Krystal resisted the urge to tap her foot on the stone hallway, or snap her fingers, or shuffle step while marching. It was just so…uniform and serious, she thought.
She, Mikel, Heron, and Danika, were wearing their Agaza uniform, carrying Plasma Lancets, collapsible spears, side-blades, and an expansion buckler while following behind Master Gethen.
The bowels of the mountain were much more hollow than she expected, with longstrides of hallways and hundreds, or perhaps even thousands, of chambers and storerooms. They had entered the tunnels under the campus and each section of it lit up with light panels when they came within a dozen paces of it.
'It means passage here can't be hidden,' she thought idly. Anyone travelling the tunnels would see that there was someone there through the lights. Unless there were ways to avoid the proximity lights?
"This isn't how I expected to spend the week," Mikel whispered beside her.
"Yeah, I haven't been back in the Willow in days," Krystal grumbled.
"It's part of our curriculum, Heron said simply.
The entire class of two hundred and ten students were out in force, divided into squads of ten. The four of them were in one squad with five other normal class students and an Elite class leader, a blonde-haired, feisty girl named Gwendith Sharine. Of course, they were following behind the instructors now and would be doing so until they reached Bellton Hold that was only a few hundred paces from the barrier.
They'd been up since an hour before dawn, had a simple breakfast and were headed to the fortress once it became clear that the storm would hit today.
"What do you think we'll be doing?" Mikel asked.
"Oh, that's right. You four aren't from Rumiga City." One of their squadmates, Leland Danaria, a boy with his red hair gathered at the nape of his neck, said. "We're probably going to patrol for leaks."
"Leaks?"
"Yup. When the storm comes, it breaks the barrier walls, and part of the Chaos seeps into the plane. My elder sister said it's part of Agaza's curriculum."
"Oh. Thanks."
"No problem."
Krystal exchanged glances with Mikel. What was so bad about that? For that matter, what were they supposed to do when they found the leaks? Well, that's what the briefing they were heading was for, she supposed.
After ten minutes, they arrived. The tunnel they were walking in turned ninety degrees to the left and they were met with a closed metal gate. Master Gethen touched his palm to a concealed panel on the right-hand side wall, channelled Animus into it, and then stepped back. A moment later, the gate opened smoothly, retracting into the ceiling and floor.
They marched through and it was more tunnels, though this time they were reinforced metal corridors instead of worked stone. Krystal could see barely glowing runescript running on the baseboard and near the ceiling.
Another ten-minute walk and they arrived at a hall. A group of Legionnaires in red coats cut similar enough to Agaza's uniform that Krystal initially thought they were older students or maybe staff. But no, the insignia on their left sleeves wasn't Agaza's crossed rifle-blades. Instead, it was a bronze carronade with a kite shield behind it. Legion Agminis.
They observed the students coming into formations by squad and as soon as they stood at attention, the ranking officer, a stern-looking woman with grey hair addressed them.
"Listen up, Agaza cadets!"
Krystal jumped when the woman started yelling. Her voice boomed and echoed in the hall. She wasn't the only one to flinch and reflexively cover her ears.
"The Chaos Storm is coming and your task is to help protect the city. Divided into squads, you will patrol the Undermountain. What are you looking for? Chaos springs! The storm breaks the planar barrier and lets the primordial Chaos into the plane. The leaks will be small but left alone, they will grow and eventually consume the city! Find any leak, send a report and wait for acknowledgement. Your other task!" She raised her hand with two fingers held out. "Kill or destroy anything you find around these leaks! From the smallest mouse to bats, bugs, and even moss!"
"We're exterminators?" Mikel grunted with a disbelieving face. "Why though?"
"That's all, dismissed!"
"Squad leaders front and centre!" Master Gethen called.
Krystal and the others waited at attention, trying their best not to move excessively. Krystal really wanted to scratch the itch on her nose but she held it in.
When the squad leaders returned, they had a crystal screen and a crane satchel hanging off their shoulders.
"Third Squad, we're headed to the southeast," Gwendith announced. "Squad column formation!"
The ten of them positioned themselves in line two abreast with Gwendith in the lead on the left-hand side. The squad was composed of two teams, though they were somewhat unbalanced with three Warders and a single Destroyer. Heron and Danika were two of the Warders while a stocky boy named Peyton Simmons was the third. Peyton stood next to Gwendith.
"Follow."
Holding the crystal screen in hand, Gwendith led the squad down one of the hallways until they emerged out of the metal hallways and back into worked stone. They had to go through a metal gate first though.
"Why do we have to kill everything?" Krystal voiced out loud.
"Hmmph, you country bumpkins," Gwendith snorted, though there was no heat in her voice. "The Chaos Storm changes things. The Chaos springs will awaken any creature that comes near it."
"And?"
"Monsters." Leland said. "They become dangerous monsters. If left alone."
"Wyldlings?"
"No. Something worse."
"How could it be worse?"
"They aren't suppressed by Rumiga, bumpkin," Gwendith growled.
Krystal's eyes twitched. Uppity swarm fodder!
"We're here. We're patrolling four and a half longstrides of tunnel," Gwendith pointed out their positions. "Scouts up front, ten paces ahead."
Krystal sighed as she took point. She closed her eyes then slapped her cheeks with her palms. Serious business now. Lives were on the line.
"Has the storm started yet?" She suddenly asked.
"No, but I think it will in a few minutes," Heron said from behind her. He was her fallback point, in case she ran into something she couldn't easily handle.
"Right."
"Hold and rest." Gwendith commanded. "We'll proceed once the storm starts. Brace yourselves."
Brace? The city folk sat on the ground with their backs on the wall. The four Faroners mimicked them after a moment. Danika was at the rear of the column while Mikel was at the centre, being the only destroyer. Heron sat beside her.
"I wonder how Yuri's doing?" Krystal asked while watching Heron out of the corner of her eye.
"Haaah."
"Hmm, she went shopping with the Foster twins the other day." She saw Heron's mouth twitch while she held in a grin. "Ah, well, I don't think they did anything other than shop, knowing how airheaded she is. Though they probably had dinner. I wonder if they stayed out late and looked at the Chaos streams at night. As bad as the storms would be, the hues of the night skies are beautiful."
"Hrmm."
"Well, you know those two have been feeding her chocolate truffles? Ah, they've got her hooked on them. Oh, I wish I knew where they got them cheap."
"Urk."
"Hue hue," Krystal chuckled. "Ah well, as long as they take care of her."
"Quit it," Heron finally hissed.
"Huh, what?"
"Quit poking at me."
"Whatever do you mean, Heron?" The boy glared at her but Krystal tutted back. "Come now, you really shouldn't antagonize someone who's quite close to your…love?"
"Er… ah, what do you mean?"
"Oh, Heron, everyone knows you're smitten with her. Well, except for Yuri, anyway. It's quite funny."
"Oh."
"Hehehe."
"What do you want?"
"Hmmm, oh nothing."
Krystal couldn't help it. Stirring up trouble just gets her heart fluttering like mad. It didn't help that Heron thought that he hid his emotions well, but anyone who knew him knows that he often wore his heart on his sleeve.
Well, teasing Yuri wasn't as much fun, at least when it came to matters of the heart. Though Krystal wondered how long before her friend would feel any kind of attraction to boys.
The ground shook.
If they hadn't been seated, it would have been easy to fall. Everything was normal one moment, and then the next…
"Urk!" At the next moment, Krystal grunted as something pressed down on her. Her back bent and she tried to push against the ground with her hands. Her arms trembled, and she knew the next moment, she would collapse.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Heron with a hand braced against the ground. His teeth were bared, and sweat poured down his forehead.
"Arrrgh!" he yelled.
The others around her were struggling too. What was this?
"De….deploy yo...ur…Fie..ld! She heard Gwendith gasp.
A light red, well pink, glow appeared around the squad leader and it seemed as if the weight disappeared off her back. Her breathing looked less laboured. Following her lead, Krystal did the same thing.
Activating the Field technique was completely different from other Animus techniques. There were no set rules to follow, no inlays to set. One simply flooded their Anima with Animus and then let it seep out to cover their bodies. It ate up a bit of her reserve but once used, maintaining it was a matter of concentration.
"Come…forth!"
She pulled at her core, a sphere of blue clouds, and directed the vapour to spread out. The blue slowly filled up her Anima, churning and boiling as it did. Once she spent about half of her reserve, she pulled it out of her Anima and into her physical body. Her skin started glowing blue and a cloud-like haze spread from her skin, stopping half an inch away from it where it looked as though it had hit an invisible barrier.
The pressure bearing down on her eased. It didn't disappear entirely but it only felt as if she carried a heavy backpack instead of a boulder weighing a thousand Jin on her back. With a sigh of relief, she got to her feet. She wasn't the first to get up, but she wasn't the last either. Heron stood up a moment after she did, though only because he used his Field a bit later. His Animus was a couple of shades darker than her blue.
"What was that?" Gwendith gasped and Krystal rounded on her.
"You mean that's not normal?"
"No, of course not! I've gone through nearly a dozen Chaos storms in my life and it's not like this!"
"Calm down, squad leader," Danika yelled from behind. "So it's not normal, what do we do now?"
"Continue the patrol or return to base?" Heron asked.
"I…er," Gwendith hesitated.
Krystal didn't know what to do either and she was glad that she wasn't in command.
"Send a crane?" Krystal eventually suggested.
"...right!" Gwendith took one from the satchel and quickly penned a query. "We'll wait for a few minutes, but if we don't receive an order otherwise, we continue with the patrol."
The messenger crane flew, though it wobbled in the air and looked like it would crash into the wall. It avoided hitting it a moment later and continued its flight. The others nodded and waited. Ten minutes later and they didn't receive a crane back.
Gwendith took a deep breath then said, "Let's move."
Krystal gave a fist to heart salute and took point position. Gwendith had shared the map with her earlier but the route itself was fairly easy. They would follow the tunnel until the third intersection then they would turn left. Follow that one another three intersections the turn left again. Afterwards, that tunnel would eventually lead back to their starting point.
Krystal's Field attenuated as she walked. The pressure varied every few paces, sometimes pressing her Field down to her skin and at others letting it expand as far as it normally could at two inches off her skin.
The tunnels were deserted and there was no sign of any Chaos leakage.
"What does it look like anyway?" she asked.
"Believe me, you'll know it when you see it," one of the other cadets said, though Krystal couldn't quite remember her name. The other girl looked quite…bland.
"Right, thanks."
The minutes passed like hours but the patrol was uneventful. At least, it was until they rounded the first turn. Not a hundred paces away, there was a shimmering dark purple ball of something hanging in the air. Motes of green light floated out of it. It was small though, less than the size of Krystal's thumbnail.
"Secure it!"
There were no creatures around, not even an ant. The squad took point about five paces from the leak while Gwendith sent another messenger crane with the tunnel coordinates indicated on the crystal screen.
"Well, this seems easier than I thought," Krystal said out loud.
Heron gave her a sidelong glance, "Well, now something bad will happen."
"Oh, don't be so superstitious."
"The Threads of Fate love pulling down the arrogant fool."
"...who are you calling a fool?"
"Uh, not you. Nope..."
"Quiet!" Gwendith hissed.
Click. Tap. Thud. Crunch.
"What was that?"
The sound came out of the darkness and when one of the cadets used their Animus to shine a light, it revealed a familiar figure. It was roughly man-shaped, and covered with iridescent scales that should have shifted to look like the background. The supercharged air interfered with that ability though.
"Burning Moon!" Heron gasped.
It was a Hunter. A Wyldling.
"What is that doing here?" Krystal gasped, and before she could get another word in, the creature glared at them, smirked, and charged.