Flashback

  A younger Josh, barely a year into his time in Alleran, sat hunched over a crude green cauldron, meticulously grinding exotic herbs with a pestle. His face was smudged with soot, and his brow furrowed in concentration.

  Standing over him, a wiry goblin with a severe expression and a seemingly endless supply of criticism watched with folded arms. This was Gurk, his alchemy instructor.

  "Careful, human! You grind those Starlight Petals too coarsely, and the entire mixture will destabilize!" Gurk screeched, his voice like nails on a chalkboard.

  "Yes, yes, I know, Gurk," Josh muttered, his ears still ringing from the goblin's earlier lecture. He carefully adjusted his technique, grinding the petals into a fine powder.

  "And don’t forget to keep mixing it repeatedly, or it won’t blend in properly!”

  "Yes, I know!" Josh spat out, rolling his eyes. "Can't you just let me work in peace?"

  Gurk sighed, a long-suffering sound. "Peace? You are creating a Philosopher's Stone, boy! This is not some child's play. This stone," he gestured to the bubbling concoction in the cauldron, "is a machine, an artificial mineral of immense power. It can transmute any substance, yes, but only if the user has the formula memorized perfectly. It is a shortcut, not a cheat. And you, human, have the memory of a drunken badger!"

  "Hey!" Josh protested, but Gurk ignored him.

  "Even now, after all my… tutelage," Gurk emphasized the word with a pointed glare, "you have barely memorized a handful of formulas."

  Josh shrugged, a sheepish grin on his face. "Hey, give me a break. You were the one who kept yelling the formulas at me until I had no choice but to memorize them to get you off my back!"

  Gurk's eyes narrowed. "You may complain now, human, but mark my words. These formulas, the ones I have so 'mercilessly' drilled into your thick skull, will very likely become essential in saving your life… and, more importantly, the lives of others."

  Flashback End

  Back in the present, Josh mumbled in annoyance, "Urgh, to think that green shrimp's words would come back to haunt me now of all times… " With a flick of the Philosopher's Stone, the vials in his hand transformed, the shimmering liquids within coalescing into a single vial filled with a viscous, dark brown potion.

  Without hesitation, Josh hurled the vial at the cluster of T4 drones. The vial shattered on impact, releasing a cloud of swirling vapor that spread rapidly across the battlefield.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "Now this is just pitiful!" Qun Via cackled, her puppet's head bobbing. "Did you really think some piss-poor smoke bomb would stop my babies? Their infrared vision will see through that and fry you alive!”

  But her laughter died in her throat, for to her shock, the T4 drones caught in the cloud began to sputter and twitch. Their metallic limbs spasmed, followed by their crimson eyes flickering, while a fine layer of rust seemed to spread across their surfaces, along with cracks appearing on their once-pristine armor. Then, with a final, sickening groan, they crumpled to the ground as heaps of dead, rotten metal.

  Josh watched the T4s fall, a grim satisfaction on his face. "Corrosion potion," he explained, his voice surprisingly calm amidst the chaos. "Originally designed for use against heavily armored infantry, siege weaponry, and enemy automatons, but I'm glad to see it works on advanced robots too."

  Qun Via stared at her fallen minions, her expression a mix of bewilderment and fury. Then, a manic grin spread across her face. "Nice little trick, kid,” she admitted, her voice a low, dangerous purr.

  Suddenly, Qun Via vanished. Not with a bang, not with a flash of light, but with a subtle distortion of the air, a fleeting swirl of dark and bright purple smoke. Before Josh could even react, she reappeared behind him, her puppet-topped scepter raised like a macabre weapon.

  "But then…" her voice rasped from behind him, "I am full of tricks as well!”

  The puppet's head, its grotesque features twisted into a mocking grin, yawned open. From the depths of its hollow mouth, a long, metallic rifle barrel extended, unfolding with a disturbing, mechanical precision. Then Qun Via fired.

  The bullets were a hail of death, a relentless barrage of high-velocity projectiles aimed directly at Josh's back. He reacted on instinct, throwing himself to the side, his enhanced speed allowing him to narrowly avoid the worst of the attack. But the sheer volume of fire was overwhelming. His gray hoodie and white dress shirt were shredded, torn to ribbons by the bullets.

  "Damn it!" Josh cursed, rolling away from another burst of gunfire. He had been careless, too focused on the drones.

  Sasha, watching the scene unfold with growing horror, remembered something she had read in an online article about Qun Via. Her meta-gene wasn't brute strength or energy blasts; it was teleportation. Limited range, yes, but instantaneous and unpredictable, making her movements virtually impossible to track.

  "Josh, watch out!" Sasha yelled, her voice barely audible over the gunfire. "It may be limited, but she can teleport anywhere she wants!"

  Via laughed, her voice echoing around the battlefield as she teleported again, appearing on top of an overturned car, firing down at Josh. "The girl is right, hero boy! I can be anywhere, and you can't touch me! Though I admit you dance quite elegantly for someone so juvenile…” her tone then lowered into a deep whisper. “But I think it's time we end this little ditty!”

  With a final, mocking flourish, Qun Via teleported directly below Josh, who was leaping over a flaming vehicle. The puppet's head opened wider, and from its depths, a bright red energy began to coalesce. A high-pitched whine filled the air as the energy intensified, building to a crescendo.

  "Say goodnight, hero!" Via shrieked.

  A massive beam of energy, a searing blast of red light, erupted from the puppet's mouth. It was a concentrated, devastating attack, a laser of pure force that stretched out into the sky, blinding everyone nearby and casting long, ominous shadows across the ruined school grounds.

  "JOSH!" Sasha screamed, her voice filled with terror as the light engulfed her friend.