An Unborn Hero

A young (apparent) girl in blue spat out a stream of very unladylike swearwords as he dodged out of the way of a stream of fire. "Will someone shoot that bloody thing out of the sky!" he yelled.

"I think they're busy with the other one," replied another apparently young girl, glancing back towards the rear line where a second dragon was strafing their mages. While their defences were holding, and their combined efforts would shoot it down in time, it meant that the front line was temporarily left without their support. Not a great situation when they also had a dragon. The only saving grace was that the numbers of their aggressors had thinned, and they were now dealing with fewer, larger monsters. It gave them more room to dodge. "By the way, your dress is on fire."

Platus swore again, then sliced a row of burning petals off the skirt of his dress. Melody permitted herself another half second to take in the view of his panties—now on full display—before getting back to their dragon problem. The projectile rapiers of Aster Blue had proven their worth a thousand times over already, but they were a poor choice against flying targets. Not because they lacked range or stopping power, but because most things going up tended to come back down. Fine against things as they emerged from the forest, but not so great when the target was directly above their line.

"We need to get the bloody thing onto the ground!" shouted Platus.

"And how exactly do you propose to do that?" demanded Melody.

Platus considered the question. "Throw me!" he answered.

"How exactly am I supposed to do that?! You weigh..."

Melody paused as she remembered that right now, he didn't.

"What if I miss?" she continued.

"Then I land and we try again."

Melody sighed as the dragon banked and turned back towards their section. A hydra was charging at their position, too, and they couldn't afford to devote their attention to dodging the dragon forever, so they needed to try something. She grabbed Platus, positioned herself right in the dragon's path, then tossed him into the air before sidestepping the flame breath.

Alas, she wasn't quite quick enough, the stunt costing her a batch of petals of her own. "Stupid impractical outfits," she mumbled, wishing their generation's [Hero] had been less abnormal. "No-one's to look!" she declared more loudly to her surroundings, which, of course, made every adventurer in earshot look over to see what they weren't supposed to be looking at.

Not that it mattered. They could get the same view simply by looking down.

Melody glared at the hydra as it came into range, happy to have a target upon which to vent her frustration. "Sword rain!" she yelled, launching a wave of swords that struck all nine heads at once.

Behind her, Platus had successfully landed on the dragon's back. The monster barrel-rolled in an attempt to dislodge him, but a couple of hastily summoned swords embedded between its scales proved to make decent handholds. Alas, they did little in the way of damage. Despite getting wedged in place between the scales, they weren't piercing the dragon's flesh.

"At least it's so focused on me that it's not flaming the ground," thought Platus, looking around for a soft target.

Rose had told him what they'd done to the wyrm, but alas, he lacked any explosives. Besides, it would be a long way to climb, and the tail was in the way.

The eyes were an option, but the dragon would be able to swing its head around with far more force than its body. Platus didn't trust himself to hang on long enough to reach them.

"Screw it," he muttered. If there wasn't an accessible soft target, he'd just need to make one. Summoning a few more swords and wedging them beneath a scale, he opened up a gap just large enough for a finger. And then he tore. His base strength was significant, despite his low bronze rank, it being the focus of his build. [Magical Girl Transformation] boosted it, and now he had [Monster Slayer VI] increasing it further, not to mention all the levels gained by this desperate battle.

As a result, the dragon was, to put things mildly, unhappy.

It flailed around in the air as Platus tore a single scale from its shell and plunged a sword deep into the flesh beneath. Alas, the length of the silver sword was insignificant compared to the size of the monster, and he had no hope of hitting any vital organs, but he'd accounted for that, targeting the joint where wing met torso. The damage to the dragon's flight muscles sent it spiralling out of control, crashing into the ground and launching a wave of soil across the battlefield.

With the monster grounded—not to mention stunned by the impact—other adventurers in the area made short work of it.

Platus allowed himself a brief burst of satisfaction at his newly obtained [Monster Slayer VII] as he ran back towards his part of the line, and, more importantly, his wife. He reached it just as a bolt of necrotic black slammed into the second dragon, punching a hole clean through a wing and sending it careening to the ground too.

And, back in position, he found Melody smugly sitting on the corpse of a hydra.

"Took you long enough," she shouted down.

"Well, excuse me for being slow," he bantered back, a grin filling his face.

Yes, he was tired, injured, burnt, indecent and temporarily a little girl without all the muscles he'd spent so long building, but the monsters had thinned enough for jokes. The wave was almost over.

Astral Explorer II (Epic)

You have spent an entire month outside of your body. While a seriously dangerous pastime, it nevertheless seems to be working out for you. This is starting to get a little suspicious. Are you really that lucky, or is the universe saving up to deposit a moon-sized dump upon your head? Perhaps this 200% boost to tether stability and 50% boost to range will help ensure it's the former.

"Can I trade in the range boost for more stability, please?" asked Mystery, but if anyone was listening, they didn't answer. "Besides, I'm pretty sure the reason I don't care about range is because I already got dumped on. Oh well. I suppose I should get back to the others."

She flew through the corridors, barrelling down the straights and bouncing around corners. "Did that achievement make me faster? If that's somehow a result of the range boost, I take back my complaint. One thing I'm going to miss once I get my body back is the flying," she thought. "My magical girl form is going to need wings. How unfair is it that there are already hundreds of people using my spell, while I can't?"

ding

For racing around at speeds that could be described as breakneck, if you had a neck, [Astral Projection] advances to level 24.

She burst into her room where a transformed Kellela and Hayedalf were sparring, each with a wooden sword, while Rose offered direction.

"Urk... I suppose it's common sense in this world to use weapons, but Aster Blue is the only one that has any. The others just have their magic. Is that sensible? Bah, I shouldn't start second guessing myself now. Let's just leave them to it."

With two of the three people capable of detecting Mystery occupied with training, and the third not in the room, no-one even noticed her arrival. She watched for a while, happy to find that despite how long she'd been active already, her new achievement meant that for the moment she was free of the burning sensation of her soul decaying.

"Oh! Mystery!" exclaimed Kellela, as she and Hayedalf paused for a break. "You're back. What did Brylyndril want you for? Rrillandral didn't know."

"Or wouldn't say..." pointed out Rose, who was herself rather angry about being kept in the dark about her parents fighting for their lives.

"... Wand..." answered Mystery, once again needing to revert to her own telepathy. Thanks to the aforementioned wand, her mana was regenerating faster than [Telepathy] and [Translate] could consume it, not that she'd had any trouble keeping [Translate] active by dipping into Kellela's supply.

"Wand? He gave you a wand? How do you... well... hold it?" asked Rose.

"... Bonded Artefact..."

Hayedalf raised an eyebrow. "A bonded Artefact? As in, it's displayed in your status?"

"... Yes..."

"A royal gift indeed. May I see it?"

"... Disappeared..." pointed out Mystery.

"If it's a proper bonded Artefact, you should be able to summon it anytime and anywhere."

Mystery pondered. The achievement description did say it couldn't be lost or stolen, but she'd assumed that was because it had been sucked up inside her somewhere. Did it actually mean that if someone picked it up and ran off, she could just recall it? She tried to recall the feeling of it being sucked up when she touched the gem, and replayed it backwards.

There was a pop as the Vale's Finger decided to exist at least partially in the usual three-dimensional space.

Of course, Mystery was in mid-air, so it didn't stay there for long.

"Careful," exclaimed Hayedalf, moving to catch it, but it fell straight through his hand.

Then it fell straight through the floor.

In a panic, Mystery dived after it. Yes, it theoretically couldn't be lost, but theory meant little when she saw it fall through the floor like that. With her increased speed, combined with the way gravity seemed unsure about its relationship with the not-quite-there wand, she soon overtook it, positioning herself directly in its path.

"Ouch," she thought as the falling wand bonked her soul, point first.

ding

For suffering an unconventional and entirely self-inflicted stabbing, [Robust] advances to level 28.

A few elves that happened to be in the room watched the floating translucent stick curiously. It hung there, bobbing gently up and down, despite no-one apparently interacting with it.

"Seriously, ouch!" Mystery added, realising the wand was stuck in her. Panicking a little, she reversed whatever she had done to summon it, thankfully causing it to pop back out of existence. "Do I have a big hole in my soul now?"

She flew back up. "... Mum... stabbed... hole...?" she questioned.

The eyes of the four magical girls in the room turned to stare.

"Pardon?" asked Kellela.

"... Do I... look okay...?" she answered, doing her best to form a complete sentence.

"Yes? As far as I can see, anyway. Why?"

Mystery pondered how to answer, before noticing that the pain had vanished the instant she'd stored the wand. "... Never mind..."

She summoned it again, this time with some expectation of what would happen, and managed to balance it on top of herself.

"Woah," opined Hayedalf, staring at it in awe.

"I agree," agreed Kellela, who was also staring wide-eyed.

"Pretty," added Rose, who had no sensory skills able to pick up on what the thing actually was.

"It's... alive?" asked Grace, who did.

Mystery slowly read out the description. The details of manufacture caused Hayedalf to whistle in admiration, while the fifty percent mana cost reduction caught Kellela's attention. "Shame we can't have one each."

"Your ring already gives you a third," pointed out Hayedalf, which was news to Mystery. She could see that everyone was wearing magical items, the count of which had been expanding while they stayed in the Vale, but had no clear indication of what they all did other than blowing arms off demons. "I can't produce anything Mystery can use."

"I'm going to stick with my original opinion," said Rose, who had very little idea what Hayedalf was talking about. "Pretty."

Grace smiled, before heaving a big sigh. "So, this is it, then. Three more days..."

Melody lay spread-eagled on her back, staring up at the sky. The ground was soaked with blood, but exhausted as she was, she couldn't find it in herself to care. It wasn't as if much of it was hers.

"Finally. It's over..."

"Are you sure?" asked Platus, who was lying next to her. "How do you know?"

"Because you're male again."

Platus spent a few seconds to take stock of his situation, and had to admit he did indeed seem somewhat bulkier and less floral than he had been at the point he fell over.

"Yay. Nap time."

"Don't you dare."

"Just a little one? Ten minutes?"

The only answer was a genteel snoring.

"Hypocrite," he muttered, approximately three seconds before he joined her.

ding

Harold Flinel the Human has obtained the legendary achievement [Overwhelming Victor] at the age of 42.

"Who's Harold?" wondered Mystery, peering at the world notification, but never having known the name of the Flinellian [King].

Mystery (Human)

Age: -9 months

Occupation: Hero (L)

Skills:

- Soul's Eye (U) (40/100)

>> Sense Vitality (U)

>> Sense Soul (R)

>> Sense Mana (U)

>> Sense Light (C)

>> Sense Sound (C)

>> Pierce Illusions (U)

>> Sense Miasma (R)

>> Multi-focal (R)

>> Sense Spirit (R)

- Astral Projection (U) (24/60)

>> Sure Navigation (U)

>> Uncontainable (U)

>> Tether of Will (L)

- Robust (C) (28/50)

>> Hardened Soul (R)

>> Secured Mana (U)

>> Pain Tolerance (C)

>> Strengthened Will (U)

- Stealth (C) (3/20)

>> Camouflage Vitality (R)

- Magical Girl Transformation (R) (22/30)

>> Age Correction (R)

>> Gender Bending (R)

- Light (C) (12/20)

>> Heterochrome (U)

- Increased Attributes (C) (11/20)

>> Mana Storage (U)

- Investigation (C) (5/10)

- Cosplay (U) (11/20)

>> Skit (U)

- Mana Absorption (U) (11/30)

>> Drain Mana (U)

>> Conduit (U)

- Translate (U) (10/20)

>> Two Way (U)

- Telepathy (U) (15/40)

>> Reciprocity (U)

>> Empathy (U)

>> Guarded Mind (U)

- Lightning Bolt (U) (3/10)

- Fireball (U) (4/20)

>> Multishot (U)

- Wall of Light (U) (1/10)

- Energy Resistance (U) (7/10)

Achievements:

- Early Bloomer II (R)

- First Skill (C)

- Adept (U)

- Survivor of Zarklaxxos, the Arcane Infernal (R)

- I Broke The System, And All I Got Was This Lousy Achievement (E)

- Astral Explorer II (E)

- First Spell (C)

- I Broke The System Again, And Now The Administrators Hate Me (E)

- Famous Spell Forger (E)

- Demon Slayer III (E)

- Monster Slayer V (E)

- Curiosity (U)

- War Veteran (U)

- Royal Audience (C)

- Diligent Hero (L)

- Studious (C)

- Pioneering Guider (E)

- Royal Pervert (R)

- I Couldn't Stop Breaking The System, And Now I've Been Smited (E)

- Royal Corrupter (E)

- Blessed of the Forest (C)

- Artefact Wielder (R)

Artefacts:

- The Vale's Finger