Flora immediately returned to the Soup Kitchen.

The study of the rune-scheme manuals of the church had been fruitful, and she was sorry to stop but didn't want any more clergy members to go missing.

Switching out her Counterflow mech-suit with the Messenger mech-suit, she prepared for a confrontation.

10 MR Aito's octopussy

10 MR Aidan's octopussy

10 MR Divine Radiance

5 MR Bliz

3 MR Mech-Suit

1 MR Repairing Turret

1 MR Multitool

1 MR Wavering Wave-Ring

2 MR free

Flora wasn't sure whether Divine Radiance was the right choice.

Description: Aura. All effects you induce on yourself have a chance to spread to nearby friendlies.

"What exactly counts as 'induce on yourself'?" Flora asked as she left the building. "Are my turrets part of myself or my mech-suit? If my turret repairs my mech-suit, does it spread?"

As she walked to the middle of the street, she commanded her Repairing Turret to shoot at her.

"No, Milady."

"What a pity. Or is it? That would mean they can be the target of the spreading effect, which might be a boon on its own." Flora mused, looking around. She only spotted passerby and two chatting women in front of a door and a guy her age smoking a pipe under the shade of a tree. "I can't find the Dull Spoons. Where are they?"

Aito supplied arrows. Two pointed at the roof of a nearby house and five to an alleyway nested in the shadows between two metal buildings.

"Uhm, remind me why I didn't catch them when there was only one?" Flora stared at the alley and the roof but still couldn't see anyone.

"I don't know, Milady."

"Well… I was distracted by a new household appliance. Now, I feel stupid. What should we do? Wait for reinforcements or take a look? Sorry, I'm kind of unfocused. It was a long day. I should be in bed. Maybe I have jetlag? I should stop making excuses." Flora rambled, still standing in the middle of the street.

Three more red arrows appeared on her HUD, pointing at a sidestreet next to the Soup Kitchen. Aitoshuri imitated the dusty yellow of the street and had her tentacles spread out.

"Milady, we are exposed at our current location. I suggest we'll seek cover."

"Good idea." Flora found no angle where she would be protected. At 12 o'clock was the roof with two attackers, at 2 o'clock the alleyway with five persons, at 6 o'clock the soup kitchen and at 8 o'clock the side street with three more Dull spoons.

The street was emptier than before, the chatting market woman had vanished, as did the old Woodling smoking his pipe.

Flora's tension rose as her gaze darted around. She felt like a toast on a tray, ready to be served and eaten.

"Hop onto my back. We'll go for the leader." After Flora decided to advance, much of her stress changed into anticipation. "Don't kill them, I have questions."

"How do you know which of the groups contains the ringleader, Milady?" Aidan asked as he jumped on Flora, wrapping his tentacles around her. Aito followed him. Together, the octopussies lifted the turrets. At last, Flora hugged Bliz. The icicle shaped elemental was cold but in a refreshing way instead of biting. Flora made a mental note to summon her when she couldn't access a cold shower.

"The supervisor is Latin for one who looks from above. It's one of the many issues in which the metaphorical influences the material world. So the leader should be on the roof." Although Flora felt ridiculous and the weight of her companions burdened her, she still thought she could make the jump.

+

On a whim, Flora combined the feature of her mech-suit with the skill. A feature of a technological device cost no extra mana. It wasn't like a spell that she had to construct with mana, but more like a mental switch, she had to flip.

The Power Jump catapulted her in the air supported by the steel muscles of the suit. Flora overshot the edge of the roof by two meters.

Aito and Aidan disengaged as Flora fell. She buffered the landing with a somersault. They had executed this maneuver countless times in Tricky Beach−of course, without the turret, which crashed hard and without Bliz, who excitedly wiggled in Flora's arms.

Two Firelings stood on the roof. The yellow-haired female gaped at them, while the redhead next to her reached for his blaster.

Aito had marked the female for Flora, so she formed an Icicle Cannon while she sprinted to them. The small icicles slammed into the Fireling, who fell to the ground, bleeding.

Just when Flora wanted to follow up with a kick, Aito's mark switched to the other Fireling. She spun around and hit him instead.

!

"Stop, Milady! He is on death's door."

"What?" Although Flora halted, her opponent toppled over with several smoking wounds on his legs. Now that she had time to take in his appearance, she had to admit he looked banged up. Both of his arms ended in stumps. The AIs and Bliz beat him up pretty good.

"Easy, dear." Flora sent a few healing cantrips to the gangster. As she searched for the woman with her gaze to check on her state, she only found a pile of loot. On the one hand, she was stunned that she had killed a human, but on the other hand, having no evidence on it, hammered home, she was in a video game, and that took much of the sting out of it.

"Reginald Ophree is only D rated, but his RGS is three, which saved his life."

"Wow, just wow. I haven't realized how fragile low rated individuals are." Flora shook her head. "Aito, bind him. Be gentle. Aidan, look out for reinforcements. Don't be gentle."

Dave Lupe invites you to his party.

Do you want to join?

(Y/N)

Flora accepted the prompt.

Dave Lupe to Party: "Hello, Mrs. Flowers. I reviewed the information your AI transmitted, and I'm closing in on the Marino Soup Kitchen. What's the status of the welcoming party?"

Flowing Flowers to Party: "Sorry, you invited me to the party, so you should know best the status of it. Oh dear… is this another gamer term? The clergy hasn't arrived yet if that was the question."

Dave Lupe to Party: "More a law enforcement term… What about the hostiles, and can you give me their location? I'll use stealth that I won't spook them."

Flowing Flowers to Party: "Oh, okay. My AI will transmit a picture of their deployment. I have one of them hostage."

Flora nudged Aidan to comply.

The captive stirred, and Flora hit him with a healing bolt. Wrapped up in Aito's tentacles, only his head was able to move. He strained against his bonds as his eyes opened.

"Welcome to the land of the living. Please answer my questions." Flora considered waiting for Dave's arrival, but with the unknown intentions of the Dull Spoons and the precarious health of the captive, she preferred to get some answers as soon as possible. "Why did you attack the shrine, and where is Deriga?"

Reginald Ophree glared at her and spat on the ground. "I'm not talking."

The gangster had a strong nose and chin, but the fear in his eyes overshadowed his sharp features.

Sighing, Flora pondered what to do. She hadn't the stomach for torture, nor did she think it worked. Maybe offering him an incentive? The sounds of shooting interrupted her train of thought.

"Three Dull Spoons have entered the building, Milady."

Flora dashed to the shed with the entry to the staircase and dumped a dozen traps. Then she dragged Reginald Ophree behind the hut, out of the line of fire.

The clatter of the activating traps told Flora that the Spoons had arrived. Aidan's and Bliz's shots joined the chorus.

When Flora rounded the corner with a Lightning Breath ready, all she found were three corpses who vanished in front of her eyes.

"Those poor kids! Deriga told me about how hard it is to survive as E rated, but experiencing them dying from beestings hits it home." Flora shook her head while she replaced the traps. "Not that you, my awesome henchrobots and elemental minion, produce beestings… Or maybe very high-quality beestings. Whatever."

"David Lupe and the clergy are approaching our building, Milady."

"Let's mop up the rest." Flora went to the edge over the alleyway. Three more Dull Spoons cowered behind a dumpster.

"Go away!" Flora yelled down and received a laser beam as an answer. "I'm trying to be nice, but even my patience is limited."

!

The frozen beads hammered on the gangsters. Two more Dull Spoons perished, but one made it out of the AoE. With his movement slowed from the cold, he was easy pickings for Flora's lightning bolt and died.

Flora jogged to the front where Aidan was raining shots from the roof down.

"Never let the entrance to the staircase out of your sensors, Aidan. We don't want to fall for a diversion."

Dave Lupe, Paladin Rictus, and Monk Kowalski sprinted from the Soup Kitchen to the side street, engaging a couple of Dull Spoons. Because they were out of Flora's spell range, she readied her rocket launcher.

!

Fire rockets impacted the Dull Spoons. One went to his knees, but all of them survived.

"Really? They die from a bit of hail but withstand rockets? That is unscientific!"

Another explosion went off, and then the Paladin, a striking Fireling woman, and Dave, who wore jeans and a bulletproof vest, reached the group and wreaked havoc. Kowalski, the yellow-haired Woodling monk, stayed back and chanted a mantra.

Within seconds they paved the street with blood and corpses. Only one Dull Spoon survived, but Dave bound him in handcuffs.

Flora waved at them, and Dave messaged that they would join Flora on the roof.

Soon, the group assembled and exchanged greetings. Flora brought them up to speed about the situation of the shrine.

Rictus had thrown a handcuffed brawler named Maximilian Ophree on the floor. Even though the punk was silent, he glared at them through hooded eyelids.

"I have another Dull Spoon behind the hut. He might be a relative of this one. They share the same surname." Flora said.

"Show me," Dave said, and Flora led him to Reginald.

"Please, please. I tell you anything you want, just take away that psycho robot!" Reginald exclaimed as soon as he saw them.

"Aito?" Flora narrowed her eyes.

"Beep?" Aito sounded very innocent but moved the tentacle with the Vibro knife out of Flora's line of sight.

"You tell me something useful, and I'll remove the robot," Dave said just when Flora wanted to release the gangster from Aito's tentacle wrap.

"Alright, boss. That guy Sulfur Lyon came to us. He said he'd pay 5k for smashing up the Soup Kitchen and 10k for every Church of Evailyn guy alive, 2k for their heads."

Flowing Flowers to Aitoshuri: "Search the Forums for Suflur Lyon."

"Did you know him before?"

"No."

"How did he make contact?"

Dave continued to question everything, and then he changed to the other Ophree and asked the same question.

Flora's mind wandered off to the cleaning cabinet. When Dave repeated his questions again, she excused herself and entered the workshop and experimented with the rune-schemes.