I tensed at the sudden screams and almost reflexively summoned my qi swords, but thought better of it. They were made of stable qi themselves, but I didn't know how they would react to unrefined Vitalite so I hesitated to bring them out.

The screams rang through my head, bringing back thoughts of the Inter-continental sect competition and I grit my teeth, my fists clenching.

"Alice, we're going ahead. Wei Lin, you stay here with Zachariah and protect him while you follow us in a bit."

I didn't even look back as I gave my order, unwilling to waste time with either Clisto or Zachariah gainsaying me, though I doubted Zachariah would. I took off at a run, Alice's footfalls following. We ran down an alley between large warehouses, moving toward a rising smoke cloud and the crackling of a fire. We passed myriad people running away frantically as we ran against the flow, and we had to weave through them to make progress. Eventually the flow lessened and Alice and I were able to move at top speed through the alleys.

We rounded a final corner and found a much quieter scene than I initially thought from the screams. I had feared the worst after hearing the screams, but the only signs of violence in the area were a pair of guards lying motionless on the ground in front of one of the warehouses.

Muddled voices emanated from within the warehouse with doors ajar and we rushed to the entrance, stopping inside to take stock of the situation. A pair of figures wearing full body suits like those I'd seen in and around Refiners HQ were carrying a large reinforced metal crate with 'RAW VITALITE' emblazoned across all of its faces toward the open doors while a third figure watched them. At our appearance, all three of them whipped their heads around to look at Alice and I. The two burlier figures placed the box they were carrying down carefully as I dropped into a fighting stance. If they were taking raw Vitalite, they were clearly up to no good.

"Who are you three and what are you doing trying to steal that Vitalite?!" I accused. Their covered faces made asking the question feel a little silly, but I had to say something.

The trio of figures all tensed and prepared to fight. I felt them each channel their body cultivations without another word; they clearly had no intention of talking anything out. One of two larger men had earth qi flowing through him while the other had and a mix of wind and fire qi flowing through him. The relatively thinner figure—the one currently trying to burn a hole through my face with their piercing violet eyes—was channeling metal qi, giving the three people quite the eclectic array of cultivation affinities.

"Alice, we're capturing these three. Remember, no qi techniques."

I didn't need to look over to know Alice was ready to fight too, though I was feeling my lack of weapon at the moment. I'd be unable to summon my qi swords, especially when a crate of raw Vitalite was so close. From what I understood, any amount of qi might destabilize the ore in an explosive way. I supposed the fact that more of the boxes in the warehouse had 'REFINED VITALITE' on them instead meant this whole building wasn't suddenly one big explosion waiting to happen, but I wasn't going to risk summoning my qi swords.

I guessed I'd have to use my hands instead. I was thankful Alice and I had sparred a lot without weapons. I was a little jealous that Alice could just ferro-kinesis a weapon for herself whenever she needed one, the silvery gloves now coating her hands drawing my envy. Maybe if I asked, she'd make me a temporary weapon while we're here on Crucible? I'd have to check with her when I got the chance.

For now though, I needed to focus on the fight because the trio currently staring at us must have realized they didn't have time to waste because they sprang into motion and rushed at Alice and I.

I was prepared for a tough fight—the trio all feeling only a little weaker than Alice and I in terms of body cultivation and both Alice and I's spirit cultivation was essentially not in play. I was a little surprised then when all three of them were so much…slower than I expected.

With the wind qi flowing through my eyes and brain, their movements were slowed down, though not drastic enough that I had a bunch of time to think about what to do. To my heightened senses they moved as fast as I expected a foundation establishment realm—or body cultivation equivalent—cultivator would be without using my true body cultivation which was an impressive boost. I was suddenly glad I had spent so much time sparring with Alice and learning close combat techniques as the earth body cultivator and the thin metal body cultivator clad entirely in black clothes both targeted me.

Ironically, the entirely black outfit the thin one wore would have made them stand out way more than if they just wore normal clothes like their compatriots, masks notwithstanding.

The larger man looked ready to grapple with me, and he looked quite a bite more muscular than I was. Considering I was already at the numerical disadvantage, I figured some amount of additional muscle to leverage might help. I wasn't very experienced with it yet, that facet of the true body cultivation technique feeling honestly pretty weird, but I plied my earth qi in stacks, forcing the muscles to alter and grow. I did my best to prevent any outward effects, but my application of the earth qi was clumsy at best.

They both stopped approaching for a moment, their eyes darting up above my head. The thinner of the pair looked back down to me and narrowed his eyes.

"She's up to something! That weird floaty thing is glowing brighter! Stop her!" The clear voice of a young man called out, convincing his ally to spring toward me. I didn't realize my locus would resonate with the application of earth qi, a silly oversight.

I hadn't finished transforming all of my muscles yet, and was forced to stop part way, leaving my body somewhat lopsided from my inexperience with the technique. I managed to barely slip the bear hug the man tried to catch me with and slammed the heel of my palm into his side, pushing him slightly away and eliciting a grunt of pain. With the moments of reprieve, I restarted the muscle stacking process, focusing on keeping it going throughout the fight.

The gleam of a dagger slithered around the man as he slide backward and thrust toward me, the thin man making use of the temporary break in line of sight to try and finish me quickly. Alice and I had never sparred with weapons during our training, but if I could withstand a full powered blow from her with my body cultivation, I should be able to stop a small blade…hopefully.

I hardened every part of my hand in turn, muscles, tendons and ligaments, then bones, and thrust my arm out to meet the blade. The relatively soft metal cut against my skin, tearing it open, but when metal met muscle, my flesh won and the tightly packed bundles in my hand pushed against the oncoming blade, easily bending the metal with a clanging sound. The impact from the blow vibrated down my arm, sending an ache up to my shoulder. Ouch! I'd have to remember to harden more of my arm next time I tried something like that.

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The thin man's momentum was slightly halted from the impact of his weapon on my hand but it wasn't enough to stop it completely. His body was wrenched to the side from the unexpected force and he stumbled slightly before regaining his composure and trying to regain his balance. I jumped forward and tried to strike him, releasing the strengthening in my hand to regain my lost dexterity. I wouldn't have time to grapple him with his ally already almost back in the fight and prepping to rush me, so I needed to land something decisive to knock him out and make it a one on one.

I underestimated his reaction speed however, and he managed to block the punch I threw toward his temple. He tried to grab my arm, hoping to hold me down long enough for his large friend to grab me. This time, though, he underestimated my strength. I strengthened my entire arm, as well as that shoulder, and slung him toward the man charging at me. He flew roughly into the larger man's chest and was caught with some quick thinking by the brute.

He put his friend down and they watched me warily, now unsure of being able to take down the hapless girl who had intruded on their thievery. I was content waiting, if I was handling these two with ease, Alice must have been trouncing the remaining man, and she'd be joining me soon enough to subdue the two remaining men.

The thin guy looked behind me, towards where I heard Alice and the third man struggling on the ground, and his eyes flared with what I thought was anger. He ran to the side. I thought he was trying to flank me, but instead he ran to one of the crates labeled "RAW VITALITE" and ripped off the lid, revealing the neatly organized bundles of iridescent crystals.

"Hey! What in the worlds are you doing?!" I yelled, sure that whatever he was planning couldn't be anything good if it involved raw Vitalite.

"It's called a distraction!" He answered before pulling out a jagged crystal with chaotic swirling colors from inside the box out and pulled a similar looking crystal from one of the pockets in his clothes. This crystal's colors were just as vibrant—if not moreso—than the raw Vitalite, but seemed to flow in a much more ordered way through the structure of the crystal.

Without preamble, he brought the crystals together and as soon as the crystals touched each other I felt an immediate resonance between them and something deep within my core thrummed with the phenomenon.

He threw the now fused together crystals toward me, the violent energies within the crystals rising in power rapidly. I felt the inherent danger from the crystal combination as it flew toward me and I instinctively jumped to the side, throwing myself behind a nearby metal crate. Moments after I hid, an explosion rang out, shaking my hiding spot. I waited a few moments before peeking out from behind the metal crate. Was Alice ok? I didn't have time to warn her of the impending explosion so she might have gotten caught in it. I looked around, but I couldn't see her or the two I had been fighting anywhere.

Where Alice had been fighting, a large metal wall now stood. The face of the wall I could see was charred with myriad bright and shifting colored burn marks. Within moments of me noticing it, the wall returned to the ground, the colorful scars on the metal now like an impromptu art display on the ground in the center of this warehouse.

With the wall now gone, I could see Alice again, standing off against the two I had been fighting who were now glaring at her from the entrance to the warehouse, the third of their trio on the ground at Alice's feet, unconscious. The pair grit their teeth, probably realizing they wouldn't be able to handle both Alice and I by themselves, turned tail in the warehouse door, and ran. Alice moved to chase after them, but after seeing the power of that Vitalite explosion, I didn't want to risk them doing that again near any bystanders.

"Alice, wait! Don't chase them!"

Luckily she stopped before getting out of the warehouse—hopefully by her own decision to listen and not because she felt she had to—and she walked back over. She looked mostly expressionless, but if I wasn't imagining it, she seemed to have a bit of a slump to her shoulders. Disappointment? That would be an improvement, though her desire to keep fighting people running away might be a little worrying.

I looked to the unconscious man and was wondering when Wei Lin and Zachariah would catch up to us and, right on time to miss all of the action, Wei Lin's voice called out from outside the warehouse.

"Astra? Alice? Are you two in there?"

"Yeah! Come on in you two!" I returned.

While I waited for them to join us in the warehouse, I admired the mosaic of colors on the ground, wondering why the burns turned out that way. I supposed if the explosion came from the various unstable elemental qi within the crystals, then the colors got transferred into the energy that scarred the metal? That was…weird, but also kind of cool? None of the other surfaces that must have been hit with some of the explosive qi were colored, only the part of the ground Alice has used as a shield. Did that mean there was some interaction with Alice's qi within the metal that caused it? I'd have to ask her and Zachariah about it, I didn't know enough about Vitalite to say for sure.

The triple set of footsteps entering the warehouse brought my attention to them and Wei Lin, Zachariah, and Clisto all walked through the open warehouse doors.

"Astra. What happened here?" Zachariah asked.

I gave a quick explanation of what had happened, excluding any of the personal details of my fight due to Clisto listening in. I wasn't really expecting the man to follow Wei Lin and Zachariah, and I would have preferred he stayed outside. When I finished, Zachariah was going to speak, but was interrupted by Clisto.

"Why did you capture one!? If they're a member of Flux, they'll kill themselves and anyone around them when they realize they've been captured! We must stop him before he can pose a danger!"

I ignored his whining and waited for what Zachariah wanted to ask.

"Did you two have any issues fighting them with your restrictions?"

I shrugged.

"Honestly, I'm missing my swords, but other than that, it's fine. Which reminds me, Alice can you make me a sword or two I can use until we find a suitable replacement? Can you also make sure it's as strong as possible? It breaking due to my body cultivation being too strong might cause issues."

She nodded and walked off. I guessed we'd be stealing some of the warehouse walls or crate materials for a sword, but they'd understand, Zachariah hadn't stopped her after all.

"Hey! I'm talking to you! You're a mere guard and you forget your station! Don't ignore me!" Clisto whined, and I couldn't stop the disgust and fury from scarring my face as I turned to face the man. He reeled back at the snarl on my face. I was ready to yell at him, not currently in the mood for this entire farce after nearly being blown up, but Zachariah intervened before I could.

"Let's all try and stay calm. Astra, we were warned that any we capture may react negatively, but luckily it seems he is incapacitated for now. Surely with all of us here we should be able to prevent anything bad from happening."

He turned to Clisto.

"Sir Clisto. While they may be my guards, you are to treat them with the same respect as you would treat me. Or would you say that the job of protecting the envoy of the Beltigo Corporation is something handled by 'mere guards' who don't understand their station?"

Clisto paled and quickly backed up a step.

"O-of course not, sir Zachariah. I lost reason for a few moments there. I ask that you don't tell sir Discen of this lapse in judgment of mine."

Zachariah nodded.

"You simply must mind your words going forward. For now, it seems we have a prisoner to interrogate."

He looked over to the downed man and I followed suit, the man's eyes squinting in pain as he slowly regained consciousness, the yelling probably stirring him awake.

He took care not to move too quickly as he sat up, rubbing his head.

"Ouch…what do they feed that monster…"

Once he was fully sitting up, he finally noticed all three of us staring at him and his eyes widened. Taking Discen's warning somewhat to heart, I stamped my foot down between his legs, hoping to discourage any bad decisions before starting my short interrogation. The man's eyes widened further and his focus switched rapidly between my foot and my eyes, the smirk on my face making him swallow involuntarily. I leaned down toward him, folding my hands on top of my knee as I did.

"So, mister big bad thief, who are you, who were your friends, and what were you all planning to do with all that Vitalite?"

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