I mostly just sat and watched as the other three started to destructively dispose of the pallet of smoke grenades above the field we were on.

I was initially concerned about the shrapnel from the casings hitting someone. Since Potato, Rebecca, and Kay were all in their costumes, and no one else was around- that someone was me. To deal with this, I had moved under one of the soccer goals and thrown my jacket over the top netting as an improvised shelter.

I would have just moved to a part of the field not being used, but those three had decided to stand in the middle and take turns launching the grenades for each other at any angle and direction. The only safety measure was a dome that Potato had set up to bounce any errant projectiles back towards the middle. Otherwise, they weren’t really holding back.

The chemicals in our chosen targets weren’t really a concern- last I had checked, the geoengineering projects were way under their yearly capacity. In a few years it might even be time to start growing some extinct species again.

Kay was up first and doing very well. She hit all of the grenades that weren’t interfered with after launch- and many of those that were- in groups ranging from two to ten. It was pretty obvious where her cover name of ‘Double Tap’ came from as every time she took a shot, the bullet, slug, bolt, or shell would be copied seemingly as many times as she wanted- each one taking a different trajectory to hit different targets within what looked like a forty-five degree arc of where she was aiming.

She also didn’t stop to reload, instead electing to drop her current weapon which would disappear and be replaced with something else as her shooting form dictated. Need to check something on her phone quickly? It was a series of pistols until she was done. Hands laid out as if to hold a rifle in both hands? She’d get one. Miming drawing a bow? One appeared already drawn.

Every weapon looked a little bulkier or reinforced than how I had seen them in media, which might have had something to do with recoil control, but since Kay didn’t appear to even notice it, I think the recoil was handled by a perk.

Overall my impression of the fighting style was that it was very utilitarian and minimized downtime. Additionally, from what I could see of how ULE was being used, it also was very magical-resource efficient. If I hadn’t decided that I wanted even more of a safety net than what guns offered, I could see myself having adopted a similar approach. It was also important to note that it didn’t look like any of the projectiles she shot were notably magical, so mundane means of doing damage were probably fine.

Sure, I could catalyze my silane to combust quicker, but in any enclosed space, that was probably unnecessary. Same idea with the cyanoacrylate; I could make it harden faster, but it would bond eventually and letting it work on its own would save me attention and ULE.

By the time I was finishing writing down my observations in a text file, Kay had decided to stop and walked over to join me under the improvised cover.

Next up was Rebecca, who I was guessing would do something a lot weirder given that she heavily focused on pure magic. Considering the construction of her scythe, I guessed it was a casting tool instead of a true melee weapon- although, since it was an MG’s weapon, it was probably no slouch in that department either. The unnerving way ULE shimmered around the edge was all the more reason to want to stay out of melee range if I ever needed to fight her.

As Potato once again started launching grenades, Rebecca took swings that led the targets a little. As each attack was performed, crescents of alternating light and shadow flew out, intercepting them. I could tell that the trajectories of the magic weren’t ballistic, curving to track a point just in front of what they were aimed at.

For being light and… not light, the projectiles were slow. Easily traceable for my perception. Although, from watching Kay previously, I learned I could also track bullets- mostly useless due to my still very human reaction times. Regardless, the arcs were only going about as fast as a particularly motivated bird would, far off from the near instant speed I had expected given their composition.

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Regardless of my questions of their effectiveness, Rebecca hit and destroyed every grenade. When one of the arcs of light impacted, it would explode in a silent but bright flash, ejecting burnt shrapnel at respectable speeds. In contrast, the shadowy blades passed straight through the targets and seemingly caused them to rust and corrode in under a second- which was counter-intuitive since UV light typically accelerates those processes.

Just another event that proves magic is bullshit and makes no sense.

I expected Potato to want a turn, so when she called out, “Silvia! Want to try?” I was surprised. Of course, I accepted, but asked for the grenades to be launched one at a time and for some time to prepare some stuff.

Since I hadn’t figured out how to transform, my capabilities with ULE were a lot lower than the other three by a significant margin. Maybe once I could, dispersing a wide cloud of raw chemicals would be controllable, but for now I had to get a little more creative- mostly with my delivery methods.

Like with how I had created the spike previously, I inverted my canister of convenient monomer and let some flow out. Unlike the other times, I didn’t solidify it while stopping between each layer, instead taking a lot more focus to continuously harden the flow as it reached my desired shape: a simple rocket about six inches long. It ended up a little wonky, but much better than someone without my true 3D perception could achieve.

With that done, I added a little more glue to the edges of the nozzle and allowed a very thin seal to form around the output of the silane canister. The plan was to pressurize the hollow cavity left in the rocket with the pyrophoric gas until the thin seal attaching it to the canister broke. When that happened, the internal pressure should launch it as the gas escaped- and by letting it combust as it did so, even more thrust should be generated. My aim would likely be horrendous, so when it was close enough to the target, I would detonate the remaining silane to make up for it.

The novelty of what I was doing satisfied the curiosity of my companions for the handful of minutes it took me to set up. With my signal, Potato shot the smoke grenade out of a tube like a mortar, giving it a nice high arc. I took a few fractions of a second to instinctually calculate the trajectory before fully depressing the button to let as much gas out as possible as quickly as possible- making sure to take control of its reactivity. Another few fractions passed before the seal finally gave way, during which I was constantly adjusting my aim.

As my rocket launched, the back of my mind registered that something had hit my forearm, but I was too focused on only letting the rocket burn gas that was escaping it. Once it was within a few feet of the grenade, I forced the still quite full contents of the rocket to react. With no ventilation for oxygen to get in, I got a series of smaller explosions that steadily disassembled my creation from the nozzle up, each one letting the next batch of reactants meet.

While the target wasn’t destroyed, I definitely caught it in the blast and was able to crumple one side of its shell and embed some sharps along its surface. My satisfaction was short lived as a sharp pain finally broke through my concentration along with the feeling of warm blood dripping off my elbow.

During the launch, a small piece of the seal had been ejected downwards into my arm- digging into my arm. The puncture wasn’t that big, less than half an inch deep- enough to not have the shard sticking out of my flesh. Pain now dulled from the adrenaline, I was more annoyed than anything as I tossed away the canister and brought my forearm up to my face to get a better look- then remembered that my last mishap with chemicals resulted in not having working eyes anymore.

My angry sigh caught Rebecca’s attention, who rushed over, grabbed my arm on either side of the injury, and started channeling magic. As my flesh slowly pushed out the shard while closing itself up, she started to apologize, but I cut her off.

“I’m fine, really. I should have been paying more attention to what I was doing. To be honest, looking back on it, I’m surprised nothing else went wrong. The whole thing was stupid on multiple levels.”

Releasing my arm and shaking her head, she said, “One of us should have noticed what you were doing and stopped you. On the bright side, when you get your costume, this won’t even be a concern- but maybe hold off setting off more bombs until then.”

Nodding, I replied, “well, tomorrow will be a week from my contract, so I guess I’ll stop for the night. Thanks for the healing, by the way.”