Hell hath no furry like a woman scorned. And God help any fool who has earned the scorn of a woman with magic.
A quote from Steven Ares, General of the Mystic Hunters. -2039
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[Since this shelter is closed off. We'll have to make our way to the town's central shelter. I'm sorry Rin.]
These were the words Lupin told her after she was done dealing with that weird freaky clawed monster. She had nearly broke down once she realised her fight for survival had just begun. But she wouldn't give up, she had hoped all her life to be a Magical Girl and she wouldn't accept dying on her first day on the job.
[By the way, you transformed right in front of a security camera back there. I erased the footage as soon as I could but if a security guard witnessed it before I could temper with the evidence there is not much I can do to protect your identity. You need to be more careful about where and when you transform in the future.]
Rin flushed in shame at her lapse in judgement but was surpised about one thing. ''You can hack technology?''
[Yes, technically speaking I am a magical construct created by the Awakened. I was made to be a biological AI. While most of my organs are biological. My brain is made out of an advance magiteck computer. Beside advising you on how to best fight the Unfeelings. My other main role is to help you conceal your identity by tempering with any form of human technology. Unfortunately tempering with other minds is prohibited by my programing. Due to the morale and ethic standards of both the Awakened and human civilisations.]
Rin shuddered at the implication that her Familiar could easily mess up with minds if he didn't have those restriction in place.
[I will keep a lookout for any possible mention of your identity online. But that should not be necessary. Most people should know better than to reveal private information on Magical Girls. Unless they want to face severe legal consequences. For now we should concentrate on getting you to the Central Shelter.]
Rin nodded before summoning her pistol. She took out the empty magazine and disgarded it, letting it fall on the ground carelessly. She replaced her empty magazine with a full one and inserted it with a satisfying click.
She smirked. Now she was ready for action. She did not encounter another Unfeeling on her way out of the school. But once outside she could not help but stop and gawk at how different the town looked.
Buildings had holes everywhere, the park she had just woken up from this morning was on fire. The sky had turned into an eerie purple color that signaled the Reality Usurpation caused by the Unfeelings. In the distance she could see some sort of disgusting giant dome-shaped structure that was pulsing as if it was alive.
[That's an Unfeeling's nest. They gather the siphoned magic there to incubate more of their numbers. I would heavily recommend staying away from it. You're nowhere near ready to deal with one of them on your own. Leave them to the veterant Magical Girls when they come.] Lupin warned with a deadly serious tone in his voice that made Rin heed his warning.
Rin looked around for sign of dangers but for now the streets seemed empty and so she cautiously made her way toward the centre of town. However the peace wouldn't last for long. In the distance she heard what sounded like metallic clangs that repeated over and over again in a rythmic manner.
She pressed her back against the wall of a ruined house and peaked over the corner. She saw what looked like some sort of knight. However the shape of it's head was elongated and definetly not human-like. It looked more like some sort of weird lizard in armor.
[That's an Honorless. They're not very powerful and they are slow. But their armor can shrug off the vast majority of physical attacks including bullets. You'll either need to learn some magic or buy some sort of weapon that can deal with heavy armors if you want to get through it.]
''Can I actually learn any spells right now?'' Rin asked eagerly. She was a Magical Girl after all, and magical girls were supposed to have magic.
[You've reached level 2 and have ten unspent skill points. It should be enough to learn your first signature spell. Assuming you would not rather spend those points boosting your stats. If you want to spend those points you should open your skill menu.]
Rin wondered how she should do that but just thinking about a skill menu seemed to be enough for it to pop up on her heads up display.
> Strenght 10, <0>
> Endurance 11, <0>
> inteligence 20, <0>
> Wisdom 14, <0>
> Agility 18, <0>
> Dexterity 12, <0>
> Learn Signature Spell: Time's Breath, cost: 6 points
[Interesting, very interesting. If your signature spell is anything to go by. It seem like your speciality is time manipulation. That could end up being very powerful if you can learn to use it correctly. But I don't think learning your signature spell will help with this specific enemy. You might have to buy a weapon that pierce armor. Or maybe a magical weapon, that could work too.]
''Oh I know! What about a sniper that shoot magic beams!'' She didn't even know if that was possible but that would be really badass.
[...That could work, however that might make it harder to market your image as a Magical Girl if you focus too much on guns.] Lupin said with the voice of a father telling a child they couldn't have more candies.
''Is image really that important? I mean I get that Magical Girl are in the spotlight often, but at the end of the day dealing with the Unfeelings is what's important, right?'' She said while crossing her arms.
[Believe it or not your image is an extremely important part of being a Magical Girl, some ignore it completely and only focus on killing the Unfeelings. But I wouldn't recommend that as it would easily cut the amounts of point and experience you can earn by at least half.]
''That much?'' Rin replied with surprise.
[Magical Girls role are to protect people and give them hope. And that second part of the role is not just superficial morale boosting. If a human city or town fall in despair it will act like a beacon to the Unfeeling hordes and dramatically increase the risk of a Reality Usurpation. That's why when the Awakened gave magic to humanity they encouraged their chosens to embrace the Magical Girl aesthetic and tropes. The power of young girls saving the day in frilly dresses cannot be understated against an enemy that are lured by negative feelings.]
''So we're saving humanity with cuteness?'' Rin replied incredulously.
[In simple terms, yes. And it is surprisingly effective.] Lupin replied somewhat amused.
Rin shook her head. She had never tought her geeking out over Magical Girls was helping against the Unfeelings, but apparently it was. What a weird world they lived in.
Rin shook her head. ''Maybe I'll think about my image later. But for now I just want to survive this mess I'm in.''
[...Very well. An anti-material magic rifle would cost around 30 points to buy. Is this acceptable?] Lupin asked somewaht reluctantly.
Rin nodded with a wicked grin on her face. ''Oh yeah that sound badass. Gimme, gimme.''
> Anti-material magiteck rifle
> Points remaining: 75
The box appeared with a small flash of light and Rin eagerly opened it up and her heart rate pick as she saw the sniper rifle glowing slightly with etheral energy. Picking up the weapon she was surprised how light it felt. She wondered if the weapon was naturally light or if that was a result of her enchanced strenght as a Magical Girl. Maybe a combination of the two.
With the gun in hand she finally step into the street. The movement caused the armored lizard to snap to attention and it let out a high pitch thrill as it started advancing toward her. Each of it step making a heavy clanging sound.
Rin took aim at the advancing Honorless once she was satisfied with her accuracy press on the trigger. At first nothing happened and she tought the gun might be broken. Before she could complain at Lupin for a refund, the magic rifle whirred to life with a hum of raw power.
Then with a deafening roar that almost sounded like the screeching of a beast. A beam of red light shot out of the rifle and hit the undead knight straight in the chest. The armor melted from the raw heat and power produced by the beam and the Honorless hissed in pain.
[Dodge!] Was Lupin only warning as the Hornorless took it's massive sword and hurled it toward Rin. She jumped out of the way but screamed in pain as the sword still grazed her arm and left a huge nasty cut. The sword fell on the ground behind her with a earth shattering thud. She was certain that if she hadn't moved, she would have been cut in half by the blade.
She took aim again, but the pain of the cut she had substained messed with her aim and she missed her shot. The Honorless was rapidly bridging the distance between them and she knew that if she missed her next shot it would be right on her.
Trying to ignore the pain in her arm she aimed toward it's head and let out another beam of concentrated magic. The Honorless screetched as the magic laser hit it's mark and literally melted it's face off. The heavily armored lizard fell down on the ground with a huge crash before disolving into dust.
> Unfeeling Slayed!
> Honorless: 15 points
[We should take care of that arm before we go any further. Do I have permision to buy the required healing items?] Lupin asked from within her mind.
Rin nodded absemindely while taking her breath. ''Do it.''
> Blood Coagulation Booster: 3 points
> Accelerated Healing Stimpack: 3 points
> Points Remaining: 84
Under Lupin instruction she opened the blood coagulation booster first. It was a small phial of liquid. She tried her best to no gag at the fool taste as she drank it. Next she took the stimpack and pressed it against her arm before pressing the trigger she flinched in pain as a needle penetrated her injured arm. But immediatly afterward she sighed in relief as she felt a cooling sensation that made the pain vanish.
She could only stare in awe as the wound on her arm was visibly closing itself off from the advanced alien medication.
[It's been an hour since the Emergence started. The other Magical Girls are still two hours away. If you intend to help them we should try to reach the shelter quickly so you can rest up before the true fight can begin.]
Rin nodded before making her new magic sniper disappear in her soul gem and continue to walk toward the centre of town. It was kind of creepy how calm everything was. If she wanted to be honest she had expected a much bigger resistance than this once she was outside.
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But from what she knew of the Unfeelings, this was pretty standard. The first few hours mostly has scouting monsters running around to kill and absorb easy preys. It wouldn't be until later that the real Unfeelings forces would come to play and bring real carnage. To be honest a part of her just wanted to hide in the shelter when that happened.
But she knew she would feel guilty if she didn't at least try to fight back when she finally had the power to do so.
[We're arriving to the central shelter. However I'm detecting heavy Unfeeling activity ahead. I think we're going to have to fight if we want to reach the shelter.] Lupin said grimly in her head.
Rin gulped but steeled herself. She was a Magical Girl now, she wouldn't let a few alien freak stop her from reaching her goal.
[I would recommend spending your skill points before we start the fight. I don't think we can afford being conservative with our ressources with the resistance ahead.]
Rin frowned but nodded in understanding. She wasn't sure what she should spend her point on. After a few minutes of indecision she decided to spend three points in perception and one in strenght since she was mostly focusing on ranged combat for now. With the six remaining points she decided to buy the Time Breath spell, curious to see what it could do.
''Open spell menu.'' Rin said right before a new window pop up with a more detailed explanation of her new spell.
> Time's Breath Incantation: Hold your breath.
>
> Spell effect: Allow the user to stop the flow of time for as long as they're not breathing. Once the user start breathing again the flow of time will return. Once time resume a cooldown of five minutes will apply before the spell can be recasted.
''Wow, that sound insane. I can just stop time? I knew Magical Girls could do some incredible things. But now I almost feel sorry at how unfair this is for the Unfeelings.'' Rin said with a chuckle.
Before she could marvel any longer at her new spell she heard the scream of what sounded like a woman coming from a small house down the street. Rin took off running in the direction of the scream and saw that the door of the house had been torned to shred.
She ran inside and was greeted with a living room in complete chaos. The couch was completely shred, the stuffing was all over the floor. The TV had ben cut in half and was sparkling dangerously with electricity. In the middle of the room stood the familiar figure of a clawed Unfeeling. A Merciless if she remembered correctly.
Curled up in fear under it was a woman with gray hair. She looked old enough to be a grandmother and was wearing a pair of thick glasses. The Merciless raised it's claw ready to finish off it's prey.
Rin gasp in horror and held her breath. She was confused at first when everything suddenly turned gray and the monster stop in it's track. That was until she remembered the spell she had just bought and realised what just happened. She had stop time!
Not wasting more time she summoned her sword and charged at the clawed alien. But when she swung the blade at it she was met with a loud, clang! And the sword bounced off it's target. She tried again and was met with the same result. As if the monster had turned into an unbreakable rock.
Was that an effect of stopping time? The spell might not have been as broken as she first tought...But maybe she could still use this to her advantage if she acted quickly. She was running out of oxygen fast so she switched weapon quickly and brought out her glock.
She backed away from the Unfeeling and aimed at the beast and fired. The bullet travel for about a meter before it turned gray and stood still like everything else. She took aim again and fired again, again and again until she emptied half of her magazine.
Finally not able to hold her breath anymore she gasped for air and time resumed. Immediatly the Merciless was bombarded with the bullets and was torned to shred. She heard the woman screamed again. Before the creature dissipated.
She walked toward the poor old woman still laying on the ground and gave her a hand to help her stand back up.
The old lady looked at Rin with a baffled but grateful expression. ''What are you still doing out there young lady? You should have found a shelter!''
Rin shrugged in response. ''It's kind of a long story, but I can handle myself, I'm a Magical Girl. You shouldn't be out there either ma'am. I was making my way to the Central Shelter, do you want to come too?''
''You're a Magical Girl? But you look so young! I really don't like that those aliens benefactors enroll such young kids into their war.'' She said with a dissaproving frown that made her feel kind of nervous. But Rin understood her disapproval wasn't aimed directly at her.
''So why didn't you make you way to the shelter ma'am?'' Rin asked trying to change the subject.
''Call me Alicia dear. As for why I didn't run, well I don't have any of those fancy augmentations kids these day put into their brains. So I didn't received any warnings until the freaks were right on my door.'' The old lady replied with a scowl.
Ah that would explain it, it was pretty rare for people to not have any augs nowaday. ''Well better late than never. We can make our way there if you follow me.'' Rin said with more confidence than she felt.
Alicia sighed. ''I feel shameful for letting such a young girl like you protect me. But it's not like I have much of a choice, being a frail old lady. I'll do my best to not get in your way.''
She took Alicia hand and guided her tought the still eerily silent streets. It was only a few minutes later that the looming structure of the Town Hall appeared in front of them. She could see a bunch of Emotionless and Ravenous roaming around the perimeter. But more importantly she saw a massive hulking figure. It looked like some sort of giant hairless gray ape about the size of a bear. It's muscle rippled with pure strenght with every movements it made.
[That's bad, the Unfeeling you see is called a Rageless. Out of the Unfeelings you can encounter during the first hour of an Emergence this is easily one of the worst you could get. We need to get rid of it. It's proximity to the shelter could pause a danger for the civilians.]
''How am I supposed to get rid of that?'' Rin replied her face somewhat pale as she hid from the sight of the Unfeelings.
[Your Time's Breath will be ready in two more minutes. You should wait until then. Meanwhile we should probably consider going on a small shopping spree. Time's Breath seem to work best with ranged weapon so you could consider using a bow or a crossbow. And as loathed as I am to recommend it, an automatic gun could also serve you well.]
''You really want me to get a bow huh? But no offense but I don't see how a bow could be more effective than a gun.'' Rin said while corssing her arm.
''Who are you talking to young lady?'' Alicia asked making Rin flinche in surprise. She had almost forgot she was right behind her, She looked at Rin clearly concerned for her sanity.
''O-oh I'm talking to my Familiar, it's a Magical Girl thing.'' Rin replied her face flushed with embarassment. Alicia nodded but was clearly still worried about her.
[When you're surrounded by people or enemies you can simply talk to me in your mind. People will probably start asking questions if they see you talking to empty air constantly.]
Rin rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. 'R-right, now that I think about it you responded to a lot of my questions before I could vocalise them.'
[Exactly, as for why I heavily recommend a bow. Well there's two reasons. One, since the use of bows are obsolete in mundane wars it won't tarnish your innocent Magical Girl image like using guns will. Secondly while you are right that for normal people guns are much more effective. In the hands of a Magical Girl bows are much more versatile and are much more compatible with magic than mundane firearms are. I suppose for now at your low level, guns are still more effective. But once you gain a better control of your magic bows will outclass firearms everytime.]
'Huh...Maybe I will invest into bows later on then. But for now I think I'll stick to guns until this Emergence is finally over.' Rin replied in her mind.
[...Very well, what type of weapon would you like?]
'Mmh, well to deal with the Emotionless and Ravenous I think I want a one handed machine gun. With so many enemies to deal with I don't think I'll be able to completely avoid melee combat. So I want a small but quick-firing gun that will keep my options opened.'
[Hmm, how about a Uzi then? I could also get a few extra magazines. That would cost about 18 points in total.]
'That sound perfect. But I'll need something way bigger to deal with that Rageless. I was thinking to blow it to kingdom come. So how about a RPG?'
To Rin's amusement she could hear Lupin sputtering in her mind at her suggestion. [You make my job as your PR manager so hard you know that?] Rin rolled her eyes and snickered. [But very well, however RPG are extremely slow to reload and I don't think a single rocket will be enough to deal with that beast. I recommend buying three or four arleady loaded RPG that you can fire in quick succession. However this will cost 15 points for every RPG so it could get pretty expensive.]
'As you said earlier we can't afford to be conservative right? So let's buy four of them and make sure that thing is dead.'
[Very well.] Lupin replied somewhat reluctantly.
> Attuned Uzi: 15 points
> Uzi extra magazines x4: 3 points
> Attuned Rocket Propelled Grenade x3: 60 points
> 16 points remaining
She winced at how how low her point count had become. But It wasn't the time to regret her choise. Four boxes appeared in front of her. She could hear Alicia gasped as she opened them all and revealed the weapons inside. Rin stored all of them in her soul gem. And let out a deep breath as she took a peak at the horde of Unfeelings she was going to face.
[Your Time's Breath is ready to use whenever you want.] Lupin stated.
She nodded grimly before materializing her magic sniper in her hands and took aim at one of the wandering Ravenous.
She pull the trigger. The gun let out a screech as it let out a blast of concentrated magic and the Ravenous howled in agony as it entire body melted from the beam as it hit it.
The shot had clearly caught the attention of all the Unfeelings. The Emotionless started slowly shambling toward her. But more pressing was the three remaining Ravenous sprinting at her on all four.
She held her breath and timed froze. She pushed the trigger and let out another shot. However much to her shock and dismay the shot of magic did not stop in time like the bullets from earlier did. And when it hit one of the Ravenous body it dissipated uselessly without doing any damages.
So magic wasn't affected by the time's paralyzis. 'That would have been good to know before.' She said in her mind wrily. But Lupin did not responded which kind of felt unsettling. Had time stop for him too?
She had no time to ponder on the question she switched her sniper for the Uzi and started shooting toward the frozen Ravenous. She spreaded the shots evenly between all three until her magazine was empty.
Her lungs burn for oxygen at this point but she needed more time. Disgarding her uzi she summoned her RPG and took aim at the hulking monster that had been frozen midair during his run toward her.
She pressed on the trigger and was instantly knocked flat on her bum from the recoil. She gasped involutarily and time resumed. The three Ravenous yelped in agony as they were each pelted with bullets and died from the assault.
Meanwhile the rocket she had shot hit the Rageless straight in the chest and exploded. For a moment she almost hoped the beast was dead but it soon bursted out from the smoke and looked completely unphased.
Rin quickly summoned another RPG And fired. This time she was ready for the recoil. But it still messed up with her aim. She didn't manage to get a direct hit this time but the rocket exploded right at the feet of the Rageless still damaging it from the explosion and shrapnel. But that was nowhere near enough to slow it down.
Rin held her breath. To her shock despite the cooldown being nowhere close to be over the flow of time was still affected. It did not stop like earlier but everything moved much slower. The Rageless was advancing toward her at a tenth of it's earlier speed.
However she felt an insane headache assaulting her brain. And it took everything in her willpower to not not collapse then and there.
She summoned the third RPG and fired it at the oncoming giant gorilla. The rocket did not stop like earlier but it slowly flew toward it's target at the pace of a snail. Finally she bough the last rocket launcher and took careful aim before pulling the trigger.
She could feel her lungs burning for air again. But before resuming time to normal she took out her uzi and reloaded it and spray the bullets toward the shambling zombies in the distance.
Finally she took a breath. the zombies were riddle with holes and their body scattered into ashes. The giant approaching gorilla was greeted with a twin explosions and screeched in agony.
To her horror even after all that. The giant beast emerged from the smoke like a vengeful creature of death.
[Rin, get away!] Lupin yelled in a panic.
But it was too late the beast was arleady upon her and it swat Rin like some sort of annoying mosquito. Rin screamed as her body was sent flying like a rag doll.
Her body hurled throught the wall of a house destroying it completely. Rin landed on top of a wooden table that proceeded to collapse from the impact.
[Rin! Rin! Are you alright?!] Lupin asked with panic evident in his voice.
Rin could only respond with a painful groan. It felt like her entire body was bruised. She just wanted to sleep and never wake up.
Alicia screamed, Rin's heart turned to ice at the sound. Rin tried to lift herself and screamed in pain as she collapsed back on the ground. ''I-I have to save her.''
[Rin! You're lucky to be alive! You shouldn't even move right now!]
''I can't...abandon Alicia.'' It took everything to not lose consciousness right there. Her body was screaming in pain even in places she didn't even know existed until then. She shambled outside the wreckage of the house with only her determination keeping her awake.
The Rageless was advancing toward Alicia. The old woman had her back against a wall as she stared at the giant beast in terror.
Rin grit her teeth and summoned her sword. She took off running, her movements were painfully wobbly and unrefined. But she still managed to reach the Rageless before it could kill Alicia.
She jumped on the back on the gorilla and screamed in pure anger as she plunged in her sword in it's skull.
Rin was sent tumbling on the ground as the Rageless fell down on it's knee and she yelped in agony as her bruised body hit the ground. But as she saw Alicia scared and worried expression her rage made her ignore the pain as she stood back up retreiving her sword from the skull of the beast and slashed at the neck of the massive Unfeeling. Screaming with all the hatred in her body.
The head of the Rageless became separated from it's body and it tumbled on the ground before it's entire body disolved into dust.
Rin was left breathing swallowly. Her rage was finally spent and she had no energy left to substain her damaged and broken body. With a flash of light Rin turned back into a regular boy in front of the shocked eyes of Alicia. His sword clattered on the ground before he collapsed and felt his vision go dark...