I took a deep breath, jumping ontop Crapshoveler, immediately bumbling over like an idiot.

  “C’mon, work with me,” I grumbled.

  We tried again, this time centering my weight on the end of Crapshoveler’s blade.

  I clenched my hand, bringing him toward me.

  Slowly.

  Steadily.

  I started rising into the air.

  Then I lost balance, flinging Crapshoveler away from me while still pulling him closer, so he just whipped around, cracking against my forehead as he snapped into my hand.

  “What are you smiling about?” Toya asked, walking over with measured steps. “Did I hear a ‘clang?’”

  I held up a hand.

  “Watch this!”

  After fumbling around a little, I managed to get myself into position. Crapshoveler rose up, trembling slightly with every breath.

  I was flying!

  Toya frowned. “What…what are you doing?”

  “My shovel returns to my hand when I summon him,” I stated smugly. “He applies a spinning force to rotate in my direction, then an accelerating force to move to me. As long as I put myself on the edge, I can exert enough force to overwhelm the rotational force—”

  Crapshoveler shot out from under me, startling a nearby bird, before he whipped back, crashlanding unceremoniously into the deck.

  “The rotational force also accelerates,” I sighed. “But slower. As long as I don’t fly for too long, and as long as I have enough strength to oppose his rotational force, I’ll be able to reset the momentum enough to ride my shovel around like a hoverboard!”

  I grinned. “You must be jealous, right?”

  “Why would you learn this?” Toya asked. “You already have a perfectly functional jetpack.”

  “Well I don’t get to keep my jetpack,” I grumbled. “And flying is incredible. Speaking of which, shouldn’t we be getting altitude sickness by now?”

  “Of course not,” he said. “We’re not nearly that high. We’re barely in the clouds.”

  “Seriously?” I asked, looking into an endless sea of milky cloud above us. “Do you think there’s special monsters that live way up there?”

  “If they have any sense, they’ll stay put,” Toya said. He frowned, spotting a splinter of wood stuck in the hem of his robe. He quickly brushed it off. “Anyway, Master Jujud wishes to speak with you.”

  I straightened up. “Really? Why?”

  Toya shrugged. “She didn’t say. It must be important.”

  I ripped Crapshoveler from the deck, stepping onto the end of his hilt. We started floating again, though still trapped in the broken wood. “Where is she?”

  Toya facepalmed. “Just walk to her.”

  “Where?”

  He grit his teeth. “South cabin.”

  I clenched my hand, activating Reach in the same instant, tethering myself to the floor.

  While trying to hover with Crapshoveler, I found a much similar technique, requiring only firm ground and proper balance.

  Launching.

  Crapshoveler’s acceleration was directly related to the force opposing his movement.

  The deck shattered apart, blasting me high into the air.

  A matter of seconds later, and I was upside down, hanging from the ceiling, having blasted myself through several layers of wood framing.

  “You called?” I asked innocently.

  Master Jujud looked up from her book. “Grind. I know this craft is already falling apart, but we need it to hold for at least the next hour. So please, walk next time.”

  She snapped her book shut.

  “Your Mentor left you a message,” Master Jujud started, holding up a letter with a slight shimmer around the edges. As far as I could tell, it wasn’t due to an enchantment, but more a result of the truly monstrous power used to create at this kind of distance.

  That was Headmaster Xoiae.

  And she’s summoned me a letter.

  “She says that trick of yours was exceptionally clever,” Master Jujud continued. “Exploiting movement systems in a legendary weapon. Specifically, she said ‘You must have a lot of energy to think of something like that.’”

  Not a good sign.

  I swallowed.

  “She goes on, ‘as you are so diligently pursuing your studies, I wish to come alongside your efforts.’”

  Actually that doesn’t sound half bad.

  “Then she just says…enjoy?” Master Jujud asked, cracking open the letter to double check. “There wasn’t anything in the envelope.”

  A sudden, vast weight settled on the back of my mind.

  …

  “What’s with him?” Sip hissed, peeking from behind the corner.

  Toya rolled his eyes. “Grind’s just in denial.”

  I sat on the floor, wearing my jetpack, forcing every scrap of my mental energy into the system.

  Nothing.

  Absolutely nothing.

  “Why is he crying?” Sip asked.

  “I am not!” I shouted, rubbing my face. “I just can’t use a jetpack anymore, that’s all.”

  “Wait. What?” Sip stepped forward. “Seriously?”

  Toya nodded. “His mentor—the head of the school—sensed Grind’s practice floating on his shovel, and as such, stripped away his mental powers, as to encourage that route.”

  “It’s not ready yet!” I sniffled. “And I just wanted a jet pack!”

  How fast had I gone? How long had I ridden?

  “Hey. It’s going to be okay,” Sip said, nodding solemnly. “There’ll be other jetpacks. Who knows? Perhaps you will make your own one day.”

  I sniffled.

  Sip massaged his forehead with both hands. “Okay Toya, you just said a lot of things real fast, so I’m going to need some answers. His mentor is Xoiae? XOIAE?”

  “Headmaster Xoiae.” He blinked. “You haven’t figured that out yet?”

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “I knew he had a benefactor, not that she was the head of the school!” Sip squeaked. “And she saw him practice?”

  “Sensed.”

  “Practicing HOVERING with his shovel?”

  “Yes.” He cleared his throat. “Using a manipulation of the shovel’s latent ability to return to his hand.”

  “Okay, still following,” Sip bit his lip, dropping down to sit beside me. “But you’re saying the Headmaster can enchant an object from that kind of distance with enough power to remove somebody’s ability to command?”

  Toya thought for a moment. “Sip, she’s really, really strong?”

  Sip shuddered. “Dude, what are we doing here? Couldn't she just kill those bird things herself from a bajillion miles away?”

  “She already does,” Toya stated. “Or most of them, anyway. The strongest players in every area have a coalition to reduce player deaths through a little collective individual effort. The hardest missions must be carried out in person, hence the masters, while the easiest are done to teach and grow the power of students. That leaves a lot of filler in the middle which the strongest people take care of.”

  I rocked back and forth, cradling the jetpack to my chest.

  “Oh he’s got it bad,” Sip whispered.

  Toya agreed. “The man only wanted his jetpack.”

  Catania brushed past the guys giving me a weird glance. “What’s going on?”

  I tapped my wrist band.

  “Oh quit whining,” Catania grumbled. “Your power’s already making us look bad by comparison. Sit the rest of this mission out.”

  “Nah, he needs this work,” Sip whispered. “He’s got like a billion qualms in debt.”

  Catania scratched the back of her head. “That...Ah.”

  “And since he can’t use his jetpack, the moment this ship comes under attack, he’ll drop like a rock, splattering on the ground after a six thousand foot fall,” Toya stated. “So he probably feels awful right now, since now that he needs someone to look after him, he’s actively harming our team dynamic.”

  Everyone looked at Toya.

  “No, he’s right,” I said. “And nobody needs to look after me. I’ll figure something out.”

  “Good,” Catania huffed, jabbing a thumb over her shoulder. “Cause we’re here.”

  “Here—” Sip cut off in a shriek of panic. “NOW?!”

  “Yeah.” She said, summoning her plate armor. “The bird things don’t seem like they’re slowing down, so I’d brace for impact.”

  Toya slammed his palms together, then spun, snapping thread onto everyone and everything around us.

  There was a moment of silence.

  The deafening roar of crashing wood drowned out my own thoughts, rumbling from one end of the ship, all the way down. It just blasted apart, like fireworks in a wad of newspaper.

  “Everybody okay!?” Toya hollered, straining against the weight. He had on arm a mound of rock, wrapped in mana-infused strings, winding down into knots on our waists.

  Catania ripped herself free, climbing up along the cliff on her own. “Aren’t there supposed to be birds?”

  Sip squeaked. “Found them.”

  An unimaginable swarm of every shape, size, and color of Aviator flooded the sky, swirling around the falling remnants of our ship. We’d managed to escape their notice so far, since they hadn't seen—

  “DUCK!” I shouted.

  Toya released his hold on the rock, dropping below a storm of metallic beaks, ramming themselves into the ground. He snapped the tethered around them, forcing the monsters into place.

  But the sheer number of birds he trapped was taking their toll. Toya was huffing and sweating and straining to keep his mana evenly dispersed through every string, before something somewhere would start to break.

  Sip squirmed, covering his face in his hand. “Grind! More birds are coming!”

  “I can see them!” I grunted, clenching a fist at the shadowy flock. “Time for Plan B.”

  Notifications chimed, all at once, signaling the death of several birds as an abnormality the size of a small car detonated on top of them.

  Others pushed past the first blast, flinging themselves into the second, and the third after that.

  Most of the weakest birds dropped like stones, but others pushed through. The moment a larger bird snagged the web, it fell apart, releasing what Aviators we’d already captured.

  Toya grabbed the falling webs with his feet, climbing onto the cliffside like a spider. The string went taut, pulling me and Sip back.

  “Either of you feel like helping?!” Toya shouted.

  “I am!” I shouted back.

  Sip hunched down. “Why am I here? Really? What am I even doing?!”

  An Aviator swooped down, digging their talons into Toya’s shoulders.

  Toya gritted his teeth, tying thread around the bird.

  Rather than latch on, the thread slid off, repealed by a thin membrane of mana.

  Sip grabbed his head. “Why can the birds do magic!?”

  “How should I know?!” Toya shouted back.

  The bird lunged.

  I reached up.

  The aviator looked into the distance, before taking off, ignoring the three of us. Toya’s eyes went wide, suddenly and effortlessly pulling us away from the flock, who was now retreating.

  He managed to get us up onto the ledge, before his moment of strength was exhausted.

  Sip hugged me. “Thank you!”

  “I…didn’t do anything,” I admitted.

  “That was me,” Soise said, crackling over our earpieces. “Sorry I’m so many moves behind.”

  Toya grabbed his ear, watching in awe. “Moves?”

  “I can predict enemies. Once you’ve got that, and a couple competent people, it’s not too hard. Also, I can give passive buffs if I take an enemy piece. It’s all very interesting and not something we have time to explain right now.”

  A shimmer appeared in the air, pointing to the top of the floating island, out of view.

  “Most of the island is rock, sculpted around the Queen’s nest. Catania tried to go in through the top, but that didn’t work. Fortunately for you, it got the guard’s attention.

  “Now, I have two different routes. Sip, you be the bait, while Toya immobilizes guards patrolling close. Catania draws them out, and Grind, I hope you have enough mana to obliterate the queen, because frankly, we don’t have much else in terms of firepower.”

  The shimmering path twisted around a diamond-shaped island, flipping to the bottom hole.

  “You need to get from here, to there—” her voice cut off. “Grind? Where’s your jetpack?”

  I shrugged. “It fell with everything else in the explosion. I can’t use it anyway.”

  Soise started hyperventilating.

  “Oh stop worrying,” I said. “I’m not out of options. Watch.”

  I summoned Crapshoveler, wedging him into the ground. With a little weaponized aura and digging affinity, it was light work to carve out the beginnings of a tunnel. Besides, all the rock was pretty loose anyway. It only held in the first place because of some kind of mana network.

  “Got it,” Soise said. “Toya, Grind’s going to be digging his own way in. Protect this tunnel.”

  Toya kicked the side, frowning. “How can you possibly break through this? It’s both enchanted and filled with mana, and since you’re just using your normal strength, you’re not nearly strong enough.”

  I smirked.

  “Don’t bother,” Sip grumbled. “It’s probably something stupid.”

  “Actually, I find natural cracks in the rock, wedge the shovel in, then make it rotate toward me, building up the torque to splinter the magic chemical systems inside,” I stated. “The spell used is both stable and powerful, but relatively brittle when it concerns physical force.”

  “It’s such a stupid weapon,” Sip said. “Why can’t I have one?”

  The ground trembled.

  “You’re up,” I called.

  Toya nodded. “Don’t die.”

  I just let out a chuckle.

  “We’ll see what happens.”

  My digging drew the attention of Aviators, who dove down into my expanding tunnel. The enclosed space made them easy to pin down with webs, allowing Toya to fling them off the island, unable to fly. Usually, other birds flew down to save them.

  Sip was also helpful. He’d grab hunks of broken rock, adding them to his inventory. When it was full, he ran out and dumped it all on whatever birds were trying to fly back up.

  All the while, I was getting closer and closer.

  Just a matter of time.

  Once I defeated a real enemy, I’d get even more abilities. The queen of Aviators ought to be more than enough for something good. Flight, perhaps. Or air affinity. Or something generally magical.

  I’m not picky.

  The ground shuddered, violently, becoming more unstable as I moved through the layers of stone.

  While the outer shell had solid mana networking, the inner compartments were mostly just loose rock, welding together in extreme heat.

  According to Master Jujud, it was the Queen’s duty to build the nest, and the duty of her hive to defend it, and to provide her food.

  The ground fell out from beneath me.

  I spun, activating a hundred and twelve abnormality fields. They roared with animosity, spiraling forward, igniting the air. The Queen reared up, revealing thick wings, like a bear’s coat, sprouting out from her back in a solid wall of multicolored feathering.

  My blast fused together, to a single point.

  A point on collision with a four year old boy, lying at the Queen’s feet.

  // {Notice} //

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