“Hey, Asika,” Mikayla mused to make conversation. They’d been flying for hours, and the silence was growing oppressive. “Weird question, but why isn’t Wisdom a stat?”

  “Huh? You mean, out of the six Statistics and three resource pools? Why would Wisdom be a stat?”

  “There’s a game in my world which uses a similar six stat system, only it has Wisdom instead of Willpower,” Mikayla explained.

  Asika screwed up her face in thought. “That’s dumb. How would you measure Wisdom? That’s, like, just life experience,”

  “Well, how do you measure Charisma? Or Intelligence? Or Willpower?”

  “Oh those are easy,” the faerie brushed her off. “Intelligence improves your brain’s efficiency and metabolism, lets you think faster. Willpower improves your nervous system, lets you deal with pain and negative thoughts better. Charisma is just how pretty you are!”

  Mikayla raised an eyebrow. “Hold on, Charisma doesn’t improve my ability to talk to people? It just makes me look nicer?”

  “That’s right! Social Techniques are a whole other thing, but a lot of those are banned because no one likes mind control,”

  “Oofa. I can imagine why,” Mikayla could only imagine the kind of havoc real mind control could wreak. Picturing her friends and family being turned against her without even realising it . .

  She forced herself to stop, reminding herself that such things weren’t possible on Earth. “So, I should probably ask,” Mikayla broached, moving on from that unpleasant topic, “what happens to all my abilities and stats once I go back to Earth?”

  “You keep them,” Asika nonchalantly shrugged. “The System provides the energy you’re consuming and guides your growth, but it’s still your growth, we can’t just revoke it when you’re not connected to the System anymore. Otherwise everyone would go back to level 1 as soon as they left an Ataraxia Node’s range. And possibly die. I heard there were some really grisly cases during alpha testing,”

  “. . I can set my fist on fire at will and shoot lasers with my brain,” Mikayla reminded her. “I am mathematically twice as strong as I should be, despite not having gained any muscle mass,” If anything, the Kaiju Coast diet had caused her to shed a few pounds. Cat would surely insist on replacing her wardrobe again.

  “Yeah? And?”

  “You’re telling me I’ll still be able to do all that back on Earth?”

  “Yeppers!” Asika paused. “Are you worried about being mistaken for a witch or something? You might have to keep your upgrades secret,”

  Mikayla digested that. “Well I am now!”

  “Aw, relax! You could use your powers for good!” the faerie encouraged her, then tilted her head. “Or evil, if that’s more your thing. Not like I could stop you,”

  “I am not using my powers for evil!” Mikayla protested.

  “Great! Superhero origin story it is!” Asika spread her arms, drawing a System panel in which a stick figure labelled [Mikayla] with a cape and a mask was standing on top of a building. She put on a fake narrator voice for added effect. “Mikayla was a normal girl, until she spent three weeks stranded in a world of magic and monsters. She had to fight and kill to survive, and gained awesome powers,” The stick figure waved a sword around with its fist on fire. “Now, she’s back, and the crime syndicate Badguyz (with a Z!) has a new worst nightmare,”

  Mikayla chuckled, watching Asika’s drawing of her beat up stick figure pirates. “There are laws against vigilantism, I’m sorry to say,”

  “Whaaaat? Why? That’s stupid,”

  “No, it’s good,” Keldryn interjected from where he was reclining at the back of Kagura-no-Shibu’s control room. “People get hurt when they run off and play hero,”

  “Phooey,” Asika huffed.

  Mikayla glanced back at the viewscreen, and realised that a familiar stone tower had appeared in the distance and was rapidly growing larger. “There it is! Astralia’s Spear!”

  “Wow. It really is huge. Can’t believe mortals made something that big,” Asika mused as they drew closer to the medieval skyscraper.

  Something moved at the top of the tower.

  Keldryn’s ears shot up straight. “Maybe we should circle around the Spear. The Giant Roc’s still around,”

  “Yepperoony,” Asika saluted, changing course to give the Spear a wide berth as a huge, dark shadow began to rise from the nest at the top of the tower.

  Mikayla squinted, peering up at the Spear’s inhabitant, because something didn’t seem right. The shape was still avian, but its feathers were darker and seemed lore sleek, almost metallic. “Is that the same Giant Roc?”

  Two eyes like searchlights opened, leaking trails of lightning into the atmosphere, locking onto Asika’s Armour Core. Then they fired, twin arrows of electricity so focused and so fast that Asika could only barely start to dodge before they struck Kagura-no-Shibu’s wing.

  The Armour quaked, pitching sideways. “Everyone hold on tight!” the faerie commanded, slapping her palms onto the windscreen and conjuring a thousand tiny screens, making her fingers look pixellated. Streaks of Mana flew down her arms and into her vessel, stabilising it in a dive. “I’m bringing us down!”

  There was a crash, and foliage filled their field of vision. Mikayla heard branches crack and snap around them, and then there was a thunk that threw her a foot into the air.

  From sheer survival instinct, red lines drew black armour around her before she hit the ground. Which was good timing, because Kagura-no-Shibu popped out of existence, dumping its three inhabitants into the end of an uneven trench that the crash had carved into the forest floor.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Neither Keldryn nor Asika looked bothered by the landing, and green-orange light had manifested Skyward Grasscutter around the former. Only a moment later, Kagura-no-Shibu reformed at human size around Asika, wings flaring outward. Mikayla joined them, looking back at the trail of destruction, shattered trees and fallen leaves.

  “We need to move. Get under cover,” Keldryn insisted, already moving away towards the canopy of the closest surviving trees. The two girls followed, and Mikayla breathed a sigh of relief once they were out of sight.

  “Damnit, of course that thing’s still here,” she cursed.

  “You’ve run into it before?” Asika asked.

  “That damn bird has been the bane of my existence since the day I got here. This is the fourth time we’ve seen it and the third that it’s tried to kill me,” Mikayla wrung her hands. “We’re gonna have to circle around. Stay on the ground and hope it doesn’t notice us,”

  She half expected Nocturnus to pipe up, but her Armour’s ghost was conspicuously silent. He had to be worried about what Asika would do if she heard him.

  “Yeah, probably the best plan. Hang on, lemme plot a new course. It’s this way,” Asika’s fingers tapped out something only she could see, and a distant pillar of light appeared in their vision. “We’re only a kilometre away, even if we steer clear of the Spear. We can get there on foot. The Roc should lose interest if we evade it for a bit,”

  “I could go the opposite way. Draw its attention,” Keldryn suggested.

  “No way. We’re safer together,” Mikayla denied. “Come on, let’s move,”

  A shadow fell over them.

  “Now!” Mikayla started moving, but a powerful downdraft uprooted the trees around them, and she had to jerk sideways to avoid being brained by a falling birch.

  Spinning on her heels and conjuring her Sword and Shield from their Cores, she stared up at the monstrous bird that more closely resembled a jumbo jet than anything that should be alive. As it hovered over them, its beak split and it roared, a piercing cry with such volume that it was practically a sonic attack. Mikayla’s ears rang and she had to widen her stance to avoid falling to her knees.

  There was something in the Roc’s eyes, she noticed as it dominated her gaze. Was she imagining it? Because it looked like it recognised her.

  That hadn’t been a simple hunting cry. There was anger in that bird. Hatred coming from that beak. “You . . you remember me, don’t you?” she guessed, peering into the pools of electricity that served as its eyes.

  “What? That’s not possible. Kaijus aren’t smart like that,” Keldryn shook his head, inching towards the treeline.

  “Actually, I heard some of the researchers are getting some fascinating results from experimenting with a Kaiju’s capacity for pattern recognition,” Asika piped up, her eyes not leaving the looming monstrosity. “Apparently the spatial anomalies that allow them to circumvent the square-cube law don’t inherently improve their brains but the increased size allows for -“

  “No one cares!” Keldryn interrupted her.

  “I think we should! Because, I’m telling you, that thing knows we killed its children!” Mikayla insisted.

  Asika blinked. “Wait, you what?”

  The world shook from the furious shriek that the Giant Roc let out, and then it dropped, winging forwards as its massive claws came down directly towards Mikayla. Being cut wasn't even the threat from such massive claws; each talon could squash her like a pea beneath a knife.

  Heel Propulsion launched her to the side, towards Keldryn, and in the corner of her eye she saw giant furrows carved into the ground where she’d been standing a moment ago. The Roc hit the ground, crushing a chunk of the forest beneath its weight.

  “Attack!” Nocturnus urged her as the bird struggled with its own weight, getting back to its feet. Mikayla couldn’t help but agree, bringing her sword down on one of its trailing tailfeathers and cleanly severing it.

  The Giant Roc bellowed in pain and fury. Black smoke erupted from its rear end in a rolling wave with momentary bolts of lightning dancing through it, and Mikayla could barely brace herself against her shield before it struck and bowled her over.

  She hit the ground with a crash that rattled her head inside the Black Knight’s helmet. “Did that bird just fart a storm cloud?” Mikayla mumbled, head spinning.

  When she managed to raise her head, the momentary storm had cleared and Asika was crouching over her, helping her stand up. The Giant Roc was already back in the air, wheeling around.

  “Identify!” Asika shrilly yelled, pointing at the ginormous bird as it swooped towards them. Taking a cue, Mikayla launched her own Identify.

  [STORMWRATH GIANT ROC - TIER 13 - Type: AVIAN (Subtype: KAIJU)]

  A hundred tiny bolts of lightning rained down on them from the Roc’s outstretched wings as it passed over them. Throwing her arms up, Asika conjured a billboard-sized System screen as a makeshift shield that crackled and splintered with every impact, but held.

  Mikayla gripped the faerie’s shoulder, steadying her as the barricade dropped, keeping one eye on the Roc as it came around for another attack run. “Tier thirteen? What does that mean in terms of levels?”

  “One Tier to five Levels. It’s the equivalent of Level 65, ish,” Asika abbreviated.

  “. . Shit,” Mikayla had actually expected more, given how frankly terrifying that bird was, but maybe that was the fear factor talking. “It looks different than it did before. Darker. Do monsters evolve? Like in Pokémon?”

  “Don’t know what that is, but sorta. Certain upgrades they get with their Tiers can change their appearance as a side effect of giving them new powers. What could this thing do before?”

  “Well, it used to be navy blue, not black, and mostly there was lots of really strong lightning,” Mikayla summarised. “It also tried to stab me with its beak once?”

  The moderator's answer was interrupted by the need for them both to dodge a wave of electricity, but Asika’s mouth continued to run even as the rest of her body took evasive action that should have left her winded. “Gotcha,” She didn’t look like that had narrowed things down much for her. “Well, whatever. You killed its children?”

  “They were teenagers! Attacking us! It was self defence!” Keldryn’s frustration with the topic was bubbling up again, clearly.

  "I still feel terrible about it!" Mikayla whimpered.

  “Oh, okay, fair enough,” Asika didn’t argue the point.

  “Have Kaijus been known to hold grudges about stuff like that?” Mikayla asked, ready to raise her shield again.

  “They sure do!” This chipper statement was punctuated by an expanding cone of electricity crashing down towards them.

  “Mana Assistance, Shield to size three!” Mikayla shouted, her defence growing large enough to cover all three of them. Keldryn threw himself behind the barrier and Asika pressed her Armour’s clawed fingers to it. Three System screens appeared in a stack to further blunt the strike.

  The world filled with white light as the wave of plasma washed over them. Mikayla braced her whole body against the shield, feeling it part around her defence like a tide. Asika groaned, the faint sound of glass shattering informing them that her screens had already broken down. All the same, they’d done their job, and though Mikayla could feel her Mana dropping, after an agonisingly long moment the world around them faded back into existence. They’d managed to endure the strike with only minor singeing.

  Asika groaned, shaking her arms out. “I dunno how many more of those I’ve got in me,”

  “We can’t keep defending. We’ve got to fight. Drive it off at least,” Keldryn argued, tail bristling visibly as he tracked the Giant Roc.

  “I don’t think driving it off is an option,” Mikayla shook her head. “It hates us too much,”

  Her fists tightened, face settling into grim resolve. “This is only going to end with either us or it dead,”

  doozy.

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