It was still annoyingly cold outside, but I was willing to put up with it to see what my new Guardian friends had up their sleeves. I was especially curious to see Kevin and Chloe show off.

  That was for two different reasons. For Kevin, it was simply that I expected the guy who dressed like a battle wizard to be able to pull off something flashy. That was likely intentional on his part, but I wouldn't deny that the advertising worked.

  As for Chloe—I still wonder if those two are siblings—I was interested for a far more practical reason. The black and green outfit she'd worn for the incursion strongly signaled that she was some kind of sustained damage specialist. As an Anathema, that made her the biggest individual threat as part of the group. The point of having a sizable chunk of Guardians focus on cultivating abilities that could cause persistent damage over time was to burn through Anathema regeneration. The idea was to prevent a 'filling a leaking bucket' situation, assuming the other forces involved couldn't simply overpower the threat in one rapid go.

  Anathema usually weren't smart enough to anticipate that kind of group tactic, but I wasn't a typical Anathema. I knew that if I ever found myself on the wrong side of a team of Guardians, I needed to default to prioritizing both avoiding and killing the one who seemed most capable of dishing out sustained damage. Obviously, that was assuming the specific circumstances didn't do something to change up the usual calculus.

  Unlike the stone plaza outside the front of the building, the rear yard was just a big square of dirt and gravel. There was an ivy-covered fence all around it, as well as little flowers and bushes ringing the perimeter, but the whole central area was left bare. I doubted it was intended to be any kind of proper training space, but rather something that could serve as the bare minimum for things best done outside.

  We ended up standing in a loose circle. I was the last one to join, with Katherine and Chloe moving over to make a spot for me. "Alright, so who's going first?" Maria asked.

  The other three looked at each other. "You want to start things off?" Laurence asked Kevin.

  The lanky man shrugged. "Sure. I do love showing off."

  "Alright." Laurence clapped his hands loudly. "Everyone, take a few steps back."

  I did as I was told. What is he gonna do, make an explosion? That sounded dangerous, and also like something that the school probably didn't want anyone doing, even in the backyard of the Guardian College building. I wasn't going to raise any objections, though. I wouldn't say no to watching a dude blow something up, especially since I wouldn't be the one getting in trouble.

  The only one who didn't step back was Kevin himself. He stepped forward, then stopped and waited for the rest of us to get situated. "You know, I hate to admit it, but he's the furthest along with power cultivation," Maria said to the two of us. "Probably because he doesn't bother practicing anything else. All of the effort he doesn't put into anything else has to go somewhere, I suppose."

  "Hey now," Laurence admonished her from across the yard. Dude has sharp hearing, I thought to myself as he continued, his tone taking on this weird, serious air. "Let's keep this positive. We've all got our own strengths." He paused. "And yes, it's true that Kevin here has made the most progress in esoteric advancement."

  Huh. Interesting. By 'esoteric advancement,' they were talking about the supernatural abilities Guardians developed and cultivated. There was still a tendency for people to compare Guardian abilities to different fictional paradigms from before the incursions. In that context, they occupied a sort of midpoint between superpowers and magic. A Guardian's abilities were very much intrinsic, or even unique. That being said, they grew and developed over time.

  A lot of the resources I read over the break used the analogy of a tree growing. Starting from a small seed, a tiny, weak, and singular shoot sprouted up. As time passed, it grew taller, thicker, and sturdier. It also began growing branches, and, eventually, many different branches of varying strength and size split off from the same central trunk. It was supposed to convey how Guardians weren't limited to a single manifestation of their power. In fact, higher tier guardians would have many different sub-abilities, many of which followed common patterns. There was even a whole system for planning and directing that sideways growth, much like gardeners guiding the growth of a tree.

  Nevertheless, the comparison also emphasized how all the different abilities, with their different form, purpose, and relative power, were all still offshoots of a single, core 'essence.'

  So, with all that in mind, it wasn't at all surprising that the goofy, nerdy-looking guy who'd spent at least several thousand dollars to dress like a martial spellcaster was the furthest ahead. Like, is it not just common sense? I decided to say as much, and Kevin's face lit up. Snapping his fingers, he pointed at me. "See? See? She gets it. I told you!"

  "Can we please just move on with the demonstration?" Maria complained.

  Suddenly turning serious, Kevin took a few steps backwards away from the very center of our circle. Then, raising one foot, he stomped it back down on the gravel.

  A wave of ghostly, teal light radiated out from where his foot impacted the ground. It seeped through the spaces between the rocks, lighting the whole yard up like some kind of alien circuitry. I was not expecting anything like that to happen, so I hopped away when the edge of the ghastly light reached me by reflex. None of the others had tried to avoid it, though—including Katherine, who was staring at the ground with uncharacteristically deep focus.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  I hadn't forgotten all the different ways her own power had seemed to manifest during the incursion, so I didn't have any doubt that she was picking up on something more than what was visible. I wonder what it is she's seeing? Or feeling, or however it is she senses weird, spooky shit.

  My attention was drawn back to Kevin himself when he pointed at the middle of the circle. With a quick, upwards curl of his finger—almost like a sharp flick—he did something to activate another part of his power. It wasn't hard to figure out what it was supposed to do, because it was even more dramatic than the wave of light. A jagged cluster of razor sharp, teal, crystal spikes erupted from beneath the earth. It was accompanied by a small spray of gravel, but far less than there rightfully should have been. The spiny, crystalline construction was massive—easily taller than any of us and as wide as a tree trunk.

  Well, that looks deadly.

  I was pretty sure getting skewered by that would be enough to instantly kill any human or Tier 1 Anathema. Also, the sudden manifestation wasn't any ordinary crystal. It was glowing with an internal light, that much was true, but even more eye-catching was the way it seemed to shimmer, flicker, and even—the best way I could think of to succinctly describe it was 'glitch out.' I wonder what happens if you try to touch it?

  "Kevin is our team's strike specialist," Laurence said, addressing me and Katherine. "There's a bit more he can do with those crystals than just that, but it was a good choice for a first demonstration. We call that one the landmine, since it's big, explosive, and relies on first planting it down somewhere. We mostly use it with a retreat formation, leading either a group of Anathema or one big one into the spot where we can then set it off."

  Okay, makes sense. Good to know that he can't just randomly decide to skewer things. Frowning, I amended my statement. Yet.

  "That was only one small part of the whole area, though," Katherine pointed out. "Couldn't you also spread out the manifestation, like if you needed to deal with multiple smaller, weak Anathema?"

  "Yep." Kevin pointed at the looming, still-flickering cluster of spikes. "That's the concentrated, singular version. Works best for taking out the real big boys. Not so good when you're being tailed by a pack of skinners."

  He proceeded to snap his fingers. The moment he did, the whole growth exploded into a spray of deadly shards. My momentary surge of alarm vanished at the same time the storm of crystalline shrapnel did. After traveling only a few feet, the solid shards evaporated into motes of that same teal light. Neither lingering in the air nor fading away, they all swirled down into his outstretched hand. Huh. So he recycles it?

  He quickly repeated the process, sending another wave outward from his foot. Then, without pointing at any particular spot, he jerked his hand upward. Once again, glowing, crystal spikes erupted from the ground. This time, though, they weren't confined to a single location. The entire yard was now choked with two-foot high needles of flickering, distorted light. The only areas that were spared were small patches of ground surrounding each of us.

  I stared at the three-foot patch of spike-free ground around my feet. Wow. That's actually kind of impressive. And useful.

  This time, rather than exploding, the crystal growth just sunk back into the ground. The same wave of light surged back inwards in reverse, sucking back up through Kevin's leg. From there, it was Maria's turn.

  She turned out to be their team's dedicated support. Her abilities were supposedly not as inherently dangerous as Kevin's, so we all got closer this time. At first, I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be looking at. It clicked a few moments later, though, when I realized she was doing multiple things at once. Literally doing multiple things at once. She was somehow juggling pieces of gravel, chugging a water bottle, explaining her power—vocally—and sending a series of text messages Kevin was showing us on his phone all at once.

  It was bizarre. She hadn't split herself into clones or anything like that, nor had she grown extra arms. It was confusing to look at. It felt like whatever activity I was thinking about, that's the one I saw her doing. The result was a confusing experience, where any particular thing I looked at looked completely normal, but logically, it didn't make sense. My sense of causality was getting terribly thrown off. Is she really just a normal guardian?

  I felt like this was absolutely broken. Kevin's demonstration had been impressive, and surprisingly strong for a Tier 1 Guardian—but this? What's even the underlying mechanic? Parallel versions of reality where she can act separately, that then all get combined back together?

  Whatever it was, it was insane. I was even starting to feel like I might be going a little insane myself, since her team members didn't act like it was anything special. Hell, the other two had played up Kevin's abilities more, and Maria herself kept going on about how none of it was super impressive or useful, but she was learning how to make the best of it. Make the best of it, my ass. This is genuine Cthulhu shit. Wait.

  I'd forgotten about Katherine—I wondered how she was reacting to this. She was turning out to be a handy reference for me. As it turned out, my fellow 'Star Guardian' was looking intently between us. She kept sort of gesturing with her hands, like she was deep in a train of thought. She also seemed to be reacting to a lot of things I couldn't see—probably all the different versions of Maria that were doing different shit right now.

  I narrowed my eyes. I really wanted a copy of her special senses, this time—and the way she was acting made me all the more suspicious. She kept looking between me and Maria—something that was both intriguing and concerning. You're thinking the same thing I am, aren't you, Katherine?

  Soon, Maria put her phone and bottle away, and dropped the rocks. The group decided to move on to showing off Chloe—but I didn't really care about gauging their sustained damage specialist anymore. Dad had been quite adamant that, for the time being, the two of us keep our supposed nature as Star Guardians under wraps. I still didn't know why, but—assuming that's how they normally operate, and it's not just some bullshit he cooked up for my benefit—could it be that we accidentally met another new one?

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