Ma’Z fired in bursts at the shade queen, gauging how she reacted to bullet fire, and then to the ensuing lightning. She was a lot nimbler than he gave her credit, but he was able to quickly deduce she didn’t like being shot, and she really didn’t like bright flashes of light.

She was throwing walls of shadow up like they were going out of style, killing his line of sight on her, and any attempt to get near her was met with a wall made out of tentacles that lashed out at him with alarming speed.

Ma’Z kept his distance, however, not really intending to be anywhere near her if he didn’t need to be, but testing his limits to see what he could and couldn’t get away with.

One of the first things he learned was that she couldn’t see within her own darkness, but she could sense anything that entered it and react accordingly.

He, on the other hand, could do neither.

Second, while she was nimble, she wasn’t nearly as fast as her children. She preferred to stay high up against the stalagmites, screeching commands while she tried to use her shadows to pin Ma’Z into a corner.

What she hadn’t planned on was his own ability to use the darkness to his advantage.

Every time she dropped a point of darkness, he used it to jump to a new location between her and Heaven’s wall of light. The shade stalkers followed relentlessly and were greeted one and all by the Heaven’s sentries that she left between her barrier of light.

With sword in hand, he led the stalkers around by the nose into an opening between the stalagmites as he began doing a series of sword flourishes into empty air.

With his gun hand, he continued to pepper the shade queen, who eventually threw up a bubble of darkness around her in another attempt to obfuscate her location.

A projection of acid made its way toward him a moment later, forcing him to dodge out of the way. All the while, he continued to dance around the clearing, dodging acid and slashing at the air.

In a matter of seconds, a small horde of shade stalkers were within striking distance. Instead of taking the swing, however, Ma’Z took the opportuning to shadow jump to the tip of a stalagmite, and with a devious grin, snapped his fingers.

The area below exploded with arcs of lightning from all of the ionized air he left behind with his sword slashes. It didn’t kill them outright, but it was enough for Heaven’s sentries to start mowing through them.

From his vantage point, he could see the shade queen had moved behind her globe of darkness and was charging up a spell he’d never seen before between her tentacles.

In response, Ma’Z reached into his own shadow and shot a few bursts into the mother shade’s exposed belly, followed by another cascade of lightning.

The shock of pain interrupted the spell, giving Ma’Z a moment to assess his options.

The shade stalkers were steadily dwindling in numbers, but there were still dozens of them making their way toward his new location. The stalagmite he was standing on, was leaning heavily to the side, giving him a clear path down towards the shade queen, who had moved to solid ground. However, she had seven stalkers standing guard in front of her.

Having decided on his next move, he kicked off the stalagmite and skated down its side towards the shade queen. The shade queen redirected her minions towards Ma’Z while she prepared to cast the spell once again.

There was approximately 200 meters between them, and plenty of stalagmites in between. Using the momentum built up from his downward descent, he began snaking between the rocky spires, firing burst after burst. She shade queen, to her credit did her best to dodge out of the way while she held her spell.

For his part, Ma’Z’s attention was split between himself and Heaven, whom he continued to keep in sight of himself so he could mark her location and any points of entry should she need to use his shadows.

The distance between he and the queen closed in no time, and just before the guards were ready to strike, Ma’Z broke line of sight one last time before he slammed through another shadow, appearing through a stalagmite covered in darkness. When he exited, he saw the queen was waiting for him, and immediately understood his mistake.

Every sense in his body screamed the words necrotic at him, and it was coming straight for his head.

Without thinking, he dropped into Drive mode as the ball of negative energy sailed over his head. He came out of Drive and back into Assault in a flash, his feet out as he swept the Shade Queen and cut off her tail, before returning to Drive as he sped off past a shade stalker and up a stalagmite.

On his ascent, he saw Heaven going into a full dive and moved his shadow accordingly.

At the height of his climb, he cast void grips as he returned to Assault mode and twisted to face back down the stalagmite. With a push, he started back down the stalagmite, ending void grips and casting footloose, eliminating his friction against the stalagmite.

He practically plummeted down the curved surface, sailing across the ground as he came in low towards the waiting shade stalkers.

With an upward swing he took the lead stalker’s head. Then using the momentum of the swing, he switched foot, turning into a camel spin, sword held outwards as it caught the next two shades, before sweeping the next stalker and slicing the one behind that.

The entire maneuver carried him to another stalagmite that he jumped through, coming out the opposite side firing on the shade queen, who had just recovered from having her tail cut off.

The queen turned on Ma’Z lunging in his direction in an attempt to intercept her prey. The queen made it just a few meters before it found itself face first in the ground as its feet fell from under it. Ma’Z had turned his footloose outwards and kept it trained on her as he continued to sail past.

Returning to the top of another stalagmite, he skated down the side again, using the built-up speed to drive his sword right through the stumbling Queen’s side.

On his passing, he sparked the path of his descent, giving the shade queen a nice view of the arc of lightning as it traveled down the stalagmite and right into the sword embedded within her.

While the shade queen screamed and spasmed on the ground. Ma’Z circled the writhing queen as he targeted his own sword, shooting at the tip of the blade, and sparking each and every bullet. The jolts of lighting struck again and again as the shade queen tried to desperately separate itself from his sword.

Ma’Z noticed there must’ve been some kind of psychic feedback as the remaining shade stalkers began to collapse around him, convulsing as if experiencing the same pain as their mother.

Still, he continued to fire until he finally emptied the clip, leaving nothing but the charred corpse of the eight-legged monstrosity.

“Is that-,” Ma’Z coughed as he tried to suck in a breath, suddenly aware of how much of a physical toll the battle took on his body. “Is that it? Are they all dead?”

“Ma’Z. Otru’fin,” Heaven said. “You’re definitely getting some tonight.”

Ma’Z looked up to see her standing not too far off, smiling wide with her rifle slung over her shoulder.

“That was intense, wasn’t it? Agh!” Ma’Z grabbed his head, staggering backwards a step.

“Good job dummy. You’re bottoming out. Here,” Heaven said reaching out her hand.

A trade window opened in front of Ma’Z, who accepted without question, pulling out the ampoule a moment later. “What’s this?”

“Remember when I told you there were ways to replenish your æther to deal with this very situation? This is it. It’s a nanite solution of distilled æther. Drink up.”

Ma’Z did as instructed and instantly felt better. “Oh, that’s some high quality h2O!”

“What? No, it’s… never mind.” Looking around she added, “I guess all that’s left now is to find the jewel.”

“What’s it look like again?”

“Oh. Like this,” Heaven said sending Ma’Z an image of the flower.

“Ooh, shit. Why didn’t you say so! I got like twenty of them!”

“You… what?!”

“Yeah, there’s a ton of them at the bases of the stalagmites. When I was clearing my corners, I felt my hand brush up against one – it’s really weird how I can feel what my mech feels, by the way – so, I felt one, and then I felt another and another. So, I just started grabbing them, intending to ask you later what they were.”

“Unbelievable,” Brigand cut in.

“I know, right! We got to smash a bunch of ambush predators and I got to pick my baby some flowers! Absolute Casanova shit.”

“Oh Goddess, now I’m embarrassed. You did not just say that.”

“Aw, c’mon baby. Don’t be like tha- oh. Wait. Hold on. I got a notification.”

Congratulations! You killed a Shade Stalker. You gained a loot bonus for killing more than ten consecutive Shade Stalkers. You gained a cumulative chance to receive legendary or better loot for every ten Shade Stalkers killed above ten. Each defeated Shade Stalker can be looted.

For killing more than fifty Shade Stalkers, you gained the following trait: Obscured Presence

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Congratulations! You killed a Shade Queen of Darkness. You have an increased chance of gaining a legendary or better item for defeating a much stronger opponent than yourself. The Shade Queen of Darkness can be looted

For killing a Shade Queen of Darkness, you gain the following trait: Darkvision.

“Ooh, two new traits,” he said. “And lots of bodies to loot.”

Heaven’s eyes lit up when she realized she had a notification too. She quickly skimmed it over, smiling happily at the results.

“Hey, Brigand. Look,” she said sending it over to Ma'Z and her colleague.

Congratulations, you killed a Shade Stalker. You gained a loot bonus for killing more than ten consecutive Shade Stalkers. You gained a cumulative chance to receive legendary or better loot for every ten Shade Stalkers killed above ten. Each defeated Shade Stalker can be looted.

For killing more than fifty Shade Stalkers, you gained the following ability: Eyes of Night

Congratulations, you just killed a Shade Progenitor of Night. You have a higher chance of gaining a legendary or better item for defeating a strong opponent. The Shade Progenitor of Night can be looted.

“Show us yours, Ma’Z,” Heaven said.

Ma’Z sent his notifications over, causing the two to whistle in unison.

“Now that’s what’s up, babe! You killed it. Literally.”

“If I’m being honest, I’m both in awe and terrified of what I just witnessed,” Brigand added.

The pair turned their attention to the Rider as he put his hands up and said, “Woah, just hear me out. Heaven, I know you understand where I’m coming from. There are only a handful of Riders who’ve achieved gold-tier affinity with their Erzelis. The going theory is that the Rider and Frame have perfect one to one synchronicity. Each rider is justifiably mum about what benefits they’ve gotten, but to all observers, they’re one and all quite literally in a class of their own.”

Brigand looked to Heaven and said, “And our Princess here is silver-tier, and a Civilian besides. We’ve watched her pull off some amazing feats, and tonight was probably her most unfettered performance to date.”

“Heyyyy. What’s that supposed to mean?” Heaven said.

“It means, given your background, you’re usually very methodical, no nonsense, and quick to exploit your opponent’s weakness in the most efficient matter possible. What you did here? I dare say it was artwork. The damned thing barely had a chance to react before you killed it. And on top of that, you used Ma’Hiz’s shadow as if it were your own spell.

“And that brings me to you,” he said pointing at Ma’Z. “Taking into account the personal skills you brought with you from our world, there’s still the fact that operating a Frame takes a lot of adjustment and getting used to. You not only operate at a level rivaling that of an A-class Sentinel, but you did it while keeping an eye out for Heaven when she needed your shadow to pull off the feats that she did. That kind of situational awareness is something typically found in Hunters close to Chosen.”

“What he’s trying to say Ma’Z,” Heaven interjected, “is that you’ve far surpassed expectations. You’ve certainly surpassed mine, and with Brigand here, we have recorded proof that everything you did was the genuine deal and not a fluke. The debate over how golden Frames benefit their riders is going to spark up all new debates and theories for the next several months.”

“Smells like there’s a caveat in all of this,” Ma’Z said.

“Yeah, the inevitable question of how you got it, for one. And no few individuals, both players and Tears, who will want to pry it off of your cold dead hands,” Heaven said.

“They’re that willing to break the taboo just for this?”

“Willing. Sure. Whether they’re able to is a whole different story.”

“Don’t suppose I can do something stupid and wager it away in a PvP match, can I?”

“You can, actually. Highly recommend that you don’t, though.”

“Oh, I learned that lesson.”

“Ma’Z, here, bet away his prized engine in a race just before he logged in, and lost.”

Brigand whistled before laughing. “Vaht soh, boy. Bet that stung.”

“Did you really have to tell him that,” Ma’Z scowled.

“I’m not the weirdo that bet his friggen engine. When I caught the feed and realized what kind of race you were in, I wanted to scream. Like were you that bored?”

“Nobody wanted to race me!”

“Then you should’ve just come home, dummy!”

“Yeah, but I was just thinking of all the races I was going to have here, and I just couldn’t resist getting one in.”

“Hopeless,” Heaven sighed. “See what I mean now, Brig? When it comes to racing, he literally thinks of nothing else. And don’t you dare flash a green light in front of him.”

“Is that why you went out of your way to design his armor set all green?” Brigand asked.

“Yo, I’m still standing here,” Ma’Z said.

“That you are. Go loot your corpses and tell us what you fish up,” Heaven said, waving him away.

Ma’Z rolled his eyes, grumbling as he started rifling through the field of shade stalker corpses. It was kind of strange looking at all of the bodies he killed, and the shiny lights that now emanated from them in his Vision. They shined mostly blue or green, though he did notice a few that were orange.

He knew blue was considered average and green was masterwork. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t salivate at the sight of the orange legendaries.

He found it surprisingly easy to dig the little stones out of the shade’s body. The blue glow told him it was average quality, which made him glad his Vision was doing the appraising and not him. The dark stone seemed to drink the light from his shoulder mounted spotlight. A moment later a window popped in his vision that said,

Shade Stalker Core (average): Shade Stalkers are naturally averse to light and seem to completely disappear from sight when in direct line of sight. This seems to be a passive effect from their cores, but when exposed to bright light, the cores heat up rapidly, causing intense pain to the shade stalker.

Take extreme caution when exposed to the air as Shade Stalker Cores become very volatile and prone to explode while under bright light.

“Aw, fuck!” Ma’Z blurted as he tried to toss the stone away. He was so caught up reading the description, he hadn’t even noticed the black stone turn a bright crimson before exploding in his hand.

He reflexively grabbed his hand to stave off the pain before it registered that while his hand had char marks from the explosion, he was fine. “Oh,” he said.

“You alright over there?” Heaven asked looking not the least bit concerned.

“Did you know these things would blow up?”

“I uh, did actually. I forgot to tell you to keep your spotlight turned down low.”

“You forgot?”

“Oops.”

“Oh, honey, you’re so cool. You killed all of those monsters all by yourself, and even killed the boss! ‘Yeah, but how did he die?’ Oh, I forgot to tell him they’ll explode if he shines his high beams on their EXPLODING cores!” he pantomimed to himself.

With an exaggerated groan, he went back to his foraging – spotlight turned down – as he put away all of the average and masterwork quality cores.

Turning his attention on the legendary, he got a new description.

Shade Stalker Core (legendary): Looks identical to a normal Shade Stalker Core, but will blow your fucking face off and maybe form a crater. DO NOT SHINE BRIGHT LIGHT ON THIS!

“Heaven? What the hell are these things?!” he asked, horrified.

“You ok?” she said.

I got a legendary core. Thing said I could actually die if it explodes!”

“Sweet luck! A legendary? Gimme that!”

“Why are you letting me handle explosives unsupervised, Heaven!”

“What? I told you to turn the lights down. You’re perfectly sa-“

“No, no. That wasn’t a question. This thing said it could form a crater!”

“Pffft. You big baby. My armor can handle an explosion like that… probably.”

“What do you mean, probably?”

“I mean, we typically use those to crack open Titan class Frames so…”

“Heaven…”

“Don’t be mad! You really are ok so long as you keep the lights down.”

Ma’Z pressed a finger and thumb to the bridge of his nose, groaning as he tried to calm down.

“Look,” he said. “All I’m saying is for all that blathering you did about doing everything safely, you look entirely too comfortable exposing me to a crater inducing explosive.”

“Yeah. You’re right. I took it for granted that you’re not a crafter and this is kind of my wheelhouse, so it just slipped my mind that you wouldn’t know any better. Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Ma’Z said sounding much calmer. “It’s fine. Looking around, I think I have just shy of twenty of them. Do you want them?”

“Falsh yes I do!”

“How much are these cores worth, anyway?”

“Around 2k a pop. Why?”

“So, I’ll give you a honey bear discount of 2.5 per core and-”

“You’re UPcharging me?”

“Less than I would have if you weren’t my fiancé!”

“Oh man, he’s definitely a good fit,” Brigand bellowed.

“Don’t encourage him,” Heaven chided.

“The man saw dollar signs and didn’t hesitate to hustle his own wife. How could I not find that funny?”

“Shiiiid, I find it funny,” Ma’Z added.

“How did this get turned around on me?”

“Karma for trying to blow me up. Duh,” he said.

Shaking her head, Heaven just said, “Unbelievable.”

Ma’Z turned back to collecting the rest of the remaining cores, leaving Heaven with Brigand, who was steadily collating the data of everything he observed during their mission.

In the middle of his gathering crusade Ma’Z thought back to something Brigand had said. How he used his Shadow to assist Heaven in her assault on the shade progenitor. He remembered wanting to assist Heaven in her fight, but he didn’t remember ever issuing any commands, either verbal or mental.

“Heh. Magic,” Ma’Z mentally shrugged. He picked up another core, examining it again. In his mechanical hand, he took a moment to appreciate the size of the basketball sized gem. Now that he knew it was explosive, a chaotic part of him started imagining what kind of damage he could inflict on some poor soul. “Yup. Definitely going to keep one. Just in case.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“So, was everything you said the truth?” Heaven said.

“And then some. He’s good. Really good. You both made short work of those shades, and while it’s not something I’m too surprised to see from you, he’s a literal amateur. I probably wouldn’t be so surprised if this were a ground incident, but we both know not just anyone can operate a Frame at the level he just displayed. He moves like he’s been a Rider his entire life,” Brigand said.

“Well, if it eases your mind any, he’s got a racial trait that seems to help in that regard.”

“Oh?”

“Let’s just say a lot of things are probably going to come easily for him.”

Brigand looked at the elven woman, chewing on what she just said. He knew she wasn’t all that forthcoming about her own abilities, which lead many of them to assume she probably had some perks that helped her do the things she did.

To her credit, as a spec marine, she had more combat training than most of them, and after the war with he Kha, she was already exposed to more war scenarios than any of them combined. Everyone thought she was handicapping herself as a Civilian, but she proved that to be the exact opposite.

They were just counting down the day until she got ahold of an epic or relic tier weapon.

Nodding, Brigand said, “Noted. In either case, think the boss will be rather pleased to have him on the squad. You might want to prepare him, though, since he’ll probably still be treated like a beginner. He’s got the skills, but you know Striga’s a stickler for the rules. He might get some leeway, but he’ll be expected to follow the chain and all that.”

“That’s fair. But he also knows that he’s really only here for racing and not contracts. He’s only joining with the understanding that he’ll be able to go racing to his heart’s content.”

“I figured there might be some stipulation involved. Doesn’t bother me any, but I can see at least one member taking umbrage with that.”

“She knew what she signed up for when she agreed to the terms. Same as all of us. She’ll deal.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I’ll have a talk with her too.”

“You going to blow off another limb?”

“It’s really weird how easily we can be put back together when you think about it, ain’t it?”

“Heaven…”

“No. I’m not going to shoot her.”

“Thank you.”

“But I will absolutely break something if she starts another fight.”

“Maybe I should talk to her instead.”

“I’ll be on my best behavior. I promise.”

“If you say so.”

“I do. Now if you’ll excuse me, I got some corpses to loot. Got quite a few legendaries of my own to gather.”