Ryan dialed [Spatial Cognition] back into the range he knew would detect flies and similar sized objects. There was nothing. He couldn’t sense a single bug within his range. Brady’s miniature static hurricane acted like a giant bug zapper enacting an insect purge on a grand scale.

By the time they entered the warehouse district, Ryan could no longer see the edge of the dust storm and he guessed that it had already engulfed the entire district. The streets were bustling, the residents trying to prepare for the morning amidst the swirling dust and static, not yet having made the connection between the unnatural dust storm and Guild activity.

Brady called a halt between two tall warehouses in an area Ryan recognized as close to the gang’s warehouse. The smell of the river and musty wood permeated the air. Brady looked up at the sky and Ryan followed his gaze, trying to figure out what he was looking for, when he saw a plain white mask under a hooded cloak peeking out over the edge of the roof.

Joy leapt from the tall warehouse roof and seamlessly shifted into his eagle form. He dropped toward the ground, flapping his wings only when he closed in on the surface of the street near Brady, and shifted back. He stepped onto the street as casually as stepping off the final step of a set of stairs.

Joy set his hand on Brady’s shoulder, who tensed up and braced like he experienced a sudden storm trying to blow him away. It was over quickly. Brady took a deep breath and a quick step back. He nodded at Joy and patted him on the shoulder.

Ryan stared at Joy, surprised, and surprised at his own surprise. Of course Joy could communicate somehow. The man apparently didn’t speak, but he knew magic. Why wouldn’t he still be able to talk in a different way using his abilities.

“There hasn’t been any movement since Joy started watching, which could mean a few things. Option one; they’re complete idiots and didn’t run away immediately. Option two; they have someone in there who they think is going to be able to protect them. Option three; they actually did the smart thing and booked it out of there and dropped everything. I’m taking bets, any takers? Personally, my money is on option one. It would give me something to do anyway. I could use some exercise.”

Lancer and Kara gave each other sardonic looks and shook their heads. Joy jumped around and held up two fingers and then did a little shadow boxing.

“It’s obviously the third. They’re not dumb. At least I hope people aren’t that dumb. I’d lose faith in humanity otherwise,” Lancer said.

Ryan snorted and said, “I’m with Lancer. I think they were content to stay out of sight, but as soon as they were discovered they probably ran. They were willing to kill us when they thought they could get away with it though.”

“Finally, another sensible person. It was getting lonely with just me and Kara.” Lancer jerked his chin at Brady and Joy, “Trying to deal with these two takes a lot of energy.”

“Ok ok. As much as I love the attention, let’s get to it. Joy showed me a few mundane guards at the entrance, but he couldn’t see anything on the inside. We’re going to assume there are probably more guards in there. Lancer will be the opener. He’ll zip up to the entrance and give them a little shock, and the rest of us will pile in after. Ryan you’ve got some sweet extrasensory mojo going on, so you’re going in right after Kara to sweep the place. Me and Joy will take our sweet time and follow after and look good doing it,” Brady said. “Don’t go easy on anybody in there. Put them down hard and we’ll sort them out later.”

It wasn’t the best plan that Ryan had ever heard, but what did he know? Despite Brady’s implied wishes, Ryan expected that he didn’t foresee any real action inside. Ryan nodded his head anyway. He would just go with the flow and be careful.

Lancer and Kara set off at a ground eating pace and Ryan followed closely behind. They reached a corner and Lancer stopped to peek around it. Ryan craned his neck and looked over Lancer’s shoulder, trying not to crowd Kara. Just like Joy said, there were three lightly armed guards slouched against the wall near the front entrance. Calling them guards was generous; they were more like lightly armed thugs pretending to be guards.

Ryan staggered back as Lancer exploded with arcing bolts of intense blue lightning. Ryan jumped back further, looking for an attack, but didn’t see the source of the lightning. Lancer didn’t react like he expected, so he took a second to look more closely, and sure enough, Lancer was the source. Snaking tendrils of blue electricity branched out and struck the ground around the guards in front of the warehouse.

The panicked guards fumbled weapons into their hands and brandished them, looking toward the origin of the twisting tendrils of electricity, but it was too late. Lancer disintegrated into a cloud of electricity and a bright pulse shot down one of the tendrils toward the guards. The pulse hit the other end and Lancer reintegrated with a flash and sizzle

Lancer’s exit flash stunned the guards. They stumbled around holding their heads, unable to focus on Lancer in their midst. Ryan realized his mouth was hanging open as Kara shot out into the open. Ryan belatedly followed.

As they moved forward, Lancer held out a fist and an electric blue shaft shot out of both ends, forming a long, writhing, electric spear. Long enough to be a lance.

Oh. Lancer. Well, that solved that mystery.

Ryan dashed into the front entrance after Kara looking for threats, [Spatial Cognition] at full power, sweeping the dark nooks and crannies for hidden enemies. From behind he heard an intense buzz and sharp crack, like the shock from a broken powerline transformer, and assumed Lancer had taken out the men out front.

Through [Spatial Cognition], Ryan sensed people milling about in the center of the warehouse. As he approached he realized they were dirty, worn workers, staring toward the commotion. When they realized there was an attack, first one, then more dropped to the ground and covered their heads, trying to appear as nonthreatening as possible.

He sorted them out in his mind as [Spatial Cognition] fed him information and he noticed one person off to the side who had not only not dropped to the floor, but decided to charge forward.

Ryan could see where the man’s path would intercept the edge of the range of [Warp Step]. He stepped through the twisty space of his ability at just the right moment, already swinging his weapon, and cracked the butt of his spear over the man’s head hard enough to make the solid wood bend and creak in protest.

The thug dropped to the floor like a puppet with cut strings. Ryan stepped over the man’s limp form and continued to scan. He moved away from the cowering workers, unwilling to risk an ambush from someone posing as a worker, and pushed toward the rear of the warehouse.

A commotion from the opposite side of the warehouse caught Ryan’s attention. He scanned the area looking for Kara and found her holding a limp body in the air one handed, gripped by his neck. She pivoted and tossed the body aside effortlessly, like she’d finished examining a mildly interesting art piece, and continued her advance.

Something slashed into the range of [Spatial Cognition] and shot past Ryan’s shoulder, almost faster than he could react to it. He didn’t see anything, but could sense it with his ability. It appeared that Brady had been correct; there was someone with abilities that hadn’t run off.

Instead of giving whoever it was another clear shot at him, Ryan rushed forward with another [Warp Step] and scanned the area again. He spotted a figure inside the range of his senses just as another bolt of whatever it was shot at Ryan. Surprised, Ryan reflexively brought his hand up and activated his new ability and locked the space around his hand in place.

The invisible bolt of force struck his hand and Ryan felt an intense battle take place, a war of opposing abilities that transmitted energy into Ryan’s arm, numbing it slightly. Whatever it meant, it happened in an instant, and the bolt of force deflected away from Ryan’s hand.

His Core burning from the strain of using the ability, Ryan let the power die and dashed forward, shaking the feeling back into his numb hand. Instead of taking a direct path, Ryan varied his approach by using a zig-zag pattern to avoid giving the unknown person easy shots, but it was clear through [Spatial Cognition] that the man could easily track him regardless.

Ryan dashed forward again, waiting for another bolt of invisible force to shoot out, but instead his senses felt a giant churning ball of fury explode from the thug, shredding everything in its path, including crates, furniture, and cowering workers. Shrapnel and body parts scattered across the floor as the invisible sphere raced through the warehouse.

Stopping dead in his tracks, Ryan dropped his spear, threw both hands forward, and summoned [Warp Wall]. He braced himself with a wide stance as the spinning ball of death struck his wall. Ryan struggled to maintain traction as he was forcefully pushed back.

Ryan screamed in pain as power and momentum bled from the spinning death ball through the wall into his arms and shoulders. Succumbing to the sphere wasn’t an option. He remembered the momentum shifting shunting effect of the power and tilted the wall off center from the sphere. His feet immediately stopped sliding and the sphere's path bent away from the wall and shot off into the darkness toward the warehouse wall.

He didn’t waste time picking up his spear, instead sprinting forward right into another [Warp Step]. Ryan emerged from the tunnel through space within spitting distance of the man, but before he could approach, [Spatial Cognition] warned him of another incoming threat, a man wielding a sword. Without taking his eyes off the ability user, he used his senses to predict the path of the sword, reached back, and intercepted the blade with his space locking ability.

The sword came to a dead stop. All of the momentum in the swordsman’s body continued to push him forward and he ran face first into Ryan’s outstretched hand. Stunned, the man stumbled backward and fell to his butt, and Ryan took the opportunity to rush toward the Awakened man slinging death spheres.

The man in question slung another force blade. Ryan stopped and intercepted the blade with another locked hand, but this time the battle of abilities within his hand escalated. The man’s blade didn’t deflect or dissipate, but bored into Ryan’s space, the energy cracking the bonds holding his ability together. Abruptly it broke through and blazed a trail of agony through Ryan’s hand and up his arm, leaving a bloody furrow in it’s wake.

All of the residual force in the path of the blade blasted Ryan into a tumble that carried him a few meters until he stopped in a bleeding heap. He examined his hand, the pain making it difficult to concentrate. His power must have diluted the energy of the enemy’s ability because, while there was a sizable gash through his hand, it wasn’t a mangled mess like he expected. The gouge up his arm didn’t warrant his immediate attention.

Ryan felt the enemy’s aura flare. He got to his feet and faced his opponent just in time for [Spatial Cognition] to pick up another spherical death vortex launched in his direction. He took a step and used [Warp Step] to bypass it, his elbow already cocked. Cartilage crunched under his elbow as Ryan emerged from his spatial tunnel and he threw all of his remaining momentum into throwing the man back.

The man didn’t immediately go down so Ryan grabbed him by the neck, swept his legs out from under him, and slammed him to the ground. Ryan sat on the struggling man’s chest and punched him with his good hand until he stopped moving, blood and viscera from the man’s devastated face splattering across the warehouse floor.

Ryan struggled for air as the adrenaline in his system left him shaking. He looked at his blood covered hands, disgusted with himself, but not feeling any remorse. Those willing to kill defenseless people deserved what they got, even if those people were complicit.

Something finally clicked in his head, something that he knew intellectually, but didn’t understand. People had told him, and he’d even witnessed it a few times, but it hadn’t sunk in. This world, his home of two years, was inundated with brutality.

He’d seen a few battles, but it had seemed like the cost of attendance, to see a few bad things and then move on with his life, living in his own independent bubble. Even his near death experience with the shadow wolves hadn’t woken him up.

After this battle though, and seeing the careless exploitation and disregard for life, it finally hit him. Brutality was the name of the game, even for those trying to do the right thing. If he wanted to achieve his own goals, he would have to embrace the savagery, the violence, the death.

His gorge rose, but he steeled himself and pushed the contents of his stomach back where it belonged. It was time to accept the inevitable. Stagnate and fade into obscurity with his fragile morality untouched, or accept the reality and fight to achieve his desires. The decision was surprisingly easy. From now on he’d have to work harder. Work to toughen...

A hard slap landed on Ryan’s head. He jerked around to see Kara looking down at him with a sardonic grin.

“You think this is a good time to relax? If I were one of these goons, now would be the perfect time to off you, right as you sat here feeling confident.” She pointed to the swordsman that Ryan had fought briefly, then completely forgotten about. He was a bloody splatter on the floor a few meters away; not much remained that was recognizable. “I’ve already cleared this area so calm down.”

Sitting on an unconscious guy he’d just savaged wasn’t wasn’t the best look. There wasn’t any obvious sign of life so he checked the man’s throat for a pulse. It was faint, but it was there. Not knowing exactly how to feel, Ryan pushed the thought aside, got to his feet, and walked around to let the adrenaline run its course.

[Spatial Cognition] still ran at full power and when he paced up to the back wall of the warehouse Ryan felt empty space on the other side. He looked along the length of the wall and spotted a door which, while not hidden, blended into the wall seamlessly.

Ryan walked up to the door and found the latch. The latch came up easily, but the door was stuck shut and he only had one good hand. Bending closer in the darkness, Ryan lifted the latch and spotted a keyhole behind it. Brute force it was then, except Ryan didn’t have that kind of strength in a single arm.

“Kara, you strong enough to pull a door open?” Ryan asked.

Kara walked over, but stopped in front of Ryan when she spotted his injured hand and arm. Making an unintelligible noise in her throat, she dug around in a pocket and came out with a coin sized, thin cookie. Ryan recognized it as something similar to the healing biscuit he’d been given the other day.

“This is a weak one, so don’t mess around too much with that hand. It will help close the wounds, but it isn’t going to heal it up fully.”

Ryan nodded, grateful, and popped the thin disk into his mouth. A familiar itch settled into his arm and hand, subdued compared to the effect from the healer in the village and the other biscuit he had eaten. There was no overwhelming urge to dig in and scratch. He sighed in relief when it was over.

Kara had walked over to examine the door. She tried the latch with the same results Ryan had, and then promptly ripped the whole mechanism right out of the wood and tossed it aside.

Ryan’s eyes shot wide, shocked at the ease with which Kara shredded the remaining mechanism with her bare hand and wrenched the door open the rest of the way. She walked into the darkness and Ryan followed.

His senses immediately found the bodies stacked in the back of the room in the darkness and his heart dropped, tempered by his newfound callousness. Piled closely together were around 30 unmoving people bound hand and foot. Kara stopped in front of them and let out a sigh.

“Well, so much for a rescue mission,” Kara said. Her voice was almost flat, dispassionate. “Looks like they’ve been goners for a while though, not much we could have done even if we set out right away.”

Ryan felt something through [Spatial Cognition], but it was faint. There was something there, he just couldn’t nail it down, and his heart leapt in his chest as he realized what he was sensing. He played with the sensitivity a little until he hit the perfect setting.

“They’re still alive. I can barely feel their chests rising and falling; they’re still breathing.”

“Well hell, I guess there is a happy ending after all.”

Kara walked around a bit, examining the room. Ryan followed suit. There wasn’t anything particularly interesting about the room. It was just an average storage room; dusty, dark, and damp. He scuffed his boot and met unexpected resistance, and looked down to examine the floor closely.

“Hey Kara, take a look at this. There are inscriptions etched into the floor,” Ryan said.

Kara approached, then bent down to examine the inscriptions more closely. She followed them around until they completed a circle, and Ryan realized that there were layers of inscriptions in concentric circles.

“Yup, Rune Script. And I think I’ve figured out why our friends here are still alive. They’re being farmed for their vitality.”