I arrived at fabrication class after a late evening and after a disappointing spar with a boy who could turn into acidic slime and replicate himself. If the guy could manage to use the latter ability without an existential crisis, then he might one day be a challenge. As it was, all I had to do was cut him with a blade technique that left a pocket of air around it. While I could have done that easier with aura, I occasionally enjoyed flaunting one of my many esoteric sword skills.
At my table, Jeremiah was too busy with his project to look me in the eyes. As I sat down, X2 asked, “So, how did your date go?” Its single eye pulsed with light a few times.
Was that supposed to be an eyebrow wiggle? “Great, it was very productive!”
X2 patted Jeremiah’s back. “See, she said ‘productive’. That’s positive and surely what you were going for.”
“In the future, I would prefer more life and death struggles on any kind of date.” I’ve had a couple days to ponder this matter. “While I do find you attractive, that wasn’t why I asked to go on a dungeon run, and must say that the change in expectations was off-putting.”
“Brutal.” Bianca commented.
“What?” I was genuinely confused. “I enjoyed the date and found him attractive. That’s basically a complete success for Jeremiah.”
“Yes, you are clearly head over heels for him. Being in his presence must make you useless with longing.”
I sighed. “Most of the time I have to actively observe my emotional state if I want to act on my ‘feelings’. That may sound detached and clinical to you, but I would rather be honest in this subject matter than merely act like the facsimile of a normal person.”
X2 nodded. “I understand completely. Perhaps we could go on a dungeon run? There is a tier 4 mushroom cavern with fauna I want to vivisect, but all the meatbags are worried about developing horrible fungal madness.”
“Could we? That sounds lovely. Alas, I can’t today due to a prior commitment, but I would love to find time next week.”
Bianca tsked. “Jeremiah, watch out, X2 is trying to steal your girl.”
He rose from his work with eyes closed and took in a deep breath before opening them. “It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve struck out with a lab partner.”
“We know. X2 and I have a bet over who you’ll try to date next since you tend to go for the pretty ones.”
I blushed a bit at Bianca calling me pretty. Jeremiah glanced at my cheeks and rubbed his face. “I didn’t manage half the reaction you did with an indirect compliment. Mari, I know you’re trying to be nice, but there was no chemistry.”
“It was a frustrating day, and I wanted to kill something,” I exasperated. Is it really so hard to blend slaughter with romance? “I’m sure if it was a more full dungeon with fleshier monsters, then—”
“Chase did warn me that pre-clearing the dungeon was a mistake, but I have to admit, heavy fighting and lots of blood kill the mood for me.”
“Oh…” I placed a hand on the table. “I don’t think this is going to work out and suggest you take your courting attempts elsewhere.”
“Yeah…” He rested his head on one of his hands. “Still friends?”
I didn’t know we were friends! “Of course!”
Gyro then started her lecture on script refactoring, which is a tedious process that requires tying off inscribed concepts to prevent an explosion. After class, I rushed to the café Vanya and I frequented. Unfortunately, none of the other students wanted any of the items I wanted to sell for coffee money, so I had to wait patiently by a standing table until Vanya approached with two drinks and handed me one.
“Thanks.” I sipped what ended up being a macchiato, and walked with Vanya to class.
“So, any leads from Riena?” Vanya’s own drink smelled more sugar infused than mine.
“Yes, she thinks she knows which store the products were purchased from, but she wants to take us there herself after class.”
“Ah, a casual outing on the town.” Her eyes roved up and down my armor. “Can you do inconspicuous and casual?”
“Armor is a very common form of dress.”
“Mari, if anyone in that shop is in on it, they’ll be less likely to run away from three pretty girls than two pretty girls and a mountain of metal.”
“Armor is pretty,” I grumbled. “It has skirts, leggings, and everything.”
Vanya stared at me impassively and sipped her drink.
“Fine… I’ll come minimally armored…” I then told her where we were meeting and entered class. The Crone must have used time magic, because I remembered nothing specific from her lecture, but felt like I was in there for half a day. After stumbling back to my room and changing, I went outside the school for the first time since I enrolled.
The sun glared down from the sky and reflected off the white pavement. It bit into my exposed skin and did its best to burn me, chewing at every cell not shielded by cloth. I had elected to wear a shirt and a light blazer for this evening of shopping. Blood red leggings protected my modesty while simple black flats protected my feet. My brown satchel still slung across my shoulders, and within it was my coiled blade, a heat knife, a metal light orb, monster paste, and my imbuer. While Riena would probably handle any emergency Crafting for this trip, I needed to be prepared for filling my role at any time.
A flick of wind brushed past my legs and jostled strands of my hair. It carried a hint of brine and the scent of my two companions further down the concrete path. Both were standing by a park bench near the grass and turned at my approach.
“Hey Mari!” Riena waved. She wore simple jeans, white tennis shoes, and a light red flannel over a black tank top. Her nails were painted the same color as her eyes and were embedded with faintly visible runes. Damn, I should enchant my nail polish.
Vanya leaned forward, shifting her ponytail, and lifted her sunglasses while deliberately chewing her gum. “Really, your school uniform? That’s casual for you?” In comparison, she had black knee-high heeled boots, black leather short shorts, and a loose white crop top that had the words ‘Knife Ears’ in hot pink jagged letters. A purple purse, hooped earrings, and bangles on each wrist brought together her ensemble.
“I don’t have other clothes.” I did have nine sets of tier 1 steel armor for a variety of occasions and two newer sets, but my cloth wardrobe was limited.
Riena flinched like I had struck her. “Okay. We’ll need to fix that after our errand.”
“She doesn’t have any money,” Vanya reminded.
“Yes she does. We have a whole stash of pirated doubloons.”
“That’s not for my personal use,” I interjected.
She waved away the concern. “I’m the Commander, and I can decide this counts as team bonding.” Riena then drew me into her bond.
Vanya’s brows furrowed. “What was that? Mari noticeably relaxed, and you seem less nervous.”
“It’s my ability. I can form empathetic connections between any living creatures.”
“Sounds useful. Why didn’t you include me?”
Riena’s eyes darted to me. “Take a moment to imagine the kinds of things Mari keeps to herself.”
“Good point. Let’s get going.”
Feeling vaguely insulted, I trailed behind my friends. Riena admitted ignorance on how to navigate parts of the city close to the surface, so Vanya led us to the nearest subway entrance.
“Okay Riena, since this is your first time, I’ll explain. Subways are for poor people. They don’t cost anything, but boarders are expected to fight off any monsters that sneak in. Subways make most of their money by ramming demons at high speed and having workers collect the remains, but that doesn’t work on everything. This late in the day should be relatively safe, but I assume we all brought a ‘walking around’ weapon, right?”
I nodded and showed my knife. Even this deep into the city, everyone was expected to defend themselves from the occasional monster attack. The attacks were far less frequent than in the outer districts, and the population was dense enough that your individual contribution to slaying monsters didn’t need to be as much to survive.
Riena shrugged. “I still have all my drones with me.”
“Good.” Vanya turned and led us through the turnstile. “This counts the number of passengers. If the number is too low, then staff join the route to shore up the defense.”
“Why is such a dangerous means of travel normal?”
I piped in. “Actually, the death rates of our subway system are far lower than prewar ‘high way’ travel. I haven’t learned exactly what that was, but records seem to indicate that our ancestors explosively ignited dinosaur bones to race down concrete bridges tens of meters in the air. It was one of the leading causes of death due to the popularity of the activity.”
Vanya rolled her eyes. “That makes no sense. Historians come up with the weirdest theories.”
“The evidence is quite compelling.”
“Yeah yeah.” She pointed to the third cabin. “That one is the best. It’s far enough away from the front to have some warning from a mid tier monster collision, but close enough to the front that a Cavern Hunter won’t snag it.”
We hurried after her and all grabbed the same pole before the doors shut and the vehicle began to accelerate. In the car with us was a blood soaked man in a wheelchair. A halberd rested on his shoulders as he whistled. Past the purple viscera, I saw two recently implanted limb sockets on what was left of his legs. He was either waiting for his stumps to heal or his legs were still being assembled, but Handy hadn’t been born with any limbs and still managed to earn his name, so a lack of legs wouldn’t stop him in his work. Thankfully, he didn’t recognize me. The man was an absolute chatterbox.
The other passengers were similarly worn. A woman wrapped entirely in brown cloth leaned against the back wall with a scimitar at her side. A pregnant mother wrangled three other kids while nursing a fourth as she sat. All the kids had pint-sized child weapons, toys specifically enchanted to not harm humans. One man was fast asleep in his seat. His large dog vigilantly kept watch for him.
Dim light illuminated the cabin as the windows streaked by splashes of gore and advertisements on how to more effectively turn monsters into gore. Ooh, the new chemical weapon dispensers are half the size, and the ‘For Heroines’ purse-weapon line is on sale! Despite never buying anything, the ads always caught my eye.
Midway through the trip, the roof groaned as a couple of low tier beetle demons—no longer than my shin—burrowed through and plopped on the floor.
“Ew, squish it!”
“Sure thing, sis!”
The kids gleefully pasted the monsters before any of the adults could get involved. Several of them complimented the mother for how adorable her children were. During this wholesome community moment, Riena was completely horrified. Is she still not used to random monster attacks?
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
Before I could ask her, we arrived at our stop and had to hurry to our destination. Closer to the docks, the city became grungier and the light patrols were less frequent. Things skittered in the shadows at the edges of my vision, creatures too small to be worth anyone’s notice. While subterranean portals tended to be handled swiftly within Last Stand, new ones were always opening, creating opportunities for demons to spawn behind our barriers. The surface was never completely safe, even if most Wards weren’t as bad as Aspiration.
“There it is.” Riena indicated a nondescript storefront smashed between a noodle shop and a stall selling roasted chestnuts and hand grenades proudly called ‘Snack ‘n Boom’. All the buildings around us stretched upwards dozens of stories for purposes mysterious to me. Walkways extended above us and bustled with activity as heroes went about their labors and drones performed the drudgework of cleaning windows, picking up garbage, and delivering packages. It didn’t extend high enough for a proper upper city, but any distance from the ground was safer. In fact…
“How are there two manned restaurants so close together on the surface?” I hadn’t seen such congested culinary commerce outside the elevations people like Riena lived in.
Vanya spat her gum on a piece of trash a drone was picking up. “The shopkeeper or the clientele of the shop probably keeps them in business.”
I hummed and led the charge into the establishment. The man roasting chestnuts gave me the stink-eye as he took a large drag on his cigarette. Interestingly, he nodded to Vanya before going back to his work, which made her more uncomfortable than the occasional hateful glare on the way here.
Inside, racks of shelves formed lines and led to the counter. On them were odds and ends of all kinds covered in cobwebs. The floor was made from the same dark gray wood as the shelves and creaked with our steps. Little motes of dust fell from the ceiling at our disturbances. The shopkeeper himself was—
“Oh shit!” Riena tensed as she got an eyeful of him.
Vanya stood at my other side and reached into her purse. “Mari, what are you doing?”
“Me? I’m saying hi.” I approached the establishment owner and asked, “So, how’s the wife treating you?”
The cow-sized spider hissed in response.
I laughed at his joke. “Well, don’t let her bite your head off over it!”
More hissing followed my statement.
“Sorry, I didn’t realize that was an offensive stereotype nowadays.”
The hissing continued.
“Spillover juvenile aggression? Okay, I’ll make sure to spread awareness to any other spiders I run across.”
Riena inched forward and whispered, “Mari, do you speak spider?”
The shopkeeper and I laughed. His was more of a staccato of hisses, but it got the emotion across. “Nah, he also knows dragon sign language, so we were taking the piss. I highly recommend learning DSL. It works for a variety of body types and is a common method of cross-species communication.”
Vanya edged into a flanking position and still had her hand in her purse. “Why are you being casual about the giant demon spider?”
“This guy?” I thumbed at him. “Pfff no, he’s a Webdealer. They are a kind of spirit that hunts bargains across the multiverse. This shop is his home. They are pretty much harmless if they get enough food. If you try to banish them, they’ll just slip away, set up shop elsewhere, and then steal all your things. This is the first one I’ve seen in Last Stand though.”
He signed, “The local humans have been surprisingly accommodating. What business do you have in my humble establishment?”
“We’re trying to find out who purchased bomb components.”
“This is a cash-only business. I don’t keep receipts or have any recording equipment.”
“I see—”
“Mari, please translate for us,” Riena commanded, so I did so. “Ask him how he purchased goods directly from a Hartgrove supplier.”
Since he understood the human tongue, he replied directly, “The process is automated and the checks are not thorough.”
“Damn my father and his greedy carelessness…” Riena trailed off into angry mumbling.
Vanya plucked an item from the shelves that looked like a dowsing rod with a crystal ball at the end. “I assume the shopkeep has no issues with us using one of his postcognition artifacts to find out who bought the explosive materials.”
“Not as long as you pay for it.” A twitch of a leg, and threads of silk pulled the item from Vanya’s hands and placed it in front of the spider. “And since this is a rush order, you’ll need to pay a premium.”
“I’m sure we can come to a price that suits both of our interests.” At the notion of commerce, a fire lit in Riena’s eyes, and she moved with the languid grace of a predator that found a particularly juicy piece of prey. Losing all sense of fear or hesitation, she approached the counter and loomed over the much larger spider, meeting his eight eyes with her two.
As part of my mind translated for the spider, the rest went elsewhere. I never had the patience for bartering. If a merchant gave me a poor value for goods, I simply went to another establishment next time and never returned. Yes, such behavior had lost me vast amounts of wealth, but it kept my mind away from the pointless games of coin.
After several minutes of intense haggling, the door to the shop opened and a woman entered the store with brown ceramic armor, a red cloak, and a white mask covered in black swirls. A katana and two pistols hung at her side. Most alarmingly, she emitted no smell, and her heartbeat was silent.
I stepped in front of companions and uncoiled my blade. “Orc.” Three drones appeared around Riena and Vanya drew her submachine gun from her purse as they both spun around to face the threat. Faint, nearly invisible strands of silk weaved through the establishment and moved to protect the goods.
The woman chuckled. “Well spotted, child.” She removed her mask and clipped it to her belt, revealing green skin, two small tusks jutting up from her mouth, black hair, and eyes that were blue and orange. “What gave me away?”
“You warp the floorboards too much to be undead, and too little to be a golem. A changeling would mimic our biological tells, and all orc assassins walk with a trained gait.”
She glanced at the wood below her. “A careless mistake on my end, then.”
“Entering our city at all was the mistake.”
“And here I thought this shop and its clientele would be more tolerant. Yet, the girl with the elf friend and the ‘monster’ curled around her neck was the first to draw her blade on me. A shame, and you were chatting with Senik so amicably too.” The woman nodded her head to the spider.
Vanya’s eyes darted to the still silver Coatlie before focusing back on the orc. Coatlie herself curled slightly tighter at the attention.
“There is no use hiding, creature.” She pulled at a chain around her neckline until a large cracked seed radiating with white light appeared from under her cuirass. “One of you has learned our tongue. If it’s not you, then I’ll need to put the mark of death on the other three. Teams will not stop coming until they are dead.”
Coatlie unwound herself and floated by my head. “Yes, of course I speak your language,” she lied. “I learn languages very easily.”
The snake’s heart pittered as fast as my own. Shit, the orcs can detect that I’ve learned one of their words. Coatlie was covering for me. If I’m dead, then our pact ends. Are Derek’s cookies so important to her?
“Mari, what the actual fuck!?” Vanya had sidestepped away from me.
Even Riena shot me a confused look. “Didn’t we fight her in the portal world? Why did you bring a portal monster with you?”
I kept my eyes locked on the enemy. “I made a judgment call. Don’t let the orc divide us with words.”
Vanya shook her head. “Mari, that’s a sapient monster. You’ve taken her to class and shared human secrets with her. For all we know, she possessed you.”
“You know, you don’t have to talk around me. I’m right here.” Coatlie interjected. “Besides, what am I going to do with human Crafting knowledge? I have no thumbs. Making books was hard enough.”
“Ah ha!” I pointed at her. “I suspected that you wrote those books.”
Several of Coatlie’s dorsal and side patches of scales faded as she said, “What??? Noooo. The Sky Princess Series is written by—” She hissed an unintelligible name.
“You’ve never told me your true name and only had me call you ‘Coatlie’ because I ‘should be able to pronounce that’.”
“Mari…” Vanya whispered. “This isn’t okay.”
“What would you know? How deep behind enemy lines have you been? What havoc have you wrought through temporary alliances? Always, heroes find my methods too extreme or not extreme enough. Can none of you grasp that I might know what I am doing?”
The orc spread her hands, palms up. “I believe you and extend the same offer. My primary objective is to hunt one of the deathmarked, but he is also working to destroy humanity. Surely, our goals align in this?”
“And why would you stop him?” So our collaborator is a ‘him’?
She sighed. “Politics, what else? One faction wants to end our war quickly. Another wants the stasis to linger a bit longer.”
“I’ve never understood why the orcs wait.” While the main portal may be locked until the nightly combat ritual succeeds, orcs still invade our world through other means. They form camps and small communities where we aren’t looking. Elite troops like this assassin seem to come in unlimited numbers until their goals are met. They could be a more dangerous foe than they are.
“Careful, that curiosity can have deadly consequences. There is more forbidden knowledge than merely our language, but I can tell you that it is foolish to end a conflict you are drawing strength from.” Why would she tell me this? What response is she trying to get out of me and how does that benefit her? She was trying to convince me that I didn’t need to kill her right now.
Riena looked to me, seeking guidance, wondering if this too was another monster that we could trust. I only tightened the grip on my sword and said, “Our species are actively at war. We cannot let you freely operate in our territory, no matter your stated goal.”
“I’m not suggesting that.” She put her mask back on. “You can keep an eye on me as we work together.” If I was deep in the wilderness with monsters on all sides, this would be the kind of deal I made, but this is Last Stand and this assassin is here to kill humans. At the end of the day, she was an enemy.
“Obviously, we won’t. Riena, purchase the artifact and determine who the collaborator is. Vanya, cover me as I keep the orc off her.” Coatlie took that as her cue to snuggle into my hair.
Vanya eyed the snake again, frowned, but then acquiesced. “Alright, but I want a good explanation once we’re done.”
The orc shrugged. “By all means, do my work for me. I won’t stop you.”
“But I’ll stop you!” I charged around Senik’s threads up a shelf and dived toward the orc blade first. She sidestepped, pushed my blade with two fingers, and drew her sword into a slash that I only avoided by pulling on one of the nearly invisible threads.
“This fight is unneeded and foolish.”
Once I landed on the ground, I whipped my blade forward, wrapped it around hers, and pulled. The orc held her sword steady and drew a pistol with her other hand. I rolled away from the line of the barrel and straightened my sword. The blade segments blurred around her katana and sparked as they came back to me. In a flash of movement, the orc appeared at the end of my roll and kicked me in the face, breaking my nose.
“Child, I’m no mere orc. I am the Gentle Night, feared by my kin and yours. You cannot hope to best me.” Vanya let a magazine of bullets rip into the assassin. Gentle’s sword blurred and blocked every bullet until she deflected the last one into Vanya’s shoulder.
A jerk of my left hand straightened my nose, releasing a small torrent of blood. A named orc hero? Well, there is only one response to that. “I have ransacked your war camps, slain your villages, and raided your holy sites. I am the ominous shadow, the blade at your throat, and the hammer knocking at your gates. By any means, any method, and any sacrifice, I will purge your kind from our world. When monsters warn their children of humans, they mention my name. I am Exemplar.”
We both moved and clashed in a dance of blades, each conservative at first, testing the other’s strength, speed, and skill. Our auras overlapped, mingling together and preventing the world from shattering around us as we moved faster and hit harder. No sonic booms followed our faster than sound strikes. The boards beneath didn’t shatter into sawdust from forces that would shear steel. Our feet acted as though the friction was sufficient. Reality groaned and rippled around us at the strain.
During all of this, I kept my companions in my awareness. Riena had secured the artifact with a bag of gold and was scanning the area in front of the counter. Green beams shot from the crystal and created holograms to show what happened before. Riena sped through these, looking for the buyer of the bomb parts. Meanwhile, Vanya tried to get a shot in, but the two of us were moving too fast.
I reached my peak speed. Gentle went a tad faster and hit a bit stronger before maintaining that effort. She is trying to stall. While she has some inkling about who the collaborator is, she doesn’t know what they look like. If I don’t act soon, she’ll get exactly what she wants.
Electing to gamble, I pushed my aura against Gentle’s and made her foot slip. The move drained me, but caused her to stumble, creating an opening, and letting me stab my blade into her shoulder, splashing me with green blood. She winced as the wound pulsed with venom. The neurotoxins caused minor twitches in her muscles that provided more openings and let me land more nicks around her armor.
Gentle grunted, and her blade blurred. One moment, we were sword fighting; the next, her sword was stabbing at every available location on my body. I couldn’t dodge or block them all, and the enchanted steel shredded through my uniform into my much harder flesh. Dozens of wounds sent me stumbling back and kneeling.
“To think that a human could force me to use one of my abilities. I will remember your name, Exemplar.” Before Gentle could gloat further, Vanya distracted her with another wave of bullets that were blocked or deflected, but provided enough of a distraction that I could force my wounds to stop bleeding and stand up.
Without looking, the orc shot my right knee. A laser ripped through it and burned the wood below, causing me to fall as the joint failed.
Senik hissed in annoyance at the damage to his shop. Threads spewed from the shopkeeper and wrapped around Gentle, Vanya’s gun, and my left hand reaching for a knife. Vanya struggled futilely against the threads. I watched the orc. Gentle seemed content to hang in the spider’s threads. If I—a wave of dizziness disrupted my thoughts and redirected my efforts to lowering the bleeding from my knee.
“Axel?” Riena stared in shock at the hologram of a man. He had on a cloak that obscured the top half of his face, and a straggly beard could be seen sticking out of it. “He’s been missing class, but I thought he died.”
“Who is he?” I asked.
“He’s a first year Commander. Why would he do something like this? His parents were killed by orcs.” Riena sounded troubled, but the sound of threads ripping drew my attention away from her and back to Gentle.
She was gone.
