Three soldiers emerged from the rear car of the train. They were Alliance soldiers, but Jace hadn’t seen their type before. They wore light beige field jackets, brown cloaks, and bashlyk hoods, and wrapped scarves around their chins. All three were a humanoid alien race with blue skin and glowing yellow eyes and pointed ears.

  From the holograms he’d seen, these were soldiers of the Khirsan Khanate, a small faction along the southern borders of the Starrealm, whose territory Jace and the others were currently in.

  But three soldiers wouldn’t be much of an issue. They weren’t Wielders—[Level 9 Soldier] was the only tag that appeared above their heads.

  Jace raised his armoured forearms in front of his head and ran past Lessa, getting between her and the soldiers. A plasma bolt glanced off his vambraces, and another sparked off his chestpiece. Normally, the direct impact would’ve sent him stumbling, but with his newly increased Resistance, he barely even swayed on his feet. The shuddering of the train probably did more.

  But these soldiers only carried bolt-action rifles, and as they prepared another shot, Jace used a hyperdash to close the distance. When he emerged, Lessa had already blasted one soldier. He slashed through one, then ducked under the last man’s bayonet before striking him.

  With his Strength stat now as high as it was, a simple open palm strike to the man’s chest was enough to launch him off the side of the train. He plummeted into the canyon below.

  Jace was about to turn to the hatch and descend into the back of the train, but a fourth man rose from the hatch. He wore the same uniform as the others, but he carried a heavy plasma rifle with a handle on its top, and its stock mounted in a holder at his hip. Jace had seen a couple repeating plasma rifles like this one in his time here, usually with round magazines on top, but this one had no magazine whatsoever.

  The Split identified him as: [Level 33 Wielder – Soul-Circle Opening – Second Stage]

  Well, Jace could contend with that still—though he was surprised to see a Wielder guarding a train like this.

  He didn’t let his surprise get the best of him. When the man crushed a technique card in his grip, plasma surged down his left arm, illuminating his veins and pouring into the upper handle of his rifle.

  A beam of straight plasma surged out the rifle’s muzzle, racing toward him. Jace activated his Lightvein card and jumped to the side, then darted around the man’s side. He was a plasma-aspect Wielder, which made him dangerous at long distances, but not up close.

  Still, he might have some kind of melee technique card, and Jace wasn’t taking any chances.

  The Khirsan Wielder swept his rifle to the side, carving a gash along the canyon wall. The train began turning, and the entire vehicle swayed precariously, but Jace ducked under the sweeping beam of plasma. Lessa dropped down to her stomach, and the beam passed over her head.

  When Jace rose up to his feet, he teetered on the edge of the back train car. The Wielder charged, holding his plasma rifle—more like a conduit for his abilities—sideways. He thrust it forward, as if trying to push Jace off the train, but Jace hooked his feet into the metal. He pushed off, the Strength of the fortification technique tearing and bending the train’s roof, then grabbed the muzzle of the rifle.

  Big mistake.

  It was searing hot, and immediately, he let go.

  The Khirsan Wielder laughed, then said something in a foreign language. Jace didn’t know what the man said, but it was cocky. Clearly, he hadn’t scanned Jace with his senses at all.

  “Yeah, laugh it up,” Jace snapped. It was just his left hand that he burned, and he could still use a sword with his mechanical hand. As he spoke, he spun the blade, then slashed downward, leveraging the speed of his fortification technique.

  The Wielder tried to step back, but Jace was faster, and he landed a strike across the man’s chest, then swiped back the other way. The rifle was probably made out of some sort of fancy material, but Jace didn’t notice. He was still pumping Aes into the Whistling Blade and heating its cutting edge even hotter than normal, while also imbuing it with a hyperspace aspect. It slashed right through the repeating rifle’s handle.

  Jace lunged, thrusting with the blade, and though the man tried to step back, a plasma bolt struck him directly in the back. Lessa.

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  It wasn’t enough to kill him, not with his enhanced stats, but it drove him right into Jace’s waiting blade.

  Jace pulled his blade out then pushed the Wielder to the side and sent him tumbling over the edge of the train. He flicked it, searing off the man’s dark blue blood, then tucked it back into its sheath. Lessa sprinted over, jumping the gaps between the train cars with ease, before stopping at the hatch.

  She pointed down, then shrugged.

  Jace nodded, but he hung back. She descended the ladder first, holding her rifle in front of her, in case there were any more soldiers inside the train car that needed blasting. Jace followed close behind, then pulled the hatch shut.

  It wasn’t perfectly quiet inside the train car, but it was better than outside. There were no more soldiers inside, and thankfully, they hadn’t caused any obvious damage to the outside of the train that would cause immediate suspicion—nothing that would give the fight away at a glance.

  “Well, that went pretty smoothly,” Lessa said. She walked across the train car. Indeed, there hadn’t been anyone else inside—just a table with a half-eaten plate of rations and playing cards, a few chairs, a weapons rack, and a back wall covered in small sensors and other readouts.

  “Don’t jinx it,” Jace groaned. “We still have to…you know, get into the magazine tower and steal the Core.”

  “Yeah, but that should be easy. Just use your Questforger card.”

  “I’m more concerned about the security. Finding it will be the easy part.”

  “Ah, well, then use the card’s second function if we find anyone really important.” She walked back and patted him on the shoulder. “And you know, you can let me do more of the damage.”

  “I’m still worried that rifle doesn’t have enough kick against Wielders.”

  She tapped its side. “Another bolt, and I would’ve broken through. This thing doesn’t take as long between shots, not like the rifles I’m used to. And I think there’s a hidden attribute on it, or something.”

  “Or something?”

  “Well, when I was practicing with it, it seemed to do a lot more damage to the targets when I hit them twice. I’m still trying to read the Split and see it properly, though.”

  “Huh,” Jace said. “Didn’t know items could have hidden attributes. Would’ve been nice if the sheets actually told me where or when an item had an attribute.”

  “Yeah, but then it wouldn’t be very hidden.”

  “I suppose.”

  It’d only been five days since they’d returned from the dungeon on Ifskar, but on Kinath-Aertes, they’d let Lessa use the local garrison’s firing range to help her practice her rifle skills. Or, more, to help her get used to the new rifle and how it functioned. Clearly, she’d found a second function for it, too.

  “That’s good to know,” Jace said. He walked to the window and peered out the side. All he could see were the rushing canyon walls, the occasional signal light post, and rushing aspen trees. Nothing that’d tell him how close they were. But, at the back of the car, another ladder led up to the observation port—a small rectangular room with windows on all sides, which poked up above the body of the car slightly.

  “I kinda thought you’d noticed,” Lessa said.

  “I was busy with my own rifle, and trying to get more used to the feeling of a plasma rifle in my hands. The sights are different from the guns we had back home, and they’re just heavier.”

  “Excuses, excuses.”

  Jace chuckled. “Sure.” He tilted his head to the side, then said, “But really, you’re our marksman. I’m not sure how much me using a rifle benefits us, except for emergencies. Maybe, though, as a secondary weapon, a repeating plasma rifle could be useful.”

  “They don’t hit nearly as hard.”

  “It wouldn’t need to. If I’m front-lining, then I doubt I’m going to have a chance to stand there and aim, anyway.” He shrugged. “But one thing at a time. That Vault Core is going to be invaluable for practice, and more than that, it’ll let us practice on the go. Not to mention for me to harvest more Aes.”

  He climbed up the ladder to the observation port and stared out through the forward windows.

  Ahead, a mountainous shape rose out of the forest. A dark grey tower rose a couple kilometers into the sky, before stopping abruptly with a flat tip—nothing but landing platforms and telesignal arrays stood at the top of the tower. Below, the base of the tower spread out into a pyramidal shape, with countless monorail lines snaking into it from all directions.

  “There it is. Probably a minute away,” Jace said. “As soon as we arrive, I’ll use a hyperdash out of the train, then cause a distraction so you can slip out unseen. Sound good?”

  “Got it,” Lessa said with a nod. After a few seconds of silence, she added, “Jace, did you ever think we’d be going to an Academy? I never…never thought I’d make it to one of those. I mean, I read lots of holocomics about them—never mind the romance angle, but it was just a neat…neat place. It looked like, at least.”

  “Back where I came from, I was supposed to be going to university,” he said. “Basically, an academy, but no magic.”

  “Supposed to be going? You skipped classes?”

  “No, no,” he said. “I was stuck on a ranch, helping my family with an ever-growing list of tasks, not really going anywhere, not doing much with my life. Probably should’ve been going to university, but I doubt I would’ve fit in there, either. Not my calling, if you know what I mean.”

  She snorted. “We’ll see. I’m excited. So you better not get us killed here.”

  “I don’t plan on it.” Jace descended the ladder back to the main car of the train. “Are you ready? Didn’t get a chance to ask earlier.”

  “I’m all good. Get in, get out, and be back in time to get fitted for a uniform. Snip snap, easy peasy.”

  Jace sighed. “Lets hope.”