Elizbeth Wallace

News of the failed strike swept through the upper ranks like wildfire. The group chat between the colonels and the generals was blowing up, with most colonels only being involved if a general was leading the next strike. After a bit, the chat went from disbelief to anger as one of the colonels stated that the council sent those poor officers to die. It was not a far-off statement since the council knew of the first two attempts, but still, they threw over eighty captains and one colonel to their deaths. 

Such thoughts boiled my blood as I gripped my phone tight enough to cause a small crack on the screen. Leaning back in my office chair, the unwarranted guilt of Joshua’s death pulled and tugged at my insides. Despite witnessing many deaths while hunting monsters, this one was different, but I wasn’t the only one. Ivan, who has been in the same recruitment class as Joshua, sat across from me, silent. His eyes stared, lost in thought, while his hands were together before his face. 

“Are you okay?” I inquired while pulling a water bottle from my mini fridge and giving it to him. 

“The hell do you think,” he coldly answered, still unmoving from his position.

The silence was suffocating until my phone buzzed again. This time, the message came from the chairman; it read. “The council has decided to launch one more assault on the island of Alaska. This time, General Burner would lead the assault with a force of two thousand officers on the front lines. The assault will commence in three weeks.” I quickly told Ivan the news, which seemed to light a fire underneath the Russian. 

“Let me go on the assault, General.”  He requested while springing up from the chair he was sitting in. 

“Are you sure? This is one of the most important and dangerous missions currently.” I questioned

“Yes, ma’am. Also, are you going to send them?” Ivan asked, and based on the question, he was no doubt talking about the Golden Generation.

“Yeah, let's see how they perform during a full-on raid,” I told Ivan with a grin. 

Ren Vespean

Diana was cleared to start training again two weeks after refining my core. So both she and Rachel have been using me as a sparring partner since, according to them, “I’m the closest thing to a living monster now.” which was a bittersweet statement for me, but if I can help, then I will. I stood on the opposite side of the gym, where Dr.Kirk first tested me, while Racheal and Diana were on the other side stretching. 

“Are y’all ready?” I asked while I readied my weapons 

“Yeah, we are,” Diana responded, her rapier shining from the mana leaking.

Thanks to my refined core, I could feel mana coming from the suits and other objects far better than ever, which was weird because mana felt more like an electrical current flowing through the atmosphere. After a few minutes, we were off. Diana used her frightening speed to flank behind me while Racheal fully sprinted towards me.

I took a  deep breath; my nervous system twitched and slowed, allowing me to sidestep from Racheal’s downward swing and parried Diana's sharp thrust to my leg. After I blocked her thrust, I channeled the mana from my core through my suit into my pistol, which tingled and caused black lighting to spark to life in the barrel of my pistol. The gym hummed with a protective shield of mana to lessen the damage of training. 

I fired my pistol, and a sharp, piercing bolt of lightning flashed through the gym toward Diana. She nearly dodged the bolt, which singed some strands of hair. Racheal was quick with her swing; as she sliced my forehead, tiny drops of blood flowed down my face, but the wound healed almost immediately. Black sparks rippled between my fingers as I pushed the mana out of my core to form this spell I’ve worked on. I focused on the electrical feeling of the mana from the atmosphere and their suits and connected it to my mana. I prayed that this spell wouldn't backfire; I felt the connection and activated the spell. 

Black lightning shot out of my fingers into webbed-like arcs that flooded the gym. Two bolts hit the back of Diana's and Rachel's necks, overloading their nervous system and leaving them on the floor. I flopped to the ground, sweat dripping down my face, my core empty like a battery needing recharging. 

“What was that?” a voice called near the gym entrance.

“It was a spell I came up with,” I responded, trying to catch my breath and gather mana from the atmosphere despite it practically not existing. I turned to the voice to find General Elizabeth. Her hair was a tangled mess that attempted to be put into a bun. 

“How does the spell work?” she asked while walking over to her sister, who was recovering from the spell.

“Well, it’s hard to explain, but pretty. I could feel the mana coursing through the suits and atmosphere, so I just connected mine to those, and the effect is a magical taser.” 

“Fascinating; I wish to learn more, but I came here to inform you that once Hanz and William return, you will participate in the Alaskan raid.” 

Rachael jumped up like a rabbit, and a sparkle could be found in her eyes. Diana was a bit more hesitant on the news. Diana didn’t meet the general in her eyes and moved away from the conversation. 

“Isn’t this some important mission? Also, didn’t we fail three times already?” I asked while packing up my weapons. 

I remember when I first got the news of Joshua’s death; it was when William was back on base for recovery. Everyone’s face was sullen, but Diana buckled to the ground while William choked back tears. So, I was hesitant to throw away my life for possible failure. 

“Yes, it is. That is why General Burner is going,” she responded as she walked towards the exit. A slight smile showed, “Heads up, he is quite brazen.” 

The general showing up ended our training, Diana went to the firing range to get some shots off, and Racheal followed me around. Everywhere I went, she stalked behind me. I ignored her for now as I tried to find a spot to refine my core more. I walked to the nearest Iron Turtle cliff and sat down. The ocean was crystal clear, and a light breeze blew through the leaves on the surrounding trees. It was peaceful, and I had to concentrate if I wanted to refine my core more. I closed my eyes and focused all my senses inward toward my core. My thoughts slightly faltered because it felt like I was consciously controlling my heartbeat. 

I let the atmospheric mana flow into my body with every diaphragmatic breath. Something interesting I noticed was that when my core was empty, it was no longer the shiny bronze color but dulled like a burnt-out lightbulb. While I refined my core, something felt off about how the mana particles acted. They were tiny black spheres, but when they entered my core, some disappeared, leaving three out of the dozen that went in. I needed to figure out what was happening, but I heard a stick crack behind me before I could. 

I pulled myself out of my lucid state and snapped to see what broke the stick. Not to my surprise, it was Racheal. She stopped mid-walk as I stared at her. Her face is like a child caught sneaking out of the house. 

“Yes?” I asked as I stood up from the ground

“Ummm, sorry for bothering you,” she said before she attempted to speed walk away. 

I channeled mana into my legs, which strained my already empty core to flash in front of her. Her eyes went wide as the speed of my movement blew her hair in front of her. I leaned closer to her.

“You’ve been following me these past two weeks.”

“Well, I just wanted to check up on you,” she responded as she leaned back away from me.

“I don’t believe you, but okay,” I said while turning and walking away from her.

“Okay! Wait,” she shouted, “I wanted to know if you could teach me how to form a core.”

I just stared, like I understood she wanted to form a core, but I didn’t know how to explain it to her. I sighed. Based on what Elizabeth told me, I knew she wouldn’t take no for an answer. 

“Why do you want a core?” I asked

“Because I want to help Jager, and having a core is the next best option, thanks to you,” She stammered. 

“Fine, we can try, but I can’t guarantee it will work, so get your suit.”  

It took her about twenty minutes to get her suit and meet me back at the cliffside. 

“Release your maximum output for me, please,” I told her. I felt the mana burst out of her suit. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths as I read the output meter on her forearm. Fifty-nine percent, I focused on the mana leaking out of the suit. With my limited knowledge of how I formed my core, I tried my best to explain it. 

“Try to condense the mana into your body,” I explained, Racheal’s face strained as she attempted to follow my orders. 

“Do you feel a burning sensation?” 

“No, I don't; I feel nothing besides my muscle straining and the backlash coming.” 

So she can’t condense the mana. If I can limit the amount leaking from her suit, she can. Releasing my mana, I focused on the connection again like I did with my spell. Once I felt the connection, I shot my spell instead of overloading her nervous system. I attempted to force the mana into her body like a net over her body. 

“Do you feel anything?” I asked, sweat started to drip down my face. 

“Still no, this is so frustrating,” she responded, frustration pouring out of her words.

“Okay, stop.”

We both stopped, with no progress made besides being exhausted; Racheal just faced down at the ground, not saying a word to me. An awkward silence washed over us. I wanted to say something but didn’t know how to explain my worries to her. Ever since we came back from our first mission, her normal outward and extroverted personality sulked back as she spent more time alone or with me just training. 

“Rachael,” I said. She looked up at me, and tears started growing, “Let’s get revenge for Joshua.”

“Okay, and also, when did you start to care about us,” she responded as she laid back on a tree, “it’s kinda weird, first saving my life, second constantly visiting Diana, and now this.”

“You know what would happen to me if I don’t prove something, so I would create a legacy so my mother and grandmother would be well off after my death,” I responded before I got and stuck out a hand to help Rachael up, “so let’s clear out Alaska.”