“It’s time,” Baylee says, glancing around to each of us in turn. “Remember as we do this to watch out for each other. This will be one of the hardest fights any of us have ever participated in, and none of us are ready for it. Still, there are people relying on us to succeed.”

  Baylee glances to Troy — who still looks utterly exhausted. Giving a long, tired blink, Troy adds, “Our orders from Command are to prioritize our own individual lives over that of the objective. The goal is to punch straight through the volcora line and cause as much chaos and confusion as possible before retreating toward our allies and leading this group away from Shirakaze.”

  “For this,” Baylee says, “I want all of us sticking together in a tight group. Don’t separate, and don’t lose each other. Our biggest risk is members getting left behind, so everyone partner up and make sure your partner stays with you.”

  Despite the situation, Baylee’s order to partner up has each and every sentinel looking around like a class of anti-social high-school students told they need to participate in a “group project.” Still, we manage to organize ourselves pretty quickly.

  I, obviously, move to stand next to Akari — I can’t think of anyone I trust more to watch my back, especially with my mana toxicity still so severe.

  Looking around, I watch as Baylee partners with Haruto in another obvious pairing. Claire surprises me by partnering with Troy, but I suppose at least one of us needed to be involved in a cross-team pairing.

  With the rest of Team Firestorm also finding partners among their own number, Baylee nods out at the mass of volcora… who are already moving this way!

  Stars! When did they start charging! With so many of them, it’s hard to pick out that their footsteps and cries are getting closer!

  “No mist, Serena. We need them to see where we’re going,” Baylee orders, her wand appearing in her hand. “Let’s do this!”

  I wince; no mist will make this a lot harder. It’s not like I’m going to be able to teleport anyway, but the restriction on my mist is going to make things extremely dangerous.

  Akari steps closer to me, her katana dropping into her hands from a slice of violet light that opens in the air.

  I follow suit quickly, summoning my bow in a swirl of blue-white mist; then, I do my best to summon my willpower and my confidence. With effort, I shift my perspective on the charging enemy — not something to be feared, but something in my way that needs to be overcome. Some of my fear fades, and I glare out at the charging volcora. These things dare threaten the lives of innocent people, people under my protection. For that, they will need to go through me.

  As our paired-up group of sentinels runs to greet the coming horde in the middle of the open barley fields, I allow myself to drop back just a little bit. My hands still shake as I draw back my bow, pausing just a moment in my run to send an arrow hurdling towards the enemy frontlines. The arrow goes wide of my initial aim — it was a hasty shot, and my aim isn’t as steady as it should be today — however, the arrow still takes a charging volcora ape in the chest.

  There’s something supremely satisfying about the ringing boom of thunder my bow emits upon firing the shot, but as soon as the arrow connects, a burning streak of lightning briefly illuminates the darkening sky. The bolt streaks down, instantly striking the volcora that I hit like the judgment of the stars. Another distant boom sounds as the E-Rank volcora, not resilient enough to survive the assault, is fried alive with lightning.

  For a moment, our group of sentinels pauses, everyone looking back and staring at me. I shrug, although a small smile breaks through the fear of the situation.

  “Let’s follow Serena’s lead!” Baylee calls. “Protect our backline while they get the horde truly pissed, then we start leading them north.”

  Green shields spring into existence around us, and low barriers appear before the volcora’s charge, forcing them to slow or shatter their legs. Haruto sets up a temporarily defensible area almost instantly.

  Stepping back, Melody, Baylee, and I open fire and wreak havoc on the incoming volcora frontlines.

  Lightning bolts rain from the sky as I send arrow after arrow into the incoming horde. Honestly, it isn’t too hard to aim — even if I miss my target, there are so many volcora that even a missed shot will hit something.

  Beside me, Baylee sends out bolts of pink magic from her wand that hit the volcora like bowling balls crashing through pins. Volcora are sent flying by the force of her attacks, and while they often get back up, they look the worst for wear.

  The least flashy, but perhaps the most dangerous of us, is Melody. Her gaze sends volcora toppling to the ground screaming, and apparently, she’s picked up more tricks as well. Any volcora she thrusts her hands toward have their eyes briefly glow pink before they become enraged, blindly attacking everything around them.

  Even still, the potency of our assault isn’t enough to put more than a small dent in the volcora frontlines. They crash against Haruto’s carefully set up barriers — augmented by walls of flame from Team Firestorm’s own green sentinel. Here, our frontline fighters step forward to take on the assault.

  Standing at the front, Claire swings her massive sword that emits devastating waves of red lightning — often pausing to supercharge her attacks with her dominion art, Crimson Overdrive. Troy dances around her, a blur of burning light that constantly harasses the volcora.

  Despite the combined efforts of ten sentinels, though, the volcora assault isn’t entirely stopped. The seemingly unending masses quickly move to surround us, and we all know that we can’t keep this up for long.

  Even for me, simply shooting my bow and using my passive lightning strikes incurs a minor mana cost, and each arrow feels like it makes the trembling of my limbs worse. It’s only a matter of time before we’re overrun, and if the big pig decides to rush us itself, it will absolutely break our impromptu formation.

  “We need to start leading them away!” I call into the radio. “We can’t hold!”

  Even as I speak the words, several massive ape-like volcora breaks through Haruto’s shield. One slams a punch into Baylee, making her shield flash and sending her sprawling, and the other quickly advances on me.

  To my surprise, Celeste immediately swoops down to land before me, joining Akari in slashing the volcora to pieces. Celeste is currently about the size of a mid-sized dog, but she bares teeth at the advancing volcora, mist swirling violently around her.

  Baylee scrambles back to her feet, beside me. “Retreat north! Everyone disengage and retreat north now!”

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  To my side, I see Ken get knocked off his feet while defending Melody from several wolves. Letting a quick arrow fly in that direction, I join Melody in pulling Ken to his feet.

  Looking around frantically, my heart hammering, I realize our mistake. We took too long to start moving north, and now we’re totally surrounded. Claire and Troy have moved to the northern side of the front and are gaining ground, but now volcora are lunging at us from all sides. No matter where Melody, Baylee, and I stand, we aren’t safe to free fire.

  Akari, Ken, and Haruto do all they can to defend us — multiple familiars joining in the fight like Celeste did — but it just isn’t enough. We’re about to be overwhelmed.

  In an instant, I make a split-second decision. Thrusting my arms out to my sides, I summon my mists to our aid. A massive rolling fog bank explodes out of me — the nausea of it makes me want to fall to my knees. The battlefield is quickly enveloped in a haze of blue-white mist, making each and every volcora around us pause as they try to decide where to move.

  “Serena! I said no mist!” Baylee yells into the radio.

  “We’re about to be overwhelmed; I’ll dismiss it as soon as we get north!” I yell right back; I’m not about to let our teams get wiped if I can help it.

  Luckily, Baylee doesn’t argue further, probably because it’s working. With the chaos caused by Melody’s mental assaults and the sheer noise of the conflict, it’s extremely hard for the volcora to tell where exactly to focus their assault.

  This acts as the perfect distraction to allow Clarie and Troy to carve us a path north out of the volcora forces. Suddenly, we’re through, making a run for it as confused volcora cry out their high-pitched wines and growls behind us.

  As soon as we have a decent bit of distance, I allow my mist to dissipate, whirling in place to fire several arrows. Lightning falls from the sky, and the direction my attacks are coming from quickly becomes evident to the volcora — causing them to turn on us and begin another charge.

  Now that we’re here, though, another problem becomes evident. While some of our members are certainly faster than the volcora, not all of us are. If we can’t find a way to consistently slow down the volcora advance, we’re just going to find ourselves surrounded again.

  “Serena, every time they’re almost on us, cloak us with mist! Then we’ll move back and attack from a range again!” Baylee orders over the radio.

  “Got it!” I respond, leveling my bow at the horde and adding to the barrage once more.

  And so, like that, we repeat our process. We allow the volcora to reach us, hide ourselves in mist, and then restart our attack from a distance.

  A part of me was worried that by repeating this tactic, the volcora would become wise to our plans. However, from the glimpses I see of the big pig watching us from near the back of its massive horde, it doesn’t seem worried in the slightest.

  And… of course, it isn’t worried. We’re burning mana like crazy to output this assault, and we were already exhausted when we started. It isn’t long before we start to flag, and as the worst case, it makes sense that I’m the first to get caught out.

  It was a simple mistake, really; when I enveloped us in mist and everyone started moving away, the nausea became too much for me, and I momentarily blacked out. When I open my eyes, I find myself laid out on the grassy field of the plains, Akari standing over me and fighting a desperate battle to keep the volcora away.

  As soon as I realize what happened, I leap to my feet and snatch my bow from where I dropped it on the ground nearby. However, it’s already too late.

  Volcora surround us, and despite Akari’s skill and terrifyingly potent abilities, she’s just one sentinel, and the strain of staying in my assault state is already threatening to drag me down again.

  Too late, the others seem to realize that they left us behind — bolts of force and Melody’s psychic attacks beginning to lay into the volcora around us. But we’re already surrounded, and the volcora are moving in for the kill.

  I slash out with the sharpened edges of my bow, but my lack of training in this aspect of my weapon begins to show immediately. With Audrey having been gone, there was no one to teach me how to use a blade-style bow. So, while I do manage to land some cuts, it ultimately isn’t enough.

  A moment later, I find myself on the ground again, dazed as an ape-like volcora stands over me. I instantly know that my barrier can’t take another hit like that.

  I try to roll away and scramble to my feet, but the volcora throws a massive kick into the side of my shield, shattering it and tossing me a few meters away from Akari who screams my name.

  A wolf-like volcora tries to capitalize on my moment of vulnerability, but an instant before it can, a green shield springs into existence around me. Not one of Haruto’s barriers, but the protective field of my last resort shield having activated.

  Despite my shield, though, I’m still pinned on the ground by a beast I’m nowhere near strong enough to dislodge. The wolf claws at me desperately, gouging at my last resort shield again and again like it’s trying to dig a hole through my chest.

  Screaming, I try to reach for my bow, but it’s too far away. Akari is fighting her way toward me, but I can instantly tell that it isn’t going to be enough.

  In a moment of desperation, I activate Mist Step, my only real way to get out from under the volcora. It works, but I can only manage to stay as incorporeal mist for a split second before crushing nausea slams into me again, forcing me out of the ability. Once more, I end up sprawled out on the ground only a short distance away.

  The nausea is bad, so bad that I can hardly move without feeling like my stomach is being tied in violent knots. If I were at my best, I could probably get out of this, but now?

  It’s in that moment, looking up and seeing Akari screaming as she tries to fight her way toward me, that I realize that I’m going to die here. This is to be the price I pay for ignoring the warnings of my teammates and putting the health and safety of the townspeople above my own.

  Volcora surround me, towering over me as I lie nearly helpless on the ground; the mana toxicity coursing through me is so bad that I can hardly think through the sheer pain and disorientation it causes.

  Still, I try to fight, try to defy what fate laid out for me. There is still so much to do, after all. I can’t fail Celeste; I can’t fail Althia or Japan. I just need to-

  I’m kicked again by another ape volcora, interrupting my thoughts. Despite the cushioning of my last resort barrier — stars bless that thing — it still hurts like hell to be kicked around by the massive apes.

  I find myself sprawled on my back, looking up and seeing the stars twinkling overhead in the night sky above me. Around me, my last resort barrier is starting to flicker. The thing is stars-damned strong, but not even it can protect me forever.

  “I’m so sorry, Celeste,” I think, looking up at those distant stars. At least in death, I can take pleasure in the knowledge that I fought back. That I didn’t give in or lay down before the threat before us.

  Visions of my dad wearing a necklace holding a gem of swirling clouds flash before my eyes as my view of the sky is cut off by looming volcora apes.

  [It’s alright…] Celeste thinks from within me, her voice weak — her form must have been destroyed at some point. [We… we had a good run.]

  Distantly, I can still hear the shouts of my teammates trying to reach me. A blur of fire streaks briefly beside me for just a moment, Troy taking a swing at one of the volcora surrounding me. It isn’t enough to save me, but at least it briefly dislodges an ape about to go in for a final blow; at least it gives me one last look up at the sky.

  Hazily, I look up through my tear-streaked vision at the distant stars and the figure that now hangs among them in the night. She looks like an angel, with burning pink wings and a bow crafted of the swirling nebulae.

  Looking down at us, eyes wide with emotion and face full of concern, Stardust Angel raises her hand toward the battle. In the moment of realization, I see Audrey as I once dreamed of her. The version of her that earned a poster on my wall and the admiration of my heart — the angel who saves lives rather than the monster who reaps them. And now, she’s here… finally here to save me too.

  I can hardly see through my tears as the world around me erupts with stardust and explosions. Nebulae form up all around the battlefield, the dust rushing into volcora, where it quickly detonates, causing a chain reaction that nothing on this battlefield can stop — there’s nothing as powerful as a mind flayer here. And even if there were… Audrey is practically a goddess now, after all. Knowing her flaws, I’m not sure if that makes me more or less terrified.

  From my perspective, Audrey seems to teleport down from the sky to stand right beside me. Logically, I know she must have flown, but her raw speed is simply too much for me to process.

  Smiling, eyes full of concern, Audrey stands over me, shielding me from the chaos with her wide, powerful wings. Leaning down, she offers me her hand.

  “I’m so glad I made it in time,” she says, hand outstretched. My mentor, finally having returned.