Defence

Gaia damnit, not again. A few seconds later, both Mia and Skylar appear in front of me. “Trap barrier?” Skylar asks me. I nod in confirmation. “Did you both get pulled in too?” I ask. Mia shakes her head. “Apparently with the increases in power that we’ve both gone through, we’re now too strong to get pulled in, and we can resist or enter if we like, if you follow.” She explains. I nod in response, turning to look around for whichever gang is trying to kidnap us this time.

It doesn’t take long to spot them. A group of people, the same cocky swagger in their steps, the same arrogant tone of voice when one of them calls out to us. “Oi honey! Come with us, we’ll treat you well.” One of them says. “No thanks hun, I’ve had enough people try this to last me a lifetime.” I reply, with more confidence than I feel. I switch to my battle equipment with a thought, and get ready for a fight. “We wasn’t askin’.” Another one says, casually swinging a mace around. I use observe on each of them, noting that their levels are very similar to my own. None of them surpass Skylar in level. “Mia sit this one out, you can’t get involved.” I remind her quietly.

She sighs in frustration. “If things get ugly and you need me, I’m getting involved. My family won’t stop me. I won’t lose you.” She replies, in the same quiet and serious tone. Mia takes a few steps back and sits down on the ground. “Girly’s got the right idea, given’ up. Youse should follow her.” The first guy who spoke says. I shake my head. “You idiots never give up, do you?” I say.

Deciding to take the initiative, I fire two mana bolts at the gang. The two spells travel the distance between us quickly and injure two different gang members. Skylar and I run towards the gang as the two I hit yell out curses. Skylar throws a fist of shadow and knocks one of them to the side. A fireball comes my way and I dodge it quickly, retaliating by sending a wave of frost magic at my opponents. The freezing blast hits every gang member besides the one that Skylar knocked aside.

Skylar engages with three gang members, two men and a woman, while I engage two. I dodge a mace strike and throw out another mana bolt, visibly wounding the guy. Blasts of air buffet at me and I’m **** back a few paces before being able to hold my ground. Beside me, Skylar throws what look like spears of shadows at one guy, before throwing a fist straight at his head.

300xp

I get a small shock as I realise that Skylar has just killed somebody. I don’t get time to process it though as the air mage is flying through the air towards me. I dart to the side, managing to avoid the attempted tackle. He sprawls on the ground and I fire a mana bolt at him. With no time to lose, I turn to the mace wielding guy as he charges at me. One more mana bolt sends him crumpling to the ground, a hole burnt through his chest.

300xp

This is not looking pretty. Across from me, Skylar punches another guy and he flies backwards. She manages to narrowly avoid a slash from a sword, and retaliates with more spears. The woman falls to the ground, groaning in pain. I get distracted watching Skylar’s fight when a sharp pain takes me in the stomach. I look down to see a knife buried to it’s hilt in my abdomen. Looking up, I see that the air mage threw the knife at me, and is raising himself in the air. I pull out the knife, glancing at my health bar. I’m down to 71HP.

300xp

I look over at Skylar to find her having killed the sword wielding woman. My eyes dart back to the air mage who starts to descend, with his hands held out in front of him. I guess that he’s using the same solid air technique that Mia uses, and I scramble to get out of the way. I almost manage it, but the wall of solid air clips me on his way down, and I stumble, nearly falling to the side. The air mage crashes to the ground and acting quickly, I send another mana bolt his way. The powerful spell burns at him and he shrieks, getting up quickly and looking at me with murderous intent. I shake my head at him. “Don’t do it.” I say. “There’s been enough bloodshed. Walk away.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Skylar has her last enemy pinned to the ground. “Little fuckin’ murderin’ WHORE!” He screams, charging at me and drawing another knife from his belt. I sigh and fire another mana bolt at him. He screams again as the spell burns through him, and falls to the ground, unmoving.

300xp

I’m conflicted about seeing that message. Normally I would be happy, but this senseless **** and slaughter is not making that easy. My ears then pick up a gasping sound from where the other gang members are. I look over and see a woman hyperventilating. Breathlessly and with tears streaming down her face, she starts to speak. “What….what are you?” She manages, her tone filled with such shock and fear that I’m caught off guard. “Sorry what?” I ask. I start to walk towards her but she yelps.

“NO! Stay back…monster…you freak…” She mutters, her face turning more pale by the second. Her words are shaky and I can’t understand much more of what she’s saying. She quivers from fear, her chest heaving and shoulders shaking. She collapses onto the ground. She, along with the other gang members, disappear from the barrier.

I turn to Skylar, finding the guy begging for mercy from her. “Please don’t kill me miss. It was only a bit of fun…” He says. She seems conflicted and I call out to her. “Let him go. We don’t **** people in cold blood.” I say. She takes a deep breath in and nods. She lifts her foot off the man’s chest and he scrambles away, raising his hand and leaving the barrier.

Her shoulders start to shake and I walk closer to her. “I hate this.” She says, her voice breaking slightly. “People like them are so arrogant. They hurt others as they want, but have no strength to face the consequences of their actions. They’re cowards.” Skylar says softly. I can see a tear streaking down her face and on impulse, I pull her into a hug. “It’s okay. We’re safe now. We’re going to fix the awful state of this place.” I promise.

I can see Mia walking towards us and I give her a small smile to show that I’m okay. Skylar wraps her arms around me and hugs me back. “I hope so. These people are awful and they seem to be everywhere. I don’t understand them. I don’t…” She sobs once, falling silent. I gently massage her back, hoping that I’m comforting her somehow. Mia reaches us, and gently wraps her arms around Skylar too, trapping her in a three way hug. Skylar stiffens as she does. “Shhh it’s okay Skylar, you’re safe now.” Mia coos gently. Skylar relaxes again into the embrace, and doesn’t say anything.

We separate after a few minutes, and Skylar sniffs, wiping away the vestiges of her tears. “I’m sorry.” She apologises. “That was stressful.” Mia gives her an encouraging smile. “It’s okay! Don’t ever apologise for crying. We all need to sometimes, there’s nothing wrong with that.” She says softly. Skylar’s expression changes, and for a moment, I think she’s about to cry again. But her face hardens, and I see that same steely determination that I’ve come to know from her. “Thank you.” She says in earnest.

I notice a flash of red out of the corner of my eye. I turn to look at it, but it’s gone by the time I turn. I frown for a moment, before shrugging and dismissing it. “You two did really well. It’s not nice that you had to kill those people, it’s an awful thing. But that’s how life goes in the abyss, and I’m really proud of both of you for holding your own against these guys.” Mia says, addressing both Skylar and I. I can’t help but smile at her words of encouragement, and I can see Skylar smiling too. “Thank you. I’m just happy you didn’t have to come help us.” I say.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" I voice my thoughts out loud and both of them turn to me, confused. I read out the window to them and Mia bursts out laughing. “Fucking hell, am I playing Dark Souls?” I exclaim. “Nah if it was Dark Souls, you would have died already about ten times over. Noob.” Mia giggles and I frown at her. “Rude!” I shoot back and she cackles at my answer. Skylar looks confused but says nothing. “Dark Souls is a really difficult video game. I’ve almost died so many times over in this ‘tutorial’, that’s why I compared it.” I explain, and Skylar nods in understanding.

We each leave the barrier and immediately, we are back in the mundane world with a bunch of students walking around. There’s still a lot of time left in second break, so we sit down to eat our food. While Mia talks with Skylar, I open my character sheet and spend my newly gained statpoints from the level up on strength. I can feel an immediate small increase in my physical capacity. I decide to use the skill evolution now, just to see what happens. Only augment body and craft show up as available skills, so I click on craft.

“Holy fucking shit.” I exclaim in shock, not being able to stop myself. Skylar and Mia both look at me. I look up from the window, making eye contact with Mia. “I used a skill evolution point, and one of the choices is an artificial spirit skill. We can make the sentient Poison Ivy now!” I say happily. “Yay! This is gonna be awesome!” She replies and I grin. I tap on the skill and turn to Skylar. “Hopefully by the end of the day, we’ll have another member in our guild.” I tell her. “I look forward to meeting her.” Skylar says, with a small smile.