Monday morning, Felix stood in front of his apartment mirror, adjusting the collar of his combat uniform. He checked himself, then checked the clock.
"Back to work."
The weekend had gone by too fast. Friday and Saturday had been spent recovering from Thursday’s disaster of a day off; Sunday had been genuinely peaceful.
And now it was Monday again, which meant rifts, monsters, blood, and his favorite part of the entire week.
Felix smiled. "Finally."
Whatever else the week threw at him, he was a combat hero at heart. The rehabilitation program had turned him into some kind of experimental therapist on the side, but today he was just a hero, and he intended to enjoy it.
The meeting area outside Valemont’s rift deployment center was already crowded when Felix arrived.
His team stood clustered around Aria Frost, who was holding up a holographic map of the rift.
She was twenty-nine, S-rank, Tier 2, her Ice affinity refined all the way to Ultra III, a proficiency tier above almost everyone else here and possessed a quality that kept fifteen people from turning every mission into chaos.
Beside her stood Darius, the team’s other S-rank, a man who spoke only when he had something worth saying.
The rest had already assembled. Kael leaned against a wall, arms crossed, eyes half-shut, looking like he’d been dragged out of bed by his ankles.
Lena stood a few feet off, already glaring at him. Ryan and the other B-ranks listened attentively nearby, while Mira and Orion talked quietly off to the side.
Felix walked over. "Morning."
A few people answered. Kael just raised a hand. "Morning."
Lena elbowed him. "Stand properly."
"Never change, Kael," Felix said.
"Why would I? I’m already perfect."
"You’re lazy," Lena said.
"Part of my charm."
Aria cleared her throat, and the chatter died.
A holographic image expanded in front of her and a large circular rift shimmering pale blue.
"Today’s gate was detected about three hours ago. Estimated environment is mountainous, moderate monster density." The projection shifted, readings scrolling past. "Mana concentration’s at the lower end of S-rank."
"Lower than the last one," Felix said.
"Significantly. That gate ran high for its class. This one doesn’t."
Kael raised a hand. "Can we take the day off?"
"No."
"Terrible leadership," Kael sighed, and Lena smacked the back of his head.
"Listen to the briefing."
"I am listening."
Aria ignored both of them. "Monster numbers should be moderate. No signs of an abnormal boss mutation."
"Elemental conditions?" Ryan asked.
"Unknown."
The B-rankers nodded attentively, taking in every detail. After a few more minutes, Aria finally concluded the briefing.
Mira glanced over. "How was your weekend, Felix?"
"Peaceful."
"I heard you’re part of the rehabilitation program now," Orin said.
Felix’s smile vanished. "Don’t remind me."
Kael perked up immediately, pushing off the wall. "Right, the therapist."
"So how’d your first patient go?" Kael grinned.
Felix stared at him. "Do you want to fight?"
Kael stepped back quickly.
Lena hid a laugh behind her hand. Darius, arms folded, looked over. "It officially starts Thursday?"
"Yes," Aria said.
"You’re famous," Mira said.
"Now you’ll be the Mad Therapist," Orion said, grinning.
Felix pointed at him. "That name better not catch on."
Darius’s grin widened slowly, in a way Felix immediately distrusted. "So. Why’d you actually agree to it?"
"Good incentives."
"That’s it?"
"Yes."
Darius leaned in. "You’re not smitten with a murderer, are you?"
The team went dead silent for exactly one second before Kael burst out laughing, Lena covered her mouth, and even Orion couldn’t hold it together.
Felix’s expression went perfectly blank. "Darius."
"Yes?"
"I’m going to heal you."
"He’s going to heal you until you stop breathing," Kael wheezed, and Felix cracked his knuckles while Darius raised both hands in surrender.
"Enough," Aria said, and the laughter finally wound down. She looked at Felix. "Ignore them."
"I’ve been trying."
Darius gave him a friendly clap on the shoulder. "We’re only joking."
"I know," Felix said, smiling. "That’s why you’re still alive."
"He’s definitely the Mad Healer," Kael whispered to Lena.
Aria shut down the display. "Enough entertainment. Time to move."
Weapons checked, armor secured, mana reserves inspected, comms synced, a few minutes later the team boarded the deployment transport, and Felix settled back.
The gate sat in a restricted zone several kilometers outside the city, a swirling wall of pale blue energy. Aria stepped forward.
"Formation." S-ranks at the front, A-ranks behind, B-ranks in the center. She looked them over once. "Stay alert. Move."
They stepped through, and the world changed instantly, cold first, then snow, his boots sinking into several centimeters of ice.
Mountains stretched to the horizon. Frozen forests filled the valleys. Glaciers rose like walls, and snow fell steadily from a flat gray sky.
Kael stepped through behind him, took one look around, and stared down at his own hands in horror. "No."
"What’s wrong?" Felix asked.
"Tell me this isn’t what I think it is."
"You have fire affinity," Aria said, not quite hiding a smile.
"Exactly."
"And this place is made of ice."
"Why does the universe hate me?" Kael asked the sky.
"Stop complaining," Lena said.
"You realize what this means. I’m going to have to actually work. More than everyone else."
"Yes."
"That’s disgusting."
Felix laughed. Kael’s fire was usually one of the team’s biggest assets, but cold suppressed heat, ice monsters shrugged off flame, and keeping large fires burning here would eat through his mana fast. For once, laziness wasn’t going to be an option.
Aria raised a hand, and the team went quiet. "Target’s somewhere beyond those peaks."
A deep roar rolled down from the distant cliffs, shaking loose a curtain of snow. Ryan tightened his grip on his weapon.
"Good," Felix said, grinning.
"You scare me sometimes."
The first day was constant fighting, ice wolves, frozen ogres, crystal-winged things, serpents buried under the snow.
The monsters themselves were weaker than the last gate’s, but the terrain made up the difference: visibility poor, movement slow, cold bleeding stamina out of everyone by the hour.
Kael suffered worst of all, complaining every time they stopped and complaining harder every time Aria sent him to burn a path through a monster pack.
"Do you know how much mana this is costing me?"
"Less than listening to you complain," Lena said, without looking at him.
Felix laughed more than once, but the second real fighting started, the whole team snapped into something close to a single organism.
Aria read the battlefield, Darius broke enemy formations, the A-ranks cut down anything dangerous, the B-ranks mopped up the rest, and Felix went everywhere: fighting, healing, reinforcing, moving between front and rear lines without ever quite stopping.
By the end of the day the monster cores had piled up nicely.
The boss still hadn’t shown itself.
The second day was worse. The deeper they pushed, the stronger everything got, until they finally broke into a massive frozen valley with an ice fortress standing at its center.
Aria stopped. "That’s it."
The boss came out of the fortress, a wolf-shaped mountain of blue-white armor nearly ten meters tall, two enormous horns curling back from its skull, eyes glowing the same pale blue as the ice around it.
The mana pressure coming off it confirmed what everyone already suspected: S-rank.
Kael cracked his knuckles. "Finally. I’ve been waiting."
Aria raised her sword. "Attack."
The valley erupted: ice, fire, cracking earth, lightning, steel against frozen armor. The creature howled and swung a claw that Felix twisted under, kicking off the ground with mana coating his blade to open a line across its throat.
Darius struck from the side; Aria froze its legs in place; Kael’s fire rolled over it in waves; the rest followed in a storm that lasted several minutes before the monster finally went down.
Silence. Felix stood over it, uniform torn, blood on his sleeve.
Kael dropped straight into the snow. "I’m never complaining about a normal environment again."
Aria looked at the body. "Boss confirmed dead." The rift had already begun destabilizing around them. Mission complete.
Wednesday morning, the team stepped back out into daylight. Felix stretched the moment his boots hit solid, un-frozen ground. "Home."
Kael dropped his gear on the pavement. "I’m sleeping for twenty hours."
Mira laughed. Orion checked his comm. "Everyone’s free until the next call, then?"
"For now," Aria said.
Darius glanced at Felix. "Except our resident therapist."
Felix groaned. "Please don’t start."
Kael walked over, suddenly, unusually serious, and put a hand on his shoulder: one slow pat, then a second, then a third.
"What are you doing?" Felix asked.
"I genuinely couldn’t do what you’re about to do on my rest day." Kael pulled his hand back. "Good luck."
"You’re pathetic."
"I know. Still — good luck."
The rest chimed in on the way out. "Good luck, Felix."
"Don’t let them kill you."
"Don’t become the patient’s patient." Mira smiled.
"All of you are terrible," Felix said, shaking his head.
Aria gave him a small, genuine smile. "Take care."
"You too."
One by one they scattered, and Felix stood there for a moment, watching them go.
Then he sighed. Thursday was next.
He rubbed his forehead. "Why did I agree to this?"
Then he remembered the pay bump. "Right. Money."
And with that, the Mad Healer finally headed home.