What does it say about me as a person, that when the tower began to collapse, that my first action was to protect éclair’s slice of cake? I didn’t try to escape. Didn’t try to help the man beside me. Nope, I leapt for the cake.

  On the bright side, the cake slice was fine. Sure, the plastic was a bit out of shape, but otherwise, it was fine. I also heard the guy beside me, separated as we were by the debris, shuffle around, trying to work his way out. Which meant he had survived.

  My body hurt, but I had the ice cover me, protecting me from the worst of the fall.

  Slowly, I worked my way out. The sounds of fighting muffled by all the debris I was under. I kicked away a couple of boards and light streamed in. With my hands occupied, one with the slice of cake, the other with my gun, I had to kick and wiggle my way out.

  The moment I was out, I slipped and fell face forward. I braced, elbows forward. A jolt ran up my arms as I hissed and let go of the container containing the slice of cake. It held firm, covered slightly in frost as it was.

  As I righted myself and reached forward, a foot with multi-jointed toes stepped on the container. Crushing it, shattering it, and the cake inside too. My head jerked up of its own volition. My free hand went for my rifle. Right before me was one of the lanky creatures. Just mere steps away, arms stretched out to grasp me.

  Rifle in hand, it jerked up and fired a round. The creature recoiled back just as I pulled the trigger, making the bullet go wide. I pushed forward, stepping up from the ground, a word on my lips.

  “Bayonet!” I cried out, with a crack, snap, a blade of silver formed near the tip of my gun. I swung the blade wide, the blade cutting through one of its arms with ease. It stuttered back, clearly in pain. My hand shot towards the bolt and yanked it back, ejecting the spent casing and chambered the next round with a clack.

  I pushed forward and barreled into the creature. With all my weight behind it, the creature tumbled, and I fell with it, my legs straddling its torso. It’s one good hand whipped out, nearly clipping me on the side of the head.

  Now atop it, I brought my rifle close to my chest and thrust. The bayonet shoved into just below its chin, up into its skull. With a final twist, the creature gave a final full body shake, then stilled.

  I didn’t gasp for breath. No, my heart was beating evenly. The ice keeping me cool. I exhaled frost and looked up. Taking in the battlefield. A lesser creature came stumbling forward, my rifle whipped up, the trigger squeezed. The bullet sang in flight, until it cracked into its skull, killing the creature.

  I ejected, chambered, and readied. More came. I thrust my bayonet, disemboweling one with a quick jerk and twist. A trigger pull killed another. A third smashed into me, pushing me back. Then, a bullet sang and cracked into its head killing it.

  All around me, more of the members of the Wizard Gang were pulling themselves out of the rubble. Magic shot out; the bullets I gave them sang out. The sound of manual ejections clacked and echoed, followed by the tinkle of spent casings hitting the ground. They were firing, slowly breaking down the enemy.

  In the midst of it all, the earth below our feet quaked and thundered. From the slowly widening gap in the road, the smell of ozone hung in the air. Light flashed, thunder boomed. Screams echoed out, along with the sound of chirping birds all coming from below.

  I ejected, chambered the next round. I started to conjure more bullets. The man that had been beside me finally pulled himself out of the rubble. His weapon missing, but that didn’t deter him. He grabbed bullets and worked to help refill empty magazines. A system quickly fell into place. Just in time for something to mess us over. Another deluge of stars shot out. Small bright lights easily the size of a baseball. They swung lazily in the air, only to accelerate and crash into the surroundings.

  People hit the ground. The pavement around us groaned, more of it fell into the yawning pit. A few nearly fell into said pit but were pulled back by their fellows.

  Then, more creatures arrived. Lanky creatures leapt over the yawning void and rushed us down. They grabbed those at the front and placed their foreheads together. When that happened, whoever was caught screamed. A horrible, nail wrenching scream. Only to be silenced when a bullet sang its swan song and killed the creatures. Fulfilling their purpose.

  Nobody died as of yet. The wave was quickly pushed back and eliminated, and more creatures crossed the divide, with even more working over the piles of rubble surrounding the pit. Not giving us even the slightest hint of a break.

  The sounds of gunfire, the screams of the creatures, broken up only by the occasional rumble of thunder from below. Each crack from below caused the surrounding area to shake, working away at the debris, and sending more of the fort into the pit below. Working away at what usable ground we had.

  In the far back, obscured by clouds of dust, were rotund figures. They were shaking their bodies. Heads swaying back and forth. Their heads jutted out like branches on a tree, or perhaps like a shrub of sorts. On each branch, glowed lights. They looked wrong, distorted, much like the other, lankier version, but these ones were far bigger.

  Casters… Silver ranks then? They seemed far less numerous, but no less dangerous. Especially when they sent another wave out, doing even more devastating damage as they continued to bombard us with those lights.

  Amidst it all, I noticed Black Hawk struggling. Somehow, he’d gotten on the other side of the pit, essentially isolating him from any form of support. Multiple creatures were rushing him, he punched and kicked like a comic accurate comic book hero. Only it was missing the action bubbles. Even still, he was being overwhelmed. Errant shots fired in his direction helped, but did nothing to relieve him.

  Looking around, I could feel it. The tension hanging in the air, like a fishing line drawn taut. Fraying slowly under the weight. Little by little, it failed, and once it did, once it snapped, the tide would shift. People would die in droves and we’d be forced back…

  Though, the path of escape was blocked by all the debris. The two trucks long silent, buried under the rubble.

  Frustratingly, there was nothing I could do. Well, no more than what I was already doing.

  Another wave of stars hit. Some even crashed into Black Hawk, sending him sprawling to the ground. A wave of gunfire shot out, buying him enough time to get up, but quickly he was pinned down like a quarterback with no defense. More creatures rushed and leapt over the growing pit dividing us. Aiming right for us.

  I readied myself for what was to come. Bayonet at the ready. Ice freezing over my entire being, encasing it in frost.

  Yet… As we prepared for the oncoming onslaught, a noise reached my ears. A scream, no, it sounded different. Like a shout, a cry? The sound grew louder, like a long-drawn-out whistle. Then, a golden meteor crashed right before us. Sending more pavement into the pit, sending many of the lanky creatures into the depths as their leaps of faith failed.

  He stood tall. Bronzed skin glistening in the evening sun. He wore a skirt, a leather skirt. An errant breeze showed that he was wearing what could best be called a leather thong under said skirt. He wore armor that made me think, without question, a roman legionnaire. Black and gold was the theme, a black mane on his helmet. His vambraces glowed like the sun.

  With a shout, the man slammed his fists together, a wave of light washed over us, pushed away the cloud of debris. Warmth licked over my wounds, but most of it failed to pierce the ice. Many others though were far luckier. Those grabbed, eyes and ears weeping blood suddenly looked far more alert. Injuries faded away in the golden light. Spirits were rekindled. Dirt and dust cleansed under the light.

  The man said nothing had he squared his broad shoulders and launched forward, over the pit, and to Black’s side. His arms left trails of gold as he went. With a single sweep, he punched into the creatures pinning Black Hawk down, freeing him.

  “Roman!” Black cried out. The man, Roman merely nodded.

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  “Heard you needed some dudes.” he replied back, his head turned just so that all of us could see the glint of white teeth.

  “Hell yeah we do, but…” Black’s words were cut off by a loud squeal and a blast of lightning that shot into the sky.

  Roman’s smile dimmed, but he shook it off.

  “Tanya is coming.” Roman chose to state, his eyes turned towards the gathering creatures inside the ruined mall. He rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck. “We just need to hold until she gets here.”

  “Tanya? Hell, never been glad to hear she was coming.” Black Hawk replied, straightening up. Mimicking Roman’s actions himself. The pair took up the front, their gang members rallied. Chanting the new arrival’s name.

  ““ROMAN! ROMAN! ROMAN!””

  A new wave of stars shot forward, this time, we were not pushed back. Screens of light took the blasts. Gunfire sang out. Putting down the lanky creatures or crippling them as they came. Black Hawk, now unfettered shot forward with blistering blows. Every strike had an audible thump or crack following them. Roman however, was a whole other entity.

  His vambraces glowed. Forming into many different kinds of weapons. A blade of light sliced and diced, covered his fist giving every blow a powerful impact, A shield to take strikes, or even a blast of light that pushed back whatever hit.

  The pair made progress, under our cover fire, they even gained ground. Sensing trouble the rotund creatures in the back changed their motions. Hands shot forward, a visible shockwave shot out, smashing into the pair. Their feet dug into the pavement as they braced themselves. Nearly pushing them into the pit before the creatures grew visibly tired.

  However, that wasn’t all. The moment the pressure faded, both Black Hawk and Roman fell to their knees. Blood dripped from their nose and ears. They looked dazed, but a pulse of light emanated from Roman had both of them back up.

  For now, it looked like we had hit an equilibrium of sorts. Unfortunately, both Roman and Black Hawk were bruisers, by the looks of it. Tough, durable, but lacking in oomph. It made me consider Tabitha and Diana. The techniques they used, how they struck.

  Tabitha was more of an opportunist. Striking hard and fast. Diana was working more towards the same, but would her choice of weapon alter how it works? Would her choice of uniform?

  Black Hawk was clearly darkness magic, or rather, more specifically shadow magic. He was using his magic to directly increase the weight of his blows by giving it greater density, lowering the density to give him greater speed and lighter weight between strikes. Even altering his form slightly.

  Roman was different. He moved swiftly with quick, but surprisingly heavy blows. Panels of light would come into existence, eating strikes, and whenever he was injured, the wound would bleed gold before sealing shut.

  The greater problem was, we needed a heavy hitter. By the increasingly worrying sounds from below, we would soon be facing a gold, so we needed to handle the forces arrayed against us, but with Roman here, the best we could do was hold the line.

  Everyone’s magic was running low, even mine was after having to produce so many bullets. Even if Roman’s appearance kept the line from snapping, we might end up capsizing at this point. Like a fishing boat with too large a haul.

  As if to make my point, an especially loud crack and rumble from below reached our ears, followed by something flying into the air trailing black smoke.

  It arced in the sky and smashed into the rubble nearby. A charred corpse… No… It was moving. Twitching. A single yellow eye shone, crackled with power. It was éclair. With a stuttering gasp. Her charred body hissed and spat. As if she was in a microwave. Flesh bubbled and stretched. Swiftly regenerating her, leaving steam in the air as she quickly reformed. She reached into her pocket, grabbed a handful of what looked like chocolate balls, and threw them into her mouth.

  Her teeth crunched the balls, and she swallowed, and all at once, her wounds quickly healed. Her clothes, or perhaps, were they, her uniform? The coat she wore, and shirt were burnt and tattered, but slowly knit themselves back together. The hammer she held in hand glowed with heat and sizzled when it touched the pavement. Leaving an imprint where it had laid.

  “That is one tough son of a bitch…” She muttered and as if answering her call. A large hand shot out of the pit. The creature pulled itself out of the pit. Slowly, surely. Its body covered in black marks. A couple of its fingers dangled uselessly, a few toes crunched and pasted, and even a few teeth were knocked out. The entire creature smoked. Electricity crackled out as it stood at its full height, cutting us off from Black Hawk and Roman.

  The earth itself seemed to rumble under the creature’s might. Loose debris slowly rose into the sky. The debris swirled around it, slowly picking up speed. A pressure began to weigh down on us all. Like something was trying to force itself into my mind. Whispers, sharp words, or noises kept interjecting, throwing off my trains of thought.

  Then, the world exploded. A loud voice cracked out.

  “TANYA, REPORTING FOR DUTY!” A loud screech, a series of hisses as hydraulics engaged.

  It burst into the scene, smashing through the rubble that was once the gate. It rumbled and roared, visibly vibrating before us. Its very existence made the earth, quake. A restless beast made of steel had arrived.

  It was… a tank.

  Totally bewildered, the creature faltered for a brief moment. In response, the tank fired. A single shell screamed out, it failed to hit the creature front and center but sheared off half the creature’s face. It screamed and very nearly stumbled back into the pit. Then, machine guns fired. A trio of heavy machine guns, two at the front and one at the top manned by an expressionless man. They released a stream of bullets so dense it looked like a strafing laser. It cut through the creature’s limbs like a hot knife through butter. The creature struggled but failed to do anything by the time its limbs were shorn off by bullet fire.

  Once it lost its limbs, the creature took a final tumble, and crackling out, éclair leapt into the air, her hammer held high. Crackling with power, buzzing and humming with intent. With a shout, she threw it down into the pit where it made the earthquake once more, but she wasn’t done. Gathering every ounce of magic into her, she unleashed it into a man-sized bolt of energy that snaked into the pit. The light alone blinded everyone for a mere moment, but the following boom of thunder pushed us all to the ground. A plume of smoke shot out of the pit, the earth below rumbled and bucked under us, but held in the end, whilst éclair fell to the ground in a heap. A series of follow-up booms continued below, steadily dying as the seconds passed.

  The tank, all the while, continued to fire. Gunfire lanced out, cutting through the swathes of horrors. A series of clunks and kerchunks, barely overheard over éclair’s own light show were swiftly forgotten when the main gun fired out another screaming shell. Vaporizing one of the silver ranked entities at the back and smashing into the ruined strip mall behind.

  All the while, a cackling laugh could be heard coming from the tank’s speakers.

  In a matter of moments, everything went silent. A series of clicks came from the tanks as the gunners fired empty. Only the sound of the rumbling tank, or the occasional spark of lightning could be seen coming from éclair’s form.

  The tank hatch popped open, a blonde woman with short cut hair, stuck her head out. “Yo, Black, Roman, you guys still alive!?”

  Which reminded me, I looked forward, and over the cloud of debris and smoke, I saw both Black Hawk and Roman lying on the ground, hands on their ears. Clearly terrified for their lives.

  “Tanya! Seriously!?” Black yelled out as he stood, wiping the dust off his uniform. “That almost killed us!”

  “Yeah, well, it didn’t did it?” She bit back, unconcerned.

  Black made to continue arguing, but Roman put his hand on Black’s shoulder and shook his head. To which Black shut his mouth and nodded. Roman then stepped forward.

  “Thanks for the assist, Tanya… Now, I assume that over there is the Raiju?”

  At his words, éclair jerked up. Somehow, she was already back on her feet. “Yeah, that’s me… What’s up?” She said, cracking something as she shifted.

  What followed was put simply, loot distribution. On top of that was the proper investigation. The mall was searched through thoroughly, as well as an underground space that dug into the sewers. Apparently, a larger part of sewers was set aside and made into a sort of temple. If it could be called that.

  It looked more like a makeshift planetarium. With stars painted along the ceiling against dark blue paint. Planet models and lights hanging from the ceiling. The area was covered in hanging metal beams and such, making me imagine éclair leaping from beam to beam as she beat down the creature. Only, a lot of the metal beams had odd indents, like something had hit it, but…

  Eh, it’s probably nothing.

  For the most part, the space was ruined. Destroyed. Which was good, apparently. éclair said that the temple was trying to connect with the stars. Which, sounded bad, but the location was poor, which was good. Apparently…

  There was a lot I didn’t quite catch, but in the end, I walked away with a few more bronze coins and another silver coin for the assist. Whilst éclair was given the gold coin due to doing the most damage.

  Coin in hand, Tanya gave it a once over, before flipping it over to Black.

  “Here Blackie, as an apology for earlier.” The lucky man nearly didn’t catch it, but the moment he did he seemed at a loss for words. Before he even recovered, éclair was already sauntering off. As I joined her, the both of us leaving, Black cried out a thanks. Which, éclair completely ignored.

  “That was rather nice of you.” I say.

  “Not really, not like I need it anyway.”

  “Really? I’m told gold coins have a lot of uses.”

  “That they do, but well, I’m satisfied as I am.”

  “Really? You don’t want to get any stronger?”

  “I’m as strong as I’ll get using gold coins.”

  “That’s a thing?”

  “Mm…” She nods sagely. “Gold coins have an upper limit for how strong they can make you. At which point you need to use a platinum. As far as I know, platinum coins don’t have a limit, but it’s a fixed increase with each use.”

  I nod, filing that away for later.

  “Anyway…” éclair said, “I’m guessing the cake didn’t survive?”

  I shook my head. “I tried, but…”

  “No worries. Mm, if you ever want training just head to the alley where we met.”

  “Yeah, I’ll do that. And thanks.”

  “No problem. Oh, and it is getting late, so I suggest you start heading home.” She said with a final wave.

  We ended up walking together for a bit, but eventually we separated. By the time I arrived back at my apartment the sun had already set. It was far too late for a bath, which meant I had to wash off in the restroom…

  It wasn’t pleasant. I ate what I could from my fridge, and I settled down. Today was crazy, and hopefully, tomorrow wouldn’t be as crazy. Though…

  As I stripped down, preparing to wash down, I pulled out the empty carton of cigarettes. However…

  It wasn’t empty. Inside, was a single, lone cigarette.

  I stared at it long and hard… Just how much weirder is my life going to get?