Miyuki stared down at the plate of perfectly cooked eggs and sausage with bleary eyes wondering why she hated herself. So what her mother pissed her off? So what her most annoying coping response was to occupy herself? Why oh why did she have to request a new mission early. Not only did she not have the time to regret and take back her decision, she was told in no uncertain terms that she was to report to mission gather at 05:00.

  The sole reason she was sitting in the HQ’s cafeteria at 04:30 was because the food was damn good and the brownie chefs were somehow available 24 hours. Bite after satisfying bite she made her way through the meal, repeatedly having to stop herself from falling face first into the food. Twenty minutes later she was done with her meal and after dropping off her plates, started for where she was to meet the rest of the mission’s team.

  Barely more awake than when she started eating she was scrolled through the mission info on her phone while making her way to the elevators. Like usual with artifact transport missions, there wasn’t much. All she was given was her teammates, her start and end locations, a vague description of the Artifact. Even that was limited to size, weight and possible affect on them if the containment shield broke down for whatever reason. She grimaced at seeing the affect, massively increased aggression and if they come into contact they may enter a form of blood frenzy. Yeah, she could see why that one was being put in the nearest “will never see the light of day again” vault.

  The standard procedure for transporting such an unstable or dangerous artifact is a full five-man squad of regular Guardians, one Ranking Guardian in the top ten and a Ranking Hunter in the top fifty. The artifact was to be loaded into an armored transport and moved over land. It was a cushy mission that she usually spent laying out on the transport’s roof. She guessed someone was finally giving her a break.

  Rereading the destination she realized she had been to the target facility a few times on other missions like this one. It was a stronghold created when a clan of Dwarves had essentially hollowed out one of the mountains to make a city for their people. At the initial creation they made a deal with the Keepers that had been in effect for a little over two hundred years with only a few minor bumps along the way. In exchange for protection, assistance in keeping their home a secret and a significant amount of trade, the clan agreed to use their skills to construct a place for artifacts that were too dangerous to be kept anywhere but a few kilometers underground.

  Just as she got to the supplies they were being requisitioned, the elevator dinged and opened to the training/waiting area for outgoing missions. The logic was that combining them both saved space and made it easier for new teams to spar and get to know each other before going into a dangerous situation. When she exited the elevator, the smell of sweat and work hit her. Unfortunately, she had been around the smell so long she barely twitched.

  Three quarters of the room was open space with weight and weapon racks along the walls and sparring mats lining the floor. The final quarter was free from training tools with couches and tables and was meant for teams to meet up and go over any information. The room was very empty with no one on the mats and only a handful of scattered groups talking or going over papers. The table she paid most attention to held a tense group of five beings in Guardian uniforms while a sixth being, distinctively not in any kind of uniform, was lounging on a nearby couch.

  As she got closer, she appraised her teammates. For the five faces she didn’t recognize, she could only describe them as young. It was usually difficult to determine a being’s strength or age from looks alone since the lifespans of so many species varied dramatically. The more reliable method she used relied on her mana sense. Using this highly practiced sense, she could clearly feel inexperience and nervousness from the little magic aura all beings gave off. Even beyond that, the biggest tell was that even moderately experienced agents knew how to shield themselves from such surface layer sensing. From what she could gleam this was either one of their first missions or they were especially nervous for some reason.

  The sixth being and the 4th Ranked Guardian was a man that looked like he walked out of some post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie, dressed in all black complete with slick trench coat and leather pants. Ravus sat in on one of the couches with his coat splayed out and his combat boots placed on a coffee table. His enchanted desert eagle was on clear display screaming he was ready for anything. She smiled as he waved at her. No matter how much Logan disliked the man, she found him kinda fun. She always liked his more nonchalant attitude and his penchant for firearms didn’t hurt.

  “Hey Miyuki, long time no see.” he said with a raised hand.

  “Ravus, we both know that’s bullshit. Who knows what shadow you’ve been stalking in. We don’t need to go over the locker-room incident again, do we?”

  The five new guardians turned judgmental stares at him. “Hey,” he said defensively while pulling his feet off the table and sitting forward, “that was a shadow leap accident, and you know it.”

  Miyuki smirked, “sure it was.” She turned to the others. “My name is Miyuki Kuzunoha and I’m Hunter-class rank twenty-one.” She saw all of their eyes widen dramatically at hearing her family name. She sighed. “Yes, I’m related to Councilor Kuzunoha. Let’s focus on the mission. Both me and Ravus have done this one a few times. All you need to do is listen to us and keep an eye out and everything will turn out fine.” She scanned the team. “How many missions have you been on?”

  “Three ma’am.” The being she assumed to be the squad’s leader answered with a back way too straight. The reason for their nerve was instantly obvious, to new agents, rankers were like legendary figures. Each of them were the elite of their classes with impossible tales of their exploits popping up every year. It was especially bad with two of them.

  She smirked while dropping on the same couch as Ravus. “Take a breath. You lucky bastards are stuck with two of the most laid-back Rnkers you’ll ever meet.”

  She saw the team members exchange looks.

  She laughed. “Seriously, work with Logan and you’ll have to be professional at all times.”

  Ravus chuckled. “Work with Dulnea you’ll have to sleep with one eye open or you might end up with a knife in it.”

  “I can think of a couple like that,” Miyuki picked up on Ravus’ chain.

  She noticed their comments weren’t helping and rolled her eyes. “Anyway,” she turned to Ravus, “what do you think? Regular fair?”

  He shrugged, “as far as I can tell. The only difference is the size of the thing. Apparently, we’re using a sixteen-wheeler as the artifact’s transport. We’ll also have two armored vehicles for us. I’ll be in front, and you’ll be in back.”

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  “Sounds easy enough.” She said sitting back.

  ******************************************

  A few hours later Miyuki was laying flat on the truck holding the artifact’s roof by using a pair of rudimentary spells. The first used just mana channel and pull. The second use mana channel, form and projection to craft a thin dome of pure mana just strong enough to curve the air over her. Usually the second spell’s combination was used to create a shield and protect the caster from whatever was attacking them. The eggshell thick shield she was using was barely enough to deflect whatever pebbles and bugs that may hit her. The combination wasn’t a big drain with the pull barely being over her natural mana regeneration. As such she was fine for the next few hours before she needed to start thinking about her mana pool.

  She bobbed her head rocking to the music being played over the earpiece each of the agents were given at the beginning of the mission. She was glad that whatever newbie was in charge of the music had quality taste. She didn’t even care about the random ads that slipped in every few songs.

  As she starting humming along she looked to her left and take in the deep green that painted the complex network of valleys that made up the mountains. That decision was the only reason she was able to react when two helicopters exited one of said valleys and headed directly for the convoy.

  Not only were the vehicles impossibly silent, they were heavily armed. Fortunately, they weren’t anything near an Apache, looking more like a pair of armored reconnaissance class with four missiles attached to the wings and a high-caliber machine gun below the nose. That wasn’t to say the sudden appearance of a pair of missile ladened opponents weren’t incredibly bad news.

  Her decades of experience acted as she went from relaxed to combat ready in less than a second. She started with simultaneously releasing the shield spell while putting more mana into the traction spell, standing up, and hitting the large button on the earpiece.

  “We have contact!” she yelled over the wind. “I repeat, contact! Two armed choppers incoming at-.” She couldn’t finish her sentence as each of the helicopters fired one of their missiles aiming for the jeeps being used as the leading and following cars. She was barely able to get her revolvers out when simultaneous explosions shook her from both sides. The forward car holding Ravus thankfully blocked with a thick shield quickly covered in cracks while the following was barely able to speed up enough to just get hit by the explosion. Although it didn’t destroy the jeep it did disrupt it enough to be thrown off the road and roll down the hill and into a steep valley.

  Miyuki cursed as she watched the crash and hoped the enchantments protected the driver enough to keep them alive. She put the morbid thought, and the memory of her previous jinx out of her mind as she focused on the attackers. Like seriously, she had to stop putting her foot in her mouth. At that point she might as well do a full five course meal, one for each toe.

  After their initial attack they changed to intercept course with their machine guns turning to keep her in their sights. Knowing how nasty bullets are and how much she shouldn’t be hit by them, a lesson Logan should learn, she re-cast the shield spell she had up earlier but made it multiple inches thick and pointed like a wedge tall enough to cover her from head to toe, the blue distortion showing the shape. With the shape she should be able to lower the bullets’ impacts by deflecting them instead of taking them head on.

  “Status!” Ravus ordered over the radio.

  “Two hostile choppers,” she answered, “follow vehicle disabled, agent’s state is unknown.”

  That was the last she could get out before they open fired, massive bullets pinging off her shield lacing hairline cracks after each glancing blow. Knowing the shield wouldn’t hold for long she set Elemental in her left hand to frost and Special in her right to piercing. Ice was the enemy of anything flying and if she was able to get a good hit on any of the blades she could destabilize one of them enough to crash while the piercing shots should punch through whatever armor they may have. In fact, with enough power a single piercing shot could act as a 20 mm AP round, devastating to anything less than a heavy tank.

  She only waited long enough to sufficiently summon and charge her bullets before stepping out and start firing. When she combined the wild ride the speeding truck was taking her on with her targets still being a few hundred yards away, it wasn’t a surprise she mostly missed. While Element was way off, Special’s bullet did pierce the side of one of them though they didn’t react more than a light swerve. Understandable since a pair of two centimeter wide holes appearing would startle anyone. She didn’t let that stop her as she fired a few more lesser shots before having to the safety of her shield.

  There was a thump to her left as something landed on the roof. She almost shot whatever joined her until she recognized Ravus with his own traction spell under his feet and a tall wedge deflecting the occasional bullet.

  “Thought I’d join you,” he said with only his earpiece letting her hear him. “Ready on three.”

  Charging a new pair of bullets she waited for his signal to step out again. By that time the choppers had gotten significantly closer and thus were easier targets. As she prepared she thought about how even though they were less than a hundred yards away, she still couldn’t hear the engines with the only sounds coming from them was the barks of their guns and the roar of the missiles.

  On his signal they both stepped from their shields and fired with very different methods. While Miyuki used her revolvers as guns shooting bullets, expanding from his pistol’s tip was a five ringed spell charged and ready to go. It appeared that was because his weapon was essentially just a gun-shaped wand. When she asked him why he made this decision, he claimed that he was able to pack in a lot more mana per spell while making targeted spells easier to aim. It was just pure coincidence that he switched both his tool and look just after The Matrix came out.

  Unlike her last attempt with fully charge shots, both them hit. Aiming at the same chopper as her first attempt, she put another massive hole through the cabin and landing her frost aspected bullet near the windshield. Because it wasn’t directly on the windshield it didn’t do much more than fog some of the glass, but any loss of sight was something. If she had any luck they’d miss a turn and run into their friend or a mountain. Not likely but a girl could wish.

  As her attacks landed a fireball shook the other. Looks like Ravus went for a fireball, a true classic. The newly charred opponent wavered before quickly recovering. The two of them proceeded to fire less powerful attacks, aiming for quantity over quality. She grit her teeth at their shitty accuracy. Again she wished the the truck could go for more than a second before pulling some insane turn almost throwing them, and their aim, off.

  Her heart skipped a beat as Ravus’ target kept on their intercept course while her target turned to face them directly.

  Oh shit. She thought as, just as she predicted, one of its three remaining missiles launched directly toward them. Taking a page from her companion’s book, she quickly shifted Special to explosive and with a shot and a prayer, met missile with bullet. The agents retreated behind their shields as shrapnel from the mutual explosion showered their cracked and increasingly unstable shields.

  “Oh, I have an Idea,” she heard Ravus chuckle.

  She wondered what he was doing when she saw him modify the spell circle, add a few rings and charge it with way too much mana. She had to hold back her own laugh as she holstered Special and, using her now free hand, touched her shield and pumped mana in to reinforce it. If the fight went much longer she would need to pull from her tail’s reserves, but if his plan worked everything would be worth it.

  As Miyuki sensed Ravus’ spell start to shake he stepped out once more and aimed. When he pulled the trigger, instead of a golf ball sized projectile that would explode into a fireball, a lance of light simply appeared connecting Ravus’ spell circle and the cliff face opposite them. It just so happened that along this path of superheated flame was one of the trailing choppers remaining missiles.

  The two agents grinned in satisfaction as the watched a piece of amazing human technology be thrown off course by losing one of its wings and much of its hull and tear itself apart when it hit the ground.

  That single spell probably took a third of Ravus’ total mana pool to cast but it was worth it. Just as she was mentally celebrating the destruction, she watched as the rock wall ahead of them collapsed. This development forced both the jeep and truck to swerve off the road and into the valley below, summarily launching the previously joyous agents into the air.