Overlooking the battlefield like a waiting maw, the walls of the village of Regnad were lined with hundreds of troops, each a sharpened tooth ready to bite. The Guards who would be defending the walls against the mundane attackers stood shoulder to shoulder, their weapons at their sides and at the ready. As for those that would be fighting back the nearly one hundred Rogues, the Warriors of the Star Order, they were spaced evenly among the Guardsmen, ready to act at a moment’s notice.

The command briefing had gone smoothly after Taylor’s arrival. When she had entered, the Guard Commander had been in the middle of informing his men about the exact scale of the threat to their village. A credit to their training, all of the officers present had only needed a moment to digest the information and none had made a scene. Following that hurdle, the rest of the briefing had been a breeze, with the Commander discussing the defense plans for the coming assault and giving everyone the details of their orders.

There had been one awkward moment, and that had been when the Commander had made it known that the one who had disrupted the enemy’s plan for a surprise assault had been Taylor’s partner, Mac. That had earned her a small round of applause and head nods of appreciation from the gathered officers. She guessed that move had been done to ingratiate her with the men.

‘Whatever.’

By an odd turn of fate, Taylor, who was at her designated position, was flanked on either side by the young barracks guard from earlier and the Guard Commander Gerard, respectively. The young guard, whose name turned out to be Gabe, sweated nervously as he peered out into the darkness beyond the wall. His hands, which were gripping his sword and shield tightly, were shaking with nerves, and Taylor thought he might pass out soon if he didn’t calm down. Guard Commander Gerard also noticed the nervous young man and reached around Taylor’s back to give Gabe a rough pat on the back, causing the young man to yelp loudly in fright.

“Listen kid,” the old Guard Commander growled, “There ain’t nothing out there that’s going to kill you any faster than you can kill them. All that matters is that you take that sword of yours and ram into them before they can scramble over this wall and ram theirs into you. You hear me? That shield of yours ain’t for show either, so make sure to throw it up when the arrows come. Do that and you’ll be fine.”

The young Guard gulped nervously and shot a look at Taylor before stuttering out, “Wha-what a-a-about the Rogues?”

“Haha! Is that what you’re over there rattling about? That’s what this lass is here for!” Gerard laughed heartily, “Trust me, none of those Rogues gives a rat’s ass about you, son. The only people they’re here to fight are the Warriors like her. So, go ahead and push those monsters out of your mind. Just focus on your task and let Warrior Mitchell here do hers.”

Taylor took that as her cue to give the young man a wink before saying as teasingly as she could manage without laughing, “Don’t you trust me?”

Gabe flushed a deep crimson before he managed to look away, only able to give Taylor a couple of quick nods to affirm his deep and unwarranted trust in her. Snickering, Taylor dropped the act and repeated Gerard’s move of patting the young man roughly on the back, giving him a toothy grin.

“Good. Now just don’t die to the rest of the soldiers and everything will work out fine.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Gabe said sarcastically, the nervousness he had been feeling chased away by embarrassment and the possible whiplash he had just received from the “encouraging” blows to his back.

Everyone returned to their watch, preparing themselves for the awaited moment when they would be called to defend their home from destruction. Taylor, for her part, used the time to consult the list of skills that were provided for the Alpha Test to finally figure out what her build would be.

The list of skills provided wasn’t too in depth, the majority of them being the base skills every member of the Order had the opportunity to learn based on their assessed skill affinity. The only difference was, Taylor didn’t have a skill affinity. As a player, she had the ability to use any of the base skills she wanted, however, that didn’t make things easier.

Not all of the skills worked well together, some even weakening or negating others, and she only had so much energy reserves to draw from before she would need to fall back to recharge. According to the Codex, Warriors needed to train and advance their “attunement to the Stars” in order to increase their energy reserves and inherent power. The same went for gaining greater Authorities that would allow them to improve their skills to more advanced forms. Taylor took this as meaning that the more a Warrior contributed to the Order, the greater investments they would be given in return. There was the issue concerning the existence of the Rogue Warriors, which threw a huge wrench in the foundation of this conclusion, but she had to work with the information she had at hand.

What did this mean for her as a new player given the benefits of an Alpha Tester? Not much. It only meant that she was stuck with an average ability to retain energy and a huge list of energy guzzling abilities to choose from. She was like a new driver that had been given the keys to a supercar, with only a vague idea about gas conservation.

She needed some help.

Luckily, she knew a certain AI that would be perfect for the job.

‘Hey, Ollie!’ she reached out with her thoughts.

Players didn’t have to be able to speak to contact the assistant AI, all they needed to do was think the words and their intention would be relayed by the VR hardware through the system. It was definitely convenient for players suffering from some sort of status affect or that had been made unable to talk by more violent means. She didn’t have to wait long for a response, though she had to admit that she wasn’t used to waiting for a response from the system.

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“Taylor! How can I assist you?”

She could hear Ollie’s voice in their air around her, but she knew that no one else could.

‘Hey, Ollie. Having a little trouble with response times today?’

The AI seemed confused as it didn’t respond for a few seconds, “I’m sorry. The system is having trouble adapting to the test, so my response times may be slower than expected. Is there something I can help you with? . . .How are you feeling?"

It seemed to ask that last part after of a moment of consideration.

Taylor raised an eyebrow at the unusual question but brushed it off as the AI simply doing its job in monitoring the Alpha Testers, like they had been informed it would be prior to the test.

‘I’m good, thanks. I just have a few questions about the skill system and the concept of energy consumption.’

“Ah. That’s actually been a very common question, so don’t worry,” Ollie sighed, “The energy consumption is a much more intuitive mechanic than you’ll have seen in other games. Think of it like magic in a fantasy world; the wizards and witches don’t normally have some gauge telling them how much magic power they have before they become exhausted, right? It’s the same here, energy is like stamina when it comes to physical activity. Jog and it’ll last longer, sprint and you’ll be gassed before you know it. You’ll want to choose skills that match the amount of energy you have and pay attention to how they feel when they’re used, so that you don’t end up sprinting through all of your energy in a fight and find yourself in trouble.”

Taylor nodded, understanding everything the AI had conveyed perfectly.

‘Gotcha. And what about the skill system? Is there an optimal method for selecting them or can I just mix and match to suit my style.’

“That’s definitely one way to do it. As long as you don’t choose conflicting abilities, you should be fine. Just know that abilities that grant increases in the same attributes, like strength or speed, can’t be used simultaneously, even if they seem to provide the increase in a different manner from each other. So stacking isn’t a viable tactic. Other than that, the choice is yours.” Ollie paused for second before finishing, “I would recommend only choosing skills that you feel synergize with your natural fighting style and personality. It’s been determined that doing so vastly increases the effectiveness of the skill and its energy conservation, as well as the learning curve in advancing the tier of the skill when the time comes. It’s not uncommon for Warriors in this world to find themselves stuck at a tier advancement because they decided to choose a skill that didn’t fit with their determined affinity.”

Taylor understood what Ollie was saying thanks to personal experience. She remembered how the use of the Energy Drain skill to treat the prospect had felt off, like the ability wasn’t something she should’ve been using herself. She assumed at the time that it was the natural response to performing an otherworldly feat, but that clearly hadn’t been the case.

‘So, no direct energy manipulation skills for me. Understood. I think that’s all I needed, Ollie. Thanks for the help!’

The AI seemed amused when it responded with equal enthusiasm, “No problem. Reach out anytime and have fun with your fight!”

Taylor felt the presence of the AI disappear, hearing the small chime indicating that Ollie had returned to monitoring the system.

‘Good shit.' she thought, once again bringing the skill list into her field of vision, 'Now, let’s figure out what kind of badass I want to be today.’

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“Place them there. No, there. Good. Make sure that they’re standing upright with the weapon visible. Yeah, just like that.”

On another part of the village wall, far from the front lines, Mac was overseeing one of the Arbiter’s many gambles. Under his guidance, several Guards were carefully arranging the unconscious bodies of several traitors that had been caught in the act of starting fires around the village. Some of the suspects Mac even recognized from the emergency summit.

Each of the unconscious “volunteers” had been dressed in spare Guard armor and made to grip unusable weapons by binding them to their hands before propping them up in probable positions using various means. While the night had been clear before, the smoke spreading from the remains of the traitor’s own fires provided enough ambiguity to make this deceit worthwhile.

‘Much obliged.’

“Sir, all of the traitors have been secured. Also, all of the troops that weren’t relocated to defend the eastern gate have been pulled back from the wall as requested and placed in defensible positions,” a sharp looking lieutenant reported after the first part of the trap was finished being set. Looking down from the roof he was currently on, Mac swept the area of the wall close to him with his enhanced vision, satisfied with the results.

“Everything looks good. Take the rest of the men and fall back to the staging ground. Now that the bait has been cast, all we can do is wait to see if anything bites.”

The lieutenant smashed a fist to his chest before waving towards the loitering Guardsmen, signaling for them to prepare to move out. Watching the backs of the men as they quickly vacated the area, Mac’s easy-going expression was replaced with one more solemn.

Stepping off the rooftop, Mac appeared on the wall several dozen meters away. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a dull metallic sphere which he placed in a space easily visible from the land beyond the wall. Looking around to ensure that he wasn’t seen, Mac turned from where he stood and appeared further down the wall, once again pulling a metallic sphere from his pocket and placing it in a visible position. After he had repeated this process several more times, Mac took another step but, this time, he didn’t reappear on the wall. He had finally gone to let the Administrator know that the preparations were complete on his end.

Minutes went by before a shape walked out from behind a nearby building and looked up towards the wall where Mac had just been. The hint of a smile showed itself as the man shook his head silently. Pulling a dull metallic sphere from his peacoat and studying it, Arbiter Mitchell mumbled to himself with some intrigue, “Geeze, Mac, some things never change. You never could stay out of trouble. What’ve you gotten yourself into this time?”

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Back at the Academy, the villagers continued to arrive in droves. Fortunately for Aiden and Kaitlyn, the keep had ample space to house everyone with room to spare. Placed by the fireplace, the two sat together and watched as some medical Warriors treated Mrs. Perez. The cause for her current state had been a serious blow to the head which had caused a subdural hematoma; most likely from the aftermath of the masked Warrior’s energy blast, Aiden silently concluded. Thankfully, with the skills wielded by the Warriors, the injury wasn’t too serious, and Kaitlyn’s mother was now sleeping a peaceful, skill induced slumber.

Beside him, Kaitlyn sat quietly, deep in thought.

After Aiden had finally gotten her to calm down enough to disentangle her from the blankets, Kaitlyn had immediately stood up from the makeshift sled Aiden had built to transport both the Perez women, demanding to know what was going on, where she was, and why she and her mom were being dragged through the streets on the cushions of her family’s couch, wrapped in their best quilts.

Honestly, he’d been quite proud of that bit of improvised engineering.