Clear! Return to your stations! Someone calls out, and all the other people hiding behind the shield run back out, many of them easily killing any monsters they pass by.

Then I shake my head. “I have to check on Auris!” I shout, before racing out of the barrier.

“Wait!” I hear Lisney’s voice fade behind me. There are a lot of creatures, but most of them aren’t very strong or fast, so I’m able to dodge by them. I run like she taught me, but I also use my telekinesis to go even faster!

After what feels like a really long time, I reach the perimeter around the creature. Someone steps in front of me to stop me, and I don’t know why, but I get really angry all of the sudden! Kill. One of my realms activates, and the person flinches just enough for me to slip by him. I’m close! I’m so close I can see her!

“Aah!” I don’t know how he did it, but that person instantly caught up to me and grabbed my arm. “Let me go! I need to see Auris! Let go of me!” I scream.

“Hold on, we need to verify…” I don’t even hear the rest of his words as I reach for Gus and start to pull him out of the scabbard. The man grabs my hand that is holding Gus, saying “Hold on there, first…” I stop hearing the rest of what he is saying. The rest of the event goes by in a blur.

*** *** ***

POV: Geos

My name is Geos. In case you don’t remember, I’m an earth mage of the Kelten suppression squad. Basically, we are the heavy guns called out whenever there is a threat to the population at large, or basically anything the city guard can’t handle. I first met Chalia when she was taking her guild rank test, and activated her dragon aura. True dragons are easily capable of wiping out medium cities, and dragon spawns are often harbingers of much worse things to come; so of course we had to investigate upon sensing a draconic presence. Who would have thought it would be just a small girl taking her C-Rank mercenary test? But that’s just what it was.

A couple days later we were briefed on just what kind of entity she was, or more importantly, what kind of entity he was. That thing inside her black longsword. Loroven himself explained some of the history behind Angustia. This included information such as him having a fiery temper backed up by a ridiculous amount of power. Also, once he has a wielder, his personality calms down a bit except when his wielder is in danger. Unfortunately, he also has an empathetic link to his wielder and is sympathetic to his wielder’s anger, to the point that he has leveled cities, just because his wielder was angry with their entrance processes. Basically, he is dangerous, and our only shield between him and us is Chalia. Yep, the contentment of this little girl could mean the difference between the life and death of millions of people. That’s no pressure.

Now let’s get back to the present. This unexpected calamity-class mana beast emerges from the dungeon, and immediately heads straight toward the city. This is not good, at all. So, we all race after it, doing whatever we can to slow it down, but this is a huge thing. I mean, it’s a calamity-class, what do you expect?

I watch as people set off warning flares, and everyone is frantically dashing to get away from this thing, then I glance up to see Chalia, standing there with a few other C and D rankers.

I’m thinking, “Oh, no. No, no, no, no. This is not good.” After witnessing what Gus did to Kelten, without Chalia even getting scratched, what’s he going to do when she’s dead? But then Auris of all people appears, rushing in front of the beast! This is not good either, though, because now Angustia is still going to go berserk when Chalia dies, but additionally Selaena is going to be pissed as hell for months from losing her best maid. Of course, that’s a best-case scenario. I am nearly convinced: They are all dead. But then Auris kneels down and sucks the life out of everything around her. Her eyes turn blood red with golden veins, and her pupils elongate into cat-eyes. She then rushes forward and punches the thing. Like seriously? You are just going to run up and punch a sprinting murder-machine the size of a stadium?

But here’s the thing—she does, and it stops. It stops! Right there! So, I have no clue how to take this situation, except to think, “Heck yeah! We aren’t all going to be god’s snacks!” She keeps holding it off until Mister Schraeder can do his whole “Cast a spell that should be able to kill you 20,000 times over from mana drain” thing, and the dust settles.

Somewhere in the middle of this all, a few of us realize “Oh damn, she did that with primordial essence!” and we also realize that something else is off about Auris, so we keep our perimeter while Mister Schraeder checks on Auris. While keeping guard with the other A-rankers, I then look over to see Chalia sprinting toward Foz, of all people. I already know this isn’t going to end well. She somehow uses her dragon aura to catch him off guard and slips past. But there are fundamental power differences between two ranks, let alone three, and he easily catches her. That’s when I notice the god’s arm. It’s vibrating and starting to emit a black fog. I look at Chalia’s face and can tell, she is absolutely angry.

Remember what I said about Angustia? How he leveled a city just because his wielder was frustrated with the check-in procedure? Now imagine what’s going through my head here and now. I’m going “C’mon! We were just saved by Auris, but now were going to get killed again, because some ignorant fool isn’t going to let the girl see her friend? Man, I think I should retire. I’m only in my 30’s, but hey, that’s still too old to deal with this kind of garbage.

Thankfully, I can do something in this situation. So, I do what any reasonable person would do in this situation—I overload a tier two spell and shoot a blade of rock up from the ground, slicing the fool’s arm off. Success!

Foz slowly turns toward me with a look of shock and betrayal, as a medic runs in to reattach his arm. I sign something like, “Hey man, it was either that or we were all royally screwed. If you’re mad, take it up with Mister Schraeder when we’re done here.” With a glare, he goes back to his duty.

Meanwhile, Chalia stumbles, having nothing holding her back anymore, but she quickly collects herself and races over toward Auris. Mister Schraeder, who is also inside the perimeter, recovering, sees her running toward Auris and instinctively raises a hand to cast a spell, so I blast up a rock wall and he gives up, probably knowing he can’t get a spell past it in his current state, and maybe he realized I knew something he didn’t. Either way, Chalia makes it to Auris, who looks over, still with red eyes and cat-eye pupils, and also green lines of mana running across her skin. Auris freezes as Chalia crashes through the barrier and grabs onto her. Only after a few seconds does Auris finally relax a little, grabbing onto the now-sobbing Chalia.

I look back toward Foz, where a small group of C and D-rankers show up. This time Foz glances toward me and I motion for him to stop this group. Ah, I guess I should go over and help him deal with them. He obviously doesn’t understand the situation…

*** *** ***

“Chalia.”

“Cha-li-a.”

“C’mon, Chalia. Wake up. We’re still not done here!”

I hear a gentle voice prodding me. Then a cool stream of energy starts circulating through my meridians, and my consciousness—and vision—gradually returns to me. I realize I’m holding onto Auris, and I’ve been crying. I remember what happened up to the point where I was stopped at the perimeter of the circle.

“Auris! You’re ok!” I shout, and then immediately start crying again.

“Of course, I’m ok! You should look out for yourself, silly. You had me scared!” Auris says.

“Mhm,” I murmur, without looking up or letting go.

“Ok,” Auris gives me a nice squeeze before continuing. “We are holding people up, so let’s head back.”

She then pulls me off herself, grabs my hand, and leads me back to where my teammates are waiting outside the perimeter. When we approach, I recognize one of the two men who were holding back my teammates. They step aside as we approach, and Auris lightly pushes me forward.

Lisney is the first one to rush forward, putting her hands on my shoulders and asking, “Are you ok?”

Ellis gives me a hug while Kriv and Mell just stand by, not knowing what to do. Ellis releases me and steps toward Auris.

I then hear a light thump, seeing Ellis fall to her knees with her face to the ground in front of Auris.

“Miss, please forgive me for not knowing your name,” she says with a trembling voice. “But I wanted to thank you. Thank you! For saving my teammates, and for saving me. You saved our lives!”

“Thank me? No, no, no, if anyone, you should thank Selaena, not me! I was only doing my job, there is no need!” Of course, everything Auris is saying is with a kind voice.

After lifting Ellis up and looking on her teary face, she pauses for a moment then asks, “Are you Ellis Zeldrik?”

“Y-yes?” Ellis stammers, while subconsciously shrinking back a bit.

“Stand tall girl!” Auris commanded, with an uncharacteristic edge in her voice.

After flinching, Ellis immediately stands at attention.

“Your father was, and is, a great man,” Auris began, while placing a hand on Ellis’s shoulder, “and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. The only men of this country who dare to look down on him are ignorant fools who your father could still kill from his wheelchair, if he should wish. While this is not the time to fight openly for his honor, this is the time to train. Become an existence so great that others will shudder, and turn in their sleep, fearing that they had said evil of your father to your very face. You have nothing to be ashamed of. Prove it.” Though starting off sternly, Auris’s voice is soft again at the end.

Auris gazes into Ellis’s eyes for another second in silence before turning to back to the city. “Let’s get you all back to the city. It is time for those of your rank to return.”

We followed Auris back to the barrier, watching as she blasted apart everything in front of her. It was all we could do just to keep up behind her! And so, it didn’t take long to get back.

“Ah, there we go. The last group. I should be giving you a talk right now, but seems how the circumstances are a bit unique—he glances at Auris—we won’t worry about it this time. Come, come; we will review the battle on the other side.”

And with that, a few mages make a portal for us to go through, returning us to the square where everyone had grouped up. A bunch of other D-rankers are also there, waiting for us, or rather Mr. Beldizon.