Liara’s feet and big mouth once again got her into trouble that she did not need. As soon as she saw Belle go down from a hail of the Destroyer’s bullets, she sprinted toward her downed classmate. Between the spray of bullets clashing off her silver mana armor and what happened next, Belle had only one second to give Liara a blank look of terror and helplessness before an iron dome materialized out of thin air around her and covered her up.
The drumming of lead meeting the metal surface of the iron dome beat a rhythm of fury matched only by the frustrated roar of the disabled Destroyer. Seeing then that its gunfire was having no effect on the dome, it swung its lamplight gaze on a new target, one that was running right toward it and out in the open.
In the chaotic heat of the moment, Liara did the worst thing possible and hesitated in her tracks as she stared down the barrel of one of the Destroyer’s turrets.
The bullets were faster than her reaction and Liara was knocked down by the first onslaught of rounds. She did not die nor feel pain, but panic threatened to take over her mental faculties as an alarm notification from her armor alerted her that a significant chunk of her mana pool had been used up at once from those first few shots. Yet rather than run away from the damage like every instinct in her body was telling her to do, Liara stumbled sideways instead while the impact of bullets kept her from totally regaining her feet.
The armor’s warning notifications became louder and an audio cue shrilled that she was near critical damage, but these stopped when the bullets stopped hitting her. The Destroyer roared again, but it could scream as much as it wanted; Liara had survived.
The iron dome had protected Liara too, but rather than materializing around her like it did for Belle, Liara utilized its position relative to the immobile Destroyer and put it between her and the Yabanchi's guns. If she had instead run away from the beast, then she would have remained in its line of sight and been gunned down in the back.
Pellas tried asking Liara if she was alright, but her mind was too focused on the iron dome ahead of her and the ringing of bullets ricocheting off of it. When she walked up to the dome, limbs still shaking from adrenaline, and inspected it, she saw a small hatch on the side facing her. Since she could not walk around the rest of the dome without getting shot, Liara did what came naturally when a person sees a door and knocked on the hatch.
Over the thundering of the Destroyer "still" trying to shoot the dome, Liara thought she heard some whispers coming from the other side of the dome. When no one answered she let the heat build up in her right hand and flame struck the hatch twice. Her hand left two solid dents in the surprisingly thin dome and Liara shouted, "Belle, it's Liara, let me in."
Pellas settled next to her on the grass and said, “Not by the hairs of my chinny chin chin!”
Before she could ask her weird, little golem what that even meant, the hatch and a commanding voice issued from it. “Well, come on then girl. Get in here.”
Heeding the voice inside the dome, Liara and Pellas crawled inside the small opening and were pleasantly surprised. There was a small orb of light emanating from the top of the dome, so they were not in abject darkness and the sound of the Destroyer's bullets were muffled to the point that the stream of death sounded like a gentle rhythm rain. The only unpleasant part was an angry cat floating in the air and giving them a dirty look. Liara studied the strange cat and realized it was a golem from its sleek lines and glowing eyes, eyes which were bored into Pellas the moment they crawled inside.
“Oh, it’s you.”
“Ah, Cassandra, a ray of comfort and sunshine as always.”
“Of all the Golems to choose a Magical Girl at this Academy, it had to be you.”
“Well, it is not just me you know, Jarron chose a girl here too.”
The cat, Cassandra apparently, flicked her tail and rolled over twice. “By ME-GO you have to be jesting. I don’t think I can handle you both.”
Liara left the golems to their conversation and slid next to the only other occupant of the dome, Belle Noblesse. Her classmate had lost all the airs of superiority that she normally carried around and was huddled against the wall of the dome. She did not look at Liara when she approached but kept staring at the grass in front of her with a frozen expression. Her eyes were like vacant windows that saw nothing, but they exposed the blank canvas of running, paralyzing thought that made the blonde girl tremble with inaction. That same feeling of overwhelming input had plagued Liara more than once this day, so her heart went out to her fellow classmate and now fellow Magical Girl, but if she had learned something from all those brushes with death, it was that you had to keep moving forward.
So it was, with just a little more glee than she should have felt, that Liara pressed her finger against Belle’s arm and jolted her with a small burst of pure mana.
Belle yelped and schooched away from the source of pain. As she clutched her arm, she glared at Liara and asked, “What was that for?”
Liara carefully hid a smile and replied, “Had to make you snap back to reality somehow. You didn’t seem to like getting water dumped on you last year, so I figured I’d take a lesson from you on getting someone’s attention.”
“Noted.” Belle rubbed at her bicep and looked around at the dome, her anger quickly faded back to pale shock. “I almost died out there. I swear, I really thought that was the end.”
“Well, thankfully you have me,” Cassandra bounded over between the girls and nuzzled Belle’s arm. “I activated the emergency iron dome just in time.”
“An emergency iron dome? One of those things costs three thousand points!” Pellas spoke as he settled next to Liara.
“Actually, five thousand, since it’s an advanced emergency iron dome,” Cassandra purred. “It can be used twice a day.”
“How can you afford something like that on top of the mana armor and mana weapon your Magical Girl is carrying?!”
"Now, now. I could ask you how your Magical Girl already has a mana eye?" Cassandra closed her left eye and stared at Liara.
“That is different!”
“Oh really? How so?”
“We do not know where she got the points to buy it, they were just kind of, there.” Pellas’ tone deflated and he seemed less willing to argue with his fellow golem.
“Oh, that’s real convenient, Pellas. The system just decided to spare you a few thousand out of generosity?”
Belle stopped the golems’ argument with a word of her own, “My mother purchased all this equipment and upgrades ahead of time.”
“They don’t need to know that my dear, it is none of their business,” Cassandra whispered to Belle, but Pellas erupted.
"You stupid cat, complaining about my Magical Girl's eye when you probably have more upgrades and equipment than most medium-tier teams have combined!"
“It’s not my fault you chose a poor outer colony girl. Maybe if you chose girls who lived longer than a few years, you’d get somewhere.”
Putting aside the creepiness of Cassandra’s last remark and its implications, Liara tried her best to engage Belle and find out what resources they had at their disposal, as well as a more burning question on her mind.
“Belle, I’m glad to see you anyway, but what about the others? Are they ok? What were you doing out here?”
"Yeah, yeah, glad you're alive too. They were okay when I left. We fought off an attack with your friend. One of those stupid monsters got a freshman girl, but otherwise, everyone is still alive. After they attacked the barricade, Cassandra here chose me as her Magical Girl." Belle paused like she ate a nasty fruit. "Mother sent her. Apparently, the authorities are aware that the academy is under attack. There are no Mana Marines or Magical Girls available to spare, so Mother bribed my golem with upgrades and sent her here to help."
“Belle, please, I told you, they are not bribes, they are,” Cassandra paused, “gifts.”
“Call it what you want,” Belle muttered.
Liara was not about to look a golem bearing gifts in the mouth, she was too relieved to hear about the shelter anyway. Knowing another student lost her life was tragic, but hearing that Talia was ok, and fighting the good fight too, was a huge load off of her mind. With that knowledge, Liara could focus on the present.
“What kind of upgrades and weapons do you have? Maybe we can take out that Destroyer together.”
"Wouldn't you like to know, girl?" Cassandra floated up and into Liara's personal space around her face.
“Cassandra, please,” Belle scratched her golem behind the ear and though the cat was still glaring at Liara, her tail swashed back and forth from the scratch. “I have a level two Manukai mana sword that’s been specifically attuned to my mana as well as a set of light mana power armor.”
"That is at least twenty-five thousand points!" Pellas gasped.
Seeing Pellas' reaction, Cassandra gleefully picked up where her Magical Girl left off. "Oh yes, that's not to mention the advanced iron dome defense, two-way telepath relay, one-up foundation stat boost package, three reaction stat increases, and a one-off mana blast module."
The cat golem’s grin widened to show all her sharp pointed teeth under her glowing blue eyes, but Pellas made that smirk disappear in a second. “And even with all that, you two had difficulty with one Destroyer?”
“As if you would fare any better, cur!”
"As a matter of fact, we would!"
Belle gave Liara an eye-roll that the Magical Girl empathized with only too well. It seemed that eccentric golems were the rule, rather than the exception.
"I'm not sure if we'd do any better against the Destroyer, we made a plan and all, but that mana blast module might do a better job than what I had in mind," Liara said.
"That mana blast module is a two thousand point, single-use consumable. No way are we wasting it on a single Destroyer," Cassandra stopped arguing with Pellas and settled back in the center of the group.
“Perhaps we shall leave the honor of cleaning up that Destroyer to you then, Gee-Gee. Do so and I will overlook your impudence of blasting my arm with your mana.”
Liara stared at Belle, incredulous, but it was obvious that the other woman was putting on a face. She was still trembling and she was not looking at anyone as she made her statement. She was afraid and did not want to face the Destroyer again, fancy equipment or not.
“You know, I bought an eye upgrade that lets me see in thermal vision,” Liara tapped her right eye. “And the plan was that I was going to have Pellas distract the Destroyer while I snuck up on it and shoved a mana grenade down its exhaust port, but we can’t do that now. I think you need to help me, Belle.”
Belle sniffed and still did not look at her, “Aside from how stupid your previous plan sounds, why do I have to help? You’re probably more than capable of defeating that Yabanchi yourself.”
"Because you're afraid, that's why." Belle's head finally snapped toward Liara and she continued, "There's no point in denying it. I know it's scary, you almost died out there and your legs feel like jello while your belly won't stop clenching, and I know you're feeling that because I'm feeling it right now too, but this is an important moment. We're Magical Girls now, Belle, and I don't know why we were chosen, as weak as I am and stuck up as you are, but that has to mean something."
“You presume a lot, maybe too much. Why’s it so important that I go out there and face that thing again?”
“As long as you’re in here,” Liara gestured to the iron dome around them and then pointed at her head. “You’re also in here. Get up and do something rather than being stuck in the past, girl.”
Bell took a deep breath through her nostrils and then exhaled through her mouth, then she fixed Liara with a steadier gaze. "I swear, did you and Talia take some sort of rhetoric class I was not aware of? At least you didn't blab about glory or some nonsense like that."
“I don’t think there’s much glory to it when you’re surrounded by reminders of people you failed to protect.” Liara looked away, remembering, the cafeteria full of dead students. “It’s just the right thing to do.”
Liara hit the right spot as Belle’s soft conscience was jolted by the reminder of the honorable choice. Embittered by this she spat, “I don’t need you reminding me of that, I’m perfectly capable of moving forward, but we’re going to have to wait if you want my help since my mana pool is less than ten percent of its max. If either of us get hit by an attack like last time, then we’ll really be stuck in the past.”
Liara put a finger to her lips and tilted her head while she checked her stats. “Nope, my mana is almost back to full.”
“What? How?! Did you get some sort of special ability?”
Cassandra arched her back and started licking her paw. "Nothing so grand my dear. Something tells me Pellas probably had the girl buy a mana elixir. An expensive and time-limited consumable and one that your mother did not purchase for us beforehand, unfortunately."
“How much is it then?”
“Two hundred points, which is a shame since with the starter bonus quest you’re less than a hundred off. Guess we’ll have to let Pellas and his girl handle the Destroyer.”
“Hold on,” Liara held up a hand and started doing the math in her head. “The thermal mana eye upgrade cost me a hundred points, but I should have some left. I can just give them to you, then you can buy an elixir too.”
Belle’s face twinged in distaste. “Uh no. I’m not taking any charity from you and besides, those things only last for an hour.”
“They do?” Liara looked at Pellas and her golem stirred the dirt underneath him with one of his arms.
“Well, they are kind of emergency consumables,” he replied. “Not to mention they can only be used once a month.”
“Pellas,” Liara started, but he cut her off.
“Now come on, I thought it was the best solution for the moment! We never would have gotten those mana storage spheres filled if you had not taken it!”
“Were you going to tell me this or was I just going to find out in the middle of a fight?”
Pellas did not reply and Liara reflected that perhaps listening to his advice all the time without question was not always the best course of action. In the future, she would have to make decisions with better critical thinking or else face more blindsided situations like this one. Belle saved them from the awkward silence with a question of her own. "Wait, forget about this elixir. Did I hear you say you have filled mana storage spheres?"
“Well, yeah, three of them.”
“Did Talia carry you through every class? They taught us about mana transfer freshman year! I can use two of those to refill my mana. It won’t be a perfect transfer given I’m not you, but it should be about 50% each.”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Oh good, then that’ll leave me with one left.”
“And pray tell, what will you use it for?”
Now it was Liara’s turn to look at the grass and blush.
“A hand grenade.”
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The Destroyer had stopped firing its front turret at the frustrating iron dome. Both its targets had hidden inside of it, but the Yabanchi had the patience of a hunter. Instinctually it knew it need only wait for its prey to surface like rabbits and when they did, it would tear them apart. Apparently, it did not need to wait long as one of the humans burst from around the dome and ran past it.
The blonde-haired human ran faster than its turret could track, but the Destroyer tried anyway. It was so focused on taking down its target that it did not notice the other human clamber onto its chassis until it was too close to hit with either its front or back turret. With a swing of one of its large arms, the Destroyer knocked the human off as it tried to drop something into an exhaust port.
Now that the second human was no longer standing on its vehicle chassis, the Destroyer had a perfect shot lined up and aimed both turrets.
Liara's demise never came as the mana storage sphere she tried dropping into the Destroyer's exhaust port detonated. If she had been successful in dropping it where she wanted, it would have gone off inside the Yabanchi's core and set off the thousands of rounds of ammunition in it along with the reactor. Forced to change her plan, Liara activated it as it rolled on the exterior of the Destroyer's armor plating, yet the results were still impressive. The Destroyer's pale flesh melted in an inferno of mana-powered flame, its roar swallowed up by the intensity of the crackling flames, yet it did not die. The mechanical bits of the monster withstood the flames and even as its fleshy torso sagged and collapsed in a sizzling mess, the turrets started firing wildly in every direction.
Belle was still running, straight toward the admin building as planned, so she would not be back until she touched the building and came back. Liara could have waited and let Belle finish off the Destroyer with her fancy equipment since the randomly firing turrets were of little danger to her as she hugged the ground, but something caught her eye as she stared at the burning tank.
Dr. Holzer's mana spear was sticking out of the treads of the Destroyer, obviously the reason why it had been immobilized. An idea struck Liara then and she stood up, heedless of the bullets whistling by and her half-drained mana armor. She ran up and grabbed the end of the spear, pulling with all her strength, but it did not seem to budge. A stray bullet smacked her in the face and it occurred to her that she would be dead if not for her armor's invisible defense. Fear and anger lent her a little more adrenaline and with a foot planted on the metal chassis, Liara wrenched Holzer's spear free.
It was a lightweight thing, even lighter than the spear she had been lent earlier, but she did not spare a moment to appreciate its craftsmanship, since she grabbed the lip of the Destroyer and climbed on it once again. She burned the palm of her left hand as she did so, but her right was unaffected, either way, she found herself standing on top of the thing, and facing the smoldering mass of what was left of the beast. It was still alive.
Those lamplight eyes flickered and set their evil gaze on her, but when it tried roaring, a horrendous wheeze of grinding gears and soldered lungs came out instead. Superheated claw reached out for Liara, to rip apart what its guns could not finish, but Liara struck first, planting the end of Holzer's mana spear where the Destroyer's flesh met the metal bottom. She had no cheesy one-liners, just the determination to press the firing stud of the mana spear as many times as she could.
She knew each blast of super dense air took more mana out of her armor and made her more vulnerable, but the effect was satisfyingly grim. The first pulse of mana-pressured air made the Destroyer jolt back from her as its internal organs and machinery were mashed together, and the second blast sent it into a pathetic slump. Liara had fired the spear a fifth time when Pellas' arm grabbed her.
"Liara, stop, it is dead already!"
She jerked away from Pellas’ arm and wrenched the spear out, pointing it at the Destroyer’s face, but its bright eyes had dimmed over a slackened maw, and the turrets likewise had stopped firing, silenced forevermore.
Liara stumbled a step and slid down and off the Destroyer, remembering to touch its hot surface with only her right hand, and settled in the grass. Her breath was ragged and she felt suddenly lightheaded. With a thought, she pulled up her stat screen and checked the latest notifications. There were three, but one in particular caught her attention.
*Light Destroyer slain - 100 points*
*Heavy Yabanchi slain Quest 1/1 - 100 points*
*PRIVATE SYSTEM MESSAGE *
The bold letters burned in her mind more than the other two messages and Liara could not help but open the flashing notification with a mental assent. She should have made sure the area was clear, for as soon as she did so, she was plunged into darkness.
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The surrounding black ether was familiar, as it was before when she was chosen to be a Magical Girl, yet she did not get thrown into a throne room this time. She just hovered there, in the overwhelming nothingness and waited.
“Uh, hello?”
“AH, CHILD. I AM SO GLAD YOU HAVE MADE IT THIS FAR.”
The voice coming from everywhere at once was definitely a woman’s. It was loud, but not nearly as bad as the voice she heard from the throne or even the slithering one after, it was more like a person speaking through a loudspeaker into her mind. Though she was probably speaking to a being much more powerful than her, Liara felt like asking the voice a snappy question.
"Is that why I've been getting squeezed for every point you can get out of me? Why my friends and I have been abandoned at the academy with no help?" There was a long pause as if the other person was either considering what she said or otherwise busy, but eventually Liara got a reply.
“I WILL OVERLOOK YOUR INSOLENCE SINCE YOU KNOW NOT TO WHOM YOU SPEAK TO.”
“And who are you?”
“I AM THE QUEEN.”
Liara stiffened and suddenly felt the weight of her words and the words being spoken to her. She tried to bow, but in the strange mental landscape, she was not sure if she pulled it off.
“GOOD, GOOD. YOU REMEMBER YOURSELF. FEAR NOT THOUGH, GIRL, I HAVE COME WITH A BOON AND NOT THE WHIP.”
This made Liara lift her head, her first thought was of something for Holzer. "Can you save Doctor Holzer? He's hurt and the greater restoration only did so much."
“THAT FRAIL MAN? I HAVE NO TIME FOR HIM. HAVE SOME OTHER BOND HIM IF YOU MUST, BUT NO, I HAVE COME TO BESTOW ON YOU A CLASS.”
Now Liara really did feel lightheaded and would have gone to her knees if there was ground to sink to. A Magical Girl class was something only those who were high-ranked received. It was a recognition from ME-GO of faithful service or achievement. Unlocking a class was a boon in the upgrades that it provided, but it also limited a Magical Girl in the paths she could take. There was a reason they were normally bestowed on Magical Girls with years of experience under their belts, by that time they had solidified their tactics and growth direction, but for a Magical Girl as fresh as Liara it was almost unheard of.
Yet there was no denying the Queen, the sovereign ruler of the United Planets, Chief of the Conglomerate, and preeminent Magical Girl warrior. Liara bowed again, “I graciously thank the Queen for her benevolence.”
“OF COURSE YOU DO. NOW KNEEL.”
Liara tried her best to kneel in the dark and it must have been enough as the Queen continued, "THE SHADOWS DEEPEN, CHILD OF MINE, AND OUR ENEMIES ARE NUMEROUS. SERVE ME, SERVE ME-GO WITH EVERYTHING IN YOU AND SLAY MY FOES. I GRANT YOU THE POWER, STRIKE THEM WITH THE RAGE I FEEL IN YOUR HEART. STRIKE THEM AS MY CHOSEN 'DRAGOON'.
Liara’s heart beat in her chest and it was from more than just nervousness. It was more power than even when she first became a Magical Girl, the potential of what she could do swelled in her with promises of ravaging the enemy with strikes of fury and purpose. A small part of her quelled at these feelings, these desires to rip and tear, but she squashed them underneath the necessity of the now, for that small feeling in her would not serve as fuel for what needed to be done.
“SO IT IS, SO IT SHALL BE. GO FORTH AND DESTROY THEM ALL, MY CHILD.”
There was no time for more questions, as Liara was suddenly plunged back into the real world and out of the dark and into the light of the still-burning Destroyer. Belle was hovering over her, along with Pellas, and asked if Liara was okay, but she seemed a little pale herself. When Liara finally caught her breath and started to breathe normally again, she told them she was fine and started to tell them what happened. The burning hulk of the Destroyer was inescapably taking up a part of her attention as she tried to tell them about her meeting with the Queen. The more she stared at the burning skull of the cyborg, the more she started to think it looked all too human.
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After the four of them discussed the class change and private message from the queen, they left the dead Destroyer behind, made their way straight to the admin building, and peeked inside the lobby. For the other three, it was nearly impossible to see inside the darkened room, they could only tell that it was full of monsters but Liara's thermal vision let her see a better picture of the interior. At least several dozen Screamers and Gargoyles were feasting on the cooling remnants of some students and staff. Liara had idly wondered if the girl who helped her with her paperwork was among the unrecognizable blobs of thermal heat her eye picked up and rather than shrink back and vomit like she might have in the past, she almost charged inside to kill the filthy monsters. Yet it was Pellas who dragged her back to the present, a gentle tap and mental word that reminded her that charging straight in was not always the best course of action. He was right, of course, but that was not the only thing that bothered her.
She sometimes made rash decisions, but she never had such a bloodthirsty urge like this. The desire to rip into the Yabanchi had made her skin itch and heart pound in her mouth. The feeling had not even fully subsided when they were out of sight of the massacre and it scared her. So, she opened her stats while they walked around to the back of the admin building, and checked her stat changes again.
The biggest change was in big red letters next to her name: "Dragoon". Ironically, of the other three, Cassandra had been the most impressed that Liara had been bestowed a class. Though of course, she turned it into a backhanded compliment when she told her that it was "because you need all the help you can get". Meanwhile, Belle had pestered her about speaking with the Queen and Pellas had been unusually quiet and seemed more interested in her physical health than anything else.
That had been hard to describe when he asked since Liara had never felt better or stronger before. Each step she took felt lighter and her spear must have lost some mass too, but it looked exactly the same. Her stats reflected and explained the change since her strength and reaction stats had jumped from below-average nines to solid twelves. With stats like that, she could probably beat any full-grown man in an arm wrestling match or outrun a racing hound. The boost to her mana pool was immensely welcome as well, but a new ability appeared at the bottom of her stats, "bloodlust". Neither golems nor Belle had any substantial commentary on that, but Liara was wary of it despite the potential advantages it may have offered.
"It is really to our advantage that Liara has a class now. With the proper point allocation we can maximize her-", Pellas' running commentary to the rest of the part stopped when they finally reached behind the main administration building and found a gruesome sight. A statue of the academy's founder, some woman whose name Liara forgot, stood tall and proud, beckoning to someone invisible with her eternal pose. Yet now, the bronze statue was covered in blood from the base of its marble pedestal to the shining skirt. Underneath it were at least half a dozen Yabanchi bodies, broken and mangled in various death throes. When the girls got closer to investigate, they found a human corpse among the dead that was almost unrecognizable.
The man's body was so ripped and mangled by Yabanchi claws and teeth that even the golems shied away from the scene, but Liara thought she recognized the tweed material on the corpse. She forced herself to study the man's body, where most of his right arm was still rammed down a Screamer's throat and focused on the ruined mess of what was once a face. She knew who it was by the one remaining eye staring out at her; for even in death, his gaze had retained its serenity.
“It’s Dr. Clarke.”
“Ah,” Pellas inched forward and peered with her. “Yes, I see it now too. The paladin battle instructor. I suppose he did not make it to Madam Anatova after all.”
They all looked down at Dr. Clarke now and marveled at the sight of his final battle. The Screamers, Lurkers, and Mylocks surrounding him had crushed skulls and torn windpipes, though their claws were bloody from where they gouged Dr. Clarke’s flesh and took their price. The final Yabanchi, a huge Screamer, had died on top of Dr. Clarke, its final fate met when the Paladin shoved his right hand down its throat and choked it to death on the very same thing it was trying to eat.
Dr. Clarke had come this far, without Magical Girl Upgrades, and he had taken as many of those monsters with him as he could. Yet two things bounced with the grief running through her mind. The first she found when she turned over the corpse of another Yabanchi, the gleaming silver shined in the dim sunlight, defiant of the death and darkness around it, Dr. Clarke’s shield.
Cassandra sniffed, “Robbing from the dead? Low brow if you ask me.”
Surprisingly, it was Belle who spoke in Liara’s defense. “No, not robbing. He certainly was not one of my favorites, but something tells me that he’d want us to take his shield. He was weird like that.”
Liara held the shield out to Belle, "How should we decide who gets to keep it? It must be worth a lot of points." To which Belle dismissively replied, "It's not like it's worth that much. It's an un-upgraded shield. Totally not worth ruining my reputation or my look. Plus, I don't do secondhand or shields."
Pellas made a sarcastic remark about Belle's looks, which got both Belle and Cassandra going, but Liara was not listening to them. There was still one thing that bothered her. The light weight of the mana shield in her hands reminded her of Dr. Clarke's favorite saying and she wondered at the whole grisly scene. It was not like he had to make a final stand and die, those kinds of heroic last stands were for movies, not real life. Indeed, the paladin battle instructors had taught their students all manner of tactics and Dr. Clarke certainly had better escape options if he was being pressed. No, there was something else, something they were not seeing. Liara scanned the immediate vicinity and pondered.
There was the admin building, full of monsters as it was, maybe they chased him from there. The Destroyer had been in the main quad, perhaps it forced him to limit his options. Were there other survivors? Liara did not see any bodies, aside from Clarke's, but finally, her eyes settled on a large, green box that was behind the admin building and next to the emergency fire exit. It was as inconspicuous as it was ugly since its smell tended to keep away company. A dumpster.
"Hey, where are you going?" Belle called out after Liara, but the white-haired girl let her feet carry her to the dumpster without answering. She thought she heard something when she got closer, but it was silent now. There was only one way to make sure, so she opened the lid and looked inside.
Only last-second thinking saved Liara from a face full of flame, as she simultaneously lifted the shield over her and opened the lid. The fire washed over her, its warmth only a shallow remnant of the heat that would have burned her face off without armor or shield. When the gout of fire stopped, its source gave a hiccupped cry of surprise and joy. Inside the dumpster were three students, covered in garbage and crying in fear as they were, they were also wonderfully alive.
“Oh, thank God! I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Are you ok?” The student who had blasted fire at Liara was babbling, but Liara shushed her and told her that yes, she was ok and that they would be ok too.
Belle and the others ran over to help and as the two Magical Girls lifted the three students out of the dumpster, Cassandra remarked, “Great. More dead weight.”
“Please tell me that my golem did not say that,” Belle muttered.
“I’m afraid she did, darling,” Pellas replied.
"What? Everyone knows that I'm right, you're all just too afraid to admit it that you're thinking it too." Cassandra's tail started swishing, and her eyes narrowed. "Belle, we can't keep getting waylaid by every tramp and dally that needs our help. We need to push forward, complete the objective, and survive."
“What then? Just leave these young women behind then?” Pellas asked.
“Well, they seemed to be doing just fine in that dumpster, just put them back in there. We’ll retrieve them when we are done.”
Hearing this, one of the girls grabbed Liara’s leg and started begging that they not be left behind again. Even if the weight of the girl’s tears did not move her, there was no way that Liara would listen to that heartless cat.
“We are not leaving them in the trash. Someone needs to go back and bring them to the student barracks shelter.” Liara eyed Cassandra and the golem swirled in the air until she was on her back.
“Good point, yes, why don’t you do that, Liara, honey.”
Knowing that talking to the golem would be fruitless, Liara turned and spoke to Belle. The haughty blonde girl looked less sure than her golem and Liara reasoned with her. “Dr. Holzer is dying Belle. He needs you and these girls need you too. I know it’s a tough decision to make, a commitment you may not be ready for but,” Liara was cut off by Belle raising a hand.
“But it is the honorable thing to do.” Belle turned and addressed Cassandra, “We are going back to the shelter.”
"What? That quick? What about the mission?"
Belle's eyes flicked from the quivering girls to the body of Dr. Clarke, and lastly at Liara, taking in everything and concreting her decision in a moment. "The mission is the same, whether I go on or Liara does, the protection of civilians and the Sovereign's lands is a calling I cannot refuse to heed."
Cassandra rolled her eyes and mumbled something about the propensity of drama in Magical Girls, but Liara grabbed Belle by the shoulder. "At the senior building, they don't have a shelter barrier up, but the student barracks do, Dana Cole is keeping them up. Can you go there first? Maybe bring the whole group together so we can have safety in numbers?"
"Dana Drifthead huh, is she a Magical Girl too?" Belle asked, to which Liara nodded. "Alright, fine, I'll escort them, but are you asking me because you care about the safety of the other students there or the safety of your friend?"
"Yes."
"Tch, fine. Noble either way, I suppose." Belle motioned to the three girls and started leading them away, but she stopped and spoke one last time. "I don't know what you're going to find in there, but if Madam Anatova is alive, tell her to get off her butt and lend us a hand will ya?"
Liara raised her right hand and agreed. As Belle, Cassandra, and the others walked away, Pellas whispered in her mind.
[With so many Yabanchi in the lobby alone, I am afraid we're not going to find good news in the administration building.]
Liara had no words for that, and Pellas was not expecting any. The fire exit was their ticket to a backway inside the admin building, but Liara did not need the rhythm of war stirring in her heart to let her know that the fight had only just started.
Liara (Dragoon)
Strength 12 Constitution 9 Reaction 13 Authority 11 Mana 830/830 (60 rpm) Mana Art Specialization Flame Strike (15), Fireball (300), Lesser Hallucination (50) Augmentations Reinforced mana hand, Mana eye (Thermal Vision) Golem Upgrades
Basic Medical Suite, Mimicry, Camouflage
Lesser Suggestion
Items Mana Storage Spheres (2), Light Mana Armor, Mana Spear, Shield T1 Special Ability Minor vitality regeneration, Bloodlust
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Madame Anatova, president of Apophyllion’s Magical Girl Academy, fought for her life in a battle that required no violence. The eyes of her paladin and girlhood friend, Jack Penn, were stuck on her in a frozen snarl of rage and fear, but no matter how much she hated seeing him like that, she could not release the powerful mana barrier around him.
She had been telling herself for the last few hours that she just had to hold on and that help would arrive soon, but a message had come through her golem only a few moments ago.
No one was coming.
At least, no one was coming in any time that would make a difference, but by then it would be too late, and she and anyone left in the building would die.