“Ughhhhhhh” Ozzy groaned from his unfortunate position on the ground.

  He was currently resting mostly on his neck with his butt against the side of the building and his legs over his head in what amounted to a very indecent sitting position. It was’t made better by the fact his shirt and jacket had nearly been pulled over his head and he could definitely feel something sticky and wet on his back right now.

  “You alright there mister?”

  Ozzy heard gentle footsteps approach, and child no older than 12 came into his view, looking down at him with concern and moments later a frazzled mother came to grab the child. Pulling the girl into a protective embrace as she stared down at Ozzy in horror.

  Flipping awkwardly over onto his side Ozzy listened to the mother scream as he made his way unsteadily to his feet. He felt like he’d gone ten rounds with a root sucker buck naked, everything hurt.

  “You’re alive?!?!” The woman shrieked at him, somehow more distressed than her child who she was currently suffocating in a fear induced safety hug.

  “I’m fine, just need a second to catch my breath.” Ozzy gasped, doing his best to regain control of his battered lungs.

  “Who do you think you are falling out of the sky like that? You could’ve killed someone!” She said angrily, finally releasing her child who gasped dramatically for oxygen.

  “Lady there wasn’t anyone around when I jumped so could you just give me a second.” Ozzy said, his hands on his knees as he continued trying to catch his breath.

  “Wait you jumped on purpose? You were trying to kill yourself?! Why would you do something like that?” The woman asked, looking affronted at even the thought as she came over to begin checking on him.

  “Really lady I’m fine, I’m not trying to kill myself I was just trying to test an ability.” Ozzy tried to convince her.

  “That’s what they all say! I had a brother like that you know. Told us all much the same thing. Then a few weeks later said he was going to watch the sunset on the edge of one of the platforms and never came back home.” Redness colored the woman’s face as her voice began to lose some of strength as she recounted the story. Then steeling herself, she looked Ozzy right in the eyes. “Not you though! I’m taking you straight to the healers!”

  Slowly but surely as Ozzy regained his senses he got a better look at the area around him. While they’d passed by platform already they hadn’t gotten off. What little Ozzy had seen of the area had been from the side of the platform over the railings of a quick moving lift. There had been almost no time to make note of things and the whole while they’d been busy talking about the hunter entrance application.

  In all fairness it looked pretty much the exact same as the lower platforms had, sure it was a little cleaner and people looked slightly better dressed but it was really just the same disorganized mess as everywhere else was. It was as he scoped out the area around them he noticed something that was very much out of the norm a large group of dangerous looking men and women making their way up the street towards them, or more accurately, towards another equally menacing group about a hundred feet past where the platforms stairwell ended.

  “-which is why you have to start listening to me, it’ll get better. I swear it! Just let me help you!” The woman was still talking at him, spewing the classic flavors of a mental health pick me up talk, only stopping when Ozzy held a hand up to silence her.

  “Who are they?” Ozzy gestured between the two groups, who were slowly terminating their marches to come to a wide standoff with the platform stairs, Ozzy, and the woman child in the middle of it.

  “Mother save us.” The woman said uttering a silent plea of prayer as the first spell cracked out.

  ***

  Ozzy dove, tackling the woman and her child to the ground as a wave of spells and attacks that could’ve brought down a castle wall flew over their heads.

  The three of them went down with a thud as Ozzy shielded them with his body. Right as he tucked his head ball of flame so intense it singed his hair and clothing passed just over them to explode right before the stairwell as another core user shot it down with a water attack.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  It was like they didn’t exist and as spells went off all throughout the street Ozzy realized it was only a matter of time until one went off right over their heads. He had to get the woman and child out of this and fast, he needed to make a hole.

  “WAAAAIT” A voice louder than the din of spells and explosions broke through the raging combat. Silencing screams of pain, spells, and war cries, all save for the screaming child beneath Ozzy.

  “There are people in between us, you pathetic excuses of warriors.” The same voice shouted, and a man stepped out of the group opposite the stairs. He was a serious looking man, with close cropped salt and pepper hair and a thick mustache.

  Across the way a woman stepped out of the other group, her arms crossing as she stared down the road with indignation and a snarl. “And if you’d just waited a moment we might’ve been able to ease their suffering.” The woman called back, eliciting chuckles and laughter from her group.

  That was all it took to know which team he was on, and with a grunt Ozzy picked the woman and child up, pulling the woman rapidly up to her feet and carrying the child over his shoulder as he drug them both in a rapid sprint towards the mustachioed man.

  “Scurry along street rats!” The woman shouted after Ozzy as he ran, and he couldn’t help but be extra offended at the derogation of rats. It stung in a way he wasn’t quite proud of, and as he reached the line of core users he paused letting the mother continue through as he sat the child down.

  “Follow your mom kid.” Ozzy said, and watched with weary eyes as the mother with fear filled eyes tugged her child behind the line, she even paused, waiting for Ozzy, eyes pleading for a few moments before realizing he wasn’t going and turning to run.

  “You need an extra hand?” Ozzy asked, standing to his full height and still having to look up at the mustachioed man.

  “Not a great time to meet someone.” The man said, looking from Ozzy back up to the angry woman crossing her arms. “You have cores?”

  “Two.”

  “Can you fight?”

  “I can help.”

  “Good enough for me.” He said and with a step they commenced their march back towards the opposing group. “That woman hanged my wife and daughter, the plan is killing her or dying trying.” There was no emotion in the mans voice, only seething rage as with a flick of his wrist he cast a bolt of lightning out at her and the firefight of spells recommenced.

  As Ozzy followed the group he felt a burning in his chest, and felt in his soul that a connection had been established between himself and a greater power. As the bond stabilized Ozzy heard a familiar gravelly voice, as Fauga spoke to him from the outside.

  “You stand a stranger in this fight Ozzy, but are exactly where I want you. Fight like a lion, kill those that poison this city, go my messenger.” Fauga boomed in his mind, and then just as quickly as the connection had established it broke, leaving Ozzy alone in the midst of chaos and conflict.

  Spells flew away from their line and towards them, growing in frequency and intensity as they got ever closer to the other group. Every moment stretching infinitesimally on as Ozzy watched the snarling woman leading her cohort of core users towards them. Casting spells, deflecting others, and shouting as she weaved herself through chaos incarnate.

  Ozzy had been called to fight her, not just fight her but kill her. It would be so easy, all he had to do was summon his rifle, point it at her, and bang. Yet through that same ease he cringed he would be ending something sacred to him, a human life, and yet a poison one. Could he really bring himself to cut her out of this city like the cancer he knew she was?

  Spells continued blasting off throughout the street, and for the first time Ozzy watched one strike true. A tall woman on the end of their line caught a beam of iridescent light to the face, she went down without so much as a sound, the scent of burnt flesh and blood rising to mix in with the heavy ozone stench. Dead. Another victim of that poisonous woman’s treachery. And with a start Ozzy realized she was dead all because Ozzy was too afraid to lift his weapons.

  Never again.

  A wayward spell landed at the feet of the mustachioed man, blasting him backwards and through the men behind behind them. Opening a space up in their line, and Ozzy watched yet again as the snarling woman cast a globe of fire directly at him.

  Time seemed to slow as Ozzy felt the power drain from him as an unfamiliar weight formed in his arms. The rifle he’d worked on with Fauga. It was something special to him, compared to the initial coach gun and the revolver he’d summoned. It was a weapon patterned after the single shot rifle his mother had given him on his 18th birthday. Though it was larger and meaner looking than any earthly single shot had any right to be, complete with a bayonet at the end of the heavy octagonal barrel.

  Ozzy stared past the buckhorn sights into the soul of the snarling woman as the fireball moved to shield her from his sight. It didn’t matter, nothing did, and unless a tank was about to materialize between them she was already dead.

  BOOOM

  Sound left the world, some of the weaker spells around them winking out solely from the shockwave blasting out. It announced the bullet like a demonic call, and an a massive round flew out. A second crack rang out, known only through its shockwave as the round left the barrel. The bullet flew, passing through the fireball and dispelling it as if it were no more than a warm breeze.

  With a wet smack the snarling woman’s head exploded, brain matter, bone, blood, and more, spreading themselves across every surface and person the woman had been next to as the round exploded within her skull. It was Ozzy’s answer to fighting in the crowded city. A round that destroyed itself, not only ending its path but delivering unthinkable damage to a singular target, and now it slaughtered the woman before him.

  What had been the snarling woman collapsed in a heap of blood and tangled limbs. The fight ending as friend and foe alike stared in awe at the weapon of mass destruction, its wielder, and its victim.

  “Ozzy? What the hell are you doing?” Emil cried, leaning over the massive staircases railing to shout eyes wide at him.