Risk and Sacrifice

A thousand years ago, a celestial dragon crashed onto Earth and gave humans magic.

A year ago, a group of human-dragon hybrids called the Aria escaped the research facility at Sakai Industries and went on a rampage.

A week ago, Stella was dropped into a combat mission that would claim the lives of all but three members of the Aria Strike Force.

And today? Today, Stella had seconds before she met the same ill-fated demise.

Stella stared down the massive energy blast as it ripped away the street south of its underbelly and tightened her grip on her sword. With her current skill level, she it knew it would be impossible to counter the attack, but she still infused her sword with her fire magic and readied herself to slash through it.

Stella already had her sword above her head to strike when a row of ice pillars shot up from the ground between her and the blast. The pillars were decimated near instantly, but it gave her rescuer the buffer she needed to grab Stella by the shoulder and pull her out of the way with only a few hairs and houses as sacrifice.

“T-Thanks for the save.“ Stella said. “I seriously thought I was dead.”

“I thought you were too,” Yui confessed bluntly. “I almost didn’t try to save you.”

“Yeah, I think you could have left out that part. How about just saying ‘You’re welcome?’”

“You’re welcome.”

The sound of the Aria charging another blast whizzed in Stella’s ears and her head snapped back in terror. It was aimed right at them, and it was growing at an eager pace in the space between the female Aria’s horns.

“Captain Rift told us to fall back,” Yui informed her quickly. “She said she’d take care of this one.” Stella swallowed dryly and nodded. They were both low on magical power, and Stella already had to be rescued from this Aria once. Their only options were to outrun it, or die.

The sound of thousands of glasses shattering reverberated across the gray sky, and Yui and Stella flinched as a crack of lightning shot down like an arrow toward the enemy Aria.

The impact of the lightning disrupted the energy blast, causing it to explode violently. The Aria screeched in pain as it suffered from the force of its own attack.

Yui and Stella didn’t miss the opening they’d been given and pushed toward their rendezvous point at a punishing pace. They knew from experience that the recoil from the damage the Aria had taken wouldn’t last for long.

Thankfully, the alley that had become the touch-point for their field operations wasn’t terribly far, and they made it there in record time.

“Stella! Yui!”

Rift grunted as the two of them practically threw themselves at her, though Stella could already see her toothy grin forming as the temporary discomfort faded.

“Good job, girls,” she said as she placed a hand on both of their shoulders. “You made it.”

Stella dropped to her knees in relief. Though she knew she would have to move again soon, the fatigue kept her pinned to the ground as tremors wracked her lean frame.

Yui was in a similar state, and collapsed right next to her. Her breathing was high and heavy behind the thick scarf tucked just under her nose.

“You owe me…extra danger pay…for this...” Yui huffed.

“Captain,” Stella croaked. “What now?”

A massive roar thundered from the enemy Aria, and Rift’s expression darkened. “Yui.”

“Urgh…yes…Captain?”

“Protect Stella in my stead. Never forget that her safety is our number one priority.”

Stella’s entire body stiffened, putting her tremors to a quick end. “What?”

Yui squeezed Stella’s shoulder for support as she struggled back to her feet. “Got it,” she said.

“Hey, wait a minute,” Stella interrupted. “What are you talking about?”

“Your mom is the CEO of Sakai Industries,” Yui said dryly. “If we want to keep our jobs, we have to do what she tells us to—and she told us to prioritize keeping her daughter from being blown to bits on the front lines.”

“Yui!” Rift scolded.

Stella looked up at the two of them with wide eyes. The Strike Force members had always had a penchant for self-sacrifice. Stella, perhaps naively, had always attributed this reckless tendency to a shared camaraderie. But if that wasn’t the case—if Yui and everyone else had been risking their lives on the battlefield just to cover for her, then—

“I…I never asked for that!” Stella shouted angrily. “Your safety is just as important as mine. No one should have…”

“Hey,” Rift said as she knelt down in front of her. “Do you think we’re the kind of people to blindly follow orders?”

Stella looked away.

“I asked you a question, kid. Answer it.”

“…No.”

Rift smiled at her in a way that felt painfully kind. “We’ve spent an entire year training, fighting, and living alongside each other,” Rift said as she fixed the crooked flame pin in Stella’s hair. It was a gift she’d received from the captain just recently to celebrate her first anniversary on the Force.

Satisfied with her work, Rift brushed Stella’s hair back and pulled away. “You mean so much more to us than some damn words handed down to us by your mother.“

Stella’s throat jumped as she heard the renewed cry of the Aria as the ground shook from the impact of another blast. She looked up and noticed that one of the buildings they were hiding between was starting to lean closer to the other.

Rift grabbed Stella by the arm and hoisted her to her feet. “We’re out of time. There should be a chopper waiting for you two back at the drop-off point.”

“No way. We’re not just leaving you here to die!”

“Captain, maybe we should just leave the Aria, and—“

“We can’t do that,” Rift said sharply to Yui. “If we do, what will happen to the city? To the people we care about?”

Rift tugged on the magic-amplifying gloves that she used to fight. Electrical currents jumped over her hands as she flexed her fingers. “I’ll take this wretched thing down if it’s the last thing I do, so go.”

Before Stella could argue further, the enemy Aria flew into the alley and swung her tail at Rift’s head with a snarl. Rift dodged the attack and grabbed her by the tail. Taking advantage of the opening she’d created, Rift sent a nasty lightning bolt coursing through the Aria’s body before flinging the hybrid to the other end of the alley.

“Stop standing around and get going already!” Rift snapped at them.

The Aria took advantage of Rift’s brief break in concentration and charged her, whipping her muscular tail across her face and sending her slamming into the wall. The strength of the blow sent cracks rippling through the building from foundation to roof.

“Captain!”

“Are you…ugh.” She coughed and spat out an unnerving amount of blood from her mouth. “Are you planning on…disobeying your captain’s orders?”

Yui grabbed Stella’s hand and squeezed it urgently. “Stella.”

“We’ll wait with the chopper for as long as we can,” Stella said through gritted teeth. “So wreck this mutant lizard and come back to us, you hear me?”

Rift let out a strained chuckle as she struggled to her feet. The Aria was already charging another energy beam as she did. “Sure, kid,” she said as lightning ran up her arms. The sky thundered ominously overhead. “See you soon.”