I awaken with a start in an unfamiliar cot.
Oh yeah, I'm at the council building, in the spare office. I should have set my hammock up outside, this cot is lumpy and awful.
Everyone is beginning to gather, the council is holding a big group breakfast today, with a powwow and rodeo tomorrow to celebrate our impending clear of portals and threats from the land.
Plate in hand I wander, greeting anyone who wishes to talk and listening to their concerns about particular areas. I'm marking them on the map as we go, and I'm going to visit as many as possible myself, to be sure with my enhanced senses that nothing is hiding.
I'm not part of an official pair, so I'm free to float around the line, in case of attack, portal find or difficulties. This could be fun, but it's shaping up to be a lot of work.
Breakfast done, we're set up along the 30 miles flat gravel road the marks the western edge of our grid. A fine collection of pickup trucks and ATVs litter the road, as this is part of the wide open plains we're intending to traverse on wheels to save time. We're not speeding along really, though at 10mph, it's faster than being on foot.
2 hours later, nothing more than sporadic gunfire has sounded, and no reports of portals have been made.
A third of the distance needed has been covered, a full 20 miles, but now the rolling hills are turning into sharper badlands. Hard to traverse even on foot.
We've got more volunteers than needed today, everyone who wished to earn the title of tribal warrior insisted on coming along, so we send teams of 4 on horses to scout the coulees in advance, looking for anything that might trip up the teams.
Another hour passes before our first portal is sighted. Luck is still on my side, it's barely a mile from where I am. Inside seems to be a huge cavern, making creepy noises, but with no visible occupant.
Best to be safe I think.
Karl gave me 4 arcane grenades. They'll close small, unstable portals by brute force, destabilizing them with an explosion. I toss one inside and hear howling and inhuman cursing in a tongue I don't understand as the portal closes.
Good Going ME! Creepy things in the dark deserve to stay there.
I can hear more sporadic gunfire, a burst of shots every minute or two now. It seems we've found targets that don't belong in the badlands. Radio reports say no casualties so far, and no gaps are reported now that we're getting back out onto flatter land. That's a great start.
Much chatter off the radio is about how everyone's stamina seems improved today. The men are so proud to be protecting their land in an active way that they're almost at a jog down the entire line. Hopefully they don't wear themselves out.
That in mind, I call a 15 minute break to ensure the line is in order. Everyone is to check that the groups beside them are the same groups that were beside them when we exited the trucks, then grab a drink and quick food before we set off again.
Not long after we start moving again, the coulee exploration teams start a panicked shout about something huge and evil coming south down my way. Sprinting in their direction, I round a bend in the coulee and come face to face with a dark grey skinned troll. Nearly 15 feet tall and carrying a large axe that seems to be dripping shadows, I can't help but feel that their description was entirely too accurate.
It doesn't waste any time and chops down at me, rending the ground apart for a dozen meters past the axe head with its strike as I dodge.
Saber out I hop to the rock wall behind the beast and go for the kill to neck, but the beast is fast, knocking aside my strike and leaving me to fly through the air. Twisting to land on my feet, I try to parry the next strike, sword enhanced with energy.
The force is tremendous and I'm knocked to one knee. The troll is off balance from the deflection and I launch forward, carving a large gash into the side of its thigh and hip.
This height difference is brutal.
A team has arrived on scene and are firing rifles from their truck at the Troll. It's getting mad, but most hits aren't even drawing blood on the beast.
"Aim for the crotch and eyes" I shout over the radio and I can hear the obvious disapproval for my underhanded tactics in response. They do as I asked though, and a flurry of shots rains in, making the Troll dance and close its eyes.
One shot is much deeper in tone than the others and the Troll lets out an agonized roar, blood pouring down its face from a wound just under its eye. A second shot rings out and hits its mark, causing the Troll to drop the axe and cover its face with both hands.
This is my chance. I leap up on a nearby rock formation and swing my saber hard at the side of its leathery neck, digging deep and causing a fountain of blood before the Troll collapses to the ground, lifeless.
"We need to know where this thing came from. Most rifles weren't even injuring it and we'll be in trouble if a group of them gets into the lines."
"Do not worry, little one. We have many skilled trackers" a voice responds over the radio.
Why must everyone pick on my height? Little Lycan this, little that. I'm not that small.
One young man, and one man in his later middle years that appears to be the youth's father hop off their horses near me. "We're the best trackers around miss. Do you want to follow us?"
Oh yeah, they've never actually interacted with a Lycan before. I can likely do the job better than any human.
But as a gesture of respect, I motion for them to lead the way. They're surprisingly good, pointing out tracks, broken branches and scrapes on the rocks that mark the passage of the Troll. Some of which I'd have missed, relying too much on my enhanced sense of smell to track its trail.
The clearance line carries on at a more subdued pace, not wanting to overtake the trackers and accidentally run into something nearly bullet proof and as tall as a house.
Reports of smaller mythical creatures are increasing, mostly goblins and a few small trolls the size of a fat human. We're past the halfway mark of our grid pattern and still we haven't found the portal these things are coming from.
Then I feel a disturbance in the energy ahead, it's behind a rock formation, so it's not visible yet, but it's not more than 50 meters away. I gesture to the trackers to take caution and where I sense the danger, so they spread out to the sides, not wanting to get ambushed.
The trail clearly leads behind the formation, and a number of smaller footprints are visible on the dusty ground. I think we've found our portal.
Now that I'm not taken by surprise at close range, I pull the shotgun from over my shoulder and check the attached drum. Yup, enchanted penetrating slugs.
"What's that shotgun? I can feel something strange about it." The older tracker asks.
"The shotgun itself is nothing special, just a plain old 12 gauge, like many police forces use. Picked because it will accept the drum. But the ammunition is enchanted by the Mage Corps. That's likely what you feel."
The tracker looks it over and nods. "Good Gun"
I step wide around the corner and find a large troll crawling out of the undersized for its body portal. What a perfect chance to buy some time.
I wait until the beast is halfway out, its legs still on the other size and bulbous backside blocking most of the way before blasting a shot into its skull. Angry roars sound from the other side and goblins start pouring out, being the largest creature that will conveniently fit through the remaining opening.
I can't close this one with a grenade yet, it's too stable. Fortunately, the locals know a trick. If you can bury the portal for a few minutes or hours, it will usually destabilize and close itself.
I keep the goblins from exiting the portal while the trackers call for someone to bring explosives. We're right next to a rock formation, which they intend to collapse onto the portal, sealing it shut and stopping anything more from exiting.
To say that it's a resounding success is an understatement. 15 minutes later when I feel the portal destabilize and close under the rock my ears are still ringing.
As Karl would say, no kill like overkill.
The line has moved well past us now and reports they're mostly back onto level ground, so we call a second break and have the groups sound off physical condition.
Most groups report much better than expected stamina remaining, and everyone is confident to carry on at the very least by the time we finish our break.
The rest of the way is open farmland, easy walking and the line is starting to pick up speed towards their earlier almost jogging pace as the goblin and beast sightings all but vanish and the maps show us reaching the edge of our patrol zone.
One mile out, I see someone waving at me from the road bordering our grid zone.
Someone in army greens. It's Juan Ramirez.
It seems this whole area was of concern, so he was assigned the grid next to mine, and had a similar idea to my original plan of sending trucks down all the roads to scout, then hitting us anywhere that something big might hide.
I warn him of the goblin threat, since it's only 10 miles or so since we saw our last one, so there might be some in his pattern, and he confirms that a few plus a troll had started scouting into the area. He tracked them directly back to our grid, and his guys were looking for any more signs that something might have crossed the road.
We've made exceptionally good time, the sun is still up. 2 portals found and closed, the trick to which I relay to Juan, in case his team needs it, and over a hundred confirmed monster kills.