"Were those things really Guardians?" Mark asked with a mixture of disgust and thoughtfulness clear in his voice, heaving a little as he lifted his oversized mace out of the mangled remains of an oversized rat. He kicked the sole intact part of the carcass, a hind leg and grunted. "Some of the Iron Wolves were not this easy to kill."

He was right, of course, but it also made sense and was another point in favour of Brent's hypothesis. It seemed the only Guardians that hadn't yet tried their luck at attacking some of the higher levelled people — sooner or later ending up as corpses once they found someone tougher than themselves — were the weaklings lingering at the periphery of the monster territories, looking for easier prey. Which a quick check of the combat logs quickly confirmed.

***

[Congratulations! You have assisted in defeating an Ex-Guardian: Mutated Sewer Rat - lvl 6]

[Congratulations! You have assisted in defeating an Ex-Guardian: Steelfeather Matriarch - lvl 3]

[Congratulations! You have assisted in defeating an Ex-Guardian: Rusted Alpha - lvl 7]

[Congratulations! You have assisted in defeating an Ex-Guardian: Mutated Sewer Rat - lvl 4]

***

"This thing killed half a dozen people before we caught it," Brent said darkly, his stare heavy as it bore into Mark. "And those are only the ones we know of. Weak as it might seem to you, it was not. Not to most people, and most certainly not to the people who ended up as its victims."

Mia grimaced. While true, she really did not need her mood souring any further. It was hard keeping the darker thoughts at bay as it was, and she doubted she could have managed without her friends' comforting presence. It would have been so easy to fall into a slump of depression and never reemerge.

"Well, we beat it," Mia said with forced enthusiasm. "It'll not kill anyone anymore, and with its Rift gone, no other monster like it'll spawn again in the city either. We did good here."

"That we did," Helene said softly, patting Mia on the shoulder with a knowing look.

"First off, fuck you Brent," Mark said, glaring up at the larger human. "I don't know what you're insinuating, but I don't like it. Second, what I meant was that we could have left killing this thing to the soldiers. A few of those explosive bullets would have done it in. We could have been killing a Guardian that was actually dangerous to others, or speeding up the push towards the Rift. These last three hours had been a waste of our time and energy."

"We agreed we would do this as a show of force," Mia said in a tone she hoped was calming, smiling apologetically at Mark. He was right, of course, in a way, but also not. The dwarf, too, was likely suffering from the same depressive mood Mia was, even if he didn't show a single lick of it on his face or in his demeanour. It made sense he'd be grumpy as a result. Especially if he just wanted that Rift to be over and done with.

"Right," Mark said, scowling, though it was not aimed at Mia. "Well, we did that. This fucker was the last one."

Brent just grunted and turned away, Lina chewed on her cheeks like she didn't know what to say and ended up staying silent. Helene looked morose and tired while Clive just looked down at the dead monster with a steely resolve shining in his eyes.

Mia turned her eyes up, making eye contact with Carmilla and smiled slightly. Out of all of them, the vampiress was dealing with all the death and suffering they'd been exposed to lately the best, though that didn't mean she was any better off than them. She had worries and fears of her own, even if they were detached from the others'.

Everyone was suffering in their own way. Everyone was always dealing with something. That had been true even before the apocalypse, and rang true even now.

We shouldn't be taking it out on each other. Mia thought, her smile turning troubled. But what could she do? She could make sure she herself didn't take her dour mood out on others, but she didn't think it likely the others would take well to her just telling them to 'grow up' or something.

"Let's head back," Mia said, gathering the brooding group's attention to herself and put a smile on her face. "We're done here. I think some food and a bath would do all of us some good."

Looking down at herself conspicuously, Mia grimaced. Her once snow white jeans were drenched in mud up to her calves, and the thighs on one side were dark from still-drying blood. Not her own, thankfully, but a bird Camie had bisected had managed to end up plastering its intestines across her leg. Which, her dumb Lesser Ward of Protection, didn't stop for some godforsaken reason.

As they set off, Mia lingered in the back and waited for Camie to slip up next to her before she followed behind them. A few hundred metres back sat a military vehicle, in which sat their driver.

"This sucks," Mia whispered, leaning into her girlfriend with a sigh. Happily, she noted how Camie barely hesitated before she wrapped a hand around her shoulder, and she herself returned the half-hug by sliding her arm around the vampire's waist. The soft scent of roses mixed with the musky scent of pines caressed her nose calmly, and she took a rather rude sniff as she leaned her head on Camie's shoulder. She didn't say anything, but the weight of the shapely arm around her shoulders was enough to lift Mia's spirits. "Thanks. I- … just thanks."

"You're welcome," Camie chirped, a slight bounce slipping into her steps, and Mia couldn't help but smile at her obvious joy.

******

A filling lunch and a quick cleanup later Mia once again felt like a human- … errr, halvyr? Anyway, being clean and fed, they only took half an hour to rest and recover before they threw themselves back into action.

Mia wouldn't have ventured as far as to say everyone was suddenly back to cracking jokes and laughing like weeks ago when they first left Jeff's building, far from it, but it certainly helped. Helene had lost some of the exhaustion that had been lining her face, and Mia even caught a few hints of a smile fluttering across Brent's face as he listened to Mark and Lina arguing about whether using Earth magic to control how a die landed was considered cheating in a dice game.

The army was already pushing into the forest by the time they reached their position.

Just as they did, Mia barely caught sight of a mane of golden blonde hair disappearing behind a bend in a hurry. She frowned as she thought of the man it was attached to. Tristan, as he was apparently called, had made every effort to avoid breathing the same air as her.

To say she was weirded out by that would be an understatement, especially since the Elf was the singular strongest person in the city, with maybe only Carmilla being able to give him a run for his money. Mia had seen his handiwork before; demolished buildings, disintegrated monsters, and overall chaotic destruction were all he left in his wake.

He disliked her, and she was sure her magical protections would do little to stop his charmed arrows that went right through heavily armoured monsters and concrete buildings alike.

That didn't leave them alone on the street, though, not by a long shot. Soldiers were spread out, up on rooftops, down in alleys, hidden inside armoured vehicles but they weren't the ones who held Mia's attention — and prompted an extra bout of vigilance from her — no, those were the people who were quite clearly not soldiers.

Men and women sat around on the sidewalk, on benches, and just lying in the grass beside it. They wore the strangest things, bulky plate armour, lithe leathers clinging to their bodies or wide-brimmed hats that'd be fit for a witch. Had this been old Earth, Mia would have applauded their creativity and skill at putting together cosplays that convincing. Alas, it wasn't, and it just showed that the people resting in the questionable safety of the haphazard encampment were those who had taken the opportunity that was the System and its Quest by the balls and never let go.

By the looks of it, this was where the teams currently off-rotation were provided by the army to rest up and get some refreshments. There was even a few stalls set up by braver merchants selling anything from hotdogs to smoothies. Mia startled at that, her gaze stopping on the hotdog stand. It was working, which meant it had a power-source.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Did they give a damned portable generator to a hotdog stand of all things? Mia wondered.

"Oh look, the star team finally showed up!" An obnoxious, nasal voice shouted from the side, and Mia turned to face it with a scowl.

The man looked to be well into his twenties, if not early thirties but maybe the unkept nature of his face just made him seem older. He was well past the age where throwing childish insults at people was considered anything other than shameful, but that might have just been Mia's opinion. His five friends certainly found it funny enough, throwing looks ranging from scowls to frowns their way.

Mia recognised the man leading them, Ervin, if she recalled his name correctly. He was one of the faces of the group that called itself the Mages' Union, along with Aiden. The group of people who had come together to form what was basically a workers' union after the battle against the goblins a while back.

"Go back to your nap, small man," a distinctively rough voice called back, thick with derision as Rex the lizardman poked his head out of a parked APC's open window. "They will at least be able to keep up with us, unlike your sorry bunch."

What's going on? Mia wondered, but glancing back at Ervin and finding him looking like he'd bitten into a lemon, yet still kept his mouth shut, gave her an idea. Rex was likely his obnoxious, violent self and beat the just as obnoxious human into the ground the first time Ervin mouthed off to him.

"Come on," Rex shouted, now looking at Mia's team. "We don't have all day. There are monsters in need of some killing."

True enough. Mia mused, but she wasn't quite ready to shrug off the whole thing. Glancing over, she found Ervin glaring at them, then turning to talk to his team.

Around them, at least three or four whole teams were resting on benches, snacking on sandwiches, almost forty people in all. And all of them were gravitating towards Ervin, not quite hanging onto his every word, but close to it.

There were some detached groups still, but closed off and only showing their backs to the world, but they weren't many.

With most people throwing their lot in with the military — like us — I guess with these unionists and the beastkin we have three factions in the city. Maybe four if we count Jeff and his small group as one.

Then there were the civilians, the people who'd kept away from the fighting but were nonetheless integral to the city's survival. People like the ones growing their food, purifying river water and the various crafters who were just touching upon the beginnings of what was possible for them.

Mia thought it likely all of them would start forming unions, or something similar sooner or later too. Maybe guilds, if they wanted to go with a fantasy-esque term instead.

"Let's go," Brent said, his gaze washing over the resting fighters with a frown on his face.

Mia nodded, her ears twitching as she let the distant chatter come into focus. She leaned into Camie, letting the vampiress guide her steps as she focused on Ervin's conversation.

"-elling you, they are up to something," Ervin said and Mia could almost see the glare he was wearing. "Those beastkin had been oddly cooperative, but I still remember their damned raids. Those animals gave in to their instincts, we can't trust them."

"One of them beat up my ma' over a bag of rice," a younger voice said, sounding like he was suppressing his anger. "I don't know why the army isn't treating them like the criminals they are."

"Because they are weak," a feminine voice said, halfway between disgusted and angry. "They need their dumb muscles. In every fight, those soldiers just sit back and let the monsters mangle us before stepping in to help."

"We are just pawns to them," Ervin said in a regretful tone. "But we will change that. That's why we made the Union, so they can't just use us and then throw us aside like used and broken toys."

"You know what I think? I think we shoul-"

"Steps," Carmilla said gently, nudging Mia and snapping her focus back to her immediate surroundings.

She blinked, then looked down. Steps. Right. Lazily stepping up, she grabbed onto the handhold up the vehicle's side and heaved herself into the large space inside. The others were already in, and Mia quickly took her spot next to her mother with Camie sitting down next to her a second later.

The doors slammed shut and the engine started up with a stuttering rumble. Out of one car and into another, really, she'd spent more time bouncing around in military cars lately than she ever would have liked.

But they were the safest mode of transport around the city, so she couldn't complain too much. The seats could have done with a softer pillow though, she could already feel the tingly sensation of her ring's healing magic going to work on her backside after a particularly nasty pothole sent her at least ten centimetres up into the air before gravity slammed her back down with an indignant yelp.

"There are seatbelts on this thing you know," Helene murmured in a mild reprimand, patting her own seatbelt running across her chest.

Mia just grunted, then put her own seatbelts on, earning some mild teasing from Mark for it. Who would rather have died than live with being 'uncool' or whatever. Mia just rolled her eyes at him. He was just getting the pre-combat nerves and talking out of his ass as a result anyway.

Instead, she closed her eyes and calmed her breathing. Her focus turned inwards, grabbing ahold of her mana and then she got started on doing the magical equivalent of some stretches. Whatever mana she lost could be easily recovered anyway since the last of the exercises she had started including in her regimen was one that boosted her passive regeneration.

The spirit naturally drew in ambient mana, slowly 'branding' it with its own signature, thus making it its own. Some meditation exercises were made to boost that natural process, lending it a guiding hand.

By the time she was all done, her energy channels felt much more responsive and far less fragile. That feeling she knew wasn't all that accurate. At best, she'd just boosted her channels' width, resilience and responsiveness by a handful of percentages. The important bit was that she could channel a bit more mana without having to worry about rupturing her channels in the process.

She finished up just in time too, as her Spirit Sense buzzed in the back of her mind, notifying her of the much increased miasma in the air around her. The Rift was close, and the monsters were even closer. Just at the edges of her perceptions, she felt dozens of them move about, and her ears heard their eerie growls reverberate through metallic lungs.

There was not a single monster below level 10 around. All of them were Rank 1, if only on its first few levels. Mia gathered her mana, and before they descended from the car, applied her Lesser Wards to everyone. It wouldn't do much, not against monsters a Rank above her, but it might just give one of them the edge they need to escape death. Anything could be healed with expensive enough Elixirs and powerful enough Healers, anything but death.

Then they exited the vehicle, Mark leading the way with his bulky armour manifesting around him as his feet touched the ground. Sporadic gunfire and explosions that'd been muffled by the car's thick armour came alight with the door's opening, followed by angry or pained growls and roars of the metallic monsters.

Mia's heart pounded in her chest, despite the many times she's had to face down monsters before. Maybe it would go away with time, or maybe it wouldn't. A future self of herself that looked on to monsters a dozen times her size made of pure metal running at her with a deadpan expression and a calmly beating heart would probably never exist.

There was just something horrifying about monsters that her lizard brain couldn't accept as normal.

"Focus," Brent said, sword already drawn as he stood at Mark's shoulder while the mages descended behind them. "Keep together and preserve your mana. We're running out of System-made mana potions, so if you run out, you'll only have the locally-made ones."

Mia grimaced and nodded. Those things didn't only taste foul and nasty to not only her tastebuds, but her spirit too. They also restored an absolutely insignificant amount of mana compared to the System's potions. Same went for the health potions, the ones made by the local alchemists struggled to mend larger gashes and had no hope of regrowing lost tissue, while Mia'd seen the System's healing elixirs regrow a man's hand in a minute flat.

They also shared the homegrown mana potions' problem of their low quality and ingredients, making their consumption quickly reach the body's and spirit's ceiling for potions. The body and spirit could only handle having to remove so much magical gunk before it reached its limit.

Mia took in the scene before her, her Spirit Sense, eyes and ears working in tandem to grant her the most information possible. Her Multitasking came in handy once more, allowing her to filter the overwhelming amount of incoming information somewhat and make it almost digestible.

The first thing she noticed were the soldiers. Unlike before, they were fighting now and were not leaving the non-military fighters to handle the heavy lifting. Sure, those people were still firmly on the frontline, but the soldiers stood behind them, rifles shouldered and barking in quick burst as they delivered various types of bullets to their enemies.

Mia'd seen the explosive bullets the man in the platoon usually assigned to accompanying her group could make, but there was much more variety here. Bullets exploding into swarming arcs of lightning, others landing like cannonballs and leaving head-sized dents in the distant metallic monsters while yet more whistled through the air like arrows, kicking up a gale behind them.

She then felt the many barriers spread out through the battlefield. Earthen walls a metre high provided safe firing positions, while shimmering barriers made of Air or even Arcane stopped thrown javelins by and spikes of iron.

The soldiers might have had weaker Classes, but they were specialised. One might only have the ability to charm bullets, another the ability to make the barriers while the third kept over-watch through some ability similar to Mia's Spirit Sense, but when they all came together, they more than made up for their lack of versatility.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, hmm? Mia mused, her own Shield and piercing Bolt spells readied for any threat, not that any seemed forthcoming with the vicious advance of the troops ahead. I guess Ervin was talking out of his ass again.

If nothing else, the army's performance boosted Mia's confidence in their success and it lightened the invisible weight on her shoulders. She and her friends didn't have to do everything, and nor would they have to resort to depending on either the beastkin or the unionists overly much.

With lighter steps, she followed Brent as they went to relieve one of the teams acting as the tip of this advancing spear.

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