In the hours before the bright ball of life, there came a sound. A particular rumbling within the earth that Wolverine knew all too well. Thudump, thudump, thudump! Gallops, but instead of coming from the west as usual, they emerged from the deep east. The huffs of the neighing giants all but confirmed his suspicions.
“A rolly-rolly is coming,” he said softly. Chenzu was due to arrive, likely in two hours, roughly around the bright ball of life’s rise. Best Buddy usually woke up an hour, maybe two after the beastkin’s arrival. That left Wolverine and Beakwing to keep an eye on the rolly-rolly. As expected, it veered off into town.
He hopped onto the roof to inspect the appearance of its carriage. It looked to be made of something… what’s that word… fancy. That was it! Nobles arrived in town and if there was one thing many of the arrivals had in common, that’d be their unfriendliness.
Suddenly, Cheetara appeared at his side, nestling against him before looking over at the distant town.
After the morning activities, I decided to head into the lab, Milia joining me for some morning meditation. Since we already made out just minutes prior, we didn’t fool around. Much. We both accomplished some serious gains. For some reason, meditating with her at my side increased my mana intake. I suspected it to have something to do with cultivation partnership, but the dryad shot me down with a simpler explanation.
“It’s simply compatibility,” Milia said. “Both of our ambient manas are heavenly-attuned.” She frowned. “I still have no idea how it’s possible, but you really are a walking oddity. Humans are normally neutral and their attunements typically impossible to manipulate, making them among the most adaptable races in the universe.”
“It’s the trial award, I suppose,” I said, “but we went over this. Is this really that strange?”
“It is,” Milia said. “In fact, it’s best to say that you actually have two attunements. Your original neutrality, but dominating it is this new heavenly attunement.”
“I think we may have a problem,” I heard Chenzu’s voice call from the shop as he entered.
Milia and I quickly got up to see what the fuss was about.
“Please tell me it’s not another meteor,” I said, peeking warily outside. While I’d do my best to destroy it, I wasn’t sure if it’d go as smoothly. A person firing again would certainly reinforce their attack.
“No, thank Wanda’s heart that’s not it,” Chenzu said. “Though I’m not sure if this is better.”
I turned to him. “What?”
“The eldest daughter of Duke Henry Starrigon is here,” he continued, “and naturally, she’s demanding the person responsible for hurting her little brother show themselves.”
“What else?” I said. “You’re not one to talk about things we both don’t give a damn about.”
“She’s got hostages,” Chenzu said. “The town, that is. I disabled two of their largest siege-breaker arrays and Cheetara destroyed another, before we retreated as to not get caught. But there’s just too many.”
Milia let out a long-suffering sigh before one could escape my mouth. “What of the hero’s party?”
“They’re watching her guards, dressed in their Cheat Force outfits,” Chenzu said. “That in itself is risky. I’m almost sure rumors of Raider have spread far and wide now. If—”
“I’m not worried about that,” I interrupted. “Drew probably squealed, but she likely doesn’t believe her idiotic brother was taken out by a kitten.”
Milia snorted, her eyes proud of Cheetara. Even now, the adorable kitten and her equally adorable partner in crime, the sunlight wolf cub, still protected the town of their own accord. Why they did was anyone’s guess.
“Well, let’s go see what they want,” I said. “Honestly, it’s not really our job to babysit the town, but if we don’t deal with the magicians, who would?”
“I can see why you agreed to marry him,” Chenzu said to Milia.
Milia laughed. “There are more reasons, but this is most certainly one of them.”
By this point, I was quite used to how the world operated and as much as I didn’t give a shit about being these people’s hero, I liked the town. Also my apprentices were currently in it, likely staying hidden as to not attract any attention. I could practically feel their expectance of my appearance. The same went for the hero’s party.
“Are you going to wear the Raider outfit?” Milia asked, eyes twinkling, probably with a mix of humor and mischievousness. That only increased when I glared at her until she smiled.
Sighing, I changed into the outfit, knowing damn well she was right. Not that I’d admit that outright. In fairness, she put on her own Cheat Force outfit and forced Chenzu into one.
I wondered if I should regret my childhood love for Power Rangers coming back to bite me. Well, the idea didn’t entirely come from the show, but our notion of being cloak-wearing ninjas with masks felt close enough. No, I didn’t plan to open the fight with monologues, but talking to the Starrigon daughter couldn’t be avoided.
I’d still do what needed to be done if it came to it, but not coming off as a psychopath was among my higher priorities. Not to rip off Spiderman here, but the show did have a point about responsibility and power. Unfortunately, the magicians in this messed up world had no fucks to give about ordinary people. Maybe there were a few, but most were selfish to the bone.
Harmony internally chastised herself for being too weak to sweep in and save the town. She trained so much yet couldn’t do much in the face of a multi-realm gap. Not to mention the magical experience that came with it.
The eldest daughter of the Starrigon family was a dark-haired woman wearing a robe that emphasized her curves a little too much, to the point that it annoyed Harmony. Why would a magician in her right mind dress like this? Unless she wanted to lure idiots into a trap, only to blast them to the moon. A dirty tactic and something a bit more expected from the dangerous parts of a city or a bandit town.
Two of her guards hurried to her and whispered something, though Harmony being inside her house, peeking out the window, couldn’t make out any details. That changed when multiple guards lined up into two groups. One headed toward the mayor’s office, the other toward the direction of Harmony’s house, and it didn’t take a genius to understand her fate if confronted. The curse of being the mayor’s daughter and young. It was an open secret by now that some girls her age got tangled up with the wrong nobles and eventually sold to brothels, or forced to work as slave maids, or even a noble’s plaything. The Lord Ruler, to his credit, did try to crackdown on the practices, especially at the insistence of the queen, but dukes had various visions of the duchies that they ran. Some allowed unethical practices for the sake of additional revenue, taxes, and contraband, the most notorious being forbidden items.
“Just my luck,” Harmony said. “Ann, let’s get to the back entrance. We do not want to be caught up in that. You know what to do.”
“Yes, Lady Harmony,” she said cheerily while setting up some of Mandi’s trap gadgets. They looked like simple buttons, but the corrupt Starrigon guards would certainly find out the hard way if they chose to break into her home.
The blue-haired girl and her maid took the back entrance out, but not without leaving traps behind.
The traps wouldn’t trigger on them, of course, thanks to Opal’s idea called an internal failsafe which seemed to recognize friend and foe, including servants.
They made their way to Lucas’s, a place where they agreed to meet up should there ever be any trouble. This also included Howie.
Serina Starrigon scanned the town carefully, searching for anyone possibly strong enough to fight her little brother. Despite being pathetic, Drew was still capable as a magician, always working hard, and with one of his newest aspirations of joining the hero’s party, he pushed himself constantly. The only reason why they likely refused him, of course, would fall to his unfortunate personality. Years of wanting to impress their strict father, only to be met with the cold shoulder or rejection, even if his feat was quite impressive. The woes of being a third son. No one cared for such a liability, except for mothers and sisters. As always.
Her scans were all over the place, but she definitely sensed magicians here, some of them surprisingly strong. However, she wasn’t the eldest and most loved daughter of Duke Starrigon for nothing. Serina felt quite confident in crushing anyone that tried anything. She didn’t specifically come to fight, but brought equipment just in case Kyushu turned out to be some fortified city that blocked her entrance.
Guards returned to her shortly, one side holding the gagged mayor and the other side looking like shit.
“Wanda’s rippling bottom, where’s the daughter?” she asked, voice tired.
“I don’t know, my lady,” the lead guard said, a stupid dainty man that she strained with all of her being not to punch in the face. “We were met with lightning traps at the door. None were lethal, but seven of our men are paralyzed from the waist down.”
She glanced at the seven. Well, she planned to have them disappear from accidents anyway due to accusations of banditry, so the mayor’s daughter done her a favor. Not that there was any proof, but Serina excelled at forging it.
She turned to the bruised mayor. “Make my life easy and we’ll be on our way. I have better things to do than waste my precious time in some backwater. I’m sure you’ve heard that plenty of times. Do try to put at least a little effort into making this place less of a slum. Now, where is the person responsible for hurting my brother? I do not buy this nonsense rumor about some kitten easily defeating him.”
A guard snatched the gag from his mouth.
“Go piss on a rock,” the mayor barked.
Serina’s face reddened until her tan almost turned purple. She summoned a spell book to her side and pointed a wand at his face.
“Nobody talks to me like that,” she growled. “Fine, if you don’t want to talk, the capital wouldn’t care what happens to some F-ranked mayor.”
The wand began to glow, but a sudden blast of magic smashed into her. It wasn’t strong, but following after that were several… coins? Buttons?
Abruptly, electricity erupted from all ten of the objects, and Serina could only jump away as raw pain jolted through her. It wasn’t strong enough to do any damage to a magician like her, but it provided a distraction that could result in a death if one dropped their guard.
Raising her aura, she looked around until she detected four people hurrying off. A blue-haired girl, a little kid, a red-haired boy, and a girl, whose hair was also red, though she didn’t appear to be related to the boy. What gave her pause was the fact that they were magicians.
Serina expected the mayor to tell her the magicians responsible had passed through. She would’ve collected all of the details and started after them. Perhaps put up a bounty.
“Guards, what in blazes hell are you doing standing there? Go after them, you damn idiots! Agh!”
She pointed her wand at the mayor’s office and almost unleashed enough energy to blow the damned thing to pieces, only to stop mid-cast. She must not lose her temper over a backwater. She’d already pushed the boundaries far enough. “Search the office. Look for anything useful.”
She froze at the sight of a golden fox staring at her from the rooftop. It looked at the sky, deciding she wasn’t worth its time, which secretly pissed Serina off. Ever since her brother gotten himself sentenced to that horrible punishment, the woman’s mood had become foul, only seeming to worsen. She knew it was likely the effects of being too close to that mass of chaos and it’d wear off in another week, but still.
“Did that bloody fox give me a pitying look?” She tapped her feet to the ground, annoyed at her guards for taking so damn long. The mayor only closed his eyes, almost in contentment, as if waiting for someone.
Serina found out moments later why the fox looked at her like that when a man and a woman jumped off something that moved too fast for her to catch. All she caught was just the ghost of a giant wing.
Both of the newcomers were wearing a cloak and mask… black and green color scheme.
I originally considered getting Milia to do a Team Rocket routine with me, with Cheetara finishing off as Meowth, but the mood just didn’t click for me. How could it when people constantly attacked the town for no good reason? An F-ranked insignificant town. Also, we had bigger matters to contend with, like the mystery of who cast the giant meteor of doom or convincing the Lord Ruler not to reap Gwendolyn’s life.
“Who in Wanda’s rump are you?” the woman holding the mayor hostage asked.
“My identity is none of your concern,” I said. “You get one warning. Take your men and leave the town. And no, we don’t give a fuck about what happened to your brother. He attacked the town, harming innocent people, and as he shamed the Starrigon family, got what he deserved.”
That struck a nerve, and her aura blasted into full force, her killing intent bathing us.
[Enemy Analysis.]
Serina Starrigon. Race: human. Hostile. Magician rank: 4th realm of the Lesser Dragon. Spell book: F.
“Let me deal with her,” Milia said, her divine aura showing for the first time in a while, like a golden inferno.
“Take it away,” I said. With a quick wave of my hand, all of the mayor’s bindings turned into shreds… And maybe a little of his shirt, but hey, freedom was freedom, right? At least he wasn’t a noble that whined about wearing a three thousand gold shirt.
On another thought, I could tell the mayor knew our identity. He saw Beakwing. Also, black and green… I should’ve worn the red outfit again, but even so, that still wouldn’t have fooled Rue. Who else could we be?
“You may want to summon the guard with some anti-magic handcuffs,” I said. The mayor wasted no time getting the hell away from us as the standoff between Serina and Milia finally shifted into battle.
“Perhaps I should show you a real spell book,” Milia said. “Descend. Show my enemies a little reason, Abstract.”
A massive tome appeared at the dryad’s side, its wisp spirit above it. A silverly fireball with two eyes. It was actually quite cute.
“Your new name should be… Flamie,” Milia said to her partner.
“F-Flamie? If that is your will, then so shall it be. I shall be now known as Flamie.”
Milia could only smile at Nate’s reaction, though it was likely too late to name Yukihara. She wasn’t sure if he could change her summoning lines now that he already used them.
“Wh… what kind of spell book is that?” Serina asked. “I’ve never seen anything like it. What is this witchery!?”
“A D-ranked spell book,” Milia said. “You’re the eldest daughter of the Starrigon family, nobles with quite the reach. How do you not know of something this basic?”
Serina glared daggers at Milia. “You… A D-ranked spell book. Well, it doesn’t matter. I’m well within the realm of the lesser dragon. And I have a wand! Ice cannon!”
Milia simply stood, eyes on the giant ice ball that rushed toward her. “You’re in the realm of the lesser dragon, equipped with a wand and spell book. Interesting, I suppose.”
With just a thought, Milia summoned a tower of vines that burst from the ground, smacking the ice ball into shards.
She blurred forward, summoning winds to surround her, marveling at having control of air magic for the first time in her life. Serina attempted to follow up her attack, but Milia appeared at her side, delivering an air palm to her center.
Serina rocketed backward, breaking the speed of sound as she crashed into her carriage.
“Woops, I didn’t expect for the spell book to be that strong,” Milia said.
Being a magician in the lesser dragon, an attack like that didn’t do serious damage to Serina. She rose to her feet coated in light blue aura, blood dripping from her forehead.
“You bitch,” she said.
“A universal word, I see. Dammit, humanity,” Nate commented, though Milia had no idea what he meant by that.
Serina conjured up several ice spears, launching them toward Milia with impressive speed. But they simply stood no chance against Milia’s control of the air.
With a gesture, the dryad forced the wind to slice the spears into ribbons, then redirect them at the confused woman.
“Woo! Go Milia!” Nate cheered as Milia bashed Serina to her back with another invisible attack. The wind element was almost unfair, but having Flamie just took things to a new level. She had no current need for his calamity attack, however.
One thing that annoyed her was how poorly the silver guard captain had treated the wisp. With his connection so poor, no wonder he couldn’t wield it to its full capabilities like Milia.
Serina dashed forward, pulling a dagger from a scabbard attached to her overly ‘night-attracting’ robe. Not that Milia had a problem with clothing meant to compliment the body. Her various dresses did the same, though only one did it to that degree. She wouldn’t wear it except on her wedding night. Just thinking about it was embarrassing.
Milia summoned a vine from the ground to trip Serina, but to her surprise, the Starrigon woman jumped.
She would’ve successfully plunged the dagger into anyone else, but Milia caught her wrist, and easily disarmed her. Trained by ruthless martial artists growing up, the dryad could easily overcome short-sighted attacks like this.
Seeing the mayor and guards returning, she decided to finish Serina off. There were Starrigon guards to round up, after all.
Aiming a hand at the woman, Serina’s eyes widened, sensing the incoming point-blank attack.
“Divine burst,” Milia said. “Have a nice sleep.”
“Tr-trigger the siege-breakers!” Serina yelled as she desperately conjured a defense ice spell. When nothing happened, Milia allowed her to turn around to see that Nate already destroyed each of the contraptions.
Satisfied with the response, the dryad unleashed her attack.
