In an island away from the city, stood a big building we called as base.
For me, it was a base for my guild.
Most of the time I spent my days here, with my friends or sometimes alone.
Our guild was small, only a few people were the members of this guild.
I was sitting at a table, leaning my head down while exhaling my breath.
I was tired. Tired of not doing anything. Tired of waiting.
Waiting for a mission to be given to us.
For a guild like mine, getting deployed to a mission was something that rarely happen.
Our guild was on the last rank in the region, after all. All we could do was to hope we could get a mission.
Turning on my Guild-Arm, I looked around at the menus. Nothing interest me.
I sighed deeply. Looking around, I noticed no one was around.
It wouldn't be surprising. I mean, the dinner hall was big, yes, but most of the members were already resting at their place or just taking a stroll around the city.
'I guess I should take a walk...'
Standing up from my seat, I turned off my Guild-Arm and began my steps to go outside.
At the lobby, I thought I would see our operator on her usual spot, but no. No one was in the lobby other than myself.
I could only exhale my breath.
When I came to the outside of the building, I took a deep breath. I saw the sky full of stars and the moon shone bright.
The night was cold, but it was also kind of comforting.
Maybe because I felt alone that night that I felt it was comforting me.
I began my steps, to the city known as Solaris City. From this island, there were two routes you could take to the city. One was the bridge that connects the city and this island, the other was using the railcar.
Of course I chose to use the railcar. Using the bridge would be tiring, it took around 2 miles from the base, not to mention the bridge was closed because it was 10pm. The bridge would only open from 6am to 9pm. Also only my guild and other authorized guilds had access to the bridge.
I entered the railcar. I sat alone, watching the luminous light of the city with the sound of the sea waves accompanied me.
I sighed with my eyes closed, thinking if I could get a comfortable night sleep knowing the next day would be the beginning of my year in an academy of Guilders.
As the railcar began its tracks, I turned my gaze to the sky.
'It's pretty,' I thought.
I enjoyed that moment. Every time, whenever I was in that car alone.
Only that day, something was different.
As I closed my eyes, I remembered a precious memory I kept deep inside my heart.
I'd watch this view with someone. He was a good boy, always helped me whenever I was in trouble. We even lived together, but for a short time. He was the one who helped awaken my powers and taught me on how to use it.
Remembering it made me sad. I left him without telling him anything. I just...couldn't tell him that time the reason...But after all that had happened...I...
"I'm sorry..." I mumbled to myself.
A sudden stop from the railcar surprised me. I admit, the railcar was slow, but I guess I got too caught up in the moment that I didn't realize I had arrived in the city station.
I stood from my seat, wanting to leave the station immediately.
As I began my steps, I felt a tear fell from my eyes.
I wiped it out with my hand.
I was definitely caught up in the moment.
Under the moonlight, I walked through the streets to my apartment.
Walking casually, I noticed many people around the streets, walking while talking to each other with some laughs.
Sometimes, looking at them like this made me happy, knowing there's something worth fighting for.
I could only smile looking at the people around me.
However...
As if it was trying to disrupt this feeling, I felt something was off.
The uneasiness atmosphere I suddenly felt was taking my interest.
Stopped on my tracks, I looked around.
In plain sight, there was nothing wrong.
A few moments later, a notification came to my Guild-Arm.
Turning it on, the words that appeared on the holographic screen made my eyes widened in an instant.
'Immediate directive?'
In other words, I got a mission. However it was strange that I got it so suddenly.
'Unless...'
Opening the directive, I knew...
The bizarre feeling I felt, becoming a reality.
"Monsters are detected in the vicinity. You're the closest to the area. You're tasked to eliminate them while protecting the civilians."
As I've had read it clearly, I heard a scream coming from a tall building in front of me.
The moment I looked at the building, I was shocked.
It was a shopping mall, a good place for the monsters to hunt humans.
"Of all places...!"
I ran to the building in haste.
Before I enter the building, I saw a Howler inside the mall was growling loudly while staring at a woman who was on the ground.
She was paralyzed by fear. She couldn't move her own body. Her eyes widened, her body was shaking. All she did was staring back at the Howler.
For the Howler, she was a good prey to kill.
While running, I pointed my left palm to the Howler, summoning a red magic circle in the process.
"Pyro Surge!"
The magic circle on my palm released a strong, wide fire which engulfed the Howler. It was growling in pain before it died and vanished into black dust.
Normally I had to enchant a spell before casting a magic, but with my unique Rapid-Magic ability, I could skip the enchanting part. This ability let me to cast up to three magic consecutively, just by enchanting the magic's name. Also I could charge the next magic to make it launchable at certain timing, since commonly after you had finished enchanting a spell, the magic automatically activated to the target.
However this ability of mine would only work on low to mid-tier fire element. For another element or higher tier fire element, I still need to chant the spell. It was useful, indeed, albeit its limitations but also consumed more energy.
The woman still frightened. Everyone would feel it, if it's their first experience encountering the monsters. I felt it too, back then. But...things had changed. It's a life and death matter, after all. Getting scared at them now would be the end of my life.
Turning my gaze around me, I saw there were some people looking at me. Probably because they were surprised to see help coming sooner than they'd have expected.
Maybe.
Averting my gaze back to the woman, I approached her and lent her my hand.
"You okay?"
The woman nodded and accepted my hand.
"Thank you..."
I shook my head as a respond. "I did what I had to do."
It didn't take long before we heard a loud growl.
"There are more of them upstairs!"
Giving a nod, I told them, "Get out of here! Quick!"
Without further ado, they ran to the outside of the building, away from the monsters.
After the first floor became empty, I decided to go upstairs.
A few floors had been taken, eventually I found a Howler, looking away from where I was. Its position was perfect for me to get a stealth kill.
But I knew it wouldn't be that easy.
I failed to notice there were two of them around me. The moment they saw me, they growled, attracting the sole Howler I supposed to kill.
Then I got surrounded by them.
A sudden growl attracted my attention. One of them jumped, attempting to attack me from behind.
Evading the attack, I saw the other two were about to begin their joined attack.
I began to enchant a spell.
"Blessed blazing fire, destroy my enemies with this name..."
A large red magic circle appeared, aiming to the Howlers.
The two Howlers jumped, lifting their claws for an attempt to strike me down.
However, they were too late.
"Flame Drive!"
The circle shot several fire bolts in a wide arc to all of the Howlers, burning them to end their lives.
Subsequently, I realized I did something terrible.
The area I was in took a lot of damage from my magic.
Some fabrics and electronic goods got burned. The fire grew larger, and with the heat and the ashes around, soon the fire spread to another floor.
Casting a water magic wouldn't be enough to extinguish these fire. Even if it could, I would waste a lot of energy to do it.
Not that I wouldn't do it, but if there was no more threat, I might do it.
The lights suddenly went off, too. Only the light from the fire brighten the area.
At time like this, the emergency power should be active, at least the lights so people could see where they would go.
I was wondering why, before I heard someone was calling me.
"Hey!"
A man walked to me. I stood still while looking at my surroundings, then to the man.
"Are you okay, sir?"
Judging by his looks, he was one of the maintenance staffs of this building. A closer look from his name tag hanging by his shirt pocket supported my hunch.
The man gave a nod then wiped a sweat on his forehead. He seemed worried that you could see it clearly by his face.
"Thank you for taking down those monsters."
A shook of my head was my respond.
The man gave a sigh and said, "I'm sorry to say this, but the emergency system won't work. I was supposed to complete the repair, but now the monsters are here and this place are under attack, I can't finish my job."
Such timing. No wonder the sprinklers and emergency lights didn't work.
Soon after, some of the electronics goods around us exploded. We went to cover to protect ourselves from blast.
"Man, guess you overdid it."
I did, and I didn't expect my magic would cause this much damage. I shouldn't use a high tier magic in the first place, but...what's done is done.
More of the explosions came from above us.
An immediate curse came from the man, "God, now those machines are exploding!"
"Machines?"
I had a bad feeling about it.
Another explosion went off above me. Thinking it through, I was convinced at what was the cause of those explosions.
"Above us is where all electronic machines are! Arcades, TVs, anything! If you don't stop those monsters, they will destroy everything, including this building, maybe!"
I knew it. It was a shopping mall, so there must be a place where they would gather the electronics in a same place.
When I felt the temperature around us was rising, I realized the floor we were in had been swallowed by the fire. With the smoke getting thicker, it was getting hard for us to breathe and see.
I looked at the man and told him, "You need to go! Let me handle the rest!"
A nod I received as a respond. "Be careful! There are another type of monsters, heard it from the people who managed to escape!"
After he gave that warning, he ran to the emergency stairs while I was going upstairs, looking for another civilian if there were any.
As I walked on the stairs, I heard a growl, followed by a loud thud from a metal.
I know the Howlers wouldn't attack a metal, let alone hitting it.
Remembering the man said, it must be another type. Slowly but surely I went upstairs to find what was the cause of that sound.
The moment I came to the floor, I found what I was looking for.
One Gram Lizard was there. It was waiting at the stairs I was on.
It then growled loudly followed by smashing its scimitar to its shield. Looking by its bare teeth, I knew it was thinking that I was a prey for it.
I gritted my teeth. I didn't expect there was one waiting for me.
Exhaling my breath, I muttered, "Alright, come now..."
Positioning my right hand to the left, I lowered my stance.
"Crimson Katana!"
As I shouted the name, a katana appeared in my grasp and I swung it to my other side.
My weapon was known as Materia. Like its name, it's a katana with its blade unadorned but colored in bright, fiery crimson. No markings could be found, it only need my brave will to be strong and sharp.
"Come!"
With my shout, I positioned my right hand to my front, leaning the katana horizontally while my left palm holding the back of the blade.
The lizard began to run to me.
I took an immediate action to dash to the lizard.
The moment we were close, I dragged my weapon to my right side, eventually slashing the lizard with one attack without allowing it to attack me.
After it had been taken care of, I prepared another stance.
My sense told me there were more of them around, and I was right.
A few Howlers and Gram Lizards approached me, their gaze of hunger was enough to say it was full of intent to kill me.
Like I would let that happen.
From what I saw, no more civilians around. With that situation had been cleared up, I could focus on taking care the monsters.
I began my attack firsthand to avoid getting swarmed by them. Dashing to the Howlers, I slashed through two of them with a horizontal slash.
Before any of them could move, I performed another dash to one of the lizard followed with a horizontal slash as I shouted, "Leaf Cutter!"
A Howler attempted to attack me from beside me, but I already casted a fire magic.
"Ignite Field!"
A red magic circle appeared below me, casting a flood of fire to my surroundings. The fire not only burned the Howler which attempting to attack me, but to any other monsters in the area.
Alas, the machines around me got burned too. Soon after some of it exploded, causing a strong blast to every living being on my location.
"Ah!"
The blast thrown me to a window. Quite the pain I took there, but I didn't take any bad injuries.
As I looked at my back, I was aware the window behind me wasn't just a window.
It was one big window, located at the edge of the floor. If the window was broken, anyone or anything would fall to the ground.
When I looked back to my front, I saw nothing other than fire everywhere. For once I thought, 'Good, the monsters are all gone," but I was wrong.
A few of them still alive. Even one of the lizard still in good shape, just from its appearance.
"Oh, come on..."
I couldn't help but to complain. I was tired, too much using magic was beginning to tiring me up. My consciousness even began to fade.
However, I got no choice but to prepare my stance again.
Suddenly, another explosion went off, the blast was strong enough to throw me again to the window.
But I was unlucky. The window broke, and I got thrown out of the building.
With that, I was falling to the ground and lost my consciousness.
My name is Suzuka Minamiya, and this is our story.