What!? Where is it!? she thought. The cannon should have done more damage, right? She saw the ship next to her shutter and her instincts blared a warning. She whirled, looking up.

Something tore through the ship as Zerine watched. There was something to be said observing such destruction and not hearing a thing. To be honest, it made the fight more nerve racking and the current situation truly terrifying. In that moment, she did something that at that time, she would say was genius, but later, sheer stupidity. Zerine grabbed a manastone and hurled it at whatever was falling, then ran.

KAAAA-BOOOM!

Of course, Zerine didn’t hear the explosion, but felt it ripple through her body, followed by a blast of heat that scorched her back, making her cry out. A blast wave launched Zerine bodily over twenty feet from the ship. She was fairly certain she was screaming based on the sensation of her throat tearing, but tried to focus on making it so nothing would break from the coming impact.

With an “ooofff,” she slammed into the sand, the air getting knock out of her. Sand dug painfully into her body, wounds, and annoyingly, her face and mouth as she rolled. She spat out sand coughing, moving to her hands and knees.

“Oooh, everything hurts,” she groaned when she finally got her breath back. Panting, Zerine looked at the shipwreck, which was more of a wreck than a ship now. Thankfully, the part that Kimi and Varino hid in was mostly intact, but the rest had collapsed and were on fire.

Zerine a spike of energy shot through her as her instincts warned her, and she threw a knife to her right, killing a centipede Metal Head that had tried to sneak up at her. Her gaze flicked back to the wreck just in time to see something emerge from the burning wreckage. It leapt out of the rubble, sending wood and bits of metal flying.

The D-rank scout landed in a wave of sand in front of Zerine, who didn’t even have time to escape.

Fuuuck, she thought. Her gaze was locked onto the bronze diamond-shaped piece of metal in between the Metal Head scout’s many eye slits. The C-rank Metal Head glared down at Zerine and hissed. If she had heard the sound, it would have made Zerine cringe back and try to flee, but all she could do in that moment was stare. This was the first time where she got an entirely too close of a look at the Metal Head.

Matte black and grey metal covered the body, which had the long thin shape of a dragonfly, but the appendages of a scorpion along with the legs of a mantis. The scout was missing a claw, wing, and probably a stinger as the remaining stump of a tail swished agitated spraying blood. Way too many glowing slits for eyes gleamed as they locked with Zerine’s gaze. This wasn’t like the other, more mindless Metal Heads. She could feel impressions from what the scout was feeling, and it was terrifying. Malice, anger, and…glee from a hunt about to conclude with a kill.

The moment when their gazes locked seemed to stretch for minutes before it was broken as both moved. The scout lunged as Zerine threw a knife, while drawing her scythe. But it was over in an instant. Zerine found herself pinned to the sand. Two of the Metal Head's spikey legs had pierced straight through her legs, and one had stabbed through the arm that had drawn her scythe.

She bit back a scream, but couldn’t stop herself from writhing, trying to escape, which only made the pain worse. The Metal Head clicked almost like laughter, and it twisted its limbs. The sheer amount of pain nearly made her blackout, but losing her arm had been ten times worse than this, so she stayed conscious, albeit barely. But she still couldn’t stop herself from screaming. Her free arm tried and failed to remove the leg that impaled her other arm. Through the haze of pain, she saw the leg had gone right through her biceps and the bone.

The C-rank scout leaned down, the glowing from its eyes seemed to get brighter and through the pain Zerine knew it delighted in her pain and struggle. Gobbets of drool dripped from its maw as it began to move down. It was going to try to eat her! No…it was going to kill her, slowly, ripping her limb from limb to draw it out. It was in the impressions she was feeling and in the gleam in its glowing eyes.

Its mouth was moving to her pinned arm, which was when she saw the knife, she had thrown sticking out from a gap between the metal around the scout’s head and main body.

“Nooo,” she said. In her mind, she sounded defiant, but to the scout, it came out as a whimper.

The scout’s maw opened wider, moving to rip off her left arm. Everything slowed, and a distant melody played in Zerine’s head. Images filled her mind. Two swords, one of silver and blue, the other black and red. Eyes like the cosmos itself were contained within them, gleamed. Then two glowing eyes in the darkness. Were those mouths opening around the being? Whatever they were, they also glowed, matching the eyes, but the last image filled her mind. A sparkling cube.

The melody grew louder, shoving everything aside, filling her mind. A haunting melody that promised something greater. It calmed Zerine’s mind. The moment of clarity came with a plan. She poured everything she had left into a desperate gamble.

Ambient magic swirled to her free fist, condensing into a single point in front of her fist.

Unnoticed by the scout and Zerine, swirling clouds were forming above the pair. The scout felt the mana shift, but with the mana storm, it wrongly assumed it was just something related to that. What it did notice, was the storm of unstable mana that suddenly appeared right next to its head, but it was too late.

Zerine lashed out with her fist right as the Metal Head’s mouth shot out to rip off her arm. Light filled Zerine’s sight and darkness took her.

***

Varino woke when there was a loud booming sound and the vague feeling that Zerine was in trouble. She sat up, finding herself in a room, no, a ship.

Oooh how exciting! I can explore-

The ship shuttered again.

Right, fighting, Zerine is in trouble, and I am not fully recovered. Fun!

The spirit frowned, as it was harder to get up from the cushion than she would have liked. But she managed and moved to peer out through a hole in the cabin's side that gave her a view of the beach. Varino whistled, finding that yet another battle had broken out. There were monsters, Metal Heads fighting all over the beach, and of course the mana storm was still going all out, so it was just like how she remembered. Utter chaos.

Suddenly, a blast of mana followed by a beam of energy roared out, heading straight for what Varino was fairly certain was a mid C-rank Metal Head. The Metal Head sent out its own spell clearly, trying to counter the beam with its dark affinity. The two spells collided, creating two explosions that made Varino go, “oooh!” sounding like a sliding whistle. Multi-colored light reflected in the spirit’s round eyes. The display impressed her and now she really wanted to try Zerine’s new weapon.

Varino knew the Metal Head’s attack wouldn’t be enough, and she was right. The beam of mana blasted right through the other spell, which created the first detonation and continued. The beam of energy nearly killed the scout, who did a desperate dodge at the last second. Despite its best efforts, the C-rank suffered grievous wounds with the second detonation. Varino chittered a laugh, seeing that the scout was upside down from its desperate move, its legs scrambling at the air.

A green glow behind her made Varino turn. Kimi, well, the egg that was Kimi glowed with strange green runes spinning around it. Varino slid down the angled deck, which she noted was steeper than it had been moments ago, and placed her hands on the warm egg, feeling something moving within it. She smiled. Kimi would be back and if that aura beginning to form was right, Kimi would be D-rank. How exciting!

Varino whistled, saying she would be back after finishing off a weakened C-rank and not to worry. She did not know if Kimi could understand being in an egg, but Varino shrugged. It was all she could do. Quickly, she went to leave the cabin when the entire ship rocked by an impact, which was then followed by an explosion that left her raddled.

“Hold on Zerine,” Varino chimed loudly, hoping her friend could hear her.

Angerly, Varino glared at the wall of the cabin and blasted it to splinters before lightly landing on the sand below. What she saw made her go very still. Zerine was pinned by a scout. A glowing light from… was that mana condensing at Zerine’s fist? But something was off. The mana was condensing into a tiny point and was very unstable. Varino screamed, shouting for Zerine to stop. But there was a blinding flash and a blast of air made Varino stagger back.

An extremity annoying sound came from the scout that was reeling back. Its forelegs swiping in the air as blood poured from what Varino guessed was part of the monster’s head. Varino swiped a hand, slamming the scout away with a blast of air before the creature could hurt Zerine. Then she called to the swirling clouds she had been summoning this entire time sense waking up. With a casual swipe, she released the strongest lightning she could make.

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BOOM!

Lightning came down upon the scout, lighting the area in blue light.

She didn’t look at the corpse of the scout as she flew to Zerine. It was already nearly dead, and whatever Zerine had done in that last attack ensured its demise. She landed lightly, cueing at the sight of so much blood. Working quickly, Varino jammed a healing pill into Zerine’s mouth. The pill would heal flesh wounds, while she checked Zerine’s condition for anything the pill couldn’t handle. This would not be Zerine’s last fight.

Varino chimed and whistled, her energy flowing through Zerine.

“We still have the world to explore, remember? You won’t leave me! I won’t let you!”

She didn’t have much mana after her attack, and monsters were approaching. She could sense them along with more Metal Heads. Varino sighed in relief, knowing Zerine would live, but frowned when she found there was damage that was beyond her current capabilities.

Suddenly there was a green flash, and Kimi was there. Varino didn’t look up from Zerine. She whistled to the spider, while directing the pill’s energy to help her heal Zerine’s worst injuries. It should help her conserve mana as much as possible.

Kimi clicked and runes flew out quickly, setting up traps or outright killing monsters that were getting too close.

Varino nodded along. The spider’s plan seemed good, but there was only one thing missing. Varino really wanted to try whatever Zerine had used to attack the C-rank.

Eventually, they settled on a plan.

***

Lucy appeared on the west beach of the island. The sky was partly cloudy, the mana storm having broken up during the night. She walked to where she felt the storm elemental. It had taken them an entire day before Alana and Lucy made it to the island, then it took her two hours till she found Varino’s location. Meanwhile, Alana was searching the other half of the island and killing any Metal Heads she found.

Lucy felt many auras lock on to her, making her raise an eyebrow, but didn’t worry. They weren’t monsters, but creatures. Mainly they were the reptiles, if she wasn’t mistaken, but why was Varino there? She soon got her answer as part of the collapsed shipwreck came into view.

Several green runes appeared around her, but she simply waved her hand, creating thin beams of light that destroyed the runes before they could activate any magic.

I see the Runic Spider has reached D-rank, she thought, impressed.

As she drew near the shipwreck, she noticed that the beach was littered with monster and Metal Head corpses. A pyre out shone the early morning light with an orange glow. To her surprise, the pile of burning corpses in the pyre reached her chest. Her gaze flicked to several reptiles that appeared on the ship and out of the ocean, but they didn’t make a move. What they did do was hiss. Movement in the trees made her glance, then do a double take.

Were those monkeys?

“What the hell happened here?” she muttered.

A sound Lucy would call an annoyed whistle announced Varino, who appeared on a cloud, landing in front of Lucy, hands on her little hips. The spirit was giving her quite the disapproving look. There was even a tiny thunder cloud taking shape above the spirit.

Lucy blinked. Varino felt stronger. It wasn’t rank, but there was something more to the spirit and Lucy couldn’t quite place it. Before she could ask, Varino jabbed a finger at her and chimed and whistled, clearly angry.

“Look, we were handling a monster and Metal Head horde that could have reached several cities and towns. We got here as soon as we could. Sorry,” she said, guilt rushing through her.

The spirit scowled, then gestured for her to follow, then zoomed off. Lucy sighed and followed the spirit easily, keeping up with the running speed that the spirit flew at. They reached the shipwreck and Lucy soon passed the spirit in a blur, and crouched next to Zerine, who lay out on the sand covered in shade. A strange conglomeration of what turned out to be Metal Head parts attached to a spear created the shade.

Ignoring the odd fixture, she checked Zerine’s condition.

Varino peeped annoyed, Lucy glanced up, meeting the narrowed gaze of the annoyed spirit. The cloud over the spirt turned darker. She couldn’t understand the spirit, but could guess that Varino said, “see this is what happened. So, get on with it and help her.”

Lucy concentrated as the spirit glared her down. It was actually rather intimidating. Especially compared to the happy-go-lucky spirit that had explored the entire ship on the way here. She concentrated and could sense that the spirit had healed different areas.

“You did a great job on healing her ears and hand,” Lucy said, which made the storm cloud fade as the spirit brightened.

Varino chirped happily. Then chittered, sounding more concerned? Lucy had to admit she had no idea how Zerine could understand the spirit, even if she had some weird communication ability or sixth sense. But she could go with her best guess.

“I can’t heal the part of the bone that was shattered, but back at home, we can. So, we-”

A gust of air made a stray hair get in her face, which interrupted her deeper examination of Zerine’s remaining injury.

“Hi’ya Sis. Oh, hey nice to meet you Varino, I’m Alana Lucy’s Sister,” Alana said, cheerfully.

Varino gave Alana a cheery reply and a wave.

“Better greeting than I got,” Lucy muttered, but the spirit gave her a side glance and quickly went back to work.

A hint of green light made Lucy look up once again and stare, mouth partly open from the Runic Queen spider that blinked curiously at the newcomers.

Kimi’s new appearance was striking. The spider still looked as if someone had painted the outline of a spider in shades of green. But now the spider had a complex rune and a magic circle on its abdomen in Kimi’s shades of green. Two enormous eyes shifted between Lucy and Alana, glowing green with spiraling runes. The rest of Kimi’s eyes were just points of green. Green stripes made from runes went up the spider’s eight legs. There were four antennas? Hair? Either way, four green long strands drifted freely connected to the spider’s head.

What kind of queen is she? Lucy wondered at a loss for words.

“Hey congrats, on evolving,” Alana said, somehow taking all of this in stride.

Varino chimed brightly and ran over to the spider and, began pantomiming as she chimed very slowly. Both women had to admit that the spirit’s antics were probably the most adorable thing they had ever seen. After several guesses, they determined it was Kimi’s new skills that the spirit was excitedly explaining.

“Well, I suspect the guest back at home is related to you, Kimi. But sis, are we good to go?” Alana wondered, making Lucy jump. She had been thinking about how both Varino and the spider had made great strides from this test. Clearly, the spirit had some sort of conceptual breakthrough based on how the mana flowed around her. The spider had evolved and ranked up, turning into a queen variant, no less.

What the actual fuck happened while we were busy? she thought incredulously. A thud made the group turn, finding a monkey throwing a Metal Head spider corpse on to the fire. Varino waved and chimed. The Monkey returned with a wave and scampered back into the forest. Both women turned to look at the spirit and the spider.

“Alright, what the actual fuck? How did you two get the reptiles and monkeys to work together and for you?” Alana wondered incredulously, which was exactly what Lucy was thinking. Alright not exactly, but damn close. She was thinking about the recordings that waited back at home that would answer their questions.

Varino looked at Kimi. Kimi looked back at Varino, then both shrugged at them. Lucy started to laugh while Alana, facepalmed, then joined in. They laughed, during which the spirit and spider exchanged looks, but they regained their composure relatively quickly.

“Alright, so Zerine will need some attention, but she isn’t in critical condition. So, are you two ready to go?” Lucy wondered.

Varino peeped and gave Lucy a bright smile, then suddenly peeped in alarm, and ran off chiming to Kimi, who jumped following the spirit. But the spider came back quickly, carrying boxes of crossbow bolts. The two watched bemused as books, papers, boxes and crates flew to the spider, who caught them in webs, then put them into a bracelet. When a mana cannon flew by, both women’s mind went blank.

“Was that-” Lucy hissed to Alana.

“I-I think so,” she hissed back.

“I really want to watch those recordings,” she hissed.

“You and me both.”

Varino came back into view carrying a…a crossbow!? The spirit tripped, kicking an empty box and sending it flying. Kimi didn’t let the box touch the ground and kicked it, sending it sailing into the fire. Both women blinked, their minds going blank again. Was it just them or were these two extremely peculiar? Or maybe one of a kind?

I don’t think I have ever heard of a spirit using a weapon before, Lucy thought. And by the Great Mother goddess, know how to use a mana cannon. Which she still hoped she had imagined. Also, I don’t think I heard of a spirit that had a communication ability and befriends practically everything it meets. Hmm, I should ask Ava more about that spirit.

Varino peeped, and Lucy glanced down to find the spider and spirit happily resting on Zerine’s stomach.

She blinked down at them. “All set then?”

Both nodded, which made her mentally sigh at how strange this entire situation was.

Varino and Kimi said what the women assumed were farewells to the reptiles before their group vanished in a flash of light.

***

Sashi Adunita smiled to herself, seeing that Zerine and her rather intriguing group had been picked up. She knew Zerine would be out for at least a few days, especially after the healers fixed up her arm and legs.

“I must say I never expected to see a spirit and Runic Spider learn to fire a mana cannon in such a bizarre manner,” she muttered to herself, actually giggling at the memory.

An image of the storm elemental and spider sitting atop the cannon. The spirit trilling a war cry, then pulling the lever. Clapping as an expansion rocked the forest.

“Gods, I haven’t been so worried and entertained at the same time,” she said before snorting a laugh and created a memory crystal from the memory. It had become a habit, so she could look back at fond memories of her loved ones when she left this world behind. She had to admit that the spirit and spider certainly made for quite the pair and already had several memories dedicated to their bizarre antics. She made a mental note to pass along a message to the Triarch to extend attendance to their academy to the new Runic Queen.

Only after she gets used to her abilities and cast, that is, she thought. Her mind shifted to her great granddaughter.

Her smile slipped off as the image of Zerine’s fight with mid C-rank played through her mind. The girl had punched a mid C-rank. Punch! And actually had nearly killed it with some strange application of willpower. Sure, it had nearly died from the cannon attack, but still. Punching!? The mana had been unstable due to all the affinities being cast and the storm itself. But controlling the destabilized mana was insane for normal mages, if not impossible for many. Which begs the question, how did Zerine command the ambient magic to condense, then direct it no less?

A mystery indeed, but is it repeatable or simply tied to the unique situation of the storm? Regardless, I look forward to meeting you Zerine, she thought, her smile returning.