Gacha Leveling

Matthew was resting on the second floor of the police station while Sarah talked over the phone with her mother assuring her they were both well and safe. The cops were on the roof keeping an eye out for more Gnoles while the civilians were safe inside.

A couple of army helicopters passed through showing that the armed forces were coming. Distant shooting and the sound of battle could be heard as the troops advanced into the neighborhood cleaning the streets from the Gnoles that were in hiding.

Ffyr was hovering on Matthew's shoulder not saying a word, but Matthew could feel she was crying.

"I'm sorry." He said to her.

"You feel that all the time?" She asked with a wavering voice.

"When the demonic mana takes over. Yes." He explained.

Ffyr stayed silent again. Matthew could only hear her sobbing in his head.

"How did you get infected with the demonic mana?" Matthew asked.

"I took a part of yours with me when we made the pact. I thought I could help you deal with it if I had it too." She explained. "I never imagined it would turn me into… That."

"Did it awake in you when I let it take me?" He asked concerned.

"No. I let it take me too. Figured we could use the power." She answered.

"It did help. Though we kinda lost control when both of us started to pump up each other." Matthew gave a sad laugh.

"I said some horrible things to you." Ffyr lamented.

"I know it wasn't you. It might feel like it's you, but it's the demonic mana messing with your emotions. Don't let it get to you. Remember our souls are connected, I can feel what you feel. I know you didn't mean it." Matthew consoled her.

Ffyr took those words to heart, but was still feeling terrible.

"Mom said Katia is asleep, they'll be taking Eric's room for the night." Sarah said approaching Matthew.

"Good. I don't know when the others will be back." He said.

"What's that on your shoulder?" Sarah asked pointing at Ffyr.

"Oh. This is Ffyr. My familiar." Matthew answered.

"Familiar?" Sarah asked not knowing the terminology.

"My pacted spirit." Matthew explained. "Like Lumi and Paula."

"Oh! It will grow into a beautiful bird too?" Sarah asked getting her face really close to the small ball of light and studying it.

"No. Ffyr is a fairy." Matthew said. "She's just too weak to manifest herself properly in the primal realm and can only show herself as a ball of light."

"A fairy?!" Sarah squealed. "Like a small pretty girl with wings?"

"Yes. She has fire-like hair and beautiful red butterfly wings." Matthew described making Ffyr bounce around in the air proudly.

"Fyr, was it?" Sarah asked. "Nice to meet you!"

Ffyr started to fly around erratically clearly angry.

"It's Ffyr. Try to hold the F sound a bit longer." Matthew chuckled. "She really hates when you say her name wrong."

"Fffyr?" Sarah tried again.

"Ffyr." Matthew corrected.

"Ffyr?"

"That's it!"

"Ffyr! Hi Ffyr!" Sarah smiled widely. "Sorry for getting your name wrong."

Ffyr flew up and down as saying that it was ok.

"But you really should stop surrounding yourself with women, you jerk." Sarah poked him. "Lynn will get jealous!"

"Lynn and I are not dating." Matthew corrected her.

"Because you're a wuss." Sarah interjected.

"What?" Matthew got surprised by her language.

Ffyr flew up and down again agreeing with Sarah.

"What do you two mean?" Matthew got flustered.

"Just ask her out. You two are clearly into each other." Sarah explained.

"She's not…" Matthew tried to protest, but held his tongue. Faralynn wasn't into him, was she? Also, he wasn't sure how he felt himself. Specially since all the things that happened with Mia and Vanessa.

"You're going to regret it." Sarah said sitting beside him on the floor. "You tell him Ffyr."

"She's right." Ffyr said to Matthew already developing a kinship with Sarah.

He scoffed at them, but could not really protest. He was just not sure how to proceed.

"Will you use that thing on Ffyr too?" Sarah asked changing subjects. "The one you used on Lumi?"

"The Animal Companion skill? I don't know. It almost killed me last time. And I don't even know if it will work on her." Matthew said thinking about the possibility.

"It would be nice if you could. That way I could see and talk to her, right?" Sarah asked.

"Probably." Matthew pondered.

"It might work." Ffyr said. "But you need to learn how to use the skill properly or else you'll just kill yourself again."

"I'll ask around in school then." Matthew said and, after realizing that Sarah couldn't hear Ffyr, explained to her: "I'll ask how to use the skill properly and see if it can be used on fairies."

Meanwhile, inside the gate, Eric was leading a group of adventurers trying to take back the fort the Gnoles took from the Howling Spears.

A fort was built inside the gate after the Gnoles were repelled from their last invasion. The structure protected the gate itself from within, built around it. After the Howling Spear guild won the concession of use of the gate, they took control of the fort from the army and in turn they could economically explore the pocket dimension.

However, that night, the Howling Spear could not hold the fort and the Gnoles overran them with an army, making the surviving guild members flee from the battle. That opened way for the Gnole army to travel to earth and attack kidnapping civilians to use as a sacrifice to their god Nuth.

Eric rallied some adventurers that came voluntarily to help fight the Gnoles and, under his leadership, they assaulted the gate and were now fighting inside the fort walls trying to clear it from the Gnole army.

They were, however, severely outnumbered. Eric could only muster a group of 14 adventurers and gaining ground inside the fort was proving quite the challenge.

That's when Vanessa, Paula and Michael came in. Lumi was a power that the Gnoles could not resist. Her magical ice and sharp talons were too much for them. Combined with Eric's overwhelming strength, the small and weak creatures had no chance.

Soon the Gnoles fled the fort leaving Eric and the other adventurer's in control of the structure.

"This doesn't look like a military fortification." Eric said after everything was safe. "Where are all the heavy weaponry?"

"It's because it isn't." Vanessa hissed. "The Howling Spear was in control here again." She explained to him. "They always cut expenses. I bet they didn't even have a proper combat force inside, just some few adventurers."

"Of course." Eric spat on the floor. "It's always them."

"But today we have an opportunity to fuck them." Vanessa said with malice in her voice. "Help me find their offices. I'm sure we'll find some incriminating documents somewhere in here since they didn't have time to clean their shit."

Eric and Vanessa searched the fort up and down for documents that could show any criminal behavior on part of the guild. They eventually found some bank extracts that showed money transfers from the guild to the Mayor's electoral campaign.

The Howling Spear guild master was the Mayor's son. Everyone knew that the guild was being favored in government contracts, but no one could prove it or, if they could, the corrupt court system protected them.

Vanessa's plan was to make the Mayor's corruption with the Howling Spear public in such a way that they could not brush it under the carpet anymore. She was going to destroy them in the public opinion.

That extract of transactions gave her a direction to do that. If she investigated them, she was sure to unravel a big scheme that would destroy the Howling Spear.

The army arrived soon after taking control of the fort and setting up an expedition to save the kidnapped civilians from the Gnoles.

With that, Eric and the adventurers went away. Eric Vanessa, Paula and Michael went back to the police station to pick up Matthew and Sarah and take them home.

That day was known in the media as the Night of the Gnoles or the Gnole Invasion. In the days that came after, there was much debate on who was responsible for the invasion. The Mayor was under heavy fire while the adventurers who risked themselves were praised as heroes.

However, the media was quick to come in defense of the Mayor and the Howling Spear guild. They made puff pieces on the guild and ran propaganda for the Mayor. They framed the invasion as an accident or as an inevitable event that not even if the army was still in control of the fort could have been stopped.

Matthew and Sarah got home saying goodbye to Vanessa and Eric who came to leave them there.

"I'll let your folks sleep at my place." Eric said. "Don't want to wake them up so late."

Matthew was the first to shower, since he was covered from head to toe in Gnole blood.

He laid in bed after cleaning himself. Ffyr was not in her material form, so he could not see her, but he could still feel her nearby. He could still feel how bad she was feeling after experimenting the effects of the demonic mana.

"It'll be all right." He said to her. "We won't let those feelings control us."