A Grimlin lunged from the shadows to strike the unaware Rabbyte with its dagger-

  I slammed the nasty creature with an Ether Reinforced kick. Its frail body flung back with the force of my blow, arcing toward the opposite end of the alley. Before it could hit the ground, I summoned Thorn’s Defiance and activated Brace.

  Wumph!

  My shot fired point blank, cutting the Grimlin in two with a surge of blood and gore. The thorn spray followed a second later, slamming all over the small creature’s body. The thorn storm pinned both halves of the Grimlin to the wall like nails, leaving its entrails dangling to stain the wall with dark blood.

  [Nighteye’s ears twitch in amusement. You know someone will have to clean that up, right?]

  Ah… no. No, I didn’t know that… Sorry, I guess I just slipped into old fighting habits. Back in the day, it was just whatever worked best, you know? Not like anyone was around to scream at me for damages. I’ll- um- I’ll try to do better, yep?

  “Think that was a bit overkill, Moon?” Rabbyre bounced over to the dead Grimlin and dropped a small tracking pill at its feet. “Thanks for the protection.”

  “…” There was no such thing as overkill. Under-kill was the real issue. Did Bastion not run by the same logic? No- I’d seen the Enforcer’s mechs. They definitely did.

  “Well, whatever. We’re almost there.” The Mythek hopped down the alley.

  It’d been about an hour since we first started ‘investigating’. To be honest, I wasn’t doing much. Sure, I was enjoying my time shooting monsters, but killing runts was only so fun. Especially since we’d seen neither boot nor banner of the Cobblins and Pikxies. It was literally just Grimlins who always attacked with the exact same method. It got real boring real fast.

  “We’re here! Dead center of the Darkzone.” My guide walked out to the middle of the street with a jury-rigged sensor.

  Rabbyte cobbled together the sensor using scrap pieces we found on the way. Nobody could convince me that the sensor wasn’t some kind of magitech. It was literally just a bunch of metal slapped together with duck tape, and yet it’d supposedly let us figure out what was going on. If that wasn’t magic, I didn’t know what was.

  [Nighete corrects you. “Duct tape”]

  Duct tape? That didn’t make sense. The package she stol- borrowed from a bodega definitely had a duck on it.

  [Nighteye questions your eyes. It was a dove, not a duck. And its duct tape because it was designed for use in ducts.]

  You’re definitely the confused one. It’s duck tape. Trust me on this one? We had the stuff back home too. The steam mechanics used it to seal ammunition boxes, anything that was perishable, and steam pipes back when there was still supplies. It used duck fabric or something like that.

  Rabbyte slammed the sensor into the middle of the street. Her power armor easily let her force it through the road. She threw back her arms, leaning backward with her face tilted to the sky. “Bwahhahaha! It’s finally complete!”

  I eyed the manically laughing Mythek. Why’d I suddenly get the feeling we were doing something wrong? Like I was the bad guy? I mean, I was used to being the bad guy, but I was definitely Moon right now, yep? I looked down at my white clothes to double check.

  [Nighteye shudders. It’s not just you.]

  The rabbitkin excitedly bounced around the sensor, tapping buttons all over it that didn’t even look like they were connected to anything. See? Definetely some techno-sorcery. The mascot darted around below her, getting the best shots.

  ”…?” I pointed to the device.

  ”I thought I explained it?” She froze up for a moment. “Um… it's a Vibration Intensity and Balance Evaluator. VIBE for short!”

  ”Oh.” So we were running a VIBE check?

  ”Pixkies and Cobblins make a lot of noise naturally. This thing will check the micro-vibrations and find wherever they're hiding! Simple!” She cheerfully went back to messing with the VIBE.

  “…!” I had a feeling it was quite a bit more complicated than that, but magic would be magic.

  A few minutes passed while she messed with the machine. I kept myself busy and practiced with ether. I dredged the stuff up through my hand. It clumped together into a ball, which I then weaved into a paper thin string. I lightly plucked the string-

  Nothing happened… I figured. Making an artificial weave wouldn’t be that simple, yep? I manipulated the substance several more times, changing up my approach with each attempt. Each resulted in failure. I didn’t know what I was expecting to be honest.

  Ether just wasn’t a physical substance. Of course it couldn’t make noise. It wasn’t the Weave… if I could just get there though? If I could just get raw ether to make some noise, I could figure the rest out from there. Maybe I could find a Skill or something that’d help out? String Sorcery- I didn’t need it, but it’d be nice to have once more.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  ”Moon!” Rabbyte excitedly called for me. “I found it!“

  ”…?” I waved my hand, dissipating the ether.

  Behind her, the VIBE caught fire. Before either one of us could react, it promptly exploded into shrapnel all over the road. What little remained of the device slowly melted away in the fire. Guess it couldn’t handle the VIBE check?

  ”Noooo!” Rabbyte dropped to her knees next to the exploded remains of the sensor. Her power armored ears dropped tragically to the sides of her helmet. The Mascot moved over, bowing its head in sorrow. “My baby! Why, cruel world?!”

  “…” A moment of silence passed.

  Rabbyte bounced up to her feet and snagged her Mascot. The mechanical bunny plopped onto her helmet, once more recording everything with its camera. “Anyway… Let’s go!”

  ”…?”

  ”Oh! Right. There’s a bunch of vibrations a few blocks north. Might be where our missing monsters are? How are you in melee combat?”

  “Primo.” I flexed my arm casually. I didn't have any weapons, and making one here would be a bit revealing. Guess it was daggers for this one? I could always play it off like I had one the entire time. Oh, and the sniper of course. Couldn’t forget that.

  “Then off we go!” Rabbyte led the way forward.

  “Yep.” I stuffed my hands into my pockets and followed after her.

  We went a ways before Rabbyte shot her hand up into a ‘halt’ motion just in front of a massive tower. “Definetely in the right place. I hear a ton of noise up ahead.”

  Rabbyte pushed open the glass doors into one of the tower’s side entrances-

  “Intruder! Pelt! Die!” A broken voice called out from the other side of the room.

  Three Cobblins stood around, immediately jumping to attention. Their little arms flashed forward, shooting us with a spray of pebbles. Rabbyte took a step forward, easily tanking the pebbles with her power armor. The bounced off, completely ineffective. Feeble rank indeed.

  I moved behind her and summoned out Thorn’s-

  Ah, wait. That’d probably be a bad idea? The heavy sniper wasn’t exactly quiet. If there were Cobblins guarding the door, then there was something a bit more going on in this building than first appeared. Instead of the sniper, I formed a dagger out of Ebonshroud and summoned out the Will Wire. I hooked it to the Will Wire and flicked the knife forward.

  The Cobblin I aimed for took the hit in the center of its body. The pebbles that formed its body surged together, consuming my Ebonshroud knife. The rock runt harshly pulled on the Will Wire to drag me off balance toward it.

  Without missing a beat, I jumped and allowed myself to be pulled. Midair, I shrunk the Will Wire with just a thought, rapidly dragging me toward the Cobblin like a grappling hook. Ebonshroud flowed out of my foot, forming a sharp spike at the base of my shoe.

  I slammed into the Cobblin foot first, sending the spike straight through its head for an instant kill. The Cobblin dropped to the ground, creating the perfect stepping stone for me to stand on. The Ebonshroud spike retracted, flowing back into me like there wasn’t anything there in the first place.

  Rabbyte drew a weapon, still ignoring the weak pebble attacks. Looked like some kind of suppressed revolver? Before I could get to one of the others, she casually popped two muted shots off. Both hit perfectly, ending the lives of the other Cobblin Guards. “Not as cool as your method, but can’t beat simplicity!”

  ”…” I threw my shoulders back into a shrug. Whatever worked, really. As they say, many blades could slay the same beast. Hmm… was there a saying in Bastion that meant the same thing, Nighteye?

  [Nighteye averts her eyes. She’d rather not talk about it.]

  “This way, I think.” Rabbyte dropped another pill off and motioned down one of the halls. We passed through the abandoned building, following the sounds.

  Plink! Plink! Plink!

  I could start hearing the noise now too. Sounded like some kind of mining operation? Reminded me of my time back in Ysron Caves with Lucia and the Faceless. We turned one last corner and found the source of the commotion.

  The building opened up into what could only be called a cavern. Insectoid creatures flew around the space, mining out the walls, halls, and ceiling with their four pick-like limbs. They were about the size of a kid, and could definitely cause some damage if they got close. At least, based on how easily they tore through the concrete structure.

  Cobblins followed the flying insects around, devouring the dust and pebbles created by the Pikxies in some kind of symbiotic relationship. We stood just on the edge of the rapidly expanding cavern, staring at the roughly sixty Pikxies and hundreds of Cobblins.

  “What the hell? They’re working together?!” Rabbyte’s voice whispered out from beside me.

  On the far side of the chamber, a group of Cobblins walked into the space with a struggling Pikxie held in their rocky grasp. The Pikxie chittered, but I couldn’t quite make out what it was saying through all the mining and clattering. The other Pikxies around mindlessly continued with their work, not caring in the slightest about their struggling kin.

  A much larger Cobblin entered the cavern from a cobble doorway. It was triple the size of the normal Cobblins, and its cobbled together form was a deep silver instead of normal stone. It shifted, causing the pebbles to move all around its body. For a split second, something in the creature’s chest glowed through the gaps. It was covered by pebbles almost immediately after.

  Rabbyte shifted next to me and her leg started to bounce. “It’s a Cob-Cobblin. What’s a D-rank monster doing here?”

  “…” No way that was its name, yep? What did they call higher ranked Pikxies? Pik-Pix?

  The Cob-Cobblin approached the struggling Pikxie. The insectoid monster pulled and pushed at the two Cobblins holding onto it, desperate to get away. It was far too late though. The monster was well within the grasp of its captors.

  The Cob-Cobblin started to choke. Something regurgitated up out of its throat, popping into its earthen hand. The rock monster caught the item and held it up. I couldn’t be sure, but it looked like some kind of pebble glowing with an internal flame. The Cob-Cobblin force fed the struggling insectoid the flaming pebble.

  It struggled even more fiercely, though eventually swallowed the flaming pebble down. Its body immediately spazzed out all over. This time, the two Cobblins dropped it. The spazzing grew worse and worse before stopping in an instant. The Pikxie slowly lifted itself up off the floor and drifted to one of the far walls, joining its brethren in mining out the area.

  “Some kind of mind control magic?” Rabbyte’s leg bounced even faster. Her ears instantly twitched about, and the red dots on her helmet darted all over the room. “Why the hell does a Cob-Cobblin have that?”

  “…?” I guess that answered where the Cobblins and Pixkies were. Definitely not a symbiotic relationship like I first thought. So did not see mind control being the cause of all of this weirdness.

  Rabbyte motioned for a tactical retreat. We fell back to an abandoned conference room a ways away from the cavern. “Report it in to the CDF? Or attack ourselves? This could be a lot of Nytes if we take care of it…”

  “You. Decide.” I was really, really tempted to just charge in there and fight. With those numbers? It’d make for an insanely fun, albeit scrappy, brawl. Really, those were the best kinds of brawls.

  While I really wanted to fight, I didn't want to go in if Rabbyte felt uncomfortable. She’d probably be fine with her power armor? The Pikxies were the only concern here with their pick-like limbs. Even then, shouldn’t be too big of a deal. She definitely had a bunch of weapons she hadn’t show off yet. There was still that weird cylinder thing too.

  “Hmm…” Rabbye struck a thinking pose. The Mascot bounced around, getting perfect action shots of the two of us. “Screw it, we ball! Charge!”

  [Nighteye runs to get the popcorn!]

  I summoned Thorn’s Defiance and followed the cheerful Mythek to the cavern.

  — — —

  I haven’t said anything here yet, but I have a PatreoN! If you’d like to support what I do or read ahead, maybe go check it out? It’s got advanced chapters for Outrun and Myth//OS now.

  Patreon.com/lostrain