Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Two - Why Not Two?

  I stood up, brushing down the rear of my pants as I did so. "Pleased to meet you," I said.

  "Did you not hear the calls for civilians to evacuate?" Lyra asked.

  I glanced over to the end of the street. The police and such had pulled their cordon back, and that group with the exosuits had only just arrived. Hmm, was my time frame off a little bit? Or had the early reporting that first time gotten them here faster? I wasn't sure if I planned on repeating this day a million times to find out.

  "Come on, I can help you down," she said.

  "Nah, I'm alright up here. The view is nice, the skies are... gray, and the air smells like bleach. What's not to love?"

  The woman's eyes narrowed. "Do you think yourself funny?"

  "More witty and charming than outright funny," I said. "I wouldn't do well in stand-up."

  I sensed that I was starting to annoy her. "Who do you work for?"

  "Luna Corp," I said. "But I'm off work at the moment."

  "Were you too witty for them?"

  I racked a smile at that. Hey, she had a sense of humour! "No. New cyberware. Took a few days off to get over the post-op jitters, you know? Doctor's orders."

  She looked at me, really looked, and I had to suppress a shiver. When normal people looked at each other, there was no real weight to their attention. A C-ranker was different. Her attention was magical, and I could feel the flows of it around me. Worse, I was just good enough with magic myself to sense that her attention was light, but like purposefully so.

  "So, after three operations in a short amount of time, you found yourself skulking on rooftops out of sheer boredom?"

  "I never said it was three operations," I said.

  "Answer my question," she replied. "I have people waiting on me."

  "Alright, alright," I said, both hands raised in surrender. I was keenly aware that there was a three story drop a half step behind me, and that she was between me and freedom. I also had a metaphorical finger poised on my Reload button.

  I was pretty sure she wouldn't explode me, however. It would be a big faux-pas to murder someone like that, C-ranker or no. Lots of paperwork, and there were definitely enough people paying attention that it wouldn't go unnoticed.

  "So, I heard that there was a commotion out here. Luna Corp pays well to know about portals, you know? Came to check it out, and saw all of this going on. Looks like some sort of big breach. So since you're here taking care of it all, I thought I'd just sit back and watch."

  "And sell anything you learn to the highest bidder?"

  "You know there are cameras and such around here already, right? But hey, I got to meet a celebrity, so it was worth it. Seraph's own Lyra Varrock. I should have brought my autograph book."

  She stared harder. "You know who I am?"

  I shrugged. "I might?"

  That seemed to have caught her off-guard. Good to know.

  "So, since I'm doing stuff that I'm well within my rights to do, are we going to have any problems?"

  "You might not be safe here," she said.

  Huh, she sounded genuine there. That was kind of her. "Thanks. But I can handle a kobold or two."

  "And the slimes? They're a rank above you."

  "And way down there. Unless they grow slimy little wings, then I should be fine. Besides, you're taking care of it, aren't you?"

  "Yes. We are. And I should get back to it. Stay safe, little spy."

  She walked past me, which wouldn't normally have been an issue, except I was way up on the roof. I spun around, only to see her crash down and gently land in a large puddle that hadn't been there before. A large bubble of water cushioning her drop like one of those huge stunt mattresses, only she stepped out of it entirely unscathed and dry. Neat trick, that.

  I leaned back onto my heels and took a breath. That had been a little stressful. Even my bio-mod was warning me about it. Elevated adrenaline and whatnot.

  Still, not that bad. And it had let me meet one of the leaders of the local Seraph force, without coming to blows. I'd consider that a win.

  I stood on the edge of the roof for a few minutes more. Seraph came over, finished their encircling, then moved into the Hill Giant Ltd. building. I crossed my arms and tried to gather what I could, but any action happened indoors.

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  Well, mostly.

  The slimes on the outside were blasted away in a quick, dirty group effort. Lyra led the assault, blowing up a few of them with some complicated water magic. Basically firing a sort of water bullet that punched into the slimes, then exploded violently. It did the job.

  The others used a variety of different magic, but they all had a clear focus on ranged stuff, with some strong AOE thrown in.

  There was some shooting, but it wasn't much, and it seemed like they knew to keep their ammo saved up.

  The B-team, composed of most of the D-rankers and all of the E-rankers, moved over to the Redlad Welding building, and there the fighting was much uglier.

  Where the simes had one strategy (roll towards the enemy, soak up all damage, then melt them) the kobolds had actual tactics going on. They had built up some barricades and had some ranged weapons at their disposal.

  Spears were common, but instead of bows or javelins, they had this sort of... throwing stick thing? It was a stick with a cup that let them fling out a long, narrow arrow. They weren't super precise, but the arrows looked like they hit hard. They were moving pretty fast when they flew, and they looked like they might be heavy, so it was entirely possible that the old mass part of the mass and acceleration formula was letting them kick ass.

  I winced as I saw an E-ranker eat one of those arrows in the chest. Their fancy armour held up, but they were flung back.

  Yeah, if that hit me, I'd be screwed. Which, of course, begged the question: how was I going to handle them?

  At some point, I'd decided that I wasn't going to settle for the lesser prize. I wanted that kobold portal.

  It was a D-rank portal.

  Sure, there were going to be plenty of opportunities, but... this one was sitting right there, in front of me. The slimes was too much for me, I'd admit, but the kobolds? Even splitting the gains three ways between myself, Fran and Becky, that would be a good amount of magical energy gained in a single big fight.

  I watched the Seraph team, lead by that Ernest Glover guy, blow up the front of the Redlad Welding building, then they moved in. The kobolds were tough but... they were still just D-rankers. About as tough as a well-built human, with maybe a slight natural advantage, and primitive weaponry. They went down easy to concentrated modern firepower.

  I chewed my lip. Getting in there would be doable. The building was two floors, with part of the lower floor extending out so that its footprint was wider, and there were windows that could be accessed from the lower roof. That roof was accessible from the next building over.

  So, sneaking in was totally viable.

  I wasn't sure if I'd do that with Fran and Becky. Fran might be able to sneak, but she didn't seem to have the disposition to it, and Becky was... Becky.

  Still, for a personal scouting mission, it was doable.

  So, that was the plan? Sneak in, poke around, see if the portal was even reachable, then if I could get into it without too much trouble, map out the interior as best I could.

  It should be possible to speedrun it, in theory.

  I was tugged out of my thoughts as a new team made their way down the road. The group with the exosuits.

  I couldn't make out who in their group were the D-rankers. The guys in the suits? Why bother? I mean, yes, given a cool half-mechsuit, I'd take it, but a D-ranker had their own defences going on. Plate armour was more than enough for most.

  I stopped paying attention to the Seraph team, then moved across the roofs to the courtyard, arriving just before they did. It let me watch them at work. And it let me stare in confusion at what I was seeing.

  They... sucked?

  The soldiers were kitted like pros, but weren't coordinated like pros. They came in like after-work office dudes given machine guns and power armour to play with.

  I mean, it worked. The ice elementals got messed up hard, but only because they seemed to be about as smart as floating rocks.

  I... started to have an idea. A very greedy, nasty idea.

  If one portal... why not two?

  ***