Mia retreated into the far back of the group with Camie, with her back against the wall. Sparkle was further back, watching the soldiers closest to Mia for any sign of being a bit too jumpy or prone to getting trigger-happy.

  Mia didn’t like their chances against the soldiers, they had fortified positions and probably enchanted bullets. That didn’t mean she couldn’t make their task much harder and give themselves a good shot at running. Sparkle could cut through the nearest dozen soldiers beyond the wall in seconds, then they would only have to hold out until someone broke through the wall. Then they could run.

  Still, it would be dangerous, and Mia was on her last legs, strained in both body and mind after the entire Raid ordeal. It was just a last resort, but she liked having plans for the worst potential outcomes; it made her paranoid little heart feel in control of the situation.

  She returned her gaze to the list of Skill Shards available to her. It was a fine distraction, and it would take her mind off of … stuff.

  ***

  Skill Shard Options: (choose 1)

  [Shimmer - Uncommon]: A lower-rarity version of the Blink Skill/Spell, a faux short-range teleportation. Instead of true teleportation or using adjacent dimensions to cross the distance, Shimmer makes use of Wisp magic. It turns you into your Wisp Form on activation and sends you forward in the direction you were moving in a quick dash. Speed scales with Spirit/Control, and distance travelled scales with Spirit/Manifestation. Anything that can halt a Wisp can stop Shimmer.

  [Power Beam - Uncommon]: The Skill version of the Rank 2 Arcane Spell of the same name. Power Beam is a simple Skill, pour mana in, and out comes a beam of absolute destruction. Primarily scales with Spirit/Control since it takes as much mana as you can pour into it with no upper limit, using it all to empower the beam.

  [Double Cast - Uncommon]: You already know how to cast two spells at the same time, but it takes focus and control, taking away precious processing power from other tasks. This Skill will handle it all for you and take the burden off your shoulders. With enough effort, it might even evolve into the Multi-cast Skill.

  [Arcane Possession - Rare]: This Skill is fashioned after the instinct ability of Spirits to possess mana constructs matching their own primary element. Using Wisp magic, you can replicate this, though only on arcane constructs made out of your own mana.

  [Spirit Blink - Rare]: With this Skill, you can send your Wisp Form racing across your Bond and appear next to your Bonded Companion in the blink of an eye. Range scales with the strength of the Bond. The Bond itself is not in real space, so most ways to trap a Wisp will not work on Spirit Blink.

  ***

  All of them looked like good choices, although Doublecast was a bit underwhelming compared to the other three. It would be useful, sure, but not a game-changer.

  Shimmer and Spirit Blink seemed similar enough, but limited in different ways. Shimmer struck her as more of a panic dodge Skill than anything, while Spirit Blink was something needing a bit more planning. Usually, Sparkle was up in her enemy’s face, annoying the hell out of them, so teleporting next to him would just get her face smacked in most of the time.

  Wait, Sparkle? What can stop Wisps? Mia asked.

  “Wisps? Solid barriers and most solid objects, though the latter might change as you get stronger.” Her Sprite friend answered.

  So … I could get locked in by a simple Aegis spell? Mia mused and got an affirmative from Sparkle.

  ‘Why? What’s up? You got something? Oh! Skills, right? Show me! Show me!’ Sparkle chirped in her ears, and Mia indulged him, sharing the System window. ‘Oh, nice! Those are pretty good options, though you could get all of them with enough work.’

  Really? Mia hummed, her eyes narrowing on the list. That … changed things. It meant she could ignore long-term benefits and focus on the choice that would help her most in the short term.

  ‘Yep. You’ll probably have Doublecast available to you in your Skill Library. If not the moment you touch the Obelisk, then a few weeks from now, unless you stop using your manual doublecast trick.’ Sparkle said. ‘Shimmer. You could probably replicate the effect with a Spell if you got the Kineticism runic lexicon. Or you could brute force getting the skill if you got a handle on manually launching your Wisp Form around with kinetic energy, using solely pure Mana Manipulation. Spirit Blink is harder; you’ll have to learn how to step sideways into the lowest layer of the Spirit Realm for that, and Power Beam is the trademark Conjuration spell of Rank 2 Arcane Mages. You’ll just have to use it enough for it to turn into a Skill once you get to Rank 2.’

  And Arcane Possession? Mia asked. Honestly, that one appealed to her the most just based on the fantasy of it, but her paranoid side wanted Spirit Blink more, while the part feeling inadequate with her current firepower was salivating at the Power Beam.

  ‘I could probably teach you that one in a few weeks … or months. Most Sprites get it in a week or two of dedicated work, but you are a Halvyr, so you’ll probably need a bit more work. I think. Not sure, I never bothered to eavesdrop on Fae study groups before.’

  She could rip out the parts of the Mana Familiar spellcircle that summoned an Elemental, and substitute herself with it if she had that Arcane Possession Skill. She could have all sorts of animal-shaped mana constructs to run around in. It wouldn’t be true shapeshifting, but she’d be lying if she said it wouldn’t fulfil some childhood fantasies of hers.

  Which one do you think I should get? Mia asked, deciding to get an outside opinion. Either she liked the suggestion and went with it, or disliked it, and she’d know which Skill to discard.

  ‘Spirit Blink,’ Sparkle said without hesitation. ‘You are squishy and fragile; you need something that can help you escape no matter what. I don’t think there is any Spell or Skill below Rank 4 that can interfere with a Bond. The others are nice, but learning how to step sideways into the Spirit Realm takes years of practice, even for born and raised Fae who can have their parents help them. This Skill could be a step-in for that, helping you see how it feels to slip through the Veil between dimensions.’

  Mia hummed, taking a moment to just observe her emotions and found herself feeling content with the choice. It wasn’t the most glamorous option, but it was the one that would give her the best shot at living long enough to get all the more glamorous options by hard work and perseverance. Yes, she was fine with that. Not particularly thrilled, but happy nonetheless.

  Do you want to select the Skill Shard [Spirit Blink - Rare] as your Reward?

  [ Y / N ]

  Yes. Mia thought, and saw the System window vanish, only for a new one to take its place.

  You have no empty Secondary Skill Slots, but [Spirit Blink] is compatible with your [Novice Arcane Mage’s Compendium] Class Skill. Do you wish to slot this Skill Shard into one of the (3) empty Subskill slots?

  [ Y / N ]

  Mia hesitated a bit more on this one. Her Class Skill was likely the most important part of her entire System profile when it came to determining her advancement. What Subskills she added to it would determine whether her Class would upgrade from Rare to Epic once all three Subskill slots were filled.

  But what choice did she have? The Skill would do her no good sitting in some dusty corner of her Skill Library. I think I’ve read something about these Subskills being swappable, at the expense of … something.

  Mia took in a calming breath. If it could be swapped, it wasn’t permanent, and she could make sure only the best of the best Subskills were in her Class Skill later.

  Yes.

  Skill Shard [Spirit Blink] has been slotted into Class Skill [Novice Arcane Mage’s Compendium]. You have (2) free Subskill slots left.

  Mia felt the Skill settle into place and knew she could activate it with a minor flex of her will. With this new addition to her arsenal, she could ‘Blink’ behind the wall, behind the soldiers and blow them to bits if it came down to it. She really hoped it wouldn’t. These were supposedly Zeigler’s men, and she didn’t want to kill people, especially ones who had so bravely fought the monsters.

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  This was all a misunderstanding of sorts anyway, just healthy paranoia on the soldiers’ part.

  “Is any of you lot Brent Steiner?” A new voice called out from beyond the wall.

  “That would be me,” Brent said with a steady voice.

  “Ah,” the man replied eloquently. “We’ll open a door. Exit with only the squads that will cause no trouble. Things have gotten a bit tense since you’ve gone in. I know this isn’t the welcome you all deserve, but we can’t allow nearly thirty of the strongest fighters in Graz to cause trouble this far into our back-line. I’m afraid beastkin of all sorts will have to stay inside the pit for now.”

  “Konstantin and his lot are still inside,” Brent said.

  “Ah, and here I thought the lot of you are all that remains,” the man said. “What are they doing?"

  “Likely beating the shit out of Lori and Aiden’s lot,” Mark cut in. “Now open up that blasted door already, we are all tired and really fucking done with all this bullshit.”

  “We also have the corpses of the fallen,” Brent said. “I’d appreciate you not defiling them by shooting them full of lead.”

  “What are they fighting for?” The man asked, and Mia saw that Mark was moments away from walking through the earthen wall. With his power, the dwarf could probably do it too.

  “The ones that came out the other side a few hours ago surely gave a report already,” Brent said. “We can have a debrief tomorrow. We’ve been fighting for nearly 24 hours straight. I don't think anyone here is in the right state of mind to give a report without murdering the one we are giving it to if it takes too long, yeah?”

  It seemed like Brent wasn’t as resistant to the culmination of stress as his grim facade would have led one to believe. Even still, hearing him threaten a soldier had Mia blinking owlishly at him, though he didn’t seem to notice, or just didn’t care. If she was so close to falling asleep on her feet, the man had to be well into bone-deep exhaustion.

  There was some grumbling and some whispered conversation that Mia eavesdropped on through Sparkle, but she barely paid attention to it beyond making sure they weren’t about to commit some monumental level of stupidity and decide to attack them.

  A paranoid control freak in Zeigler’s place would have likely used the kill-zone — because that was what the pit around the Raid Gate really was — to dispose of what remained of the Raid group. The delvers were exhausted, diminished, and likely easy pickings even for much weaker opponents. With them being outnumbered two-to-one, Mia didn’t like their chances.

  She was pretty sure Zeigler wouldn’t be shortsighted enough to do such a thing, nor callous enough, but the worry nagged at her up until the moment the earth wall slowly started peeling apart in front of her.

  Of course, that was the exact moment Konstantin stepped through the Gate behind her, which sent the earth mage on the other side scrambling to reseal the opening under the shouted orders of his superior.

  Konstantin ran his thoughtful gaze over the pit and the walls, a glimmer of cold intelligence burning in his eyes as they came to rest on Mia’s group gathered off to the side. She saw him raise an eyebrow, then close his eyes.

  “Hands up in the air, don’t use any magic, we will shoot at the first sign of aggression!” A soldier shouted, and surprisingly, Konstantin obliged and raised a pair of large furry arms.

  His entire massive frame seemed to slump with the defeated sigh that seemed to sap his spirits.

  “The stupid bastard did it, didn’t he?” Konstantin asked, tilting his head as his eyes cracked open to stare at Brent.

  “If by ‘the stupid bastard’ you mean that werewolf king of yours, and by ‘it’ you mean attacking the rest of the city the moment we stepped through the Gate, then yes,” Brent said, sounding wary, annoyed, frustrated and more than a bit tired.

  “At least that’s the reason these twats beyond the walls gave for our glacial reception,” Mark added helpfully.

  “I doubt they are lying,” Konstantin said. “I’ve tried to talk him out of that short-sighted plan, but I’m just his second, and only because I was the only one he wasn’t sure he could beat. Which is why I was sent into this Raid with those who agreed with me. On that note,” Konstantin turned back to address the wall, “we will comply. If what you say is true, I have no loyalty to that cunt any longer. You will have no trouble with us, but we will resist if you attack us first, violently.”

  “Is Lori’s bunch still alive?” Brent asked, sounding like he already regretted asking the question.

  “Yes,” Konstantin said. “Mostly. I kept my beastkin from going overboard, but they were coming at us with the intent to kill, and we didn’t have the freedom to hold back. A few were in rather dire shape, and we weren't going to waste potions on them when we had some people injured on our side, barely hanging onto life.”

  Well, it wasn’t unexpected that the beastkin managed to roll over the unionists once they put their minds to it, but it was still a bit intimidating to see Konstantin stand there so nonchalantly after fighting them, without as much as a single visible wound.

  “Don’t you have a healer?” Sebastian asked, frowning.

  “Aiden,” Konstantin said, his voice dripping with venom. “Started the fight by throwing a fireball at him. The poor boy’s flesh melted in places; he is in no state to heal those who nearly killed him, despite how many times he healed them before. Ungrateful bastards.”

  Mia found herself frowning, her eyes snapping back to the Gate, the image of the tired boy running from one wounded fighter to the next, stumbling over roots, but still going on despite the Guardian rampaging not far away, played out in her mind.

  She also put Aiden firmly at the very top of her shit list. She’d thought he was just an arrogant prick high on his own power, but apparently, he was also an ungrateful, vicious prick. That boy was the one to heal him more than once over the course of the Raid.

  Mia’s ears twitched as she caught a familiar voice speaking through a radio somewhere further beyond the walls. That was Zeigler's aide, wasn’t it? What’s his name … Kelvin?

  “Okay, the Acting General says it will be fine, but we will have to keep you and your people under watch, Mr Konstantin,” the speaker said again. “Also, separated into groups, if you’d be willing to go along with that? It’d make us much more comfortable and much less jumpy around you.”

  Those had to have been some stern words with how the man switched rails so quickly. Luckily, Konstantin seemed to be willing to go along with it.

  “It’s fine,” Konstantin said. “One building, though, so I can check up on the separate groups later. But as I said, there are wounded still inside who’re about to come out any second now, carrying the remains of the fallen. We’d very much like to get everything over and done with.”

  “We still have some basic health potions leftover,” Brent said. “Do you need them?”

  “No,” Konstantin said, his teeth bared. “The men under my command have had enough. The military folk can cough up the potions to heal the unionist cunts if they want. I don’t want to waste your potions on them, Steiner.”

  Brent shrugged, that offer seemingly being the most effort he could muster in his exhausted state.

  The beastkin streamed out of the portal, all tense and grim, carrying their own fallen and wounded. They gathered up around Konstantin, but it quickly became apparent that he’d had a talk with them before he stepped out, as all of them stood in their best approximation of a non-threatening posture.

  They didn’t raise their hands or lie down; they weren’t willing to put their trust into the soldiers’ hands, but they clearly weren’t willing to start a fight either.

  The unionists came out last, all dishevelled and beat up with a defeated air about them. Some limped, others held broken arms, while still others struggled to carry their own wounded.

  They glared hatefully at the beastkin, then at the soldiers and even at the ones around Mia. She had no pity for them, not anymore. She’d seen the state the healer kid was in when the rabbit-kin scout carried him out in her arms. No, whatever pity Mia had for Lori after her sister’s death was gone. Gwen didn’t deserve her fate, but neither did the beastkin kid. This entire fight had been meaningless, especially since the beastkin who’d probably stomped the poor girl to death while under the Wendigo's influence had died fighting the Guardian.

  The wall opened up in three different places after a ten-minute wait, and the reinforcements that’d arrived since surrounded each of the three Raid groups as they left. They were still jumpy, but Mia knew the ones around her were the calmest. They probably wouldn’t try anything.

  A Divide-and-Conquer type of ambush was still possible now that the raid group was separated into the three factions, but she doubted it. Still, she asked Sparkle to eavesdrop on every conversation.

  A minibus took them back to the city centre, up to a fancy hotel that had been used as barracks in the fight against the goblins a week prior. Brent’s group stayed in the same loft, likely a VIP one considering it had enough bedrooms for all of them, and Mia made sure to set up her Alert Ward in the ante-room and out on the balcony, just in case a flyer tried to get smart.

  Their stuff was in a warehouse, apparently, but the soldier in charge of their protection — and keeping an eye on them — promised it all would be delivered to their loft tomorrow.

  That was good enough for Mia; she had a bathtub with her name on it, and an amazingly soft bed just waiting for her. The warm bath felt heavenly after all the muck and grime that’d gathered up on her skin through the delve, and she just barely managed to stay awake as the hot water tried to lull her to sleep.

  With an incredible force of will, she managed to stumble out, dry herself up and clad herself in her PJs before stumbling over to her bed. A tiny smirk played on her lips when she found Camie already there, fidgeting in her own adorable black camisole.

  If she didn’t know better, she’d have thought the girl had plans for the night beyond some innocent cuddling, but they hadn’t even kissed yet. No, even if Camie was willing, there was a process to these things, and no matter how hard it would be, Mia would have resisted … though maybe not successfully.

  “You’re horrible,” Mia mumbled, then a mighty yawn forced its way out of her, leaving her blinking blearily at her girlfriend. Mia was wearing a fluffy pink PJ set that was as far apart from seductive as possible, then Camie was there in that silky nighty barely covering her butt. It was straight-up unfair. “Whatever, come here.”

  As it was, the fluffy bed was almost just as alluring as that stupid sexy vampire. Mia hopped onto it, bouncing a little before dragging the confused redhead up into a cuddle.

  Finally, Mia felt relaxed. Her nerves evened out, and a serene smile spread on her lips. Sure, the Werewolf twat was still making a fuss, but he was a minor roadblock compared to the apocalyptic threat the Raid Guardian posed. Everything would be fine. Things were on track, and the hardest part was behind them. They could handle whatever else the world threw at them.

  With Camie pressed snugly against her back, an arm wrapped around Mia’s waist, she finally allowed herself to rest. Camie’s soft breaths brushed her ear, and with a peaceful smile on her lips, she surrendered to sleep’s embrace.