Tanya made direct eye contact with Mrs Eceer, and they both sped towards the front of the shop.

Mrs Eceer walked rather than ran, but Tanya could tell she was holding herself back.

Ishita looked between them in confusion, jogging to keep up. "Hipster man?"

"Mrs Eceer sent this guy without a Class to go kill a—" Tanya stopped dead, just beyond the doorway. Ian's face and chestplate were spattered with black splatters. He held the bottom half of a hound-shaped monster in both hands. Olena held the scruff of its neck in one hand and waved excitedly with the other.

"Hello, Tanya! I hope my floor still okay. Could you take monster so I can check?" She looked down at Tanya's feet, and Tanya noticed the footsteps they'd made walking through the puddle. "OH NO, YOU ARE TREADING IT IN. TANYA!" She shook the monster towards Tanya, insisting she take it. Black drips spattered towards her, and she backed up, bumping into Mrs Eceer behind her.

"What in the…" Mrs Eceer started.

"Uh, just drop it?" Tanya said.

"Is that okay?" Ian asked Mrs Eceer.

"Yes, drop it. That is completely fine."

Olena and Ian both obliged, Ian more carefully and Olena with a wet slap. Olena then ran towards Tanya, squeezing past Tanya's right to check the floor.

"What is going on?" Ishita asked, squeezing past Tanya's other side. She felt like a sardine, wriggling outside the shop properly to avoid the squish.

Outside, she was face-to-face with Ian. He looked taller now that he wasn't slouching. She supposed a metal chestplate made it pretty hard to slouch.

Tanya looked at Ian closely. She barely recognised him, even though she couldn't put her finger on exactly what had changed. One of his glasses was cracked all the way across the lens. His hair was slicked back with just one piece dangling down across his forehead, Clark Kent style. She wasn't sure if it was the hair off his jawline or the look in his eyes, but he looked older.

"I made it," he said with a smile. She studied it for any trauma that lay behind it, but between his bright eyes and flushed cheeks, he genuinely seemed okay.

"You more than made it, mate, you killed one." She nodded down at the body.

"It took so many tries, but—"

Suddenly, something shot towards her from further down the street. It looked like something out of a superhero movie, a fist going at incredible speed. A flurry of grey leaves from one of the alien vines was blown backwards from the force.

It took Tanya a moment to process.

Assistant.

She ran to meet it in the middle, not realising until this moment how much she'd missed it.

They met in the middle, no need for any catching up, as Assistant seemed to miss being united just as much as Tanya had. Assistant gripped her wrist and fell into it, and Tanya instinctively clutched her arms to her chest, like she was hugging herself.

The moment Assistant fully disappeared into her arm, the world around Tanya completely faded, and she was flooded with memories.

Assistant was bored—incredibly bored, in fact. If only it could just kill the damn thing for the idiot, they could get out of here faster, and maybe Assistant could even see the end of Marcy's transfer. Initially, Assistant daydreamed about stealing the knife that Ian was using, but now, a few hours in, it was ready to just choke one with its bare hand.

Ian had found many monsters already, but hadn't yet gotten the guts to do anything but run in the other direction. They'd been up two different blocks of flats to hide for half an hour from the same type of 'kangaroo-shaped monster' that Tanya had killed in three slashes.

Assistant wasn't sure when it had started seeing what Tanya was doing without being summoned, but right now it sorely missed it. It felt too quiet without the pulsing of Tanya's heart—it wondered what a heart would feel like? Assistant had never had one.

Perhaps it should talk to Tanya about getting one—and the memories without her were so hazy! It had forgotten to search through Tanya's memories for what a kangaroo was before they'd separated, and not knowing was driving it absolutely crazy. Just another unfortunate but expected consequence of this wild goose chase.

Assistant liked the word consequence, Mrs Eceer had taught it to it yesterday, and Assistant had decided it should be added to the front cover of its notebook with all of Assistant's other favourite words.

A tin can crunched under Ian's foot. Maybe he would finally attack one of the hounds. Assistant's attention was piqued.

Ian was crouched in the doorway of an abandoned bank. He cringed at the noise he'd made. A monster hound's spindly body loped towards him, sniffing the ground. He only seemed to have drawn the attention of one of them. The other five continued their slow search onwards, separating to sniff each doorway. He was lucky it was only one. Assistant supposed the other monsters were too busy making those irritating padding and scratching noises. They'd be better predators if they were quieter, that was sure, but Assistant supposed feet had a penchant for being annoyingly noisy. It was glad it didn't have any.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Ian inched towards the edge of the sticking-out stone doorway, knuckles white with how hard he was clamping the knife in his grip. The monster turned the corner before Ian was expecting it, and he fell backwards, only managing a meagre swipe at the beast as he fell onto his other hand.

The knife slashed down the side of the monster's neck. The monster howled. Ian's eyes were wide, his body rigid. A different monster yipped, drawing the attention of the others. They'd follow the noise together.

The pattering of footsteps grew closer to him. As if suddenly woken, Ian scrambled to his feet, almost dropping the knife in the process. He caught it before it fell into the pile of discarded bottles and tins by his feet. The monster lunged at him, its feet scartching against the metal of his chestplate. His organs would be on the floor in front of him if it weren't for that. Lunging again, the monster shoved Ian backwards. His armour crashed against the door as he stumbled backwards from the force.

Assistant wondered if it should intervene. Tanya had said not to let him die, but if it intervened, then he would know he was being protected, and that would change his behaviour. It seemed important that he think he was alone.

There were more crowding round the doorway now, all howling and nipping at his heels whilst the one at the front lunged once more, sinking its teeth into his leg. He groaned. With the thickness of the makeshift armour, Assistant doubted the bite was at all deep. Without the layers, it would have hit bone. Ian stabbed the blade into its head. The strikes were too shallow, just as Tanya's had been when she first fought one.

Assistant darted from the corner it had been waiting behind, floating out of eyesight and up the outside of the bank. Ian could still get out of this. Assistant waited above the large 'bank' sign above the entryway so it could drop at a moment's notice.

Ian saw an opening and took it. He ran into the group, pulling his arms and head in close to his body, relying on the metal chestplate to take the brunt of the attacks.

It was the first good idea Assistant had seen him have.

They got some good hits in as he muscled through them. One of them pulled off one of his shin guards and promptly tore it to shreds. Another caught him between the chestplate and thick cloth across his butt and legs. He didn't react, likely too full of adrenaline. The others all hit the chestplate, scratching and bouncing off with each foiled attack.

Ian ran until he couldn't run anymore. With metal armour, that wasn't very long. He climbed into the shattered window of a charity shop and collected himself, hidden amongst a rack of clothes, out of Assistant's view.

The thrill wore off very quickly, leaving Assistant bored again. It was a different kind of bored now, if it got distracted for even a moment too long, Ian could leave the shop without Assistant noticing, and it could struggle to find him.

This ordeal was maddening, but Assistant supposed that not everyone could be as competent as Tanya.

After a couple more false starts, where Ian didn't even get a hit in before running, Assistant was starting to care less and less whether Ian succeeded. At least if he were in mortal danger, Assistant could run in and save him, and it wouldn't have to follow him anymore.

Ian. Assistant decided Ian wasn't a satisfying name at all. It had heard people talking about thinking in speech before, but Assistant thought in written words, in just the same handwriting it had so proudly developed.

Ian. Its disgust grew. The line at the start didn't at all feel like the start of a word should—and two vowels in a row. The best names had double constants instead. It decided the n was its only saving grace. Assistant quite liked the letter n, especially its capitalised version—

Assistant saw a shift in Ian's body language. He suddenly straightened from his spot behind a crashed car. Assistant landed on the flat roof to watch. It had seen his frustration growing over the last failed attempts, and until this moment, Assistant had assumed this pack of hound monsters would behave the same as the times before. Now it wasn't as sure.

Ian tapped his knife against the car door, peering through the broken window as one turned towards the noise. He ducked back out of sight and stayed there, poised. Again, he was lucky it had only been one. The others continued to other doorways.

Ian crept behind a parked car a few feet away and again tapped his knife against the metal. Again, the monster followed alone, sniffing everything it passed.

Assistant got it now. It wasn't just a sound he'd picked up; they always scouted alone and only called for backup when necessary. Ian must have realised that—and was using it to lure one farther from the others, where he could strike. Maybe he wasn't as stupid as Assistant had first thought.

Assistant scurried across the rooftop to get a closer view.

Ian waited, eyes locked onto where his target would soon be. The moment the monster appeared on his side of the car, he jumped out of it, stabbing as deep into its head as he could. It screeched. It was still moving, shaking its head side to side to dislodge the blade. Ian looked utterly horrified. His chestplate tanked the beast's wobbly hit, and he used the chance to pull his blade back out.

Ian had only moments before the rest would arrive. In a frenzy, he stabbed its head repeatedly. He grabbed the body, trying to lift it and run, but he only got a couple of staggered steps before he realised it wasn't going to work. It was at that moment that his expression made it clear he had no clue how he was going to manage the body.

Assistant decided he was stupid again.

Right before the rest of the pack appeared, Ian and skidded into the closest doorway—a corner shop. Even from this angle Assistant could tell it had been completely ransacked. Ian dipped out of view.

The monsters sniffed around the body before splitting up, checking every building around them. A large grizzled one with three tails went into the shop Ian was in. Assistant tensed, readying itself to dash in if it heard even the slightest noise from inside. It hated not being able to see.

Assistant couldn't take it. It flew over to the storefront, choosing to float in a broken window so that hopefully neither the monsters nor Ian would hear it. Inside, it took Assistant a good moment to find him. He had climbed up a shelf and was pressed between the wall and a ceiling beam in the far corner of the small shop.

Assistant perched on a hanging ceiling light, keeping low to the white plastic so Ian wouldn't spot it.

The monster lumbered between the aisles. Assistant tensed even more when it came close to Ian's hiding place. It was only a couple of metres below him.

Sniffing noises and the soft padding of paws were all Assistant could hear.

They came closer, and Assistant pressed itself further down into the top of the light on instinct.

Then scratching sounds, the clunking of the beast placing its claws up the shelf to follow the smell further.

If Assistant had breath, it would have held it.

Then a plod as all four feet were on the floor again.

Assistant tried to work out if it was gone. There was complete silence.

Then the footsteps receded until they were completely gone.

It hadn't found him.

Assistant grew restless a while before Ian moved. He seemed to wait until he was absolutely certain they were gone, then began the lumbersome climb back down in so many layers of gear.

Any respect that Ian earned with Assistant in that moment slowly waned over the next hour as Ian dragged the body for a few minutes at a time, only to panic at the faintest sound and scramble for cover. It was a maddening cycle—tedious, clumsy, and pathetic to watch.

But, bit by bit, he pulled the monster back to Olena's workshop, and didn't get jumped by a monster once.

Assistant decided that maybe Ian wasn't as much of an idiot as he'd first thought.

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