THE REINS CHRONICLES

JASMINE knew these two were bad news, she could see it in their auras. They were dangerous, so much so that her eyes ached at how violent their auras flared in her vision. She'd always been sensitive to auras, but after the summer evaluation something had changed, but now wasn't the time to dwell on it. There were two serious threats in front of her; she didn't have time to mess around.

She reached into a special pocket on her ranger belt and pulled out a byrd from her belt, then with a flick of a switch, it elongated into her elegant compound bow, Artemysia.

"Ha!" said the woman in the half mask, "I've heard of this girl, Mika. She's the White Fang, Jasmine Sumner, she's a special one."

"Indeed, Seraz," Mika said, bowing towards Jasmine, "It is truly an honor to face such a renowned ranger."

"The honor is mine," Jasmine retorted, "never been up against two scarecrows before. Should be quite the challenge."

"We will try to live up to your expectations." Mika assured her, "But it is curious; I wasn't aware that you were in possession of a gift."

What's she talking about, Jasmine wandered, what gift? I'm a half-blood, I don't have any special traits.

"Ha, that's funny," Seraz snickered, "she's a skib, even I know they don't get gifts,"

Jasmine scowled at the slur, she never did care much for that sort of language, from anyone.

"Hey," Jasmine said, "If the two of you are done chatting, I'd like to put you down and get back to my assignment."

"Oh," Mika said, "Sorry, I was momentarily distracted by those eyes of yours. What a lovely shade of gold."

"Enough talk." Jasmine said as she released two arrows at them, both exploding on contact with the roof, but the two scarecrows leapt away before detonation.

"Alright, time to get serious Seraz," Mika said

"Okay," Seraz agreed.

They both pulled off their cloaks, revealing the fitted black body armor they wore underneath. From the built in pockets at their waist, they pulled out byrds –compact weapon modules— and released them. Mika landed a few feet in front of Jasmine, holding a weapon known as a needler, it was like a stiletto sword, but with a long thin blade, that was flexible yet sturdy. It was a preferred weapon of pirates from the Zaione archipelago.

"That's some fancy kit," Jasmine commented, noticing the Foundry mark branded at the base of the blade.

"Like it, it's the Viper's Pure Thorn." Mika declared

"No way," Jasmine exclaimed, momentarily distracted. Then, she was hit with a realization: where's the other scarecrow?

"You should really pay attention to your surroundings, blind spots'll be the death of ya." Seraz declared, appearing behind Jasmine, in her hands was a great cleaver, the blade was massive with a fine edge with a long curved handle.

With a wild grin, Seraz swung her massive blade, prompting Jasmine to evade, while firing an arrow at Mika. Seraz charged again and brought the blade down, but before it could land on Jasmine, there was a high pitched clang as it connected with another blade; Draxonn.

Ryan stood at Jasmine's back, his sword drawn to defend her, "Nice blade." He commented,

"Thanks. She's the Edgesplitter's Serenity. What about yours?"

"Draxonn."

Seraz retreated back to the side of her comrade.

"He came back; the boy must be more of a fool than we thought." Mika said

"Running away makes me a coward; coming back makes me a fool? There just isn't any pleasing you people is there?" Ryan huffed as Jasmine turned to him.

"Ryan, what are you doing here?" she demanded, "I told you to go with Mac."

"And if I'd listened you'd be up against two crazy swordswomen," Ryan said, "Mac is fine; she's waiting for us at the other end of the park, so let's hurry this up."

"So, Matthias Ryan Reins, that's an interesting sword, a mystic gear?" Seraz said, "So what can yours do?"

"Don't know," Ryan confessed, the confusion he felt not evident in his tone.

"Doesn't matter, I'll figure it out once I take it from you."

"Right… over my dead body!"

"If I must." Seraz said, with a smile on her face as she licked her lips.

"Seraz," Mika scolded, "We need him alive."

"But not in one piece," Seraz said back

Ryan stood beside Jasmine, "so, what's the plan," he asked,

"I'm working on it," Jasmine replied, "you take the crazy chick; the one in the owl mask is mine."

"Sure, leave me with the crazy one that can cut anything," Ryan muttered

"What was that, prodigy?"

"Nothing ma'am," Ryan grumbled

The two pairs stared at each other for a bit longer, daring the other to make the first move, then, all of a sudden, Seraz was right in front of them, her Edgesplitter raised.

"Let's see you take this!" she said as she brought it down onto Ryan, who brought up Draxonn to block, the two enchanted blades clashed and sent a metallic clang in the air as sparks fly from their collision.

Meanwhile, Jasmine had backed up, arrows drown and aimed at the still stationary Mika. Arrows flew at her at alarming speed, only to be brushed aside by a swipe of her blade. It seemed that every swipe of the blade, changed the trajectory of her shots.

"So, let us see how good you really are, Jasmine the White Fang." Mika said as she let out a series of slashes with her needler. Jasmine used her bow to parry the strikes, however it was much stronger than she had expected and had ended up damaging the top spring mechanism form her bow. Now unusable, Jasmine quickly put the bow away in its special pocket. 

"You would fight me unarmed?" Mika asks, amused

"You broke my bow," Jasmine accused, "I can't do much with my ranged advantage, so I guess I will have to continue this fight with CQC." Jasmine says as she pulls her wand from her belt, it looked like a combat knife with a golden gem embedded in the pommel.

"That's an interesting wand," Mika stated,

With a twirl, the golden gem glowed and a glyph appeared on the blade. "Personally, I don't really like using my wand, but I'll have to make a special exception for such an exceptional combatant."

Elsewhere, Ryan and Seraz were locked in an intense stalemate; Seraz was a master at wielding the massive cleaver she used, but Ryan was also gifted in bladed combat. Every attack Ryan made, she'd counter it with her Edgesplitter and vice-versa. Despite her smallish figure, she swung the massive blade with ease, each swing she made cut everything it touched cleanly in two.

"That's some sword you've got there." Ryan commented

"Yeah," Seraz grinned, "My Edgesplitter is a legendary mystic gear. It was designed to separate space itself; the ultimate bisector."

Ryan could tell that the cleaver had a near impossibly ultrafine edge, sharpened to such an insane degree that it could slice a sheet of paper width-wise. He recognized some of the characters that were etched onto the cleaver, they matched exactly like the engravings along Draxonn's blade, and every time the two blades clashed, the symbols reacted.

She lunged at him, swiping at him in wide arcs, but he countered every attack. Then, somehow she managed to knock Draxonn from Ryan's hand, leaving him defenseless. She swung her cleaver at him, but he blocked with his arms, luckily, he still had his virtually indestructible dragon leather jacket he got from his death god mom, but the momentum of the attack, sent him reeling back. When he got up, he was shocked to see a nick cut into the sleeves of his jacket, right where the cleaver had struck. It wasn't that deep of a scratch, but it was the first bit of damage he'd ever seen his jacket take since he got it.

He held out his hand and Draxonn flew into his open palm,

"Nice trick." Seraz said

"Here's another one." Ryan raised his other hand, clad in a skin-tight fingerless glove, a blue sigil glowed brightly in his open palm,

"Lightning type; Thunderbolt!"

Electricity gathered around his hand, then, he focused it into a finger gun and shot it at her in a single bolt.

Seraz was fast, she managed to bring her blade up to block, but when the bolt connected with her blade, she was electrocuted. She dropped to a knee, smoking, breathing deeply and using her cleaver as support.

"Lightning-type magik, huh?" She asked, "That's beyond rare; I knew you wouldn't be boring."

"Yeah," Ryan said, crackling with electricity, "Not a lot of info about this particular nature, makes it a bitch to research, but I still have this,"

A new glyph circle glowed around his blade,

"Flame type; Majestic Bloom!"

Electricity crackled along Draxonn's blade, turning into brilliant blue flames that curled around the black blade. He swung at Seraz, this time she dodged, jumping aside to avoid the burning slash, and stepping on a new glyph that lit up under her feet,

"Earth type; Quicksand Trap!"

"You set me up?" Seraz said as the ground beneath her feet was no longer solid. She sank quickly, with both her legs securely trapped before the ground became rigid once more.

 "You used that last attack as a diversion to lure me into this trap you set up beforehand. Impressive."

"Yep," Ryan said, "I played a lot of adventure games as a kid, learned the benefits of setting traps."

"Never took you for a nerd," she scoffed, "So you're a lightning user and a full elementalist? You are full of surprises." Seraz congratulated,

"I do try my best." he said with an exagerated bowing

"Hey, did you know that your father's famed quickstep technique is the most powerful and versatile variant of the instant transmission principle, one of the three foundational space-type magik casts?" she then asked, all of a sudden.

"Uh, yeah?"

"Well, I'm actually a huge fan of your father's work, and I even tried to copy his technique a bit." she admitted, "I can't pull off anything as complex as the quickstep, but I did achieve an inferior version I like to call the blink." she disappeared as she spoke, reappearing behind Ryan,

Before Ryan could react, she jabbed a syringe into his arm, but the needle broke against his jacket. As he recoiled from her instant appearance, on instinct, he slashed at her midriff with his sword, cutting her in two across her exposed abdomen. As she collapsed, Ryan noted the lack of horror or remorse for his actions, but quickly refocused when he saw green ooze seep from the wound, then she started to melt.

"What the hell?" Ryan said, as she flashed him a mocking grin before her face disintegrated, completely dissolved into green goo. "Ew!"

"You win this round," was the last thing he heard from the melting mass before it was just a puddle on the ground.

While this was going on, Jasmine was facing off against the one called Mika and her needler. The thin blade was glazed in a clear fluid that perpetually steamed in the air. Being a primarily ranged combatant, Jasmine was at a clear disadvantage in CQC against someone as exceptionally skilled as Mika, which left the White Fang covered in shallow cuts. Oddly enough, Mika didn't seem interested in landing a decisive blow and seemed to avoid her vitals, aiming to only inflict flesh wounds. More troubling was the fact that Jasmine found herself reacting slower with each cut, which only led to even more cuts.

"Disappointing. It seems that we are nearing the end of this little dance." Mika lamented, "Although I am impressed, you have lasted much longer than most of my opponents, which is most impressive, especially with my venom inside you."

Venom? What venom? Jasmine's mind flared.

"That fluid on the blade." she realized her fingers starting to feel numb, 

"My mystic gear is named Viper's Pure Thorn for a reason; its blade is made from the fang of a giant Sea Widow-maker and is coated in its toxin, a slow-acting venom. The more cuts I give you, the faster it spreads; a true death of a thousand cuts don't you think?" she revealed, "I estimate you have a few minutes before you succumb to the toxin and your heart stops." Mika then produces a small vial of cloudy liquid from her waist pouch, "this is a special antidote of my own design, should you entertain me more in the time you have left, it's yours."

Desperation burned in Jasmine's eyes. How long did she have left before death? She could already feel the numbness creeping into her muscles and bones. She shouldn't panic, panic increases the heart rate and would make the venom spread faster. She needed to control herself, but it was easier said than done when you were just told that you have only minutes left to live.

"So, shall we begin the final duel?" Mika said readying her blade,

Before either of them could make a move, a bolt of lightning hit Mika in the back, the surprise on her face mirrors the expression on Jasmine's.

"What?" Mika croaks,

But before anything else can be done, a glyph glows to life at her feet,

"Earth type; Ensnare!"

The ground shoots up in tendrils of dirt and stone, wrapping around Mika's body and restraining her.

Ryan walked towards Jasmine, Draxonn at the ready in case of trouble, "You alright?"

Jasmine pushes past him and stumbles towards the trapped scarecrow, she was already starting to hyperventilate. Soon that'll be it.

"D-dámelo." She demands, her forehead glistened with perspiration despite the frigid conditions.

"This wasn't the deal," Mika says, her voice aggravatingly calm

Jasmine glared at Ryan, her eyes burning with accusations; Why did you interfere?

"I couldn't take any chances with her." Ryan says, "her friend sort of… melted."

"Melted? You mean like this?" Mika asks as the exposed skin takes on a greenish tint and she herself starts to sag, with steam wafting into the air.

"Dammit," Ryan swore

"NO!" Jasmine screams, as she collapses, grasping at her chest

"Jasmine!" Ryan yelps as he rushes to her side, "What's wrong?"

"She's been poisoned," gurgles the voice of the melting mass of flesh, "she only has minutes left before her heart stops."

"What?" Ryan cries in alarm, he rolls her to her side and instantly goes for the first-aid pouch at the back of her belt, rummaging for some sort of anti-venom.

"That won't work," the melting enemy taunts,

"Shut up, you'll be a puddle in a few seconds, what do you know?" Ryan snapped at her.

"Sh-she has the antidote." Jasmine whispers, pointing to the Mika who is still holding the vial in her melting hand

"Oh this? This isn't an antidote," Mika reveals,

Jasmine's eyes widen, "B-but you said…"

"I was lying," Mika's melting form gargled. Jasmine could still hear the smile in her voice. "I wanted to see how desperately you'd fight to get this 'cure'."

"You bitch," Ryan hissed

"Please tell her I had fun being her final opponent and that—" she doesn't get to finish as her head completely disintegrates, the rest of her form following immediately after, leaving a steaming green sludge.

Ryan turns back to Jasmine, her pulse is weak, and she is barely breathing.

"C'mon Jasmine. Don't die on me now." Ryan screams at her.

He opens up her shirt and the under-armor, exposing her pale chest, which is quivering slightly. He begins to administer CPR to no avail.

"Is she okay?" a voice calls from behind Ryan.

He turns around to see Mac standing there,

"She's not breathing," he replies, panicked, "she's been poisoned."

"I can help," Mac says as she kneels down next to Ryan, inspecting Jasmine

"What do you—?" Ryan asked, just as Mac pulls out a small switchblade and runs it across her palm. Before Ryan can react to this, Mac holds out her injured hand and squeezes it tight, forcing her blood to drip down onto Jasmine.

The few drops that fall land on a cut near her neck, and the droplets force their way inside the wound, a few seconds later, the cut starts to close.

Mac opens her hand to reveal a bloody palm with no wound, she then places her hands onto Jasmine's chest and closes her eyes in concentration.

"Please work." Ryan hears Mac whisper to herself. A moment passes and nothing happens, then suddenly, Jasmine jolts upright, coughing and gasping for air, her eyes wide open.

"Oh thank god," Ryan heaves a sigh of relief, as Mac slouches onto him, physically drained by whatever she just did. 

"W-what happened?" Jasmine demands as she zips up her under-armor, a slight blush on her face. All over her body, the shallow cuts have started closing on their own.

"Mac healed you somehow." Ryan reported

"Really?" Jasmine asked

Mac just nodded, "you were technically dead for a good few seconds there, but I was just barely able to jump-start you with my mojo."

"T-thanks." she said, nodding in appreciation.

"Don't mention it," Mac said, she then whispers to Ryan, "seriously; please don't tell anyone what I did,"

Ryan looks at her and nods, he then helps Jasmine up, "you feeling alright now?"

"No, idiota. I basically just went into cardiac arrest." She scowls, "I'm pissed."

She looks at her hand, which is trembling noticeable, she still isn't back to full strength yet.

"Never mind that," she says as she reaches into her belt and pulls an empty vial, "we need to get that analyzed." She gestures to the pile of goo that was her opponent.

Ryan helps her collect a sample of the goo in the vial and hands it back to her.

"Alright," Ryan said, "now, let's go."

With Ryan supporting Jasmine, they made their way to the other end of the park.

"So are we getting out of here or what?" Mac inquired.

Jasmine checked her watch and cursed, "I didn't realize it was already so late. The portals have probably already shut down by now."

"They do that?" Ryan asked with raised eyebrows

"Yeah," Jasmine said, "This time of the annual cycle is a very volatile time, magikally speaking. Circumstances are all over the place, which doesn't affect us magi much, but jacks up a lot of magikal stuff, including warp gates. Conventional portals and such become inactive, today was their last usable day for the rest of the year. We would've made it if we weren't held back."

"And now we're stranded," Mac said, "So we have no way of getting to ARGUS?"

"Not unless you have enough money for a greyhound to Oregon." Jasmine huffs looking around as the evening glow dominated the sky.

Ryan's eyes lit up, "I think I have a way," he rummaged through his backpack and pulled out a folded piece of parchment, he unfolded it, and looking the map scrawled on it, "Yes, there's one nearby."

"One what?" Jasmine asked, but Ryan had already gotten his backpack and taken off, "Ryan, wait!"

"Where's he going?" Mac asked as she now has to support Jasmine when they follow after him.

He ran into a nearby mall and disappeared. When Jasmine and Mac got there, he was lost in the crowd.

"That idiot," Jasmine hissed

"How are we going to find him now?" Mac asked

Jasmine, of course, had a way to find him, but what gave her pause was how much it would hurt. She steadied her breathing and focused the magik in her eyes. Trackers like her had learned how to enhance their senses by focusing their magik, it was an effective technique when hunting. The problem was that she was so sensitive to auras that whenever she focused magik through her eyes, her sight got weird… and it had only gotten worse since the summer.

In such a crowded place, her ears and nose would be near useless, so she had no other choice.

She felt the sensation in her eyes as her vision started to warp, she could see everything, the different layers that made up existence before her were all jumbled together in a kaleidoscope of activity. She could feel the strain at the back of her eyes as she tried to focus on only the top layer. First, she could see through clothes, then through skin, all the way to the bone, then she saw the internal flow of energy inside every object. The discomfort brought on by the strain was nearly unbearable, but she then spotted a uniquely high energy flow, the flow of Ryan's magik web.

[Ryan here, wanted to give some info. A magik web is like the circulatory system of magik energy, everyone has one, but the webs for humans and necreans are different from that of a magus. The web threads represent passageways of magik energy within the body and where most threads meet up is called the cluster, the largest cluster is known as a source, and is the source of magik production in the body, it is located in the abdomen, that is to say… your guts.]

Jasmine shut her eyes to keep out the visual stimuli and rubbed her temples to ease the massive migraine she just got. She dreaded these migraines, they wouldn't leave for hours.

"Jasmine, you okay?" Mac asked

"Nothing, forget it," Jasmine said, "he's up there, first floor, right in front of us."

"A candy store?" Mac said

"Lo voy a matar un día de estos." Jasmine growled to herself as they both made their way up the escalator to the first floor, just as Ryan was stepping out of a store called CANDY LAND with a bag in his hand.

"What the hell are you doing?" Mac asked

"Oh, they were selling these sour marshmallow bombs. I used to love them back in California and I haven't seen them since, so I took a little detour, I bought like twenty packs."

"Are you finished?" Jasmine asked with raised eyebrow

"Yesh." Ryan said, after stuffing a handful of round marshmallows into his mouth, "Anywhay, i'sh righ hish whay."

Ryan led them down a corridor to the girl's bathroom.

"You can't go in there." Mac said as Ryan went to open the door,

"Why not?" Ryan asked, pointing at the out of order sign pasted on it, "It's closed, see? No one goes in here."

"Still, a boy in the girls' bathroom…" Jasmine said

Ryan sighed, "Look, do you want to get to sanctum or not?"

The girls looked at each other, then, went in with Ryan.

The bathroom had definitely been unused for a long time; dust coated the top of the sink counters, cobwebs clung to the ceiling at the corners of the walls. The bathroom was silent except for the constant dripping of water.

Ryan led them to the back of the room, to the last stall.

"Ryan what are you doing?" Jasmine asked as he pulled out his wand from his inner jacket pocket and pointed it at the stall door.

"Just watch." He said as his wand hummed to life.

With his wand he revealed a shimmering symbol etched onto the door. He then placed his hand on the door and spoke to himself.

"Door to anywhere; to everywhere; and to nowhere." Ryan chanted, "Open and grant me passage."

The door then started to transform, until it was a large solid oak gray door with glowing glyphs along the frame. Ryan opened the door to a corridor of darkness that echoed the loud groans of the creaking door.

"Ryan, what is this?" Jasmine asked flabbergasted, 

He had a huge grin on his face, "Wow, I can't believe it worked!" he turned to the stunned girls, "It's called the 'Back Door', it's some sort of outside space that you can use to move around. I found a book about it in the library, also came with this map. Supposedly, this corridor will lead us to anywhere in the world we need to go."

"Supposedly?" Mac asked

"Yeah, they were highly unpredictable, and unreliable. No one's used them in centuries since we developed portal travel." Jasmine said back, as Ryan started down the corridor of darkness,

"It'll be fine guys," Ryan said, "trust me," 

"I swear Ryan, if you get us lost, I will make you suffer." Jasmine growled

They walked in darkness for what seemed like forever, before they saw another door with the glowing word EXIT hovering over it.

"See, there's the exit." Ryan said as he ran for it and barged out the door.

Fortunately, the exit door did deposit them within the sanctum, however, it was in the girls changing room of the arena, and a class had just finished.

After enduring a lot screaming girls throwing whatever was in hand at him –which included underwear— and explaining to the instructor why he suddenly appeared out of a locker, Ryan walked out with only a few dirty looks. After they walked out of the arena, he diverted from Jasmine and Mac who were going for the main plaza and went towards the residential district.

"Ryan, aren't you coming with us?" Mac asked

"I sat in the freezing cold for a while, I had to battle with a psycho chick, and when I got back home, I was assaulted with bras and hair brushes, I just want to lie down for a bit," Ryan said, "besides, I've got some errands of my own to take care of."

"Don't get into any more trouble," Jasmine said, as Ryan walked off, waving without turning back.

"Is he alright?" Mac asked as he disappeared from view,

"Who knows," Jasmine shrugged, "Let's go meet the Keeper."