Chapter 43: Forty-One

The orange glow of the morning came along with a new day. Rose sat at the helm of the dune-buggy and Elsa jumped in.

"There we go." She relaxed into the passenger seat. "Damn, you've really got a nice ride here."

"You said that before."

"And I said it again."

Rose could only blink her eyes at the girl, who dressed about the same as when she first met her. A red jacket parted to reveal a low, black-top underneath that gave away her abs. Jean shorts preceded thigh length stockings which fell into black, leather, combat boots. Then there was the brass metal gloves on her hands and the satchel at her waist.

"Do you. . .need my pistol?" She asked with uncertainty, wondering if her friend had any equipment worthwhile on hand. 'She can't be thinking of punching everything that came her way, could she?'

On the other hand, Elsa was utterly puzzled by that notion. "Huh? Why the heck would I want that?"

"Why would you not? Where's your weapons?"

"Twin armaments, duh. The left glove boosts my awareness within a meter, the right adds some power to my physical attack." Elsa raised her fists, and then patted her satchel. "And I've got mana bombs in here."

To her, it seemed simple enough. The more armaments you wielded, the more chance there was for them to malfunction or disrupt each other, especially so for the lower-grade ones like her gloves or the ones that brought about an effect outside of the equipment itself. If that were not the case, if no one feared having mana explode in their faces, everyone would simply shit their money out and hide behind a crap ton of weapons. Fights could simply be decided by whoever had the most bullcrap on them. That being the case, however, the standard was 2 or 3 armaments, maybe 4 or 5 if you had a bloat load of money for those crafted by Master Mages and up.

Rose understood that but still raised a brow. "What about protection?"

"That sounds. . .so wrong."

"Get your mind out of the gutter, Elsa," Rose sighed, suddenly questioning her friendship with the girl.

Elsa laughed. "I'll just dodge! I'll just dodge! Besides, my jacket isn't just for looks, ya'know? It can resist blades."

Rose frowned and the girl laughed. She wasn't satisfied by that answer, however, unhooking the emblem on her chest and giving it to the girl. She could heal with Mana Channeling revitalizing and energizing her cells, but she severely doubted Elsa had the same ability.

"Take this, at least."

"You—fine fine, I will but it better not explode in my face. Thank you, mom."

"I am not your mother."

". . .you're kinda amazing sometimes."

The motor left Elsa's house and advanced along the path they had set. They maneuvered through winding streets, areas both of them had hardly ever crossed before. At this time, the farther away from the zones the map had highlighted, the more people they saw walking about and trying their best to ignore whatever the Slum Lords were up to. Yet, as the dune-buggy crawled behind a wall and stopped, there wasn't any sign of people.

"Gosh," Elsa mouthed, "They really fucking did a number here."

The place was in ruins. The shacks had not been solid in the first place, but wood, metal and rubble was strewn about the street that had been artificially widened with the power of weapons. It was like a couple mana bombs had been detonated around the area; there were still traces of blood on the cobblestoned road—the areas of it that hadn't been shattered at least.

"Ya sure your house is still standing?"

"Dunno." Rose could only shrug, she hoped it still stood, or they would have wasted their time. "Why don't you check it with the scouter?"

"Alright." Her companion nodded, digging into her satchel before pulling out a familiar smooth, metallic, sphere with a mana orb embedded into it.

She tapped the 'eye' thrice, it blinked, and she released her hand as it hovered into the air with Rose's gaze following it.

"Did you build it yourself?" The homunculus asked.

"Course. It uses a regular video feed software I downloaded online along with the levitation mechanic that those fancy city motors use, basically controlling the mana in the air to pull on it, but—well—at a smaller scale. I'm not that great at these stuff so it's unstable and can only fly for three minutes at best, anymore and it will be ripped apart," Elsa said, a hint of pride in her expression,

"Might have drawn the shitty lot in life, but I can make do till I enter an Academy," She said, ending with, "I call it One Eye"

"That's an odd name. . .but it fits."

"Right?"

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The pad of the girl blinked up as she controlled One Eye through the interface. It took some time, but soon, an aerial view of what laid ahead displayed before them.

The street had been similarly widened with crushed houses, irrespective of those that once lived there. The feed started with a man yelling at the top of his lungs, he stood between two barriers with tears in his eyes as he clutched the body of a young boy in his arms. At that moment, both sides of the conflict had stopped.

Closest to them was a caravan of black, at the other extreme were people they thought as soldiers, but these men did not wear uniform clothing; though, paradoxically, their disordered chaos only seemed to make them look more like a cohesive group. The roads were blockaded by each team, they were at a stalemate, bodies littered the crushed floor, and neither of them wanted to be the first to fire the turret upon their vehicles once more.

"It looks ridiculous," Rose gave voice to her thoughts, not understanding much in the least.

Else nodded. "Right? It's like the last war. No one here is exactly a military genius and most battles were won by the side that had the bigger guns or the stronger men. It's probably the same, even now."

The fighting style of the slums was a crude one, indeed. Rose checked her own map, realizing there were far more stagnant conflicts than active conflicts in this so-called war. As she looked at the wreckage of buildings around her, she thought the slummers had already lost far more than the Slum Lords would.

"This won't stop until one of them gives up or they call a truce." Elsa furrowed her brows. "The last war had just been each lord defending their economic zones while letting the rest of the slums come to ruin. You know the slums used to be full of shitty, but normal looking houses? Now, 6 years later, and half of it is the fucking shacks."

The feed turned to a couple houses to the left.

"Is that it?"

"Yup. . ."

"Damn."

Her shack was still standing, barely. Half of it was lost and exposed together with the rubbles of the surroundings, the other half looked as if it might just be blown away with the wind. Still, the workshop area was in the half, she might not be able to salvage her tea, but her cores should still be within the bin.

The One Eye flew back and landed onto Elsa's palm. There were cracks upon the metal surface as the girl pocketed it back into her satchel. Clearly, the technique she used to make it levitate was not the best. She was only a Scholar level mage at best, someone who had just begun treading the path.

"I'll need to give it a new shell later. Are we going now?"

"Better time than any. We'll go through the back."

The dune-buggy advanced, passing leftward and away from the stagnant conflict. It moved slowly, the sound of its wheels barely seeping into the air. In due time, they packed it behind another wall and hopped down from it, proceeding, this time, on foot.

Being sneaky wasn't their forte, but that needn't matter when the alternative was stirring fire towards them. They reached the back of the house, a shattered street away from view, and Rose summoned her weapon as she sliced out a door in the wood.

Elsa, on the other hand, poked her shoulder and pointed.

"Holy shit, a sand storm is coming."

Rose turned and saw, far off in the distance, the desert sands were blowing in the wind with a rage that reminded her of the time her car flipped over and dust covered the slums.

"Let's hurry."

It was naturally easy to find and grab her own stuff in her own home—even if half of it was missing. They came out of the house in minutes with 6 mana orbs, two changes of clothes, and a half finished pack of Rose Tea in hand which had happened to survive and been blown to the useful half. The sandstorm in the distance appeared larger and closer than before.

As Elsa stepped out of the hole, she commented quite readily. "That was easy."

Rose felt a sudden spike in mana as the sound of ticking reached her ears.

"What's that sound?" She asked.

A clunk hit the floor and a metallic ball rolled towards them, bouncing.

"?"

"Fuck, that's a—"

An explosion rippled.