Instantly, all hell breaks loose. Norman sprints at Thatch to pull him back, as the young man slams his fist into the mayor one more time.

  The guard is less merciful. He leverages the gun at my friend, and pulls the trigger. It clicks. Nothing happens. It doesn’t fire, can’t fire.

  I draw my goblin axe and stab it through the policeman’s hand. He screams. The mayor yells at Thatch to step back, but I [Suppress] him, too. Inu uses her [Empathy] to project the effect onto her dad, and he staggers aside. Bay rushes to grapple Thatch, but Amelie’s threads wrap around her, pulling her back. Jess stands there, her body trying to move but her feet frozen to the floor by her own skill.

  Inu holds her own dad aside with will and by physically putting herself in between. She’s wearing the armor again, pushing him back. She can, because she's a higher level, because she’s stronger, and he doesn’t know that. But he’s angry, and punches her, landing a hit on her cheek. She takes it without complaint, but I can see her eyes growing wet.

  The mayor screams at Thatch, but it doesn’t matter. My friend [Rages].

  Of course, I sabotage the mayor. Of course, I pull his skills apart. As Thatch pummels him, I stab the needle into the guard, dispelling the effect of the mayor’s skill on him, for now. It means I don’t have any solidified mana to use on the mayor, but I don’t think I need it.

  All I do is pull apart the mayor’s skills. I know how they work, just enough that when [Suppression] weakens them, I can use that info to [Deconstruct] them.

  [Suppression 7 > 8]

  One after another, the commands rain in on Thatch, but fall apart. The mayor has more than two skills, because of his class. One to manipulate, one to make trades, and a third to inherit a part of the power of the people in his safe zone.

  But he’s not angry. He’s afraid. One after another, I dismantle the commands. He tries to bargain, but it falls on deaf ears. He borrows more power, more health, more lifeforce, and yet, Thatch’s fist falls relentlessly.

  Punch by punch, the mayor’s face turns bloody. His flailing limbs grow limp. His teeth are knocked in. Blood pools on the wooden floor.

  And then, Thatch gets up, looks at me, and the anger is gone. He tilts his head, smiling awkwardly. “Sorry, Snow,” he says. “I got my clothes bloody again.”

  Slowly, Norman stops struggling against Inu. He looks down at the mayor on the ground. “What?” he asks. “What did I… what just…”

  There’s a red welt on Inu’s face where he smacked her. But instead of me, it’s Jess who acts on it. The ice on her feet breaks, and her head whirls around on Norman. She takes two quick steps, grabbing his collar.

  “You fucking moron!” she screams in his face. “You absolute fucking idiot! How ridiculous can you be?! Dragging us in here was fine. I can forgive that. I can forgive getting manipulated. But no matter what, no matter what, how dare you. How dare you. Lay a hand on our daughter? Norman! Get yourself together!!”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  He flinches back, confused. Still slow. I solidify a tiny bit of mana, exploding it in his mouth to dispel the last vestige of the mayor’s influence. His eyes widen. “I- I’m-”

  “I don’t care, Norman!” Jess screams. She’s pushing him up against a wall now. “Fucking think. For five seconds in your life, try not to offload that job. You wanna be a leader only to throw yourself into servitude again. You absolute asskisser. I don’t give a shit if it worked in your day job. I don’t fucking care if it’s all you know.”

  No one moves to stop her. “This is how it is every. Single. Fucking. Time.” She shakes him with every word. “People in power. People like that. They look at people like you and see a friend. They look at people like me, and you know what they see, Norman? Meat. That’s all I am.”

  “Over and over I’ve told you,” she says. Tears in her eyes, just short of sobbing. “And you didn’t listen. Not to me. Not to Snow. Not to Inu or any of the others. Because you’re blind. So I’m going to tell you this just once: You need to change. Your perspective, who you trust. You need to stop being a coward and do your fucking job as a father.”

  With that she throws him aside, then turns to the bloodied boy. “You, Thatch.” She takes a long, deep breath. “Thank you. He deserved it. Snow,” she says, turning to me. “Thank you, too. For caring. I know you’re curious. I used [Dissect] on myself. As an analysis skill. It let me figure out something was weird, and that was enough.”

  Then, without waiting for an answer, she goes and hugs Inu tightly. “I’m so sorry,” she says, crying. “For failing you.”

  Inu tries to speak, but the words choke in her mouth.

  “For being quiet. For failing you. I’m a sorry excuse of a mom. This has been… so much, but it’s been no easier on you.” She snorts a sob, halfway to a laugh. “You’ve been getting hurt. And me? Me? I’ve been watching. Just walking along. Doing nothing. I’ve failed you.”

  Norman tries to say something. To scramble up from the floor, but I place Thatch’s hand on his mouth. He doesn’t get to talk right now. Just watch.

  The guard also tries to interrupt, but a swift application of Amelie’s threads sees him dragged out of the room and the door closes. Just us and the corpse. And a mother and her daughter sobbing in each others’ arms. It’s sad. But she was trying to do better.

  Either Norman learnt to do better, or he’d only get to spectate. An [Unassuming] presence in his daughter’s life. His damned choice.

  I take a deep breath. Bay moves to hug Thatch, too. The moment lives on for a couple more seconds, a minute or two, and then it’s over.

  Inu wriggles out of her mom’s hug. “It’s okay,” she says. “Thank you for apologizing.”

  Jess snorts out a laugh, face covered in tears. “I owed it to you.”

  “Yeah,” Inu says, shamelessly. “Yeah, you did.”

  - - -

  When we walk out of the building, the safe zone is in disarray. People are, unsurprisingly, less harmonious now, and less than thrilled at having been manipulated. Not that it mattered.

  “Yo,” Opal greets us outside, sword draped over their shoulder. Dar and Richard are with them, as well as Sylves. “Got it all sorted?” they ask.

  I nod. “Yeah. Dealt with.”

  “Cool,” Opal says, letting the silence hang for a second.

  Then, Sylves chimes in. “Soooo! We’ve seen what integration meant, right? Anyone wanna figure out what essence is all about?” she chirps, floating in the air.

  Inu snickers, then sniffles a little bit. “Yeah. I think I’d like that.”

  This time, no one tries to stop us from leaving the safe zone.

  is 40 Chapters ahead!!!