“I wouldn’t have known if you hadn’t told me.” One could only begin to imagine just how much steel had gone into the crafting of the weapon, even without knowing that the sword had been a dagger in its past life. Dawn’s attention lingered on it a moment longer, but was swiftly redirected upon Amity’s response to her question.

Pain. You didn’t need any more details than that to know that whatever had happened had carved deep. Dawn’s eyes softened, and she followed Amity’s gaze over to the dummy for a moment. “I, ah. I understand. I’m sorry to hear that.” It was an unfortunate truth in a world of giants and wargs that losses happened. Often. Of course, that hardly lightened the blow.

Thankfully, the topic didn’t linger, trundling instead along on to the subject of weapons. Dawn let out a quick burst of air from her nose, the corner of her lip perking upwards in spite of herself, before giving Makorai a quick nod. “Much appreciated. I’m sure both of us will do our best to make sure you don’t get eaten by an Eater anytime soon.” She paused, then added, “And that’s a, ah, a good suggestion, but I think it might be a bit too much of a mouthful.” 

She slung her purse further down her arm, unzipped it, and drew a gleaming pistol from its gullet. “It’s not much,” Dawn admitted, “but I like to think I’m a good shot with it, at least.” Back into the folds the gun went, back up went the purse. “And, ah, there’s my Rune of course, but it’s not a directly offensive one.”

Compared to her teammates, Dawn felt...somewhat unprepared, actually. Amity and Makorai both seemed to be well-experienced in fighting off their fair share of World Eaters. She had dealt with a few of the smaller ones in her line from work from time to time, and, once, outside of it, but nothing on the scale that her team had. It was good that they were going to be training to deal with some of the stronger ones before actually being sent out onto the field...

...Or not, it seemed.

It was terrible, terrible luck, but there was no choice of not going. She gave Makorai a brisk nod before following the others to the truck. She took whatever seat was available, jaw set, hand running alongside the cool metal within her purse. 

It was a trial by fire. Hundreds, if not thousands, of lives were at stake. 

[hr]

Madison had rushed to the truck almost as soon as the announcement had hit his ears, leaving a scattering of papers and folders and half-filled ink cartridges in his wake. The odds of a breach while all their teams were out, and the only ones left were the mostly-rookie runes, had been poor at best. But it was happening, and the overhead alarm was screaming, and he met Clifton’s long glance with a worried one of his own. They weren’t ready. Some of them were, but certainly not all of them. 

Mitch’s voice in his ear gave little in the ways of reassurance. 

“I-” Madison made a strained sound in the back of his throat. “Are you sure? We can’t-” He looked over his shoulder at the passengers for a moment, then back to the road, brow furrowed deeply. They had to go. They [i]had[/i] to go, to help those affected by the breach before the Jotun did enough damage to put even more lives at risk, but some of the newcomers had little to no prior combat experience. They had their powers, yes, but they hadn’t yet been taught how to work as a team, let alone fight as one. 

He frowned to himself, but nonetheless waited for all the Runes to board and close the door before pulling out of the driveway and pushing the truck further towards its destination. 

“Good luck, everyone.” Madison said. “And please, stay safe out there.”