Rising Shards

Marmalade stomped on the ground, knocking a few void monsters up with her earthquake powers, then swung at them with her bloodsaber like she was swinging a bat. She had been repeating that move as she worked to get her monster kill number up to the required number for her finals. It was maybe a bit dull to use the same move over and over, but they were being graded on how many monsters they beat, not for the style they did it.

The newbie group ended up with the same general class they had taken a big chunk of their exams with, so they were with familiar faces at least. Marmalade and Michi ended up by each other, not really talking much but enjoying a quiet companionship as they were two late semester additions to the school.

Unfortunately, the other two main newbies Marmalade had been in contact with were also nearby. Scrungy, who looked ready to fight anyone in her vicinity whenever she finished off all the monsters nearby, and Caeda, who gave Marmalade creepy vibes.

“These are so friggin’ boring,” Scrungy said to no one in particular. “Makes me wanna kick someone’s ass for real. Not just these stupid bugs.”

Scrungy turned, eyeing up Marmalade, who laughed nervously. Behind Scrungy, Michi picked up a particularly round monster and punted it, sending it flying over Scrungy.

“Wow, look at that one go!” Michi said with an exaggerated voice. “It just flew off!”

“Huh?” Scrungy asked, spotting the monster’s flight.

“I bet only someone really good at this could catch that one.” Michi said.

“Yeah, no way I could get that one!” Marmalade said.

“Right, no way,” Scrungy said. “But I’m way better at this than both of you, so…” She took off running after the monster, which bounced around in the distance.

“Wow, thank you,” Marmalade said.

“I can’t believe that worked.” Michi smiled slightly, proud of their work.

Then the battles got a bit more fun, as the two started joking about how playing fetch with Scrungy was a tactic that worked to get her to leave them alone.

“You know what really bothers me?”

Marmalade and Michi sighed as Caeda Firae butted into their conversation, immediately talking about herself.

“What’s that?” Marmalade asked.

“The lack of attention,” Caeda said. “I’m so attention starved. If nobody’s paying attention to me, how can I show off my skills?”

“This maybe isn’t the best avenue to show off skills,” Michi said. “Everyone’s kind of in their own world.”

Usually Michi just bailed whenever Caeda showed up, so Marmalade was grateful they were sticking around this time.

“Did you know I met someone very important?” Caeda asked.

“Wow, cool…?” Marmalade asked. “Who’d you meet?”

“I can’t answer that,” Caeda shook her head solemnly. “It’s top secret.”

“If it’s top secret, you probably shouldn’t say you met anyone,” Michi said. “That feels like it’s breaking secret keeping protocols.”

“But that just ties back into my issue!” Caeda said. “I’m supposed to be a big deal. You know what, though?”

“What?” Marmalade asked, hoping Caeda would leave them alone already.

“Next semester,” Caeda winked. “Just you wait. I should let everyone know.”

Caeda jogged off, muttering something about announcements to herself.

“She’s so weird.” Marmalade said.

“Everyone here is pretty weird,” Michi said.

“True that,” Marmalade said. “But Caeda is like…”

“Bad vibes weird.” Michi said.

“Exactly!” Marmalade said. “Hey, do you wanna try combining powers? I bet your wind power could go well with my earthquakes.”

“Sure.” Michi said. “We gotta see if they still count for both of us if we kill the same void monster, if we don’t get any points I’m going back to solo attacks.”

“Fair deal.” Marmalade said.