“A Cruelty’s coming?” Ami said. “But there’s no alert.”

  She took out her phone and double-checked that no notifications had come through. While any wi-fi in the area had gone down, she still had cell service, which would have been enough to receive an evacuation notice. This shopping center was busy enough to have an emergency broadcast system set up, too, that could run off of a backup generator. Nothing indicated that a Cruelty was about to appear.

  “I can feel the energy collecting nearby,” Noon insisted. “I do not know why it has gone undetected, but I grow more certain by the second. It will materialize soon.”

  Ami went to the boutique’s windows and looked around the promenade. Most people were funneling out of the dark shops and into the daylight outside. Some sat down on the benches that lined the street, while others stood around in groups chatting, and those that came here alone browsed their phones. None of them had any clue that a Cruelty was gathering energy to materialize here, and why would they? They were just looking to pass some time until the power was restored and they could finish their shopping trips.

  If Noon was right—and Ami had to believe he was—then she needed to get everyone out of danger.

  “How long do we have?” she asked her mascot. “And how strong is this thing?”

  “I would estimate only a few minutes,” he said. “On my own, there is only so much I can deduce from the energy signature. It is weaker than those you have fought recently, but humans without magic are still in grave danger.”

  A couple of minutes wasn’t enough time to get everyone to a safe distance. From how Noon described it, this Cruelty was probably a D-Rank. If Ami could at least get everyone back indoors, she should be able to contain the monster enough to keep everyone safe. Depending on the variant, she could possibly destroy it herself, but at the very least she could buy time until backup arrived.

  The first step was to clear the promenade. Ami turned around to face the clerk who had been helping her.

  “If I send a bunch of people in here,” she said, “can you make sure they stay inside? Take cover toward the back of the store—if you have a break room back there, even better.”

  The clerk, who must have overheard Noon’s warning about the Cruelty, nodded silently. The excitement was gone from her face, replaced with a paling anxiety.

  Part of why the average person didn’t live in fear of Cruelties was because they would always be evacuated before one arrived. When you were watching a battle from a safe distance, or sheltering out of the line of fire, it was easy to feel like you weren’t involved. Sometimes Ami wondered if most civilians had forgotten that they were the targets of these monsters. Cruelties wanted to hunt, not waste time fighting magic users. These battles weren’t a spectacle but a war over the lives of everyone watching from the sidelines.

  When the war got close enough to shatter that illusion of safety, most people froze. It had happened with the boy at the farm, and it would happen with everyone at this mall. The only way Ami could keep these people safe was to keep them out of the way. To do that effectively, and to be ready to battle the Cruelty, she needed to transform.

  She rushed out onto the promenade, where she was greeted by a cheerful buzz of conversation. Not looking to waste any more time, she reached out to touch her mascot, and Noon opened the flow of magic between them.

  The flash of green light that accompanied her transformation caught the eyes of some nearby shoppers. They started whispering among themselves, surely wondering why a magical girl had suddenly transformed in the middle of this crowd. Was this an impromptu street show? It couldn’t be to fight a Cruelty—they would’ve heard about it by now.

  Ami had the attention of those people, but the promenade stretched on for about a quarter-mile, with shoppers mingling all along it. Ami only had one idea for how to spread her message within the time she had.

  She took flight and started to yell.

  “Get inside! A Cruelty’s coming! Get back inside—any shop!”

  She flew farther down the promenade before shouting again. She was only five or so feet overhead, close enough that she couldn’t be ignored. Yet, her warnings only led to more whispering between the shoppers.

  Who is this girl? Obviously she’s a magical girl, but is she serious? Are we supposed to listen to her? There’s no way, we would’ve heard about a Cruelty. But if she’s right?

  Ami had made it about halfway across the shopping center now, and most people were still hanging around outside. Some shoppers had listened to her and slowly went indoors, but everyone else was wasting time.

  If they weren’t taking her seriously, then she’d change her approach. Things always worked better for Adah when she got mean, so why not Ami?

  “I’m not fucking around!” she yelled. “A Cruelty’s coming! Get your asses inside or I’ll knock ‘em in!”

  She cast her [Aspis Meniscus], mostly just for visual impact, but she figured if she really needed to give these people some extra motivation then she could push them where she needed them.

  Turning up the heat seemed to work better—more and more people were heading back into the same shops they had just left. A small portion of stragglers had yet to be swayed by peer pressure, so maybe those were the folks Ami could provide a helping hand to.

  “Listen to her!” a squeaky voice called out from behind Ami. “You’re in danger out here!”

  Stolen story; please report.

  Ami spun around to find another magical girl floating nearby. She was tiny, and made even tinier by the loose purple robes she wore. She looked like a kid who had tried on her mother’s clothes and was walking around the house while tripping over all the extra fabric. The witch’s hat atop her head was much the same, with its pointed tip reaching so tall that it started to flop over at the end. Under different circumstances, Ami would’ve cracked up laughing.

  The presence of this second magical girl was enough to convince even the most stubborn bystanders of the impending danger. If both girls were warning them, then surely it wasn’t a mistake. Ami wanted to roll her eyes. Some people just had no instinct for self-preservation.

  Ami scanned the length of the promenade; everyone had finally made their way indoors. Some of them were peeking out the front windows of whichever shop they had entered, but at least they were out of the way. Hopefully once they saw the Cruelty with their own eyes, they’d hide behind a table or counter. There wasn’t time to micromanage them at this point.

  “You’re Dewdrop, aren’t you?” the witchy magical girl asked.

  The girl was gripping her hands together in front of her chest. Her face was as pale as the boutique clerk’s had been. She must have been caught in the middle of a shopping trip just like Ami was.

  “Sure am,” Ami said. “What about you?”

  “Seliah,” the girl said. “Er, Celestial Seliah. But, I mean, you wouldn’t know me. I’m new.”

  Ami had guessed as much. This Seliah girl looked totally unprepared for this battle. It went beyond the misfitted robes—her eyes darted back and forth in search of the Cruelty, and her knuckles had turned completely white from how hard she was clenching her hands together.

  “Did your mascot warn you about this bastard?” Ami asked.

  Seliah nodded. “She told me it’s stronger than anything I’ve fought before. Everything is, though. I’ve only beaten a couple F-Ranks…”

  “What’s your spell?” Ami asked as she swiveled her head back and forth. The Cruelty would arrive any second now.

  “It’s like a lightning bolt,” Seliah said. “I don’t know how much help it’ll be.”

  “We’ll make it work,” Ami said. “For now, fly around the perimeter of this place—keep any new people from walking in. I’ll hold the Cruelty off as long as I have to.”

  With a bit more time, maybe they could have tried to collect Seliah’s lightning in Ami’s shield. It wouldn’t matter how weak the lightning was if they could stockpile a bunch of casts into one burst. However, by the time Ami calibrated the strength of her shield to match the power of Seliah’s spell, the Cruelty would have arrived. Since they didn’t even know what variant of monster this would be, the smartest play was to start with containment, then look to kill.

  In the worst case scenario, if any Magedars in the area were malfunctioning, the bystanders would still spread the word about this monster. If Ami and this new girl couldn’t finish the job, then they could at least buy time until someone with more firepower showed up.

  Ami dropped her shield for a moment to summon Poseidon’s Pugni. The watery wrappings surged around her knuckles like a dozen tiny rivers. She cast [Cryo Celestics], as well, setting a group of spearlike icicles to spin around her body. These would be her best tools for actually destroying the Cruelty. If the combination of her offensive capabilities and Seliah’s spell didn’t do the job, then she’d go full defensive mode.

  Almost at the same time Seliah flew off to scout the perimeter of the shopping center, a sound like the wind howling echoed around Ami. She spun around to find the Cruelty had materialized behind her, a few shops down where from she was floating.

  “You again?” she said reflexively.

  The Cruelty that had shown up was of a variant she’d fought before. In fact, it was the first D-Rank she’d ever taken on, back when Spotlight Sunbright was so weak they had to do D-Rank missions as a group.

  In the center of the path through the promenade stood a gray ibex, with a pair of long, curling horns jutting out from its head. The beast’s horns curled all the way back around into nearly complete circles. They were neither smooth nor ridged, but lined with blackened points that looked like obsidian arrowheads. Ami knew from experience that those jagged points would spin along the Cruelty’s circular horns, carving up anything they touched like a chainsaw.

  It was a simple Cruelty with a straightforward battle plan. All it wanted to do was charge at its target and cut them to bits with those horns. The ibex ran nearly as fast as Ami could fly, and could get up to speed quicker than any race-car, so it didn’t need a more complex strategy than that. On top of that, it had chosen a prime hunting location today. Had the promenade still been filled with shoppers, the Cruelty could have plowed through dozens of them in a straight shot.

  Ami hadn’t been sure how helpful corralling all the bystanders inside would be, but clearly it had been the right call.

  The ibex’s hide was tough, but not so thick that a low level spell like Seliah’s couldn’t penetrate it. At worst, she might need a few casts to break through to the monster’s core. The real challenge would be keeping the beast locked in place so the wannabe witch could land consecutive shots on the same spot. Though, that was the sort of job Ami was best suited for.

  Ami reached out to Seliah through a magical channel. As the only other magic user in the area, the girl’s signature was easy to find.

  “Hey, Selichi,” she said.

  After a pause, Seliah responded, “Selichi?”

  “Keep scouting around,” Ami said. “If you see anyone leave one of the shops, toss ‘em back inside. Give me some time to get my hands on this fucker. Once I call you back, shoot your spell and don’t quit ‘til you hear this monster stop screaming.”

  “O-Okay!” Seliah squeaked. “I’ll do my best!”

  Same here, Ami thought.

  She floated down so that she was hovering just a few inches above the ground. With no one else around, the ibex locked onto her right away. It stepped toward her slowly at first, just gauging her reaction as it closed the distance a little. Only a hundred feet separated them now.

  Ami cast her [Aspis Meniscus] in addition to the icicles that orbited around her. If the ibex broke through that outer ring of ice, this shield would be a final layer of protection. She was confident in the watery barrier. As long as she could throw herself in front of this Cruelty with that shield up, no one would get hurt. So she’d tank as many charges from this monster as she needed to.

  “Like the world’s worst matador,” she said to herself with a grin.

  Although, she hoped this fight wouldn’t come down to her letting herself get pummeled. She had almost her full arsenal deployed now. At her current FP level, maintaining multiple spells at once wasn’t much of a burden on her energy. With all these tools at her disposal, and all the strength and wherewithal to use them, she wanted to prove that she was more than just a damage sponge.

  She wanted to show that she was stronger than a simpleminded D-Rank Cruelty. Not just that she could withstand all its attacks, but that she could overwhelm it entirely. She had to admit that she still didn’t have any spells that could measure up to the offensive capabilities of her teammates. There was nothing in her kit that could delete a Cruelty in a single blow. But she could still prove that she was a master of the battlefield.

  If she could out-muscle, outrun, and overpower every enemy she encountered, that’d be as cool as blowing up a Cruelty with a snap. At least, it would be in her mind.

  Ami would exert all her power over this ibex and leave it at her mercy. She’d make it so even a rookie like Seliah, with a level one spell, could finish the job with ease. Then there’d be no doubting the power of Dewdrop.

  “Let’s knock skulls, buddy!” she roared at the Cruelty.

  Maybe it had understood her words.

  The ibex lowered its head, set the jagged edges of its horns to spinning, and charged forward in a blur of gray.