As the horde of Cruelties sprinted closer to Adah, their overwhelming numbers became even more apparent. A figure that might have blurred into one blob at a distance soon revealed itself to be two monsters at a closer range. With the pace they were making, Adah and her teammates would have hardly more than a minute to prepare.

  “The priority is to watch out for each other,” Adah said, trying to muster up some confidence for leadership. “Don’t let each other get surrounded. If they take out a few of those cows, we’re just going to have to accept that.”

  Even with this many Cruelties, the three of them could manage so long as they guarded each other’s backs. This variant of Cruelty didn’t just look like wolves, they hunted like them too. When on the ground and given enough time, they’d surround their prey and overwhelm by attacking from all angles. However, they lacked the airborne agility to do the same to a flying target.

  If Adah and the twins conserved their magic appropriately and avoided flying low to the ground, they could remain relatively safe. They just might need to give up some of the livestock to do so.

  “Sorry, Captain,” Ami suddenly called out, “but I think we have another top priority.”

  She pointed perpendicular to the approaching Cruelties, to the right beyond the grazing fields where the corn began to grow. Walking along the outer row of stalks was a young man in jeans and a blue baseball cap. He had been looking toward the milking parlor and down the perimeter of the cornfield as if searching for something, but froze in place once he noticed the magical girls hovering in the distance.

  “You think he works here?” Ami asked.

  “Summer help,” Emi suggested.

  He looked young enough to be in high school, so it wasn’t a bad guess. That might explain why he was still here, too. Everyone else at the farm had evacuated, but maybe a kid who’d been sent on some trivial errand or fetch quest had missed the message. Now that he was back at the main farmland, suddenly everyone had vanished. The way he froze up when he saw the girls suggested he’d pieced together why none of the other farmhands were around.

  “Change of plans,” Adah said. “Top priority is to keep any Cruelties away from the boy—if they get close, he doesn’t stand a chance.”

  If he’d showed up a bit earlier, they might have been able to help him reach a safe distance away or take cover out of danger, but the horde of wolves was almost upon them. They needed to initiate their counteroffensive now or they’d all be overwhelmed.

  “All the more reason to let them chow down on some beef,” Ami said.

  A mission that began with the goal of protecting cattle was quickly turning into one that used them as bait. The poor animals now sensed the impending threat and started congregating in clusters to better defend themselves. Unfortunately, the monsters they were up against today wouldn’t be deterred by the simple kicks and stomps of a cowherd.

  “Ami, focus on guarding Emi’s back and blind spots,” Adah ordered as the Cruelties came into range. “I’ll aim for groups of them while you two take out stragglers.”

  “I got you, Raindrop,” Ami assured her sister. “So go wild.”

  “Going wild,” her sister said, and immediately shot off towards a few wolves that had split off from the right wings of the crowd. Ami followed close behind with a beaming smile on her face.

  The monsters must have noticed the movement, as they began howling like their animal counterparts. Some from the center of the pack shifted closer to the isolated Cruelties that the twins were targeting. Adah mirrored their movement and set up in range of her [Nightwind Whip].

  By changing formation so suddenly, the monsters had unwittingly clumped themselves closer together. As soon as her spell finished charging, she unleashed an attack on the group, smashing into their ranks with an explosion of smoky magic. None of the wolves emerged from the dark cloud that lingered. To the right, Ami and Emi had also cleaned up three loose Cruelties.

  However, there was little time to celebrate one successful engagement. Most of the pack still remained and had advanced far enough to strike back with an attack of their own. Two wolves leaped into the air and picked up flight, aiming straight at Adah. Thankful more than ever to have two spells, she shot a [Sparkling Strike] at one, destroying it midair, and dodged the other with her superior mobility. It’d been the first time she’d used an upgraded [Sparkling Strike], but beyond noticing some extra speed, she didn’t have time to analyze the improvements over the lower level version of the spell.

  A moment later, she heard an echoing yelp from behind her. She turned around to find Emi had zoomed by and impaled the second wolf in the middle of its descent with the water spear of her [Crux Current]. She let her magic fade, and as the water spear vanished, the monster skewered on it fell towards the earth. Before it ever hit the ground, it dissipated into nonexistence.

  “That’s what we like to see, Raindrop!” Ami cheered. “A girl with style!”

  She flew past her sister in the direction of more stragglers, smacking Emi on the ass as she went. From the noise it made and Emi’s wincing face, it hurt as much as you’d imagine a high-speed smack would. Emi left hot on Ami’s trail, presumably plotting her own revenge “congratulations” for later.

  The two of them could zip through the air so fast it was often hard to keep track of them. Not only did they have a high top speed in flight, but they could switch direction and adjust their position instantly during hover as well. They were a pair of hummingbirds. Though Adah had double their experience flying, she had never been a match for them, even when they first started at the agency.

  She made a mental note to ask Izzy if there was any way to train her flying, then turned her attention back to the grazing field. The first of the Cruelties had breached the fence and was angling an attack on the cattle that had yet to join the rest of their herd. She couldn’t use her whip carelessly in this position without causing collateral damage, but she could pull the monsters’ attention elsewhere.

  She shot a [Sparkling Strike] that hit its mark clean on the nearest Cruelty. Just like that, the priority of the wolves shifted from jumping their prey to dealing with this new airborne nuisance. Adah, however, gave them no chance to respond. She immediately flew off to the rear of the pack that had yet to reach the fence, dropped low to the ground, and primed yet another whip attack. This close, she could target a spot for optimal area devastation.

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  In the same way they had reacted to the twins’ assault earlier, the Cruelties near the cattle ran over to assist their pack mates. Adah had put herself in a position to be nearly surrounded, but that was part of the plan as well. It was time to use the monsters’ wings against them. As a group of wolves moved in on her, Adah quickly ascended. The wolves jumped in pursuit and flapped their dragonfly wings in a futile attempt to keep pace. While she couldn’t move as fast as the twins, she could certainly out-fly these beasts.

  Soon reaching the apex of where their short bursts of flight could carry them, the Cruelties began to drop out of the sky. As they plummeted, they knocked into those below who had been late to the jump, and eventually even piled on top of those that remained on the ground. Soon enough, their tangled bodies formed a neat mound for Adah’s convenience.

  One [Nightwind Whip] was enough to clear out the whole group. She couldn’t help but smile at a strategy well executed. Ami and Emi regrouped with her after noticing all the commotion.

  “Everyone’s showing off today except for me,” Ami said in a tone that was only half joking.

  Surveying the scene, they seemed to have made some real progress thinning the numbers of their enemies. All that remained now was a secondary cluster of ten or so that had set their sights on Adah, a couple of wolves tearing apart an unfortunate cow that fell early in the fight, and—

  “That guy!”

  Emi’s mouth had barely formed the words before she darted past Adah in the direction of the lone farmhand. She created a gap of fifty or so feet before her sister could react to what happened. Ami chased after her, screaming something that Adah couldn’t quite make out. Both twins cast their spells as fast as they could mid-flight, leaving behind water particles that twinkled faintly like early evening stars. Ahead of both girls, a wolf that had slipped past them sprinted straight for the bystander.

  With her teammates’ focus shifting solely to the isolated Cruelty, Adah moved to position herself between them and the remaining pack of monsters. The wolves that were left had all learned their lesson from seeing the fate of those she’d already killed. They fanned out into a wide formation with plenty of space between each of them. Those on the flanks crept farther outwards, keeping a cautious eye on Adah as they attempted to encircle the ground directly below her.

  “You better not drop me out of the sky this time,” she warned Izzy through their magical communication.

  If her mascot gave a response, she didn’t hear it. A different sound flooded her mind.

  Ami shrieked her sister’s name.

  Adah’s head snapped in their direction. What she could see was partly a blur and, if time hadn’t slowed this moment to a standstill, would mean nothing to her eyes. But as the scene came into focus, as her mind processed the tableau, she felt an ice cold hand grip her throat.

  Emi’s spear had pierced clean through the Cruelty attacking the boy. Given the angle of her body, she must have swooped in and stabbed the monster like a bird snatching fish out of water. Ami wasn’t far behind her, having closed the distance between them considerably, but she was far enough. Far enough for her shield to be useless.

  A second Cruelty moved in from behind Emi, from an angle she must have been blind to in her singular focus. As she neared the first wolf, it had leaped up and flew to intercept her from the side. Now its jaw was cranked wide open, as if unhinged entirely, and inched ever closer to Emi’s shoulder in this frozen moment of time. Even though Adah knew it to be impossible, the monster’s mouth seemed to grow and grow. The chasm of its throat expanded, ever more empty, ever more endless. The beast’s fangs, black as Adah’s own magic, stretched into daggers.

  Then, all at once, it happened.

  The mouth of the void sunk into Emi’s flesh.

  “Grrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!”

  An inhuman yell clawed its way out of Emi’s throat one moment, and she slammed into the dirt the next. Her body skidded another ten feet across the ground, carried by the momentum of her flight. The monster kept its jaw clamped shut on her shoulder the whole way.

  Flying in even faster than her sister, Ami thrust out her shield and smashed into the Cruelty. The force of impact finally broke its grip on Emi’s body and launched it a great distance away. Moon, Emi’s mascot, appeared once more and immediately tended to her wound with magic.

  Adah also moved to close the distance between herself and the twins, rushing to establish a new defensive posture in front of Emi. The fallen girl’s screams continued as her wound tortured her, each one amplified louder than the last in Adah’s mind.

  All it took was one injury, one fang piercing your flesh, and a Cruelty could destroy you. That reality was drilled into every magical girl during their training.

  Adah tried not to think about it.

  She didn’t have much time to think, anyway. Danger was increasing by the second.

  The Cruelties that had once encircled her now had a better target. They broke their formation at the same time Adah started to fly in Emi’s direction. Their plan was obvious—now that the crucial first blow had been landed and their prey was grounded, Emi was a jackpot just waiting to be collected. Adah fired off her [Sparkling Strike] as she flew, but she’d be lucky to pick off even one of the monsters at this speed.

  Meanwhile, Ami had scrambled to prepare any sort of defense against the incoming wolves. She dragged her sister closer to the edge of the cornfield, hoping the crop would provide at least some barrier to protect their backs. Crouching over Emi, she conjured the largest shield her [Aspis Meniscus] could provide, which only covered half her body given the limitations of the low-level spell. Still, she held it out in the direction of the Cruelties and watched their approach intently, spying for the most dangerous angle of their attack.

  Adah noticed the corn rustling behind the twins. The upright figure causing the disturbance could only be the farmhand who’d been left behind. At least he had enough instincts to try and hide. Though, if Adah failed to wipe out the rest of the Cruelties, they’d hunt him down all the same.

  By the time Adah reached the twins, the Cruelties had already cornered them, essentially pinning them against the outer edge of the cornfields. If Emi wasn’t in such pain they might have been able to escape through the corn themselves, or even fly upwards fast enough to avoid the monsters, but moving was out of the question in her current state. Sensing that vulnerability, the wolves didn’t hesitate to step closer.

  Ami aimed her shield back and forth across the arc of monsters. Every step forward brought them that much closer to a lunging distance from which they could reach the twins. Once close enough, they’d surge in from all directions. No matter how strong Ami’s shield was, it would be useless against such an attack.

  The wolves moved closer. And closer.

  The closer they got, the tighter their formation became. They were nearly hip-to-hip at this point—a dozen or so monsters, like was originally predicted. Packed together like that, Adah could actually take them all out with just one [Nightwind Whip]. The problem was—

  “Do it!” Ami yelled to her, seemingly reading her mind.

  “But you two—”

  “Shut up and do it! Hit the shield. No matter what happens, I won’t let Emi take another scratch!”

  There was no way. Her whip was magnitudes stronger than Ami’s shield, nevermind the amount of magic she had her disposal compared to Ami. Attacking anywhere near the twins was dangerous, attacking them directly was insanity.

  And yet, she lifted a hand to the sky and called upon her [Nightwind Whip]. She had no other choice. Looking down on the scene from above, the outcome of letting the Cruelties attack was clear. They would easily sneak past Ami’s defense, and then it would be too late to do anything for either of them.

  The crops below swayed wildly as the wind collected in the palm of Adah’s hand. Despite the impulses that surged through her as she eyed her target—the body of her own teammate—she couldn’t allow herself to hold back. Attacking with less than her full strength would be the worst decision of all. This final strike had to be absolute.

  As the spell’s charge completed, the monstrosities below froze in place. Their ears perked up and some turned their heads to look upwards, no longer distracted by the promise of an easy kill. With that, time was up.

  Adah turned her hips, threw her whole body forward, and swung a great, shadowy lash down at Ami’s shield. The smoky trail left by the whip was larger and denser than ever before, arcing down from the heavens themselves, as if she’d ripped the intestines out of an angel above. The attack exploded against Ami’s shield, instantly obscuring the twins and all of the Cruelties in a cloud of black.

  All that was left was smoke.