“Mmm, don’t go yet. Stay here a little longer,” said Arietta amidst the sepulchral clangor of the castle bells. She tried pulling Narro back toward the warmth of her bed, but her boyfriend wouldn’t budge from his seat. “No one would question it if you said you were deep in the preserve when the bell rang.”

  “I ran into Evran on the way here, and we share an assignment,” Narro protested as he finished buttoning his pants.

  “He’s our friend. He’d let it slide for us.”

  Smiling, Narro leaned over and held Arietta in a passionate embrace. “And what would your excuse be? Besides, we’ll have plenty of time together during the practical. It’ll be fun to sneak off into the woods while everyone else is sleeping.”

  She threw her pillow at Narro and pouted. “I’m not sleeping with you in some monster-infested forest at night! You’d just end up leaving me to go fight more monsters! Honestly! Sometimes I worry about you.”

  They shared a laugh together while Narro pulled the laces of his boot into a secure knot. He gently caressed her cheek before giving Arietta a kiss goodbye. “Be safe out there. That shelter is counting on you.”

  “Same to you. And your wish better be about me!” said Arietta, asking for all she could get.

  Narro grabbed his swords and opened the door as if to leave. Instead, he jogged back to Arietta and gave her a second, more passionate goodbye kiss, which she was all too happy to receive. Again, he left, this time for real. Narro closed the door behind him, though he could still hear Arietta groaning into her other pillow as she kicked and punched at her bed. He couldn’t help but chuckle to himself at that.

  He arrived at the base of the barrier tower in District 11 and found Evran and Kaila instructing a few of the younger students. Narro recalled his time on barrier duty during the previous Tempest. He spent the whole storm frustrated at his inability to fight monsters while cooped up in the relative safety of the tower. What’s more, his instructor was eager to test the depths of his infamous mana pool and made him go first. Everyone was shocked when he almost lasted the entire length of the Tempest, but casting a spell for over two hours exhausted more than just one’s mana.

  “I told you it was gonna come early, Evran!” shouted Narro. “All that money Lerrum spent on your new staff, and you won’t even use it for the Tempest? He’s gonna be livid when we tell him!”

  Kaila giggled as she waved hello. “Hi Narro! Glad to see at least one of my protectors brought their weapons with him.”

  “Come on, guys, it’s not as if I used anything before I got the staff,” Evran countered.

  Realistically, Evran could take his time going to his dorm and back to get the staff. The Tempest wouldn’t start until a few hours after the third stormsign. But regulations were very strict surrounding one’s duty. Every able-bodied person was required to contribute to the defense of their island, and it wouldn’t do well to have a bunch of people wandering about aimlessly beforehand.

  They passed the hours reviewing procedures and expectations with the younger students, a few of whom trickled in suspiciously late. They used the excuse of training deep inside the preserve, to which Narro could only roll his eyes.

  For many of the students, it was their first time participating in a Tempest. They were all placed on barrier duty. Much like crystal duty, barrier duty involved feeding mana into a warding obelisk, which would project an energy barrier over a portion of the town. The barrier would keep out the worst of the wind and miasma, but the Tempest would still spawn plenty of nasty monsters that could threaten the city. That’s where Narro came in.

  There were twelve people assigned to monster duty in District 11, a mixture of older students, local townsfolk, and itinerant adventurers. They split themselves into two-man strike squads and began patrolling the streets below the barrier tower. Narro paired up with Evran at his request.

  “Stay safe out there, you two!” encouraged Kaila. She waved goodbye and led the younger students up the tower.

  Narro and Evran arrived at the start of their designated patrol route. They found a weathered bench to relax on in front of the old artifact workshop. With not much to say, they sat in silence, mentally preparing themselves for the battles ahead.

  In an instant, the ambient miasma thickened, plummeting the world into a soup of ever-shifting purple mist. Lightning crashed against the invisible barrier above the city, causing it to glow blue for a moment. The very space around them rippled with strange energy, and the shrill cries of distant monsters filled the sky. The Tempest had begun.

  “There’s one down that way,” shouted Evran. His magic sense was the keener of the two, so Narro was content to let him call the targets.

  They jogged up a steep road to find a giant meles scratching its claws against the door of a building. Narro charged the beast. On his way, a flare from Evran shot past him and struck the badger in its eyes. It did little damage, but it served as the perfect distraction to allow Narro to get in close and strike it down with ease. Evran was being very conservative with his mana, and his use of a flare was the very model of efficiency.

  “Nice work!” said Evran. “Nothing here worth wasting mana on reifying. Let’s move on. I sense another monster up ahead.”

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  The claws and hide of a meles that size were quite valuable, but it was unwise to waste mana stabilizing them. The creature, valuable parts and all, would evaporate back into miasma with nothing to show for its slayer’s efforts. Tales spoke of greedy adventurers looting corpses during a Tempest, only to be slain by monsters after their mana had been exhausted prematurely. Even Narro was not foolish enough to reify anything short of a golem made of solid mythril.

  They spent the next hour running from place to place, slaying over a dozen monsters. Thankfully, they hadn’t encountered anything too strong. The barrier kept the miasma density low enough to where they wouldn’t normally come across genuine threats. An experienced team of adventurers was assigned to patrol the section of District 11 closest to the city wall, where monsters could spawn in the thicker miasma outside the barrier and wander into the town. Still, they had been fighting for an hour, running from place to place in a particularly hilly section of the city.

  “Tired already, Evran? And you say you wanna be an adventurer!”

  “Just slow down a sec. Not everyone has unlimited mana!” Evran retorted between quick breaths.

  “It’s not an issue of mana. It’s stamina!” said Narro. He slowed down, giving Evran a chance to catch his breath. “You’re always slacking off, damn it. I don’t wanna die because my support couldn’t be bothered to put in some damn effort for once in his life!”

  Evran stood there dumbfounded at his friend’s sudden outburst. “Whoa, where’s this coming from?”

  Narro cocked his head in the direction of a nearby monster’s howl. “Forget it. Let’s go. At least this one’s downhill.”

  After another hour of fighting, they could sense the weakening of the Tempest. The wind faded to a trickle, and the barrier no longer glowed from lightning strikes. What few monsters continued to spawn were weak and avoidant. While Narro still had a healthy supply of mana to his name, Evran’s pool was running on fumes. Both were physically exhausted from running up and down the hills of District 11.

  A loud crash came from the direction of the city wall.

  “Did you hear that?” asked Evran. His exhaustion was written on his face, but there was still a look of determination in his eyes. He was still ready to fight. “Sounds like it came from the wall. If it’s a wanderer from outside the barrier, they might need our help.”

  “Can we just abandon our area?”

  “The Tempest is almost over. Nothing bad should spawn at this point, and the unused barrier students can mop up the rest if need be. We’re more useful backing up the wall team.”

  “Alright, but it’s on you if we get yelled at!” Narro joked. “Let’s go!”

  They raced off toward a dark cloud of dust barely visible through the thinning miasma. Even a few blocks away, Narro could feel a pulse of immense pressure radiating from the monster. He knew the fight ahead would be a rough one.

  Without hesitating, Evren launched a red emergency flare, but angled over to where the monster was. It would let the wall team know help was already close by, and the other teams would be on their way too. If the wall team ended up handling the threat without issue, they’d give Evran quite the earful, but Narro agreed with his course of action.

  They could hear the clash of horn on metal as they got closer. Narro rounded the corner first and saw a massive Crimson Aatxe raking its horns across the battered shield of an adventurer. The wagon-sized bull kicked off its hind legs and slammed its head into the shield, throwing the adventurer back onto a heap of rubble. Narro’s eyes surveyed the scene, desperately searching for the adventurer’s partner. He focused his gaze on a motionless figure slumped awkwardly against a building.

  The armored adventurer staggered back onto his feet, unceremoniously tossing his broken shield onto the debris pile on which he stood. The aatxe snorted as it circled around its prey, unaware of the two students taking up a flanking position behind it. Undaunted, the adventurer raised his spear high and let out a war-cry, enraging the monster. Right as the beast shifted its weight onto its hind legs to charge, that’s when Narro struck.

  With a quick series of wind-enhanced slashes, Narro attacked the bull’s legs. He’d hoped to score a decisive blow by severing a critical tendon, but he only managed to cut partway into its dense protective hide. The bull spun around quickly to meet its new opponent, but Narro was already dodging back in anticipation. Instead, its face was met with a spray of razor-sharp chunks of obsidian courtesy of Evran. The unexpected stone shards sunk into the tender flesh on the bull’s face, but none found an eye as Evran had hoped.

  The furious bull flashed red and burst into flames. It charged toward Evran’s hidden position between several buildings down the road, continuing despite taking a few hit-and-run style strikes from Narro and the adventurer. Evran carefully examined the gait of the charging aatxe, and used earth magic to open a small divot right where the bull’s hooves were to land. Instead of finding solid ground, the legs stuck themselves into the hole, snapping under the weight of the massive beast. The aatxe fell forward under its own momentum and slid across the street.

  Narro watched Evran stagger backwards into the alley. His teammate had likely exhausted the last of his mana with those modest attacks, but he’d be damned if Evran hadn’t made the most of it.

  The fiery bull was down, but not defeated. It staggered back onto its broken front legs, as if incapable of feeling pain, but its movements were severely hampered by Evran’s pitfall attack. Narro and the adventurer continued their hit-and-run tactics. They got in close and landed a few strikes, then darted back before the bull could swing its head around to confront them.

  Just when Narro thought he’d successfully dodged, the aatxe snorted a wall of fire in his direction. He quickly imbued his blades with water and swung a large wave into existence in front of him. It wasn’t a perfect shield, but the wall of fire crashed against the water. Small embers broke through, scorching Narro across his left side.

  A large ball of water shot out from down a distant side street, splashing against the burning bull. Another team had arrived to help. With the aatxe’s fire extinguished, Narro and the adventurer renewed their assault.

  The cuts began penetrating deeper and deeper with every blow. The beast’s mana-enhanced hide was losing its integrity. Soon, Narro’s blades were slicing through muscle and tendon with ease. Sensing the end of the fight, he stopped his attacks. The once deadly monster had ceased its desperate thrashing. The adventurer approached cautiously from the front and drove his spear deep into the skull of the fallen aatxe, ending the battle. He looked to Narro and gave a quick nod in thanks, then darted off to find his fallen teammate.

  “Ev!” Narro shouted. “You awake back there?”

  No response. Narro wandered over to the alley from where Evran had cast his two spells and found his friend lying unconscious in a pile of trash.

  “Good job, idiot,” he said, preparing to carry his teammate to a more comfortable place to rest up. Narro felt a rush of mana returning to his body. The residual mana around him dissipated into nothing, revealing a night sky. The Tempest had apparently moved their island to the other side of the planet somehow. He’d find out later whether they had gained or lost half a day. Regardless, the damned Tempest was finally over.