“Welcome back!” Liliana’s grin was once again blindingly bright. The other Surveyors on Alex’s team were not quite as excited, but they were no longer nearly as nervous as they had been.
Alex was mostly feeling eager to begin. She’d spent the past three days getting bruised by her own mother, running in the containment area, and waiting with thin patience for her next mission. Now that it was finally here, she was practically vibrating with excitement over the chance to go prove her skills once again.
“We have an exciting opportunity for all of you today!”
Suddenly Alex’s enthusiasm flowed out of her, like water down a drain.
Liliana continued, apparently unaware of Alex’s mounting unhappiness. “Today we are going to be indulging in a little competition between your team and my coworker’s team over there.” She nodded over to where a quartet of boys had gathered around another black uniformed team sergeant. They seemed universally athletic and well-armed, with all of them standing easily taller than even Clara. One of them looked over at their team and smirked.
“Your competition is this.” Liliana’s smile turned coy. “The first team to complete their main Quest and return to the portal wins! Our winning team will gain an extra day of luxury time, while the other team will be assigned additional teamwork exercises.”
Alex blinked. She couldn’t imagine a worse way to run a Survey. If both teams committed to the contest, they would be rushing through the other world, searching for targets without being careful. They could run into ambushes, hit traps set up to catch them, or something even worse. For what, an extra day off, or some brownie points with the Group? What would that be worth if somebody ended up dead?
She opened her mouth to say so, but before she could, Joanna spoke up first. “We won’t let you down, team sergeant. Come on, let’s go.”
Alex was left gaping after them as the others marched towards the portal, their weapons ready. She glanced back at Liliana, who made a shooing gesture and raised her eyebrows. Then she turned and stomped after her team, lining up beside them at the portal. Their competition lined up to their right, hefting their own weapons and grinning. It was hard not to imagine them all standing at the edge of a precipice, especially with the vortex of the portal yawning open in front of them.
Liliana stood with the other team sergeant and raised her voice, speaking clearly over the sound of the portal. “Okay! Ready, set, go!”
As one, all eight Surveyors stepped forward, and Alex once again fell into the light.
She found herself standing in the same bright chamber, and her Screen once again activated of its own accord.
[E Rank Surveyor Alex]
[Ascension Level: 1]
[Role: Page (Class Skills: Running(4), Dodging(0)]
[Role Level: 1]
[Experience: 0/300]
[Attributes: Strength -> 1, Speed -> 2, Life -> 0, Devotion -> 0, Control -> 0]
[Role Skills: Melee–Axe(4), Melee–Shield(4)]
[Permanent Skills: None]
[Current Titles: None]
She hadn’t managed to reach level five with Running after all; her progress each day had reduced dramatically, and by the end of the day yesterday she’d needed to go the extra mile—literally—to get to level four. Still, it would put her on the edge of hitting level five, and if she managed to get Axe and Shield leveled up enough…
The Screen shifted, and Alex had to suppress a groan.
[Quest Issued! Destroy four Grue Soldiers.]
[Hidden Quest Issued!]
[Hidden Quest Issued!]
She’d been warned that Quests grew more difficult with each level, but she hadn’t expected it to double the number of targets for reaching level one. If the other team was still at level zero, it would mean that her teammates would be searching for twice as many enemies in the same amount of time. The day was looking worse and worse.
Deeply unhappy, she dismissed the Screen, and waited for the chamber of light to dissolve.
Moments later, Alex stepped out into the other world.
This time, the sky was much, much different. Where it had been a dull grey ceiling before, the clouds had grown dark and threatening. She heard a rumble of distant thunder overhead and blinked. Something told her that being in this place when it rained was a bad idea. It was a feeling that grew as she looked around at the deserted street and ruined homes.
The other team spent a moment looking around as well. Then they wheeled to the left and went off, trotting down the pavement with their heads swiveling. Alex grimaced at them, and half-expected to see something jump them before they made it down the road.
Joanna saw them leaving and immediately started off in the opposite direction. “Come on! We can’t let them beat us.”
Alex repressed the desire to start swearing under her breath and took off after her. She heard Clara and Audrey come up in her wake, and another roll of thunder gave the situation an appropriately ominous background.
The first ambush happened when they were jogging past a large house on the right. It had once been a Mcmansion of sorts, with three stories and an extra wide front that nearly spread across the entire yard. Whatever catastrophe had driven the inhabitants to flee, however, had led to the collapse of the upper floors, leaving the remaining structure a tangle of shattered wood and crumbled drywall.
Three Grue had hidden inside that snarl of rubble until her team was most of the way past the structure. Her first warning of their attack was when Clara screamed. Alex turned and sprinted back towards the Grue, reaching the first one just short of the Acolyte.
She brought up her shield and leaned into the impact. Alex managed to catch the incoming spearpoint near the center of her shield, and as metal rang against metal, she heard the Grue’s spear snap. The Grue rammed into the shield a heartbeat later, its threatening growl cutting off with a shocked yip. It fell over, and Alex nearly stumbled over it as momentum carried her forward.
Alex recovered enough to bring her axe down on it, hitting it in the chest before it could lash out at her. It went still, just in time for another Grue to leap at her, scrabbling at her shield and nearly sticking its spear into her thigh.
She reacted on pure reflex, slamming the edge of her shield down on the spear’s haft. It didn’t snap, but the Grue did lose its grip on the thing. When it bent over to try to scrabble the weapon off of the pavement, she punched the shield forward and caught it square on the skull. The Grue went over onto its back, and she stepped forward to bring her axe down again.
When it lay still, she pivoted to see where the last one had gone, and saw it slump to the pavement. Joanna had cut it down, still breathing hard. The girl had a wild look in her eyes, and she seemed slightly frightened.
The reason why became clear as Alex looked back at the other two Surveyors. Audrey was grimacing as she clutched at a wound on her upper left arm; blood was seeping through the grey cloth. The Squire grinned. “Managed to get a little bit too much in the way. Sorry.”
Clara’s hands were shaking a little as she drew out a small vial with a cork in it. The pink liquid shimmered with light, and as Clara popped the cork out, Alex could smell the magic coming off of it. “Here, drink a bit. Not too much, though.”
Audrey nodded, taking it carefully. Healing potions were rare; nobody would try to use a complete one on a simple flesh wound. She took the vial carefully, obviously not wanting to fumble it and waste the resource. Putting it to her lips, she slowly tipped it back to give herself a sip.
She barely drank more than a mouthful before she handed it back to Clara. She let out a long, drawn out gasp a moment later, shuddering as magic flooded through her. Alex saw something shimmer beneath the blood, and then Audrey pulled open the cut fabric a little to look at the newly repaired flesh. “Well, how about that?”
Alex stepped forward to see it, only to be distracted by the Screen.
[Melee–Axe has advanced to level 5!]
[Melee–Shield has advanced to level 5!]
[Main Quest Progress: 2 of 4 targets destroyed]
It was welcome news, though she wished one of her teammates hadn’t taken a wound to achieve it. They still had thirteen Grue left to hunt down just to get the Main Quest done. How much would getting those objectives cost?
She looked over at Joanna. “We need to slow down. If they are setting up ambushes like that for us—”
“We can’t fall behind.” Joanna’s voice was a little shaky, but she was already starting to get ahold of herself again. “If the other team gets done first, they’re going to look like they are better than us. Better teams get better treatment and better missions. Do you want to spend the rest of your time here picking up scraps?”
Alex blinked. Joanna looked at the others. “What about you? Do you want Liliana to think she can’t rely on us? That we’re a bunch of failures?”
Neither of the other girls responded. Joanna nodded. “Then let’s get going. Alex, take point again. We just need to spot them before they jump us next time. Let’s go.”
Alex met her eyes for a moment. Then the fires lit by the dead Grue went out, and the others gathered the materials left behind. By the time they were done, it was already time to head out again.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Another rumble of thunder rolled overhead, and Alex tried not to scream back at it.
She’d been right about the rain.
It started just after their second fight, right as the bodies of the four Grue burst into flame. The raindrops spattered and hissed when they made contact with the eerie fire; parts of the fallen creatures seemed to dissolve and drain away rather than combusting. It didn’t do anything to improve the ruins around them, or the state of the broken street they had fought on.
At least this time she’d caught sight of the Grue early. They had been hiding on both sides of the road, two in a still-intact garage and another two in the bushes outside a relatively untouched condo. Clara had put one of them down before they’d even had the chance to charge, and the remaining three had not done well when forced to face Surveyors in an even fight. Then it had been a matter of collecting the materials and moving on through the steadily worsening storm.
The third fight had been a bit more of a problem. Two Grue had been hiding up in the branches of a tree. Alex had barely managed to dodge one of them when they came down, the spear already extended to stab. Joanna had taken a shallow gash from the second one before Clara took it out with a snapshot; the other one had been trying to chase after Alex when Audrey had caved in half its torso a moment later. It took another gulp of portion to set Joanna’s wound right, and then they were hunting again.
All that while, rain kept pouring down, turning the ruins into sodden piles of wreckage and filling the gutters with temporary streams. Any sounds their enemies might have made were being covered up by the pattering of the rain all around them, and every gust of wind seemed to cut right through her standard Golden Swallow uniform. It wasn’t even easy to look around as the water ran down into her eyes.
There was a distant flash of lightning, followed by yet another slow roll of thunder filled the air. Alex flinched. Being outside in the storm seemed like less and less of a good idea.
She caught sight of a larger building up ahead. The roof seemed more or less intact, which looked good to her half-sodden self. Alex headed straight towards it, hoping that no more Grue were waiting between her and the place. The others continued to follow her, apparently still trusting her to lead them to where they needed to go.
Alex caught sight of a loading dock through the wind and rain, and headed for it. Whatever disaster had struck here had apparently happened while someone was unloading an empty semi-truck just outside it; the retractable door stood partially open. She stalked up alongside the semi, hearing the rain hammering on the metal roof of the trailer and seeing the streams of water falling from the flat top.
Joanna stalked up next to her, her face twisted with anger and frustration. “What are you doing? We’re supposed to—”
“Shh.” Alex held up a hand. She’d heard something above the noise of the rain. Had something thumped inside the trailer? With a few quick gestures, she got the others to group up with her. Clara slid forward beside her, a bolt already slotted into her crossbow. They moved forward, ears straining to hear through the rattle of noise for something significant.
They were nearly at the end of the trailer when Alex heard it. A low growl, almost inaudible in the storm. She nodded to Clara and tightened her grip on her weapons. She’d need to rush in and keep the Grue cornered up, at least long enough for the others to get into position. From there, she could finish one off, and maybe push one into the corner for Clara to finish off. If there were enough Grue inside, it might be the second to last fight they’d need to go through before they could head back to the portal.
Alex was still thinking over her plans when a Grue swung around the side of the trailer and splashed into the water pooling around the back of it. It froze, obviously surprised by the sight of four Surveyors facing it.
Before it had the chance to do anything more, Clara fired her crossbow. The bolt took it straight in the chest and hurled it backward into the stone wall behind it. Audrey charged forward, and when a second Grue splashed down beside the limp body of the first, she smashed it to the ground with a single overhand swing.
A third Grue tried to leap at Audrey from behind the trailer, but Joanna lunged forward as well and knocked the spear aside. She shoved her way in and stabbed the thing in the head. When it went over backward, Joanna followed, still stabbing wildly.
The Grue lit on fire a moment later, the purple flame guttering in the puddles where they lay. Joanna reappeared around the edge of the trailer, breathing heavily. “One left for each of us.”
Alex nodded. “Want to see if there’s more inside? Might be easier than staying out in all of…this.”
The Adept nodded, and they spent just long enough collecting the fallen gems before they made their way inside.
The building turned out to be some kind of shopping mall, judging by the broad corridors and open storefronts. None of the words written on the signs made any sense; the script seemed entirely incomprehensible, and the graffiti scrawled across most of the available surfaces didn’t make it much better.
Still, there was enough left to show some signs of civilization. There were still stores full of clothing, and even mannequins that had been hacked apart with unsurprising savagery. Other places seemed to be restaurants, with signs that showed things like pretzels or hamburgers being sold. Unfortunately, none of the food appeared to still be there; all of the freezers looked like they’d been thoroughly looted. There wasn’t even anything left to rot.
The signs of Grue were everywhere, though. Beyond the looting, graffiti, and vandalism, the entire building seemed to smell of the beasts. It wasn’t just them, though; Alex thought that the scent of magic had grown thicker as well, tainting the air with a flavor of metal that grew worse the deeper that she went.
Audrey paused beside one of the clothing stores, looking over the fabric. “Do we want to take some of this stuff with us? Maybe the Group could use it for something.”
“No. Focus on the mission.” Joanna clenched her jaw as she stalked forward. “We can come back here another day if we need to.”
Clara exchanged a look with Alex. “I don’t know if we are going to be able to get back to the portal before the other team, Joanna. If they only had to kill eight of these things…”
“I don’t care.” Joanna sounded like she was biting the words off as she spoke. “There’s always a chance that they made level one too. Or that they got stuck somewhere, somehow. We have to be able to win this. Otherwise…”
“Otherwise, Liliana is setting us up to fail. On purpose.” Alex said the words carefully, trying to keep them neutral. The way Joanna’s shoulders slumped told her she had been thinking the same thing.
“But, but why would she do that? We’re her team!” Clara seemed genuinely baffled. “Doesn’t that make her look worse?”
“Only if her supervisors aren’t in on it.” Alex felt grimly sure that they would be. “Maybe they didn’t like that we made level one so early, and felt like they needed to put up a roadblock for us. Maybe the other team has some connections that we don’t. Either way, we’re probably not looking at getting the reward they promised.”
Joanna stayed silent for a long time. Their boots crunched through the debris left behind by a crumbling ceiling tile. Then the Adept swore, a quiet, vicious burst of profanity. “So we’re going to lose. There’s no point in even trying. Is that what you’re saying?”
Alex shook her head. “I’m not saying we shouldn’t try, Joanna. Just that we don’t need to risk getting killed all for some stupid race we aren’t even supposed to win in the first place.”
“Then what are we doing here?” Joanna spread her hands wide, as if to take in the entirety of the abandoned, defaced mall. “Why even bother with any of it?”
“I don’t know about you, but I’m here for the superpowers.” Audrey’s voice had a measure of forced cheer, but she was gripping her club like she was entirely serious. “What are the rest of you here for, anyway?”
Clara shrugged. “Part of a scholarship deal with the Group. I stay in two years, they send me to college.”
“I figured you were one of those. I’m telling you, though, you’ll miss it when you are doing nothing but playing with graphing calculators all day.” Audrey shrugged and glanced at Joanna. “What about you? Seems like you’d be another scholarship kid, too.”
Joanna shook her head. “I’m here for the money.”
Audrey laughed. “Seems like a lot of danger for a bit of cash. You sure about that?”
The Adept gave her a glare. “I don’t want to be a Surveyor forever. Do you know what a team sergeant makes? They don’t even have to be much past E rank, and I wouldn’t even need to go into another portal ever again.” Then she smiled. “I’m going to get there, and I’ll be set. These missions are just my first steps.”
Clara nodded slowly. “That makes sense.” Then she turned to Alex, who had been dreading the question. “What about you?”
Alex looked away, trying to hide a grimace. “I…want to make S rank.”
There was a pause, and then Joanna burst out laughing. “Are you crazy? How many S ranks are there? Three? Maybe four?”
Audrey gave Joanna a look. “Hey, not everyone has to be a mercenary, right?”
“True, but seriously, S rank?” Joanna shook her head. “You’re good, Alex, but you’re not some kind of prodigy.”
Alex hunched her shoulders, feeling the sting of the words. “Do I have to be? Someone has to rise that high. Why shouldn’t it be me?”
“Well, I think that it’s a great goal to have, Alex.” Clara grinned at her, as if she was trying to be encouraging.
Joanna snorted again, but she didn’t say anything more. A brief silence fell as they made their way forward. Then, just as Alex was about to say something else, she stopped. There was a noise up ahead. The corridor opened up into a food court of some kind, and she was starting to hear a murmur of something like conversation from it. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Do you guys hear that?”
“Yeah.” Audrey hefted her club, licking her lips in worry. “How many do you think there are?”
“At least four.” Joanna gave the rest of them a significant look. “Let’s finish this and get home.”
They crept forward, trying to keep to the side of the corridor that was the same as where the sounds were coming from. Alex took the lead, with Clara just behind her. She carefully peeked around the corner and tried not to gasp at what she saw.
When she pulled back, Joanna had moved up by Clara. Her expression was impatient, but she kept her voice low. “How many are there?”
Alex ran through the rough count. “Twelve. At least.”
The Adept froze, and Clara turned pale. Alex turned back and peeked around the corner again.
In the middle of the food court, there was a rough gathering of tents that seemed to simulate a camp of some kind. There was a purple bonfire burning in the middle, with a large, purple crystal hovering over it. Grue were all over the food court, lounging on the counters of abandoned stores or the benches where people had used to sit. Others were moving between the tents, their spears held loosely in their hands.
To her side, the Screen’s text appeared in a flare of green light.
[Hidden Quest Discovered! Clear the Grue Camp]
She grimaced and pulled back again. “It’s a Hidden Quest. If we clear it, we’ll probably get something interesting.”
“No. No way.” Clara’s hands were shaking. “We get hurt taking them on four at a time. Twelve or more? We’d be dead for sure.”
Audrey was nodding reluctantly, but Joanna slid forward to crouch beside Alex. She peeked out and then drew back. “There’s a second floor to this place. Did we pass a staircase?”
“Sure, back there, but—”
“We can double back and head upstairs. Maybe we’ll get a better look at things from up high.” Joanna started to creep back along the hallway.
Alex caught her. “We don’t need to do this. We can find some more at a different place.”
The Adept snarled at her. “You want to be a S rank, don’t you? How long is that going to take if you keep avoiding risk?” She glanced at the others and seemed to relent a little. “If it still looks bad, we can just turn back around and go looking again. The height might give us an advantage we can use, though.”
It was a fair argument, but Alex thought she could hear her mother urging caution in her mind. “You’re sure about this?”
“We might lose this contest, but I’m not going to let them call us losers.” Joanna gave her a grin. “Let’s head back with both Hidden Quests done, if we can. We’ll see what team sergeant Liliana has to say about that.”
Alex nodded, slowly. It didn’t stop her from continuing to wonder if it was a bad idea, but it was better than running headlong into the camp, certainly.
The stairwell was unlocked, fortunately, and they didn’t run into any Grue on the way to the second floor. It exited out into another corridor full of empty shops, though here it looked like many of them were suffering from leaks in the ceiling. Unpleasant smells and ruined lighting made the whole place seem far more rank and rotting than the first floor, which didn’t help Alex feel any more confident.
Reaching the food court again was easy enough. The view from the top was not much better. There had to be close to twenty Grue creeping around down there, completely unconcerned with the rain that pounded on the enormous skylight above them. Alex peered down at them, trying to solidify the count in her mind.
Joanna was crouched next to her. She wasn’t looking at the camp; instead, Alex realized she was looking around the edges of the balconies overlooking the camp. The Adept glanced at her. “No stairs to the second level, just the pair of escalators there.”
She pointed, and Alex followed her gaze to the pair of deactivated escalators that led up to a small clear area on the second floor. There were Grue there, but only a handful. Guards of some kind, maybe? There weren’t any tents, but the monsters were patrolling in an obvious pattern. “You’re thinking we could set up there? What if they come up the other stairwells?”
Clara crouched next to them. “We could probably try and lock the doors we can find. Anyway, if they do get through, we could always pull back, right?”
Joanna nodded. “Yeah. We can try to make sure there’s another stairway in that direction that we could use.”
Audrey grinned. “I bet they all just rush up those escalators, though. Joanna and I could hold one. Do you think you and Clara could hold the other one?”
Alex was still feeling misgivings about the whole things, but she was starting to see the possibilities. If they only ended up taking on the ones up top, that would at least complete the Main Quest for the mission. Everything after that would just be a bonus. “Sure. For a little while, at least.”
She just had to hope that would be long enough.