“If this isn’t our destination, I definitely don’t want to know what it really looks like.” “It certainly looks industrial, to say nothing about the smell. Makes me glad that a nose is optional for me.”

After a four day surprisingly uneventful trek, Yohan and Alzolami had finally crossed the border into the northern half of Ualiqula. The land may have once been as beautiful as the southern half, but the industrious efforts of Tomahk the Elder and their sinister advisors had seen to that. The only remains of all plant life were patches of withered and bleached grasses too polluted to properly rot, the hollow, foliage-lacking remnants of woodland patches, and slimy, barely flowing poison-filled rivers. The only signs of animal life were the partially chemically preserved remains of local fauna. Where there should have been farms and farmlands, the landscape was dotted with industrial sectors every fifty miles spewing black clouds into the skies and viscous waste into nearby water bodies with ships coming in and out of portals above them, each with metallic hulls and constantly extending, retracting, and articulating plate-like sails that more resemble wings than anything used by more familiar ships.

Alzolami’s eyes flashed in fury at the sight if the vessels. “Well that explains how they were able to get the automaton to the mansion. But one question has been bothering me for a long time, why would they use such polluting machinery when modern non-polluting technology can match and exceed it in productivity?” “It’s not uncommon for newly-settled dimensions to use cheaper, quicker to assemble machinery to assist in rapidly developing it to meet modern standards before transitioning to more efficient but harder to produce and often more expensive supernatural-based technology that can only be safely crafted by Artisans. But usually it doesn’t go on for so long to a point where the environment can be this impacted by it. Those advisors must really not care what happens to this dimension and its people as long as they make a profit. My uncle would hate them.” Alzolami’s eyes dimmed, but Yohan walked up and patted her on her leg. “We’ll get her back Alzy, but if we’re going to do it we’ll need to reign in our feelings and be quick, precise, and efficient about it.”

“Right, yes. Well, we’re in enemy territory now. Doesn’t look like there are any good places to hide and lurk without experience with the land, but it doesn’t look like they have any reliable means of observing either, like watchtowers or patrolling ships. What I’m really worried about are any hidden observers, they might not be as reliable as obvious ones, but they tend to observe you without you knowing it until they can creep up and get you in the back.” “Why get them in the back when a good bloody fight is so much more fun!” Alzolami turned her head to look directly at Yohan. “That doesn’t sound like something I’d expect you to say.” Yohan’s eyes stared at her very wide. “That’s because I wasn’t the one that said it.” “Gee, you two sure are slow on the uptake! Newsflash! You’ve been ambushed!”

From out of nowhere, a figure leaped out and landed in front of them. It was a tall female humanoid with hair dyed bright red and styled into a large mohawk. She was dressed in steel plate armor on her chest, back, waist, and forearms with tire-like rubber shoulder and elbow pads and a form-fitting leather suit beneath covered in all manner of metal buckles and buttons. Her bare legs were her most distinguishing feature on account of them not only making up more than half her height but appeared to resemble that of some manner of bird, with three joints each bending in alternating directions and standing on four toes tipped with curving talons clinging tightly to the ground. Close to the base of her toes was a long upward-curving spur-like protrusion with a hardened tip extending from the back side. “Nice to make your acquaintance right before your untimely death. My name is Cluck, daughter of Scratch, son of Yadda-Yadda-They’re-All-Dead-Anyway. I’m a frontline vanguard for the Thropyc Clan, infamous inter-dimensional bandits and part-time mercenaries currently in the employ of the most honorable and steel-headed Lord Tomahk the Elder to return the misguided worker class fooled by the dangerous reactionaries of the south back to a place better equipped to caring for them and preventing the spies and terrorists of the south from yadda-yadda-they’re-going-to-die-if-they-come-and-so-are-you.”

Yohan crept back while trying to look small, but had deployed his Aura smoothly so that he could easily switch between attack and defense should he need to. Alzolami had stepped forward and deployed her Aura refined into an attack mode, eyes burning intensely. “Thanks for announcing yourself. I’ve been itching to hurt someone for days now. Are you in the mood for some extra-crispy fried chicken legs Yohan?” “NothanksI’monalowcarbdiet!” Alzolami began slowly but progressively walking towards their aggressor while extending her right arm into an extended single-edged sword shape before lighting it ablaze with black fire with a flick, thanks in no parts to Yohan’s lighter and the fact that she recently developed developed the capacity to mix the properties of any possible transformations she memorizes, up to two at once so far. “Well I’ve lost my appetite considering the awful smell of your living space. Places like this do cremations for their dead right? Why not cut out the middleman for yourself right here, right now? Emphasis on cut!” Cluck somehow perked up even more with that last threatening statement. “Ah, a fellow homicidal maniac I see! The guys down south seem so high-strung and focused on nonsense like ‘honor’ and ‘chivalry’ but fighting a like-minded combatant is a guaranteed bloody good time! I could tell at first glance you were a cut above the rest!”

The moment she shouted cut, Cluck executed a perfect spinning backward talon-raking front kick as a medium to let fly a vertical scythe-like Aura bullet. Alzolami dodged to the side and swung her fiery sword-like arm while extending and curving it like a whip. Cluck countered with an Aura-boosted jump with her other foot and twirled three times midair to release the same number of smaller horizontal bullets from her extended foot. Alzolam defended by raising her recently retracted arm and focusing a greater portion of her Aura into it that the bullets dissipated against but left her staggering backwards with her arm less uniform in shape, after which she shouted “Yohan!” Yohan raised pointed his finger-pistol gesturing hand towards Cluck while grasping the middle of his forearm. He focused most of his Aura into his extended finger tip, and then released a more orthodox Aura bullet whose magnitude impressed even himself towards his target. Cluck braced her Aura-enfolded arms and legs in front of her torso and was blasted back before gracefully landing on her feet after a midair backflip.

Alzolami took a balanced stance while smoothing out her Aura. Dang, I knew females possess a greater quantity of Aura, but she’s a regular stockpile! Granted, I can be as female as I think I am, but Dad said that it doesn’t work the same way for demimans, ‘It’s in their biology, they’re just built that way. They have a more powerful life force so as to both create and foster life. For your ancestors, it was just as simple to multiply by themselves should they choose.’ he’d always say. The trade-off is that she’s supposed to be more vulnerable to PK, but apparently it only counts if she doesn’t shield herself with her own before it hits!

When she landed, Cluck appeared a bit disappointed. Then her eyes opened wide as her throat and cheeks swelled like she was about to vomit, which from experience Alzolami took as a cue to brace herself to defend, shifting her posture and Aura to accommodate. With a loud, almost belching hack, Cluck let fly a baseball-sized ivory ovoid shape that split to pieces once it closed the distance halfway to Alzolami, revealing a rapidly expanding bright yellow substance. Alzolami thrust her elongating right arm into the mystery goo, intending to bat at least some of it aside before dodging, but as her arm extended the slime also expanded large enough to envelop both her arm and the rest of her body before pinning her to the ground.

Alzolami shrunk and expanded her body as much as she dared and even lit herself aflame, but the goop contracted to force her to the ground every time while the flames just harmlessly licked the interior. Cluck casually strolled by while holding a bored look on her face. “Don’t bother, the yellow stuff is chemically neutral and insulative.”

As cluck left Alzolami behind, she gave Yohan an evil eye. The shivering Yohan intensified his Aura before creating a hammer with a handle longer than he was tall and a head bigger than his whole body and charged his aggressor while screaming a battle cry. Cluck just sighed and let loose another egg, which this time hatched into a wad of black cordage that whirled around and entangled Yohan. Yohan struggled and attempted to deploy his Aura, but found it somehow leached away before he could make use of it. “Don’t you bother either. The black stuff isn’t as sturdy as some of the other stuff I can make, but it does have the same effect as some anti-reactants.”

Aura anti-reactants are materials that most forms of PK are powerless against. Some anti-reactants have a vacuum-like effect that draws in and neutralizes Aura on contact with its user. Other anti-reactants disrupt the forms Aura takes, Powers included, and reduce it into a harmless ambient state found in the atmosphere and within the surface of almost every dimension. And some anti-reactants can undo or reverse the physical state of something as long as Aura and through it Powers were the direct cause of it. Aura anti-reactants are the most reliable way to restrain and contain PK Masters and are used to jail the criminals among them but aren’t always as effective against monsters. Because of their natural resistance to PK, only seasoned or specialist Artisans can work with them, which combined with the scarcity of their raw materials on the market can make them quite expensive.

Cluck walked over to and pulled Yohan close to her face to get a good look at him before sighing. “I really expected better from your friend. I wanted to make some beautiful bloodshed with a fellow combat junkie, but she’s just another lousy tactician that keeps her opponents busy while she has a regular glass cannon like you do the heavy damage. She was going to die either way, but still… As for you doll-boy,” she cruelly grinned at Yohan. “You just so happen to be my favorite shade of green, so maybe if the higher-ups let me, I can keep you as my personal pet, or toy.” At that, Yohan could only make a muffled scream and helplessly thrash around in her arms. “Oh, I love a man that struggles.” “Yep, he’s one scrappy guy.”

Cluck dropped Yohan as she leaped a considerable distance away from the mystery voice whose source Yohan gleamed at with tears in his eyes. “An amasaran? Here?” After getting a good look at her potential aggressor, a look of even greater shock dawned on her face. “A boy amasaran?” Nick stretched back and forth, as if he were previously in an uncomfortable position for an extended period. “Yep, that’s what my mom said she was. To me it was always the same as dog breeds, minus the PK of course. If you’d like, you can build up a pretty good reputation for yourself among your clan for killing the only child of the recently widowed Crimson Djinn.” A whole new world of shock was advertised on Cluck’s face. “Im- Im- Impossi-b’gawk! Impossible! The Djinn died years ago! Her only sightings in almost twenty years were unconfirmed rumors!” “Oh yeah… mom hasn’t been in the game for like eighteen, maybe nineteen years. When was my last birthday again?”

Cluck raised her leg in an offensive stance, but she was obviously trembling and incoherently mumbling under her breath, making Nick swear he could hear her making actual clucks between words. “You’re not really going to fight! My Predator Incubator is invincible against any one foe! Look what it did to your friends! And I’ve still got eggs to spare!” “Yeah, this seems too important for me to risk fighting you, especially with my bad track record with fighting mortals.” Cluck’s trembling seemed to calm slightly before Nick pointed his thumb to the side. “But my traveling companion here has a better one than me.”

Slowly approaching them from around the bend was a massive figure sitting atop an even more massive mount. The mount was equine in shape, but stood almost twice as tall as a human even on all fours. It had a hide similar to a rhinoceros covered in smooth carapace-like plates while some, usually around the major joints, had one or more spikes pointing upward. In the middle of its massive yet slender head sprouted two prominent upward-curving horns, the lower of which was longer and wider. The figure riding it hefted his maul, covered in close-fitting yet obviously very dense Aura. “Mercenaries. Always mercenaries. Morgou is thankful that this time he can break one!”

Cluck squaked again before letting another egg fly, but this time it didn’t hatch into anything even after closing the halfway point, prompting Morgou to sweep his maul and create a wall-like bubble of air so dense it appeared solid that the egg in question shattered against, revealing itself to be hollow.

Morgou then swung his maul upward, launching a much smaller sphere of air towards Cluck that she dodged to avoid, but not enough to clear the concussive splash from its artillery-style explosion and get violently flung to the ground before dexterously flipping back onto her feet.

Morgou then spurred his mount, which charged towards Cluck after a deep mammalian grunt. Cluck attempted to counter by dodging to the side while spinning several times over the distance, releasing multiple crescent Aura bullets towards her aggressor. Most of the bullets dissipated against Morgou’s mount's formidable dermace and the rest had a similar outcome to hitting Morgou himself. Morgo then raised his maul overhead as a longer whip-like bubble of air extended from it before he swung it inward towards his enemy. Cluck attempted to dodge but had to shield herself as it curled to intercept her jump, but the kickback of the ensuing blast put her directly on the path of Morgou’s very large, very heavy mount as it tread over her rapidly and loudly squak! -ing body.

Cluck attempted to rise even despite the fact that her once-impressive legs were now bending in odd angles. Nick however, strode closer towards her and extended his palm. From it erupted a cord of glistening fluid that spun around her multiple times before snapping taut and extending smaller tendrils onto the ground, entrapping her. “What did you say? ‘don’t bother’? That’s the excretion of the gumsadeth, a local C rank demon beast that can ensnare and suppress the PK of prey with its sticky not-so-sweetness the same way your ‘black stuff’ can.” Nick then shifted his hand into a crab-like pincer claw of the same size and walked towards Yohan before cutting him free with it. “It can also sever Aura that’s already transformed with ease by growing a claw or two.”

Once he was sure he was safe, Yohan lept towards and wrapped his arms around Nick, wailing tears of joy. “Youcameyoucameyoucameyoucameyoucameyoucame!” Nick managed to pry him off and set him on the ground before him. “Was there ever any doubt?” “Yesdefinately!” “Fair enough. At least you aren’t likely to attack me to express that thought, speaking of which…” Nick walked over to Alzolami’s rubbery prison and cut her free. When she was able to stand on two feet, she rushed to Nick, enlarged her hand, and hit him in the gut with a swift but heavy jab. “That’s for wussing out Xed!” After managing to regain his breath, Nick reoriented his posture and smiled apologetically. “I saw that one coming, had it coming to-mmf!” Nick only offered light resistance out of surprise as Alzolami lassoed his waist with the same arm she punched him with, pulled him in while pulling her teeth into her flesh, and planted her newly formed lips against his with her normally unblinking eyes closed, after which she practically whipped him away. “That’s for coming back. Next time you do after pulling a stunt and making a speech like that, you’ll be a few ounces lighter after my mouth pulls away from your crazy mutant body!” “Nice to know, but I’m pretty sure nobody saw that coming!” Yohan raised his hand. “I did!” “Fair enough.”

“Speaking of which, what did he promise you?” Nick raised his hands and tried to look surprised at the sudden turn in the conversation. “What do you mean? I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Alzolami spat to the side after reshaping her face into a more familiar and therefore more comfortable form. “The reward Lord Tomahk the Younger promised you, or rather us, when we return with his daughter.” Nick took a more relaxed posture. “You guys know me too well, I love it! So apparently, clients can request students of the Hunter’s Academy by name for a potential contract and I, on behalf of you, accepted it and paid the necessary amount of credits as collateral from all of our pools.” Yohan stared intensely at Nick. “How much?” Nick held up his hands non-threateningly but remained stoic in expression. “All of… our pools?” Yohan surrounded himself with Aura before intensifying it to a level that had both Nick and Alzolami reeling back. “If my uncle found out someone paid for a service for me with my own funds, he’d cheer me on as I ripped them limb from limb.” Yohan smoothed and retracted his Aura just as quickly as he deployed it. “Lucky for the both of us he isn’t here right now. Any particular reason why you brought company?”

Yohan gestured towards the horizon-scanning Morgou. “Well, it allowed us to catch up to save you in the nick of time, didn’t it? Even after taking the scenic route through several monster hotspots for me to expand my arsenal. The more options the better, right? And I even managed to learn a Skill to suppress my presence with my Aura in the process, which odds are is the same one that the literal chick used to sneak up on the two of you. Meanwhile he’s going to make all that northerner propaganda real and play terrorist with the industrial sectors to divert their forces away from our mission to rescue Rosey! It’s not like he doesn’t have experience with doing widespread damage.

“When he was fighting that plains emperor thing, a rank B wyvern beast I might add, as a young and impulsive apprentice Guardian that broke rank against orders he spontaneously developed a Power that allowed him to add the strength and stamina of anything he’s mounted onto his own that allowed him to snap its neck from atop it, apparently the only thing that could kill it on account of its ability to redirect kinetic energy exerted on its body into the ground. He earned his epithet of Dragon Crusher, christened his power Cavalryman’s Grace, and had its remains forged into that armor of his that bestows him a similar ability called Stalwart Expanse. And on top of that, he managed to kill the sleep breather, a D ranked but extremely deadly demon beast, that killed its prey in the night by injecting air bubbles into it that it can make explode or be used as projectiles if necessary, and had its remains forged into that maul of his called Furious Sky. The only issues are that we might get some trouble from enemy forces that are either so decentralized that they won’t respond to the havok or any surprises stationed in their central citadel.”

Alzolami’s eyes flared towards Morgou in admiration. “You couldn’t ask for a better combination of rider and mount for such a mission. That’s a dohmeau, a herd-forming herbivore species that in the wild even monsters will steer clear of. They’re highly intelligent, highly perceptive, and highly aggressive creatures with an indomitable fortitude, inexhaustible stamina, and matchless strength that even after being domesticated as beasts of burden will only allow mortals that they trust with their lives to ride directly on their backs.” After hearing that statement, Morgou smirked and steered his mount to a trot towards them. “The female mercenary is wise. Metouph is a brave and noble creature that has served Morgou well since he came directly to him as a yearling, together we have crushed both monster and bandit alike underfoot. When we needed to traverse the plains at speed, Nicholas had to sit atop Morgou’s shoulders like the needy child that he is!” “We both had fun on our way here! There’s no need to belittle your childlike enthusiasm, a little wonder in your heart can take you a long way!” Morgou smirked and gave a long dragged-out laugh. “This is where Morgou hands you off like the fragile package you are to your mercenary friends Nicholas! Pray to the Almighty that they handle a delicate chachki such as yourself with care so as to not break you!”

Before Nick could state his retort, Morgou yanked on Metouph’s reigns and they whirled around to charge towards the nearest industrial sector, screaming a battle cry. Nick waved goodbye while smiling. “Darn, I had a really good one. That jerk!” When he turned towards Yohan and Alzolami, he was somewhat startled at their stares. “‘Nicholas?’” asked Yohan. “Like you two haven’t had any major development on your journey together?” “Fair enough.” They both said in unison.