Maiya donned her handmaiden’s dress with an efficiency she wouldn’t have thought possible a month or two ago. She strapped her thigh holsters over her pantyhose, brewed her tea—which had improved so much, even the head handmaiden gave her compliments these days—and left her room with confident steps.

Gone was her insecurity and clumsiness. She strode boldly. She looked her peers in the eyes. Warriors and handmaids alike nodded in respect as she passed through the halls of the Kin’jal III garrison.

When she’d first been posted here, she was sure she’d never return. Maiya had never once seen an Ash beast, but she’d heard the stories. Mythical creatures from the Age of Gods, who relied on the Ashen Realm’s enormous prana densities to survive.

Beings that could level entire cities on a whim.

While the Ash Beasts that ventured into the human realm tended to be less powerful—weakened by the relative dearth of prana—they were nonetheless the most terrifying things Maiya had ever seen.

It wasn’t just their fearsome Balar Ranks, or their primal screams. Every Ash Beast Maiya had encountered was… crazed. Deranged in a way that warped their impressive strength into something horrific. Something straight out of the worst nightmares.

One never knew when a beast would randomly go on a suicide mission to chomp a warrior in two. The image had kept her from sleeping for days.

And yet, even nightmares can become routine if encountered often enough. Today was yet another day fending off Ash Beasts. An average day killing mythical monsters who’d make most people quake in their boots.

It was only thanks to Vir’s techniques for manipulating prana that allowed her to progress so rapidly. Ever since he’d shown her how to control her body’s prana so many months ago, creating a prana ‘suction’ in her hand, she’d practiced her magic religiously, continuously honing her prana manipulation. She’d even experimented with some variations to enhance that effect. It was an agonizingly slow process, but every mejai she encountered considered her growth abnormally fast.

Even so, she knew Vir must have far outstripped her by now with his considerable knowledge of the workings of prana.

Maiya entered her squad’s room to find the five in various states of readiness.

“Ready inspection!” Maiya shouted. Her squad immediately lined up, their hands behind their backs in a parade rest.

Each were Kin’jal Balarian Elites, and each had grown with her, becoming the hardened veterans they were today.

“Back straight,” Maiya commanded, pointing to one of her squad as she looked each of them up and down.

“Dress your armor, it’s slightly off,” she said to another.

“Yes, ma’am!”

Each warrior wore black gambeson under their plate metal cuirasses, gauntlets, and pauldrons. And yet, gaps remained between their armor. Her squad prioritized mobility over sheer protection—a single swipe from an Ash Wolf’s paw could ruin armor, and a Phantomblade’s spike projectiles could penetrate even plate armor.

The best defense against an Ash Beast was to never be hit—the armor was there mainly for emergencies.

It was why only two of her squad wore shields—circular bucklers strapped to their forearms. Her shield bearers used spears, while the rest sported polearms. All had talwars at their waist.

Except for her. She was stuck with her concealed daggers. To this day, she felt it was pure challing idiocy to send handmaidens out against Ash Beasts with only daggers, but Maiya had made the most of the situation. Her magic meant she rarely needed to come close to one of those beasts; her squad wielded long weapons for a reason. To get close to an Ash Beast was just begging to be maimed.

“Alright, listen up. We’re patrolling Section D today. There’s been an outbreak of Ash Beasts in this area recently, so expect to engage.”

“What will we be up against?” One of her squad asked.

“Mostly Ash Wolves. Possibly some Phantomblades and Raptors.”

“Shredders?”

Maiya shook her head. “We haven’t seen any. But if we do encounter one, we’ll retreat. Stay tight. Stay alert, and we’ll get through this just fine. Move out!”

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Section D was a half-hour Ash’va ride away. Owing to the danger of their mission, they each rode with a tender, who dropped them off and left them alone. Ash’va were too vulnerable against Ash Beasts; keeping them anywhere near the front lines all but guaranteed their deaths.

It also meant that if Maiya needed to retreat, she’d have to send a signal flare and wait for rescue, which could be a half hour away. An eternity for a squad in a crisis.

The great Ash wall loomed before them in the distance. The wall was built exclusively to keep Ash Beasts at bay, but these creatures defied reason. Some jumped over the walls, while others seemed to pop into existence behind it. The Ash Boundary looked like a gash in the earth—like a liquid metal mirror that ringed the known world, extending up into the sky for as far as the eye could see. Crossing that boundary put one into the Ashen Realm.

But the opposite was not true. When Ash Beasts crossed into the human realm, they appeared in a range of locations. Most appeared on the correct side of the wall, but there were always anomalies that got through. Maiya’s squad’s mission was to take them out, lest they escape and wreak havoc in a town or city.

It was a thankless, dangerous, never-ending duty that all countries that bordered the Ash had undertaken for millennia.

“Look sharp. We’ve got incoming!” Maiya shouted, eying a pack of four Ash Wolves who’d scaled the wall.

She reached out, activating the blood rods in her squad’s cuirasses. Against Ash Wolves, Slashing Protection was the best defense.

No need for Elemental protection. Instead… let’s see, Enhance Sharpness on their weapons ought to do it.

For a squad of five, Maiya could now keep ten C Grade support orbs charged. It was a large mental drain—she needed to keep topping off the orbs as her squad’s armor took damage and as they struck the Ash Beasts—but she had a lot of experience.

The Ash Wolves swarmed. Her squad took up a protective ring around her—standard formation for such encounters. Wolves liked to circle their prey, but this formation left no weak spots for them to exploit.

The wolves Leaped—most Ash Beasts used Talents—but her squad was ready. Their enhanced weapons had no issues piercing the wolves’ tough hides, forcing them to whimper and regroup.

Like I’m gonna let you!

Two C grade Wind Blades shot out from Maiya’s hands, decapitating two wolves.

The remaining two hesitated, then routed.

This was the most dangerous part. Ash Wolves could easily outrun her squad. Allowing them to run would end in a mission failure—and more importantly, innocent lives would be lost when the wolves reached a settlement.

Empowered Spears went sailing through the air, skewering one of the fleeing wolves. As for the last one… Maiya took aim with her mejai bracer, and fired.

Icicle shot forth, impaling the retreating beast. Her squad was upon it in moments, ending its life.

Maiya wiped a bead of sweat off her brow before raising her arm in victory. Her squad echoed the gesture—every victory against an Ash Beast was worthy of celebration.

Things hadn’t gone this well initially. Not even close. Back when she’d first started, Maiya had fought alone, flinging spell after spell at every Ash Beast she could find.

But as the days wore on and her squad racked up kill after kill, she’d realized the simple truth—mejai were far more deadly when supporting a squad.

It hadn’t been an easy lesson to learn. She’d always thought of mejai as offensive damage dealers. Strengthening armor and sharpening weapons? It felt so mundane. It felt weak.

And yet, once she’d started actively charging her squad, their injury rate had plummeted. They killed beasts faster than she ever could have while fighting alone, and they put themselves in less danger while doing so.

Of course, it wasn’t like Maiya had given up on flinging spells. Just that her offensive magic took a back seat to powering her squad. The head handmaiden had once told her that mejai were force multipliers. They were people who could grant a squad victory against an entire company, doubling or even tripling a warrior’s Balar rank.

Maiya finally understood. Her squad had attained heights they hadn’t even dreamed possible without her. They moved with superhuman speed, dodged with preternatural grace, and pierced hide as if it was paper.

“Cleanup!” Maiya ordered, and her squad moved diligently to skin the Ash Wolf hides. She helped as well. It wasn’t a glamorous task, but it was a necessary one. Tough Ash Wolf hides had a myriad of uses, from armor components to rugs to insulation.

Once they’d collected the hides, she ordered the carcasses burned. If there was one thing that attracted Ash Beasts across the boundary, it was the corpse of another Ash Beast. Burning their corpses was standard practice.

“Shredder incoming!”

Maiya whipped around to see a new creature pop into existence, seemingly out of nowhere.

Ash Wolves, at least, looked like their more mundane counterpart. Addled and broken though their minds might have been, they had a regal bearing to them.

Shredders were abominations straight out of a nightmare. Lizardlike creatures standing as tall as a human on their hind legs, their pasty white skin was partially translucent, allowing glimpses into their internal organs.

Their small clawed hands might not look like much, but Shredders could decapitate a man with a single swipe.

Not to mention their oversized lizard heads. With long maws lined with three separate rows of razor-sharp teeth, they could even bite through solid steel. Their Balar 250 rank wasn’t for nothing.

“Everyone, to me!” Maiya ordered, activating Piercing Protection and Slashing Protection to their max. Her orbs would protect against the Shredder’s claws and bladed tail, but there would be no surviving a bite from its maw. Only A Grade protection orbs could do that, and hers were merely C.

Simultaneously, she took out her D grade utility orb Flare—issued to all Ash Gate squad leaders—and activated it. A bright burst of red fire went hurtling into the sky, alerting nearby squads of their duress. While Flare looked impressive, it was only useful for signaling—the magical fire itself had no combat potency.

Only question is if we’ll survive long enough for help to come.

While her squad’s combined Balar Rank outstripped the Shredders, she doubted they’d be getting out of this uninjured.

Maiya took a deep breath and cracked her knuckles. “Bring it, you grakker!”