Kalina looked up at the gate that stood before her. On it was a sign that told her that the park behind it was closed for renovations. Despite that, the person next to her jumped over and continued further ahead. Kalina didn’t give it much thought and followed suit.

  The two followed the path in relative silence. There was the cool night breeze, which caused the rustling of the leaves and grass around them but that was it. They walked over a bridge and climbed a set of decrepit stairs before reaching a clearing. The other figure stopped some distance into it.

  “Right here. We’ll do it here”, Carmine told her.

  “Very well. I’ll set up a barrier.”

  Kalina formed an arrow out of mana and loaded it into her crossbow before shooting it into the sky. The arrow silently split apart into a black dome. The dome was hazy, almost like a fog, but allowed the moonlight to pass through. Kalina drew her lance from her back and watched as Carmine did the same.

  Kalina wondered as to Carmine’s intentions. Earlier in the night, she had called her to meet up and asked her a few questions.

  Were the Hour Hands strong? She responded with a yes. Even she, only appointed a year ago, could be considered strong. It took rigorous training to become an Hour Hand and she had trained with her granny and the other Hours ever since she was a child.

  After that, Carmine asked her a variety of other questions. How informed were they in matters all over the world? Had they ever intervened in City matters? Who were their sponsors if they had any. Kalina answered truthfully to all of them. The Hour Hands try to gather information from the whole world over. Yes, they have done so in the past, and yes they did have sponsors but those details were a bit confidential. She went on to ask more menial questions as well. Asking her where she was from, where she was born, her past achievements. At some point, it began to feel more like a background check instead of curiosity. It was at the tail end of those questions, as Carmine ruminated over those answers, that Kalina asked a very simple question.

  What did she want? Carmine had then told her to come with her. After they approached the closed park, it became abundantly clear to her that it was a fight. But as to what end, she didn’t know.

  “Let’s make it fast and no-contact. One point,” Kalina said.

  Carmine swung her axes around and nodded. “Wouldn’t want you injured for your date with Machia tomorrow, would we?”

  “Is that what this is about?”

  “I don’t care if you two are lovers, married or divorced. Machia’s got a habit of getting himself hurt. You heard his sis. So, I gotta be there to cover his ass.”

  “You can come then. I have no qualms.”

  “But he will,” Carmine interjected. “If I’m gonna come with, I have to beat you. That’ll show him.”

  “I see,” was all Kalina had to say.

  The both of them stared each other down, waiting for the slightest movement. Kalina observed Carmine before her. It was clear she was a vampire and a brutal melee fighter. At this distance, Kalina held the advantage with her ranged weaponry. But if she got in close, it could get dangerous. She could switch to her knives that she kept on her, but she wasn’t confident. Carmine had clearly gone through many battles and had good battle intuition.

  ‘Should I purposely lose to her…? No, she would probably force us to fight again. I don’t want to back out either, that’ll just cause trouble.’

  Kalina felt a tingle from Durante. It was now 1 in the morning.

  Immediately, Carmine rushed her.

  ‘She took advantage of that brief of a distraction?’

  Kalina had no more time to think before Carmine descended on her. Literally too. She had jumped in the air and was about to slam her axes down on her.

  Kalina quickly reloaded an arrow and pointed her crossbow at Carmine. She did not fire. Instead, Carmine stopped.

  Her axes slammed into a spherical barrier around Kalina. Carmine planted her feet onto the barrier and placed a hand on it.

  “Major Barrier huh? Should’ve expected that out of you,” Carmine spoke.

  “I am Deirdre Arswell’s descendant after all.”

  Carmine reached an axe back and slammed it onto the barrier again. The barrier trembled slightly but did not break.

  “It’s an Impact Barrier. It diffuses the force of the strike. I don’t think you can get through with raw force,” Kalina commented as she held her crossbow aloft.

  Kalina’s eyes widened when Carmine reached that same axe back with a grin. The axe was now encased with bloody crystals.

  Kalina could only watch as the blood crystal axe made impact with the barrier. Her barrier trembled but still didn’t break. Instead, the blood crystal axe shattered and transformed back into blood, turning into a wide blood spray.

  The blood spray instantly covered Kalina’s vision and stained her barrier. She kept her crossbow held up high, but her eyes darted around for Carmine.

  ‘If I move my barrier, I can’t see past it, but I can’t just drop it or the blood will splash on me. That would be bad.’

  Kalina had barely a second to think before Carmine came charging in from her right. Kalina moved to block the strike with her lance but found that it had too much force for her to stand her ground. She was forced to retreat backwards, but Carmine kept slashing and slashing at her.

  With only one hand on her lance, she found it difficult to parry or even just block the attacks. Carmine kept attacking at her weak spots and with such force too.

  ‘If I block the strikes with my barrier, I’ll lose sight of her again. If I drop it then her blood will hit me and she could use that to her advantage. Is there no good way to finish this quick?’

  Kalina briefly sped up her brain with Time. Her quickened thoughts analysed the situation at hand. It was a rough spot to be in, but it wasn’t like she was out of options. Far from it.

  ‘I’ll risk it,’ she decided.

  “Twelve o’Clock,” Kalina uttered quietly, so quietly no one could hear it.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Kalina dropped the Impact Barrier and shot at Carmine. She backed away with a smile, seeing that Kalina had allowed herself to be showered in her blood.

  With a wave of her hand, showing the blood still connected to her, Carmine began to announce her victory. “Hah! Poi-“

  “Point for me,” Kalina’s words came from behind her.

  A crossbow was touching the back of her head. The blood spray touched the ground soon after. Carmine allowed her hands to fall to the side and turned to Kalina, who took away her crossbow.

  “You’re way faster than Machia,” she said incredulously.

  “Am I? That’s good to know,” Kalina asked as she unloaded her crossbow and holstered it.

  “I don’t get it. How? That barrier was damn close to the blood spray. I only lost sight of you the moment it should have hit you. I couldn’t even react to you moving around to my back.”

  “…” Kalina thought it over. It would be a bit mean to leave it here, and it was a bit mean in general to win in this fashion, so she felt a little bad. But it wasn’t as if she could actually reveal how she did it.

  “I’m an Hour Hand,” Kalina answered as she began walking out of the foggy barrier.

  Carmine trudged after her shortly after she left. She didn’t say anything as they exited the park and hopped over the gate. Still, Kalina could feel an intense curiosity coming from her.

  ‘I do feel a bit guilty. But it was the best option to end it quick.’

  At a certain point, the two split off, having reserved rooms in different hotels. Carmine didn’t say anything to her the entire way, so Kalina left it at that.

  As soon as Carmine left her view, Kalina made way to the nearest bench. She sat on the bench and closed her eyes. She took several deep breaths. Finally, she had finished her preparation. She allowed the foggy barrier to dissipate.

  All at once, the repercussions for stopping time hit her. Her mana trembled and every bit of her body began to feel exhausted. Nothing a short rest couldn’t fix but feeling the sudden wave of tiredness was always a bit nauseating. This was the price to pay for stopping time. Even if she had only done so in a contained barrier and only for a few seconds, she had to pay its price. Time had to flow and halting it for even a moment meant she was due punishment.

  Kalina huffed a few deep breaths as she suffered through the pain. It wasn’t anything new to her anymore. She had suffered far worse for messing with the time-stream.

  Kalina’s breaths began to lighten all of a sudden. Her body felt better, as if it was suffering less stress. She opened her eyes in mild confusion. She wasn’t supposed to feel better this soon.

  Kalina fished out Durante from her pocket. It was ticking like normal. Well, as ‘normal’ as it could be. The half of the Second Hand went inert 1 year ago. She never did figure out why that happened, nor had she told anyone. Durante used to alleviate the burden manipulating time had on her body. The Second Hand dictated the finest usage of time, it was the hand that moved to the smallest interval on the Time Halo. It supported her whenever she manipulated time and alleviated the pain, but ever since it went inert, she had lost its help. She had to shore up her own time manipulation skills and deal with the full weight of the burden herself now. But suddenly, she felt her burden alleviated, almost like it was working again. Yet it wasn’t.

  “Granny?” She muttered. Her granny always held the other half of the Second Hand with her. If it was still working then could she be here?

  “Nope. Just me,” a familiar voice came from beside her.

  Kalina turned to see Machia with a can of tea. He held it out to her and she wordlessly took it. She gulped down the tea as much as she could.

  “Hey, take it slow. That’s tea from Mount Huanglong. It’s expensive you know?”

  “It’s a fine tea,” Kalina said in between gulps.

  Machia didn’t say anything as he watched her finish it. All he did was sit down next to her.

  “Is that yours?” He asked, pointing at Durante.

  “Oh, yes, thank you for reminding me,” Kalina hastily shoved it back into her pocket.

  Machia looked around a bit awkwardly. After a bit, he finally asked his question. “Was it Carmine?”

  “Yes. She said that if she didn’t defeat me, you wouldn’t have let her join us.”

  “Hah…” Machia sighed. “She was testing you to see if you were strong enough to protect me, I bet.”

  “Did something happen to you?”

  “I messed up and got hurt, that’s all. I refused my squad’s help and stupidly rushed in alone, so you can see why they’re hesitant on letting me be alone here.”

  “…But it’s nice to have someone who cares, isn’t it?”

  Machia flinched at the question. He grumbled a bit before reluctantly agreeing.

  “I’ll do my best to protect you too, so I hope you can support me just as well in turn,” Kalina smiled.

  “Let’s have a successful mission tomorrow, Machia.”

  Machia sighed before giving her an awkward smile back.

  “… Right.”

  ———————————————————————

  Machua awoke today with a grumble. Apparently, Kalina had come by to pick Machia up early in the morning and they didn’t bother to wake anyone else up, so she missed them.

  The squad, minus Machia of course, were currently heading to the location where Enzo said he had heard monster noises from. It was near the boundary of the Mobile City, so they had to take a taxi all the way to its edge.

  Mobile Cities were built tens, sometimes hundreds, of metres above ground level, as the amount of infrastructure and machinery required for tracks to move something of that size, while also accounting for safety measures in case of flooding, landslides and the like, was huge. As a result, the boundaries of Mobile Cities often had railings or walls. These would open up to allow Hunters to descend down to the ground and would open back up for when they made their return. Alternatively if the Mobile City was too tall, Hunters would descend through the inner workings of the City itself.

  Aramaya City was not a large City. It was feasible for someone to climb up its side or even jump off of it and survive the fall. And if it was feasible for humans to do it, then surely monsters could do it too.

  “Carmine, could you keep a look out for any monsters outside the boundary?” Machua asked.

  Carmine gave only a thumbs-up before she went to sit on the railing and watch the wilderness.

  ‘She’s being unusually obedient today.’

  Machua put Carmine out of her thoughts for the time being. It was time to focus on investigation.

  “Rasa, focus on listening, and Plu, keep your bugs ready to send to wherever Rasa hears the sounds from.”

  Her squadmates nodded as they followed her. Machua knew the area better than them from her time as Guanciano’s delivery girl, so she led them to areas that she thought could have Chimaera activity and sounded like they were in the same spot as Enzo heard them.

  The specific area they were in was an underground shopping centre, built into the City’s inner workings itself. It was evident that the monster smuggling would have to take place inside the innards of the City, which was problematic in and of itself. If they did have to enter non-public areas, they would have to submit an application to the local Hunter’s Bureau with evidence enough to convince them to approve it. Either that or never tell them. Machua was leaning to the latter.

  “How would they have transported the monsters anyway?” She wondered aloud.

  “If they’re small, you can use pet carrier cages. Or maybe packages with air holes in them. They probably sedate them too,” Plue answered.

  “A lot of monsters are kept as pets as well. If it was pet carrier cages, most people wouldn’t think anything of it,” Rasa added. “Another possibility is that they could be transporting monster eggs as well.”

  “If they’re big, I guess it would have to be in big trucks maybe disguised as moving vans.”

  “In an underground shopping centre though?” Plue asked.

  Plue walked in a circle multiple times before she continued.

  “If we follow the chain of events it would be:”

  “First, acquire the monster from the monster den outside. They probably joined the excavation team and then went to the monster den near the dig site.”

  “Second, transport the monster into the underground shopping centre. The underground shopping centre is close to the excavation base where Machi and Kalina left from.”

  “Third, transport the monster into another location for extraction. It would probably have to be an airship. Maybe they snuck it onto a big cargo airship at the airport.”

  Machua praised, “Wow, good ana-“

  “Shh, I’m not done,” Plue interrupted.

  “We can assume the first is correct, and if what Enzo says earlier is also right, then the second is probably true too. We’re here to verify that. We’ll leave the how to later. And then the third…”

  Plue ruminated on it for longer than Machua expected. She was about to call out for her when Rasa signalled to her.

  “I hear something. A skittering. Right…” He walked until he reached a certain spot by a wall, “here. It’s moving away quickly.”

  “Plu!” Machua called out. “Let’s go!”

  Plue shook from her thoughts and acquiesced.

  “Behind that’s a maintenance tunnel, the best way to enter it is…”

  Machua looked around the vicinity before settling on a certain place. “Urgh. The morgue. The door’s broken so it can’t be locked. And it looks like they haven’t replaced it yet.”

  Machua and the others rushed to the morgue’s door. Just as she said, it was unlocked.

  “Hey, you can’t be here!” A morgue worker with ruffled clothes shouted.

  “Ask your boss! He sent me here!” Machua lied as she ran past him.

  Rasa nodded his head at him, while Plue gave him a smile and a pat on the back.

  When they entered the maintenance tunnels, Rasa overtook Machua and led the way through the inner workings of Aramaya. It wasn’t long before they could all hear the skittering of the monster.

  “A big spider? No, maybe it’s a beetle… let me look at my catalogue,” Plue muttered as she looked down at her hand. She commanded multiple insect tattoos to move around it, letting her get a good view of them.

  “Oh, it should be a praying mantis of some kind!” Plue shouted as they finally saw the creature.

  The group had left the maintenance tunnels and entered an underground parking lot. Inside it was exactly what Plue had predicted.

  A giant praying mantis was carving into a car, producing large screeches with each slash. It tore the metal out of the car and covered itself in it, almost like armour. Its forelegs were like serrated scythes, built to tear through chunks of flesh and even metal into pieces.

  “Serration Hermit Mantis!” Plue yelled. “Aim for its head! It hasn’t made itself a helmet yet and that takes a long time cause of its big eyes!”

  “Gotcha!”

  ‘I’ll play it like it’s a mix of the bull and Dalan.’

  “Rasa, Plu, we do the same thing with the bull! Signal is when I take out a car!”

  “Yes!”

  “Understood.”

  The Serration Hermit Mantis finally took notice of them and when it did so, it screeched. Machua dashed to the side and yelled at it, successfully getting it to follow her. She rushed to a nearby pillar and ducked behind it. As expected, the Serration Hermit Mantis tore through it.

  But unlike Dalan, it sent the severed pieces flying her way. Machua hurriedly stored all of them but right behind it was one of its scythe-like forelegs. Time seemed to slow in Machua’s head as she backpedalled as hard as she could. No time to take out a car, the mantis was too fast for her. Couldn’t block it even with her tonfas. She might be able to avoid death, but she was absolutely coming out with a grievous injury.

  Suddenly, a translucent image formed behind the Serration Mantis’ head. A symbol of a cat’s paw flashed. It had 5 toe beans, but each one had lengthened into the shape of claws. The paw symbol, the claws in particular, exuded dense mana.

  “[Pathway Paw…]”

  A woman leapt into the air behind the Serration Hermit Mantis’ head. Her hand was wreathed in mana that was shaped into claws. She passed her hand through the image and the mana forming the image converged into her claws, making them grow in size and power. She thrusted her palm and a massive palm strike of white mana exploded onto the mantis’ head, blowing it clean off.

  “[5-Claw Smash!]”

  “You’re the white catkin from last night!” Machua exclaimed.

  “Nice to meetcha! I’m Toolbox, a detective.”

  Toolbox the white catkin raised her hand, where she wore a tattered bracelet with her name on it.

  “I heard you’re investigating Chimaera too. I’m sure you’d like more help right?”