyance.

“Look, you decided to go full axe from the beginning but I actually had a broad education and I’ve been practicing hard these past few months. I’m half a mage, remember?”

And Shinran’s training helped immensely as well.

“I mean yeah, but you’re you.”

“Why is everyone taking me for an idiot who can’t handle anything unless it has a handle and a direction?”

“Nestra, you can’t even name every continent.”

“That’s different,” Nestra waved the objection away. “Those are arbitrary names for landmasses anyways. Who cares?”

“Or every country in Asia.”

“You’re exaggerating. It’s only South East Asia I have a problem with. Everyone struggles with that!”

“Ugh. Whatever. Fine, you can activate them. What now?”

“Now you sit in your designed spot, steer the siege engine a bit to get used to it and then shoot the largest masses of infantry when I give you the order, but you absolutely must race to the keep when I tell you to. Understood?”

It was like she’d told Helena her birthday would henceforth be celebrated twice a year.

“For me? Really?”

“Yes. Press this lever to pull the string back. Be aware that it’s hard to pull.”

“Nestra I have a strength affinity.”

“That is why I said, be aware, not you can’t do it.”

“I have a question, if you don’t mind?” Camille said.

“Sure.”

“Wouldn’t it be better for the C-class to get access to the larger weapons?”

“Good question,” Nestra replied. “The answer is that the larger ballistae are more central so when we start running to the tunnel, we two will have less ground to cover. Val and you should have no difficulty covering our retreat. After that, we hold the tunnel and use it as a chokepoint to finish off what’s left.”

“That makes sense,” Camille said.

They nodded, then their gaze alternated between Helena and Nestra, and then to Valerian once he joined.

“Look, I’m not very good at this and it’s my first time with you so I feel like I should mention it. It's a pleasure, a true pleasure, and also an honor, to be working with… with people who’ve got my back. And who know what to do. Professionals. Also, sorry,” she said, finishing her speech at Valerian.

“I’m glad you got your second chance. I’ll help as I can. We all will,” Valerian said.

His voice was kind but Nestra wasn’t fooled. There was a distance there that she recognized all too well from his talks with his family. Valerian would make it work for the team — he was cool like that — but he wouldn’t forget. She supposed she wouldn’t either if it were her ass almost sold to slavery. There was nothing she could do to change that.

“We are here for you just like you’re here for us,” she still said with conviction. “Now and the next time, and the next time, until you’re free.”

“You’re the coolest convict ever,” Helena concluded. “And we’re obviously very cool too. Don’t forget to credit Sashimi. She likes raw meat.”

“I will be sure to feed her any body part I happen to lose.”

Nestra directed her sister away before she could list Sashimi’s favorite body parts. With time in front of them though, she found herself bored and nervous.

“Remember: let me have the guardian, please?” she asked the others, screaming over the rising wind.

“Yeah yeah. Just stay near the front of the tunnel.”

The guardian would be a powerful C-class, a boon for true Nestra. It didn’t take long for their pursuers to arrive after that. A mass of brown and rust led by hunters riding chimeras, it was more a mob than an army. The only exception was the noble leading them: the guardian of this world. This one was female and she was flying on diaphanous wings shining like the surface of a soap bubble. White mail covered her lithe form, looking closer to a dress than what one would wear in battle. Her delicate features were twisted by rage under bright blue hair held in an elaborate style.

The fae lady gasped when she spotted them, her anger turning to complete outrage like she couldn’t believe her flag had been burgled by a human. A stream of melodious words erupted from her delicate throat, so piercing they eclipsed even the warcries of her minions or the howl of the wind.

After years of efforts and analysis, linguists had managed to decipher enough of the fae language to determine that fae nobles exclusively spouted racial slurs related to human size and pilosity. It was clear the guardian had studied them extensively.

“Nestra?” Helena asked, her voice suddenly nervous.

This wasn't going according to plan. The guardian was supposed to arrive much later. The file also said they were always warriors. They didn’t have countermeasures for flying mages. Well, true Nestra did. She had countermeasures for a great many things, including weight loss.

“Change of plans. I’ll get her attention while you keep shooting. Retreat when you run out, alright? That part of the plan stays the same. Camille?”

“I will use my barriers.”

“Alright. Wait for my signal because the bolts drop quickly. We want them to get closer. Pick your targets but it’s more important to hit something than to hit something good. Better to have no ammo left when they reach us or it will be wasted. Got it?”

Acknowledgements returned. For some reason, the fae noble stayed at the back of the formation while her mass of soldiers charged forward with deafening screams. The wall of sound and hatred was powerful enough to give Nestra pause when they charged forward. It was like a tapestry of scorn, but then they were in range.

“Loose!”

The bolts tore off from the siege weapons with dull ‘chunks’. The impact was anything but quiet though. The bolts properly exploded, tearing entire squads to pieces then mangling nearby soldiers with shards and debris. Limbs flew. Blood splattered. Screeches turned to screams, then to rattles. Stumps. Exposed bones. Entrails. More explosions. Nestra pulled the lever then pressed the trigger, then again, then again, killing the lead squad only to see it replaced by another all while the noble kept insulting everyone, her dying troops most of all. A wave of disgust filled her human chest.

“Haha, yeah that’s so fucking wired. Hey bozo! Catch!” Helena exulted.

“Runner, right side,” Camille called.

“On it,” Valerian shouted back.

Their faster ballistae shot smaller projectiles that fared better against limber targets so they were picking off chimeras and their riders. Despite the slaughter, the fae were still moving forward over the mangled remains of their former comrades, pressed forward by the ravening hordes held behind, all eager to taste human flesh. The savagery and callousness made Nestra feel numb instead of ecstatic like her sister. It was… so fucking stupid. She was killing fae by the dozen with every hiss - clunk - hiss -clunk in a grand, pointless slaughter while their leader screamed at them to… actually she had no idea what the noble was screaming but it pissed Nestra off.

Helena ran out of bolts first. As planned, she ran back towards the tunnel entrance. It would have been Nestra’s job to distract the noble but she’d not attacked so… what now? Her Aszhii self twitched, but a strange instinct made her push her back. The noble didn’t deserve to face her true self. That noisy butterfly had just hovered there screaming like a wino on a balcony during a Friday night bender. She hadn’t tried anything yet. Nestra grinned. She aimed her last bolt at the noble. She shot, and missed, or rather the fae was too fast and unpredictable to be caught by a predictive shot.

Nestra stepped out of the siege engine, her armor hardening. Zero aura spread a layer of white frost all around her. The noble charged her on a torrent of insults. Nestra felt the electric mana coming from her. She used her own for a grounding.

“Nestra?” a voice came from behind. Helena. The tone meant: ‘what the fuck are you doing?’.

The bolt hit her. Even with her own mana grounding her, even with most of the electricity traveling around her gauntlet and down her sword to the ground, she still had to grit her teeth. Helena was right. Deserving? What the fuck was that even about? This body was a strong D-class one. The foe was a strong C-class mage. Her friends were in danger. She was being absolutely stupid.

Nestra’s true self erupted from the void with a hiss of pleasure. Finally, she was out. Things were so pleasantly simple now. She was going to pluck the bitch’s wings. She charged herself with electricity then moved forward, cutting a bloody path through the tight ranks of the fae. The noble sneered as she approached. Nestra felt her hair rise with the coming of another bolt. She smiled as well, baring needle teeth.

Her own bolt, now straight and even more potent, met the noble’s. The two exploded. More fae died in the shockwave, and with a hiss of fury, the noble climbed higher. Nestra jumped after her. A second void bolt missed after her prey executed an impressive mid-air dodge. She was grace incarnate.

That wasn’t going to save her though. Nestra used momentum to close the gap. Impossibly, the noble turned her twirl into a graceful lunge to avoid her blade. Nestra didn’t care. She released her hold on the electric charge. It exploded around her in a wave of abyssal static.

The noble’s pretty wings flickered. She plummeted with a cry, though her dainty fingers worked at something. Maybe activation. Nestra wasn’t going to give her the time. Another momentum, and she was on her prey.

The fae noble’s armor was rather resilient. It wasn’t Ashzii-proof. She died, cut in half by a void-infused blade. Nestra didn’t plunge her bloody hand into the monster’s chest to extract the core because she was disciplined and a good teammate, even with the incredible rush of power informing her her mana control had just improved, incidentally, her least developed skill. She rushed after her teammate to the tunnel, then settled behind them. They didn’t speak.

The rest of the portal consisted in cutting down the attacking army as they tried to push the humans further. It was long, disgusting, bloody work that made Nestra switch back to her human form. There was nothing left to be gained from the foot soldiers. They were just familiar victims at this point.

As a human, the fight was barely more challenging, but it did push Nestra’s mental stamina to the limit. The stench of fae blood was something she would remember in her dreams.

When they exited, Sashimi was finishing off the stragglers. She gobbled half of the dead noble before disappearing with a last sway of her chunky tail. Nestra was pretty sure the shark was eating her entire weight with every raid. It was, as they said, a target rich environment.

“Right. Let’s loot and leave,” Helena declared, then she stumbled. Valerian had finally released his grip on the buff spell. From the expression of pure relief on his feature, it hadn’t been all that easy.

“Ugh. I need a coffee.” Helena complained.

Nestra sent her to collect the completion prize instead. The exit portal had opened in the room at the end of the tunnel, towards their back. An altar carrying small ingots of precious metal called to her greedy sister. Camille proved incredibly adept at finding and extracting cores from the fallen fae. Nestra also focused on their pockets, and she got the noble’s mangled armor set as a bonus. It had to be worth something. Unfortunately, the wings apparently came from a tattoo on her back and Nestra was unwilling to bring back a severed torso. It was just a little too ghastly for her image.

It was then that Helena walked to her side. Valerian and Camille seemed satisfied enough, but Helena gave Nestra a curious glance. She looked… unamused. It was weird to be the target of a younger person’s judgment. Well no, but it was weird when it was actually her fault.

“Since the others are busy, what was that?” Helena asked. “You know what I mean.”

Nestra sighed.

“I assume you’re referring to me charging a powerful C-class mage with a D-class body, no mobility —”

“I don’t need the full debrief, thanks. We know what you did wrong. Is it, you know…”

Nestra felt stupid.

“Yeah. Instincts are… I am very arrogant.”

“Duh.”

Helena dodged a half-hearted slap.

“I mean I am more arrogant in my… other form.”

Helena shook her head, her expression intense, as often with her.

“I know that. I meant… hmm. Well, I’m sorry but you need better control. This isn’t like you.”

“Working on it.”

“That’s all I can ask. Now shall we? The world has already started to close.”

The sun had dimmed and the sky had taken a blurry outline, like a broken screen. Nestra was only too happy to urge her tired team on. When they crossed over though, they found Calhoun frantically typing messages. Her suit was frumpy and her eyes bloodshot. Shitty paper cups lay discarded on the floor, most likely from a nearby maintenance room.

“Oh, thank Riel you’re finally out. We need your help.”

“What?” Nestra eloquently replied.

“I’m not sure. Something is happening. It’s all hands on deck. Raids are being abandoned left and right. The Portal Management office just called me to ask you to pick up the slack and I mean, you gotta split if you want to make it in time.”

“But… we’re tired?” Helena said.

“I can’t, I mean, they can’t force you, it’s just…”

She showed her datasheet. There was a map of the nearby districts and a lot of red dots, and by a lot, Nestra meant two dozen. A blinking signal read ‘imminent breach’.

“What the fuck is happening?” Nestra asked.

“Everyone’s either being pulled to the clearing spot or the Beacon. That’s all I know. So, errr, they’re riding my ass waiting for your reply.”

“We’ll do it,” Helena said, then she yawned.

What the fuck was going on?