“You lost the element of surprise,” Uman said, steepling his fingers under his chin and glancing at the rest of us. “Whatever ambush they had planned earlier, it will be far more deadly now.”

We were in Uman’s office in the Crucible again, seated around his desk. I couldn’t help but feel that I was sitting uncomfortably close to Abelino in the small office.

Fredrick sat next to Uman. The petri dish of blood in front of him still held faint traces of ambient mana around it. The only remaining clone—or clones—were in Fayette City.

“My clones understand me very well,” Abelino said, glancing between Uman and myself. “Anything I think of, they may be prepared for. What tricks do you have?”

I wracked my brain. I had an Invisibility Cloak, and I could make explosives.

Samantha asked me.

It took me a while to even remember when I had picked it up. I had claimed it from the pile of loot when Lord Ignatius died.

I looked at the blueprint for the first time.

Personal Mana Shield Rune Pattern Blueprint (E-rank): Necessary to create a Personal Mana Shield Amulet (E-rank). When complete, forms a Mana Barrier around your body that blocks incoming physical, mana-based, and spiritual attacks.

I felt a moment of loss. If I had advocated for myself more after Lord Ignatius’ death, I would have access to dozens of other treasures of the same level as this one.

I had been so busy, preoccupied, and unstable every day, since Lord Ignatius’ death and my own freedom. I needed to be more focused from now on. If that meant using Samantha, then so be it. I didn’t need to worry about her making changes in my head—thanks to my skill, Don’t Mind Me.

For the last few days, Samantha had showed that she was willing to work within the parameters that I set for her. I was the one who was being difficult.

What are you suggesting?

“I have a plan,” I said. It felt almost disrespectful, stealing credit for Samantha’s plans. At least, it would feel disrespectful until this plan backfired on all the other participants and I ended up ahead. At least with this plan, it was clear that I was risking far less than Abelino. But then again, this was Abelino’s fight, not mine.

I took out one of the Mana Shield Amulets that I had confiscated from the Imperial Scouts and tossed it onto the table, between Uman and Abelino.

“What is the going rate for these things in the Merchant’s Faction stores?” I asked.

“It’s classified as a high-demand good,” Uman said. “As a result, they are pulled off the shelves and sold at auctions to the highest bidder in limited quantities. If you can get one for 750,000 coins, you’re in luck.”

I turned to Abelino. “I have the blueprint to make these. If you give me 750,000 coins each, I can make you 24 of these. I recommend you travel to a nearby town, run to Fayette City, overload the city’s shield so it falters for a second, and then you and your clones can rush in. The Mana Shield Amulets will block at least one E-rank Spiritual attack, possibly more, and they will prevent you from being mind-controlled. And if you’re worried about taking a loss, any Amulets you don’t use, I will buy back from you at the same price.

Abelino frowned. “And what will you be doing?”

“I will sneak in with you into the city. But after my recent near-death experience, I will not be joining you in the front lines.” The least I could do was have the decency to be honest about it.

Abelino nodded. “How long do you need to make the amulets?”

“We should attack tomorrow morning,” I said. “It would be too suspicious for us to teleport to a town near Fayette City in the middle of the night. And I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in far too long.

“That is too long,” Abelino said. “The longer they have, the more the clones will tell the Armed Forces. I will attack them now.”

Abelino glanced at Uman. “Take me to the Merchant’s Faction Store. I will buy these Amulets there, and then we will go.”

With Uman’s help, we soon settled on a convoluted path to approach Fayette City.

Teleportation between Daybreak and the Armed Forces was heavily watched, so we first teleported to a border town in Rebirth City’s Region. From that town in southern Missouri, we jogged a few miles and swam across the Mississippi River, entering Kentucky. Kentucky was in the same Region as Fayette City, so we found a small town in Kentucky, and teleported to the town nearest to Fayette City.

Then, we jogged in the dark through monster-infested territories.

Initially, I had been concerned about this part of our plan. Running through the wilderness during a monster wave sounded like a distinctly bad idea. But Abelino would release his aura at various intervals, and all the smaller critters would run away in fear. Most of the braver and more powerful monsters were already attacking nearby towns and cities, so we were mostly uninterrupted as we ran towards Fayette City.

How can I learn to control my aura? I asked Samantha as Abelino and I ran in silence. I had seen several times how useful it could be, but I still had no idea how to do it.

Samantha replied.

It was probably around midnight when Abelino and I reached the periphery of the monster hordes that were attacking Fayette City.

As far as I could tell, there was no Region Lord attacking the city at the moment. Instead, massive alligators surrounded the city on the ground, some reaching up to 30 feet long and six feet tall. The alligators would ram themselves against the city’s wall every once in a while, or drive their tails like spikes into the Mana Shield.

Birds that looked like herons flew in the sky, with long legs and curving necks that could turn the birds’ pointed beaks in a hundred and eighty degree turn faster than I could blink.

Fayette City, like many other cities, was built nearby a larger, Old-World city. There were plenty of abandoned buildings we could hide in, and thanks to Abelino’s aura, none of the nearby monsters dared to fight us.

We broke into a small, 2 story house that was just on the outskirts of the monster horde. Then, Abelino finally split into his clones.

And this time, it looked like he wasn’t holding back.

A minute later, I couldn’t help but tremble at the 33 Abelinos in front of me. Among the various Abelinos, I could identify three main types: the archers, the heavily armored clones wielding a shield and axe, and swordsmen.

There was also one Abelino swordsman who seemed to be either my bodyguard or my babysitter, and I couldn’t tell which it was. Either Abelino didn’t trust me, or he was here to protect me. I shrugged. I had told Abelino that I would be under an Invisibility Cloak for most of the battle. Before beginning our raid, Samantha had insisted that I get my Invisibility Cloak back from Justin. Abelino hadn’t been happy to hear that I would be hiding for most of the battle.

We left the house silently, in two groups, and I couldn’t help but wonder what I had gotten myself into.

We were going to breach a city’s Mana Shield from the outside. Normally, if you attack the sky, or underground, where there is no physical defense, then breaching the mana shield would mean that the shield would only be down for a very brief time. Long enough for a few spirits to fly through in the case of Daybreak City, or long enough for a few Herons to fly through in this case.

But Abelino had decided that we would directly knock two holes in the wall, one on the north and one on the south side of the city. He seemed confident he could do it, and it would be an impressive display of power in and of itself.

But breaking a hole in the wall meant destroying the runes that made up the Mana Shield. The Mana Shield wouldn’t be able to operate perfectly unless the wall was repaired, and I didn’t know how long that would take. It was possible that Abelino’s actions would lead to Fayette City being overrun by monsters. It made me wonder if Dawnbreaker knew something that I did not. Or was she just this ruthless, willing to let a city fall in exchange for weakening the Mentalist Cooperative’s hold on North America?

Or, maybe she trusted me to stop Abelino from doing something that would recklessly endanger other people. I tried suggesting other methods—we could tunnel under the wall before targeting the mana shield, or we could try to climb the walls from the outside and pierce the mana shield in the air—but Abelino refused.

The denser the monsters grew around us, the less of an effect Abelino’s aura had. We slew the alligators around us easily, as silently as we could. We had agreed that all the Abelinos would slow down to my pace, since my Agility was incredibly low when it wasn’t being boosted by my mana.

It didn’t take long before we were close enough to be spotted by the guards on the city’s battlements.

That was when we sprinted. I added just enough mana into Agility to trail behind the Abelinos in my group.

I could hear some shouts of alarm from the battlements, and an arrow or two even whizzed towards where we had been just moments ago.

We leapt over the massive alligators, easily reaching the wall before any attacks could land on us.

“NOW!” The Abelino clone next to me shouted through his Communication Amulet, and I felt the earth tremble around me.

It was clearly a skill that Abelino used. To be more precise, a skill that many Abelinos used simultaneously.

Half of the Abelinos in front of me focusing on dodging or blocking the arrows and spells that flew towards us.

The other half attacked.

The swordsmen stabbed the air with their swords. The clones with axes swung, full force, at the same time.

None of the Abelino clones were close enough to actually touch the wall with their weapon.

But as the various attacks finished, it was almost as if the attacks in front of me merged into one blinding strike, combining the force of each strike into a bolt of energy that blazed towards the wall.

The strike blew a hole 4 feet in diameter in the wall with an earsplitting crack, and the energy bolt continued onwards, up into the sky like a reverse shooting star.

The sixteen Abelinos in front of me quickly climbed through the hole they had made, and I followed suit under my Invisibility Cloak, finally entering Fayette City.