“Dear god, those two are awkward,” Helene murmured as she stared out the window at her daughter and her maybe girlfriend-to-be.
Helene frowned as she chewed on her lips, an all too familiar guilt taking hold of her before she shook it off with a sigh.
It was stupid, undeserved and useless, but the guilt hadn’t gone anywhere for the last decade and that surely wasn’t going to change now.
If only I made enough money to stay in the US. Helene lamented, thinking back on how badly her children took the move. From one day to the next, it was like she’d pulled the carpet out from under them all. It didn’t help that it came so soon after their father did his grand disappearing act. The kids’ whole life got turned on its head.
Sophie still resented her for it, and Mia never quite managed to fit in with anyone for the rest of her childhood. Having her brother there, and occasionally Mark certainly helped, but being the ‘new girl’ with the ‘weird accent’ who could barely speak a word of German shot the poor girl’s social life in the foot before it could even learn to walk.
The fact that Mia had even a smidgen of social skills or was even willing to try socialising after the horrid experiences she had growing up was a miracle in Helene’s eyes.
Nothing quite like the world ending to break people out of their shells.
As the little vampire glanced up, somehow feeling her gaze, Helene smiled at the girl before turning away. She liked Carmilla, it was clear to her that the vampire really liked her daughter, but in what way, she couldn’t yet tell.
She could only hope.
And hope that only a small part of it is for her blood. Helene thought with a slight grimace flickering across her face, then shook her head. There was nothing she could do about that. She could only keep an eye out and make sure the vampiress didn’t form some twisted obsession with her daughter because of her blood.
That would be just the sort of thing to make sure Mia doesn’t talk to a single soul for another three years. Helene sighed. And she’s just coming out of her shell, ever so slowly. Fate could really take pity on her for once.
Her head snapped up, eyes narrowing as she felt one of her Wind Wards breaking. They were invisible and didn’t do anything to those who broke them, only sending a signal back to the caster.
Helene glanced out the window, and saw a military vehicle roll to a stop before the house as a squad of soldiers leisurely got out from it.
She counted six, all carrying rifles and wearing bored, but serious looks on their faces as they walked up to the door in combat formation.
“Mark, get the girls,” Helene said. “We have a squad of soldiers incoming through the front door.”
*****
A quick, orderly knock came from the front door just as Mia and Carmilla stumbled through the back door.
Brent was in full armour with his sword unsheathed and aimed at the floor. He stood before the door, a hand on the handle as he gazed back at the gathered group.
“They knocked,” he said in a low tone. “That probably means they won't attack us, but be alert. They are all no doubt high strung and quick to jump on anything looking even vaguely threatening.”
“I can put up a wind barrier,” Lina said, threads of air mana twisting around her fingers like tiny tornadoes.
“Would it stop a bullet?” Brent asked.
“Perhaps?” Lina said, looking uncertain for a moment before shaking her head. “I’m pretty sure it would at least slow them down enough to make them non-lethal.”
“Throw that up if any of them raise their rifles to fire.” Brent nodded, then turned to the door just as another, more forceful knock sounded.
“OPEN UP. WE ARE HERE TO CONDUCT A GENERAL SURVEY.”
General survey my ass. Mia thought, her ears twitching as she caught a conversation whispered into some comm-microphone.
“ … know the drill. Be ready to shoot at a moment's notice. Expect all of them to attack you, treat everyone with extensive mutations as a possible monster.”
“Roger. Roger. We got this.”
“I am going to knock one more time, if they don’t open the door you blast it open Vark.”
“Got it.”
Assholes. Mia thought, her runic-model already readied and the spell circle of one of the first variant Bolt spells she learned hummed. She went with the blunted variant since she was going up against humans. It would feel like they received a human sized bean bag to the face at terminal velocity and it would hurt like a bitch, but it wouldn’t kill them. Which was the only part that mattered to Mia.
Luck was on her side for once, and the assimilation of the last rune she absorbed finished up just minutes ago. It would have sucked to be forced to watch the others fight while I was locked away from my magic.
“They are going to blast through if you don’t open the door after the next knock.”
“I know,” Brent said, huffing out a quick breath. “I’m opening it. HOLD YOUR FIRE, I’M OPENING THE DOOR.”
Throwing the door open, Brent stepped back and had a hand up close to his face. Mia assumed he was ready to shield his face with his gauntlet should the soldiers open fire. Why his armour came without a helmet, she didn’t know, but it really made his head out to be a target. Or maybe it had a helmet once? Mia faintly recalled that being so, but wasn’t sure. Could be he just lost it somewhere along the way or it broke.
Can his armour defend against bullets? Mia wondered, her eyes quickly jumping between the soldiers warily. My flimsy kinetic energy eating skill certainly won’t be able to. Hopefully the enchantment on his armour is stronger.
One stood on either side of the door with the other three surrounding their apparent unarmed superior.
Their rifles were aimed at the ground and their fingers weren’t on the trigger. Mia held back a sigh of relief as she noted those facts in less than a second.
“How can we help you?” Brent asked, somehow managing to sound like he was being genuine.
If Mia hadn’t seen him fuming just minutes ago, she’d have thought he was a model citizen willing to help the soldiers in whichever way he could.
“I’m Sergeant Herman and we are doing a sweep of the houses to make sure no monsters are hiding in this section of the city.” The unarmed man with a majestic moustache in an officer’s getup said. He tilted his head at Brent as his gaze swept over the gathered group beyond the door. “At ease people. We mean you no harm. We’ll be gone before you know it … now if you would step aside?”
Brent gazed at the soldiers impassively for a second, then stepped to the side and gave a nod to the group behind him.
Mia hopped to the side, her spell and mana still readied just as she knew everyone else’s were. Mark had a smaller, less unwieldy mace in his hand and Lina was spinning up a whole web of air magic around the room.
Helene looked to be doing nothing at all, just standing back in her homey sundress. Mia could feel the wild, powerful mana crackling at the ready just beneath her skin though.
Carmilla was the only one outwardly doing something, which was glaring at the soldiers as she hovered over Mia.
Mia thought that was why half of the soldiers seemed to be keeping their eyes on her at first, but that seemed not to be the case as another two stared at Mark the same way.
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“Two grade two mutants, three grade ones and a regular. You know the protocol,” the Sergeant said, his eyes narrowing.
“What are you doing?” Brent asked as two barrels came up to point at Mia and Mark. His voice was cold and his fist tightened around his sword, which earned himself getting a rifle of his own pointed at him.
Mia watched on as Lina’s magic formed a triple layered invisible barrier in front of her and Mark. The girl also gathered a clump of mana above the soldiers and Mia could almost picture the lot of them getting splattered across the floor.
The Familiar on Mia’s shoulder hissed, but kept put for now, waiting for an order to pounce.
“Protocol,” said the Sergeant. “People with grade two mutations like those two are to be treated as if they are carrying unlicensed military grade firearms.”
“You are going to jail them then for something they can do nothing about?” Helene asked, putting on a soft pout that wouldn’t have appeared threatening to anyone as she put her fists on her hips.
Mia knew better though, that was the face she wore to throw people off before she tore into them. Usually with her words, but by the way her mana was dancing eagerly around her, Mia guessed that ‘tearing into someone’ might turn out to be much more literal this time.
“No,” said the Sergeant, his gaze jumping between Brent and Helene who now boxed in his squad between themselves. “But they represent a possible danger beyond regular people. Please understand, this protocol was made to protect my men from possible dangers. We will not hurt them unless they make any threatening moves.”
Mark took that moment to make his armour shift and cover every bit of his skin, which made him look like a dwarf shaped clay sculpture.
Carmilla stood before Mia, putting her body between her and the bullet’s possible path. She glared at the three soldiers aiming their weapons at her.
The three tried to spread out so two of them could keep Mia in their line of sight. Their movements were slow, almost unassisted by any stats to Mia’s eyes.
They didn’t even seem to be using any mana.
“Sir,” said Brent slowly. “If you want to leave this house alive tell your men to point those fucking guns at the floor.”
“Are you threathe-“
“I am,” Brent said, stepping closer until the barrel of the soldier aiming at him pushed up against his chest plate. “We have just spent a week fighting for our lives, cutting through hordes of monsters. I believe we are all a bit tense and don’t really like the people who were supposed to protect us from those monsters threatening our lives, hmmm?”
“If you kill even just a single one of us, the whole regiment will come down on your heads,” said the Sergeant, glaring back. “Even this will have consequences.”
Maybe we should have played along. Mia thought, not too worried about getting shot. She trusted Lina and her barriers, and the same went for Carmilla and the Familiar. She wasn’t in much actual danger.
But now the soldiers had cause to actually become a pain in their ass. The city was under martial law, didn’t that mean obstructing the soldiers now would warrant some severe consequences?
Maybe we’ll have to go with Lina’s idiotic plan after all.
The Sergeant’s eyes glowed with a light pink light for a brief moment before he stiffened, his pupils widening somewhat. He forced himself to relax a moment later. The whole thing played out so quickly Mia almost thought she was imagining things.
“Weapons down,” the Sergeant said, still glaring at Brent with his bushy moustache trembling in rage. “Hank, Faust, Bermann, sweep the place but keep your weapons away from the people here. The rest of us will stay here. That’s good enough for you?”
“Yes,” said Brent, his gaze narrowing at the Sergeant.
The soldiers reluctantly obeyed, all of them lowering their weapons while three of them broke away to do a quick sweep of the house and the garden.
They were back in less than ten minutes, ten minutes which the two groups spent glaring at each other.
“All clear, Sir!” the soldiers came back and reported.
The Sergeant nodded, his gaze sweeping over the group one last time. “Your obstruction of a military command and threatening of an officer will be reported. Be prepared to face the consequences of your actions. Men, move out!”
They were gone in a few seconds after that, streaming out of the house.
Brent slammed the door shut behind them, a deep scowl worn on his face.
“Was that really smart?” Helene asked, glaring at Brent. “To threaten them like that. They seemed vindictive enough to really get us in trouble with the army.”
“Perhaps not,” Brent said after a moment, his scowl melting away and giving way to a sigh. “Perhaps not. But I know Eisenfaust, if it is up to him to decide, we’ll at best get a slap on the wrist and some increased surveillance. He might be an incompetent cunt, but he knows severely punishing surviving citizens is just about the dumbest thing he could do right now.”
“You know him?” Mark asked, his helmet melting away to reveal his face. “Weren’t you just reserves?”
“I was,” Brent said, face twitching into a grimace. “But my father was a general himself and I got to know some of his colleagues. Even if just through hearsay or through his stories.”
“You based it all on hearsay and stories?” Helene glared, arms crossed under her chest. She was angry, still livid by the looks of it.
Mia guessed her mother wasn’t really angry at Brent as much as she was angry at the situation that put Mia in danger. Hell, she knew her mother was probably aching to rip the soldiers levelling weapons at her apart just as much as Brent.
“I did what I thought I had to in order to keep us safe,” Brent said, his brows furrowed. “I’d like to think Lina would have stopped every bullet and no one would have gotten severely injured from a fight. I’d also have loved to believe they wouldn’t hurt us if we left ourselves at their mercy, but I don’t see ‘hoping for the best’ as a viable plan for surviving in this world.”
“Now we have possible repercussions coming our way, but we are safe for now,” said Brent. “I highly doubt we’ll be the only ones displeased by getting rifles pointed in our faces. They can’t just kill that many people and hope to keep order.”
“I doubt they could have killed us,” Mia said, glancing up at Carmilla. The vampiress looked entirely unafraid of them throughout the whole debacle. “They didn’t use magic, nor anything else and their stats were rather pitiful by the looks of it.”
“Really?” Lina asked, her face shifting into a thoughtful look as she reabsorbed all the threads of mana she’d spread around the room.
“They also looked entirely human, all of them,” Mark said. “They called us mutants, with Mia and me being ‘grade two mutants’. Whatever the bloody hell dat’s supposed to mean.”
“Only the two of you look like you got your species changed,” Helene mused, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “Carmilla and I just look to have gotten a makeover with some vibrant hair dye. Similar to Lina. That’s supposed to be grade one in their silly system?”
“And I’m a regular because I look like a regular human,” Brent said, a snort escaping him as he shook his head ruefully. “I don’t know under what rock they spent the last week, but that system sounds mighty useless to me.”
“True,” Mark said, frowning. “Well, a dumb foe is a good foe, isn’t it? Better they underestimate as many of us as possible.”
“We are not technically enemies just yet,” Helene said, glaring at the group. “I’m in no mood to be hounded by an entire regiment of soldiers. We will see what they want and hope their superiors are less idiotic while preparing for the worst.”
“How do we prepare for tanks rolling through that wall?” Mark huffed, waving a hand towards the front door. “If they really want us dead, we’ll be dead if we don’t escape. Fancy new powers or no, I don’t like our chances against a tank.”
“Or a dozen,” Mia helpfully added, her ears twitching as another distant discharge of artillery reached them. “Sooo, do we run? The edge of the city isn’t too far away, I doubt they’d bother to track us down if we get lost in a forest.”
“Seconded!” Lina perked up, raising a hand cheerily at the idea.
“I’d really rather not though,” Mia said, crossing her arms as she flopped over a sofa. Living in the wilderness meant her only way to shower would be to jump into a muddy river or if nature felt it prudent to bless her with some rain. “That's a last resort. We could just hide somewhere in the city instead of setting out and stumbling across god knows what in the wilderness.”
“That is true too.” Helene was quick to agree with her daughter. “I’ve seen monsters … or just regular creatures that I’d really rather not come across. Those rifts most certainly didn’t just appear in the cities, the whole world’s filled with them and not only humans received levels and classes either.”
Lina looked crestfallen for a moment, looking around the room for anyone to say something in favour of her idea but even Brent just patted her on the shoulder.
“My idea was to stay close to the city but to be outside of it,” Brent said. “Let’s stick to what we know for now, alright? We’ll have plenty of monsters to fight here too.”
“But will we be allowed to?” Lina grumbled.
“We will,” Mia said, her thoughts spinning quickly as she thought everything they knew of the situation through. “Those soldiers looked entirely non-magical with the sole exception of the officer, but even he only used some sight skill. When all five rifts break, they’ll need all the help they can get.”
“You think something tough enough that even tanks won’t be enough will come crawling out of them?” Lina asked dubiously.
“I’m saying their ammunition is limited, monsters are not,” Mia said. “Not if they cannot fully close the rifts. Monsters will keep pouring out, and keep getting stronger as they do.”
“And they won’t be able to do that,” Lina frowned. “Not if they really don’t have anyone with some level of personal power. Rifts only accept people under their own level into themselves, and usually only up to three-to-five of those at a time too. Twice that if it's bursting with mana as it is now. So we … wait?”
Lina scowled at her own question.
“We use the free time we got to actually train,” Mia said. “I could probably spend months just training my Attributes and studying my books. I’m sure the same goes for most of us, if to a lesser extent.”
“I do think we should be able to fight them off if they send a smaller contingent,” Brent said. “I highly doubt they would send over a tank, or even more than just three or four squads for a single unruly group of five people. I say we stay and see what those ‘consequences’ the good Sergeant spoke of are going to be.”
“So we stay?” Mark asked.
“If you all agree?” Brent asked, shrugging. “We could run, maybe hide somewhere in the panel buildings.”
“I’m all for staying,” Mia said. “My Familiar can patrol around the house and alert me if anyone is coming. Plus, I think those soldiers are severely underestimating us, and everyone who actually bothered to learn to use the System.”
In the end, everyone agreed to stay put and see what would happen. Even if they were forced to stay inside for a week or two, they could spend the time training and getting stronger.
Even Lina reluctantly conceded that it was a good idea to get a better foundation for themselves to build on.
Now, they just had to wait and see how long the army lasted against the monsters. Or if they actually had some trick up their sleeves.