Violet loved the mist. The mist saved her from a dull, colorless life. It held her hand and introduced her to passion, flavor, and anticipation. The massive boar the first walker had tried to protect her from was a gift. The blood it drew from the walker's body, covering her clothes, was like cold water pulling her from a deep sleep. She had never feared the mist. For most of her life, she was indifferent. It mildly amused her, the trepidation with which those around her regarded it. But she could have cared less. It wasn't that she wanted to die, or even that she didn't want to live.

She had a sense of self-preservation. A strong one, even. In fact the one thing Violet did care deeply about, was Violet. It was simply that the mist never felt like a real threat to her. It was like the strange statue that exists somewhere in everyone's hometown. It was the graffiti that had always been on the wall of the local 7-Eleven. It was simply an oddity of the town border, as unworthy of her attention as anything else. But that was because she had never touched it. Never heard what it had to offer. When she was sent into it by the superstitious elders of her town, it wrapped itself around her like warm water. It welcomed her and offered her sweet things.

Violet loved the mist. So, as the conductor uncoiled the thick, translucent tubes from a compartment on the side of the tired, well-used train and wrapped them around the spirit spire, she hummed happily to herself. The tall crystal pillar seemed to hum with her as the ambient spiritual energy it gathered from the mist began to flow into and revitalize the train. This didn't particularly interest her, however. Instead, she had her eyes, alongside an innocent yet tantalizing smile, locked on Daniel. With Alex sitting this waystation out and his concerns dismissed as a mental break, he was her priority. A man who could ruin everything if he grew his spirit just a little. A threat... but also a challenge.

His ability wouldn't work on her yet, but everyone grows their spirit through behavior and training related to their calling. This meant that, while he couldn't see her actual attributes yet, he would be experienced in rooting out the truth behind things. If she killed Alex first, there was a risk Daniel would learn what had happened before anyone else. In fact, his experience had already started to scratch at the back of his mind. The flicker when she displayed her status, her cartoonish naivety, even the sweet smile she gave him in what should have been a terrifying environment. But Daniel was also young.

The mist, on its own, wasn't dangerous. Walkers didn't need gas masks or special tools to move through it. It was the horrors hiding inside that made it dangerous. Violet was a beautiful woman and Daniel was taken with her the moment he saw her. It may seem absurd, or silly, that a crush could cloud his mind like the mist clouded the world. But even fangs can look harmless when they help form a friendly smile. He'd always lacked the confidence to approach the girls he grew up around, and that same anxiety prevented him from being approached. Violet's interest, whatever its source, was more than he could defend against. Even with Jared there, standing on the front lines and prepared to fight for everyone's life, it was Daniel who held her full attention.

In a way, she was looking at him in exactly the way he hoped. She found him undeniably enticing. As he blushed under her gaze, she wanted to take him to a private place and surrender to her temptation. Of course, Violet had no idea she was having this effect on the boy, and her temptations looked nothing like his. Seduction had never even occurred to her. Had she a window into the fantasies playing out in Daniel's mind she would have observed them with clinical disinterest. The effect did aid her nevertheless, in her more inexperienced days.

Jarod, Andrew, and Keely had no idea how focused Violet was on Daniel, nor how much trouble Daniel was having focusing under the pretty girl's stare. They stood in a triangle around the crystal spire, roughly fifteen feet apart from each other. Andrew and Keely had sweat running down their foreheads as they fought to keep the tremor out of their hands. Jarod was confidently spinning a half dozen hunting knives through the air. It wasn't the most impressive metalmancy the world had ever seen, but for a white tier, it wasn't terrible at all. Charlotte hid her nerves. This was their first waystation and she was already a man down.

Even worse, two of her remaining walkers-in-training weren't combat types and the one best suited for scouting was... well he was trying his best but the heat of the pretty surgeon's attention was making him squirm. She almost wanted to send Violet back on the train but if the train had too many residents, any monsters would be split on which group to attack. Two of the combat callings were clearly terrified, even if the tank was doing his best to lean on bluster. The last one looked competent but too self-assured. Both ends of the spectrum could get everyone killed. Then there was Violet, the surgeon. Charlotte had been glad to meet her at first. She was one of few new students who had ever remained completely cheerful when boarding the train. But her smile now... it was unsettling.

'She's a monster' Alex had said. Alex was clearly beyond the breaking point already; not every student had the mentality to handle the mist, especially when they had been conscripted. Still, something felt wrong and she couldn't get the words out of her head. It was silly, really. She'd seen Violet's attributes and class. They had been freely offered. But the way she was staring at Daniel... She was preparing to call out to the strange woman when Andrew yelled, tearing her out of her introspection.

"Contact!" the tank screamed, moments before a bat creature roughly the size of a six-year-old child collided with him. A scraping like steel on stone sang through the air as its talons, more like a bird of prey than a bat, tried to tear into the now stone skin of its chosen victim. Daniel startled, looking at the shirt tearing off the other man's chest with wide eyes. It had been his job to spot enemies before they managed to attack but his focus had wavered too much. Charlotte gritted her teeth while whispering a silent prayer of thanks that the tank had been the first target.

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"Daniel! Focus on your job!" Charlotte ordered as she ran to Andrew's position. Her speed was impressive to the others in the party who'd had little occasion to see a twenty-second degree at full speed. It was only a breath before one of her daggers was in the neck of the bat monster. Its mouth moved as if to scream but no audible sound came out as it died. Charlotte narrowed her eyes at the melted flesh where its eyes should have been. Violet sat on what was left of the old railing around the spire and kicked her feet idly in the air. She knew she shouldn't but she was having fun and she wasn't practiced in disguising the fact yet. She should have been acting terrified but that was a far more difficult emotion to emulate than any she had tried.

"Th- there's more!" Daniel called after a moment of silence. "T-twelve o'clock, and two o'clock, and six, and... they're surrounding us, they are everywhere!" his voice wavered as he tried to warn them, only a few moments before several more bat creatures burst from the mist. Charlotte looked around the clearing, terrified. They were a man down and, if this attack was anything to go by, a new nest had formed near this waystation. Her passive ability, 'Embolden' would help keep the students from panicking, but it was more taxing the more anxious they were. Two of Jarod's knives carved through one of the bats near him but another passed him. It was nearly to Daniel when Charlotte threw herself in the way and cried "Submit!". The bat fell to the ground and she immediately crushed it under one heel before running to aid Andrew.

As Andrew wrestled with a single creature, Charlotte pulled another from his back while looking toward the final front liner. Keely seemed to be fending for herself just fine, despite her reluctance. Violet and Charlotte both noticed that Keely's directed screams were easily handling any monsters that approached from her side. They were particularly sensitive to her sound-based attacks; if Keely were more confident Charlie wouldn't have to worry about her at all. Jarod was successfully killing and monsters that approached him directly and Andrew at least managed to remain uninjured. It was the few slipping past that Charlie had to rush to kill before they reached Daniel or Violet.

This continued as the train's engines pulled the spiritual energy from the spire. It was agonizingly slow, and the more spiritual energy it moved, the more nearby monsters would be attracted to it. For nearly ten minutes this fight continued. Jarod grew tired as his aura was expended, his metal knives growing slower. There were cracks in Andrew's stone skin and red blood was leaking through broken rock in several places. But the onslaught was slowing until, finally, Charlotte stabbed the final bat and shook it from her dagger. She had almost used all her aura supporting the others and fighting herself, but they had made it through the first waystation. She flicked the beast's blood from her dagger and opened her mouth to speak when Daniel interrupted.

"Th- There are more... Dozens of them, no, maybe hundreds... They-" he started but a flood of the beasts poured from the mist all at once and Charlotte's eyes widened. There was clearly more than one nest near the spire. Or worse...

'Did they tire us out first before attacking?' Charlie wondered. Before she could even react, the bats were on them. Swarming them. They clawed at Andrew and collided with the bodies of the bats Jarod killed, unbothered and safely making it to him. More made it to the center and Daniel's body disappeared beneath them on the ground. Charlotte swung at one near her with her dagger but the talons of another dug into her shoulder. She didn't have enough aura for it, not with the number of monsters there, but she needed time to think, so she took a risk.

"Halt!" Charlotte bellowed, her voice echoing through the air with far more power than it should have had. Her 'Absolute Order' ability took a lot of aura to cast, especially on so many beasts, but it brought her the moment she needed to think. Every single bat froze in the air, hovering with aura alone. It would only last maybe ten seconds but the course of action was clear as she looked at the flesh where eyes should have been on the nearest monster corpse. They were blind, all of them. They were sensitive to sound. She opened her mouth to give the necessary order, but her voice failed her. Even Jarod was panicking, his knives flying wildly and without aim. Andrew fell to his knees and Keely's chin quivered as she formed a scream. Daniel couldn't even be seen but his whimpering under the still monsters could be clearly heard.

Keely let out her screech, completely silent to all but the monsters in its cone of effect. The blind beasts immediately fell from the sky, blood erupting from their ears. It was the right idea, but she was being too careful. She needed to release her restrictions and hit the entire area. The humans would be better off with bleeding ears than dead. But she'd used too much energy just to buy the time she needed to figure that out. She fell to her knees and looked desperately around the formation. She couldn't tell how long it had been since she'd used her ability. She stared hopelessly at Keely's back, desperate for the words to form, or for some other way to communicate what she needed.

She realized they were all going to die because she was an insufficient commander. She had made a rash decision, and as she scanned the incoming students, there was no one who could help. Except... Her spiritual energy was drained so she couldn't be certain of what she was looking at. She was vaguely aware of her ability wearing off and the bats as their talons and wings twitching. But her eyes were fixed on Violet. Who was still kicking her feet idly. She didn't have a scratch on her and she had a greedy grin on her face. The blue in her eyes had darkened to a deep black.

"Heya Keely, would you mind hitting us with a scream," Violet cheerfully called after the blonde woman. "All of us, the whole area. If you don't mind." Keely looked back at her in horror.

"It'll burst your eardrums!" Keely protested, but then Charlotte ran out of aura and passed out. Losing control, Keely decided in a moment to just do what she had been told and screamed upward. Unlike the apparently silent cone of white energy that she had been fighting with before the entire world turned white and sound assaulted everyone all at once. For a moment it sounded like the end of all things, then everything went quiet. Everyone but Keely felt blood trickling down their ears, and their vision blurred.

But it worked. The monsters, all at once, collapsed into the dirt, dying slowly. It was finally, actually over. The train only needed a couple more minutes and the attack seemed to be over. Charlotte rested her head in the dirt. She'd have to trust Violet to help the wounded as she didn't have the strength to get up herself. Much to her relief, she did in fact see Violet pulling the monsters off of Daniel, who was likely the most wounded. It was all going to be alright.

Her final thoughts before failing to fight the darkness in the corners of her eyes were 'But how is Violet completely unscathed?'