Haruto and I return to the group wearing expressions of sheer devastation. Everything we’d done, all of the pain and strife we’d suffered so far, had been for nothing. We couldn’t even take a shot at a fight against the mind flayer without being able to find it, and this city is massive. Without Margret and her tablet, what can we do?
As soon as we arrive, Akari breaks away from the others, moving quickly to my side. “Are you hurt? I saw you fall?” she asks, her voice intense.
Vaguely, I find it odd how concerned she is about my health when she’s already covered in bruises and slashes. I shake my head in a daze. I can’t seem to think straight, my mind jumping back to the sight of Margret smeared across the asphalt over and over. Somehow, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to stop seeing the bodies again.
I shake my head, “No, I just… they’re dead. All of them. And… the tablet is gone, Akari.”
Akari frowns at my words, not understanding. I can see the instant realization dawns on her as, for the first time in this accursed place, Akari’s face shows the same horror as mine. She stares straight ahead for a long moment before finally responding. “Can it be repaired? I have some experience with technology. Not a lot, but I can do some.”
I shake my head once more, “No… it’s completely shattered. Even if you could put it back together, it was completely soaked by the rain. I’m not sure I understand how that works, but I’m fairly sure water ruins technology if it gets inside of it.”
Akari nods, her face still showing an expression of blank horror. For a moment, we just stand together, staring out at the bodies surrounding us with a feeling of emptiness. It only lasts a moment, though, as Baylee, Claire, and the other soldiers also move to surround us.
“What’s going on?” Baylee asks, clearly reading the mood as she jogs over.
I open my mouth to respond, but Haruto beats me to the punch. “The soldiers are dead, and Margret’s tablet is destroyed. We can’t track the mind flayer.”
Instantly, Claire and Baylee start going through the same realization of what that means, but before they can really react, a soldier I don’t know speaks up.
“Well, not necessarily. We will just have to track it the hard way now,” he says, looking at our despairing faces.
Almost immediately, a tiny spark of hope appears within me once more. I leap on it, ecstatic to have even a chance.
Turning to the soldier, I look up at him. He’s a plain-looking man with large, blockish features. He is obviously someone who had come over from America with his brown hair, green eyes, and light skin. Really, to me, the best way for me to describe him is large. I’m quite small, or, as Claire likes to put it, little. This soldier is one of the few who clearly stands over six feet tall, and with his broad, muscular features, he probably weighs two or three times as much as me. He also looks young, maybe only eighteen. He must have just barely joined the GDF to help.
“I’m sorry,” I tell the soldier, stepping towards him. “I never learned your name.”
The soldier, looking vaguely uncomfortable to have the attention of an entire sentinel team locked on him, rubs the back of his head awkwardly. “I’m Lucas,” he says. “Sorry for not introducing myself earlier.”
“That’s okay,” I say gently, making a mental note to go and ask the rest of the soldiers their names if I ever have a chance. “Lucas, what do you mean that it’s still possible to track the mind flayer? As far as I’m aware, Margret’s tablet is the only way to do so.”
Lucas shakes his head, “No, I mean, for a sentinel, that is the only way. For a normal person, though, the stygis levels get slightly higher the closer you get to the anchor. Unlike you, we can feel that like a growing sense of dread. We can tell if we’re getting closer or further away from the anchor; it’s just less precise.”
I blink; I hadn’t even considered that. I offer Lucas the best smile I can manage after all I’d been through today. “Well, that is really good to hear. Do you think you can tell us which way to go?”
Lucas nods, pointing down the street Margret had been leading us down. “My feeling is that it’s further that way, near the center of the city.”
Baylee looks around at our other surviving soldiers. “Do you all agree with him?” she questions, receiving a series of nods and yes ma’ams in response.
I look to the people around me and smile. “There’s still hope. We can kill that mind flayer and get out of here.”
Beside me, Claire throws an arm around my shoulder. “Of course there’s still hope Little Blue!” she exclaims. “You promised me a fountain jumping expedition, and I’m holding you to it!”
That is enough to get laughs out of everyone on Team Picnic, even Akari, who had been told about Claire’s insane escapade during our first meeting. The soldiers all look vaguely confused but seem to be in better spirits than before, which is good. We won’t get far if everyone falls apart. Now, we just need to keep it together for a little longer. Until we can kill the mind flayer.
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We keep moving forward, stopping at every intersection for Lucas and the other soldiers to do their thing and feel out the right way to go. The process they use sounds suspiciously like they are just trying to find the direction they are most afraid of and then going that way. Effective, I suppose, but also a bit worrying for their sanity. These men had basically walked into a living nightmare to fight against the strange, twisted creatures that dwell there; their only support being a group of inexperienced teenagers with magic powers and superiority complexes. I personally wonder if any of us are really sane at this point, because insanity is honestly more likely than this being real.
So, step after step, we trudge down the streets; our progress is greatly slowed without Margert to guide us, but not stopped. As we walk, I can’t keep my mind from drifting back to the deaths I’d witnessed. The five soldiers that had given their lives to protect Shinara, to make sure that we could have a chance at victory.
My eyes strain to keep a lookout in all directions, as I had been doing for the hours I’d been in this place. I can feel myself starting to wane. My energy is not limitless, nor is the amount of time I can stay in my assault state. As we moved, I started watching my mana toxicity, and now it is starting to get into the dangerous range.
Mana Toxicity Level: 64%
If my mana toxicity gets above 90%, my soul gem will forcibly cancel my assault state and force me into unconsciousness. Even now, I can feel the weakness creeping into my bones, my former strength turning on its head. I have to leave this space, and soon, otherwise, I’ll be as helpless against the volcora as a standard teen girl.
Every time we stop at an intersection, I want to urge Lucas and the others to go faster, but the risk of taking a wrong turn makes me hold my tongue. I know that we don’t have a lot of time left before I, and likely my teammates as well, are forced to shift back to stop from falling unconscious. Taking a wrong turn could be disastrous and lead to all of our deaths.
It’s as I’m scanning our surroundings that I notice a problem. One of our soldiers, who had also been looking around, had simply stopped moving, his gaze locked on a dark side alley. I hadn’t been the only one to notice him stop, with Lucas also looking back at his fellow soldier.
“Richard? What’s wrong?” Lucas asks, even as Richard’s entire body begins to tremble; a horrifying gurgling noise comes from his throat as he starts to shake violently.
Following Richard’s eyes, I also look towards the darkened alley and am just able to make a darkened shape. Something is moving in that alley, like a dark sphere slowly floating towards us, surrounded by a nest of writhing tentacles.
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[Serena! Don’t look at it!] Celeste screams in my head the second my eyes fall on the strange creature. It was already too late.
Instantly, I find myself completely unable to move, all of my muscles painfully locking up. My head starts to pound with an intense headache, and my barrier flairs blue in front of me. It’s blocking some kind of attack, but I can’t see what. Even with its protection, I’m completely paralyzed, my body utterly refusing to listen to my commands as my heart races in my chest. An icy knife of fear stabs into me as I find myself unable to look away from the horrifying creature as it drifts into the light.
The volcora looks like a large, bloodshot eyeball. It doesn’t float above the ground so much as it seems to be carried by the writhing mass of tentacles attached to its bottom. It moves slowly, inexorably, and I find myself unable to escape even as cracks start to form in my barrier. I fight and struggle to move an inch, and I can feel Celeste lending me her strength in order to try and break free.
“That’s a gazer!” Haruto yells from my side. “Break their lines of sight!”
My body starts to tremble, completely outside of my control, as the cracks in my barrier get worse and worse, making me think it’s only seconds away from shattering. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Richard fall to the ground with a thud, his eyes having dissolved into a bloody mess on the street.
My barrier splinters further, moments from falling apart. I know I’m only seconds away from suffering the same fate as Richard, and I desperately wish I could close my eyes, but it’s impossible for me to control a single muscle. Then, a black-gloved hand slides in front of my eyes, and I’m free. I collapse, trembling violently even as Akari catches me before I crash down onto the concrete. My breaths are shaky, and my head pounds with pain. My entire body still seems to be having trouble moving at all, lingering paralysis, perhaps?
“Serena is down hard!” Akari yells, although I have trouble focusing on her as my vision swims.
“So are Baylee and Claire!” Haruto calls back from somewhere I can’t see.
“How do we deal with this thing!?” Akari questions, gently laying me on the concrete and brandishing her sword.
“Close your eyes and shoot in that direction!” Haruto calls to the soldiers. “Verne doesn’t think they are very durable!”
I close my eyes, curling into a tight ball as I finally regain some control of my muscles. My body still won’t move properly, and I tremble fiercely. My head pounds with pain, and for a moment, my resolve falters. I just want to go home — to escape this pain and fear. To be out of this freezing, hellish rain.
Above me, I hear shouting and the loud thunder of gunfire. Along with that, I hear two more soft thuds, much like the sound Richard had made when he’d fallen. My heart aches as I understand what that means. More deaths, more dog tags to bring home to families. This had been so much worse than I’d ever imagined.
Finally, I start trying to pull myself together once more. My team needs me, and they need me at my best, not curled up in the fetal position. Shakily, I stretch out my legs and try to push myself up onto my knees. My hands tremble so badly that I can hardly move; even swiping a few strands of soaked hair away from my face is nearly impossible. Still, I have to persist. If I give up, I will die. I had promised my father that I’d come home, and I intend to keep that promise.
While I work on getting back up, the others finally manage to finish off the gazer. The only reason I know that is the notification that appears before me.
Through training, your soul gem has undergone a minor refinement. You have advanced from Rank E-3 to Rank E-4.
You have gained the ability, Hands of the Healer.
Hey, got an ability. Nice. I think wearily as I once more try and fail to push myself up to my knees. Although a part of me feels like I’m profiting off of the deaths of the soldiers trying to protect me, I know that having a healing ability will finally allow me to help them in a more substantial way than before.
Almost as soon as I get the notification on the gazer, Akari appears before me. Without a word, she wraps my arm around her shoulder and helps me shakily to my feet.
“T-Thanks,” I manage weakly, clinging to her as I look around. Akari nods, her rain-streaked face somber.
Our soldiers had been ravaged by the gazer. I see no less than six corpses on the ground, their eyes melted, and what looks like bits of their brains leaking from their eyes, nose, and ears. I gag and would have fallen over again if it wasn’t for Akari. The smell is horrific, and, overwhelmed by the horror, it’s all I can do to keep standing. We had arrived here with thirty soldiers to help us… only three are still alive.
If this is the scale of the problem that the GDF deals with, and this is considered only a mid-grade incursion… no wonder they are so desperate to get new sentinels in the field. Standard firepower isn’t effective on creatures and in areas like this. Maybe large munitions would work, but would that even affect the strongest volcora out there? And if you fail to destroy the anchor, the space would still break down and dump the volcora into our world. It’s a catch-22; no matter what you do, there aren’t any good options. You need people like Audrey, people like us, to deal with the problem.
Akari helps me turn, and I regard the others. Baylee and Claire had managed to climb to their feet, although they look fairly shaky. Not nearly as bad as I feel, though, so I wonder if they hadn’t looked at the gazer for as long as I had.
Lucas and his two remaining fellows look between each other, each wearing a stricken expression. I can imagine that they aren’t doing well at the moment. They’d just watched their friends’ brains melt out onto the asphalt. That can’t be a pleasant experience for anyone.
“What’s our status?” Baylee manages roughly. Her eyes look bleary and bloodshot, but she still seems to be trying to keep everything together. I don’t envy her role on the team. I much prefer being the healer, although that isn’t looking to be a great role either at the moment.
Haruto responds quickly, “The majority of us ended up looking at the gazer before we knew what it was. We have six dead soldiers; you and Claire got hit a bit, but Serena was hit hard.”
Baylee turns to me, “Serena, are you okay? Can you keep going?”
I close my eyes, trying to evaluate myself seriously, “I-I… my barrier protected me from the worst of it. I think I’m still under the effect of a partial paralysis, though. It seems to be wearing off, but until it does, I’m not sure I can walk on my own.” I report, my voice shaky and weak.
Baylee nods and turns to Lucas, “Can you help her? Akari will need her hands free to fight, and her sword will be more effective.”
Lucas nods and moves over. Akari glances hesitantly to me, then, reluctantly, helps pass me over to Lucas. The height difference between Lucas and I quickly proves to be a problem as he couldn’t put my arm over his shoulders as Akari had. Instead, he wraps an arm tightly around my middle, holding me to him and steadying me there. I give him a grateful look, already frustrated with this paralysis.
Baylee looks to one of the other soldiers. “Kyle, please collect their dog tags. Then, we need to keep moving,” she orders, and I make a mental note that that particular soldier’s name is Kyle.
With grim efficiency, we once more leave our fallen comrades behind as we press on further into this nightmare. My legs tremble fiercely as we walk, and I’m forced to lean heavily on Lucas. Vaguely, I understand that it shouldn’t be taking me this long to recover. If I had looked at that gazer at the start of this outing, I would have likely been able to shrug it off a lot easier. Now, though, I’m wet, freezing, and feeling weaker by the minute as my mana toxicity creeps towards the 90% cap. In short, I’m not at my best, and it’s really starting to show.
Once more, I force my mind away from the grim reality of our situation. Instead, I focus on something practical, something I can actually do to improve our odds.
“Celeste?” I think to my familiar, even my mental voice sounding weak and raw. “We should look at our new ability. Maybe use it to help Akari.”
[You need to rest,] Celeste responds, her own mental voice tired and concerned. [We can’t do this much longer, and you know that.]
I squeeze my eyes shut, wishing for nothing more than to lie down on the asphalt and sleep. Still, I open them again and force myself to keep scanning my surroundings for threats. “We don’t have a choice. I will die before I let this incursion zone loose on all of those people.”
Celeste stays silent for a long moment before finally responding. [Okay. Let’s look at the ability.]
Description: Hands of the Healer
The bread-and-butter healing ability required by any blue sentinel. With this ability, you can channel healing magic into anyone you can touch. Hands of the Healer excels at repairing small wounds and scratches but will struggle with more serious injuries. Cannot be used to cleanse disease or other illnesses.
I barely feel able to read the description, my head pounding with pain as it is. Still, I understand it well enough for the moment. Touch something to heal it. Exactly the kind of ability I’d wanted, and it should work with my mists.
“This is exactly what we needed,” I tell Celeste mentally. “Now I can help Akari.”
[Serena, you need to rest. The others will be able to handle themselves for now. Trying to heal Akari before you’re ready could make your situation worse,] Celeste says.
I nod, my head bobbing weakly, “Right…” I struggle to think, my thoughts refusing to move in a straight line. I want so desperately to sleep, to just close my eyes and make it all end. I bite my lip hard, the pain allowing me to focus once more, if just for an instant. “The others will have all gotten attack skills, though. They won’t be able to heal without me.”
[You’re right,] Celeste says. [But Akari has made it this far. She can make it just a bit further while you rest. Just wait until you recover a little.]
I nod, too tired now to argue any further. I do, however, take a moment to give a brief, gentle smile. I’d finally done it. I have a healing ability. Now, I feel like a proper blue sentinel. I can heal people, and really, that’s all I’ve ever wanted.