The road to Malagost city had the unfortunate trajectory of us needing to go past the path to the ruins. It hurt to see that reflection of our former failure, but that didn’t mean that we could ignore it. We had to continue onwards. We had to determine what was going on in Malagost, if that was the origin of Titan City’s woes.

Alain had been pulled back from his mission after debriefing Javier, restoring our team to the full five we were. We would need all the strength we could get outside of the city walls, when going into enemy territory. Malagost and Titan City hadn’t always been on the best of terms, or so Mia had informed me. “There’s been a lot of small issues drawn out throughout the years between the two. Skirmishes at the borders, concerns about managing the spike feeder population, tax and levy proxy wars.”

“If it’s not clear, you need to be extra cautious in our interactions in the city. Let’s try to not instigate a war,” Javier interjected.

I swallowed deeply, suppressing my fears and continuing to stare at the others around me, hoping their faces would diminish my concerns given the strength of us as a team.

We had departed for Malagost in the morning when light had barely crested the horizon. There was no time for breakfast, only for food to be eaten on the road. Everything had been prepared by other members of the city guard, meaning that we couldn’t even choose what rations we were given, which meant that I had to deal with some stale granola instead of fresh fruit. If I ever found out who packed our food for us, I would have to have a stern word with them when we were back.

The road took us out of the forest into a valley. The ashen trees continued up above as we descended deeper and deeper, the shadows casting us in darkness. This was going to be the most dangerous part of our journey. Javier had warned us that if we were going to run into danger, this was the place it would happen. This was a place fraught with peril, as the shadows concealed more threats, even to those with enhanced senses.

“Alain, Perry, help me keep an eye out for any signs of danger,” Javier commanded. We nodded, calling upon our senses to sift through the area and determine what was potentially coming upon us.

I noticed through my electroception the three signatures up ahead on the road. “Three bodies coming up,” I said.

The lantern hung upon our wagon lit up, shining deeply through the shadows and casting a light on an overturned wagon off ahead on the side of the road. It looked like it had been ravaged by a spike feeder attack, although I couldn’t sense one in the area.

“Please, help us please,” a voice cried out through the darkness. It looked like all of the stress of the situation fled Mia and Vera’s bodies. It was people to aid, not a spike feeder waiting to pounce. A separate problem all the same, but not the one they had thought it would be.

“Javier, we have to help them. It’s in line with the doctrine. We have to do good, Javier,” Vera demanded. “It’s our job to help the weak and powerless and these people are in danger of being overcome by another spike feeder attack.”

Javier sighed and nodded. He pulled back on the reins, slowing down our travel as to not overtake them, parking hundreds of feet down the road from the woman. Vera anxiously called out in return, sticking her head out of the front of the wagon, “What’s wrong? How can we assist?”

With a renewed vigor, the voice replied, “We had been traveling from Malagost when a spike feeder attacked our wagon. We’ve lost one of our family, taken off in the aftermath of the attack. There’s no more hope for them and we were afraid to continue on any further in the shadows. There’s no guarantee for our survival where we are or where we’re going if we trudge alone from our wagon. Please, help us. Help us get out of here alive.”

It was a woman’s voice, her slender body outlined against the lamp’s light. Her body was crumpled over the ground, hand outstretched towards us.

“Of course,” Vera said, rushing out of our wagon towards the woman.

“But where are the other two of you? Are they alright?” I asked, exciting the wagon myself. Mia and Alain followed shortly thereafter, Javier lingering still by our horse, ever vigilant in ensuring we didn’t lose our noble steed.

“Oh, they’re doing quite as well as they can be,” the woman said, crawling towards Vera. When the two met, Vera let out a sudden scream, collapsing to the ground, clutching her neck. Blood trickled out of her wound and from the woman’s lips, a bloody smile lit by the lamp light. “It’s a bit taxing to keep hovering about for a surprise attack.”

“Bandits!” Javier screamed. But only our training was enough to mitigate the following attacks from them. I called upon my Swollen Fur, which ate the oncoming barrage of feathers launched from above, while Alain fell down into the shadows, disappearing from sight. Mia summoned her wings, trying to take flight to match the two in the sky above.

“Looks like you have a bit of a bite to you. Let’s see how long that lasts,” the woman snarled, body taking on a more feral form. Spotted fur sprouted out over her arms and a rugged snout claimed her lips. She ran along the ground, claws tearing up the earth with each stride, confident in her approach in the limited-light conditions.

A smirk grew on my face. It helped to be able to track something before it happened. They wouldn’t know what hit them.

From the cliff-side wall pounced Alain, tackling one of the birdmen down, latching into the man’s back with his curved claws. He snarled at the attacker, riding him into the earth with a loud crash. Stray dirt kicked up from the ground, creating a cloud of dust. I didn’t know how good Mia’s night vision was, but I wasn’t going to be lacking, even with the sudden additional layer of disruption added to the arena.

The woman pounced out at me, lunging straight for my neck. I turned, my Swollen Fur expanding from my body.

Swollen Fur Proficiency: 20%

Her claws found no purchase on my bloated form, bouncing off my thickened hide, repelling her back into the dirt. “That’s a cute trick,” she snarled. “Will it still be cute when your neck is leaking?”

“Javier, do I have your authority to attack to kill?” I shouted, manifesting my spurs. The little claws burst into existence at the ends of my hands.

“Yes, bandits are allowed to be killed, don’t worry about what you can do just fight,” he replied, slowly walking towards the rest of us.

In the sky, Mia and the other bird man were jousting for aerial superiority. Mia attempted to surround him with her afterimages, but the man let out a fury of swipes with his long legs, talons leaving bleeding gouges in the air. While Mia’s initial trajectory had dodged them, the man had chosen where she had once traveled, her afterimages crashing into the stationary slashes and shattering on impact.

“You’re better than I thought,” she said, smirking at him. “But that doesn’t mean you’re quite good.”

“You should hold your comments for when you’re not boxed in by my attacks,” the man replied in a hoarse voice. In a mighty flap of his wings he dove for Mia, talons outstretched to snatch her up and tear her to shreds.

“Fine, you’ll force me to use some more effort,” Mia said, her body vibrating at higher and higher speeds until she moved twice as fast, wings fluttering so quickly I couldn’t see where one flap started and one ended. She bounced around the man in the time it took for him to react to her movements, beak piercing his body until he was covered with a generous helping of puncture wounds, all leaking. He started to coast to the ground, grasping at his body as though to staunch the copious amount of blood departing his form.

Just as quickly as her double speed started, her body returned to its regular state, and she drifted down to the ground, panting heavily. “I clearly need to practice that some more,” she muttered, gasping for air.

Although Mia’s victory had been somewhere on the scale of flawless, more effort had been required for Alain. The feathers from the bird man he had tackled still lingered about, moved by the man’s will. Alain had managed to claw at the man, leaving shallow scratches on his arms, but a wall of feathers had separated the two, sharp tipped and fast moving in nature.

Seeing no room to proceed, Alain dived into the darkness once more. A silence had filled their section of the valley, feathers laying scattered about on the ground. While Mia and the other bird man had been shouting in the throes of combat, no sounds were to be found, the enemy combatant fixated on listening for Alain’s approach. To anyone looking from the outside, Alain’s appearance would have been unrecognizable if not for the blanket of feathers the enemy had laid on the ground. A carpet of feathers rose, Alain’s body carrying them aloft as his body burst from the shadows. The man’s head craned back, rotating nearly 180 degrees to see Alain’s approach, sensing his feather’s disruption. He shot off another salvo of feathers from his wings. The quills shot by, some clipping his body as Alain to retreated to the side.

In the interim, I inched on closer to Vera, circling around with the feral woman. She lunged at me again and again, but with her simple forward movements she was nearly as easy to sidestep as a common spike feeder, but with less power in her attacks. It was clear that she only got the upper hand on Vera due to her surprise attack— even an untrained person can manage to knock someone out when given the element of surprise.

“Why won’t you stay still you stupid little shit,” she growled. She ran past me once more, taking a mighty leap, neck outstretched. Her jaw was posed to snap down on my neck, but I wasn’t going to take that standing down. I sent out an Electromute, pausing her in place, sliding her assault as she crashed overhead.

Electromute Proficiency: 20%

I would have liked to crow about all of my proficiency gains, but this wasn’t the time. “Look. I will kill you if you continue,” I threatened. I didn’t want to. The thought of doing so was scary. It would be so easy just to slice her with my spurs and let the venom kill her, but could I kill? I know I asked for permission from Javier, but that was more per formative, wasn’t it? The others could drive the illusion that the wounds they were delivering were transient and repairable. My venom had no illusions. It killed.

As much as I was in my head, the same couldn’t be said for Alain. He had woven through the feathers, past the watchful gaze of his opponent, lithe and slender in each movement. It wasn’t an act of dodging, but simply not being where his opponent was attacking. He had already moved from there before the attack could land. His body was an act of misdirection, exploding in short bursts of activity. In contrast, his body language screamed waiting for an opening, the paradox his opponent couldn’t resolve.

And then, in the simplest act of continuing to walk forward without any pretense, he lashed out with his claws. He carved out a cross on the man’s body, blood spurting from the open wound. His opponent collapsed to the ground, feathers vanishing into the empty air.

That left only me and my opponent who didn’t want to give up, no matter how much she was failing to gain ground. “Look. Your friends are already heavily wounded. Do you want to continue or do you want to die?” I asked, my voice a soft timbre. I meant to be gentle in my approach, but evidently it was harsh for she shook in revulsion.

“If I can stop wasting my time with you I can handle the rest of your stupid little crew,” she snarled.

“You know they aren’t interfering because I can perfectly well handle you,” I said. I strode forward with the utmost confidence, not even availing of my Swollen Fur. Her body was tense, ready to run away from my sudden avenue of attack, but that wasn’t allowed. Another Electromute and her body locked long enough for me to lay my spur against her neck.

“If you move, you’re liable to kill yourself,” I whispered, brushing aside her hair away from her ear with my free hand. “Surrender. Please.”

"Fuck you,” she said, straining against my arms. She pulled herself forwards, and my spur scratched her neck, drawing blood. ‘She had chosen this,’ I told myself. ‘I gave her a choice. She took it.’

She screamed, falling down to the ground, writhing as my venom overtook her body. She clawed at her neck, trying to scratch away where my venom had taken root, gouging out her own flesh to try and displace what my own body had wrought, but it was to no avail.

With that, the enemy bandits were routed. Two were incapacitated, if not greatly injured, the third killed in her hubris. I didn’t know what drew them into their life on the road, but they clearly didn’t have the training we did. The sheer difference in preparation a city-guard had was astounding, if we were anything to measure by.

“Tie them up,” Javier commanded. “You did a good job handling that fight. If I had to step in I would have, but I could tell you had it all under control. I’m going to check up on Vera— she should be alright with some bandages and ointment.” He walked on past us, not even caring in how the other bandits were addressed, just confident that we would handle the matter in a professional manner.

We tied up the two men with the bird beast souls, leaving them against their wagon. If we had our way we would have turned them in to the Malagost city guard, but that was still a ways off, and it felt cruel to execute a helpless foe.

The most curious item was a parchment Javier saw on the bandits. He pocketed the paper before the rest of us could look at it, motioning for us to continue along once more. We had places to be. We couldn’t dawdle.

The group filtered back into the wagon and we were off again. Vera was doing as well as could be considered following the sneak attack on her person. Whatever wounds she had had been tended by Javier, bandages tenderly placed upon her body, but that wouldn’t heal her wounded spirit. Her ego would only recover with time and anticipation of any future attacks on her person.

I checked on the bandits as we drove away with my electroreception, noting that their signatures were taking to the sky. Evidently we tied them with more slack than I had thought. I just hoped they would bury their ally’s body properly. Even if they were bandits they didn’t deserve to be ravaged by spike feeders.

A few hours later in the valley had passed without any major issue, although we were still a ways off from Malagost. It was time to rest for the night, drawing a fire deep in the shadows of the valley. We were so far in that any approach from another bandit or spike feeder would be obvious at this point, but that didn’t mean we could avoid posting guards.

We sat around the campfire, eating at our rations, Javier’s face twitching a few times. “Got something on your mind?” I asked.

He looked back at me, before cycling through the rest of the team. A dramatic sigh passed through his lips. “Fine. I didn’t know if I wanted to bring this up, but it’s not good for me to hide important materials from the team. This slip of paper suggests that our bandits were former members of the Malagost city guard.”

Alain and Mia’s jaws went slack. The meaning was not lost on them. Vera and I, however, seemed not as quick on the uptake. I was willing to blame it to the long day and well, that other thing.

The part where I had taken a life.

The gears finished turning in Vera’s head and she lit up. “So you’re saying I was surprise attacked by a city guard? That makes sense. No regular bandit would have gotten the jump on me.”

The sentiment was not lost on us, but it seemed as though it wasn’t prudent to attack her ego protection maneuver. It was better to focus on the implications of their former employment, or perhaps current employment.

“Were they still working for Malagost? Or was that their severance?” asked Alain, already seeing where things needed to line up.

“Looks like they were discharged,” Jaiver said. “Another item to think about as we enter the city. What are they doing if they’re discharging the guards? But let’s get to taking our shifts. It’s time to sleep.”

There was no arguing with Javier. We took to our tents and got ready for the inevitable caress of sleep.

In the middle of the night, I woke before my shift, trying to shake off the horrible dream I had. I yawned, mind putting together where I was when I heard words from outside the tent.

“… suspicious activity…”

“… check in…”

“… gathering momentum…”

It was too much for me to focus on though. I hadn’t rested enough. It was too easy to fall asleep once more, thoughts lost to the ebb and flow of an unfettered mind.

In the morning we headed out once more, no further difficulty had that night in guarding us. Another few hours and we were almost there, having emerged from the valley by the nature of the cliffs sinking down with us by the end into a leveled plain. Off in the distance there was a line to enter the city. Something told me it was going to take quite some time before we actually managed to enter Malagost.