Shimona never liked it when Pempe talked. She found his rambling annoying and lose track of his words at around the 3 seconds mark. She heard bits and pieces of “sneak up”, “full frontal assault”, and “running out of time”. Four-Chan filled her in on everything else in point format immediately afterwards. After a brief retreat and regrouping, they were once again moving up along the treeline, but this time, in a tighter group.

The enemy soldiers were sweeping the forest, looking for them. By first count, they were facing an entire squad of at least 22. That was also the number of mirs that ruled Jarad prior to Princess Scarletite Bel'Jarad abdicating the autocracy to a government ran by leaders of the guilds, military, and influential individuals of the country, with the royals receiving diminished powers governance.

Those were the kind of things Shimona was interested in. Jarad, the land of empty plenty. She was fascinated by the country since she was a child. How enduring were the people that they could live in a dried out wasteland? How innovative of them to terraform a landscape into a city with farms? She was going to visit one day. It was a dream. One that she set aside for the moment.

She looked through the leaves of the bush she hid behind as the guard approached, sweeping his perimeter. Her heart beat impatiently. She wanted to pounce and take him out in that instance, but the plan was to wait for the signal. Insecurity and worry rained on her as she thought about Enneya and Joachim. They had to be in trouble or they would have reported back already. And if they had stopped The Janus, Shimona expected something – anything really – to happen with the world to indicate that. The shield The Watcher had set up would have fallen, as there would no longer be any unspawn attacks to defend against. But it was still up. The sky was still frozen.

Her magic circuits itched. She wanted to blast their enemies away. But with Enneya, Joachim, and Shjacky not there with them, she was the only one left who specialised in crowd control and her classmates wanted her to save her strength for when they really needed it.

So she waited, her hands on her large bladed chakrams by her side.

A whistle flowed through the air and she jumped out from her hiding spot, swinging her chakrams centrifugally around her body. The soldier looked on in shock as she swung her weapons at him, slashing the blades clean across the gap between his armour and helmet.

Blood splashed downwards, the guard desperately holding onto the nap of his neck in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding. But Shimona was not about to let any chance slip by. Too much was on the line. She jumped over the bush and kicked the soldier square in the chest, sending him toppling backwards and onto the ground.

Finally, she pounced, right hand raised with chakram pointed down. And with as much force as she could muster, she slammed the bladed edge of her weapon into the soldier's bleeding throat and the man finally stopped moving.

She had killed a person. The first living person's life she had ever taken.

Beside her came a loud thunk and her head snapped to the sound. It was Shichi who had his scythe's blade pierced through the chest of another guard who slumped dead, pinned against a tree.

Her eyes met that of her friend.

Shichi's voice shook. “Are you okay?”

Shakily, she answered, “Yeah. You?”

“I'm fine.”

But she knew they were both lying. Her hands were shaking and he fumbled once at the handle of his scythe before managing to pull the weapon out of the body and tree. The dead dropped to the forest floor at his feet. Behind them, a loud blast signalled Pempe executing his opponent, and to the front, the surviving soldiers shouted orders to attack after they noticed the ambush.

Around Shimona, her classmates stepped out one-by-one, each successful in their assassinations. Above, Seks glided from tree to tree. Of course they were. They could not possibly die, after all. If Enneya was no longer alive – and she tried hard not to think of that – then Shimona herself was next. And since she herself was alive and nothing changed, everyone else was still alive.

That was how she looked on the bright side.

“Shimona,” Pempe commanded. “Stay behind us and pick off strays. We'll clear a path.” It was obvious he simply wanted to make sure she stayed safe.

Not wanting to worry them, she simply answered, “Roger.”

The word 'Roger' was coined after Roger Bel'Souls. A military officer of Jaradian history that was famous to have never questioned an order, which eventually lead the royals to order him for a suicide campaign over fear of his growing popularity. His name became synonymous with saying 'affirmative' to everything. His monument is a famous tourist sight.

But that was a train of thought for another time. A future where she takes a vacation to her dream country.

An archer opposite them had notched an arrow and two muskets were being lined up at them.

Pempe gave the call. “Gun!”

Above, Seks fired multiple shots down at the ground below them, causing earth spikes to pop out as cover. The arrow and bullets of their opponents splattered and tucked into the wall. Pempe rushed off right and Four-Chan ran left, flanking their opponents with hails of gunfire. Above, Seks covered them by firing at the enemy whenever he could between creating covers.

As Four-Chan and Pempe split further, gathering attention, the latter commanded, “Now!”

Trini, Lua, and Nos dashed out from the main wall and rushed towards their enemies to melee them. Above, Seks fired another shot at the middle of the first wall that sent the earth back down, creating a gap which Shichi settled his artillery-scythe into and began firing. All Shimona could do was watch as her classmates took to battle. She had a job and it was simple. Cover Shichi and stay alive. She did not like it much.

She watched as Lua and Nos, the most skilled of their duelists, caught the enemies in flurries of hits and runs, with Trini supporting them by catching the attention and footings of their enemies with patches of frozen ground. While Lua took on multiple opponents at once – capable of chipping away at their stamina and armour with her mid-range chain swords swinging wild – Nos focused on the individuals that strayed away from formation due to her wide range. He dextrously took down the enemies one-by-one, closing in with quick evasive moves before plunging his punch dagger into a guard and immediately moving off to his next victim.

However, the true threats were Pempe and Four-Chan, who were taking successful shots off the side, trimming their numbers down quickly. While Four-Chan took rapid run and gun pot-shots from her covers that both distracted and injured, Pempe rushed in closer, taking into consideration the range of his shotgun. Using the trees, he ducked in and out of cover. When there was nowhere left to hide, he called out to Seks who provided another cover of earthen barrier. Once he got close to a guard, Trini would send a frozen wave of water to the target's leg, causing them to slip. Pempe stepped around and blasted the target at point blank before turning his sights to a new enemy.

Anyone who tried to flank the close range fighters were taken out in a grenade explosion by Shichi, who covered them from afar with calculated artillery strikes. In less than a minute, the soldiers were all left unmoving on the ground, either dead, unconscious, or too injured to move.

Pempe shouted, “To the gate! Quickly.”

They all ran. If there were any more guards, they would have surely heard the commotion of the combat. But during that intermission, they were going to attempt to enter the tower. Together, they left the treeline with Seks gliding out and landing ahead of them to clear a path. They crossed the open area and headed towards the tower entrance. But before they were even halfway across the open space, the large gate started to open outwards.

At first they were going to keep on running but slowed to a stop in their tracks when a bright flash of colours erupted from the sky. They looked up and watched as a bird that was stuck on the canvas of light disappeared. Slowly, the unmoving pictured clouds were replaced, overlaid by new moving ones. The barrier The Watcher had placed had vanished. They did not know if the man had ran out of power of if he was killed. Whatever the case, they had run out of time.

From the corner of her eyes, Shimona saw movements. “Guys?” she meekly called out. “We're surrounded.”

Unspawns had appeared suddenly around them. Two large beast-like unspawns were accompanied by at least half a dozen smaller human sized ones.

From the gap in the opening gate, The Janus calmly stepped through and turned her attention to them as if she already knew they were there.

Four-Chan immediately fired off a shot aimed at her head. However, the woman simply tilted her neck and the bullet whizzed past, as if she already knew where the shot would have landed.

“Hello, kids,” she greeted with a lopped grin. “I believe you're out of time.”