Machua’s phone had been beeping continuously for the past hour. Okay, hour was a bit much, but it was getting noticeable to the other passengers. Notably, Plue, who was sitting in front of us was getting a little worried. Well, she didn’t say it, but the concerned look gave her away.

  “Machi, what did you do!?”

  It seemed like she finally couldn’t take it anymore. Machua was shoving her phone into my face. Over 100 messages had been sent to her, most of which was WHO WAS THAT!??? and various pictures of me on the railing. The latest picture was the one where I stuck my tongue out at them.

  I scratched the back of my head and made an innocent expression. “I was just watching the city.”

  “You have such a shit-eating grin right now.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Is everything okay?” Plue peeped over her seat.

  The two of us looked back at her with matching smiles. “”There’s nothing wrong.””

  “I feel like there is,” she meekly responded.

  I felt a little bad for Plue now.

  “Let’s take this outside. Come on.”

  I phased through Machua’s seat and dragged her downstairs to the 2nd layer. She was rolling her eyes the entire time. All 3 of our squadmates looked back at us as we went. Carmine in particular wanted to follow after us, but Rasa held her back. I nodded back at Rasa to thank him. The two of us walked down the stairs to the inner section of the second layer.

  “Let’s talk in the back deck of the ship,” I said, as I walked towards it.

  The back deck of the airship was a small, secluded area that was still open to the outside air. It was not connected to the front deck directly, so the only way if people wanted to come here was through the inner section. That is to say, we could stop our conversation anytime if we saw the door opening.

  Luckily for us, no one was using it. Everyone who wanted to look at the scenic view would be up at the front deck. I calmly closed the door as Machua laid back against the railing. Her hair was only lightly blowing in the wind, despite the speed we were moving at. Every airship was built with a magical barrier that protected those inside from the speed of the wind billowing. Otherwise, it would be impossible for passengers to stand out in the decks and admire the scenery. Yet another one of the Great Inventor’s creations.

  I was expecting Machua to be yelling at me at any time now, but she was only giving me the angriest stare in the world.

  “I admit, I was a little overboard-“

  “A little!? You know you can’t do stuff like that! Imagine if they-“

  I cut her off there with a firm statement. “I’ve met them before.”

  “You-what?” Machua suddenly calmed down.

  “Did you really think that I wouldn’t happen to come across them when I was walking outside? We live in the same City, and also, I happen to like the same stores you do, which means I happen to like the same stores they do too. It was pure luck we never met them while we were together outside.”

  Machua began to open her mouth to refute me but couldn’t find the words. So, she gave up, and turned around, slumping onto the railing.

  “I guess you’re right,” she mumbled out.

  “As I was going to say before, I do admit that I went a bit overboard. You probably had your own plans for this, but we were going to have to make the visit to all of your friends at some point.”

  “I just wish you told me before today happened,” Machua stared directly at my eyes as she said that.

  For some reason, I felt irritated at the statement. It was like she felt she should have had some control over this. When it was my existence we were talking about.

  “… You’re right. I’m not exactly my own person, I should run things by you first.”

  “That’s not what I meant!”

  Machua suddenly grabbed my shoulders. Her eyes stared into mine with a determination to make me understand. I looked back into hers with an uneasy feeling.

  “I meant that this is our secret, you know? We look the exact same, mostly lived the same for 20 years, and now we’re here. Together. We’re twins, aren’t we? And I wanna help you do your thing best.”

  Machua released my shoulders and gave me a comforting smile. I could tell that she wasn’t really confident in her argument, but she made the effort to seem confident. It was the same smile I always had during this mission.

  Just the 3 of us, a complete newbie, a quiet musician, and a battle freak. It was definitely too much to put on the plate of a newbie. And now, here I was, putting even more on the plate for her.

  Suddenly, I heard a distant thunderclap. A very familiar one. I wanted to look over the edge to find where it was, but I could wait. After all, I’d be seeing her again soon. If she was here, then she’d definitely reprimand me for acting like this.

  I took a deep sigh. I was sure Machua must have been a little sick of the constant sighing by now, but I couldn’t help it. It was a habit I picked up.

  “Yeah, we are. We’ll do it together,” I said, trying to give her an earnest smile.

  “Promise?”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  I managed to stop myself from sighing. “Yes, I promise.”

  Machua quickly turned around. Even from the back, I could tell what she was doing. She was calming herself down, taking deep breaths to do so. She was probably thinking in her head that she never wanted to do this again.

  “I swear you’re still like a child.”

  Machua quickly turned back around and reacted. “And you act too old. My friends called you a ‘mama’ yesterday.”

  My face turned a little incredulous. A lot, actually. A ‘what?’”

  “A ma-“

  Machua was about to finish her sentence but was interrupted by a familiar screeching. It was the screeching of giant bats, who had rushed up from their cave, in an attempt to escape a powerful warrior. That thunderclap confirmed what I had figured.

  “Honestly, your mama’s way too much trouble,” I muttered under my breath with a bit of a smirk.

  “All hired hunters, please leave your seats and head to the deck immediately. All other passengers, please return to your seats and be rest assured that this ambush will be dealt with swiftly. From this moment on, the Errant will cease movement to allow for the swift routing of the incoming monster swarm.”

  “Does this airship have bat pheromones on it!?” Machua angrily cursed. “How does this happen again!?”

  “Come on, let’s do our job,” I rushed toward the front deck.

  Machua stumbled behind me but followed suit. There was a large crowd of civilian passengers rushing inside of the inner section of the second layer though, so it would be a bit difficult for her to get through. Not for me, though, as I phased through them all.

  The front deck already had a few hunters lying in wait. Most of them wielded ranged weapons, like bows and rifles, but some had melee weapons such as greatswords or spears. The ranged weapon wielders were paid a higher amount than the melee ones, naturally. While they were out shooting bats down, all the melee hunters could do was stop them from entering the ship. Of course, that wasn’t true of every single melee hunter here.

  “Bat attacks? Aren’t they nocturnal creatures?” A passing hunter with a sniper rifle on his back asked.

  “Might’ve been scared off by some powerful monster down there. Or maybe they’re dumbasses who think red means food,” a female hunter with a halberd responded.

  “Eh, not an issue for me. I’ll shoot them all down before they-“

  Suddenly, a giant monstrous bat appeared behind him. Its leg reached out and grabbed his waist in one swift motion. It moved to bite his head off, but before anyone could react, the sound of shattering glass rung through the airship.

  A red streak pierced through the bat from above and following after it was a bloody woman with a hand axe. She slammed her hand axe down onto the bat, and retrieved her first one, before cutting the thing into three pieces.

  “Let’s get to killing!” Carmine shouted.

  All around us, a bunch of monstrous bats climbed onboard. The hunters, all moved to action, rapidly engaged in combat with them. The monstrous bats weren’t too strong, but considering where we were fighting, it would be prudent to be careful.

  I launched a bat straight into a bat that was going to attack Carmine. After slicing down the one in front of her, she slashed the two bats behind her with savagery. Blood gushed out of them and onto her, but she was undisturbed. I rushed to her side and went back to back with her.

  “Didn’t need your help,” she said, as she plunged her hand axe into another bat’s head.

  I kicked the bat off of the side of the airship. “Oh, I’m sure. But I didn’t want to have to rescue you while you fell.”

  “You wanna make this a fight!?” She turned to me and angrily responded.

  My own response was to charge my fist up with mana and to punch towards her face. Carmine ducked just in time for me to make contact with a monstrous bat’s head. My mana flowed just as I made impact. The bat’s head splattered all across the floor, showering some poor hunters in gore.

  “It’s your fault that they’re now at risk.”

  I pointed to the window she broke out of. The seating area now had a massive gap that the bats could enter. One hunter with a big shield rushed to the hole to plug it up. A bat almost made it way inside before an arrow pierced its heart.

  “Whatever. Just means they should’ve spent more money on a better airship.”

  “Carmine…” I wanted to shake my head. So, I had to redo this character development, didn’t I?

  “Machi!”

  Machua, Plue and Rasa ran towards us. They all had their weapons out. Machua had her tonfas, Plue had her scythe, and Rasa had a gauntlet and a sword.

  “Oh, Machu. What’s the plan, leader?”

  “U-uhhh, cut them all down?” She shakily answered.

  “You should try being more specific,” Rasa advised, as he slashed a bat with his sword.

  “Ahem. All members of Galem squad, let’s clear out this bat swarm. Fight how you want to!” Machua ordered.

  ‘Fight how you want to? Well, if you insist.’

  “Carmine! Wanna make this a competition?”

  “You’re on. I’ll crush you.”

  Carmine took to killing with even more zealousness. She chopped any bats that dared come near and threw her hand axes without care. Each hand axe had a strand of blood connecting it to her, so she could always reel them back.

  “Blood Aspect?” Plue asked, as she sliced the head off of a bat.

  “It is. Carmine’s more proficient in using her own blood rather than that of her enemies, however,” Rasa answered.

  Carmine was quickly building up her kill count, so I had to do my part too. Honestly, the ranged hunters weren’t doing a great job at clearing out the bat swarm flying outside. Someone needed to help reinforce them.

  “W-woah!” The sniper guy screamed as a bat got a bit too close.

  Just as it was about to claw him, I lunged straight at its head and punted it straight off. Course, that wasn’t enough to kill it, so I had to follow through.

  “H-hang on, man, I’ll-“

  I jumped straight off of the ship and pulverised the bat’s body. Without missing a beat, one of its allies lunged at me, its mouth ready to bite my head off.

  “Hup!” I leaned back as far as I could, before springing up with a Mana Burst kick.

  “Hah, there sure are a lot aiming for me now,” I stated.

  Bats everywhere I looked. If I wasn’t careful, I’d get overwhelmed. The best thing to do in a scenario like this was…

  “Go on the offensive,” I repeated Captain Galas’ teachings.

  I lunged to the nearest bat and punched is straight down. I took a step back and kicked another one behind me. One from below and one from above came at me next. I dodged out of the way, letting them crash into each other, then unleashed a Mana Burst punch. Forward, backward, right, down, left, I rumbled through the swarm like I was on an invisible dance floor.

  “Hah! All at once now?”

  It seemed like every single bat attacking me decided to swarm my position, injuries be damned. I punched and kicked the first ones that came near, but I wasn’t fast enough. Not without resorting to actual magic. The bats quickly filled my view, and I was encased in a huge swarm.

  As if.

  I phased through them all and rose to the top. I flipped myself over and launched myself off of a ceiling. The mana in my body gathered towards one of my legs. It reinforced it, but I also controlled it to flow out of the sides, as if forming a big shield. I spun, and I slammed the ball of bats with a Mana Burst axe kick. The mana shield allowed the force of my blow to hit all of the bats at once, turning all of them into an explosion of blood. I normally wouldn’t be too happy about this, but it felt really fun. Was Carmine getting to me?

  I took a little seat to observe the situation. A lot of the bats were drawn to me, the one straggler out of everyone else. The hunters were fighting off the ones attacking the ship adequately, but it seemed like they were distracted by something. They were looking in my direction.

  I turned to my back. Yep, it’s a normal bat.

  “M-Machi! You can fly!?”

  “Oh, come on, Machu. It’s not flying, you can see it, right?” I responded, as I backhanded the bat behind me.

  Machua stared at me in confusion for a while, before realising something. She closed her eyes briefly, before opening them. I smirked at her, who now had a single yellow eye. Machua, instead was even more shocked.

  She rushed to the side of the airship and looked down. In her view was a small floating plot of land that housed an abandoned skyscraper. I was standing on one of its many ruined floors in a plastic chair. In her view, the bats overlapped the many floors and walls, passing through them like they weren’t real. Of course, they weren’t, after all, all of these existed solely in another dimension.

  “You made an entire skyscraper!? All in a single dimension?” Machua exclaimed in awe.

  For some reason, this made me crack up. I didn’t know if it was the battle tension or something like that but seeing Machua so amazed made me proud of myself. This was something she couldn’t do just yet.

  “Haha! Yeah, I did, didn’t I!?”

  I leapt off of the floor of the skyscraper and onto the banister of the airship. I waved my hand and bid farewell to that abandoned skyscraper and in its place I made a furnished hotel. I and Machu stood right in front of a large elevator with its doors wide open.

  “Get in the elevator, Machu,” I told her, while motioning her to get on real quick.

  “O-okay!”

  Machua leapt inside, with me following soon after. I made sure the doors were closed tight then I mashed the buttons on the elevator in a random order. And so, the hotel elevator began operating.

  “This elevator is way too huge!”

  “It’s an imaginary elevator and you expect it to be super realistic? I get to choose its size.”

  The elevator began to move. And alongside it, a bevy of bats came our way. I cracked my knuckles and began to take a few down.

  “M-Machi! A little help here!”

  I looked back to find Machua being pressed up against the wall of the elevator by a bat. It had divebombed her and she was only barely holding it at bay thanks to her tonfas. It made for an amusing sight what with the overlapping vision and all. The bat was overlapping the elevator floor and shoving her against a non-existent wall. Even it seemed confused it wasn’t making much traction.

  “Machi!”

  “Oh, sorry.”

  I used a Mana Burst to kick its body into pieces. Machua hurriedly ran over to my back and prepared herself.

  “Make sure to not break the elevator walls. The bats can’t interact with it, but you can. So, wait for them to come in just a little bit closer, before striking.”

  “Understood!”

  Machua bashed a bat’s head in with a tonfa, before blocking another one’s attack. I sent a kick its way, launching it straight onto the airship’s deck. Plue was the one to finish it off. More and more bats came rushing at the two of us.

  It was at that point, a clear and beautiful sound pierced the cries of the bats, attracting their attention. Following after it was an extremely powerful screech. The bats all cried in pain, falling from the air as they did so.

  “Rasa,” I stood and looked back at him.

  Rasa stood with his gauntleted arm and sword as if he was playing the violin. The gauntlet had 4 strings that connected the tips of his fingers with his shoulder. His sword was turned to its back side, where it had a plethora of hair like a bow.

  “The airship captain asks you to assist in cleaning the underside of the airship. While they have their own weaponry, the assistance of two fliers would help,” Rasa explained as he disconnected his strings.