Dimas limpingly runs away from the epicenter of Selica’s spell. That damn blasted girl! To think that she would do such a reckless move and deny him of achieving his dream. He was so close, the excavation tunnel is about a few feet away from breaking through the proverbial finish line.

He could already feel his victory, taste it even. But it only took one lousy brat to make it all crumble down.

Still, though his frustrations keep his mind clouded with fury and hate right now, there’s a part of him that is still laughing and impressed at what Selica did. He knew deep down that the girl was not aiming for the same goals as his, and if he were in her position, he could only dream of having the courage to pull off such a suicidal feat.

He clutches his chest, finally bleeding like a normally pierced heart should. He guesses that without medication his body will give out in a few minutes tops. With him being both fatally wounded and soaked in Psy Rain makes his death an inevitability.

If only he didn’t have a last resort of his own as well.

Hidden deep within his pockets is a health potion which he has been saving just for this very moment. Its an expensive potion which cost him a fortune, around three houses worth, but its potency makes it that of a greater variant, and it could even heal wounds like his chest in mere moments.

All he has to do is drink this potion and hide in one of these ramshackle excuses of a building and bide his time while his body and mana recovers. Dimas assumes that there might be some caches of forgotten goods in some of these buildings left behind by their already-dead owners which he could help himself with in his upcoming counterattack.

He slowly brings out the potion in his pocket. The bottle is very rotund, with its lower base being almost the same size as his entire hand. The liquid inside is viscous red, almost like blood. Dimas didn’t want to spill any of it so he gently opened its lid and carefully placed its head in its mouth.

His plan is perfect. Soon, he’ll get his chance for revenge against Selica and enter the city with the fanfare he deserves.

‘BANG’

The sound of gunfire eerily pierces through the storm. Dimas ear perks from the abrupt noise, his eyes skipping around as he looks from where that sound came from.

“What? Where?” His mind races to find the sources, and while he does he suddenly feels something dripping from his forehead. Something thicker than the standard rain drops. It’s viscous red. Damn gunfire made him spill his drink, but when tried to wipe it off the liquid continued to pour.

Dimas tried to find the source of the liquid on his head, and upon inspection he felt a caving hole pierced through his head.

“What? What is-.” Before he could finish the sentence his body splashes down on the ground and has begun to soak it with his blood. His death was brief, it only took him a few moments before he finally succumbed to his end.

He did however succeed in finding the source of the gunshot. In his last throes of vision he saw a bunch of figures perched on top of a building looking at him. He didn’t knew who they were, and it didn’t matter. None of it matters anymore.

Because now his race for this test is finally over.

Gallian begins her quest in tracing the origin of the gunshot. She was sure it was beyond the canopy of buildings covering their cave, but beyond that she wasn’t sure in the particulars of its location. Based on the sound alone she’s guessing that it’s close. That’s why once she has crossed the buildings, she immediately hid herself in the alley’s shadows.

With both of her arms functioning, and a full assortment of Selica’s spells, Gallian is feeling confident with this solo mission of hers. It was strange at first, she wasn’t expecting to get Selica’s entire arsenal of spells in one Pact Exchange. But thinking back, maybe Selica’s “Spell” is less about an individual spell or incantation but rather a collective set based on her books.

From what Gallian recalls, Selica carries a notebook very close to her which carries all the essential spells she needs for everyday life. So maybe that notebook is actually what Selica’s spell is and she was able to copy that specifically instead.

While hiding Gallian internalizes the new spell that she has recently received. It felt like she was flipping over pages of books while she looked at the spells she had just acquired. ”They’re all basic spells.” She comments as she browses through Selica’s catalog. “But the way Selica uses them are really creative.” Most of the spells in Selica’s book have a commonality of them having low mana usage and very easy to produce. The only glaring exception for that is the “Psy Shield” spell which she wrote in her notebook after the test began.

Gallian smiles. She knew Selica is a book nerd, and a bit of a genius. But seeing her spellbook in full display now really emphasizes how creative her new friend is.

“New friend, huh.” Gallian mind reflects on that notion of a friend as she drifts to her past. She has never been one without friends alongside her, especially during her roughneck days in the streets of Dangal. Her and her best friend Aliotte were the queens of the streets back in the day, they were like a roguish duo who caused both trouble and happiness for everyone in the Dangal ports.

But time soon passed, and they had to face reality. The bittersweet sting of Gallian and Aliotte’s moment of departure still hurts her deeply, but they both had to move on with their lives.

Gallian shakes her head, bringing her back to reality. “Now’s not the time to reminisce, Galli.” She whispers to herself. Now’s definitely not the time to think about sour memories. She slowly creeps out of the shadow until she reaches a building at the edge of the open road. She peers over the edge to see if there’s anyone on the street.

It didn’t take long for Gallian to see a body still twitching on the ground in the open road, the blood still freshly soaking the damp stony ground. Due to the rain, it’s hard to trace the trajectory of the shot, but she’s sure that it came from one of the buildings’ rooftops.

“A nest, huh.” Are they hunting them like animals now? They don’t even have the audacity to fight us head on, and now they’re just shooting us from a distance? Gallian’s blood boils as these realizations slowly creep into her mind. At this time, Gallian has not fully exposed her head out of the edge from the building she’s hiding in. She’s still a few inches away from truly reaching the alley’s corner.

She knows its dangerous to peek at the corner, but she needs to know the faces of the ones who did this horrible murder. And with Selica’s spells, she’s sure to be able to get out as soon as she’s spotted.

But before Gallian fully exposes herself, a pair of hands immediately grabs her by the mouth and chest and pulls her back. She is used to being pulled like this back home, so she instinctively tries to push away, but the grip this time is very firm and tight, unlike the one’s she’s used to escaping from.

“Shh!” Gallian looks back and sees a familiar soaked blonde hair with a pair of squinted eyes staring down at her. It’s Ashlin. “Nice of you to leave me behind, idiot.” She slowly release her grip after Gallian finally sees her face.

“And what were you planning to do? Get yourself killed by exposing yourself in the open road, isn’t a broken arm bad-” Ashlin then notices that Gallian’s arm is finally healed, and she’s under a “Psy Shield”. “Who did that? What happened? Isn’t that Selica’s shield? Did you find her?”

“Very long story, princess.” Gallian’s answers in hush tones, reminding Ashlin to tone down her voice as well. “But long story short, yes I found Selica, and there’s a group of us there that is finally making a stand in all of these.”

“A stand? How?” Ashlin’s confused.

Gallian nudged her head towards the direction of the cave. “Remember that cave plan we were thinking about earlier? Yeah, it looks like we’re not the first ones who thought about it. Selica found an excavation hole digging straight into the core of the hill itself, and right now we’re planning to make our last stand there.” Ashlin tries to process everything Gallian said to her. “Wait, wait. Last stand? Isn’t that where the cry for help came from?” Ashlin pointed at where Gallian is pointed at.

“Yes, it was Selica’s.” Gallian tells her. “She was the one who made that plea for help.”

“I knew it!” Suddenly a hooded man appeared beside Ashlin. He was covered in dark overruns and on his hand is a...gun? “I knew it was Selica’s voice.”

Gallian tries to step back, but Ashlin stops her. “Relax, he’s a mage, and they’re with us.” Ashlin points up and Gallian finally sees a bunch of other people slowly lurking in between the buildings. Two of them are on the second floor at the very building they’re hiding in. Three are on the opposite side of the street, and another one seems to be standing behind the man who just spoke to them. All of them seem to be armed with some kind of weapon in hand, most probably guns similar to this man.

“Hi yes, hello.” The man extends his hand, “The name’s Shellon of the 15th-!”

“Damn it Shellon, we’re not the 15th anymore.” An old grumpy voice comes from behind Shellon. “We’ve left the army already. We’re the Sand Hunters now.”

“Ehh, can we workshop that name, captain?” Shellon groans. “It’s so lame.” ”I’ll show what’s lame you ungrateful-!” ”Okay, easy there you two.” The old man almost nearly whacked Shellon’s head with the butt end of his revolver before Ashlin stopped them. “And you! Are you and Selica crazy? Last stand? This place will be crawling with Silencers anytime soon.”

“Yeah, that’s why we’ll need all the help we can get.” Gallian’s tone is serious. “It’s a cave with a single entrance, the interior is dry as well, and there’s a ridiculously good cleric inside that could take care of the injured-hell, the dead even. We just need to hold down the fort long enough while the others dig through the hole straight to the supposed chamber inside.”

The old man suddenly snickers. “Hehehe, reminds you of anything Shellon?” “Ugh. By the gods, really? Even here. Fine.” Shellon moans again, but this time there’s a smile on his face. He raise his fingers and starts to contact the other two groups with sign language. ‘Fine kid. We’ll go to where you guys are holding out.”

It’s been a few minutes since Gallian left for her solo mission, but in these precarious situations, every minute could mean life or death. Selica tries to rest and restore her mana as she watches Gregor and his golems continue digging through the tunnel. As she watches the young boy work, and without Dimas breathing and beating down on his neck, he seems to be more focused and in control of his golems.

Gregor touches the wall every few moments trying to cop a feel underneath the rocky interior of the wall, and then he would direct his golems to dig in a specific way that would use the least amount of strength and energy to push through. When he’s not commanding his golems, Gregor would grasp a gem on his hand and start digging with his bare hands. But instead of digging through rock, Gregor makes it look like he’s just digging through fine sand instead.

The other three on the other hand are preparing the fort. After successfully starting a fire, Hog and Mariane guard the edges of the entrance as lookouts while Mirna focuses on blessing the fire and its surroundings. ”The blessed fire helps people gradually restore their strength.” She tells Selica. “Though I can’t make it too strong since the Silencers would immediately find it out.”

So for the last few minutes, Selica has been recovering herself beside the fire hoping to get herself back in shape.

“A group’s approaching.” Hog immediately spots a group getting closer. Mariane immediately grabbed his swords and Mirna immediately groups herself close to Gregor and Selica, ready to defend them.

After a few seconds however, Hog’s alerted stance relaxed. “It’s Gallian. And it seems like she brought some friends.”

Friends? Selica stands up from her stone tablet and starts walking towards the entrance. She watches as Gallian’s red headed silhouette slowly focuses as they approach from the rain. Gallian was accompanied by eight people, and from a distance she can guess that one of these friends is Ashlin.

“Ashlin!” Selica almost sprang out of the cave’s entrance the moment she sees Ashlin’s silhouette breaking through the rain, but she stops when she realizes Gallian is accompanied by another familiar face.

Wet, soaked, and still terribly dressed, Shellon and his crew safely guards the two girls as they follow them from behind.

“Shellon?” Selica is shocked. At the very least she expected to see Ashlin sooner or later, but to see Shellon of all people together with her friends.

“Yo Selica-oof!” Shellon raises his hand, but before he could call her out, Selica immediately ran straight to him.

“I’m so happy you’re alive!” Selica’s first words are filled with happiness. “I’m also surprised you actually came for the test!” Then her second words are a realization of her new friend’s predicament.

“What, you think I was lying when I said I was waiting for my friends?” Shellon is kind of hurt when he realizes Selica’s understanding of his words. “Guys, would you introduce yourself, seems like my friend here didn’t believe you exist.”

“Hello my name is Revo,”

“The name is Cartrid”

“Bolt here.”

“Buck.”

“Despi’s the name girl! Man, Shellon wasn’t lying you were cute!” ”Don’t make it weird Despi, please.” Shellon facepalms while his friends are introducing themselves. Shellon looks back and calls the hooded fellow following behind him. “Come on, captain. You too.”

“Ughh.” The captain groans and removes his hood. The man is breaking 70 already. His hair is fizzling white and his face is more crumbled than a used paper. “The name’s Deringer kid. I apologize on behalf as Shellon’s captain for having you worry about this idiot.” He peers back behind Selica’s and into the cave’s entrance where Mariane and Hog are on stand-by. “Kids, huh? Well we’ve been at worse odds. Hey geniuses! Heard you have a plan here. Mind telling this old bag of bones about it?”