SECRETA
AKANE
It was a stupid, stupid thing to do. Akane knew it was stupid. Stupid, stupid...
There was no reason to bring Flynn to the monster hunt, and a thousand not to. He was annoying. He was weak, not cut out for fighting. He was just trying to get into her pants.
And most of all, he couldn't know about their powers.
“So what's your favorite anime?” Ling asked.
Flynn shrugged. “Hard to say. I liked Gundam for a while, but it's been going on for so long, everything gets repeated eventually. Though there was that one about the guy with the hypnotic eye and giant robots... can't remember the name.”
But why not? He had promised not to speak a word of this, and he seemed trustworthy enough...
No, he wasn't. That was stupid. He wasn't trustworthy or nice or sweet or kind. Akane's brain was just plastering delusions onto him, since he was the first person to ever actually show any interest in her. She was projecting her desires for Derek onto a more viable subject, nothing more.
Ling was giving Akane a look, but she didn't seem all that perturbed by Flynn's presence. That should have made Akane feel more confident, but she probably assumed Akane knew something she didn't, something that made him seem more trustworthy.
But she didn't! She had only known him for four days!
“Hey Akane, Ling. Who's this?”
Akane looked up. They had reached the mouth of the alley where Derek was waiting, and she hadn't even noticed. It was really close to her class, still within the campus, which was one of the reasons Derek had called her. If it was outside campus, it would be both too far away and not enough of an emergency to pull her out. They had gotten the mission earlier but had delayed it because of her class. Apparently, now the monsters were doing enough damage to actually constitute a real problem.
Derek stood in front of the alley, hands on his hips and a smile on his face. Adam leaned against the side of the building.
“Wait, don't tell me...” Derek furrowed his brow, considering. “You're... Neil, right?”
He flinched. “Flynn Neilson, actually. Neil was my father.” He shook Derek's hand. “You're Derek Huntsman, right? You saved my life once.”
“Right, I think I remember. Crabswarm?”
“Land piranhas.”
Derek clicked his fingers in frustration. “I knew it was some kind of swarm. So what brings you around here? On your way home?”
This was why everyone loved him. Saving people was one thing, but the fact that he honestly, truly remembered them, treated them as people rather than victims to make him look better... this was it. People would die for him. So would Akane, of course, but she knew she didn't count.
“Actually,” Flynn said a little bit too excitedly, “Akane invited me on the hunt.”
Derek blinked. “Really?” He turned to her. “You sure?”
Akane knew what he was asking. She could have signaled to him, got him to find an excuse to send Flynn away. There were a thousand good reasons, not even considering their secret.
But she didn't.
Instead, she just nodded. Derek paused for a moment, then shrugged.
“Good enough for me. You know how to use that sword, Flynn?”
Flynn had a sword as well, one that was a bit better than Akane's. He already had it out of its case and had it belted onto his waist, mirroring her. He really was a pretty good fighter. Maybe if he was actually being serious, he'd be able to be useful.
“Second best in the class,” he said.
“All right,” Derek said, clapping his hands together. Adam stepped away from the wall and unbuckled the holster on his pistol, but didn't draw it yet. “Laura got dragged to a shopping trip with Lizzy, but that's fine. It's just an alley crawler. Difficult, but simple enough. Adam, you're on point. You remember what that means? Good. Akane, Flynn, second position. Ling, you're on rearguard.”
Everyone nodded and arranged themselves as ordered, though Ling grumbled a little. Adam had his pistol ready, though Akane didn't see his other guns. A pistol would probably be enough in this case.
They inched into the alley slowly, careful not to make more sound than necessary. This was a deep one, the kind that the crawlers liked, and it twisted around a few times until Akane wasn't completely sure where they were. The nest of buildings wasn't a maze—there was only one choice at each turn. But it was still disorienting.
At least the alley was wide. The brick walls were covered with smelly crawler slime, which you didn't want to touch unless there was absolutely no other choice.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Flynn whispered to Akane. “Going after a crawler with guns, I mean.” He frowned. “Ling and Derek aren't even armed.”
He was too close. She could feel his breath on her face, and her heart beat a little faster.
She took a step away from him, and he didn't pursue. “Watch,” she said simply.
He blinked but shrugged. “I guess you and Huntsman know what you're doing.”
She just nodded. He'd understand soon enough.
It took about ten minutes from entering the alley to finally find the crawler, but they never let their guards down. Still, it was pretty surprising when they turned the corner and it was just there.
It looked like nothing so much as a giant earthworm—which, basically, it was. They were little more than worms that the fey had engineered to be about the size of a horse but longer. Luckily, a worm's physiology couldn't really handle its increased size, so crawlers rarely survived long. They could do a lot of damage in the meantime though, which was why monster slayers occasionally got called in.
But this one was huge.
It was as wide as the alley—ten feet, maybe a little more—and just as tall. Akane couldn't even see the other end since it was curved around the far corner, and probably another besides. It just crawled slowly away from them, the slime it had already spread on the walls helping it along. It hadn't quite noticed them yet, but it would soon.
Adam stumbled back, blatant surprise on his face. “I thought we were after a rat!”
Derek cursed. “Silver and gold—that's why you left your other guns behind?”
The great beast rumbled and slowed to a stop. Then it started creeping towards them, trying to find the source of the vibrations.
“Adam, to the back,” Derek spat. “This is way bigger than I thought. We might not have the firepower to take it out.”
Normally, crawlers were only about a foot wide and maybe twenty long. Big and dangerous, no question, but swords took care of them pretty easily. Akane didn't even know where to start with this thing.
“Ling, get ready. Akane...” Derek paused. “Just cut the damn thing.”
She did as ordered, rushing forward with sword drawn.
The crawler hadn't quite noticed them, but it edged in her direction as her footfalls sounded on the concrete. Before it had a chance to try and take a bite out of her, she slashed its “face” with an upward cut.
It wasn't deep, by any means. An ordinary crawler's skin was tough to cut, like animal hide, and it was clear from the amount of resistance that it only grew tougher with size and age.
Regardless, clear blood began to flow from the wound, and a low, rumbling moan echoed through the alley. The crawler opened its mouth and lunged forward, hoping to snatch Akane up before she could attack again.
She activated her power, slowing down time by about ten percent. She was getting better at controlling it. Normally she just went all out and drained her reservoir in seconds.
But ten percent was more than enough with her natural reflexes. She backed up to Flynn, momentarily out of reach of the crawler.
He glanced at her. “Did you just—”
Before he could finish, the worm lunged again, this time at him.
Akane froze.
Getting in the way of a normal crawler was a bad idea. Jumping in front of this one would be suicide.
But...
She was thinking about it.
Derek, thankfully, was better suited for this than her, and conjured a strong glowing blue shield in front of Flynn. The worm bounced off it, confused, its mournful moan changing tune.
Flynn stumbled back, his jaw nearly falling off. “That's... you're...”
“Ling!” Derek cried. “Wall, under the worm!”
She obeyed with a grunt of effort, planting her feet solidly and thrusting up with her arms as if lifting a great weight. In response, the crawler's head got flung up ten feet as a large mound of concrete erupted out from under it.
The creature wouldn't be distracted for long. Akane saw her cue and activated her speed, this time at about half capacity.
It was strange. When she was using her power, everything seemed easier. She guessed it made sense that her sword would cut easier, but why could she jump higher? Was she moving too fast for gravity somehow? That didn't actually make sense, but that was what happened. She made a mental note to ask Laura about it.
She jumped on the left wall, planting her foot on the brick. Before she had a chance to fall, she jumped to the other side of the alley, higher up, and repeated the process. The third jump landed her on the creature's head, such as it was.
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She let her speed fade, and before the worm could notice her presence and try to buck her off, plunged her sword down into its head.
The crawler screamed, a deep, undulating sound. It wasn't dead yet, not by a long shot, but it was definitely hurt. She leaped back to the ground just as the worm started thrashing, trying to throw off the rider that was no longer there.
Flynn had recovered, and rushed forward. He stabbed upward at the worm's underbelly, eliciting another scream of pain. Although he got covered in clear, smelly blood, Ling's mound of concrete kept him mostly safe from being crushed. The crawler's attempts to squash him just kept putting it in his reach.
Akane heard gunshots and saw spurts of blood appear on the creature. Adam, doing all that he could. Well, it wasn't much against something of this size, but that was all right. If nothing else, it would teach him not to forget his bigger guns. If he had brought the Saint George, this would be over already.
Eventually, the worm summoned the brainpower to retreat, pulling beyond Ling's mound and out of reach. The mound sunk back into the alley—Ling's doing, no doubt—though it didn't get perfectly flat, and they followed the fleeing creature. Akane avoided using her power. Her reservoir was still low, and that was no time to be charging in.
The crawler moved faster than they could chase it, but it was leaving a long smear of clear blood, so they followed it easily. Of course, there seemed to be only one way for it to go, but at least they didn't have to worry about losing it if it found a way to escape.
Such as by carving a path through a building. Which it was doing right now, its tail end disappearing out of sight.
Derek cursed behind her. Akane could see the problem. Hopefully, their employer had thought to empty these 'scrapers, but he might not have. And either way, there was going to be a lot of damage. These were just lecture halls, so there wouldn't be too much expensive equipment, but the cost of the stadium chairs they used here added up very quickly. Akane knew that from annoying experience.
They ducked past the shattered door—the worm had selected the weakest point instinctively—and into a white corridor. It seemed to be abandoned, which was good, and the trail remained clear. They followed it for a few turns until it disappeared into a room. Another lecture hall, a history one, if the plaque outside was anything to go by. They piled inside, trying and failing to keep a formation. The others just didn't have as much experience as Derek and Akane did.
Like she thought, it was arranged tiered like a small stadium, with seats for maybe a hundred students. Unlike a real stadium, it wasn't circular—the room was rectangular, with the lecture pit at one end. And in that pit, filled with what appeared to be sewage from some shattered pipes, was the crawler they had been fighting.
As well as another one.
It was the same size as the first—ten feet wide, and perhaps two hundred long, coiled up at the bottom of the classroom. It was uninjured, as might be expected, and Akane would have probably called it the mate of the first one if she knew anything about crawler physiology. Earthworms were asexual, but what about these things?
Once Flynn spotted them, he cursed vehemently, and the others weren't far behind. Derek, however, just frowned.
“Akane,” he said slowly. “About those grenades my mom got me last Christmas...”
“At your house,” she said. “On your dresser.”
He sighed and put his hand against his face. If they were in the dorms, she could have fetched them. It wouldn't have taken ten minutes. But his house was twenty miles away. The crawlers would cause way too much damage, and might even get away before then.
“Well,” he said, tone tired. “We'll just have to do this like before. Bleed them slowly. Ling and I will keep them off you two,” he nodded at Flynn and Akane, “and Adam will have the axe as a last line of defense.”
Akane glanced at Adam. He had grabbed a big red fire axe when she wasn't looking. His pistol was probably out of ammo.
“Start with the wounded one,” Ling said. Akane resisted rolling her eyes. That was the obvious tactic. It was already moving slower than the fresh one, so hopefully, it was near death. Again, earthworms never evolved to be this big, so they were a bit easier to kill, proportionately speaking.
The smell got worse as they started forward. The dying crawler was bad enough, but the sewage line may as well have reached up and punched her in the gut. She had a few handkerchiefs, so she tied one around her face as a crude mask. It helped a bit. She handed another to Flynn, and he did the same. But in the process, he was distracted, and accidentally kicked one of the loose stadium seats. It bounced down a few steps before stopping.
The worms turned in their direction.
“Now,” Derek hissed.
Akane zipped forward at twenty percent, fast enough to take the lead but still conserve her power. She jumped from about ten feet from the pit, at the same height as the worms. She landed on the wounded one, using her sword to secure her place.
She thought the crawler screamed. It was hard to tell, with her ability distorting sound. She pulled her blade free and immediately plunged it in again, creating another deep wound. It seemed easier to cut when using her power, but at least that made more sense than her improved jumping ability.
She let her ability fade before her reservoir emptied completely, in case she needed to make a quick getaway. Flynn reached the worm moments later, and since he wasn't able to match Akane's jumps, just stabbed it in the roof of the mouth. It screamed even louder, and he got splattered with bits and pieces of whatever it was eating. Considering the sewage line, Akane made a mental note to remember that they all needed showers after this.
The second crawler tried to lunge at her, but a big chunk of concrete struck it in the head. She glanced back at the entrance and saw Ling picking up another piece of the floor as though it was mud, shaping it in her hands.
But still, she shouldn't be able to throw it that far. Did that mean her ability was really telekinesis, just limited to rock and stone for some reason?
It wasn't important. They could do more tests later when Laura was around. For now, they had monsters to slay.
The worm Akane was riding tried to swallow Flynn, its tiny brain finally realizing the easy way to stop him from hurting it. She stabbed its “face,” distracting it and causing it to rear up in pain. Flynn dodged to the side of the creature and started slashing its flank. The beast screamed again, longer and louder than before.
It finally began to slow, its dozens of wounds proving too much for it. Akane didn't bother waiting for it to die. She activated her speed at full blast and jumped onto the other one. It was a risk, but they simply weren't prepared for this. They didn't have the luxury of going by the book. If the fresh worm didn't get injured quickly, it would destroy them.
Almost to prove her point, before she even landed the uninjured crawler surged up the tiers, aiming for Ling. Of course, it couldn't have known that she could mold the concrete into a wall of stone. The beast slammed into it at full force, letting out a keening cry of pain.
Akane's reservoir was empty by this point, though filling—it drained way too quickly at full blast. She had to plunge her sword into the monster's hide just to stay on, never mind actually do any real damage.
The worm slithered around the wall, which wasn't very wide. By that time, though, Flynn had caught up with them, and cut a wide wound in its side. Adam joined in with his stolen axe, though Akane was a bit worried, since all his combat experience was at range. She wasn't sure he had the instincts to survive melee.
It quickly became moot. The beast fled away, gushing clear and nauseating blood, with Akane still stuck on top. It seemed to be heading for the exit.
Derek summoned a barrier, blocking the way. The worm screamed in pain as it bashed its head again, and when it tried to dodge around, he summoned another. And another and another. Every avenue of escape it had was cut off. It finally paused, its tiny brain not sure what to do.
That was Akane's chance. She ripped out her sword, activated her speed, and started cutting huge chunks out of its back.
The creature screamed, but its cries were cut off as Derek—wielding Adam's axe—split its head in two with a massive overhead strike, getting completely drenched in a viscous fluid in the process.
Akane didn't think that would have done much if the crawler was as robust as the earthworm it was based on. They could survive being cut in half, after all. But scaling a creature up that much did more than just leave you with a bigger monster. They couldn't deal with the increased demands of the larger body.
So, bleeding from dozens of minor wounds and a few much bigger ones, the alley crawler finally went still.
Akane sighed deeply with relief and slid off its back. Derek caught her and stopped himself just before pulling her close.
No. It wasn't Derek. It was Flynn. Not Derek. Not.
“Are you all right?” he asked, looking into her eyes as though searching for something. He did seem genuinely concerned, but how much of that could she really trust?
“I called MC,” Derek said a few feet away as he flipped his phone closed. “Our employer is outside.” He grimaced. “Let's have a chat with him, shall we?”
It turned out that “outside,” in this case, meant about ten feet from the door to the lecture hall. He had apparently been informed where they were.
He was a teacher dressed in an understated suit and tie. He looked about sixty, which was positively ancient in Domina. People died young in a city of monsters. It was possible he had just used toys to make himself look older, though.
“Thank you very much, Mister Huntsman.” He smiled, though there was a hint of strain at the edge of it. “Of course, normally we'd take the property damage out of your pay, but I understand that you prevented far worse.” He reached into his vest and pulled out a hundred dollar bill. “Here you are, as agreed on.”
Derek glared at the proffered cash, then met the old man's gaze. “Multiply that by twenty-five.”
Akane thought the man would have a heart attack right then and there. “Twenty-five? Are you completely insane? A simple alley crawler—”
“Mister Vere,” Derek interrupted, “what do you know about alley crawlers?”
Their employer stood up a little straighter. “Quite a bit. I teach monster anatomy, you know.” The cadence of his voice changed, and Akane had a feeling he was switching to lecture mode. “They are one of the more common types of monster, although they cannot breed. The fey enjoy seeding them through the sewers, and they generally only last a few months before their bodies simply break down.”
“How big are they, Mister Vere?”
The teacher blinked. “A foot wide, twenty long. Why?”
Without a word, Derek led him into the ruined classroom, letting him see the destruction and the two dead two hundred foot-long worms.
It was almost worth the entire fight just to see his reaction. He stumbled back from the scene, tripping over broken seats and trying to run from the smell. It was worse than before since the blood had mixed with the waste from the broken sewage line in a smell that could only be called unholy. Derek gripped him tightly with one hand, trapping him as surely as if he had put him in a headlock.
“As you can see,” Derek said calmly, “these worms are about ten times the size of normal. So the reward should be multiplied by ten as well. And, of course, there are two, so the reward should be increased proportionately.” He glared daggers at the cowering man in his grip. “And since you sent me and mine into an extremely dangerous situation with false intelligence, I'm tacking on an extra five.” He leaned in close, terrifying the old bastard even more, and whispered dangerously. “This is me being merciful, Vere. If I called Necessarius for retribution, I'd get fifty and your head on a platter.”
The teacher looked like he might have that heart attack after all. “But... but she said that the second was just backup! That there was no way both would survive!”
Derek's eyes narrowed to slits. “Explain.”
Vere swallowed and glanced at the rest of them, perhaps wondering if he could escape if he managed to break Derek's iron grip.
He started talking.
“We—the school board, I mean—bought them from the Queen of Eternal Silver last year.” Seeing the looks on their faces, he hurried to continue. “That's the court of Day's Southern Summer.”
There were thirty-two fey courts, split between the four seasons, the four directions, and then Night and Day. Each court had three members, a Maiden, a Matron and a Crone—the Princess, the Queen, and the Queen-Mother. Obviously, that should have meant that there were ninety-six fey, but with their homunculi, it was impossible to know for sure. There could have been more, less... no one could tell. Not that it mattered.
“Why bother?” Derek demanded. “You had to know dealing with fey was stupid.”
The old man flinched from his tone. “Well, yes. But you see, AU was a bit poorly constructed. The school itself is fine, but the sewage system was... not very well thought out.” He shrugged awkwardly. “We needed the worms to handle the overflow.”
“But...” Akane started, then stopped as everyone turned to her.
Flynn seemed to figure out what she meant and finished for her. “But how did they get to the surface?”
Vere licked his lips nervously. “Well... you see, crawlers usually end up above ground for a variety of reasons.” He seemed a bit more sure of himself, now that he was back in lecture mode. “Sometimes the fey release them, but mostly it's because they find a manhole, come out, and then can't figure out how to get back in.”
Ling raised an eyebrow. “If your manholes are big enough to let one of these things through, no wonder your sewers are screwed up.”
“Worms can fit through surprisingly small spaces,” Vere said. “Although I'll admit this strains credulity a little.”
Derek snorted. “The fey probably got bored and let them out for kicks. Probably cracked the black water line down there as well.” He indicated the pit of the lecture hall, still filled with sewage.
Vere groaned. “We're going to need to have that repaired. This entire floor is going to be useless for a month.”
“So,” Derek said, still gripping the man by the arm. “Twenty-five times the agreed reward seems fair?”
Their employer looked at him, then glanced at the dead crawlers again.
“Agreed.”
Derek pulled out his phone. “You get all that, MC? Good. Have them take it to my room.” He sighed. “I think we all need long showers.”