Rose barely had a moment to nod before Somniphobia was already taking off. A single flap of her wings took her across the room. The window opened before her and she swooped out. With her new physical enhancements Rose felt confident so she didn’t hesitate running after her. Instead of climbing through the window she jumped and smoothly vaulted over the window sill.

By now night had thoroughly set. The window they had jumped out of was at a front corner of the building leaving them at the edge of the courtyard. Somniphobia didn’t slow down and began flying along the road, keeping to the edge of the wide open space. Rose kept pace at a steady jog while looking around.

The streetlamps were on and at a glance everything looked normal. On closer inspection however there was something off about the buildings. The ones closest were the same as usual but past that things had changed. Most of the city centre consisted of modern buildings with lots of room between them. But in every direction Rose’s view was blocked by more tall red brick buildings.

The only direction with a clear view was over the courtyard towards the city hall. Behind it there should have been a few more government buildings. Instead some distance away Rose could see the other side of the archive that was right behind them.

“How big is this anomaly? Are the people nearby safe?” she called out to Somniphobia.

The blue bat flew a little lower to reply as they kept moving.

“The anomaly itself takes up very little space. We believe it is contained entirely within the archive building. Some of its agents have left like the one that drew you in. However once inside space is expanded. We have only left this facsimile of the building. In reality we are still inside. Escaping requires teleportation or ending the effect. By waiting it out or disrupting it. We will attempt the latter,” she replied.

As they kept moving Rose found herself feeling better by the second instead of getting out of breath. Her body was just warming up as mana flowed through it. Getting her mana moving also helped her sense what else she could do with it. Somniphobia had said her abilities would be intuitive once she gained them, though Rose wasn’t sure if there was a set of standard starter abilities.

The easiest thing to sense was the ability to transform back. While her empowered state wasn’t draining her, she was sure she could keep it up indefinitely, it was channeling more energy. Dismissing it just meant letting the energy settle back down. More interesting however were the other things she felt.

While she couldn’t quite fly she was pretty sure she could jump to the top of a building now. Her body would simply resist the effects of gravity and let her stay in the air longer. With more mana to work with she probably would be able to fly.

Her mana could also function outside her body. She could gather it into a ball and fire off a mana bolt. Maybe even multiple in quick succession if she focused on it. However her new instincts didn’t come with an idea of how strong a mana bolt was. She also realised that she didn’t really know how strong she was now. Running was giving her some idea but until she threw a punch or a mana bolt she wouldn’t know how hard she could hit.

The opportunity to find out might come sooner than expected as Somniphobia changed direction. They moved away from the edge of the courtyard and car park and towards the doors at the centre of the city hall. It was hard to make out details in the darkness but there were things moving at the entrance.

As they got closer Rose could see a few people walking emerge from the building. Most of them looked normal enough. They were all wearing formal suits in grey or the dark blue Mark, or rather the mimic, had been wearing. Around them however were the wiry people Rose hadn’t noticed before.

Under the effects of the anomaly she had written them off as just being too far away to see properly in the twilight. Once she broke free she could remember them as skeletons made of thin black wire wrapped up in clothes of shadows. Now that she was seeing them properly she could make out more details.

Even though there were only a few streetlamps nearby the figures were easy to see. The clothes they wore were made from something a different shade of black to darkness. It gave them a sharp outline that stood out against the night. Their bodies still looked like someone had twisted a paperclip into the shape of a person. Like a walking stick man. But despite that their clothes didn’t hang loose, and moved as if they were fully filled out.

They were close enough now that Rose was sure her footsteps had to be audible and sure enough the mimics turned towards her. They didn’t seem to react beyond that though. Rose glanced over at Somniphobia and saw the bat looking at her. She gestured towards the monsters with her snout and didn’t say anything.

If these were the same monsters as before she should probably stop them the same way. Though Rose didn’t like the idea of charging in and attacking first. They weren’t doing anything yet. While she considered that and most of the mimics watched her passively, one seemed to have settled the matter for all of them. It pointed at her and suddenly the entire group started charging forward. The wire people made no move to follow them.

Rose had never been a very violent person. Or rather she had never had a reason or opportunity to be violent. She firmly believed in being kind to others and never being the one to strike first. But she also firmly believed in the other half of that thought. If someone else made the first move and came looking for trouble they’d get it.

Before, that had meant exposing people trying to get away with something wrong or cutting unpleasant people out of her life, no matter what excuses they made. As the group of mimics got closer Rose didn’t have much time to consider if extending that belief into being physically attacked was really the right thing to do. And she quickly made the firm decision that it absolutely was.

The blade of her saw-staff started spinning silently and Rose gripped it with both hands. One of these had tried and failed to get her and now the rest were coming for her without a word. When the mimics were still some distance away she used her magic to jump at least a dozen meters forward. Pulling her arms back slightly, like she had when using the chair leg as a weapon, she landed and stepped into the swing. Still silent, the blade struck the mimic furthest to the right.

Its entire top half was ripped away instantly and went flying to the side. The blade met little resistance as it cleaved first one and then another of the mimics. The saw's teeth didn’t even have time to catch on anything as the sharp edges sliced cleanly through and instead parts went flying as they fell onto the rapidly spinning flat side of the disk.

In a single horizontal slash the entire first row of mimics was chopped in half. Some of the ones directly behind were sent sprawling as they were struck with the empty skin bags left behind. Rose didn’t hesitate to capitalise and used one hand to spin the staff in her grip so the guard was facing her again.

A second slash took down another two of the mimics still standing. The one that had pointed at her proved to be a little more capable and stepped back out of reach. Instead of following it Rose focused on the ones who had fallen.

She adjusted her grip and stabbed at one of them with the bottom of her staff. The thicker silver blade also had no difficulty cutting through and left a wide gash. The mimic proceeded to deflate with a disgusting wet squelch. As she quickly popped the others, Rose kept an eye on the smarter mimic. She held the saw-staff with the blade facing forward ready for it to attack.

But even with only a slight enhancement her newfound strength and speed as a magical girl was showing. It had only taken seconds to finish off the entire group. The last mimic was still regaining its footing from dodging backwards when Rose brought the blade down directly on its head.

A huge geyser of blood splattered away from her as the monster was ripped in two. Unlike the others which were hollow this one was completely full of blood. That seemed to do little to make it more durable however. While it was hard to judge, overall the mimics felt weaker and slower than regular humans. They didn’t have anything in them to injure so blunt force wouldn't do much but they died as soon as they were popped.

With a sound like rain the last of the spray of blood hit the ground in front of the wire people further back. Rose herself was left untouched thanks to the guard on her staff. Though she felt there was probably some magic involved in that as some blood had landed on either side of her.

About a dozen of the wire people had gathered ahead of her now. None of them were approaching and this time one didn’t point to direct the other. Looking at them Rose got the sense that rather than not wanting to approach her they didn’t want to step too far from the building behind them. Which meant she probably wanted to get inside. Somniphobia had said her weapon would be good for disrupting anomalies. Which meant cutting through these things and finding more stuff to break.

Now that she had a clear goal Rose jumped forward again. The wire people were all lined up so she leapt to the ones furthest on the right. With the same motion as before she sent her saw into the side of the first one.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

This time a shower of sparks flew as metal screeched against metal. Tatters of shadowy cloth flew into the air and the monster folded around the saw blade. But the blade didn’t cut through. At the end of the swing three monsters were sent flying into the rest of them, looking worse for wear but not destroyed.

The rest of them charged her now that she was closer. Unlike the mimic these were clearly faster than regular humans, though not by much. They made almost no noise besides the slight clicking of their flat wire feet against the floor. Two of them got into Rose’s range at the same time and were knocked to the side with another swing. The third got hit head on as Rose thrust her staff like a spear.

It went down and Rose kept pushing, trying to saw it in half against the ground. Metal on concrete caused an even louder noise and a shower of sparks from the wire. For the first time Rose had to really put her new strength to use to stop the saw flinging out of her hands as its teeth caught on the floor and the disk tried to roll to the side. She tightened her grip and pushed down harder to keep the monster pinned.

That moment of focus was enough for one of the monsters she had hit to get back up and approach from the side. It raised both arms and lunged at her forcing Rose to dodge backwards. After gaining some distance she assessed the state of her opponents.

Each of the monsters she had hit looked tattered but they had all stood back up. Their black wispy cloth was slowly coming back together and the wire underneath was unharmed. As they approached she noticed they were fanning out to the right. None of them seemed willing to circle around her away from the building. The ones she had knocked in that direction had quickly made their way back.

Before they had a chance to advance Rose took the opportunity to try the other item in her new arsenal. She held her hand out and summoned a mana bolt. It took less than a second for the mana to gather into a glowing purple ball that floated in front of her. With a thought she shot it at a monster at random.

It moved fairly quickly. Faster than a regular person could run but not as fast as she was now. When it hit it exploded in a small burst of sparkles. Her target's jacket was almost entirely torn away by the blast but it otherwise did not react. It was hard to judge but Rose thought the bolt had burst as soon as it hit the smoky cloth and hadn’t properly struck the wire underneath.

With only a moment before the wire people closed the distance again Rose summoned another three mana bolts. There were two things she wanted to test and she quickly selected her targets. The two furthest to the left.

The mana bolts went shooting forward and Rose kept pace just behind them. Her pair of targets made no attempt to get out of the way and were hit head on. The one on the right took a single bolt once again blowing away its shadows. The other took two. The first struck the suit while the second hit the wire directly. Instead of a burst of sparkles a shower of red and yellow sparks burst out behind the monster.

Where the bolt had hit the wire now glowed white with heat. Some of the adjacent wire immediately started turning red as the heat spread. A direct hit seemed to have had some effect but there was no telling if it was actually damaging. Rose hadn’t really expected the creature to simply blow apart anyway so she continued with her attack.

Gripping her saw-staff low on the shaft she went for a swing to knock both creatures as far away as possible. With her enhanced strength in full effect the clear note of metal hitting metal overpowered the screech of the saw blade grinding against them. Now that she was trying to move them Rose noticed that even though they were so spindly they still seemed to weigh about as much as a person would.

That weight was enough to prevent them from shooting across the courtyard but they still went flying a good distance. Far enough to be out of the gloom from the few streetlamps around the dark city hall. Without the strange black of their clothes to stand out against the black of night one of them was impossible to see. The other was still glowing but a moment later it simply disappeared.

Rose had expected them to have some reaction to being knocked away from the building but she didn’t think they would vanish. She was hoping they would run back and give a hint where in the building they were tied to. Since damaging them didn’t seem to be working she planned to run right past.

“Are they gone or just hiding?” she asked Somniphobia. Her Contractor had been flying slow circles overhead while watching the fight.

“It is always difficult to tell with anomalies. But as far as I can sense they are gone. Excellent initiative! Please hang on a moment,” Somniphobia replied.

A pulse of mana spread through the area, strong enough for Rose to sense, and the lamps turned off. The blade of Rose’s saw kept spinning as she kept her guard up. But a moment later the mana faded and the light returned to reveal the remaining monsters had vanished.

With the threat removed Rose let herself relax a little. The fight had not worried her but she couldn’t help a bit of tension from focusing and moving so quickly and suddenly. A glance at her saw-staff caused it to slow down and then stop spinning. Unlike forming a mana bolt or using her not quite flight, turning the weapon on and off didn’t require anything that felt like doing magic. It just did what she wanted it to.

Somniphobia flew down to land next to her and gave her a small round of applause. Though she couldn’t really clap with her wing hands. Rose still smiled at the gesture.

“Thanks. That went really well I think. I didn’t expect fighting to feel so easy,” she said.

“Indeed! You are adapting well to being a magical girl. I see you have also learned the mana bolt,” Somniphobia replied.

“I figured out I could do a few things before the fight. I have some kind of super jump ability as well. Are those normal for magical girls?”

“Most magical girls have a few standard abilities. A simple mana manipulation, flight or something close to it, a healing ability. Those are some of the most common ones. You will also find that you have a power unique to you. A gift. Each magical girl gets one. It will be more difficult to activate but I expect you will figure it out before we are done here.”

Before she could continue, Somniphobia was cut off by the distant sound of gunfire. Her head twitched in the direction it had come from and her eyes narrowed. Rose wasn’t sure how far away it was coming from but it must have been nearby given how loud it was. The tall buildings seemed to swallow up any echo letting her tell its exact direction even if Somniphobia hadn’t turned that way.

“There should not be any agents in this space. Something unexpected must have happened. Come, they will likely require aid.” Somniphobia took off while she was still talking and started flying faster than before.

Rose quickly followed her, pushing her speed now that she had a better idea of her physical abilities. Once they were past the first row of buildings things looked unfamiliar. Everywhere was old red brick instead of the modern buildings Rose knew. But they didn’t have to travel far before they rounded a corner, guided by the now continuous sound of gunfire.

In front of her, halfway down a street, a group of what looked like soldiers were backing away from monsters spilling out of a building. They were grouped up and firing into the approaching horde. A street lamp had been knocked over making the people difficult to see. Unlike the monsters their gear was a normal black and blended into the dark. They were covered head to toe, with helmets, goggles and harnesses.

Facing them was a group of everything Rose had encountered so far. Dozens of regular looking people in suits were running out of the collapsed side of a building. Most of them fell and deflated as they were riddled with bullets. A few of the wire people hung back by the lights which Rose now knew they needed.

Most notably however, one of the huge creatures from the central archive was looming out from one of the upper stories. As she watched it bent down with the same speed as before and almost crushed one of the soldiers as it slammed into the floor. Another one barely managed to push him out of the way.

The brief distraction allowed the other monsters to draw closer. At this rate the soldiers would either get overrun or crushed if they turned to flee. Rose started her saw back up and ran a little bit faster.

“Feel free to engage,” Somniphobia said. “I will ensure you are not accidentally struck by any bullets. These ones have been magically enhanced.”

Rose nodded and picked her first target.

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

Agent Angler swore under his breath as threw himself out of the way. The entity their liaison had identified as a transformed person hit the road hard enough to leave cracks before retracting unharmed.

Quickly rolling back to his feet he resumed firing into the oncoming entities, carefully picking them off. They were fragile but with enough of them that wouldn’t matter. They could only shoot so fast and more importantly they only had so much ammo.

There had been no intention to engage the anomaly. Their cordon had been set up well away from the affected building and armed agents were only present in case anything tried to get out. He still wasn’t sure what had happened. A flicker of light and suddenly they were inside.

As the larger entity attacked again and narrowly missed agent Fields, Angler took a glance over his shoulder. They were approaching the corner of the street. While it would leave them exposed their best bet was probably to turn and run. He could only hope the entity would not extend to attack them around the corner.

While it was still retracting from its last attack the entity froze in mid air. Instead of rearing back it attacked again immediately. Slower, but diagonally and much harder to dodge. It whipped towards another agent before he could do anything. In moments it was right on top of him. And then, in a small burst of gore, the top of the entity was cut in half.

This time it did rear back and smashed into the building as it flailed in the air. Before he could think about what happened to it Angler’s eyes were drawn back down by several bursts of purple light, followed by a scene out of an over the top horror movie.

Pieces of torn up skin went flying in a shower of gore as entities were slashed apart. A few of them attempted to organise a charge, before they exploded into fountains of blood. As the other entities turned back and some of the squad stopped shooting in shock, agent Angler spotted a person in the middle of the crowd.

She was completely untouched even as her surroundings were absolutely coated in red. With a slight tug she pulled a tall staff with a massive circular saw out of the remains of one of the entities. The pitch black blade splattered blood as it spun.

She wore a deep purple dress that blended into the darkness of the poorly lit road. And as she looked in their direction he saw her eyes were glowing in a lighter purple. She smiled at them, as she gracefully hefted the staff onto her shoulder.

“Hi, we’re here to help!”