“Make sure the wood is in a dry spot.” Loria checked off each item as the rest of her team hauled it from the back of the trailer, feeling a little guilty about letting them do the work. Someone had to make sure everything was in order, though, and Thalos had offered the job to her.

Cliff gave her an odd look, pointing a finger at the stream beside them. “Why? It’s about to be used for a bridge. A little water won’t do it any harm.”

Loria frowned, looking between the water and the slowly growing pile of lumber. “I thought – doesn’t wood warp from moisture?” She knew, at least, that her mother had always been rather anal about keeping their wooden furniture dry at home.

Hoisting a thick beam to the ground with Thalos, Cliff shrugged, dragging a wrist across his sweaty forehead. “It can, yeah,” he said, “over a long period of time, if it’s untreated wood – wood absorbs moisture when it’s wet, and if it absorbs unevenly and then dries it can-” He shook his head, cutting off the explanation. “What I mean to say is this-” He kicked at the pile of wood. “has been magically treated so it won’t absorb moisture so easily – otherwise, I don’t know how long our repairs would last.” Looking down at the list of materials, she realized that all the lumber was noted to be treated – she hadn’t understood what that meant until Cliff’s explanation, though.

“That’s the last of the wood,” Nym said, rubbing her hands together with a frown on her face. “Should we unload the tools?”

Loria shook her head. “Just the wood for tonight – everything else we’ll bring by in the morning.”

“I still don’t see why we can’t just set up here,” Cliff complained, “It seems pointless to come this far only to backtrack and set up camp.”

“We talked about this, Cliff,” Nym said, “the pressure is too high here. Thirty minutes back, though, they’re safe enough.”

“Unless you’re volunteering to stay up all night keeping watch, we head back,” Loria said. The bridge’s location wasn’t particularly high pressure, but some of the nastier monsters in the area were nocturnal. There was also the mild concern of limiting their exposure to magic, but she was nearly certain that even if they spent a year at these pressures, there wouldn’t be any long term effects. Her family’s estate was nearly this high pressure, after all.

“Yeah, yeah,” Cliff said, “I know, I’m just bellyaching over having to wake up half an hour earlier.” He rubbed at his chin. “I’ll get over it. We good to saddle up, then?”

Loria glanced once more over the list in her hand, trying to decide whether there was anything else to be done. “We should be good,” she finally said. She looked around at her team – they seemed tired, but still alert. “Nym, take the wheel and keep driving until we’re out of the mid-pressure areas. Find us a campsite flat enough. I’ll ride in the cabin with her. Thalos, Cliff, ride in the trailer, but keep alert until we’re safely back into low pressure areas. When we arrive, I’ll get to work on setting up the tents with Nym. Cliff and Thalos, finish up recording the materials we gathered today. Clear?” They’d done a better job on the second day of counting materials as they harvested them, but there were still a few things they had to weigh – Whisper Tree bark, Scuttlebug chitin, and a few other materials that weren’t quite so easily countable. There were grunts of acknowledgement from the others, and she nodded, looking up at the sky. The sun was already setting, but hopefully they could get most of their nightly work done before it got too dark. “We’re burning daylight. Let’s get moving.”

***

The next morning, she was behind the wheel, Thalos sitting beside her. Some of the exposure numbers hadn’t added up the night before, and Nym and Cliff were in the trailer, trying to figure out the discrepancy. They’d been slower to wake up than she’d have preferred, but faster than she had feared. It was a nightmare getting Cliff moving, and Nym wasn’t much better, but once they were out of bed, it wasn’t too hard to pester them into productivity.

She glanced over at Thalos. He, on the other hand, did exactly what she expected of him – probably a symptom of his experience on the road. “Have you ever done any carpentry?” she asked. Normally, she wouldn’t be one for small talk, but a worm of nervousness was wriggling its way through her gut.

“Not really, no,” he said, looking at her with a neutral expression. “Cliff has, though, and he said it’s not too bad as long as you follow the plan strictly.”

“Right. Cliff has,” she muttered, frowning.

“You can trust him to do a good job with stuff like this.” His tone wasn’t accusatory, but she sensed that he found it tiring that she might doubt his roommate.

A little self-deprecating laugh forced its way out. “It’s not that I don’t trust Cliff – not anymore, at least – it’s just-” Her jaw clicked shut, and she wondered how best to explain it. “I kind of get irritated when I don’t have a full grasp on what’s going on – I really don’t like relying on other people. I much prefer to handle everything with my own abilities.”

“Is that why you got mad at Cliff trying to change the turning of your PMT?” She turned to glare at him, but his expression was still neutral – it was an innocent question, she supposed.

“Yeah, partially,” she answered, “but, like I said – that fire node was a gift from my father, and I’ve been slowly honing my PMT skills to try to use it.” She tapped her fingers on the steering wheel, trying to think of how to best explain. “I like to think of it as a challenge he gave me – here’s a high-level fire node that requires a great deal of skill to use, can you do it? That sort of challenge, you understand?” What she failed to mention was that it was one of the few gifts her father had ever given her, and she had some sentimental feelings towards it, as well.

“I see,” Thalos said. The conversation lapsed to silence, and she wondered if her explanation made sense to him, or if she was just being childish. It had happened a few times since coming to the Academy, where she’d thought herself justified in her opinions only for someone else to point out her hypocrisy – her argument with Jenna, her treatment of Cliff in the first Hands-on, and probably a few others she hadn’t had the self-awareness to notice.

They arrived at the site of the bridge a few moments later. Cliff and Nym seemed satisfied as they got out of the Trailer, and they quickly explained the exposure discrepancy – a miscalculation on the pressure at their first campsite, apparently. A few moments to quickly unpack their tools, and they were ready to start working.

“Okay,” Cliff said, examining the wreckage of the bridge they were supposed to repair, “the right railing needs to be replaced, along with all of the floorboards and five of the supports.” He looked up at Thalos. “Right?”

Thalos nodded as Loria studied the bridge. She hadn’t taken the time to look at it the night before, but, seeing it now, it was clear that it was in desperate need of repairs. The wood was dark with age and mold, and a good amount of it appeared to be rotting. She wouldn’t have felt safe walking across the bridge, let alone driving a trail trolley.

“Let me see the blueprint,” Cliff said. Thalos handed the sheet to him, and he looked between the paper and the crumbling bridge. Finally, he nodded. “Alright. The good news is, she’ll stay upright even if we strip away all the rotting wood. That means we can go in at the start and pull out everything that needs pulling out before we go back in and fix her up nicely.” He clicked his tongue as he thought, looking between the rest of them. “Nym, can you use your ice node to block part of the stream so we can get the supports out?”.

The girl walked over to the stream, looking down with a frown. “It doesn’t look too deep, so yeah, probably.”

Cliff nodded, looking once more at the blueprint in his hands. “Good – I say we start by taking down the railing, then pulling up the flooring. Once that’s done let’s pull up the rotten supports. That’ll at least get us to lunch. After that, we can start to cut the lumber to size and rebuild this thing.” He suddenly looked over at Loria. “That sound alright, Ms. Commander?”

She blinked. “Ah – yes, Cliff, I – I think that sounds fine.” She racked her brain for something to add. “Oh – we’ll need someone to observe and guard us as we’re working.” Another precaution of working in a mid-pressure area.

“Right,” Cliff said, scratching at his head. He looked at her again. “You stand guard, then – I’ll need Nym’s PMT to deal with the supports, and Thalos won’t be much use as a guard considering his PMT is crammed full of a medical node and not much else.”

“Right,” she said softly, nodding to herself, “I’ll take first guard, then.” It made sense, when he explained it.

Cliff clapped his hands in front of him. “Let’s get cracking.” The other three set off, starting their work as Loria looked on, feeling entirely useless.

***

“And now,” Cliff exclaimed, holding his PMT-clad hand in front of him, “I reveal the next node I made!” In front of him was a thick beam of wood, marked about halfway down to the required length for one of the bridge’s supports.

“It cuts wood?” Thalos guessed.

Cliff glared at his roommate. “Don’t spoil the – it’s not that it cuts wood-” He shook his head. “Fine, just look.” He held his hand in front of him, palm sideways and fingers extended, and suddenly, the air around his PMT seemed to be vibrating. Slowly and carefully, he lowered his hand towards the mark. As he drew near, the wood seemed to disappear underneath, sawdust spraying away as he cut deeper and deeper until the beam split, sliced evenly along the line.

The vibrations ceased, and Cliff gave them a triumphant look. “It’s a buzz saw,” he explained.

“That seems…” Nym started, her voice trailing off.

“Dangerous,” Loria finished for her.

Cliff frowned at their lukewarm response. “I’m only cleared to use it for practical purposes, so I can’t use it in combat. Though the book did say that one of the recorded functions was quick amputation during the Godhand wars.” He shrugged. “I mainly made this one because I knew we’d be working with wood – trust me, this is going to save us a lot of annoyance dealing with saws.”

“Right,” Nym said, looking a little squeamish after that comment about the Godhand Wars, “can I go back to keeping guard now?”

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Cliff glared at her. “Does no one – I mean, fine, you can go. Loria, Thalos, get to work on measuring everything, and I’ll start cutting.”

“Don’t worry, Cliff, I think it’s impressive.” Thalos said, patting his roommate on the back.

Cliff turned his glare on the other boy. “Don’t patronize me, Thalos.”

***

“Careful, now.” Cliff had his hands extended in front of him, waiting for Thalos and Loria to hand the support down into the stream bed. Nym was beside them, PMT extended in front of her as she maintained a wall of ice around the post-hole for the support, stopping the flow of water and creating a little dry patch for them to work. It was their second day of repairing the bridge, and they were finally starting to put it back together. The measuring, cutting, and drilling had taken far longer than she had expected, and when they’d finally wrapped up their work for the day, she’d found herself with far more appreciation for Cliff’s buzz saw than when he demonstrated it. Of course, that appreciation had been undercut by his incessant gloating about how much time he’d saved them, but that was to be expected from Cliff.

He had the post in the hole, nearly half as deep as the support was tall. Checking to make sure the bolt holes they’d drilled were properly oriented, he nodded up at them. “Alright, Thalos, use your earth node to compress everything so it’s steady.”

“Yes, sir.” Thalos let out a little grunt as he dropped into the steam bed, leaning forward with his PMT. There was the subtlest shift of the earth around the post, and Cliff gave it a shake it test its stability. It hardly moved, and he nodded, satisfied.

“Looks good. Nym, let’s move on to the next one – you two get the post.” As Nym manipulated the ice, extending the dry patch towards the nearest post-hole, Loria extended a hand, hoisting Thalos out of the stream bed. His feet slipped on the mud, but a few frantic steps and he was out.

She watched Nym and Cliff, frowning. Her PMT had been largely useless for this Hands-on. Sure, she’d used it to start their campfires, but they had a Magetool lighter in their survival supplies that would have been just as good. Even when they were hunting monsters on the road to the bridge, she’d avoided throwing around too much fire – it wasn’t exactly wise to lob flames in a forest, after all. Even Cliff’s bizarre noise cannon had been more useful, and that was to say nothing of his buzz saw – that node had likely saved them hours of tedious labor.

“Hey, Loria,” Thalos called from behind her, “can you help me-” He cut off suddenly with the sound of crumpling metal and the clatter of wood. She turned to find him collapsed forward on the pile of lumber.

“You alright, Thalos?” He’d probably just tripped but – he didn’t respond. A seed of worry sprouted in her stomach, and she walked over to him. “Thalos?” His hand was sprawled to the side across the lumber, and panic surged when she noticed his PMT had been pierced through with something – a narrow, circular hole split through the gauntlet, and blood was pooling on the wood beneath his hand.

“Nym! Cliff!” she shouted, scanning the surrounding area as she jogged over to Thalos. “Arms up, now! Thalos is hit.” She kept her eyes up as she reached him, scanning the treeline for any signs of movement. Holding her PMT in front of her, she wedged a hand between Thalos and the lumber, flipping him onto his back. Her heart leapt to her throat, a pained breath hissing through her teeth. He’d been hit twice, once through the PMT and a second time through the gut. A thick, fibrous quill was stuck in a jagged, bloody hole in his stomach. Blood flowed freely, staining his clothes and her hands. He seemed to be conscious, but his eyes were glazed and a low, delirious moan was escaping his lips.

She swore under her breath, continuing to scan her surroundings for any movement. Sparing an instant to glance towards the bridge, she spotted Cliff and Nym hoisting themselves out of the stream bed and looking at her with concerned eyes. “Cliff, grab the flare, and Nym, over here! Eyes open, it’s probably still around.”

“Which flare?” There was the slightest hint of fear in his tone. She thought for a moment – green was for minor emergencies, situations that would require assistance but were not life-threatening.

She grimaced. “Red!” Her other two teammates froze for an instant, but apparently that was enough to remove any kind of doubt. Suddenly Nym was sprinting towards her as Cliff scrambled towards the trolley. “Stay aware!” she barked. The last thing they needed was someone else going down.

“What – what happened?” Nym stuttered when she reached them. Her eyes widened, her hand rising to cover her mouth when she saw Thalos.

“I need walls around him – use your gift or your PMT, but we need to get him covered before we kill whatever did this to him.” Nym was just staring at Thalos, wordlessly moving her mouth, and Loria grimaced. She raised a hand, squeezing the other girl’s shoulder. “Come on, Nym, walls.”

“Ah – right,” she said, shaking her head quickly. Earth began to rise around in a makeshift shelter just as Cliff reached them. When he saw his roommate, his face paled, his expression turning equal parts angry and frightened.

He growled a low string of curses before turning to her. “I brought the flare, but-”

“Launch it,” she ordered. He sucked a breath through his teeth, nodding and pointing the tube towards the sky, tugging the little cord. There was a hollow pop before a blinding red light shot into the air, shrilly screaming along the way. They all paused to watch it for a moment as it rose into the sky.

“Loria – the flare, Roose said they would be here within an hour.” His eyes turned down to Thalos. “He has the healing node – his stomach – I mean, do you think-”

“There’s nothing else we can do,” she replied, trying to keep her panic out of her voice. Her hands were pressed to the wound on his stomach, and it was all she should do to resist tugging the ugly quill from the hole. She knew that would only make it bleed worse, and already he was heavily bleeding. Truthfully, there was nothing they could really do for his wounds. They had a first aid kit for minor injuries, but Thalos had been expected to handle anything bigger than small cuts and scrapes. His PMT was smashed to pieces, though, and there was no telling whether his healing node was even intact. At worst, once they dealt with the monster, all they could do was wait. They’d been told, for this Hands-on, that help would be slower coming. She wasn’t sure how their teachers could even spot the flare from so far away, but apparently they could, and Roose had told them they would be there as soon as possible. Loria was just worried that wouldn’t be soon enough for Thalos.

Nym was just finishing the shelter when there was a sound from the brush off to the side. Loria’s eyes narrowed, and she spotted movement in a thicket of bushes. She swore under her breath again. “The flare provoked it,” she said, “Seal him in, Nym. The girl nodded, and Loria stepped out of the little shelter, saying a silent prayer to Gaeon as Nym raised earth in the front, hiding Thalos away from the fight that was about to happen.

Cliff extended a hand, giving over her spear. She took the weapon, frowning – her grip was sticky from blood. She shook her head, staring into the thicket. An ugly monster threaded its way between the bushes. It was the color of dirt, and its rough skin had the look of thick bark. It was long and low to the ground, with four thick legs that ended in feet with long, gleaming claws. It’s head had a gnarled, mole-like snout under angry red eyes. Drool dripped from its snout, ropy and thick. A tail extended up behind it, forking to two hollow points. It slunk towards them, rumbling with a low, threatening growl that rattled her bones. From behind her, Cliff swore again.

“Spike Spitter,” Nym muttered, her voice frightened.

“What’s it do?” Loria flicked her eyes to Cliff. “Take shots at it while we make a strategy. Even if they won’t do anything – and they won’t, from the look of its hide – we need time to think.”

“Ah – right,” Cliff said, raising his rifle and sighting down the thing. His first shot missed, but the Spike Spitter flinched back at the second.

Nym stuttered out a few nonsense syllables before shaking her head, taking a deep breath. “Uh – it – the tail can shoot spikes, but only two at a time. It takes a long time to regenerate them, so we don’t have to worry about that, but - it’s claws can tear through bone and metal and-” She cut off, swallowing. “Just – don’t get hit by the claws.”

“Defenses?” Loria asked as another of Cliff’s bullets bounced off the monster’s head. It flinched again, but growled louder.

“I – ah – I don’t know if – that’s just it.” Nym’s voice was turning frantic. “I don’t know if we have anything that can pierce its hide. Fire doesn’t hurt it, either, and – well, my ice won’t fare much better.” She paused for a moment. “I know its underside is weaker, but…” Her voice trailed off.

Cliff lowered his rifle, raising his PMT. “What are you doing?” Loria snapped.

“My noise cannon,” he replied through clenched teeth, “I think the rifle was just making it mad.” Watching the monster, Loria didn’t think noise was much better. As soon as Cliff pointed his PMT its way, its tail started moving in a way that Loria could only read as aggressive.

Her mind raced as she watched the thing slowly lumbering towards them. She sighed, raising her spear in front of her. “Okay,” she said, “I’m going to somehow hold it in place. Nym, when I have it bound up, use your gift to flip it – Cliff you’re going to jump on it, avoiding its claws and tearing up its stomach with your saw.” She tried to force a confident grin as she looked at her two remaining team members. “If it can work on wood, it can work on this spike spitter, right?” Even to her ears, she didn’t sound confident.

Nym glared at her, eyes wide. “Loria, are you crazy? It’s claws will-”

“I’m the commander, Nym, we’re going with my plan!” she snapped. She clenched her teeth, watching its slow lumber towards them. Each step tore through the ground, leaving jagged, angry holes behind it. Her voice softened. “If – if it does get me – take Thalos and run. Hopefully I’ll be enough to satisfy it.”

Nym made a noise of outrage. “Loria, that’s-”

“Okay,” Cliff said, cutting her off. Loria spared a moment to glance at him. His expression was dead serious, and he nodded at her. She smiled. That’s right – when it really counted, Cliff could get serious.

“Flip it and tear it,” she reminded them, clutching her spear tight in her hands to suppress the frightened tremors. The Spike Spitter was still a good bit away, but she couldn’t let it get close to the rest of her team. She took a step forward, then another, gaining speed as she ran towards it. She raised her spear, smiling as she realized that she’d finally gotten a chance to be useful in the Hands-on.

She shouted out her fears, stabbing her spear out as she manifested four fireballs around the Spike Spitter. Without hesitation she brought all four down on its back. They crashed down on all sides, but it hardly seemed to notice, raising its claw to knock aside her spear. There was a shriek of sparks, and she stumbled forward as it slapped the attack way. It slashed at her arm, moving with surprising speed compared to how slowly it had lumbered out of the bushes. Releasing her spear with one arm, she narrowly dodged the claws, kicking out at its snout with her foot. There was a satisfying crunch, but it felt like she was kicking a brick wall – no sooner did her foot make an impact than she had to leap back, dodging the claws again.

The Spike Spitter spun, swinging its forked tail towards her head. She dove to the ground under the attack, rolling beneath its tail and hopping to her feet. Spinning back towards it, she leapt over a sideways slash. She misjudged the height, though, and pain exploded in her foot as she was sent spinning sideways to the ground, landing in a painful heap. Another claw came up, and she just barely rolled out of the way towards it. She was nearly completely under the monster now, and, propping her feet against its underbelly, she heaved upwards, hoping Nym would seize the opportunity. No sooner had she gotten her feet in position than half a dozen stone fists sprouted around her, shoving the spike spitter up and flipping it onto its back before wrapping it in shackles of earth.

“Now, Cliff!” Loria screamed, breathless. There was an angry cry and Cliff was suddenly on top of the monster, grinding his PMT on the Spike Spitter’s underside. There was a hideous noise, like a thousand nails on a chalkboard, and then viscera was suddenly spraying everywhere. She stared in horror, flecks of its hide, organs, and blood spraying on her face as they absolutely covered Cliff. The thing’s growls turned to unholy shrieks before finally stopping long seconds later. A moment after it went silent, Cliff stopped his buzz saw, collapsing onto the gore like a limp doll.

Her heart was racing in her throat, and she tasted dirt and blood – she wasn’t sure if it was her own or the Spike Spitter’s. A moment later, Nym was helping her to her feet as Cliff scraped himself off the monster. She winced as she stood, recalling that she’d been struck with it’s claws, and she leaned into Nym as they stared, as a trio, down at the monster they’d just slain.

It was dead – there was no question of that. Cliff’s buzz saw had ravaged it’s underside, and there were a dozen shattered bones and ruptured organs poking through all the ugly cuts he’d made. A surge of nausea rose in her stomach, restoring her senses.

“Well – well done, everyone, but now-”

Cliff gasped, whirling towards the makeshift shelter. “Thalos!” He sprinted towards the rock tent, Nym supporting Loria as they limped along behind him.

“Are you alright?” Nym asked, looking with concern down at Loria’s foot. She hadn’t spared a glance for the wound herself, yet, and she wouldn’t until she had time to process the injury.

“I’m fine.” Her voice was raspy, shaking from the adrenaline. “I just hope the same can be said for Thalos.”