That… huh. That's a very good point. If we got sent to somewhere other people were, there's a good chance that there wouldn't be enough anchors to go around. Or enough people who'd be willing to ally up so there could be.

"I could see the system using this as a kind of… tone-setter for the rest of the quest. If everyone's willing to work together, things go pretty smoothly. But if even one person wants all the rewards for themselves, then it becomes a hell of a lot more hectic."

Clutter nods. "That's exactly what I was thinking. The quest didn't ask us to fight each other, and I got the same popup as you did to protect the anchor, so it at least recognizes that we're working together. Wait–let me undo this."

He shakes his head, and the veil of invisibility bleeds away. I give him a nod of thanks for no longer subjecting me to the strange voice modification, and we just stand there watching the tower. He pulls out his Class Card to check something, but shakes his head with a huff and sends it right back. We stand like this for a few more minutes, casually chatting about barely anything, as impatience seeps into my bones.

"I swear, these quests need timers." I sigh and stuff my hands in my pockets. "Clutter, can you see what time it is on your Class Card?"

"Usually, yes. But not right now–that's all greyed out too. I'm relying on my pretty accurate internal clock right now." He pauses, then crosses his arms. "Hm. Why would the system block that out? Is seeing the time really that important?"

I shrug. "Everything but the class essentials are blocked. Doesn't surprise me."

"I guess, but…" Clutter frowns as he trails off. "Something just feels weird about it to me. But I guess you're probably right."

"Could be, but we don't know anything yet. Maybe there's an actual reason every single one of our system functions have been greyed out except for my map. That reason could be as simple as rewarding the person who took an extra few steps to integrate the clues they found, though."

Clutter grumbles agreement, but he doesn't seem convinced. Neither am I, honestly, but it doesn't feel like that part is important yet. When we actually get into the meat of the quest, then sure, but not now.

Without warning, an itch worms its way into my awareness. At the edge of it I feel something moving towards us, but not fast at all. I grab Clutter by the shoulder and point with my other hand in the direction of the motion. His worry disappears, wiped away by excitement, and he disappears as he starts running in that direction.

"Check out the surface. I'll check in the wall again."

"Got it!"

I bend down and press my palm to the floor, then swing my head down into the wall. My awareness doesn't feel much of anything, but the ground below looks decidedly different than before. Veins of blue magic cut through the stony material, branching out from where the silky blue tentacles have buried themselves in the stone, leaving the grey ones to loll and sway in a field of staticky magic.

"Finally." I mutter to myself and scan the hall for threats. My awareness only feels them up above, so I pull myself to my feet and step closer to the tower.

These blocky things approach from all directions. To my awareness they seem like gumball machines–blocky bodies on top of which rests a large, spherical dome. Said dome crackles with magic, each slightly different from the next, and they all have strange thin limbs just barely keeping them from toppling over. Like bent coat hangers trying to hold up expensive speakers.

"Ooh, they're weird! Cool!" Clutter calls, his voice everywhere once again. "Can you see them yet? Do I need to describe them?"

I shake my head. "My awareness can see them just fine. And in a few seconds… yeah, my eyes can see them too."

My initial impressions were almost spot-on. Each of these strange things is built around a four foot long rectangle of the exact same material as the wall, and the things I thought were gangly limbs are actually two pieces of silvery grey wire wrapped around said rectangle that dig in so deeply and perfectly that they're exactly flush with the surface. The wire-doll like arms and legs twitch and shift seemingly at random, and they don't seem to take any of the block's weight when they take a 'step'--which brings into question why they're there at all.

But the most stunning difference is the colour. Cobalt blue, fire engine red, lemon yellow, and leafy green. Of the eighteen or so things I can see shambling down the wall at us, those are the only colours of magic sloshing about in their translucent grey heads like half-filled fish bowls. I recognize the blue from the catalyst Clutter found, but the other three are brand new colours for this bland city.

I palm a projectile and glance over my shoulder. "Blue, red, yellow, and green here! You see any other colours?"

"Just those four here, too! Mostly red, though. How about you?"

Good question. I scan the group, actually counting them this time, then summon another projectile just in case. "Twenty here–two green, ten red, four blue, and four yellow."

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"One, two, three…" Clutter trails off as he quietly counts to himself. "Twenty here, too, and they've got the exact same numbers. That can't be a coincidence, right?"

"Definitely not. Don't engage with them just yet–I'm going to throw some projectiles and see how they react."

Clutter nods at the edge of my awareness. "I'll just take a close look for now."

Good, means I don't have to worry about hurting him. I slip one of the projectiles on top of my thumbnail, take aim at one of the green ones, and let a tiny concentrated blast of destruction fly. It zips through the air with a horrible shriek, salt and magic swirling in on themselves until they collide with the rectangle's head. It shatters like breakaway glass, disintegrating into pieces from the smallest touch.

The wire limbs collapse instantly, as if the rectangle only now demands to be held up. The magical green liquid, on the other hand, takes the opposite approach. It hovers in the shape of the sphere it used to fill for a split second, then condenses into an orb with an audible 'slurp'. I stare at the thing that burns like a campfire in my awareness, and then it detonates with the force of a firework.

Liquid green magic splatters everywhere. Droplets of the stuff hit me before I can put up a shield, which is damn impressive, and I feel something surge into my body. My heart beats faster, my vision narrows, and a spike of anxiety drives itself into my heart. I grimace and crush a purification coin at my feet, and the sensation instantly disappears.

I guess that explains why they hid our buffs from us. "Clutter! Don't break them without putting up a shield first!"

"I saw!" He responds eagerly. "Look what it's doing to the others!"

The… others? I blink and shake the awful adrenaline-rush like sensation from my mind and actually focus on the constructs. At least one drop of green liquid splattered on each of them, and now they're shaking as magic surges through their rectangle bodies. The start of a theory nips at my mind, but until I see how each of them reacts to being destroyed, I can't assume anything.

Though the one thing I can say is that the magic detonations are unbelievably fast. My awareness couldn't even react in time to protect me. So this time I throw up a shield beforehand and ready a second projectile aimed at one of the red ones.

A wracking twitch through a few of the constructs stays my hand. Their shambling, strange motions grow in intensity, twisting and turning until they speed up noticeably. I watch with fascination as a single blue-headed one nearly breaks out into a sprint, its unnatural movements somehow perfectly supported, then turn back to the red one.

"Let's see how you detonate."

I flick the coin, and the spell runs through the red-head. Its head shatters in a vibrant spray of grey magic, but its body doesn't crumple like the green one did. This one takes a few more shambling steps before it collapses, and as it falls to the ground, the liquid in its head congeals into a goopy mass that continues to roll forward for a few steps.

Sparks fly off the glob. Magic screams in my awareness, and the orb detonates. A thick coating of red splatters my shield, the ground all around it, and the tower itself. Magic sticks to everything like boiling molasses. Everything except the constructs–the red just drips off them without showing any signs of doing much of anything at all.

Constant damage warnings blare at my mind, and all of them come from my shield. I wince at the sheer number of them and send the barrier away, then throw up a larger one to keep the encroaching mass of constructs away.

"Red ones detonate into magic that hurts anything but their allies. Green ones debuff us and buff their allies." I note to myself as I ready two more coins and take a step back. "As long as they're actually consistent, I can deal with this."

Two coins fly out. The first takes a blue, which erupts into a cascade of freezing magic that lingers in the air and coats the constructs in a sheen of bluish-white. Moments later the second hits, and a yellow shatters and blorps over itself like someone dropped a water balloon filled with paint on it. The thing twitches twice, then breaks into a sprint directly at me, leaving a trail of glistening yellow dots behind it in a desperate last stand.

I throw up another shield, then lean back and watch as it crashes repeatedly into my barrier. Tiny cracks start to form, but what actually seems dangerous is the whirl of razor-sharp wire that it whips around with enough force to crack against thin air. It takes a count of thirty for the yellow to drain away, and when the last drop falls to the ground, the thing simply stops moving.

"Blues are defensive and deny an area for a while, and the yellows go berzerk when you destroy their heads. Interesting." I say as I dismiss my shield and brush my fingers against the pillar that used to be a yellow. "And now that they're destroyed, there's no visible difference between any of them. Pearl would either love or absolutely hate to see this."

A quiet pop sounds off in Clutter's direction. I toss a handful of projectiles at the remaining constructs, then double-layer a shield to protect the tower from the fallout, and turn to face the noise. Clutter jogs into my awareness a second later, and he's holding something in his hands. From the shape of it, that's definitely one of the heads.

"Look what I have!" He says excitedly. "I snuck up on one of them, which wasn't hard, and disrupted the connection rune between the helmet and the body! We don't even have to destroy them to defeat them!"

Cacophonous, colourful explosions ring out from over my shoulder. Clutter stares past me wide-eyed in awe, and slowly lowers the head he managed to remove as my shields are absolutely splattered in green, red, and a few stray inches of blue. The three remaining yellows charge and beat on my shield with dying desperation, but soon enough, they too die out.

Still, not having to risk it seems like the infinitely better choice. I put a hand on invisible Clutter's shoulder and offer him a smile.

"Nice discovery. How long do you think it'll take to deal with the rest of them?"

He gulps. "Um… another ten minutes. Each one takes about thirty seconds to dismantle."

I nod. "Works for me. Do you need any shields, or will they even get close enough for that?"

"I think I'll be… fine…" He trails off as he looks over his shoulder. "I guess I'll go… do that, then."

"Alright. Meet you back here in ten minutes. Oh, and leave that head with me." I gesture at the grey dome carefully nestled in Clutter's hands. "I might be able to learn something from studying it. And if I can't, then Pearl probably will have something to say.

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