Pulse was getting tired. This was only her third deployment into a fracture, and this was the largest one that has been seen in 5 years.

And it really didn't help that everything was going downhill since her and the rest of her team entered this sector. Who would expect assassins to attack us?

Her mind drifted to the small girl who managed to become a saint while punching way over her weight. It's already rare enough when someone kills a fractal without system help, but 3?

Pulse almost entirely zoned out the hive hawks while letting her whips do the talking. How she felt about Marri came to the forefront of her mind. She's terrifying. If she doesn't restrain herself...

Pulse shivered at the words Marri mumbled to themselves while she was being carried to the bar.

Pulse struggled to see Marri as a weak girl and not a bio weapon with how ruthless she's been. She literally gutted a fractal and ate it! What if she did the same to me!?

Marri's crimson and gold eyes staring down at her while Mat was trying to bandage her was one of the most scared she'd ever been in her life. I honestly thought I was going to die. And Met made me even more scared with the link. She refuses to tell me why, as well.

She felt bad for the assumption almost immediately when Marri started to help met with the bandages, and it made her doubt her almost instinctual fear of her. I should be nice to her, at least. She seems to be struggling with it as well, but...

Pulse turned her attention back to the swarm as three hawks tried to rush her at once in rapid succession, quickly turning into sprays of gory mist by a deliberate flick of her whips.

The sight made her throw up more than a few times, and it still made her gag when she wasn't fighting for life, but she was slowly getting numb to it, something she wasn't entirely happy about.

She took stock of the amount of hawks left. There were at most 2 dozen, and the hawks weren't going to last another minute fighting her.

"Let's finish this wi-" A shrill screech interrupted Pulse's proclamation. She glanced around trying to find the source, but it seemed to come from outside the flock.

All of the hawk fled and flew off together. It confused Pulse, as far as she knew fractals rarely fled unless they were intelligent and hive hawks were not a very intelligent species. "What are they doing?"

Met stuck her head out of Pulse's shirt and glanced around. "Maybe the Hive called them back? Wish I could help..."

Met wasn't made for combat, and neither were most angels, most being assigned as guides to young and inexperienced saints so they weren't completely on their own against the horrors of the fractals.

[42 Hive hawks have been felled by your weapons! 25 shop points have been added to your status.]

Pulse stared at the system message with a small twinge of annoyance. Really, that's it?

"You only get rewarded by pushing yourself, and this wasn't all that dangerous." Met chimed in, feeling Pulse's annoyance.

Pulse sighed at the angel's comment and glanced around to see what everyone else was doing.

GoldenWing was obsessively scratching his injured arm while he was scrolling through his system. At least that's what Pulse thought he was doing. I'm still not used to seeing them stare at nothing.

"Where's Mera!?" She turned away from GoldenWing and over to Echo, who was caring for the wounded panther angel as she called out to everyone.

"What? She was..." Pulse looked around for the girl but couldn't see any trace of them. She would have thought Marri ran for cover, but her angel would go with her, so that wasn't the answer.

Met turned to where the hawks went with a grim expression. "Could the hive hawks have taken her?"

"Oh, no." Pulse hurriedly pulled up her mixer and activated sonar pulse. Her eyes glowed a vivid pink.

Her view of the world turned into blackness, and white sketches outlined everything around her.

In the darkness, green to yellow circles rippled out from her team's hearts. Pulse ignored those and tried to find Marri.

Orange ripples spread out from a surprisingly far-off building indicating the location of a stressed person's beating heart. "Got it, She's in the upper part of a building!"

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

[Your charge has engaged in combat alone! Seek out and help them.]

"T-this way!" Pulse tried to stay calm and started sprinting when the message popped up in front of her.

Pulse raced through the streets, leading her group towards their 'charge'.

"How did she even get there?" HighJack called out as he punched a piston spider that tried to pounce Pulse.

"That's either that's the hive, or she escaped to a buildings roof." Echo replied to the orc as she carried the panther angel because it was too slow for them.

The panther angel whined, not because it was being carried or hurt but because it was very upset that Marri was in danger and they weren't there to help.

GoldenWing glanced at Echo before frowning at the panther angel. "What do you think happened then?"

Echo went silent for a long moment to consider her experiences with Marri before letting out a soft chuckle. "The latter. She's a very stubborn girl, if a bit shy talking to people."

"Shy? You call that-" Pulse turned the conversation out. Instead, she watched the ripples take on a red tint. That means she's getting hurt. Are we going to make it in time?

Pulse rounded a corner only a block away now but didn't feel that they were going fast enough. Using tempo step, she stepped to a very fast but rhythmic pace. I really didn't want to use it because it uses so much mana, but it would be awful if someone died because of my stinginess.

She could feel the mana being stored in her heart flow through her body and dissipate with each step she took.

It only took another 10 seconds of running to get to the entrance. She realized the problem was a bit too late and couldn't stop herself from crashing through it

Pulse shook her head, trying to get the vertigo go away but still pointed to a side door.

She looked up and noticed the ripples turn a deep crimson. "She's in the stairwell over there! She's hu-"

[Your charge has sustained serious injuries! Please find and heal them.]

HighJack and Echo muttered a curse under their breath as they ran past her and busted through the stairwell door first.

Echo dropped the panther angel behind her to free up her hands for the impending fight.

Pulse saw the amount of ripples coming from her go up substantially, indicating a massive spike in heart rate and changed to a reddish purple. I've never seen purple before... And her heart is going at least 220 beats per minute.

Pulse chased after the two veterans of the group, noticing roots as she went up. The panther stayed by her side as they raced up the stairs.

[Your charge is out of combat but is now having a mental crisis. For my sake, at least, find and comfort them.]

Pulse and the others paused for a moment, surprised by the message, but continued shortly after. How did she get out of combat? Did she win or hide?

Pulse struggled to avoid the vines everywhere around her, even falling into Echo, who was standing at the base of the 2nd floor. "What's wrong? She's still two floors up."

"That's what's wrong." Echo motioned towards a blockade of massive roots that spewed green mist. HighJack was tearing through the roots, but it was talking time.

GoldenWing walked next to Pulse with his eyes locked on the clump of roots. "A root cap as well... There's definitely something wrong with this sector. First, the assassins, now all of these different fractals, concentrated here. I mean, we only encountered blade hounds, crocorpions, and hoppers before this."

Pulse heard creaking to her left and turned just in time to see a blur of movement, a root shot out from the door and pierced GoldenWing's leather armor, digging into his already injured arm with a sickening crunch of wood and tearing flesh.

GoldenWing screamed in pain as he ripped the root out of his arm and brought up a barrier made of transparent wings around himself, Pulse and the panther angel.

Pulse saw HighJack get entangled by 5 roots that threatened to drag him into the blockade where acidic sludge was dripping.

Echo turned to GoldenWing for a moment and saw that he was fully panicking from pain and was trying to stop the bleeding. Not bothering with leadership training anymore, she turned to Pulse with a serious face. "Pulse, get volumetric cascade ready and wait for my queue. I need to help Jack."

[Your charge is recovering from their injuries. Fractals may target them at a moments notice. Please join them when possible.]

Pulse nodded, missing the system message entirely, instead pulling up her mixer up again and started cranking the volume up notch by notch. The mixer drew more and more mana out of Pulse's heart with each notch and turned it into magic power, ready to be released.

Pulse wobbled for a moment before catching herself. "I'll only be able to do 4 of them before I pass out."

Pulse winced as roots tried to pierce her but was deflected by the barrier. She trusted the barrier, but she just saw what they could do to someone with a higher defense than her.

Pulse glanced over to GoldenWing, who stuffed the wound with clotting gel and was sluggishly preparing another skill. "...I have 2 and a half minutes... of wings of grace, and... I'll cast owls boon on you in 1, Echo."

A smile crept onto Echo's face, letting her fangs out as the roots shooting towards her vanished like someone turned on a lag switch and reappeared in half around her. "There you go, Den~ You can't stop even if you get hurt."

GoldenWing scowled at what Echo called him, but he was too busy keeping his skill up and trying to cast another to complain.

Echo's arm lit up with a brilliant white from an intricate tribal tattoo that didn't care about the sleeve covering it, shining through it. She swiped her hand at HighJack, sending threads of static at him.

The threads passed straight through the vines and HighJack, even the barricade behind him, leaving thin lines of static on the vines.

Echo's voice came like a whisper but left like a gunshot along with a sharp snap of her fingers. "Sever connection."

The lines of static buzzed before all of the vines separated by them, revealing layers of static on the vines. Roots drifted apart, uncaring for gravity.

The scene continued for a few more seconds before gravity took hold and pulled the roots to the ground.

HighJack grinned and gave Echo a thumbs up. "Alright, let's find that core!"

A crash reverberated through the building and then another.

A veritable mountain of roots came down the staircase like a tidal wave. Crashing into walls with enough force to crack it.

HighJack took a deep breath before smashing his gauntlets together, igniting them with blue flame. "I think we got its full attention. Jammer."