By the time Alex dragged herself back to her bed that night, she felt like just about every part of her that could ache, did. Even Motion Trance hadn't fully helped her towards the end. She could only imagine the kind of fatigue that Joanna and Clara were feeling.

All the same, they'd managed it. All three of the other teams had finished their Surveys with full clears. More importantly, Alex's friends had each completed their own Surveys as well. They had been celebrating reaching level three within D rank together after they'd finished the mission with Trips, and they'd had full clears with both Hopps and Grumps after that. A few more like that, and they'd be catching up to her in no time.

Unfortunately, she hadn't shared nearly the same amount of good fortune. While she'd seen her Skills increase, they'd also begun to slow as they reached closer and closer to their maximum. Combat Balance, Combined Arms, and Holy—Storm still hadn't reached the top, not even after another three Surveys full of combat. Motion Trance had made it, and her Title Quick had become Fleet as a result, but resetting it had almost completely exhausted her afterwards. She was already going to need to cancel her plans to go in yet again the next day just so she'd be able to recover.

Worse yet, she'd been forced to find out what Automatic Assignment meant for her Objectives. The Screen had just arbitrarily increased the amount of her previous Objectives in order to use up the rest of the points. Even worse, there were now at least a hundred points more to deal with as well, which only made the situation worse. Twelve patrols had increased to eighteen, one Shifter had turned into three, and three locations had become five. With fatigue already dragging at her and her friends, there was no way to complete the extra amounts. If the Screen hadn't started to assign rewards for partial successes, she would have completely failed every Survey after the first one. As it was, the cut-down rewards were bad enough.

At least she'd only have to deal with it for another couple of days. Once Sam and the others joined her at level four, they'd hopefully have ground through enough Surveys to make a difference.

She forced herself up slightly and took out her phone. There was a text there from her father, confirming that he was in place and ready. Another from Sam saying that his 'friends' were primed and ready to go as well. Just another couple of days, and the world would start falling down around Royal Purple.

Alex let her phone drop back to the covers and tried to ignore her aches enough to let her sleep. The sooner it all happened, the better.

The next day dawned far too bright and early, and Sam once again met her for a run. He grinned as she made her limping way through the first few laps. "Feeling a little worn down, Valkyrie?"

She glowered at him. "Just wait until I get back up to speed, pal." A twinge of pain shot up her back as they rounded a corner. "You up for another mini-crunch tomorrow?"

"Sure, why not?" He shrugged. "Though we already made plenty of progress yesterday. Most of my Skills are already nearly topped off. What about you?"

Alex grimaced. "They could use another Survey or two, but yeah. Things are looking better." She glanced at him. "Do you think we'll be ready?"

"As ready as we're going to be." Sam smiled. "Though I don't think they'll be able to connect it back to us that easily. I mean, we're just gopher D ranks. We shouldn't be able to trip up our betters at all, right?"

She grinned back. "True. I guess we'll see about that."

[Motion Trance increases to 1!]

They buckled down and kept running, getting ready for the trials ahead.

The tension continued to mount throughout the day. An alert rang out for Rabbit's team. It turned out to be another mission for Brownhat; Fetch's D rank team went with them, and they were back before dinner. The lineup would have Orbit's C ranks go with Bonk's D ranks next. If things went south, their next mission would sink them directly into a horde of Grue.

Alex opted out of the dueling rings that morning, heading back out on another run. Motion Trance was the only Skill that really needed more time and attention outside of fighting, and she'd be getting plenty of fighting with the Grue the next day. By the time they reached the team exercises, her feet were aching beneath her, but it didn't keep her and her friends from crushing the other three teams together.

That night, Alex could barely sleep. Visions of disaster danced through her head as she tossed and turned, but eventually sleep caught up with her. One way or the other, it would all end the next day.

[D Rank Pioneer Alex]

[Ascension Level: 9]

[Role: Porter (Role Skills: None)]

[Role Level: 4]

[Experience: 440/5500]

[Attributes: Strength -> 9, Speed -> 10, Life -> 8, Devotion -> 0, Control -> 0]

[Current Skills: Combat Balance(43), Motion Trance(17), Combined Arms–Axe/Shield(42),

Holy–Storm(42)]

[Permanent Skills: Battle Maneuvers**(26)]

[Current Titles: Empress of War (Increases Skill grade of Melee, Combined Arms, Weapon Mastery, and Battle Maneuvers by five.),

Aggression (Increases Skill grade of Melee, Weapon Mastery, Combined Arms, and Combat Balance Skills by five.),

Fated Hero (Increases Skill grade of Dodging, Anticipate, Battle Maneuvers, and Inspect by five),

Eternal Motion (Increases Skill grade of Recovery, Running, Marathoning, and Motion Trance by five.),

Tireless (Increases Skill grade of Recovery Skills by three.),

True Sentinel (Increases Skill grade of Deflect, Dodging, Blocking, Resist, Zeal, and Combat Balance by five.),

Still Flow (Increases Skill grade of Meditation, Focus, Recovery, Arcane, Sense, and Motion Trance by five.),

Elite (Increases Skill grade of Combat Balance, Battle Maneuvers, Battle Mastery, and Battle Dance by five.),

Lethality (Increases Skill grade of Melee, Weapon Mastery, and Combined Arms Skills by five.),

Consecrated (Increases Skill grade of Holy by five.),

War Prowess (Increases Skill grade of Battle Maneuvers, Rush Assault, and Heavy Assault by five.),

War Momentum (Increases Skill grade of Combat Balance, Riposte, and Battle Dance by five.),

Blitz Master (Increases Skill grade of Combined Arms, Lunge, and Charge by five),

Deliberate (Increases Skill grade of Battle Maneuvers, Anticipate, and Combined Arms by five.)],

Fleet (Increases Skill grade of Motion Trance, Evasion, and Charge Assault by three.)]

Alex groaned a little at the state of her Skills. She'd spent nearly the entire previous day running, and still hadn't even come close to maxing out Motion Trance again. On top of that fact, she still wasn't convinced that a full Survey would top out her other highest Skills. She'd just have to get them as high as she could, and then brace herself for whatever happened.

[Current Portal Status: Stable, Magic Level Steady]

[Current Portal Level: C3]

[Warning: Portal Level Higher Than Current Potential]

[Scouting Oriented Objectives Recommended]

[Local Area Population: None]

At least that part hadn't changed. She smirked at the Screen's recommendation and then moved on to her Objectives.

[Current Objective Budget: 500]

[Select Priority Objective]

Alex studied the words for a moment. An idea occurred to her, and then she focused, concentrating on her initial mission.

[Priority Objective: Destroy fourteen Grue patrols. Possible rewards: 140 Experience. Accept?]

It would be a small stretch, but still doable. She accepted.

[Select Additional Objectives]

[Additional Objective: Scout at least three new locations within the local area. Possible rewards: 120 Experience. Accept?]

She accepted again, trying to keep her thoughts focused. The next part would be important.

[Additional Objective: Eliminate at least six Grue Shifters. Possible rewards: 240 Experience. Accept?]

She grinned to herself. There was no possible way that she'd get six of the things, but at least she'd get the other two Objectives done with full credit. It wouldn't be a full clear, but at least she'd make more progress than she had been.

Feeling somewhat smug, she stepped forward into the light…

Alex charged at a full sprint into the Grue battleline. A pair of Knights unfortunate enough to stand in her way went flying, their own shields buckling beneath the force of the impact. She shoved her way into the gap that her shield-check had created and chopped the legs out from beneath a Brute before it could lash out with its hammers. It fell, and she broke its neck with a casual shield strike as she passed it.

The Killers and Mages were waiting for her, still drawing arrows and preparing spells. She was in among them in a heartbeat, her axe reducing the closest one to a surprised-looking ruin in a single strike. Another Killer dropped its bow, starting to go for its own weapons; Alex took its head before its claws grasped the hilt of its knife.

Poison smoke curled out towards her, and Alex charged the Mage casting it with her shield up. The shield glowed with power as it dispersed the Grue's magic, and the thing didn't dodge before she slammed into it like a living battering ram. Neither of its closest two companions managed to adjust their aim before she ended them with a pair of chops.

A glance to the side told her the rest of the Grue line was already crumbling. Sam had already killed another pair of Knights with accurate spear thrusts, and a Brute had fallen to its knees with its mind shredded by his magic. Another trio of Knights had stepped forward to confront Joanna; Alex could tell by the way their corpses were still smoldering while the Adept's glowing sword carved through a Brute's hammer and into its chest. More Knights and Killers were collapsing under small piles of thorns as Clara worked her crossbow. Somehow the Acolyte had gotten even faster and more accurate just in the past week, and each shot downed a Grue.

Alex grinned and set herself back to the task of clearing the back line. She didn't quite finish before the others broke through and helped her complete the job. In moments, the patrol was down, and their bodies began to burn.

[Battle Maneuvers** increases to 27!]

[Combined Arms—Axe/Shield increases to 43!]

[Priority Objective Progress: 5 of 14 patrols destroyed.]

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

A few moments later, Hopps' team of D ranks came trotting up the road. Hopps took one look at the burning piles and shook her head. "I'm assuming the road to the Harvester is clear?"

Alex grinned at the others. "You could say that, yeah."

Hopps nodded. "Then we'll take point. You guys follow us in, and then we are headed to the Charging Station. Then we've got the Compost Pile after that."

Sam waved her and the other D ranks on. Then he sidled over to stand next to Alex. "It does seem like we are seeing more patrols today."

She glanced at him. "You think something is going on?"

He shrugged. "The portal might just be reacting to us having a higher level. Or…"

Joanna broke in. "Or Liliana's coming back soon."

Alex winced. If there was one thing they didn't need, it was the Shade making an appearance. "Has anyone seen anything?"

Clara shook her head. "Not yet. I guess it could also just be a reaction to having two teams in here at once."

Sam nodded. "It might also be because of it being the first run of the day. Maybe we should have gone alone this time?"

"No." Alex shook her head. "If we get tired, we can always abort our solo run, but I don't want to leave the others hanging."

He grinned at her. "You also don't want to miss fighting any patrols, right? How many to complete an Objective?"

She flushed. "Just nine more. We'll make it at this rate." She'd already filled them in on her plans, and they had already started to tease her about trying to outsmart the system.

Joanna rolled her eyes. "I'm just glad we aren't going to actually try to fight six Shifters. Not that I would be surprised."

Alex put on a thoughtful expression. "Well, maybe…"

They pelted her with bits of grain they plucked from nearby fields, and then they continued on after Hopps' team. The first run of the day was already going well.

The first thing that Alex noticed as she stepped back out of the portal after Hopps and her team was the fact that the Surveyors were gathered around a handful of phones. She felt her heart beat a little faster as she trotted over to the nearest of them while Hopps and her Surveyors went to inform their C ranks about what was going on.

Trips looked up as Alex approached. "Hey. How'd it go?"

"About as well as last time." She tried to sound casual. "Something going on?"

Smiles and headshakes broke out among the others. Trips bit her lip a little as if she was trying not to laugh. "You could say that, yeah."

Clara rolled her eyes as she joined them. "Then don't keep us waiting! What happened?"

A Surveyor named Ugg was the one who answered, waving his phone. "Apparently, some teenagers decided to carjack a semi-truck and drive it down the freeway. They jumped out and ran for it, but they didn't slam on the brakes, so…"

Another Surveyor started laughing as a video clip played. Alex watched as a very familiar truck towing a very familiar trailer smashed through a guardrail and launched itself out over a river. She snorted as it performed the world's biggest belly flop and promptly sunk halfway into the mud. "You're kidding."

Trips was still chuckling as she answered. "Not even a little bit. And get this! The thing was apparently carrying some heavy-duty Surveying materials. There's going to be a very expensive insurance claim coming up on somebody's bill."

Alex glanced over at Sam, who was trying very hard to look non-triumphant. She looked away again before either of them could start laughing.

Strike one for Greylight. Two more to go.

"…and half the parking lot was on fire! It was like something out of the movies." Mixer shook her head in disbelief. "I don't know what semi-trucks did to deserve the bad karma, but it had to have been something. I mean, seriously, two in one day?"

Alex kept her face carefully blank as she walked along with Grumps' team. They'd already visited the Grain Silos, and were headed to the Bunker next. Apparently, though, the long walk had brought out the talkative side in some of the Surveyors. "Yeah. It's pretty crazy."

Her father really had outdone himself. She'd seen the video of the burning trailer just before she'd gone back to the training room to start their second run of the day. Alex actually thought he'd gone a bit overboard—it seemed like he'd caught a few extra trucks along with the target in the blaze—but at the very least, it looked like the miniature inferno was mostly under control. Even better, it looked like the locals had some idea of what they were working with; she'd seen a few Regulation vehicles parked alongside the firefighters futilely hosing the conflagration down.

It meant that two of the three targets were down, now. There was only one left, and if their plans hadn't gotten sidetracked, then it was already out of Greylight's hands. The only thing left was to make sure it couldn't be used as anything but evidence…

She jerked out of her own thoughts as Clara came to a stop. The Acolyte glanced back at Alex and pointed at the ground. Alex winced, realizing that the Shifter at the Bunker must have been an underground version. If Clara could already see it…

Grumps looked back at her, his expression confused. "Valkyrie? Is something wrong?"

"Shifter. Underground." She walked forward, her eyes on the soil. "You should probably pull back."

He glanced at the others and nodded. The members of his team started to back up, except for Dopey, who shook his head. "Why should we run away? We're D ranks too! If they can fight, then so can—"

Dopey was halfway through the sentence when the nearby field exploded into a column of earth. Clods of dirt with grain still planted in them rained down like an ugly, muddy hail, and the Shifter thrust its head forward, already looking to close its jaws around Dopey's skull.

Then it stopped, frozen in a moment as Joanna thrust her hand forward. There was strain on Joanna's face as she brought her other hand up, channeling a massive spike of ice inside the gaping maw. Sam pulled Dopey aside and positioned his spear so that it could dart towards an eye; Clara leveled her crossbow at the other one.

Alex, for her part, simply crouched behind her shield, just under the thing's head. They had fought this type of Shifter before, and since Joanna had finally reached the stage where she could freeze them in place, they'd already found a wonderful way to deal with them.

"Ready!" It was less a question and more a warning. Joanna's face was locked in effort, her eyes squeezed shut as her hands trembled. Alex tensed her feet, angling her shield upwards. "Set!"

There was another heartbeat of pause, and then the Adept's voice rang out one last time. "Go!"

Alex jumped, putting every ounce of strength into the shield-check that she could. Her shield met the underside of the thing's jaw just as it lurched forward again, unstuck by time. She couldn't see the others strike, but she heard Clara's crossbow snap and caught a flicker of Sam's shadow as he darted in to make his attack.

It came together in an instant. The impact drove the creature's mouth shut. She heard the crackle of the ice spear that Joanna had formed, heard the Shifter give off a quick whimper of pain that was quickly silenced. For good measure, she struck at its throat with her axe, ripping through iron-hard flesh as she came to the end of her momentum.

Then she darted aside as the Shifter seemed to collapse almost directly on top of her. It jerked once, twice as its body tried to deny its death, but the facts were too apparent. Alex could see the glistening point of the icicle pointing out of its skull; both eyes were complete ruins, and smoke-blood poured from its throat. A moment later, it was burning, and orange text appeared.

[Additional Objective Progress: 1 of 6 Shifters destroyed.]

Alex shook her head and glanced back at Grumps' team. They looked a little shocked; the last time her group had killed a Shifter for them, it hadn't been at such close range. She tried to sound comforting. "Don't worry. It's down, and there should only be one."

Dopey looked at her with a face that was pale from shock. Grumps, on the other hand, recovered enough to nod. She gestured for them to follow her, and they set off for the Bunker again. So far, so good.

There were flickers of something at the edges of Alex's vision, and she did not like it.

It had been going well so far. Grumps' team had made it back without a problem, and now Trips was leading her group through the motions as well. They'd already visited the Greenhouse, and now they were on their way to the town to visit City Hall and the Grocer's Market, both of which would be simple enough once the Shifter involved was cleared away.

There hadn't been any news on the third truck when they had paused for a break, but they hadn't expected any. The plan had been for a tow truck to drop the thing off somewhere under an overpass, and for an 'anonymous' tip to send a bomb squad to investigate. All it would take would be a suspicious broken lock, a curious look inside, and Steel Sky—with Greylight behind them—would have a lot of questions to answer.

The lack of news had left Alex on edge, though, which meant that she had started to pick up signs of Liliana that much more quickly. It was easy to tell the signs once she did—the increasing amounts of Grue that found them, the feeling of being watched—and it seemed like they were getting stronger the longer they were inside.

Alex grimaced. She hadn't thought that the supervisor would return this quickly. When Abbott killed her again, hadn't he said she'd be gone for a month? Had it really already been that long? Perhaps the repeated back-to-back Surveys had sped things up, but Alex couldn't help but feel cheated by the Shade's burgeoning reappearance. Even with all her Skills nearing their new maximum, she didn't feel anywhere near ready to deal with her yet.

She caught another shadowy shape in the cornfield to her left. It vanished long before she managed to catch it in her actual vision. Not good.

Alex looked over at Trips, who was at the head of her team. "Can we move any faster? I'm getting the feeling that it might start getting bad soon."

Trips blinked. She glanced at Clara, who was frowning at the field on the left. "Uh, sure. By bad, do you mean that you're getting tired?"

She shook her head. "Not exactly. More like we might start getting—"

Alex hadn't finished the sentence before Clara spoke up. "Multiple patrols. I count three of them, all incoming."

Trips blinked. She started to smile. "Come on, that can't be true. Patrols don't coordinate—"

Sam interrupted. "Straight for us, Seer?"

"Yeah." Clara's expression was just as unhappy as Alex felt. "I think…"

She trailed off, but Alex finished the sentence. "Yeah. Liliana's coming back. Trips, get your people ready. Once we fight past these ones, we'll need to run to the town and then back to the portal. There won't be a lot of chances for a break."

The tension in the air had robbed Trips of her good humor. She started to look around in clear concern. "Who are you talking about? What about the Shifter?"

Joanna answered. "You don't need to worry about it. As for the Shifter…" A howl sounded in the air above, and Alex groaned. "I think it might be coming for us, anyway."

Alex set herself to receive the incoming Grue. Even three packs at once wouldn't be enough to overwhelm them, not yet, but if it was this bad on the last Survey…

She shook away the thought as the howls closed in. They'd deal with it when they had to. Survive first, after all.

[Mission Report]

[Completed an Objective. +20 Experience]

[Priority Objective Completed. +140 Experience]

[Additional Objective Completed +120 Experience]

[Additional Objective Partially Completed. +20 Experience]

Alex grunted at the text as she nursed the wounds on her arm.

The ambushes hadn't let up after the three patrols had jumped them. A few minutes later, another double-patrol fight had happened, followed by the Shifter prowling out to hunt them down. They had made the run through town fairly quickly—sped a little by Trips' growing panic—but then getting out had been a problem. They had hit at least eight more patrols, in groups of two or three, before they'd made it back to the portal. Alex was convinced that only numbers and Clara's healing had saved them.

Unfortunately, they were now all nearly exhausted. Clara had used up most of her remaining healing to get one of Trips' people back on their feet, and the marathon run back had exhausted both the Acolyte and the Adept. Sam might still be able to keep up, but going on a two-person Survey with Liliana throwing everything at them was probably less than wise.

As if to confirm her suspicions, the text changed in front of her.

[Current Portal Status: Stable, Magic Level Steady]

[Current Portal Level: C3]

[Anomalous Readings Registered!]

[Local Area Population: None]

At least the Screen could warn her in the future if the Shade was waiting. Perhaps she'd be able to make some kind of excuse to avoid going back in until tomorrow.

[Battle Maneuvers** increased from 29 to 30!]

[Motion Trance increased from 21 to 23!]

It was the last little burst of improvement that she could expect for now. If she wanted to be as ready as possible, she had officially made it.

She repeatedly refused to reset any of her Skills, knowing that if something was going to go wrong, it would be now. Warner was about to be backed fully into a corner, and she wanted to be ready for anything to happen.

Besides, as the light carried her home, she almost wanted him to make that last mistake…

To her surprise, Warner was waiting for her in the training room.

The CEO looked agitated, though he was obviously trying to hide it. There were a few Surveyors still there, looking at their phones and muttering quietly. Laser and her team were absent, though, which was surprising. Alex would have expected them to be there, if only to get ready for the next Survey.

Instead, Warner met her as she was walking past the monument to the fallen Royal Purple Surveyors. His eyes betrayed more than a little worry, something he was clearly trying to hide. "Valkyrie. I'm afraid I will need to cancel your last Survey today."

Alex blinked. She glanced at the others, who were trying to conceal expressions of relief. "Really? Why?"

"There's been a number of situations today that I need Laser and her Surveyors to handle. No alerts, of course, but still…" He shrugged. "I'm sure they will be more than happy to make it up to you tomorrow. Would it be all right if your team went through in the afternoon instead of your normal group exercises?"

Suspicion filled her, but she nodded. Alex made a note to be sure it was actually Laser coming through the portal, and not Rabbit and her team. "Sure. We might need a rest, anyway."

Warner clapped his hands together. "Excellent. Now, go get some rest. I need to… see to something. We'll speak tomorrow."

Without waiting for a response, he hurried away from the portal and out of the room. Alex watched him go, imagining a target on his back for a moment. Then she shrugged and turned to the others. "He seems like he's having a very bad day."

Sam smirked. "I'd say so." He showed her the phone he had just picked up. A video was playing from a news network. It showed a cordon of cars with flashing lights surrounding yet another Steel Sky trailer. The vehicle had been turned over into a ditch, and the collision looked like it had jarred the back door loose. Someone in a recognizable Regulation uniform was already pushing their way through the opening.

Clara peeked over her shoulder. She broke out into a grin. "Ooo. A very, very bad day indeed."

Alex felt a swell of triumph and she couldn't quite suppress the laugh. They'd won. It was over.

She woke later that night as someone slipped into her room.

It wasn't exactly her own instincts. Alex had always been a fairly heavy sleeper, and after an almost traditional visit to Rob in the infirmary, she'd practically collapsed into her bed to rest. She hadn't even really shucked her uniform, in fact, but even that minor discomfort hadn't been enough to wake her.

Instead, it had been a trick that Sam had given her after she'd found the note in her room. He'd helped her set up a little gadget that pointed a small laser at her doorway from across the room. When it detected that the door had moved, it sent a text notification to her phone, which she'd left in her pocket.

The vibration had her awake in a heartbeat. She caught sight of the shadowy figure, barely visible in the dark, and was instantly moving. Her axe appeared in her hand, and her shield came up and around, ready to slam into the intruder. Alex sprang across the room, aiming her first blow at their head.

Then the intruder brought a hand up and lit the room with a small burst of fire. She caught sight of Joanna's face, with a finger over her lips, and just barely managed to abort her attack. Her feet skidded on the carpet a little, but she still brought herself up short. It took an effort to speak in a harsh whisper instead of a yell. "Joanna! What are you—"

"Screwball just texted me." Joanna's voice was low. "There's an unscheduled flight alert tonight. He was told he'd have passengers and to stand by."

Alex paused. She looked back at her window, which showed that it was nowhere near morning yet. "Was there an alarm?"

"No. Nobody's heard anything." Joanna shook her head. "But there's a trailer in the parking lot near the maintenance hangar. It looks like… like it's from Steel Sky."

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