“Ugh, my back hurts.”

  Ed rolled around in his bed as he tried to wake up. He ended up rolling off of the bed entirely and falling onto the ground.

  “Ow.”

  “What do you mean your back hurts? Aren’t you thirteen and relatively fit? You shouldn’t be having any back problems.”

  Auranna complained into Ed’s ear as the boy got up and stretched. Ed ignored Auranna and began to head to the bathroom, to get ready for the day.

  “Morning, Ed,” Adelyn said, on the desk reading a book. “You’re up earlier than usual.”

  “You guys keep track?” Ed asked.

  “Not really, you just wake up way behind the rest of us usually.”

  “Oh. Who’s still asleep?”

  “Nobody. You just weren’t way behind the rest of us.”

  Auranna let out a small laugh at that, while Ed rolled his eyes. He went to the bathroom and began taking care of his face and hair. Making sure he looked at least somewhat presentable, because he had to go out today.

  “So, what is today going to achieve?” Auranna asked.

  “I would like to just beat up the criminal leader, and hopefully that should put a stop to the entire thing. Just like, remove one part of the problem and we can focus on the bigger one,” Ed said.

  “Edward. I can’t just ask you what you plan to achieve and you just say ‘solve the problem’. Anybody can say that, there is nothing actionable in your statement.”

  “I… well, I can’t exactly give you a detailed step-by-step plan when the plan requires me to learn about what’s going on. I dunno how the criminals work, we just need to stop them.”

  “So? What are you going to do?”

  Ed sighed, and thought for a moment. “Adelyn and I are going to examine the outskirts of the border and talk to the guards assigned to maintain the safezone. Maybe we’ll run into Maia there, and we’ll help around the perimeter. Hopefully we can capture a few bandits as well, maybe they will give us the info we need.”

  “That’s a bit better,” Auranna finally relented.

  Ed finished taking care of his face and combed his hair, before stepping outside to greet Adelyn, who was just finishing the book that she was reading.

  “Are we going?” Adelyn asked. “There’s a lot of stuff we can do today.”

  “Yeah. Let’s get on it,” Ed responded. With a goal now set, the two of them headed out of their room in order to go towards the perimeter.

  The perimeter for the safe zone was marked by guards standing alongside roads, using the buildings as premade barricades and cutting off roads. It was an effective defense, because it would force any bandits to funnel into a predictable path.

  They had a few questions upon the inspection of the perimeter, but Ed told them they were associated with the Governor and they were generally allowed to pass. They approached one of the barricades, and saw a familiar face.

  “Oh, Maia!” Adelyn waved at a girl at the top of a barricade.

  “Huh? Oh, shoot. Keep watch for me,” Maia looked down. The girl jumped down, handing some binoculars to another guard as she did so and landing in front of the two. “What are you two doing here?”

  “The governor-candidate is busy,” Ed said. “We’ve got some free time on our hands, so we want to help with the bandit situation.”

  “Mhm. We managed to beat the leader easily before, so… we were hoping we could offer our help to get the city back to what it should be,” Adelyn said.

  “Oh. That’s nice. We could always use some more hands. Especially with the warning that those bandits gave,” Maia answered.

  “Right. They did threaten us, didn’t they?” Ed said.

  “We’ve got a great position that’s allowed us to hold so far. I’m not too worried, but we need to keep an eye out,” Maia looked towards the barricade.

  “It’s a good position,” Auranna said. “Though, I feel like we could do more than just stand here for the entire day.”

  “Right,” Ed nodded to his invisible voice. “We’d like to get out there. Maybe try to get around the outer city.”

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  “You sure you can handle it? Considering the name you all made for yourselves, it’d be a big problem if you two got into any trouble.”

  “We’ll be fine,” Ed said. “We dealt with that group of bandits earlier, I think we can handle most things.”

  “I’d still want you guys to be safe,” Maia said. “Do you have a way to give signals? From a distance.”

  “Oh. Actually, I’ve read about smoke signals before, and I think I can make Igna do some of those…” Adelyn said. “You should be able to see it from a distance. If I make a smoke signal and it’s in… lets say an X. We could use your help.”

  “That should work,” Maia said. “We can get you past the barrier, and hopefully you can scout for us.”

  “Cool,” Ed said, before putting on his mask. Auranna disappeared and her power flowed into his body. “We’ve got some bandits to find.”

  The streets outside of the safe zone were pretty dead. The lights that surrounded the city felt a lot dimmer without the maintenance of the governor to keep them alive. Tall buildings surrounded them, but there was no activity.

  It was truly and completely a dead zone.

  “How did it get so bad?” Adelyn asked.

  “I don’t think it’s completely dead. Just, not the kind of people we’d expect would be living here. Criminals aren’t interested in running businesses and all.”

  They still needed to keep an eye out for anything that might happen. But they were looking to at least get some information. That was when the two of them heard the sounds of scraps being thrown.

  “I think we got someone,” Ed said, summoning a glowing sword as a response. Adelyn nodded and spun around her chainsaw.

  The two of them approached the noise carefully, as it was on another street around the corner. Peeking around a building so they stayed hidden, they saw two bandits in masks. A man and a woman.

  “Why does the boss need so much scrap metal anyways? It feels like we’ve been tearing apart this place forever,” the woman asked, catching pieces of metal the man threw at her.

  “Well. If we’re gonna bust down those walls, we’re gonna need a lot of firepower. More than we currently have. We got numbers but they got positioning. Once we get the city, we can finally get all of the resources, and also maybe even get more power over the capital,” the man responded. “Either way. The boss is sick of waiting. We just need some more for the final push.”

  “Ahem,” Adelyn stepped out of her hiding spot. “Your boss is going to have to wait longer!”

  Ed also stepped out of hiding, weapon brandished in hand. “You ought to give yourself up, before we make you.”

  “Who the hell are you two?” The man asked, looking at them.

  “Doesn’t matter. Stop tearing up the city!” Adelyn responded. “It doesn’t belong to you!”

  “It doesn’t belong to anyone, kid,” the woman said, taking out a sword. “If nobody is using it, might as well put it to good use.”

  “To break into the safe zone? There’s no way we’ll let you do that!” Ed said. With no further response given, Ed leaped forwards and slashed at the girl, who only just managed to block with her sword. The man began to form a fireball in his hands, and fired a blast at Ed, but he responded by making a shield with his free arm to block.

  Then, a burst of chilled air overcame the man as Adelyn approached, the spirit of ice covering her approach and attacked. The man began to throw another fireball at Adelyn, who responded by cutting it apart with her chainsaw.

  “How about we capture you two and you tell us about your boss’ plan!” Ed said, proceeding to strike at the girl with his blades. He was feeling pretty confident, and fast. With Adelyn covering his back, dealing with the firemage, this should be a piece of cake.

  On his other hand, his shield transformed into a chain. He struck with his sword, occupying the woman’s blade, and then he threw the chain out to grab at the woman’s legs. The shackles wrapped around her legs before Ed disarmed the sword from her. Then, he grabbed her arms and pushed her onto the ground, forming another rope to restrain her completely.

  “Easy.”

  Ed said, before looking at Adelyn. The girl seemed to be handling herself quite well. A gust of wind from Sylpha’s call blew away the fire into the air, and swept the other bandit off of his feet. He landed on his bottom before Adelyn ran forward and pointed her chainsaw at the man. Sylpha dissipated and Viridia was summoned, and tough wooden branches came out of the ground and surrounded him.

  “Also easy,” Adelyn said, with a smile.

  Ed was filled with confidence, as they looked at the two bandits trapped on the ground. “Now, how about you tell us about this plan of yours?”

  “...” The woman was silent. So was the man.

  “Hey, I’m right here. If you’re not gonna talk I’m just gonna bring you back to the safe zone and we’ll wait until you talk.”

  The two of them remained silent still.

  “They were pretty clearly talking about a plan earlier,” Adelyn said. “And the other bandits seemed to be confident they could get in.”

  “You can take us, but it won’t make much of a difference anyways,” the man finally broke his silence. “We’ll get out once the safe zone is breached.”

  “Jeez. I’m no good at interrogations. We need you to talk, now,” Ed complained. “Who exactly is your boss? What are you working for in all this?”

  The woman scoffed at Ed’s questions. “You might not even keep us for the next ten seconds. Why should I answer that?”

  “Next ten seconds?” Adelyn asked. As she said that, Ed felt a crossbow arrow just skim across his mask, denting it. Another attack that just missed them.

  “...!” Instantly, Ed summoned a large wall to duck behind and Adelyn followed behind him. The glowing barrier of light gave the two of them cover from another wave of arrows that shot at the pair.

  “There’s more?” Adelyn asked.

  “Of course there are,” Ed said.

  “LET THEM GO OR WE’LL MAKE YOU LET THEM GO!” The gruff voice of a bandit shouted from the other side of the wall. “THERE’S MORE OF US THAN THERE ARE OF YOU!”

  Ed and Adelyn both waited behind the barrier, as even more arrows shot against it. Ed looked towards Adelyn and spoke. “We’ve got a bigger problem on our hands.”

  “But, this could also be a bigger opportunity. More of them came to us… we can find out more about their structure,” Adelyn responded.

  “You’re right,” Ed said. “Then that means we can’t back down from this fight.”

  “I’m with you! The more we know, the better, and this is our best chance! It seems like we don’t have a choice but to keep on fighting.”

  “Then, let’s fight.”