The rest of the day went by about as eventless as it could. Jun practiced shooting with cheap bullets Okeria made in a handful of seconds, I combed through my core to try and glean anything new I might’ve missed in the past few days, and Mortician trained with Thorn and Culla like there was no tomorrow. The other three continued making plans that didn’t concern or include me, and eventually Okeria announced that it was time for everyone to get a good night’s rest.

I hadn’t slept much since we got to Rainbow Basin, so I was more than happy to sleep somewhere I didn’t risk waking up with a weapon pointed at my head. Jun joined me when she finished cleaning the gunpowder residue off her gun, snuggling up as well as she could while we were both fully armored. Sleep came easily somehow, and the next day was with us before I knew it.

“Hey. Get up. Someone leaked our location.” Okeria whispered harshly, the sound of the elevator scraping slowly down echoing through the cavern. “Be ready ta fight.”

I groaned and sat up, holding the back of my head and looking up at the elevator. It was completely sealed in with metal spikes, which it definitely hadn’t been the day before, and I could just barely hear someone shouting above the din of movement.

“Wasn’t us.” I said plainly, cracking my neck and summoning my weapon. The blade fit my hand perfectly, but I didn’t need a sword if I was going to be fighting so many. I quickly shifted it between a hammer, shield, and spear before I settled on a massive two-headed battle axe. “How many are coming?”

Okeria tossed Jun a metal belt pre-loaded with bullets, with a holster that would perfectly fit her gun built in. She caught it easily, snapped it around her waist, and slipped her gun into it in one flowing motion.

“Sounds like at least twenty to me.” Jun guessed.

“Good guess. From Culla’s security cameras, it looks like we’ve got twenty-three soldiers on the way. Most of ‘em ain’t anything special, but one of ‘em’s got gear I know needs at least core mastery thirty-five ta equip.” Okeria explained, summoning his own strange guns as he spoke. A thin shield of metal grew to cover all of his armor until all that was left uncovered was his visor, a technique I hadn’t seen him use in any of his fights so far. “We decided we’ll get the two of ya take on that guy as a way ta prove yourselves.”

I nodded, and Jun mirrored my expression. “What’s Mortician doing?”

“They’re safe with Culla. I ain’t letting them fight until they’ve got that newbie recklessness outta their system.” Okeria said seriously, gesturing up at the elevator with one hand. “Take it out, Thorn. Don’t let ‘em surround Sebastian and Juniper.”

“On it.” Thorn relayed, stomping one foot down on the ground with enough force to leave a footprint in the stone below. A massive stone spike burst out of the wall immediately after the impact, shoving the elevator off course and sending it tumbling to the ground below.

It landed with a bone-shattering crunch, metal spikes falling away to reveal a mass of very dazed soldiers. I hefted my axe over my shoulder and leaned into a ready stance, waiting for the inevitable chaos to ensue. I heard Jun raise her weapon and fire off a quick shot, which pinged off a translucent red barrier that appeared out of nowhere.

“That’s the stronger one. Watch out for ‘em.” Okeria warned, his gun barrels rapidly spinning around his arms as an electrical hum built up in the air. “Thorn, Gloriosa, take half of ‘em and go! Ambus! You’re with me!”

“Yes, boss!” Ambus and Gloriosa said as one, splitting up to either side as stone spikes created a literal divide between the soldiers. More popped up to split us off from any of our allies, leaving us with only an armored figure who had plates of red light hovering over their armor.

“Never seen you two before.” They muttered to themselves in a voice so modulated that I couldn’t tell anything about the person under the armor. “How’d Okeria manage to get new recruits while in hiding?”

“We aren’t new recruits.” Jun replied simply, squeezing off three quick shots that nearly shattered our opponent’s plate of light covering their torso.

They grunted in annoyance at the damage, swiping their hand through the air to summon a long black metal staff. Red plates spun into existence around the entire thing, forming into a wickedly sharp blade at one end and a torrent of triangular shards that flowed like tassels in the wind on the other.

The time for words ended with our opponent charging, brandishing their spear in a way that would let them strike out at either Jun or I depending on how we reacted. Jun nodded at me and took one huge step back, putting herself almost completely out of harm’s way. I stepped in to fill the space, absorbing all of our attacker’s attention. All of my oil-based functions activated with a single thought, and I designated the attacker as the victim for //WIPE-AWAY as they got within a dangerous radius.

Three walls of red light flickered into existence, trapping me in place as the red-coated spear was thrust at my chest. I flooded petals onto my weapon and swung it as hard as I could within the confined space, shattering the wall to my right and continuing in a deadly arc down towards a now very surprised attacker.

“Drown me!” They cried, shifting from a stab into a block as my axe fell. It crushed through the layer of red light and clashed against whatever metal the staff was made of, just barely putting a nick into the weapon before the attacker managed to jump back with the aid of two moving platforms of red light.

I stared them down as I recentered myself, letting the cleave I’d made with my axe swirl around me in an unspoken threat. The attacker seemed a whole lot less certain of their chances from just one encounter, shifting their stance from one of complete offense to one that could shift between offense and defence at a moment’s notice. More barriers popped up around them, turning their slight glow to massive plate armor created from solid red light.

They dragged their staff along the ground and kicked up a shockwave of red light that screeched along the ground, slamming into my axe’s petal-cleave in a burst of light and metal. I took the brief moment to spring into action, shoving my cleave forward and following it with my axe trailing behind me. The attacker raised their staff to block the cleave, along with countless more panes of red light appearing to block my axe proper.

Three echoing gunshots, followed by shattering light, gave me the opening I needed. I swept my axe up through the relatively unguarded side of the attacker as they were overwhelmed by my cleave, cutting their armor and digging into soft flesh in a burst of red light. They screamed in pain and stumbled backwards, putting up so many layers of red light that I could barely make out their form through the colour.

More shockwaves screeched out of the cube, slamming into my cleave with far less effectiveness than the single one. I planted my axe into the ground and leaned on it, perfectly happy to let //WIPE-AWAY do my dirty work for me. Even if this attacker had the core mastery to equip their gear, they didn’t have the raw power or combat experience to bridge that gap. If I had to guess, I’d say they’d been boosted up to their level by someone far more competent than they were.

Or Jun and I were much stronger than I thought. I didn’t even look over my shoulder as I motioned for Jun to fire at the cube, which was followed by a cacophony of bullets that left a whole lot of spreading cracks on the outermost layer.

Jun sighed and stepped up next to me, inspecting her gun with a mixture of annoyance and curiosity. “This thing barely has any penetrating power, even with Okeria’s bullets. Do you think I’m doing something wrong?”

I’d never been one to use a gun myself, so I couldn’t say. “I have no clue. Maybe this red light is really good at taking bullets.”

“No, I think it's something I’m doing.” Jun muttered, flipping open her cylinder and counting the bullets she’d fired. “Oh, no, there it is. I’ve been using the little bullets instead of the big ones; the ones that hit three more times for less damage.” She flipped the cylinder closed and ran her thumb down the barrel, the black glass in her gun glowing slightly more yellow as it transitioned to using larger ammunition. “Let’s see how this–”

The explosion that rang out from Jun’s gun shattered all the red light in one fell blow, slamming against the attacker inside with enough force to blow a hole in their chest. A fist-sized hole. They dumbly looked down at the hole, dropped their staff, and stuck their fingers into the wound.

“Ouch.” They muttered quietly, then fell back and didn’t move again. //WIPE-AWAY didn’t deactivate, meaning they weren’t dead, but they certainly weren’t standing up again.

“That was a little stronger than the other ones.” I chuckled in disbelief, staring at the downed attacker as their stats drained away. “Did the gunbelt give you that much of an upgrade?”

“No. Skies above, no.” Jun said with reverence, staring down at her gun in a different light. “It made me better at handling the gun, not how strong it is. I think I need to talk to Okeria about getting myself a real arsenal like he has if the handgun is this powerful.”

“Not a bad idea at all.” I agreed, swinging my axe around to my back and letting it latch in place. I walked over to the downed attacker, whose wounds were already starting to knit together thanks to their armor, and leaned over to get a better look at them. Their armor looked like plain grey metal under all the red plates; utilitarian and strangely weak looking for what Okeria said was level ~35 armor. “This has to be their leader, right? Should we try restraining them?”

“Definitely.” Jun said with her gun pointed at the leader’s face. “You can make your axe into a whip, right? It’s not just metal weapons?”

I nodded in confirmation, letting the cleave fall away as I shifted my weapon into a long whip. I nudged the attacker onto their stomach with my foot, then got to work binding their hands and feet together. It took a few minutes, and I could swear I felt them stirring once or twice, but they never resisted. I hefted them up when I was done, sitting them on their knees as I waited for the sounds of battle to die down around us.

It took less than five minutes to turn to near silence. The spikes disappeared without warning, revealing that the cavern was in perfect shape save for a few sections of it that had been pretty badly scarred. None of the supplies were harmed, Mortician and Culla were hidden off with the rest of our stuff, and not a single enemy was left standing.

Okeria walked over to us and clapped a hand on my back. “I heard the screaming and the gunshot over everything else. Good work, ya two. Ambus don’t got no reason ta leave ya behind now.”