Alex roared as she cut the head off another Grue. Its body folded up, and as it fell a Knight came at her, its sword raised. She managed to block the swing, sliding back over the concrete. It took a moment for her to steady herself, and the monster charged at her, still roaring.
She sidestepped its charge, knocking the sword aside with her shield. Then, before it could pivot, she ducked inside and hamstrung the creature, sending it stumbling to its knees. Before it could recover, she planted her axe in the back of its head twice, and let the twitching corpse fall face down on the wreckage of a shattered car.
Her breath was burning in her lungs, but she forced herself to turn back towards the battle. The others had done a half-decent job ambushing the Grue, but the burden of luring them in and then dealing with half of the threats was wearing at her. She started to charge back into the fray, but Bob stepped forward and incinerated the nearest Soldiers with sunlight, while Mary finished the last Knight with a roar. Ed put down the last Archer a heartbeat later, and then it was over.
[Main Quest Progress: 6 of 8 targets destroyed]
[Hidden Quest Progress: 4 of 6 targets destroyed]
Alex drew in breath after shaky breath. Just two more patrols, and two more Knights, and D rank would be hers. All she had to do was lure in another pair of packs of the things, and she’d be done.
It did her ego some good to see that the others weren’t that much better off. Only Ed wasn’t breathing hard, and even he had picked up a few scratches and bruises. Laura put her back to a concrete pillar and tilted her head back, leaning on the grey surface like it was the only thing keeping her upright.
Mary planted the butt of her greataxe on the floor and held onto it, like the weapon was the only thing keeping her upright. “Are we sure we can do two more? This might be enough for today.”
Ed shrugged. “I can do another two.”
“Speak for yourself.” Bob muttered something impolite as a crystal he was harvesting slipped out of his grasp. “I’m running on fumes, and I’m not the only one. I say we head back in. Laura?”
The Vanguard lowered her head, looking around at the other Surveyors. She met Alex’s eyes and sighed. “We need to head back to the portal.”
Alex opened her mouth to protest, and Laura shook her head. “Look, half of us are barely on our feet, and we’re starting to take wounds. If we keep fighting, we’re not going to be able to fight tomorrow. Is that what you want?”
Grimacing, Alex shut her mouth. Why did Laura have to choose now to be reasonable? Then she paused as Ed spoke up.
“Before we go, we should rest here for a bit.” The Vanguard gave him a look, and he shrugged. “We need it, in case we run into another group on the way back. Besides, if we’re headed back early, it’s not like we’re going to be late, are we?”
Laura still looked like she wanted to protest, but she hesitated. Then she sighed. “Yeah, you’re right.” She looked around the parking lot, evaluating the place. “We should take shelter in that stairwell over there. We’ll rest for ten minutes, and then head back. Understand?”
They all murmured agreement, though Alex just silently nodded her head. Her muscles were all burning, and she was still breathing a little hard, but the possibility of missing the experience to reach D rank by so little was incredibly aggravating to her.
Then again, it wasn’t like she could fight those last two patrols by herself. It might have been possible if she was fresh, or if she had a health potion, but exhausted and isolated? She’d be killed.
They gathered into the stairwell and half-collapsed onto the concrete. It took them a while to adjust themselves so that everyone was comfortable, but eventually everyone simply fell silent. Alex glowered at a far wall, still trying to work out how she could convince them to fight just two more times. The others didn’t talk; they just closed their eyes or buried their head in their arms, trying to get as much rest as they could before they set out again.
After a moment, the silence felt a little claustrophobic. Alex fidgeted, trying to resist the urge to peek out of the stairwell. The door they had closed behind them was a simple affair, just a regular door with a vertical rectangle for a window, but the glass had been smeared by refuse, and she couldn’t see through it clearly.
She tried to settle in, but she simply couldn’t manage it. Eventually, with her legs crying out for mercy, she levered herself up off the floor and walked over to the door. Alex reached for the handle, but Laura spoke up without opening her eyes. “Alex, if you leave to go bring back another pack of Grue, I’m going to skin you alive.”
It wasn’t a griefer’s threat, just a tired warning from someone who had had enough defiance for one week. Alex glanced back at her, trying not to let her temper flare. “I just wanted to see if something was out there.”
“Then use the window. That’s what it’s there for.” Laura gestured to the door, and then let her hand fall to her side.
Grumbling, Alex tried to find a spot on the glass that hadn’t been covered in whatever filth now blocked it. It took some doing, but she finally managed to find a small section that had somehow remained clear. To reach it, she had to twist herself up on her toes, stretching as hard as she could. The spot was barely big enough for her to peek through with one eye, and Grue claws had left scratches over it, but she could still make out the parking garage’s first floor.
She peered through it, seeing only the same wrecked cars that they had left behind. They didn’t seem to correspond to anything back on Earth, but then again, they weren’t entirely alien, either. The steering wheel was in the same place, and all the seats looked the same. A part of her wondered if the engines had miniature Anchor Points inside, meant to provide power. It was a ridiculous idea, but she’d have to either look at some point or ask Zach about it when she had the—
Something moved, and Alex’s thoughts came to a sudden, abrupt halt. Her breath came to a stop, and she felt her heart seize in her chest.
The thing that stepped out from behind the pillar was not a Grue. It had the same smoke-like form, but it lacked anything that approached the lupine features or hunched posture of the creatures. Instead, it looked almost… human, standing a little taller than Alex. Two grey eyes leaked smoke as it examined the parking garage, and a long, dark staff dangled from its hand.
It shouldn’t have seemed familiar. The thing should have been entirely alien to her, but Alex recognized the creature immediately. She had killed the thing once before, but not in this world.
Liliana’s shade looked back at her, somehow spying her through the filth of the window. Their eyes locked.
For a long moment, Alex didn’t even breathe. Her calves began to burn with the effort of holding her up, but she stayed exactly where she was, keeping her eyes on the terrible, impossible creature in front of her. It couldn’t be here. Liliana had died back on Earth, with Alex’s axe in her head. She’d watched the thing burn. Once it was gone, she’d even stomped around in the ashes left behind, just to be sure.
Yet here it was, glowering at her with all the malice and petty hatred that Alex remembered. Slowly, carefully, the shade raised its staff to point at her.
Then, between one blink and another, it was gone.
As if to mock her, yellow text flared to life.
[Hidden Quest Discovered! Destroy the Shade]
Alex slowly shoved herself away from the window. She started breathing, the air rushing in and out of her throat in shallow gasps. When she’d faced Liliana last time, she’d had almost a dozen Surveyors with her, all of whom had helped take the shade down. Here, with this team? They’d be dead.
“Alex? What’s wrong?” Ed was watching her, concern and confusion in his eyes. Alex shook her head and raised a finger to her lips. She moved carefully across the floor.
It was an effort to keep her voice low. “We need to go. We need to go now.”
Laura cracked an eye. “We aren’t hunting down any more patrols, Alex.”
“No. Back to the portal.” Alex walked over and yanked the Vanguard up. Determination gave her enough strength to pull Laura all the way to her feet. “We have to go. Now.”
Laura opened her mouth to protest and then paused. Her eyes flicked over to the window, and then back to Alex’s face. A hint of uncertainty crept into her eyes, and she looked over at the others. When she spoke, she kept her voice low. “Come on. Let’s go.”
Frowning, the others got to their feet. Bob opened his mouth to complain, and Alex gave him a look that made him shut his mouth so fast that his teeth clicked. Mary was staring at the door like she expected a flood of Grue to come through it, something that made Alex want to laugh. If only it was just Grue. She let go of Laura’s arm and got her weapons back in her hands.
Ed came over to stand next to her. “What is it?”
“A Shade.” Alex was faintly proud of the way her voice didn’t quite tremble. “It’s been hunting me.”
Mary snorted. “That’s insane. A Shade doesn’t hunt people unless they’ve killed it before, and that only happens… around…”
The Squire’s voice faded as Alex glared at her, and the color drained from her face. Then Laura stepped forward, putting herself between the rest of the team and the door. She glanced back at Alex, her expression serious. “Was it waiting there?”
Alex shook her head. “It disappeared.”
“They can’t hang around forever. Not without an Anchor Point close by to sustain them.” Laura shook her head. “All the same, let’s go.”
The Vanguard yanked the door open, and they all tensed. Only an empty garage confronted them. Cautiously, Laura led them out past the corpses of the strange cars, heading for the exit. No ghostly versions of Liliana stepped out to confront them, something that Alex considered a very good thing.
Moving a bit faster, they stepped out from the quiet garage and onto the street. Alex took a breath of the mostly fresh air and felt relief flood her.
Then Laura cursed, and a pack of Grue charged towards them from down the street. Alex found herself frozen in place. For just a heartbeat, behind the pack of Grue, she thought she could see Liliana, with the dark staff still pointed directly at her.
She blinked, and the Shade was gone, leaving just the patrol charging along the pavement.
Bob shouted over the howls. “Run or fight?”
“Unless you can sprint as well as Alex here, you’re better off fighting!” Laura dropped into a crouch. Her face was twisted into a desperate snarl. “We cut our way through, and then head straight to the portal. Don’t let anything stop you!”
Alex took up position beside her, and the others fell into place as well. Archers loosed arrows, which bounced from the pavement, thudded into armor, or were deflected from weapons.
Then the Surveyors charged, and the battle was joined.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Less than half an hour later, Alex and the others staggered back into the portal building. A part of her wanted to laugh; she hadn’t needed to worry so much about the patrols after all. They’d been ambushed another two times since the garage, each time by a patrol that had blocked their escape. Each time she’d seen a flicker of her old enemy, sending the Grue forward. It was impossible, utterly impossible, and yet here it was.
The Surveyors had fought with the terrible power of utter desperation, and they’d managed to make it back. They’d paid the price, though. Mary was bleeding from at least two arrow wounds that had made it through her armor, Bob was limping from a spear thrust that had caught his thigh, and Laura had been hit by the last Brute hard enough to break her arm. Ed was the worst off, with half a dozen wounds covering him, but the Porter had simply kept fighting, regardless.
Somehow, Alex had managed to avoid the worst of it. Beyond bruises where her armor had taken the hit and a scratch along her cheek, her ability to dodge had kept her from the worst of it. She didn’t think her luck would hold out for much longer, though. In the last fight, one of the Knights had almost cut her head off when she hadn’t ducked fast enough. Even her last second reaction hadn’t been entirely enough; her helmet had a divot in it from a swing that should have taken off her scalp.
The portal was a raging, swirling hole in reality. Alex felt a chill as she saw lightning flicker across its face. Had Liliana appeared in front of it, too?
None of the others hesitated. They limped through the portal one by one, and Alex followed them through. Relief filled her as the light swept her home…
[Mission Report]
[Successful Return! +20 Experience]
[Main Quests Completed! +80 Experience]
[Secondary Culling Quest Completed! +40 Experience]
[Secondary Culling Quest Completed! +40 Experience]
[Secondary Adversary Quest Not Completed]
[Secondary Nemesis Quest Not Completed]
Part of Alex wanted to break down laughing. A Nemesis? That sounded about right. Was she now going to be haunted by the ghost of her first supervisor every time she went through a portal? It seemed like something even her mother would point out as unfair.
The text shifted, something that she acknowledged even as her mind was caught on what she’d seen.
[Battle Maneuvers increased from 0 to 20!]
[You have reached level 5 as a Page!]
[+2 Speed gained. +1 Free Attribute awarded.]
The message pulled her out of her fatigue induced trance. She once again put the free increase into Strength; it was a habit that had served her well so far. Then her rising anticipation broke through the fog of her panic as a new message appeared.
[Page has reached the maximum level. Your Role must be reset in order to advance!]
[Perform Role Switch? Warning, only one Skill will be allowed to carry forward. All others will be lost or exchanged for other rewards.]
Alex stared at the words, her breath coming more and more evenly. It was a moment that she’d planned for since she’d decided on this path. To have it happen now, after what she’d just seen…
She shook her head. There was no time like the present. Alex accepted the option.
[Role Page has been removed.]
[Please select Permanent Skill.]
That choice was easy enough. Battle Maneuvers was the one that had given her so many advantages, and it was her only tier three Skill. She selected it.
[Skill Battle Maneuvers has become a Permanent Skill. It may no longer be Chained.]
[Skill Recovery has been removed. Title Tenacious upgraded to Title Tireless (Increases Skill grade of Recovery by three.)]
[Skill Marathoning has been removed. Title Dogged upgraded to Title Relentless (Increases Skill grade of Recovery, Running, and Marathoning by three.)]
[Skill Combined Arms–Axe/Shield has been removed. Title Brutality upgraded to Title Barbarity (Increases Skill grade of Melee, Weapon Mastery, and Combined Arms Skills by four.)
The rushes of energy faded slowly, leaving her aching and in pain. Alex shook her head and focused. Her next choices would be crucial for her future.
[Select your new Surveyor Role.]
[Squire–Bonuses to Strength and Skills related to heavy combat.]
[Porter–Bonuses to Life and Skills related to defense.]
[Page–Bonuses to Speed and Skills related to skirmish combat.]
[Acolyte–Bonuses to Devotion and Skills related to Divine Spells.]
[Adept–Bonuses to Control and Skills related to Arcane Spells.]
Selecting Page for a second time would have been an obvious choice. Her dependence on Speed and evasion made it a fairly good option, though her focus on close range fighting and Strength made Squire another decent choice.
Neither had been a part of the path she had wanted to chart for herself, however. So instead, she reached out and selected Porter.
Her head suddenly shifted, as if she suddenly had vertigo. Alex blinked, and to her shock, orange text appeared in front of her.
[You have become a Porter!]
[Your Role will grant you great defense and stamina. Use your newfound power to fight against the encroaching darkness, and you will find greater strength.]
[Select two Skills.]
Blinking at the strangeness of the new color, Alex tried to adjust her perspective. Porters started with Recovery and Blocking automatically. Whatever Skills she chose would need to align with those; of course, it would also be a good idea to choose something that would help her survive the last day of crunch.
Gritting her teeth, Alex chose Focus and Dodging. The lack of Melee Skills might have surprised someone else, but she had a plan, and she was sticking to it.
The text shifted again.
[Additional equipment awarded! Select new equipment.]
This time, she selected an upgrade to her shield. Given the size of the hammers the Brutes wielded, she was probably going to be using it to deflect far more dangerous attacks now. She’d need more than just a crude circle of wood and iron to do the job.
[Welcome to D Rank!]
[Permanent Skills now have a maximum of 30, and require double the effort to increase.]
[All other Skills have a maximum of 25.]
[Continue your journey, and ascend to new heights!]
With that orange text fading away, the light swallowed her once again…
Alex stepped out of the portal and nearly collapsed.
The fatigue of the crunch washed over her. With Recovery at zero and Marathoning gone, it was like the exhaustion simply smashed her in the face. At the same time, she was… different now. Her Attributes had improved, leaving her movements quicker and stronger than before. It also seemed like the world around her seemed that much more… fragile than before. Like she needed to walk carefully, to avoid accidentally breaking something.
She looked up and found Laura already delivering her report to Wells. The man looked over at her with a sharp look. A hint of amusement flickered in his eyes, as if he’d just found a brand new way to accomplish his goals, and Alex managed to repress a growl. Then she walked over to stand behind Laura.
Ed joined her a moment later. He looked at her sideways. “You reached D rank?”
Alex gave him a measuring look. “Yep.”
He nodded and sighed. “I figured.” Then he grinned. “I took Squire. You?”
“Porter.” She raised an eyebrow at his surprised expression. “What? You should feel flattered.”
“Maybe I should.” He laughed softly. “Too bad we’re probably not going to get assigned to the same team. It was… fun fighting with you.”
Alex nodded slightly. “Yeah, I guess it was.” Then she looked at Wells, who was motioning her forward. “Ed, just… take care of yourself, okay?”
He nodded, and she stepped forward. Time to give a report. It would be good practice for the more important one she had later.
“You reached D rank! Congratulations!” Alex smiled as her mother pressed closer to the camera, her face glowing. “How did you do that so quickly? I thought it would take you at least another month or two.”
“Yeah, things have been pretty intense here.” Alex caught a flicker of curiosity in her mother’s eye, and pressed on before it could grow. “It was weird seeing the Screen text change colors, though. I got so used to seeing it in yellow that I kind of miss it.”
Muriel smiled and shook her head. Her eye sparkled with memory. “I felt the same way when it went from red to yellow. What Role did you end up choosing? Not Page again, obviously.”
“Porter.” She saw surprise and a hint of disapproval on her mother’s face, and continued in an even voice. “I want the defensive bonuses that come along with it. Besides, it helps me along the path to where I want to end up, eventually.”
Muriel pressed her lips together for a moment. “That… makes sense.” She sighed. “I guess I just hoped that you would take Squire and follow in my footsteps after all.”
Alex snorted. “Sorry to let you down, Mom.”
“Oh, you’ll never do that.” Muriel waved her hand dismissively. “If I really hoped for that, I’d have wanted you to abandon that cursed axe of yours.”
“Not going to happen.” Alex gave her mother a grin. Muriel rolled her eye in an exaggerated expression of annoyance, and Alex laughed. “Is Dad there? I wanted him to hear the good news, too.”
“He’s out on a call right now.” Muriel shook her head. “Nothing major, just your average house fire. He’ll probably call you later.”
“Sounds good.” Alex paused. “I did want to ask you something. When you were, uh…” She looked around to make sure she was alone. “Working. Did you ever encounter a Shade?”
Muriel paused. Her eye narrowed. “Yeah. They show up occasionally, but only when things have really gone south. Why do you ask?”
“You never really mentioned them before, so I don’t remember a whole lot about them.” Despite herself, Alex hesitated again. “What did you do when you ran into them?”
Her mother shrugged. “Well, I was at least a C rank before I ever ran into one of those things. They usually just hang around Anchor Points and cause trouble, but I never had any real problems with them. By that level, you won’t either.”
Alex grimaced. “How much trouble would I have if one was after me at, say, D rank?”
Muriel didn’t answer immediately. She just stared at Alex through the camera, as if her single eye could peel back the layers behind that question. Then she grunted. “It was that Anchor Point you broke. The one on Earth.”
Why had she even tried to avoid a direct question? Alex sighed. “Yeah. I told you about Liliana?” Muriel nodded. “She was back. In the other world, and the Screen identified her as a Shade.”
A snarl worked its way across Muriel’s face. “Back, is she? Maybe she and I could have a conversation, then.”
“Mom…”
Muriel snorted. “Oh, I know, I know. I’ll stay out of it.” She gritted her teeth and shook her head. “Shades aren’t normally that much of a problem unless you’re going for an Anchor Point. They need a certain level of ambient power before they can really work. Usually they only hang around C rank portals or higher. The one you saw probably wouldn’t have much of a chance to attack you directly.”
“But she could, maybe, direct the Grue in the area to attack me, right?” It was the only way to explain the sudden coordination of the Grue near the end of the last Survey. The fact that it was so typical of Liliana to have others do her dirty work only made it fit that much better.
Her mother grimaced. “Yeah, that’s definitely possible.” She sighed. “Normally they can only show up to pester Surveyors that have destroyed them once, though. They seem to hold a lot more of a grudge than the other Grue. I’ve never heard of one in human form, though. That’s new.”
“Oh, good. Maybe Zach will be excited.” She doubted it, actually. He hadn’t been any fonder of Liliana either.
Muriel’s eye grew sharp. “The other thing is, they normally don’t show up unless someone has been through a particular portal repeatedly. Otherwise a Surveyor seems to be too hard for them to track down.” Alex winced, and her mother leaned forward. “Alex, just how many times have you been through the portal this week?”
“You’ve been doing what?”
Alex winced. Fatigue was already weighing heavy on her, but her mother had warned her to expect the call from her father later that night. She’d been sleeping peacefully when her phone had woken her, and true enough, she’d barely had enough time to get to the hallway before the growling and shouting had started. “It’s part of my job, Dad. You knew this when I started.”
Eric Morrison loomed over the phone’s camera, his expression clearly angry despite the soot covering it. As always, he was very good at looming. “Don’t lecture me, youngster. Your mother was doing this kind of work for years before you showed up. I know how it works. How it’s supposed to work. This ‘crunch’ is insane, and you know it.”
She looked in both directions along the hallway, trying to keep her voice low. The others were still asleep, but the last thing she needed was for some Red Blade Surveyor to overhear things and come looking for an explanation. “I know, Dad, I know, but I can’t leave. Not without signing up as some kind of janitor or putting myself in debt.”
“Unless the company has some kind of unfortunate accident, you mean.” Her father’s eyes glittered with an especially dangerous light. “Maybe your mother and I need to pay this place a little visit.”
“No. Dad, I mean it. No.” Alex made her voice as stern as she could without raising her volume. “That’s the last thing I need right now.”
He made as if to snarl out a response, and then stopped. She watched him close his eyes and take a calming breath. Then he opened his eyes again and looked at her. “You’re doing something dangerous again. I can tell.”
The accusation caught her by surprise, and she was too tired to dodge it. She could tell by the way his eyes narrowed slightly that it was too late to recover. “I’m… doing my best, Dad. There are people here I need to protect.”
“Well, it’s my job to protect you.” He folded his arms across his chest and glowered for a moment. Then his shoulders moved as he gave a titanic sigh. “All right. I’ll talk your mother out of coming and I won’t do anything either—but I’m going to need something from you in exchange.”
Alex nodded.
“I want a text message after every Survey, and a phone call every night.” She opened her mouth to protest, and he held up a hand to stop her. “Texts can be faked, calls are harder. I want to hear your voice on my voicemail or in my ear every night until your little situation there is resolved. You miss a night, I’m going to call you. You don’t answer, then we are going to come down for a visit—and we’ll bring all of our best toys. Understand?”
She nodded again, wincing at the picture of her father and mother showing up to the Red Blade compound. When the Crimson Blade and the man who’d set a hospital on fire to rescue his wife decided to ‘visit’ someone, it was not going to be a quiet event. “Dad, you can’t just helicopter parent me like this.”
There was shouting from the other room on her father’s side, and he grinned. “Your mother says that it isn’t helicopter parenting, it’s tradecraft.” She rolled her eyes, and his grin grew a bit wider. “Just think of us as your handlers. And your insurance policy.”
Alex gave him an exasperated look. “I don’t think any company I know of would think of you as a good insurance risk.”
“Your mother might disagree.” His grin faded, and his expression grew serious. “I mean it, Alex. When your mother was doing this kind of thing, she had plenty of backup to rely on. In the end, she needed it. Badly. We may not be much, but…”
She nodded in resignation. “Yeah, I know.” Then she paused. “Thanks, Dad. I love you.”
“We love you too. Now get some sleep. You’ve got another big day tomorrow.”
“I will. Goodnight.” She ended the call and then turned to head back towards the barracks. Her bunk was calling to her, and unless Liliana’s Shade showed up back on Earth, she intended to answer the call.