----------------------------------------

World: MSS - Loading...

----------------------------------------

Sis Aurora’s group was retreating while being chased by disgusting little insects.

God, I really really fucking hated bugs with a passion.

“Fire! Fire! Cover them!”

The little bald guy who’s been giving out orders while Marc Pointell, the pompous big wig, was just standing there doing nothing was yelling at the top of his lungs. His whole face was turning red and even his head. If he yelled any louder, he’d look like a crunchy grape skewer from Uncle Gallant’s store. He saw me staring at him and did, in fact, turn completely purple and started screaming his head off at me.

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU JUST STARING AT ME FOR NOOBIE? FIRE! COVER THE SHIELDERS!”

“Shit!” I answered, not at all panicked of course. Since I’m the greatest [Pioneer] to set foot upon this world since Magellen, the first [Pioneer], not to mention blessed with killer looks and style, I graciously forgave him. Turning, I hefted the familiar weight of my Arbalest to my shoulders, laying down on my stomach and began to concentrate.

I used the mystical boon from one of my two Cores (Yeah, yeah, paltry compared to the other rich selection of Fancy Cores that the other guys have. Give a girl some slack, will ya? I’m new at this). I actually never saw the monster myself, all I knew was that it belonged to a pretty tough monster of Grade 6 named [Redcap]. I got it as a gift. They just didn’t know that they’d be gifting it… and that it was a gift to me.

Thievery, schmievery.

It was a strange sensation. I don’t think a lot of people understand just how difficult it is to be as good as I am with an Arbalest. Did you know that lots of beastmen think that a bow is a woman’s weapon? I’m talking about old farts like Skaris, who comes from the backwater countryside without paved roads and running water. I don’t mean to bash on Zimmskar but gosh, the things I hear.

It’s fucking hard to aim at a moving target. You gotta try and estimate how far you are, you gotta know the speed of your weapon projectile inside and out. Then you have to account for shit like the wind and how fast the target is moving. But [Rep Cap] helped with a lot of that headachy shit. It didn’t hurt that I’m a pretty damn good fucking shot in the first place.

Damn, I ran a tangent. Back to what it feels like to use mystical boon from the [Rep Cap] Core.

It was like looking through a magnifying glass. At the same time, there was pressure now. A little bit of heaviness I guess? That pressed into my brain from the space in between my skull. The closer I tried to look, the heavier this pressure got. I knew from experience that the more this pressure built up, the stronger my arrow would be.

The arbalest bucked and I imbued the flying bolt with the mystical boon from my second Core, [Six-Footed White Hare].

As my vision zoomed out, I saw the bolt pierce through a shell of this disgusting bug and then it changed angles; almost ninety degrees. After piercing through the fangs of a centipede, it swerved left and hit another monster then bounced a final time, decapitating the leg of a giant ant. If I just used the [Six-Footed White Hare] boon by itself, the arrow would only bounce once, hitting two monsters. I found out early that using the two Cores at the same time would double the number of bounces. If I really pushed it, I could hit six.

My bolt wasn’t the only one that was flying through the air. The other adventurers were firing a bunch of things. Some threw little tiny glass jars that flew a hundred yards and exploded into tiny glass chips that tore into the insects. Most of them had bows, each firing while using the boon of a different Monster.

I was the only one using an Arbalest.

Like I said, I got killer style.

But the shielders were moving too slow and for some reason, Sis Aurora was standing in the back. She kept turning around to fend off the monsters while the others kept running.

“Stole, was it?”

Marc Pointell snuck up behind me and that was saying a lot. Creepy as shit, I tell ya.

He didn’t smell like anything. Like anything. Everyone carried a little bit of smell on them and it told me a lot about who they were. Skaris smelled like steel and smoke, all jumbled together. Sis Aurora had this quality of cleanliness to her scent, the layers of iron and dirt from the training grounds (Don’t ask me how I know it’s the dirt from the training grounds) neatly separated. Kyrian smelled a lot like dusty clothes and at times, the sharp scent of burnt air. Completely different from Skaris. Mister smelt like…

Well, he smelled like pain and danger.

Yeah. Weird.

Maybe that’s why Shara doesn’t really like him. She told me to stay away from him. She’d kill me if she found out that I officially joined his party and was planning to go on a raid with them, accompanying the Human Church.

“Stole?”

Crap. My thoughts ran away again. “Yeah?” My answer came out a little rude and hostile.

I don’t think it bothered him much. He didn’t even bat an eye. “You’re one of the few adventurers who have an AOE ability. Once the shielders reach the three bladers, I will weaken the monsters. Fire at the monsters after I’ve weakened them.”

Humans called the boon from Monsters, ‘ability’. Actually, now that I think of it, Skaris called it ‘ability’ too. And he mocks me for not being a real beastman. Whatever.

I nodded. “How will I know when?”

“You will know.”

So I turned to the shielders that were running for their lives, away from the horde of insects and waited. Sure enough, Skaris and the other two guys whose names I didn’t even bother listening to, leapt forward and started wreaking literal havoc on the second horde of insects. They’d be holding back the first stream of monsters from reaching the Mages, so I thought they’d be out of gas. But Skaris wasn’t even winded.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

My personal feelings for Skaris aside, I had to give it to him. The man knew how to fight and I had a lot to learn from him. Compared to me, a teenager who stole her first Core from her village and bought her second off the Black Market, he was a full warrior. I’d never admit it and I’ll die before I say it, but it was pretty cool seeing a real Walker of the Path from Zimmskar.

He wielded his fire with deadly efficiency and his spear moved faster than I could see. Blue flames drew faint little lights in the air and by the gods, his fighting style was stylish. The man was almost seven feet tall and used the additional reach from his limbs and spear with deadliness. Corpses of monsters were on the ground, burnt black to a crisp like Kyrian’s bacon –completely inedible by the way. I’m talking about bacon, not insects. Skaris reminded me of one of those fire dancers during festivals.

Sis Aurora reached him and I saw the two talk to each other. Then they nodded and turned as one to face the oncoming mob of insects while everyone else turned tail and ran. The fucking cowards.

“What are they doing?” Marc muttered, probably to himself and definitely not towards me.

So I definitely did not tell Marc Pointell to ‘shut up and watch’ and he definitely did not give me a meaningful look that’s going to bite this party back in the ass later. No matter what anyone says, I’m denying it. Nope. Never happened.

Sis Aurora and Skaris got into position with practiced movements. She set up her shield and planted it on the ground while the long-lanky man stood behind her.

“That foolish girl, she’s going to get herself killed,” said Marc.

This time, I really did stay silent. Cross my heart.

Because what happened next took my breath away.

The stream of insect monsters kind of split up, looking like wriggly little fingers. They were far enough so that the individual monsters looked like figures and I could clearly see what Sis Aurora and Skaris did next. For one horrible moment, the fingers slammed into the two and threatened to overwhelm them. Aurora slammed forward with her shield and I saw it glow red; an instant later it fired off these shards made of red energy. The shards ripped through the crowd of monsters like a hot knife through butter.

But the monsters encircled around and came from the sides.

Skaris started slamming his spear on the ground, creating blue bonfires on either sides. The monsters screeched –I could hear it thanks to my superior hearing of course– and refused to challenge the heat. Yet, there were so many of the things and they slammed into each other, insects stumbling into the flames over and over. They crawled over one another trying to escape the scorching heat.

“They can’t hold it for long.”

Man, this guy talked a lot.

But I agreed. There were too much.

Sis Aurora and Skaris held the line for another minute and I saw Skaris look back. The Shielders and other bladers were at a safe enough distance. They reached the mages. I saw them set up a shield wall, getting into formation around the mages. Then the two began to attack ferociously. Skaris’ spear stabbing out so fast that I couldn’t see it. Almost. Sis Aurora’s lance and shield did deadly work, causing monsters to stumble and hiss and bite at one another.

Then Sis Aurora used her newest boon from [Cheonma], that monster we just killed scarcely a day ago.

Purple electricity came to life around her, surrounding her and spinning. She must’ve yelled or something because I imagine she did so. You know the pose. Arms held out to each side, heading screaming to the skies in victory. Well, maybe not. She was holding her lance and shield and she doesn’t seem the the type for theatrics.

But the boon was flashy enough.

The wave of electricity spread out around her and I swear the whole area kind of… bent? Warped? I don’t fucking know how to describe it. It was like when it’s too hot and you see the air bend. That’s what happened. The space around her bent and nearly three dozen monsters near her got sucked in towards her. When they did, they fell over backwards.

Setting her shield in front of her, Sis Aurora turned around and ran.

Leaving Skaris alone.

But it was part of their teamwork. How’d I know? I just knew. I knew it the same way Shara would never leave me behind and the way I’d never leave her behind. I knew it the way my dad told me he’d keep me safe and never came back, because he probably died protecting me. Not because he ran for his life. No. This was the sort of thing I had a sense about.

Skaris leapt up into the air, his whole body surrounded by blue flames. He must’ve leapt up like, twelve or fifteen feet high at the least. Then his spear leaving streaks of blue flame behind him in a single line he slammed into the ground and bloomed into blue fire –like a campfire so bright that it almost hurt my eyes to look at it.

The fire blossomed into the shape of a flower: pretty girly for such a manly-manly warrior. But it wasn’t any less deadly for it. Each petal kind of flapped out and fell upon the monsters, those that weren’t burnt to ash by the initial explosion anyways. His boon left the ground wet with invisible blue flames and the monsters that had been rushing towards them had to stop, the first few among them simply collapsing where they were.

Then Skaris turned and started running right after Sis Aurora.

They’d stopped the insect monsters cold. Maybe cold isn’t the best word here.

“My god… That’s Vetilian’s party?” I heard one of the other archers mutter.

“...I heard he’s a Grade 7…”

“They’re fucking monsters…”

I know I’ve only been with them a couple of days. But I felt a surge of fierce pride in my heart. Kind of like how I feel when someone compliments Shara. I was so proud of these two and so proud to be part of the same party. They were so strong and just so freaking epic. I knew it the moment I saw Mister knock those skeletons away that he was something special. And the people that gathered around him were just as special.

Man. What a freaking thrill.

But there’s always someone stronger.

“All of you, begin firing at the horde.” Marc Pointell ordered.

I don’t know why but I hated being ordered around by this guy. He was just so…. I don’t know, pompous? Ass-like? A jerk? He could’ve let me bask in the glory of Brother Skaris and Sis Aurora for a moment longer. But nooooo, he just had to steal the thunder. Man, he kind of sucked.

So me and the other archers turned and began firing at the hundreds of insects that still littered the valley below us.

Then Marc Pointell did his thing.

He kind of like… raised his hands and became deathly quiet. Deathly still. I use the word deathly because whatever he did, it was the opposite of life. I knew he wasn’t a mage because I’d heard bits and pieces there. That he was a plain old adventurer who hunted Monsters, absorbed their Spirit Cores and boons. But there’s a saying that the more boons you absorb, the more like them you become. Because Spirit Cores are the essence of these monsters and if you absorb too much of one kind, you become like it.

Mister liked to call these things Synergy.

Well, whatever Marc Pointell did, the Synergy must’ve been death.

He raised his hands and hundreds and hundreds of insects began to ride from the ground. Not their body, but their spirits. It freaked the fuck out of me, seeing these pale white things with a dozen legs or more rising from the ground. When I used my Redcap Boon, I got a close look at a centipede that just rose from the ground and screamed –except no sound came out. Two others rose in place besides it and as one, they all began to glide through the air.

Oh sure, their legs moved and slithered and wriggled. But none of them were touching the ground. They ran a few inches off of the ground and flew towards the Gargantuan Death Worm that was still tied down by the hooks, thanks to the Shielders.

The insects swarmed over the Gargantuan Death Worm, no bigger than a tick next to it. But what they lacked in size, they made up in numbers. I thought they were completely spiritual but there must have been something that they could do to the physical world. They used their fangs and claws to rip apart the soft skin. Tearing flesh and trying to eat it but the meat fell right through their empty stomachs.

The worm went mad with pain and began to squirm. The ground began to rumble again.

I chanced a look back at Marc and he had his eyes closed in concentration. He was mumbling under his breath and sweat beaded on his forehead, dripping down.

Then he closed his fist and every single spirit on the Gargantuan Death Worm exploded in a shower of white sparks.

There were entire chunks missing from the Gargantuan Death Worm, like someone took a bite out of it.

Then the fireworks really began.

Fire. Lightning. Spears made of Earth and Ice. Every element imaginable came flying from the mages. They must’ve been gathering their mana for one final rush and every spell hit its mark. The monster went mad with pain a second time and thrashed. The hooks ripped through its flesh, whatever was left of it, and chains went taut and snapped.

For about two minutes, the mages beat the shit out of this thing.

And then… it went still.

It died.

The raid… was over.

And with it, an invisible weight just disappeared.

That whole ordeal was nerve wracking. I have this… really really bad imagination. Even before we began I kind of imagined Sis Aurora or Skaris or Kyrian getting hurt. Or going missing. Like Mister Lock. I really liked this last week, it was the best week of my life.

I don’t want it to be over yet.

You know, technically I’m not allowed to be an adventurer and I’m not talking about my age (that’s stupid too, by the way).

I actually have a different duty.

Because my twin-sister, Shara, is the next Kagura, the first Kagura in like a bajillion years, I’m supposed to be her Shadow. Someone who lives her entire life in the Kagura’s shadow, guarding them from danger. It’s supposed to be this really cool gig where you have honor and all that. But it wasn’t what I wanted.

So when Mister Lock asked me if I was interested in being a part of his party and kind of training under them…. I said yeah. The thing he said in the Grave Mound really stuck with me, that whole spiel with the [Pioneer] stuff. Honestly, I didn’t get half of what he said. But… I do remember he said that a Pioneer is supposed to make their party feel safe. To keep them out of danger.

A bond of trust.

Seeing Mister Lock made me feel like it’s real. When that Gurran guy got blown away, I felt scared. Everyone always told me that a tank is real, real important. But when Lock stepped in… I wasn’t scared anymore. I was OK, he made me feel safe.

Same with Skaris. When that worm started birthing those monsters by the loads… he volunteered to go protect the Mages. That made me feel safe too, that the raid was going to be ok. Plus seeing Sis Aurora and Skaris fight together like that, leaving their backs to each other…

I don’t want my journey to end here.

So I really really didn’t like it that when I fixed my [Pioneer] senses on finding Mister Lock…

It kept coming from that cliff, where the Scav Base was.

He was in there. Alone.

But he’s probably OK. He’s not the type to lose.

Yeah.

Don’t worry Mister Lock. I’ll lead your party all nice and safe to your doorsteps.

So you better keep your promise of making me the best [Pioneer] in the world.

Please be ok.

----------------------------------------