Serenity grinned at the dark room, then carefully looked at each of the Sterath. The taunt had worked exceptionally well back at the house; he might as well try the same thing. “Why do the seven of you hide in the shadows? Do you think you are too weak to face the five of us?”

It wasn’t fair to taunt them like that; they’d clearly been ordered to hide. Serenity still didn’t feel all that bad about it. Yes, they were soldiers; no, they hadn’t had a choice about whether or not they came to Earth. They were still invaders and they were still out to conquer a piece of his country.

More importantly, they were part of the invasion that would kill his parents if he didn’t stop it.

There was a short pause as the Sterath processed that not only had a human spoken in Sterath, he’d called them weak cowards. Some of the Sterath could probably have become senior in time; they stopped to think.

Two of the Sterath didn’t. They both charged, covering the distance in one short and two long hops each.

Katya and Serenity reacted like the trained fighters they were. They might not have fought together for more than a few days, but that was still enough time to know the basics about how the other would react. Serenity lunged for the one coming from his left, meeting its charge nearly head-on. He just barely stepped to the side at the last moment and brought his ax across his opponent’s throat while using his shield to redirect the dying Sterath’s momentum.

Katya dodged to the side immediately, placing herself next to the path the one coming from more to the right was on. She wasn’t built to take a blow head-on the way Serenity was, even from a low-Tier person like the Sterath. Instead, she’d built her entire fighting style around being right next to the blow, hitting without being hit.

Fast reflexes and flexible, agile movement that could surprise were useful against everyone, but she could shave things closer against dumb dungeon monsters with straightforward attacks than intelligent, trained sapients. These Sterath were acting very much like dumb dungeon monsters; they’d attacked without feeling out their enemies, and the one charging past it paid with a dagger to the eye that pierced his brain. His momentum carried him past Serenity, skidding on the floor after an uncontrolled landing.

The plan was working even better than expected. Serenity knew Katya hadn’t quite believed him when he’d told her how easy the Sterath were to enrage with a few words, but it was clear she’d changed her mind and was now completely on board with the plan when Katya ostentatiously turned her back on the general direction of the three that were grouped more or less together and collected her dagger, knowing Serenity was watching her back.

One of the three she’d blatantly ignored roared “Puny rat!” and leapt towards Katya. The other two in his corner followed after a moment of surprise and the two that were in other spots charged soon afterwards.

It was the worst thing they could have done. They were strung out, and Serenity and Katya each had no more than one to deal with at a time, since each went down after a single hit. They were all dead or completely disabled moments after they reached one of the two.

“These guys have to be Tier Zero.” Serenity couldn’t believe how easy it was. Yes, he was stronger in chimera form, but these Sterath were so easy to kill it was ridiculous. They hadn’t protected their vitals at all, and they were all so intent on the attack that they seemed to simply forget that he didn’t have to stand still.

Katya shook her head. “Tier One, surely. No one would send out subadults. That is just asking for them to be killed. Not that minimum Tier One is much better.” She was frowning as she stared at the bodies. “This is waste.”

Serenity had to agree. It was. Even against normal human soldiers, the Sterath wouldn’t have had a chance. “Against unarmed people who haven’t even been to the Tutorial yet, they’d have won. Or anyone without a combat Path or combat training and weapons, especially if they’re only Tier One. If this is all they had, they’d be a problem but they wouldn’t be a threat.”

Katya’s frown got deeper for a moment. “I forget you have Tier Zero adults. That’s so strange. Being a mostly disarmed society is even stranger.”

Serenity nodded. It was strange, though it wasn’t unique to Earth. “There are other places that disarm much of the population, where only the nobles and fighters are armed. They’re a much higher portion of the population.”

They’d have to be a much higher percentage of the population on Earth in the future as well … or would they? Serenity wasn’t certain. If all of the military were dealing with keeping dungeons under control, they wouldn’t really be a standing army, would they? Yet at the same time, it wasn’t like the military was kept concentrated; they were spread out at many different bases across the nation. Perhaps it wouldn’t be that large a change. It depended on many different factors, and Serenity couldn’t think of them all in just a moment.

It was his father’s problem, not his own. Serenity was happy to leave it at that. He shook his head to clear it. “We should move forward, before anyone comes.”

There were three doors leading out of the room. One was for each locker room; the third was labeled ‘Storage’. An open hallway led into other workout areas and then the former gym’s admin area, such as it was. Serenity led the way to the ‘Storage’ door first, since it shouldn’t have more entrances.

It was locked.

Serenity started to break it, then remembered there was another option. “Raz? Can you open this lock?”

“I’m not great with locks,” Raz confessed. “I focused on traps. I can try.”

“I can open it,” Ita interrupted. “There is a congruence between a physical locking mechanism and the position required to open it. It’s really quite simple.”

Connection magic could open locks. Who knew?

Serenity moved out of the way and gestured towards the locked door. “Go for it.”

Ita walked up, touched the lock, and concentrated. Unlike the other spells Serenity had seen her cast, she didn’t chant and it wasn’t a Path skill. Curious, Serenity focused on seeing the magic. He could see the spellform, but it wasn’t drawn the way he would have; instead, it formed by her concentration on the lock itself.

It was being done simply through concentration, mana, and Affinity - the same way Serenity had started when he taught students Death magic in the Tutorial. Serenity considered feeling your Affinity and getting to know it to be more useful in the long run than simply casting spells; it was good to know that Ita knew the technique. It would only work for things that were absolutely and completely inside your Affinity and Concept, solidly understood, and relatively simple. The fact that Ita was using it for even a simple lock meant that locks in general must be covered by her magic.

The spellform flashed and then the door shifted as the lock released. The door seemed to be held closed only by the lock itself.

The storage closet held a couple of old, dusty towels, a partial set of weights, and a mostly-deflated basketball. The only thing surprising about that was that there wasn’t a basketball court in or near the gym as far as Serenity had noticed.

“One of the locker rooms or the hallway?” Katya turned to Serenity as she spoke.

“Doesn’t really matter, they all connect further on in. The locker rooms all have another entrance into the hall.” Serenity considered it for a moment. “I don’t think we were quiet enough to be missed, but I also don’t think they understand English, so they don’t know what we’re talking about. No one’s come, so maybe they’re all still hiding? If we take the locker rooms first, maybe we can handle them in small groups.”

Katya shrugged. “Sure. You’re first through the door.”

“Of course.”

Serenity picked the closer locker room, which turned out to be the Womens’. Once everyone was ready behind him, he pushed the door open and went through it as it opened. Surprise was the key.

Surprise was theirs. Even though the Sterath clearly knew someone was in the next room, they weren’t expecting the door to open when it did. They’d gathered around the door and seemed prepared to ambush someone coming through the door, but not as quickly as he came through and started killing. The two Sterath to his left swiftly became dead as he ran by them, followed by Katya.

Katya hit the door with her shoulder as it tried to close behind Serenity, knocking it back open as she passed through. Since Serenity was taking the left, she ran along the wall to the right, quickly reaping the lives of the other Sterath in the room.

Serenity couldn’t tell for certain how powerful the Sterath in the room had been, but it was less than a minute before it no longer mattered; they were all out of the fight. There might be some survivors, but there wouldn’t be many and none would be a problem without medical attention.

They could have won a straight fight, but they didn’t need to. Surprise and speed of attack meant that there simply wasn’t any resistance. It was only made more certain because the Sterath had clearly been waiting in ambush for someone to open the door and come in cautiously; coming in at speed reversed the ambush and the Sterath never recovered.

Katya had proposed that little addition to the plan. Serenity would probably have done the same thing regardless, but it would have been on reflex when he entered without planning it ahead if she hadn’t said anything. Without the plan, she wouldn’t have known to follow up hard and fast and it would have been less effective.

He was starting to realize that his planning capability wasn’t what it needed to be; he wasn’t certain if it had always been as bad as it seemed lately, but he didn’t think so. It was hard to say if it was the time he’d spent not planning things, the repeated failure to plan where his life would go, the fact that he hadn’t had any companions to plan with, the power he’d had meaning he didn’t have to plan, or if something had simply happened to him when he came back in time. Any or all of those could have been the reason.

The reason wasn’t important. What mattered was that he was beginning to realize there was a problem; he needed to re-learn how to work with a team instead of going solo. Fortunately, he had someone to help: Katya. She was used to teamwork and planning, and she seemed to be perfectly happy to work with him.

Serenity grinned, thinking of what she’d requested as her price to help. It was certainly mercenary of her, but that only made sense; she was a mercenary, and it wasn’t like this was her planet. The price itself was easy to pay, too.

Katya elbowed Serenity in the ribs. “What’s that look for?”

“Oh, I’m just thinking of what your price to help out is.” His grin got a bit wider.

Katya responded with a grin of her own. “It’s worth it to me. Being known as one of the people who saved your nation? Cleared out the people attacking your capitol? Having my family name tied to that will drive business and you know it.”