With a destination in mind, we moved. éclair wasn’t much for diplomacy, kicking down doors and beating up whoever she could for information. Forcing Black and I to manage the clean-up.

  At this point, we didn’t have to worry about the Wizard Gang causing us issues due to Black being with us. He also was able to make a call, since there was an array of communication equipment stuffed inside the house at the junction where they had the blockade. Which was part of the reason why he showed up when he did.

  Black was the de facto captain of the blockade, but he’d been out when éclair had showed up. Had he been there, he might have been able to talk her down and come to a more peaceful resolution. At least that’s what I thought, but…

  I had a feeling he might have picked a fight all the same…

  As it was, I still felt guilty over my part in sentencing his subordinates to hell. Black wasn’t too bothered. He said, ‘If anything, maybe it’ll help chill them out.’ he then proceeded to let out a laugh. As if this was an everyday occurrence…

  As we moved from site to site, he explained better how they lived. How the gang functioned and their daily lives. Typically, nobody carried a real grudge over fights. Everyone knew that we were all in the same boat, Black included.

  Nearly every denizen of the lower quarter was a rabbit and were technically not proper citizens. Which meant that they all had similar backgrounds, and that they were essentially stuck here.

  The lower quarter wasn’t really a safe haven though. Monsters tend to wander during the day and become active when the sun sets. Forcing them to have active patrols to protect their territory. It did give them access to a steady stream of bronze and occasionally silver coins though, which fed into their arsenal.

  Which led to an entirely different question.

  “Why were your subordinates so weak?”

  It was a valid question. None of the men at the checkpoint had used any proper magic. Their attempts at magic were scattered at best, which was odd, since I knew I could do so much more. Not just me, but a lot of other people thinking back to my first full moon, that event. Which made me wonder, was Faust here?

  Black went quiet, but éclair was the one to answer. Having heard my question as she finished cleaning out a hideout, she spoke out.

  “It’s because they’re here.” She stated as a matter of fact, though, Black didn’t refute her which was odd.

  “Does that really matter?” I asked.

  “It does, well, to an extent. Your rather new, so you probably don’t feel it, but the air here, doesn’t it feel a little lacking?.”

  That was an odd question. I wasn’t new to bad neighborhoods, but… “Yeah, the air is oddly stale, but what about it?”

  “The lower quarter doesn’t have a lot of ambient magic.” éclair says, Black just agrees.

  “It can’t just be that, you mentioned there were monsters all over the place at night, surely they fight them often enough?”

  “They do, but they also rely too much on weapons and guns. Not their magic. Many of the rabbits here, also chose not to take the tutorials.”

  “I didn’t think those were optional, rather, I know Usagi gave me a choice, but it didn’t really feel like a choice.”

  Black was the one to answer. “If you’re living in the city proper, you need to take the tutorial. The city at large is far more dangerous at night compared to here, it’s just that the police actively patrol at night.”

  éclair concurred with his statement.

  “But don’t rabbits grow through conflict?”

  “They do, but the type of conflict matters.” éclair answered, “Most of the fights here could be boiled down to spars, or exterminations. Very rarely do the gang members here have serious life and death threats.”

  “Save for the blood moon.” Black chirps in.

  “Right, that is a big watershed moment for the district.”

  “Blood moon?” I ask. Venturing a response.

  “You’ll know when you know, but for now, better you don’t.” éclair says and Black agrees, both deciding to just leave me in the dark.

  I nod accepting that answer for the time being. Knowing by now, that there was a reason for it. Even if I hated it with all my being, I also knew that I was just struggling to prep for the coming full moon.

  “So, did you find anything inside?” I asked to pivot, after all, éclair had just finished another raid.

  “More of the same.” éclair said with a sigh. It was starting to get late, and I had work tomorrow. “Which isn’t a lot, but I finally got information on where their headquarters are. It isn’t far, but we should prepare for a fight regardless.”

  “Why, what did you find?” Black asked.

  “Nothing, but… apparently the gang’s higher ups have been pulling people throughout their territory. Which isn’t strange on its own, but none of them have returned yet. Not just that, but they’ve had trouble contacting their gang leader and headquarters for some time now.”

  “That could actually be important.” Black said.

  “Is it? Well, either way, I wanted to head over and give it a look over. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

  “Before that, I’d like to make some calls to the higher ups and see if they can send support. Just in case.”

  éclair shrugs. “I think we’ll be fine.” She says at first, then glances over to me, or more precisely the cake in my hand. “On the other hand, it might be good to have backup if anything does go wrong.”

  Black immediately pulled out a phone and made a few calls. Once he was done, we headed out.

  One thing I’ve noticed during my short stint here in the lower quarter, were the gang tags. They were well done, but they also hummed with power. They probably had some kind of magic embedded into them, for what purpose, I wasn’t sure.

  Wizard Gang had a rather interesting tag. That of a hooded figure with a gun in one hand, a wooden staff in the other, and a gold chain around their neck with a dollar sign tag. The words, ‘Wizard Gang’ were spray painted on their robe. Other gangs had less impressive tags, but this group had an odd tag.

  It was a series of stars clumped together to form the word, Constellation. It was rather artsy, with lots of painted stars and planets, each tag wasn’t uniform, instead, each tag looked uniquely made. Neither éclair nor Black seemed to consider it odd, so I didn’t think much of it either.

  It didn’t take long to arrive at their headquarters. It looked like a dilapidated strip mall that had been heavily modified. Wooden platforms with sheets of metal covering them decorated the front, the structure itself had a second-floor addition added on. The addition’s structure looked like a mix of metal sheets and lots of wood with nails hammered in to keep it together.

  Frankly, it looked like a death trap. Didn’t help that all of it was poorly painted over with dark blue paint and the constellation motif was still going strong. Any safety inspection officer would have a stroke seeing this mess.

  The parking lot was filled with makeshift buildings that had pitons spiked into the pavement to anchor them to the ground, with a large fort like structure protruding from the front of the strip mall. The fort had large metal doors that were currently ajar.

  Cautiously, we walked in, expecting trouble, but all we found were barrels filled with ash, upturned couches, forgotten food that had long rotted away, and discarded weapons strewn about.

  éclair was looking around cautiously, the lone strand of hair atop her head wagged back and forth like an antenna before focusing on the mall.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Stay here, I’ll check inside.” éclair stated and moved. Black folded his arms and looked around in clear concern.

  “This place shouldn’t be abandoned…” He muttered.

  “When was the last time you checked on this place?”

  “I’ve no idea, but this place should be bustling with close to a hundred people.”

  His words echoed out over the empty fort, sending a chill down my spine.

  “Is this a safe place to be?” I start. “Assuming we do get into a fight?”

  “Well, for me, probably. I’ll need a few seconds to transform, but what about you? Luckily, we took long enough for my uniform to reconstitute.”

  “I can hold my own in a fight, but…” I went ahead and conjured my weapon. He whistled.

  “An interesting choice, with that, I think…” He trails off and looks around before pointing towards a lookout tower near the gate, attached to the wall.

  “You would probably be better off up there if anything happens.” I nod and make my way up; he keeps his eyes on me while I set up. I set the cake down and get to work conjuring round after round. If nothing comes of it, I would have wasted some magic, but I would rather err on the side of caution. Plus, it wasn’t like I was doing anything else after this.

  Tense minutes pass. The silence broke when I heard the rumble of engines in the distance, echoing down the lower quarter roads. I kept an eye out, and Black turns to face our new arrivals.

  They arrive in a pair of open bed trucks. The trucks themselves were hulking monsters, with heavy machine guns welded to the back. Each truck had six people squished in the back. The trucks themselves were covered in Wizard Gang tags. The people in the truck wore hoodies and scarves over their faces, wielding a variety of weaponry from assault rifles to pistols. A box of grenades was even taken off the bed of one of the trucks and set down.

  I didn’t pay much attention to what Black was saying when he walked up to the group, but they set down a perimeter and kept an eye on things. The doors were swung open and locked down so that the pair of trucks had a clear vision of the courtyard. Some of the guys came up and joined me in the lookout, one of them looked at my growing pile of bullets and weapon in hand, but said nothing as they settled in.

  The first sign of trouble was innocent enough in that moment. A minor tremor ran through the area. Making the wooden structures groan lightly. Then it came again, only louder and even louder. And the structures began to groan and move underfoot. The intensity only grew with every passing moment.

  Just when it felt like everything would collapse under the vibrations, it stopped. éclair came rushing out of the mall, glass shattering behind her as the whole structure vibrated. The makeshift second story collapsed into itself, sending out a wave of dust everywhere, obscuring the store front as it crashed into the strip mall.

  “Look alive!” éclair yelled without giving a proper explanation, only shouting one last tidbit as she continued to bolt away. “I need to warm up!” Guns were checked over, safeties were switched off, rounds chambered. The sound echoed through the clearing.

  We all focused on the rapidly dispersing cloud of debris, waiting to see what it was that had éclair running out of there with such speed. Shambling slowly out of the cloud was… something odd. I barely got a look at it before the twin machine guns ripped out, tearing the creature into meaty chunks. Once it fell, two more took its place. Guns opened fire, reducing them into meaty chunks as well, then four more showed up.

  This continued until, finally, I got a good look at what we were fighting. Even then, I had no idea what the hell I was looking at. They looked human or had been human. They lacked eyes, and the entire top portion of their heads looked like a cauliflower.

  They wore clothes, like any normal person, but they walked with an odd floaty gait. They kept their hands extended in front of them. The tips of their fingers oddly bloated and bulbous. Whereas their shoes had their front portions missing, letting odd multi-jointed toes stick out as they walked.

  They grew so numerous that I finally had a target to shoot, which is when I noticed an immediate problem. Or rather, it wasn’t a problem for me, but everyone else. These creatures were oddly resilient. Normal bullets would punch into them but would lack the force to penetrate their skin. Only the twin machine guns had enough oomph to hit them, but each round would rip away meat instead of piercing through.

  “Their mundane resistant!” Someone cried out. A statement made more apparent when I fired and blew the head off one of the oddities. Gunfire was swiftly replaced with sub-par magic. Blowing the first row apart. Despite their lacking magic, they were keeping them back.

  As I reloaded, I glanced back towards where éclair was and beheld her stretching. She looked like a cat in the middle of a long stretch. Even from here, I could hear every tendon and muscle in her body vibrating and humming.

  No, I could hear it. With every stretch, she visibly exhaled more steam. Her body temperature spiking as power coursed through her.

  “BRONZE!” A shout broke through my inspection, a lankier figure bolted out of the mall, barely obscured by the smoke and haze still hovering in the air. It ran right through the hail of bullets, most, if not all of them harmlessly bouncing off its skin. The twin machine guns roared, pelting it with rounds, each hit did damage, drawing out an odd, blue-ish blood from its body. The force of the pair of machine guns was enough to slow its charge, and yet, it still pressed forward.

  Granting me a proper moment to get a good look at the thing, while its feet dug into concrete and slowly made its way forward.

  The creature’s head was oddly bloated, almost like they had an afro. Its body was an odd mix of gaunt and chubby. Long limbs and legs, reminiscent of the horrors I met at my first event in the tunnels. Ending with large hands and feet, with long multi-jointed fingers and toes which had bulbous tips tipped with long jagged nails. Their main body in direct contrast had a rotund belly and a small caved in chest. Their back hunched over under the weight of their larger head. They lacked lips, exposing long block like teeth that hid a serpentine tongue.

  Before it could get too close to the trucks, my own bullets, and the sporadic blasts of magic were able to bring the bronze down. Yet, the moment it was down, more joined the fray.

  My own bullet struck unerringly into the forefront creature’s knee, causing it to buckle under its weight. Downed, it let out a scream that sounded like nails on a chalk board, yet, under that scream I heard something else. A voice. Whispers. All too soon it ended. Blood dripped down my nose.

  “Psychic Attack!” Someone screamed, and near every person looked out of it after that scream. It was then, that the creatures redoubled their surge, crossing the distance in the blink of an eye. Only to be met with sporadic, drunk gunfire and spurts of magic.

  Then Black showed up. He dove down like an eagle, his feet slammed into the line of creatures, causing them to visibly recoil when he cracked into the surrounding pavement. For a moment, his cape flapped, the visor of his helmet gleamed in the light, like a true hero.

  For a moment, the entire tide stalled… Then, they came at him with everything they had. The way he moved, looked wrong somehow. One moment, it was like he weighed nothing, and the next it was if he were a multi-ton truck. Every punch and kick resounded out, leaving crackles in the air and sprays of blood as he pounded through the pack.

  Buying just enough time for the line to recover and provide covering fire. Giving him enough space to pull back, yet, he was not unharmed. He was covered in gashes and wounds. His outfit torn and shredded in places, weeping blood. He was injured, but it didn’t look too bad. Not yet anyway.

  For a moment, there was a lull, the tide of gunfire suppressed the horde, and quickly dispatched them. Even then, nobody backed off, and when I glanced over, éclair was still doing her stretches.

  “Hey, can I have some of those?” The man beside me asked, pointing towards my collection of bullets.

  “If you can use it, use it.” He promptly pulled out an empty magazine and filled it with my bullets. They appeared to have the same dimensions, but would it really work? As he did that, others came by, and swiftly my stockpile was reduced to nothing, forcing me to make more.

  However, not a moment later, more of those lanky creatures burst out of the mall. This time, a wave of bullets hit them. It wasn’t continuous fire though. It was a steady plink, plink, as ice bullets shot out and pierced their body. They actually did damage, which was surprising to me. The man beside me swore but had a wide grin on his face. He pulled back on the ejection slide, manually ejecting the spent casing and shoved it back, thus chambering in a new round.

  At first, I didn’t understand why it worked as everyone did the same, but it quickly became apparent that they were brute forcing it. Using their magic to empower their guns and thus power the enchantments engraved into the bullet, thus allowing it to fire.

  With our new arsenal, the newcomers were swiftly crippled and taken down, either by gunfire or a kick or punch from Black in his suit when they got to close to the line. With him being the vanguard, the stragglers were quickly dealt with, without issue.

  A new lull came over the battlefield. I swiftly made new bullets, and someone came by to pick them up, swiftly relegating me to support. I glanced back and saw éclair finishing up. She was hopping on each foot. A net of lightning crackled with each step, connecting her feet to the pavement below. Once done, she hit the ground in a runner’s stance, as if waiting for something. Her hammer held in hand.

  Then it happened. A loud quake ripped through the clearing. The pavement shook and crackled, then all at once it caved in. A large figure pulled itself out. A head like the top of a tree, only the tips glowed like countless nights, or perhaps like stars.

  Nobody spoke. Everyone was frozen at the sight of the creature, at the power radiating off its form. It opened its mouth to let out a scream, when…

  A crack, a boom rippled out. In a blink, a trail of lightning, a blur of gold, éclair arrived right at the creature’s front. Her hammer was bright, a blazing light, it crackled and hummed like a transformer. She swung it, the very air seemed to scream, the world grew dimmer, focusing entirely on her as she swung it right up into the large creature’s chin. The world went white.

  It was silent. The moment it hit, there was no rumble, no crack. All sound seemed to fade away to nothing as the creature was launched into the sky. éclair followed with a momentous leap. A loud sound, like an incoming freight train, a loud rumble filled the air.

  Then with a crack, a thunderclap of displaced air, éclair struck. All at once, sound came rushing back as if on a delay. The creature smashed back into the crater from whence it came, and éclair followed, her body crackling as if it was a bolt of lightning loosed from Zeus’s hand.

  The crack in the pavement widened. More creatures poured out of the mall, lanky creatures, normal humanoid creatures, and fat bulbous creatures whose cauliflower heads glowed.

  The man beside me moved at that. He ripped out a radio and screamed into it.

  “WE NEED MEN!”

  The moment his hand let go of the button, a voice crackled over. “Please repeat that, over.”

  I didn’t here the next response as loud keening scream broke out over everything, the radio crackled and hissed. In the distance, the wreckage of the mall, countless small flickering lights could be seen.

  Then, those lights, like a deluge of stars flew through the air and crashed into the fort walls, and into the watchtower we were in. The entire structure buckled and fell over. Burying us underneath.