Well, you can see how that turned out. Most smaller areas, what’s left of them, have been evacuated to the strongholds. That’s where we’re going in the morning, joining the exodus up to Norfolk.

  Alder clenched his fist as hard as he could manage, his arms felt weaker than they did after climbing a mountain. He hated sand. It was more coarse and more rough than it should have been for something so soft under foot. Plus after a full day of fighting in it, it just ended up getting everywhere. Shirt? Sandy. Hair? Sandy. Boots? Sandy. Undergarments? He shuddered at the thought. Very, inexplicably, sandy.

  But worse than all of that, was that it strained his abilities to their limits. Alder’s favorite ability, Solidity, let him alter the density of any earth he could touch. This meant that he could expand a stone to the point of turning into something similar to quicksand, or vice-versa condense sand into solid stone.

  But he was accustomed to rocky, lush areas with soil and stones… not an entire landscape of sand. If he wanted to stand on solid ground, if he wanted to launch projectiles, if he wanted to do practically anything… then he had to condense the sands around him. For now, it was simply tedious. These crabs were only 1-Star, and even the strongest 1-Star would have trouble against a 2-Star User, especially one as well trained as Alder.

  But tonight would be different, he knew it, Wade knew it, Drake knew it. These youngins might not realize from how new they are to their classes, but they still had a tension in their shoulders, they could feel the tinge of anxiety from the leaders, and when you saw someone more powerful than you growing anxious, you tended to get rather nervous rather quickly.

  Another hour of killing off any crabs that strayed in the wrong direction, another hour of watching the group of young guild members fighting and growing.

  “I think, after we get past tonight, it’ll be time to move on” Called Wade, pulling her massive pearlescent greatsword from the shell of a Blue-Fanged Crab. “We need to get after our other targets, and we don’t want Kya stagnating after fighting against the same opponent for so long. She could-”

  “Yes, yes, I know.” Alder yelled back. “I’ve trained Users before, you don’t need to explain it to me!” He crushed another pile of sand down and down and down until it went from the size of his head to the size of his fist, then with a powerful blow, launched the densely packed projectile through three separate crabs before it crumbled apart from the repeated impacts.

  “I miss not having to make my own rocks” he muttered under his breath. Then, as he’d done every other day when reaching a point of pent up annoyance, pulled out his twin short swords, and went to work with a grin on his face.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Carcello walked through the field of close cut grass around the city of Lyra, finally returning from their expedition. They had, in the past couple of days, mapped out almost the entire forest surrounding the city, including an extensive amount of time and exploration in the spacial temple and the crater. Both sites had, for the most part, been completely left untouched by the local populace, so it was odd, then, to find tracks in the dust, the remnants of banners that had been torn down, and the clear signs of a campsite that had been made. Several weeks abandoned, but still signs of a campfire in the gardens.

  Well, Carcello made no claims to know what was happening or why, but he nevertheless made his report on what he’d found, and now, after nearly a full week of sleeping in shifts and aggressive rabbit meat roasted on a spit, he was exhausted and ready for a shower. Not to mention…

  “-and moreover, I just think and wanted to say that you’ve really come a long way Ken. Even though I find your face to be somewhat… rugged, I actually think this beard you’re growing is really working for you in an unexpected way, almost as though it’s reframing what I hadn’t noticed before.”

  Ken, for his part, puffed up his chest a little and took on a sheepish grin while rubbing the back of his head “Well, I-uh haha, I appreciate that Narissa, I think, and always have thought really, that you’re one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever met, I mean uh, I just-”

  “Naturally Ken, that goes without saying, my heritage alone almost guarantees my nearly divine bearing, but you, you’ve had to really work on it, and I must say-” Carcello didn’t look back but he could hear her rub his scruffy beard “Work on it you have.”

  “Oh for the love Maria, I’m going to stab myself” Hjaldin said.

  Carcello didn’t really mind, and even thought their budding relationship was kind of sweet. It had certainly made the last two days much easier without Narissa’s constant derision and condescension, but at the same time, her complete switch on Ken ever since she’d healed him had been jarring to say the least.

  Stopping abruptly, Carcello looked around in confusion, then in concern as he noticed the city gate was already closed and the streets beyond seemed to be nearly deserted.

  “Hey, focus up, something’s wrong here…” He called to the rest of his group. To their credit, they immediately stopped talking and formed a defensive formation, Narissa practically forcing Ken, a scholar more than a fighter, to the center as she stared daggers out trying to spot whatever had set off Carcello.

  “What’d yah see lad? What’s…” Hjaldin started, before trailing off as Phil cut in “The people… it’s dinner time, the suns having hardly set, where are the people?”

  Narissa gasped, then spun and asked quickly, Ken, did you mix up the days? You said the alignment was tomorrow, is it… is it…”

  They all looked up then, the three moons, Sarees, Platess, and even little Larian, so hard to see in while the suns were still up, were in almost perfect alignment. A weight settled on the group as the realization came over each of them in turn. They had been hoping for a warm meal, and a night to relax and recover before preparing for it tomorrow. By the looks of it, Carcello guessed they had maybe an hour until the full alignment. Until the monsters came.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “We need to report right now… and find out where they need us.” Carcello said softly, and not even Narissa complained as they began to sprint towards the city.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Sayrin stood on the walls of the small, far too quiet village called Straus where it was nestled at the base of the mountain, gazing out west at the setting suns.

  The fortifications weren’t anything grand, Sayrin was almost reluctant to call them walls at all. It was a series of stones, each of varying size, mortared -actually mortared- into place, about as tall as he was. A simple wooden platform was affixed to the right of the main gate in, but the majority of the walls didn’t even have walkways, Why they went to the effort of actually building a wall, rather than just paying for a team of earth Users to shape it, he really couldn’t fathom, but the result was something that, if he were determined to do, would take Sayrin about 10 minutes to completely take apart in a determined assault. Sure it was something but… his wife and the families of his soldiers would be sheltering in this village. And these were the defenses they had to offer?

  Cloud, the city-lord and one of the only residents he has seen actually speaking rather than use their strange hand motions to try and talk to them, walked up and stood next to him, gazing up at the moons rather than out at the suns.

  “Not long now,” the old man said. His voice like a calm summer breeze, not raspy but… airy? “We should feel the pulse any minute, and see them coming not long after that.”

  “I mean no offense, city-lord, but these walls are… not quite what I had hoped for. Moreover, I haven’t seen many in the village armed and ready to fight. If my soldiers hadn’t been here ready to defend you, what would you have done?”

  Cloud chuckled softly, making a series of motions with his hands before realizing and laughing again. “We would have been fine either way. This area at the bottom of the mountains, it is… less. Less quiet, less warm, less crips,” He shrugged and then finished “The monsters that come here are also less. No more than 2-Stars during the waves, so a little alignment like this, we shouldn’t see anything worse than some hordes of 1-Stars.” With a twinkle in his pale silver eyes, he leaned in and said “The day I alone cannot handle any number of 1-Stars is the day the village needs a new lord.”

  Sayrin smiled back, and was about to reply when they felt it. In unison, they looked up to see the three moons in perfect alignment. Sarees’ green light like an emerald ring around Platees’ ruby light. Then little Larian like a drop of water in front of that. All three were noticeably brighter than they had been mere moments before, and the two men could feel their light. It wasn’t oppressive, quite the opposite in fact. It made them feel lighter, warmer, energetic, ready to move.

  Taking a moment to simply bask in the feeling, Sayrin had to admit to himself he always loved these moments. Whether from the alignments of the waves, he had always found that these were the times he felt most alive, most happy. Well, there were a couple of things that surpassed this simple feeling of breathing easier and lighter. For example…

  Screeches and howls began to sound from the fields all around Straus. Focusing on it, Sayrin could just make out the tiny pinpricks of light that began to fall, like a gentle drizzle of luminescent raindrops. Some made it all the way to the grasses, but some stopped while in mid-air, and began to coalesce shadows like curtains of dark mist. Moments later, the shadows would dissipate and in their place would be anything from little Chiroptera, to imps and even some wind elementals, those were going to be the most annoying of the bunch.

  Waves were worse, a downpour to tonight's soft rain, but that didn’t change the fact that there would still be hundreds of newly spawned monsters.

  Calling down to his lieutenants, Sayrin said “just as we planned! First, second, and third, you’re with me in the fields. Fourth, you’re in the city for any that spawn within the walls or that slip through. Be safe, be bold, and by the sword of Gaius, I don’t want a single casualty tonight. Let's go to work!”

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Kya had thought the horde of monsters the Tiger called all the way back in the woods was a lot of monsters. She had thought the near uniform sea of more than a hundred blue-fanged crabs was a lot of monsters.

  Kya stood with Alder, Wade, Drake, and the rest of the 1-Star students gazing out from Cetus at the slivers of light that began forming into monsters. It was like watching her looting power in reverse, where the shadows would envelop a small light that had fallen from the sky, and out popped a monster. She would have been worried, nervous about how many there were, how they would fight them all, how they would defend the city. Two things gave her if not outright confidence, then at least reassurance. One was the number of users Cetus had ready for the defence. For days, small teams of three and four had been arriving in the city. Apparently because of the military's arrival in Lyra, the guild master hadn’t seen it necessary to keep so many there to reinforce the city, and had sent them out to as many towns as possible to reinforce them instead. That didn’t mean they had an army of their own, not by a long shot. But at this point, Cetus had nearly fifty users ready to fight.

  Peering to her right, she saw Alder and Wade, both decked out in their full plate armor, Wade with a sword as big as she was, and Alder with his curved twin blades strapped to his back. Either one of them could probably take care of any random 1-Star monster that spawned in the area, and together they could fight most 2-Stars, especially if Drake, outfitted in his own lighter armor and helm, with a Two small war hammers in either hand, a black chain connecting them draped down in front of him, were to assist. They would be fine, more than fine, they would be able to kill practically anything on the island. At least, that was the impression Kya got from their carefully restrained auras. The three were confident and relaxed, which inspired confidence in her.

  The other thing making her excited to begin was the notification she had got at the same moment that strange feeling of invigoration washed over everyone.

  - - - - -

  Notice: Global Event

  - A global event, {minor alignment} has begun. Monsters will spawn around you in greater numbers and will be more powerful and aggressive in nature when they do. As a partially magical being yourself, you will also be affected by this event.

  - For the duration of the event, you will have the following effects will apply: Minor Body Enhancement, Minor Soul Enhancement, Minor Mental Enhancement, Minor Experience Boost.

  - Time remaining: 5h;56m;41s

  - - - - -

  New Quest!

  Minor Alignment: Oh boy, oh boy, this is a first. You’ve fought little monsters. You’ve fought big monsters. You’ve fought a couple of them at the same time but now get ready for a team deathmatch! Hundreds of monsters, dozens of fighters, and one chance to get your experience points and get ‘em fast.

  - Objective: Slay at least 100 monsters before the alignments ends

  - Time remaining: 5h;55m;37s

  - Reward: Ability Selection

  - - - - -

  Kya hadn’t seen or heard of ability selection before, but if it was what she thought it would be, then she was extremely excited to get started. But she knew the plan, she had to wait for-

  “Alright, that’s long enough. Kya, stay within sight of the walls and either Wade or myself. Other than that… gain as much out of this as you can.”

  With a grin on her face, and her daggers in her hands, Kya leapt off the walls, and with her slow-fall ability activated, sought out her first prey.