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I rush over to Olivia's side as she collapses to the ground. That was a stupidly intense fight, and I'm not surprised she's quite tired after it. "Olivia! Are you okay?" I call out to her, as she transforms back into her normal self. She turns to us and nods, smiling weakly. "I am okay. I am just fatigued." She says.

"Do you need Ivy to heal you?" I ask, and she shakes her head. "Just a moment please." She requests, and I put my hand on her shoulder. "You did really well." I tell her. "Are you okay if I check how much more powerful you got?" I ask her. "Please do." She replies, sounding eager.

I note a couple of interesting changes, the first and foremost of which is her level being nearly twice as high as it was before she fought the thing. Also of note are her ridiculously increased stats, her title and rank change which I think sound better now, and her relationship being at 99. "Holy shit, you're level 144 now! You just got twice as strong!”

“And you broke through the 6 statpoint barrier, you have 6 stats per level now!" I exclaim, barely being able to believe it. She smirks, looking down and clenching and unclenching her fist. "In addition to acquiring new monster forms, my innate ability empowers my current monster forms whenever I absorb more power." She looks at me, with an expression of pride.

"I am now stronger and faster in my tetramand form. Much stronger and faster." She proclaims confidently. I shake my head. "Your power is pure bullshit." Mia says, wonder in her voice and a grin on her face. Olivia chuckles. "Indeed it is. I quite enjoy it sometimes." She admits. I offer a hand to our mentor and she takes it, allowing me to pull her to her feet.

It's only then that I notice the missing presence of my other guildmates around me. I look back to see Lena and Ivy standing around Emma and comforting her. I walk back, worried. "Are you alright?" I ask her. She looks up at me, giving me a soft, sad smile. "I'm a big girl, I'll be okay. That was just a lot." She replies.

I nod in understanding. "I'm sorry, I should have realised this was your first time seeing a fight like this. If it helps, we can watch some wholesome movies with you. Your favourite movie was Barbie and the Three Musketeers right?" I ask, and she giggles. "God you sound like my mum with all your fussing over me." She jokes.

I throw my hands up in the air in mock annoyance. "Wow, this is what I get for caring about you. How about a little respect?" I banter back. "You can't tell us what to do!" Lena throws in. "Go to your rooms!" I reply immediately. "Ugh, you're ruining my life!" Emma cries, before clutching her stomach in a giggling fit. Her laughter is contagious and the mood is lifted easily.

Despite her fairly jovial exterior mood, Emma is still wary of Olivia when we all get ready to exit together. She keeps a distance from our mentor, which I can understand. Going from the fairly low level training she's been engaged in over the last couple of weeks to watching a latebloomer abyssal fight is no small thing.

I remember feeling similar watching Belle slaughter a gang in front of me a couple months ago. The difference here is that even back then, I was mostly able to keep up with what she was doing, because my intellect and wisdom was high, which I've noticed increases how quickly I can perceive things. I also had actual skills and a growth curve upwards.

Emma has none of that. She has no real skills and can't fight on her own. She has no innate ability and no real magic to speak of. She has a little mana and has been able to train, grow a bit stronger and learn a little, but she's a far cry from Olivia, Belle and I, both in skill and in raw power.

After Ivy is satisfied that both Olivia and Emma are okay for now, she shrinks down to fit in my inventory for the trip home. As we exit the barrier and make to get back into Emma's car, I catch a man staring at us from across the street. Not that unusual all things considered, we are a group of absolutely gorgeous women. Not to mention that Olivia is noticeably better looking somehow, due to the boost in her charisma.

I make to Observe the guy to make sure he's not a threat, but just before I do, a bus pulls up and stops in front of him and I lose sight of him. I shrug and get in the back of Emma's SUV for the drive home, sitting next to Mia and Olivia once again. I make sure that Mia and I get in ahead of Olivia, to make sure she's in the furthest seat from Emma. Hopefully it makes her feel a bit more comfortable.

It's on the drive on the way home that Mia brings up an interesting subject. "When are we going to finally take on Mathias?" She asks, sounding somewhat impatient. I turn to her. "I'm not really sure. I think it's better to prepare as much as we can. We don't know how powerful he is, but we at least know we need to beat that big ass guy at the Opera House who was like level 138 minimum." I reply thoughtfully.

"Yeah but like..." Mia says, and gestures to Olivia. "We have somebody stronger than that now. Olivia could probably take him one on one! And the rest of us are pretty damn strong too. I think we could beat him now." The air mage declares. "What makes you say that?" I ask. She shrugs. "I mean, look at us. Look at what we've done." She says.

"What have we done?" Olivia asks, somewhat challengingly. "We took down mana factories easily. We rescued Lena, we recruited more members in our guild, we trained constantly for ages, we practice and run through dungeons every day. The last time somebody beat us was that day at the Opera House, and we're so much stronger now!" She says.

Lena shifts uncomfortably in her seat, and I can see Emma clenching her fists slightly at the mention of us saving her girlfriend from the mana factory. I can imagine it's not a nice subject for her. "Maybe now isn't the best time to talk about it?" I suggest, trying to be tactful. "Then when?" Mia shoots back, challenging me. "When we get home, we can talk about it." I tell her. Mia sighs in response.

"I'm just getting kinda sick of it." She says. "Sick of what?" I ask. She sighs in frustration. "Sick of waiting! Y'all keep telling me that we need to be patient, be careful, keep training and getting stronger, but when is it gonna be enough? Gemma, you are easily three times stronger than you were at the Opera House. We didn't have Olivia or Paige in our guild before." She vents.

"I'm twice as strong, so is Skylar, so is Ivy. We're all so much more powerful than we were, and I'm getting sick of sitting on our asses not doing anything when we could be helping people!" She continues. Her eyes drop for a second, before she lifts her head back up to meet my gaze.

"When my dad kicked us out, I thought that I could stop holding back. I could finally do some good in the world because I had nothing left to stop me from using my power to help the people I care about. But all we're doing is hiding in our barrier and training! I wanna make a difference!" She says.

"You made a difference to me." Lena interjects quietly. The car falls silent for a few seconds. Mia shakes her head and groans. "But how many more people out there like you could we help? We have to be at least as powerful as most gangs out here! Why aren't we doing more? Why are we hiding when we could be fighting and helping people?" She asks.

It's a valid question, and my heart sinks as I hear it. Because I know she has a point, and I hate that. Every night we spend in our comfy home, people are out there being trafficked and sold as slaves. We have the power to stop it. But we don't. It's a cold thought. I open my mouth to answer, but no words come out.

"Because if we lose once, that might be it. We cannot change things for good if we die by rushing into this. We must be smart about how we approach this." Olivia replies. Mia falls back into her seat, crossing her arms and looking out the window. "I don't wanna do the smart thing anymore. People are dying, and we're doing nothing." She mumbles. None of us have a response to that.

“Looks like you might get your wish.” Olivia says, striding into the living room and addressing Mia. Mia looks up, confused. Olivia tosses her a phone in response. The air mage catches it and reads what’s on the screen. Silently, she hands the phone to me. On the screen is an open text message from a random number.

The text message includes what Olivia confirms as a code phrase she uses with one of her informants and an address. I look back to Olivia. “It is the address of a **** trader who recently appeared. I am told they are fairly weak.” Olivia says simply. I nod and look to Mia. “When are we going?” She asks firmly, a hard resolve in her eyes.

I look around to the rest of my guild. “Y’all have any objections about going tonight?” I ask. The shaking of heads is mirrored all around the room. I nod, planning the strike in my head. “Emma, Lena, you’ll stay here. This is too dangerous for you.” I say. The two of them nod. “Ivy, are you okay with shrinking to fit in my inventory again?” I ask, and she nods without hesitation.

“Emma, are you okay with us using your car for this?” I ask. She thinks about it for a moment before shaking her head. “I’m sorry, but no. I’d rather be there if you’re taking my car, and I don’t want anything to happen to it.” She says. I nod again. “Skylar, OIivia, can you two pick up a rental this afternoon?” The two of them look at each other, communicating wordlessly, before looking back to me. “Sure thing.” Skylar replies, with Olivia nodding.

“We’ll head off tonight, midnight. Same basic plans as the last few strikes. In and out, quick and overwhelming. If we get separated for any reason, use the technomancer emergency phones Olivia got us to communicate.” I tell them, nodding at our mentor. “Rest up. We’ve got work to do tonight.” I say, getting up from the couch and heading out the door for some air.