The morale of the group was down in the dumps, and the divisions were obvious, but suddenly having the finish line in sight managed to infuse them with some vague sense of cohesiveness.

Mia stood on the edge of the floating island, peering down the ledge and out at the forest of greyish metal. Helene was flying up with the latest group, her wings starting to flag while others climbed up using the roots.

Kruger's scouts were already out and about, and so was Sparkle, just to be sure. It might have been paranoid of her, but she wanted to triple-check everything now that the end was in sight. So, Sparkle made sure the beast-kin didn't miss anything important, or lead them into a trap, by accident or otherwise.

"Tell me if they do anything suspicious," Brent whispered, having wandered over after seeing Sparkle shoot off into the island's interior, following after the beast-kin scouts.

Mia just nodded, giving the man a glance. He looked weary, like he hadn't slept in days and had the weight of a mountain pressing down on his shoulders. A spike of guilt stabbed into her gut at the sight, knowing she'd been so blasé about leaving the handling of everything she found troublesome to him.

I can make sure the rest of the raid goes without a hitch, at least. Mia thought. "We still have enough mana potions for me to give everyone a Lesser Ward before we start."

The man nodded, a grateful smile tugging at his lips before he left. Leaving Mia there, peering forlornly into the distance. Her Wards wouldn't be game-changers in the upcoming fight, nor would her Arcane Blasts or sensory abilities. Arcane Blast was distinctly lacking in comparison to her mother's Lightning Calling Skill, and especially when compared to that magical rocket in the shape of an arrow that Tristan had used.

It made her feel a bit miserable. Here she was with her supposedly awesome bloodline and rare Class, but it wouldn't help all that much.

Mia sighed, huffing at her own silliness. Intellectually, she knew why all that was. She was a Mage, and she'd chosen Runic Lexicons mostly for defence and utility so far. Her most potent offensive spell was still the one that came with the Class at the start. It was no surprise she was lacking in firepower. Her strength currently lay primarily in utility, like her Lesser Wards, Sparkle's … everything and Spirit Sense. She had also knowingly picked Lexicons before that helped her odds of survival, rather than stuff that she suspected would let her make bigger, meaner explosions.

So why was she suddenly feeling self-conscious? She had Carmilla to destroy anything she didn't like with all due contempt; she didn't need to have the power of a bunker-buster missile in her back pocket herself. She was not alone.

Furthermore, she was well ahead of the majority of the raid group even then, if she counted Sparkle and the Mana Familiar as her own offensive power. Even without them, she could fire Arcane Blast one after the other, which gave her more firepower than the majority of the group.

She was in the top … ten. Five would be a stretch with Helene, Tristan, Carmilla and Nikki, among others, being distinctly ahead of her.

I'll catch up. Mia knew the training manuals and books all but promised her that. As a Mage, her utility and combat power all scaled with the spells she knew, more than they did with her Levels, Rank or even Attributes. Sure, all that helped, but if she could get her hands on a proper Rank 1 offensive combat spell? Now, that would be a game changer. Especially since spells themselves didn't scale with Attributes, unlike Skills. How much of a punch an Arcane Bolt packed depended solely on the runes its spell circle was made from, and how they were combined. I'm going to call System Support if this stupid Raid doesn't give me some proper Rewards … God knows we are going to need it all if we want some peace in this new world.

Mia stayed there for a few more minutes as the rest of the raid group climbed up and prepared. Her mood was slowly emerging from the place known as 'the dumps' after her little inner pep talk, which finally put her into the right headspace to start worrying about the others again.

Not everyone could climb the roots in full gear, so they were dragging what was left behind up with ropes. All around, people were hastily putting on their armour, shoddily sharpening their bladed weapons, or checking over the potions attached to their belts.

Carmilla was stalking the forest's edge, glaring at every suspiciously moving bush. Mark, Lina and Nikki were off making their own preparations, or doing their pre-battle routines, which apparently included an attempt at meditation for the Ice Mage and some stretching for Lina. Helene and Brent were still wrangling the disparate groups of the raiders, making sure to keep Lori's bunch and Konstantin's as far apart as presently possible.

Sebastian's trio and Maven's group lingered near Mia, the two groups making up the majority of Brent's loyalists in the raid. They had escaped the Wendigo fight without any fatalities, by some miracle, which wasn't helping the tensions, by the way.

Mia had overheard whispers spoken in places they thought she couldn't hear, accusing her of letting people not loyal to the Colonel die. Like she had enough time even to think about politics back then! Morons.

Just the memory made her frown and seethe in anger. She knew they were grieving and angry, but dammit if she didn't want to test her improved Strength against the durability of their faces every time the topic popped up.

It didn't help that her fingers were more likely to break than their nose if she gave in to the temptation. Sure, she had spells, but punching annoying people in the face was cathartic in a way spells might never be.

Don't ask how she knew.

"The great and glorious Sparkle once again triumphs over the pitiful mortals! I found the big bad Guardian!" Sparkle's voice rang in Mia's ears, making her blink in surprise as the words registered. A faint image appeared in her mind, disjointed and blurry, but she could make out a large humanoid creature of silvery grey material sitting atop a massive throne, seemingly carved out of the side of a cliff. "I shall be heading back now! The silly beast-kin will find this place in a few minutes; it's not like the big metal monster's all that inconspicuous."

Mia checked her Bond quickly, memorising which direction Sparkle was coming from and how far away he was. Then, with a last deep breath, she set off towards Brent at a brisk pace. Her heart started to beat at a steadily rising rhythm, flooding her body with adrenaline. This fight would be the most dangerous she'd ever been in, but it would be the last hurdle before some peace, hopefully.

Obelisks were supposed to prevent new Rifts from forming in their vicinity and ward off most monsters from approaching. Once they had one in Graz, the city would finally be allowed a reprieve and time to start rebuilding.

"My Bond found the Guardian," Mia announced, keeping her voice low as she approached where Brent and Helene were watching over the preparations. Once she was sure she had both of their attention, Mia continued. "It's some large humanoid metal golem-thing. It's sitting on a massive stone throne about half a kilometre that way."

"It's stationary?" Brent asked.

"Still as a statue," Mia said. "For now. My Bond just took a quick look at it before heading back. Kruger's scouts might prompt it to do something, I don't know. They should reach it in a few minutes, tops."

Brent gave a brisk nod, then turned to the gathered people. "HURRY UP! The scouts will reach the Guardian in minutes, we need to be prepared for the worst, which is that doing so sends the monster into a frenzy and it follows the fleeing scouts back to us. Finish up your preparations and form battle lines!"

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Chaos erupted in the group, a heavy air of foreboding settling around them as everyone hastily finished up. Some shouted for others to help fasten the straps of their armour; others went about finishing up with grim determination.

Carmilla appeared at Mia's shoulder in moments, quickly followed by Mark, Lina and Nikki. Helene got her hands on a rare 'stamina potion' to get her energy back after ferrying so many people up on her wings. Though by 'stamina potion', they apparently meant 'magically spiked energy drink', and it would come with the expected energy crash in a few hours. But for now, Helene gained a second wind.

Sparkle zipped out of the trees, settling down on Mia's shoulder with a smug grin, swinging his legs back and forth as he hummed a happy tune.

"I have Wards to give for anyone who wants them," Mia said, raising her voice. With the loud chaos and shouting, only those nearest to her heard, but that was fine. The rest would follow the mob once a line started gathering.

She started with her own party, layering the strongest Lesser Wards of Protection she could make onto them, then started pacing herself a bit more with the rest. Even Jeff's lot came over for their Wards, though Rex's group ignored her, as did Tristan. Which meant she miscalculated a bit, and still had about a tenth of her mana reserves remaining by the time the last of them wandered off.

Not that it changed anything. She still drank one of her last System-made mana potions, wanting to minimise the strain on her channels before the fight; she just whined about the waste in her mind. It was just so … inefficient to drink one when she still had 10% of her mana remaining, but she knew she might not have the time to chug it down mid-fight.

"Fliers," Carmilla warned, making Mia spin around in a small panic … which, in retrospect, was a bit overblown of a reaction. If any had been close enough to be a threat, they would have been within her Spirit Sense range already. "Seems like it's getting handled though."

Camie hadn't been the first to notice, apparently, as archers were already taking aim at the monsters. Which, of course, included Tristan, but it was not he who hit the distant metallic birds first. It was the black-haired woman from Sebastian's team, though it didn't seem to do much beyond make the bird flail a bit before steadying itself.

Tristan's Light arrows disintegrated dozens of metres short of the target, and the few others who could hit the birds at this distance couldn't pack enough of a punch.

Which left them waiting for them to come closer, or start diving, which they seemed reluctant to do.

"Think they'll wait till we're fighting to hit us from above?" Lina asked, squinting up at the sky.

"I guess," Mia mused. "The birds outside tended to do that. This'll be … a problem."

"How many of them are there?" Mark asked, squinting up at the sky too. "I can't see shit."

"Twenty?" Mia said, even her eyes were not able to make out their forms clearly. As outside, shiny metallic feathers, a clear sky, and the sun meant they were pretty hard to see.

"Twenty-three," Carmilla corrected. "They are smaller than the ones we fought outside. Maybe the size of a duck. I'm not seeing any larger ones."

They kept an eye on the birds, but the rising tension in the air killed any other conversation that would have popped up otherwise to kill time.

Mia kept tapping her nails on the butt of her wand, holstered on her hip, unable to stop fidgeting. She kept her ears, eyes, and Spirit Sense flexed, trying to suss out any early sign of a monster ambush or other tragedy in the making, which was how she was one of the first to notice some of Kruger's scouts returning.

The first woman to emerge was some sort of feline beast-kin, with dotted yellowish fur covering her exposed limbs and even her face. Maybe a leopard?

She seemed stressed, but that was expected. What she did not seem to be, though, was panicking, which had to be a good sign that they managed to avoid prematurely rousing the Guardian from its throne.

The woman slowed to a decent pace once she noticed all the eyes on her, then speed walked up to where Brent and Konstantin were standing.

"We found the Guardian," the woman reported. "Or at least we think we did. It looks like a metal statue sitting in a stone chair, maybe three metres tall, five when standing. Its back is against a cliff-wall, and there is a clearing about a hundred metres wide before it, covered in what looks to be scrap metal thrown around without rhyme or reason. We saw no other monsters on the way."

"You didn't approach it, right?" Brent asked. "It's still … stationary?"

"Yeah." The woman nodded. "We just took peeks at it from as far away as possible. It didn't so much as twitch … we kinda started doubting whether it was a monster, even, or just a proper statue. But apparently, the more canine-blooded of us smelled it and said it had to be a monster."

"Monsters have a unique scent, apparently," Konstantin added with a shrug. "Though only specific bloodlines can smell it, the bloodhounds and the like. They hadn't been wrong about stuff like this yet, so I say we trust them."

"Could the real Guardian be hiding nearby, though?" Brent asked. "It could have its scent spread around the statue to fool us."

"Stupid human," Sparkle complained through Bond, crossing his tiny arms. "The mutts might be wrong, but I don't make mistakes, and I said that's the Guardian. Humph."

Right. He has to have had Spirit Sense active, and that's much harder to fool than a nose.

"My Sprite Bond said he is sure it's the Guardian," Mia said mildly, earning a few glances. She tried to act nonchalant, but her fingers tightened around her wand subconsciously at the attention.

"Are we supposed to trust your pet tinkerbell more than our-" the feline scout clamped up suddenly, finding herself on the receiving end of a glare from her own boss.

"Ignore her," Konstantin said, holding the glare before turning to Mia with a … with what was probably supposed to be a pleasant smile. It didn't really translate well to his Leonid facial features. "Your … Bond has similar extra-sensory abilities as you, correct?"

Mia nodded, studiously ignoring the glare the feline woman threw her way when Konstantin wasn't looking. The other beastkin were probably glaring too, though she didn't grace them with a glance.

"Well, that's it then," Konstantin said, turning back to Brent. "The little miss hasn't been wrong even once since we started, so that's two opinions pointing at the same conclusion. I think we can safely say we found our Guardian and it's not just a ruse."

Brent nodded after a moment, a thoughtful frown on his face. "It's too strange, though. None of the monsters we'd faced so far were still. They all rushed us, or at least started hunting us the moment they noticed us."

"The Quest mentioned it would be suffering from a magical backlash for the foreseeable future, courtesy of us breaking those effigies," Helene added. "It might be resting to recover faster."

"It did say that," Brent hummed. "Then it's paramount we don't waste any more time. I think it's best that we begin marching towards it. We can continue planning as we go."

After gathering into some semblance of a marching formation that'd let them spring into combat readiness with due haste, they set off at a brisk pace, cutting through the forest. The beastkin were at the front, with the 'loyalists' near the middle — made up of Brent's, Maven's and Sebastian's groups — to separate the prior from the still seething unionists at the back.

It was a halfway workable formation, since the majority of the beastkin were well suited for vanguard positions and Lori's lot had the largest number of ranged combatants.

Not that Mia didn't hear any of the beastkin grumbling about being used as meat shields, which was fair … but what else were they supposed to do? There were no perfect decisions here that made everyone happy, and they did make really good meat shields.

It wasn't like Mia was complaining about having to act the Mage after willingly choosing the Class, was she?

On the other hand, having ranged fighters who wanted you dead watching your back probably wasn't the most confidence-inspiring thing in the world. God knew Mia herself was keeping her attention on the people behind her just in case someone wanted to introduce the back of her skull to an arrow.

It would be downright idiotic to reduce the group's overall combat capability before or during the Guardian fight … but grief and anger made idiots out of the most reasonable of people sometimes.

People said paranoia was unhealthy for one's mental health, but Mia was of the mind that it was even more unhealthy to get shot in the back, so she did the smart thing and listened to her paranoia. Meaning, her ears were pried for any suspicious whisper, tightening bowstring or cocked trigger. If anyone used active spells or Skills, she'd feel it.

The clearing came into view after a very tense, twenty-minute walk that felt more like an hour with the palpable air of tension in the air. The scouts melded back with the group, reporting that no, the Guardian hadn't so much as twitched since they started watching it.

Mia finally laid eyes on the monster, for the first time with her very own eyeball mk 1s. It was truly massive, reminding her of the Zeus statue she'd once seen, which was supposedly a replica of the original from Olympia, which had been lost to time. The imposing creature towered over everyone present, even sitting down on its blocky stone throne; it looked like it was so tall that Mia'd have had to jump just to tap its knees.

It also looked … bland. Like a bare mannequin from a clothing store, just made of a single cast of stainless steel. The only characteristic part of it was on its head: a crown of a darker, greyish metal with jagged tips pointing towards the heavens.

Mia stared at its blank, oval face, bereft of any features that could be called human. No eyes, no nose, no lips, no ears. Nothing. Just smooth metal … and yet, a chill ran down her spine, and she felt a prickly sensation at the back of her neck. She felt watched. Judged. And found wanting.

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