Chapter 7 – In the Field

Hours later the two teams found themselves trekking through empty streets in the mid day heat. Luckily, they had all been at this long enough to know how to travel light. Each person had a primary weapon, a secondary weapon, and their travel rations. If it weren't for the cloaks on their backs, they might not even be breaking a sweat.

Cloaks, other than as a nifty fashion statement, they doubled as amazing protection from the cold. In a pinch you could use them as quick cover if you managed the break line of sight from an attacking rampant. The sub human creatures may be a bit quicker or stronger than your average person, but they were as dumb most times as a sack of rocks. That still didn't make the back gear comfortable to wear with the sun beating down on you.

“I'm sweating my balls off.” Pirah announced to the group before continuing on to finish with, “and I didn't have any to begin with, which makes it all the more impressive if you think about it.”

Glen and Douglas, being used to this kind of thing, were not phased in the slightest. The rest of their makeshift party however... Bryan and Miles stood agog, unable to reconcile Pirah’s beauty with the foul mouth heathen in front of them. Jordan let out a little chuckle. The only person that didn't seem pleased was Liz.

“There is a time and place Pirah. Here in the field is not the time for joking.” Liz used a disciplinary tone to admonish her junior scout.

“Oh, lighten up Cap, you know they just let anyone join up that can pass training these days.” Jordan added in to the conversation.

“Does it look like I'm playing to you? I didn't cut my time off short just to have something happen because my little brother can't keep his people in line.”

There was a hushed silence that fell over the group. Glen wasn’t sure what was going on with Liz today, but something seemed off. They were fine in the staging room, but before they left Liz had been called back in to speak with Maxwell one final time. When she rejoined the group, her jovial attitude was gone.

“Can I speak with you to the side for a moment, Captain.” Glen asked out loud, but the tone he delivered it in gave the distinct impression that it was a statement and not a question.

“Not at this time, Co-Captain. We have a mission, I would like to have this complete and be back home by sundown. We’ll have plenty of time to talk back in the tower.”

Having said her piece, Liz sped up her pace. Something was definitely off, and Glen was going to find out what the first chance they got. He would stow it for now, but this conversation wasn't over. It was beyond unusual for her to abruptly cut him off, on top of lecturing a member of his team.

After this exchange the two teams kept a bit more distance, while still doing their best not to stray so far away that it negated the point of them traveling together. Glen couldn’t hear what the other team was saying but it seemed like Liz’s team members also sensed something was off.

“What the hell is her problem?” Pirah asked quietly so that only their team could hear.

Glen answered equally subdued, “Well you know she was never your biggest fan, but I agree that was overboard. Whatever the Commander called her in to the office for must have really rattled her.”

“I enjoy teasing her, but I get the impression of I did that now she might actually stab me.” Douglas through in.

The two teams moved forward after that, more or less done with conversation. They were getting further away from home now and knew it was time to get more serious. They had gone past the fourth ring, they were in no man’s land now. Outside the rings marked on their tactical maps things became a lot more unpredictable. Locations were less certain, and creatures roaming out in the open became far more common.

So far, they had only seen a couple animals from a far. Even then, when they did see animals here and there, they took cover to avoid conflict. The one thing that did have the entire party on edge and hunkered down was a Titanic Ursa howling in rage or pain. They couldn't tell which it was at this distance.

Walking down the open road decayed cars and trucks overgrown with vegetation made hiding in plain sight easy. When they heard the roar go up everyone dropped low hugging the concrete barriers that line, they remnants of the highway they were traveling on. Glen and Pirah dove in to the back of a truck with its tailgate down, quickly pulling their cloaks over them to disguise their hiding spot.

“Well, this takes me back.” Glen whispered.

“Now? This is the time you want to bring up memories?” Pirah came back with as low of a volume as she could and still be heard.

“You have something better?”

“I can't stand you. Would you please just shut up?” Despite her words a bit of a smile crept in to Pirah’s voice.

Before Glen could say anything else the roaring noise erupted again, much closer to their position. Stealing a peak Glen looked over the side of the truck and suddenly grew very still. A rampant had just been thrown around a corner and in to the center of the street.

It looked a lot worse for wear. I guess now they knew what all the commotion was. At least one rampant was trying to bring down an ursa. The large bear like creatures were a gold mine of meat, but not worth the risk of engaging. They were hideously strong with a keen intelligence.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

That wouldn't be terrible if not for their unreal regeneration capabilities. With so much fat stored on their body, they could burn it to heal so quickly that their wounds would visibly close in combat. A trait they unfortunately shared with the rampant.

Trying to maintain his cover he looked around for the rest of his team. He could see Liz crouched behind a barrier, and Douglas lying in the overgrowth, but didn't have eyes on the rest of their group. Using as little movement as possible he got Liz’s attention. He just held up the Greenmen’s hand sign for, “Orders?”

She responded with an open palm faced down, “lay low.” Then followed up with the gestures signifying, “Eyes on the target, be ready to react.”

Knowing they were going to avoid this fight if they could, Glen stayed in place but got his spear ready beside him just in case. The problem was that the situation just kept getting worse. What started as a single ursa and a single rampant, quickly evolved in to a five on one conflict.

The bear staggered in to view with three rampant clinging to various parts of its body, and one dragging itself after them. The one dragging itself looked as though it had been torn in half as the waist, but it was too stubborn to just die. The other three were climbing on it's back, trying to get to its head. At over twelve feet tall and covered in muscle the ursa was barely encumbered by their combined weight.

It's biggest concern seemed to be the fact that it was being clawed at and bitten constantly. The creature reached its paws behind its head and grabbed the rampant grappling it's neck. In one quick incredibly powerful movement it ripped the rampant from it’s back and slammed it in to the ground. The force of the slam was enough to temporarily stun it's attacker. The ursa used that moment to stomp it's head. With a resounding crack, the rampant was dead.

That left four opponents, but it wasn't ready to just roll over and die. The rampant that was thrown into view was back up and charging full force at the mutated bear. It wasn't enough. With all the strength it could muster the creature backhanded the rampant away. Again, it went flying, this time even closer in the direction of the truck Glen and Pirah were hiding in.

Though the ursa may have been holding its own, now that it was getting closer the wounds it had sustained were clearly evident. Swaths of fur were missing with red skin visible it had not quite fully healed yet. Still, Glen was sure it would win.

At the same moment he had that thought, something happened that Glen was having trouble comprehending. One of the two rampant on the ursa's back grabbed it's fur tight and pulled, using the force to leap up on to its head. With a sickening wet ripping sound, it latched on to the ursa's skull, it began to sink it's teeth in to flesh and bone.

The creature screeched this time in a much higher pitch unable to hold back through the pain. Unceremoniously the ursa toppled, unluckily for the rampant it fell backwards. The weight of the bear completely flattened two rampant. The one that had been dragging itself along and the rampant on its lower back were killed instantly.

Two against one, the fight was starting to look like it was going to end with the rampant as the winners. Though Glen really was thinking it was closer to one and a half, the rampant attached to the bears head didn’t escape the fall uninjured. It's torso and legs were mangled, the only thing visible from them was the blood running out from under the massive bear.

With only arms and a head to fight with, the rampant showed no signs of stopping. Glen thought given their unnatural healing if it had enough time and it survived the fight it might just rebuild its body from the ground up. A horrific thought, but he had seen it happen.

The bear was so distracted trying to get the leach like monster off its head it never saw the fifth and last surviving rampant running straight at it. The ursa grabbed the rampant's head that was attached to him and squeezed. Like a watermelon squeezed too tightly it's head popped, and all movement stopped at once as the fight left it’s body. That's when the hit landed.

Glen was impressed by the savagery on display. This single rampant refused to die. With a running start, right before he made it to the bear, he crouched low and used all the muscles in his legs to propel him forward. Like a cannonball being fired the rampant flew across the ground and smashed his fist in to the jaw of the bear dislocating it disgustingly.

That punch had clearly taken everything he had, the force behind it snapped the bones in the rampant’s arm. Jagged pieces of bone were visible through the torn flesh. The rampant didn't even hesitate for a moment in his assault, seeing the bone for what it truly was, just another weapon to be used.

The ursa was down laying on its back and the rampant began to stab recklessly into its stomach. Both the monsters were ridiculously difficult to kill, even as Glen watched he could see their injuries closing, the blood clotting and stopping to drop even with the fight raging on. In the end, it came down to mass.

Their size difference was just too much for a single rampant to overcome. The bear’s head began to grow back its missing meat, it even managed to push it's jaw back in to place. For all the mess the rampant was making, he simply didn't have the ability to strike a mortal blow. It was over as soon as the bear was able to push back up to its feet. Standing on it's hind legs it swiped a single gigantic paw with all it's body weight behind it, right at the rampant’s head.

The head was knocked clean off. It flew, and it flew, and realization struck Glen in that moment. As he tracked it's arc with his eyes, he saw where it landed right between Jordan and Bryan. Glen wasn't the only one to see the pair. The bear had locked on to them as the head landed and the rampant's body fell to the ground without a sound.

In a state of battle rage the creature didn't even pause before rushing at them. Only thirty feet away from the group now, Glen knew the bear was going to close that distance in seconds. This is what he trained for. In one smooth action he stood and launched his spear at the head of the charging creature.

He felt his muscles contract and push in just the way they needed to in order to achieve the kill. The spear left his hand and raced as if it were lightning through the air, Glen said a silent prayer to any gods that might be watching. He knew it was a long shot, but there was no way he could have got there in time to help if he had run.

Call it a miracle, call it fate, hell call it magic if you want, but the spear landed. Glen was just as surprised as everyone else when the tip pierced through the already damaged section of the ursa’s skull. It met little resistance, as if the skin parted in front of the tip before the strike even landed. The ursa slumped forward, dead.

“Hell yeah! We're eating good tonight!” Douglas yelled, breaking everyone out of their surprised silence.

The hour following the battle was tense. No one knew if there would be any follow up attacks attracted by all the noise from their earlier engagement. Douglas was right though, it was a meal too good to pass up. Not only that, the hide of an ursa that large would make for an amazing self-repairing outfit if they took the time to properly harvest it.

To the victor goes the spoils, so while everyone ate Glen sat alone preparing the bear’s hide. He was breaking it down in to workable sections that he would be able to transport when Liz approached him. She brought with her some cooked bear meat, and they ate food for a moment in silence.

Eating the meat from the creatures they killed while scouting was always a treat. Not only did it taste amazing compared to the vegetables they always ate in Skytop, but it was like biting in to it sent an electric charge through his body. He felt more awake and more alert. It was like all his nerve endings were just waiting to fire at once. He felt more than just strong, it was empowering on a level nothing else compared to.

After sitting there solemnly together for a long time Liz finally said, “we need to talk.”

“Okay, are you going to tell me what’s gotten in to you since we left the tower?”

“It's father. Glen, his team was hit while they were out searching the fourth ring. They don't know if he is still alive.” Liz was visibly shaking, and her eyes were getting damp as she told him.

“What the hell do you mean?! Why are you just now telling me this? Why aren't we out looking for him now!” Glen was trying to keep his emotions under control, but he couldn’t understand why Liz had hid this from him.

“We’re forbidden Glen. The Commander told me our mission today was too important to cancel and only your team knows where the entrance to the tunnel is. If there are aberrants this close to home, we need to know about it. He said we were too invested, we wouldn't be able to keep emotion out of it and act clearly. He is sending two other teams to search for father and the rest of his party.”

“This is bullshit! We should be there. Which teams are being sent?” more and more emotion was seeping through as Glen spoke.

“Teams Raven and Bloodhound are working together. They're stealth and search specialists. If father is alive, they will find him…” Liz trailed off not sounding particularly convinced herself.

After a moment of sitting without either of them saying another word she spoke up again, “This is why we have to finish our mission, Glen. We need to complete this and get home as quickly as possible. There is no time for playing now. I need to tell you one last thing though.”

“Well out with it damn it, don’t keep me waiting.”

“It wasn't a random creature they stumbled upon that split the team up. They were attacked by a coordinated pack of dogs. A particularly large bone dog was reported to have been leading them.”