Rabbyte made the first move. She reached for her back and pulled the weird cylinder thing out. With a press of the button, the entire weapon expanded into a formidable looking gun. It slowly started to spin up like a steam crank. Several barrels of the minigun rotated, warming up for what was to come. “Initiate Combat Mode!”

  Plates on her shoulders slid down, revealing rocket pods primed and ready. Her ears flopped low, and the red dots on her helmet turned to angry red slits. On either side of her hips, circular plates pushed out to reveal pistols just waiting to be grabbed. Several blades also popped out in spots, giving her some more damaging defensive options in case something got close.

  A cord dropped from the power pack at her back. She promptly plugged it into the mini gun. All along the gun, a blue glow erupted. Was it some kind of mechanized ether shot? Sure beat carrying around a bunch of heavy ammo, I guess. Seeing where this was going, I quickly made Ebonshroud earbuds.

  VrmmmMMM-BRRRRRRRRR-!

  The minigun unloaded into the cavern, spraying wildly across every surface. Bright neon blue projectiles scattered across the entire chamber in brilliant flashes. All eyes snapped to us in an instant. All eyes that weren’t immediately shot off by the wildly spraying rabbitkin, that is.

  She shifted, executing an entire swarm of Pikxies with a few seconds of concentrated fire. “Bwahahahahaha! Eat ether, sucka!”

  I didn’t stop to watch the fireworks. I fired a shot from Thorn’s Defiance, wiping out a squad of Cobblins rushing at us. By the time the barrel regrew, more and more enemies swarmed into the chamber. I hit the switch, swapping the firing mode to Thorn Weave.

  I preemptively fired another shot off just in front of us. The thorns spread out, and electric vines snapped between them. Green electric brambles surged out for any would-be attacker to run through. And run through they did. Sitting around wasn’t really an option with Rabbyte hosing the place down.

  Unlike against the Grimlins, the electric tethers didn’t kill the Cobblins. For the most part, they even seemed immune to the damage. They were slowed down though, and that was all that really mattered. Being slowed while running into a choke point? It was a classic tactical error. Anything caught in the net immediately ate a dozen shots.

  “Target lock!” A rocket fired off from her shoulder, splashing down into a mass of Cobblins. “That’s five hundred a pop, you bastards!”

  ”…!” Five hundred a pop? Was she shooting gold?! If she used any more of those missiles, she’d hit rock bottom-

  “Carrots!” The minigun abruptly cut off, letting up the pressure. Already, the swarms were starting to move in with a vengeance to their eyes. “Jam! Cover me, Moon!”

  The Rabbitkin bounced back down the hall, immediately pulling tools out of seemingly nowhere to fix her minigun. The Mascot followed, giving me some space to work.

  I fired a shot of Thorn Weave just in front of me, creating a slowing blockade. The initial shot killed five Cobblins and pushed back the mass, giving me some space to work with. I only had one true AOE attack to work with, and it was on cooldown between shots. I needed to control the enemy’s advance.

  Without hesitation, I flicked out the Will Wire. It rapidly formed into a net in front of me. I dual enhanced the weave with Ebonshroud and Etheric Reinforcement, boosting its defensive capabilities. The net expanded out, forcing the attackers into a choke to limit their approach. And then they were on me.

  I threw up my arm, Ebonshroud flowing along my sleeve to block the sprays of pebbles shot at me. I snapped forward with a dagger, parrying a heavy overhead blow aimed to shatter my arm. The Cobblin staggered right into a flying knee. Just before my knee connected, I formed a spike out of it, excavating the rock runt’s brain.

  I back stepped, summoning Thorn’s Defiance once more. A Cobblin closed in on me, rearing back to attack. Before it could, I covered the barrel in ether, reinforcing it. With the reinforced spike at the end of the barrel, I slammed forward like it was a bayonet. The enhanced thorn easily destroyed the Cobblin’s head, giving me space.

  Wumph!

  This close, I didn’t even have to aim. A heavy shot cleared out a straight line through the mass of rushing Cobblins. The thorn storm that followed cleared out a chunk and created space in front of me. I pushed up, moving the Will Wire net further forward to take more space while I could.

  [Nighteye shouts above!]

  A Pikxie tried to get past me, though it was stopped with a flick of my wrist. The Will Wire snapped out from the wall, entwining around the inectoid’s legs. With a thought, the dual-enhanced Will wire pulled in four different directions. The Pikxie split into chunks above the hall, sending gore everywhere.

  I blocked a Cobblin charge and flicked my wrist once more. The Will Wire lunged down with all four legs like they were spears, skewering the Cobblin through the back of the head. It then rubber-banded back into position, snapping the Cobblin into the horde like a makeshift catapult.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  I parried a Cobblin to the side and sliced through its head with my dagger, sending it sprawling back. It was likewise picked up and flung, bowling over its brethren with its dead body. No clue if the rock runts had feelings, but if they did? Getting hit by the corpse of your kin was seriously demoralizing.

  So began a cycle. Every time Thorn’s Defiance came off cooldown, I fired into the horde to clear out entire lines of enemies. While it was on cooldown, I used my dagger and Will Wire to buy time in a dexterous dance of string and shroud. They didn’t stand a chance against me.

  There were a few close calls, and by that I mean some of them almost got past me, but nothing I couldn’t handle. The heat of battle thundered through my heart with each move, sinking me more and more back into that familiar rhythm that made my head just feel right.

  “Dodge!” Rabbyte called out from behind me.

  “…!” I didn’t need to be told twice. I threw myself to the side and retracted the Will Wire net.

  Blue bullets blitzed down the hall as the Mythek got back into the fight, mowing down waves of monsters encroaching on us. The corpses stacked and stacked, making barricades that just slowed them down further.

  The slaughter continued for several minutes, leaving the entire cavern even more ragged than when we arrived. Thorns and bullets covered almost every single surface, and corpses littered the entire area by the hundreds.

  There were only a few Cobblins still alive now, including the Cob-Cobblin. Unlike the rest of the enemies, it was resistant to Rabbyte’s bullets. Guess the small caliber minigun was only good on Feeble monsters.

  Looked like the Cob-Cobblin might actually put up some resistance-

  Wumph!

  Ah, scratch that, actually. I pulled my finger off the trigger and watched the rock monster fall without a head. Whether it was Disruptive or not didn’t really matter. Still just canon fodder at the end of the day. Beside me, Rabbyte easily mowed down the rest of the stragglers.

  Her minigun ground to a halt. All six of the gun’s barrels glowed red hot and steam wafted into the air. “How’s that for a horde clear? Did I look cool?!”

  ”Yep.” Cool enough I wanted a minigun to play with.

  “Yay!” She flicked the minigun, reverting it back to its unassuming cylinder shape. The Myhtek promptly hooked it to her back and pulled out her Glass. “I’ll call in some CDF. We’ll need help gathering the corpses after this- this slaughter. Go check if there’s anything of value.”

  “…” I flashed a thumbs up and pushed out of the hall. It was a bit annoying climbing over the corpses of my enemies. There were just so many of them. I didn't even bother trying to count-

  [Nighteye eyes the surroundings. 473 Cobblins and 63 Pikxies. Total 536. Never take her for granite again.]

  Wow, that was surprisingly useful. It was 100 per corpse and 100 per item right? That would put us at… around 100,000? Damn, I might actually pay off my debt at this rate. Were you always this helpful, my brilliant star?

  [The moon shines in the dark.]

  A silver glow erupted across the cavern proving that Nighteye had indeed always been helpful. Guiding Moonlight’s soft trails illuminated the corpse of the Cob-Cobblin. Specifically, it centered on a small glowing sphere in the monster’s chest.

  I worked my way over to it, killing a Cobblin that thought it could ambush me. Only a fool let their guard drop after the fighting was ‘over’. The rock runt took a dagger to the head, sedimenting alongside its kin.

  The Cob-Cobblin was a heavy brute to move. It took several stabs of my dagger to dig into the thing’s corpse. Eventually, I managed to pry out the crystal that glowed so brightly under Guiding Moonlight’s glow.

  [Code: EC-1]

  [Consume Evo Core?]

  [Nighteye cheers! Go for it, kitten!]

  Don’t call me that. I’m probably older than you are. What was this thing, anyway? I picked up and inspected the weird crystal. It was a red polyhedral shape. A slight glow emitted from the Evo Core, pulsating like a heartbeat. Better leave it alone for now. Wouldn’t want to consume it, and then find out it was something super rare.

  I shook my head and moved back to Rabbyte. She just got off her Glass and waved at me. “They’re on their way! Thanks for helping me with this.”

  ”No. Problem.” My broken voice croaked out. It was fun, if nothing else. Been a while since I fought like that… made me want to head to a rift solo and really let loose with Ebonshroud.

  “Find anything?”

  ”…?” I hefted the Evo Core up.

  ”Ah!” Rabbyte flinched, her red slits for eyes locking onto the core. “That explains it! I was wondering how a D-rank showed up here.”

  ”What?” I motioned to the Evo Core.

  Rabbyte took the offered core and looked it over. “Have you not seen one of these before? Monsters use them to level up. Wardens, on the other hand, can evolve their Traits with Evo Cores.”

  “Primo?” Evolving Traits?

  “Definetely. Here.” Rabbyte passed the core back to me. “It’s F-rank. My Trait needs a D-rank Evo Core, so I have no use for it. Could sell it for around fifty-thousand if you don’t want to use it.”

  I took the core back, holding it in my hand. So I’d be able to evolve one of my Traits with this thing? Which one? Hmm… I could figure it out later, I guess. Fifty-thousand Nytes would be nice, but how could I just give up a chance to make myself stronger? Especially now that I had somebody worth protecting. Consume!

  The crystal melted in my hand, flooding into my system. I felt a rush of heat surge through me. It felt like ether, but ever so slightly different. A moment later, the OS’s mechanical chimes repeated in my head.

  [Aylin Io

  Red Evo: 1

  Innate Trait: [Dream Stride], [Ebonshroud], [All-Speech]

  Skills: [Etheric Reinforcement - 6], [Brace - 3], [Guard]

  Boons: Nighteye - [Guiding Moonlight]

  Bound: [Will Wire], [Thorn’s Defiance]]

  Etheric Reinforcement was already at level six, which was nice. It wouldn't be long now before I could upgrade it. Brace was starting to chase after thanks to recent uses with Thorn’s Defiance. Guard still had yet to see the light of day, though it’s time would probably come.

  Then there was the Evo point. I’d have to look into all of it once I was back at the apartment. Now wasn’t really the time. I jerked my thumb toward the mountains of dead behind me. “…?”

  “Leave it to the CDF. They’re bringing in a bunch of HATs to transport all of this.” The Mythek kicked at one of the dead Cobblins lightly. “You want to leave, Moon? I can hang around and send your half of the Nytes over later.”

  “Yep.” I wasn’t worried about a betrayal anyway. Not only was Clover one of Lucia’s people, but I also knew where she lived.

  After exchanging contact and Tower information, I headed back out past the defensive lines. It was really about time I got back to Lucia, yep? I really missed her. There was just something about her familiar silver eyes that was so calming to me.