Chapter 444: Run it Back

Alex stared into the storming Qi clouds far below the platform in stunned silence for a moment. Then he hurriedly banished Amelia. He re-summoned her a second later and she rose up from the ground at his side, shaking herself off like a wet dog and sending sludge spraying in every direction.

“Hah!” Amelia exclaimed. “I did it! I protected everyone!”

“Did it?” Claire asked, squinting at Amelia. “You did the one thing you were told not to do.”

“I defended you,” Amelia said.

There was a metal clink. They all turned to look back at the center of the platform, were a single golden coin had dropped to the ground. It rolled in increasingly smaller circles before falling down with a loud clatter.

A Cracked Coin.

Magical energy trickled into him a few moments later. That confirmed it — not that there had really been all that much doubt about the fate of anyone sent plummeting into the Riftwarped Qi. Amelia had killed every single one of their opponents in a single blow.

Why did the System just plop it down in the center of the platform instead of giving it to one of us? Is it because Amelia shoved everyone off the ledge? Is it being petty about the fact that we just won that whole thing without a real fight?

…can the System be petty?

“See?” Amelia asked. “That means we won, right?”

“It… yes,” Alex said. “But your job was to defend us.”

“Which I did,” Amelia said. She picked the coin up and held it out to Alex, dropping it into his hand with a squelch. “They can’t hurt you if they’re dead.”

A second of silence passed as everyone stood and stared at her. Even Glint was at a loss for words. He kept glancing down to his claws, which were suspiciously un-slicked with blood, as if he was still wondering where his prey had run off to.

“That’s a bit hard to argue with,” Alex admitted. “But we do need to be able to rely on you, Amelia. You’re the guard.”

“I understand,” Amelia said. She gave him a sharp salute. “Consider yourself protected.”

Alex paused. He squinted at her for a second. Something gave him the idea that his words weren’t quite getting across.

“You know what that means, right?” Alex asked slowly.

“Yep! I defend you,” Amelia replied.

Alex and Claire exchanged a look.

Glint sighed. “I didn’t get to fight anything. You stole my kills. All of them. And I can’t even complain. That was a very efficient way to remove them.”

Alex rolled the Cracked Coin over his knuckles. Then he shook his head and tossed it to Claire, who plucked it from the air easily.

“Well, I suppose we won,” Alex said. “And we’ve got some time to work a bit on strategy for the next fight. Let’s see if you can focus a bit more on protecting everyone in way of making sure nothing gets to them. In preparation for when we come up against an opponent that you can’t fling off a bridge.”

“Understood,” Amelia said. She gave him a thumbs up. “Don’t you worry. I’ve got your back.”

“I don’t think you know what that means,” Alex said.

“I don’t,” Amelia said, her three heads bobbing. “But I read it in a book, and I thought it sounded cool.”

“It does,” Alex admitted. “And I’ll admit you did a very good job there. But we just need to be ready for a fight where we’re up against something too strong to screw with. There isn’t going to always be a conveniently placed pathway to hell for us.”

Amelia’s heads nodded slowly. It was clear she was thinking his words through. Then one of them tilted to the side. Alex could practically see the question in her molten pink eyes. He braced himself.

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“Yeah?”

“I get your point. But there is a conveniently placed portal to hell. It’s specifically here and nowhere else. So wouldn’t it be a bit irresponsible to not use it? And it’s pretty fun to throw people off on top of everything. If you haven’t tried yet, you definitely should.”

Claire coughed. Alex was pretty sure she was covering a laugh. Glint didn’t even say anything. He just let out a longing sigh and looked down in the direction of the people that Amelia had pushed over the platform.

It was a bit hard to argue that her method hadn’t been effective. The System had given them a Cracked Coin even though their opponents hadn’t had a chance to even step onto their platform. Sure, the win was a bit cheap… but it still counted. Alex had even gotten the magical energy for killing them. The reward would have been more if they’d actually had a proper fight, but this meant they could just get on to the next one basically fresh.

I can’t even blame her for wanting to be more active. Amelia’s been cooped up in her room for years. If that had been me, I’d probably be twitching for the smallest dose of dopamine. There’s no way I’d be able to just sit back and fight smart. Hell, even as I am now, I still prefer fun fights.

But that doesn’t mean we can avoid considering the possibility that we come up against something where I need her to act as a strong defense. She’s our best front-liner.

“That… is a good point,” Alex admitted as he rubbed the back of his head. “I’ll keep that in mind. But let’s focus on practicing defensive fighting first, yeah? We can let ourselves have a bit more fun after we’re sure that you can do that when the situation leaves no other option.”

“Yup,” Amelia said with several nods. “Let’s do it! Next fight! I’m ready! I’ll defend you with my life.”

I think we’ve already seen how that goes.

Alex fought off his grin. He cleared his throat. “Well, then. Shall we head down to their platform and see who else comes for us? I still want to try saving up the Cracked Coins to see if we can somehow trade them in for something later on.”

Claire nodded in agreement. “Sounds good to me. Let’s go.”

***

Orchid crossed her arms behind her back and did her best to avoid looking too disgusted at the pile of corpses gathered in a huge mound behind Mite. Rhyss floated alongside her, whatever thoughts may have been behind his lone eye inscrutable.

“It won’t be that much longer,” Mite said. He cleared his throat. “I’m working as fast as I can, you know. But this isn’t a small building. It’s huge. And powerful. Not exactly the kind of thing you want to rush. Besides, it hasn’t even started to smell yet!”

“Yet?” Orchid asked. She glanced past Mite at the mountain of bodies. Then she sighed. “Well, I think we’re all aware of exactly how you work. I can’t say I’m surprised. But do you really need to have every single body lying out like this before you get to work?”

“I have to inspect them,” Mite said. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and met her gaze. “I can’t use shoddy bones. What if it weakens the foundations? My creations must be perfect. There’s no room for anything else.”

“That’s… well, yes,” Orchid said. She pursed her lips. “Exactly how long do you believe this will take to complete?”

“Dunno,” Mite said. He glanced over his shoulder and thought for a moment. “Maybe a few days?”

“A few days?” Orchid asked through a cough. “Can we get you some help to speed the process up?”

Leaving a pile of corpses covering a huge portion of Mirrorwane was less than ideal. It wasn’t just an eyesore. It blocked up pathways, slowing people down and interfering with their lives. And if a fight broke out… having a giant liability covering up a big portion of the town wasn’t going to be doing them any favors.

But Orchid knew the question was pointless. Mite didn’t ever accept help. He was too arrogant, and it wasn’t like any of them understood enough of what he did to actually help him in the first place. A fair bit of his arrogance was very well justified. Not that it changed—

“Yeah,” Mite said. “That would be pretty useful, actually.”

“I — wait, what?” Orchid blinked. “Seriously?”

“Yeah,” Mite said with a thoughtful nod that made it clear his mind was still on the pile of corpses behind him. “There’s a lot that needs to be done. And realistically, these projects are going to keep getting bigger. The buildings will get more dangerous and powerful. Creating them will become increasingly tough. . I… I can’t do it alone forever. And if I start working with someone now, it’ll be easier when we get to the really tough stuff.”

“Huh,” Orchid said. She wiped the surprise from her features. “Well, how can we help? Just tell me what you need. I’ll try to get it for you. Is there someone in particular you’re thinking of?”

Mite hesitated for a second. Then his shoulders slumped slightly. “Vil. She’s got experience with something fairly similar to my magic. Her golems aren’t the same thing, but her skills from that should be transferrable. And I’m sure she’d be more than interested in getting to leech some of my experience on a project as big as this.”

Orchid raised an eyebrow. Then she nodded. “We’ve got her under watch anyway to make sure she doesn’t try anything funny. Works for me. I’m sure she’d be more than willing to help anyway. She’s been trying to find ways to show that she’s useful. How long will the project take if she’s—”

The rest of Orchid’s sentence was swallowed by a loud, buzzing roar that cut through the air overhead. She staggered and threw a hand up as a wave of golden light flashed through the clouds. Magic had already raced to swirl at the tip of her gnarled white staff by the time she’d realized that they weren’t actually under attack.

She stared up into the sky, her eyes wide.

Mite followed her gaze.

His features paled as he saw the golden words scrawled through the clouds above Mirrorwane.

[Trial Assigned: Second Time’s the Trial]

Objective: Variable. The next wave arrives in [11:59:59]

“Oh, shit,” Mite breathed. “That’s not good.”