“(mumble mumble…) what a (inaudible) party last night. (mumble mumble) K-RAD (indistinct muttering)...

  Have some music, y’all, and leave me (mumbles)...

  FUCK! TOO LOUD!”

  - DJ Demophon Kerner on K-RAD LA, April 20th, System Year 453

  [TAH-TA-DA-DA-DAH-]

  I groaned, realizing that I hadn’t even to be subjected to that awfulness. It was Sunday, and I could have turned off my alarm and slept in, Waste it! Unfortunately, now that I was awake, I knew I would have trouble falling back asleep. Hazel had drilled that into me over the last few years.

  I rolled out of bed and stretched with a yawn. I doubted the rest of my team would be up yet, and breakfast didn’t start until 0700, so I had some time to kill. I almost summoned my armor before remembering that we were planning to go into town today.

  always

  I flushed at the thought of being seen like that and knew I’d want to die of embarrassment if it happened. I unlatched and opened the heavy wooden shutters that covered the window. I guessed they were there to stop a monster from breaking through the thin glass, but they only let in tiny slits of light when they were closed. Opened, my room brightened significantly. The sun was still hidden behind the valley walls, leaving a soft half-light to illuminate my room.

  Restless, I wanted to get out and something. My body was accustomed to waking up and training now, and I felt the need to be moving around. We’d agreed we would stay in groups, but surely Yuri and his buddies would still be asleep this early, right? I wandered downstairs to the common room, where to my surprise I found Tara passed out in one of the chairs, wearing her armor. It looked extremely uncomfortable, considering it was full plate. At least her helmet was off.

  Seated in another chair, and wearing regular clothes, was a disgruntled looking Arlo. I walked – quietly – over to him and gave him a questioning look.

  “She had a rough night,” he said.

  “Obviously,” I replied sarcastically. “Rough how?”

  “Someone – or someones – kept ringing her doorbell. Every time she tried to fall asleep, she got woken up. I guess it went on for most of the night, until she finally gave up trying and came to get me, then dragged me over here and passed out.”

  I sighed. “Sounds like Yuri is mixing in some seriously childish tactics to go with his threats.”

  I heard a groan from behind me and Tara stirred. She blearily rubbed at her eyes, then cursed when she realized she had gauntlets on.

  “Hi Az,” she said, sounding half asleep. “What time izit?”

  “Around 6,” I replied, definitely not thinking about how cute she looked when she was out of it.

  “Fuuuck, why are you up so early? Nevermind, can I use your shower? I need to wake up properly.”

  I was confused. “My shower? Sorry princess, we don’t have our own personal showers here. You can use one of the shared ones, like everyone else.”

  She blushed and I showed her the bathrooms. Ignoring the sounds of her undressing behind the curtain, I headed for the door. Just as I stepped through I heard a shriek from behind me.

  “AZ! WHY IS THE WATER SO COLD?!”

  I managed to get the door shut behind me before I dissolved into laughter. Back in the common room, I sat down at a table with Arlo, who had something in front of him. It was a board patterned with black and white squares. There were little figures placed on the two rows on each side.

  “Care for a game?” he asked. His face fell at my confused look.

  “Let me rephrase then, would you like to learn how to play chess? It is an ancient game of strategy, from long before the System.”

  I shrugged and sat down. He started explaining the rules to me, which at first seemed simple enough. Then he told me that each of the different pieces could only move in certain, different ways. He was only halfway through describing each of them when Tara emerged from the bathroom, looking significantly more awake, though still tired.

  “Let's go," she announced, and started to walk past us.

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  “Where?" I replied eloquently.

  “I need to see Thompson. This can't continue."

  I exchanged a glance with Arlo and we both shrugged, then stood. Leaving the chessboard behind, we followed Tara out the door. She walked briskly towards the administration building with us trailing along behind her. I was surprised when the door opened, having expected it to be locked.

  Wilson's seat at the reception desk was vacant, though. On top of the desk sat a small card that read “Ring Bell. Once!" next to a small metal bell that looked like a toy. Tara picked it up, shook it firmly – which made absolutely no sound – and put it back down.

  Arlo and I found seats in the comfortable couches nearby, but Tara refused to join us, instead pacing back and forth, her shiny armor clanking softly as she walked. It was about five minutes later when one of the side doors opened and an annoyed-looking Wilson strode in. He looked, unsurprisingly, like he’d just rolled out of bed and thrown on some clothes. Tara spun to face him before he’d made it to his desk.

  “I want to speak to Head Instructor Thompson immediately!” she demanded, arms crossed.

  Wilson ran a hand through his shaggy hair and sighed. “What is this regarding?” he asked with practiced politeness.

  “It’s regarding that asshole Yuri!” she snapped back.

  “I see,” he replied evenly. “Is someone injured or dead?”

  The Personal Assistant sounded quite calm, as if that was a question he’d asked many times before.

  “Someone will be, if she doesn’t do something about the situation!” Tara shouted, her face reddening.

  “Miss Gleason, Head Instructor Thompson is not to be disturbed before 0730 on Sundays unless it is an emergency. Now, you can either wait here – preferably not looming over me like that – or you can come back at say, 0800 and she will speak with you then.”

  Tara’s breath hissed through her teeth and I almost stood up, fearing she was about to explode. Then her shoulders slumped, and she turned and stalked out of the room, slamming the door open. Arlo and I exchanged glances and went after her, finding her outside with her fists clenched.

  “I need to hit something,” she growled.

  “Not it!” I immediately shot back, which lightened the mood at least a little bit. We ended up at the training hall, which was unsurprisingly deserted. Tara moved to a training dummy and pulled out her hammer, then wound up and smashed it right across the face. The wooden dummy splintered, then glowed briefly as it flowed back together, only to be pounded again and again.

  She kept up the furious pace for a couple of minutes before she slowed, breathing hard. The dummy was badly damaged at this point, the pace of its healing barely visible. Lowering her hammer, she stepped up to the dummy and put her hand on it. I assumed she channeled some mana into it because it immediately started regenerating much faster and in a few moments it looked brand new again.

  She resumed with a more deliberate pace, her form noticeably better now that she seemed a bit calmer. Deciding that I wanted to give it a try, I moved to the dummy next to hers and pulled out my shortsword. My first two slashes left deep scratches on the wood but little more, and they were gone in moments.

  “Az, what are you doing?” Tara asked, stopping to look at me. “The wooden dummies are for blunt weapons, you’ll just dull your edge hitting them! Use one of the clay ones over there!” She pointed down the row of targets, where I saw a set of four brown-grey dummies identical to the one we’d used for the ranged evaluations.

  I flushed and did as she suggested, finding the softer target much easier to damage with my blade. I could even sink the tip in several inches when I thrust. I expected my blade to get dirty quickly, but none of the clay came off on my sword. It just flowed back together smoothly, leaving no trace of the damage I’d done.

  I was sweating within ten minutes and needed a break after about fifteen, breathing hard. Tara had stopped too, while Arlo was sitting on one of the bleachers, a book in hand. We joined him in sitting and resting for a while, then went for another long round with the dummies. By the time we’d finished that, my arms were burning. It was one thing to do drills in the air for an extended time, totally another to be putting real force into my blows over and over again.

  The doors banged open and JJ strode in, followed by Westin. The Berserker gave us a friendly grin.

  “Hah, it’s good to see that at least of the new students have the TESTICLES to get out here and train on a fine Sunday morning!” he shouted, then nodded at us and wandered off to one of the sparring wings with the Fighter trailing behind him.

  Westin let out a sigh. “JJ, do I need to remind you that the Head Instructor has asked you to go around shouting ‘testicles’ at the students?” he asked in a suffering tone.

  “Dead gods Westin, take the stick out of your ass. She’s not here, is she? Besides, it just has so much more… oomph than ‘maggots’!”

  The two men continued bickering as they pulled out their weapons and began to spar. JJ’s massive axe flashed, whistling as it cut through the air. Westin fought with a longsword and shield, trying to stay a step ahead of the larger man’s powerful blows. JJ looked like he was stronger and faster, as he battered Westin around the ring, dancing aside from the few return strikes the Fighter could muster.

  I was entranced, watching the two Tier 3s fight. I was sure neither could stand up to Mason, but I wondered if either of them was a match for Captain Rivers.

  Eventually Tara dragged me away from watching the instructors and we went back to work on the dummies. By the time we’d finished the third round, it was after 0730 and Tara was getting impatient again. When we left the training hall, there were more people out and moving around, most heading for the dining hall. My stomach rumbled, but I followed the two trainees back to the administration building, where we found ourselves stonewalled by Wilson, who told us that Thompson had been informed we wished to speak to her and would be with us when she was ready.

  It was twenty minutes later when her door finally opened and she gave the three of us a hard look.

  “What is it this time, Miss Gleason?” she inquired coolly.

  “I need to speak with you about Yuri, Head Instructor,” Tara said more politely than I expected. She gestured for the two of us to wait, so we settled back onto the couch, and Arlo pulled out his book again. I looked at the spine and saw that it was the same history book I had in my room,

  “How can you stand that?” I asked, curiously. “Just from class I was bored to death! Isn’t reading it even worse?”

  “Worse?” he repeated, confused. “I quite enjoy this series, it’s much more concise and action-packed than what I had to learn at home!”

  I buried my face in my hands and groaned, then sat back, quickly becoming bored. Bestiary

  What’s left when it all falls apart? Where do I go when the path forward is blocked? How do people just move on like nothing ever happened? A change in location certainly helped me.

  Bastion, the last hope of civilization. It's bright. It’s flashy. It’s dangerous. There was nowhere else in the world, or any world, like it. With heroic Wardens protecting the city from monsters, rifts, and villainous Anarchs, there’s always something happening within the walls of Bastion. Not to mention the corporations bickering like children even during the end-times.

  The existential threats that sought the destruction of the last city were just another Tuesday. The Wardens, with their system-granted powers, kept them in the back of people’s minds. Forged from broken myths, shattered stars, and fractured hope, they're the only thing between the city and total devastation. They were just out of reach for me.

  They were. Until the OS picked a wayward stray who happened to be in the right place at the right time. One rift, job, and monster at a time, I’d claw my way back to the top... just as soon as I found the drive to actually get out there. Picking up the pieces was just too tiring.

  LitRPG - Cyberpunk - Superheroes