"Amber! Where are you!" Amber felt a sense of deja Vu, before trying to get out of bed, only to find a large slab of stone resting on top of her legs. She blinked in panic, but quickly calmed down as her memories came back.
Oh right. The attack from the cloaked man.
"Are you there!?" She could hear something heavy being dragged across the ground.
Amber tried to respond, but found that her mouth was too dry from the dust to even speak. She took in her surroundings, trying to find a way out.
There! A small opening could be seen from under the rubble. The student channeled a small amount of mana to her hands, and fired off a weak light ball spell, using her ability to guide it through the opening.
"I see the spell! Don't worry, we will get you out soon!"
Amber relaxed, letting out some tension as she stopped straining her depleted mana reserves.
Soon enough, a Augmenter with a muscular build wearing a colorful costume with metal plates covering his limbs was widening the opening piece by piece. Amber wondered which enhancement spell he was using, but she wasn't taught analysis yet, so she couldn't check.
"Do not worry, the heroes are here!" The man let out a tired sigh as he removed a particularly large debris.
Amber continued to watch in silence as he removed the slab that was on her legs, freeing her. She tried to speak again, but only let out a dry cough.
"Here, some water."
Amber snatched the water bottle out of his hands as she chugged the whole thing in one swig. The amused hero offered her a second one.
"Thanks. How long was I stuck under there?" No longer surrounded by rubble, Amber got a clear view of the destruction around her. All of the skyscrapers in the city was razed to the ground, most of the buildings either on fire or mostly destroyed. Even the academy wasn't spared, with a giant hole that pierced through all of the floors, leaving only the outer wall and large piles of rubble.
"About half an hour, give or take." The hero checked a watch built into his suit.
Amber watched as another hero protected a family of three from some monsters, before her attention was drawn to a loud roar that came from the other side of the ruined building.
"Hey, wait a sec!" The man called after her, but he was too tired to catch up as she ran over the piles of rubble towards the source of the sound. She had almost tripped on a piece of concrete, but manage to correct herself in time.
She was greeted to the sight of a giant green lizard-like monster, fighting against heroes that looked like flies next to its figure.
“Woah!” Amber's obsession with monster awoke, ready to make her as improductive as possible.
"Don't run off like that. The city is still filled with monsters." The hero took a moment to catch his breath while watching the fight next to her.
Amber nodded before focusing back on the fight. The heroes tried to perform a flashy spell, but the monster quickly but a stop to it by throwing a chunk of concrete at them.
"We got to go. They are holding it back for now, but it's threat levels are around A rank." The hero motioned for Amber to follow.
Amber took another look at fight before following after the man. He brought her through the city, occasionally hiding behind destroyed buildings so as to not be found one of the monsters. they eventually reached large blast door under one of Avenir's now gone skyscrapers. The hero knocked on the door in a rhythmic pattern for a few seconds, before it was opened from the inside by another hero, revealing a spacious room big enough to fit at least half of her school's student body.
As Amber walked through the bunker, using maps placed near the stairs to find the hall.
“Amber! Thank god you’re still alive!” Emily leaped at Amber, pulling her into a bear hug. “I thought you would get yourself killed by now.”
“Fuck you too Emily.” Amber patted her back as she looked around. They seem to be in one of the few magibomb bunkers that the government had the foresight to build. She recognized some of the people, including some of her classmates, however most were complete strangers to her. But Emily was a social butterfly, and cared way too much for other people.
“Not a lot of people survived, huh.” There were only about 150 people, less than two hundredth of Avenir’s population.
“Yea, the villains managed to kill a lot before they left.” Emily’s normally cheerful tone turned somber. “So many dead for no reason…”
Amber didn’t feel the same grief as Emily, but she does agree that they shouldn’t have died. The people that lived in Avenir was well-known as extremely welcoming, though many of it's residents don't show the same courtesy to other races.
“Everyone, please gather around me!” The hero that helped Amber waved his hands in the air. “We have saved almost everyone we could, and will be moving out in a few hours.”
several people shouted in protest, saying that they grew up in Avenir or why didn’t the heroes just build back the city.
“We understand that you are upset, but the monster are a huge threat. There has already been a rescue attempt by the Aldea authority, but it was shot down by the monsters.”
“What about the A ranks?” A young man shouted from the small crowd. “Surely Bulwark could have killed all of the monsters easily?”
The hero’s expression hardened. “All of the A and B ranks in the city were attacked at the same time. Only a handful of B ranks that specialized in stealth survived, and they are too weakened to help right now.” The protestors stopped shouting, instead looking amongst themselves in fear as they realize the weight of the situation. Some still continued to argue with the hero, but in a much more subdued manner. Amber lingered to watch as the heroes continued to answer more questions, but left to go get some air.
"Oh Amber, your alive!" A slightly unsettling voice called out to her. "Hi mom." Amber didn't know why, but she was disappointed for some reason. "Are you alright?"
"Just fine, dear. But what about you? You aren't hurt, are you?" Amber's mother caressed her face.
"I'm fine mom." Amber didn't react, simply waiting for her mother to calm down.
"Thank Makh." Amber's mood soured at the mention of the god, but said nothing. "I knew that he would protect you from anything." She had a crazed look on her face, but Amber had long since grown used to it. Her mother walked to one of the identical rooms that were everywhere on that floor, waving for Amber to follow.
"Did Father Daniel survive?" Amber asked as she stood next to the still open door.
Her mother shook her head. "But does it matter if the messenger dies, so long as his duties are fulfilled?"
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Amber was pleasantly surprised. That fucker had made her do weird stuff several times, and her mother did not see anything wrong with it due to the Chimera Cult's beliefs, but Amber admitted that he was a fairly competent mage nonetheless. Did he get crushed by that huge monster?
As Amber amused herself with mental images of Father Daniel being squashed like a bug, her mother placed the Chimera cult scripture in front of her, before kneeling down. "Come, dear. We must give thanks for our survival."
She really didn't want to, but Amber knew better to anger her mother. She kneeled next to her mother, and followed along with her. "Oh great Makh, we give our thanks for your gift. We humbly ask for your blessing to continue enjoying the physical flesh incarnations you generously lent to us. Please continue to watch over us as we fulfill your sacred wish." Her mother finished off by giving Amber a small, fancily decorated dagger that was slightly blunted from overuse and neglect. Amber let out a heavy sigh. "Do I have to this time? Our entire city was just blown to bits."
Her mother's thousand mile stare burned into Amber's skin. "What do you mean dear?" A strained smile started to form on her face. "It is your divine duty to do this."
Amber did not have the energy to argue with her, so she just took the dagger from her mother, before unceremoniously cutting her wrist. She made sure to only cut into one of the arteries, letting out a significant but not concerning amount of blood. She carefully dripped it onto the scripture, The bright red cover seemed to deepen for a moment, but it happened so quickly that Amber didn't believe her eyes. She felt a strange magical energy flow through her, dripping along with her blood onto the book. But Amber couldn't sense it afterward, almost as if the book absorbed it.
Huh? she was pretty sure only artifacts made by artificers or magical metals could absorb magical energies so easily. Actually, how did she even get the scripture? The Chimera cult is well-known, but not for it's wealth. Why did she Amber's mind clouded, forgetting her train of thought along with her short term memory.
"Oh dear, you dozed off again." her mother comforted her by patting on her back. "You should get some sleep."
"what?" Amber tried to recall what just happened, but came up short. She immediately wrote it off as just her habits acting up again.
"Come on now, Amber." She coaxed Amber into laying down in the bare mattress. "You need rest."
"But-"
"Sleep." her mother cut Amber off mercilessly as she sat beside her.
Amber began to feel strangely lethargic and sleepy. Before she realized that something was wrong, she had already fallen asleep.
Amber's mother stroked her forehead, before whispering to herself. "I won't let you remember. Not until your duty is fulfilled." Just like the priest, Amber has a purpose she shall serve, even if it cost her life.
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Amber woke up just like anybody would from a afterschool nap. Feeling like absolute shit. Her mother seemed to have left already, as she was alone. After taking a few sips of water to dampen the horrible taste of saliva from her mouth, Amber left the bare room for the even worse stale white hallway, walking toward the source of the sound. She found several heroes putting on their respective suits in a room that looked similar to the gym locker room.
"Uh, hello." A handful of the heroes paused what they were doing while the rest ignored her. "Will we be leaving the bunker?" Amber internally cursed at herself for sleeping. She probably looked like a dull idiot to them.
"No, we plan stay here until reinforcements from the nearby cities arrive." The hero who answered, whom she recognize as Frost thanks to the signature bright blue and white robe, sent her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry. You can continue your magical studies at Aldea."
Amber wasn't surprised that the heroine knew that she was a mage. All mages naturally release small amounts of mana, but her mother has taught her to mostly contain it. Sadly, something like that won't fool an actual mage.
Amber yelped in pain as she clenched her hand. 'How the hell did I get cut?' It looked fairly new, with dried blood closing the wound.
Frost raised a eyebrow, but after noticing the cut, called for someone. "Yo, Curandera, get over here and do your job." A tall girl wearing priest clothes grumbled, but walked over anyway.
As she kneeled next to her, she took out a what looked like a shiny turtle from her pocket. "wait, is that a crystalline turtle?"
Curandera looked surprised, but quickly recovered. "Yup. Us healers need it to do our magic." She added after noticing the confused look on Amber's face. After inspecting the cut, she casted a healing spell, coating Amber's hand in a warm green light. The cut healed in real time, with new, pinkish skin growing to cover the wound. 'Weird.' She felt a familiar magical energy flow from the turtle to her hand as the spell progressed, but could not pinpoint where she felt it before. Once the cut fully healed, Curandera stood up, but needed to use the bench as support due to her dress getting in the way.
"Why do you even wear those clothes?" Amber always preferred practical clothes to nice looking ones, and could not understand why the heroine would use those when they might end up killing her.
She sighed. "Blame marketing, those soulless bastards care more about looks and popularity than their own hero's lives." Several of the heroes nodded in agreement.
A clock mounted on the middle of the wall facing the entrance rang, signifying that it was 5pm. All of the heroes moved at once like a tidal wave, forcing Amber to step to the side so as to not block them while a voice sounded though the bunker using the PA systems. "Everyone, please gather at the entrance right now. We have confirmation that the heroes from Aldea have arrived. I repeat, Everyone please gather at the..." Amber followed the heroes through the bunker while checking her mana reserves.
By the time they reached the large blast door, it was already crowded with all of the survivors. Amber quickly joined her remaining classmates in the masses, giving Emily a quick hug.
"We will be opening the doors shortly. The hero reinforcements are strong enough to deal with the monsters outside, and we will evacuate you all to Aldea after the monsters are dealt with." As Frost continued to answer more questions, Amber noticed a slight tremor. It grew stronger as the doors started to open.
"As we have said before, the heroes from Aldea are strong enough to deal with-" The heroine stopped as she notice the tremor as well. Both civilian and heroes looked around in confusion as the tremor grew to a ground shaking rumbling. A few of the heroes seem to see something through the wall, staring at some hidden creature in fear.
"Everybody, RUN!" Frost shouted as she created a hail of ice shards using her ability. The heroes had a mix reaction, some running alongside the crowd while the rest stood their ground and prepared various spells, magical items or weapons. Emily and the rest of the class ran as while, but Amber stood back to watch, confused.
the rumbling stopped, but the heroes seem to tense up further.
One second, two seconds. Time ticked by without anything happening, yet only the last of the civilians moved. Amber watched from the back of the room, confused as to why they were just standing around. But suddenly, something slammed into the blast door, denting it. Frost continued to create more and more ice as something slammed into the wall over and over again. Eventually, it stopped. Instead, cracks formed under the door. A large green hand could be seen under the crumbling wall as it pulled the entire front of the room away, throwing it away to reveal the same giant Amber saw the heroes fighting.
The heroes answered in kind with a storm of spells, shooting in slightly differing directions like a shotgun. Sadly, it did nothing. The monster simply shrugged off the attacks, instead opting to pull back it's arm, but was stopped by the heroes that managed to jump up it's other arm using various methods. The augmenters immediately started to cut and hack away at the monster, but it looked only mildly annoyed at them.
The fight continued on, mostly a mix of the monster trying to attack, but was interrupted by the heroes. Amber watched it grew more and more angry at the heroes. The giant blew out a loud exhale, fed up by the annoyances. It pulled a chunk of concrete from what's left of the nearby buildings, ignoring the heroes frantic attempts to stop it, and raised it's hand to smash it down on them.
Oh, shit! Amber scrambled to get away from the fight, but luckily, there was not a need to. A large speeding ball of light slammed into it's hand, exploding on impact. The blast destroyed both the monster's hand along with the concrete in a rain of rubble and flesh.
"See, I told you that the mortar spell would work!" A pair wearing matching black cloaks with metal masks that covered the lower half of their face landed next to the monster.
"It was on the verge of exploding, and you know it!" Shouted one of the newcomers as they jumped away again so as to not get smashed by the monster.
"The two of you, shut up!" A third person wearing similar clothes leaped up the monsters injured arm, holding a great sword with a blue glowing blade.
"Sorry sir!" Amber watched in awe as they worked together to kill the monster. Unlike the heroes, the trio worked around the man with the sword, supporting him with spells.
The man hacked away at the monster's neck, cutting through a quarter of it. The giant tried to grab him, but withdraw it's hand and cried in pain as they shot a blood red needle through it's eye.
The man screamed as he cut through half of it's neck, yet the monster stood, albeit with visible difficulty.
"Fuck it, Mary, snipe it's head off!" He jumped off the stumbling monster.
"Thought you'd never ask!" her mask hide her expression from Amber, but she got the impression that Mary was grinning as she created a large mana construct.
The monster seem to sense the danger, and tried to stop her. But as it approached the mage, the other two intercepted it, cutting at it's legs and shooting it with explosive spells respectively.
they continued to fight with the monster for a few more minutes, this time focused on stopping it rather than killing it.
"Move you two!" Mary finished the spell, firing off a similar speeding projectile as before, but this time it targeted it's head, killing it instantly.
As the monster caress fell to the ground, the three refocused on the group of heroes.
"Sooo." she said "Is your city insured?"