The defensive ring was in an uproar. Mercenaries rushed around, those closer to the attack moving to fill the gap in their defence, while those further away tried to figure out what happened.

Ceph was no different. She crept toward Hirsh’s station in the hopes he had a better understanding of the wave that had just broken through.

It was a snake, she knew. She’d gotten that much information from the volan scouting over her head. The little wingsuit-lovers had far better eyesight than her and had apparently witnessed a snake no larger than the garden variety take down an entire wedge of their defences, before flying off.

After months of relatively weak creatures — at least compared to those that had considered the Titan Alps their home — it seemed almost impossible that the creature that had the strength to breach their defences was small enough that most couldn’t even see it. They should consider nothing out of the realm of reality after the collapse of the Titan Alps, but everyone had been prepared to fight some Titanic being crawling from the depths… not whatever this had been.

“Ah, good. You’re already here,” Hirsh said as Ceph jogged up besides him. One of the Mercenary Order’s management staff rushing back down to the city beyond the mound, having already spoken to the large khirig. “We’re to have our team reorganised.”

“Right now? Why?” They’d held off this long on reallocation, why do so in the middle of a crisis. Who knew where the monster was? The trade hub around Kalma’s pit seemed to have avoided it’s attention, but what was to say the next city would avoid such fate?

“We’re to track it down.”

Well, that would explain the timing. “And who have they decided will replace Glaus and Telum?” Ceph tried to keep her voice even with the question, but even to her ears it sounded venomous.

Hirsh gave her an analytical eye for a moment before he turned and gestured her to follow. “Don’t treat them harshly. They have no more say where they are placed then we do.”

Ceph winced. “So, not Beiths?”

“You say that as if we ever earned the right to be labelled that ourselves.”

She wanted to argue. To point out that they were more than they had been. But that would be lying.

When they finally arrived at the chaotic mess of people moving around the site of the brief battle, Ceph watched the corpses being carried to a large pitched tent that had been erected in only the past few minutes. One of them, one of her kin, a dohrni, was little more than tentacle and pulp. She’d seen plenty of gore in her time through war and as a merc, but that made even her stomach flip. She looked away.

“Where are the new additions to Beith Thirty Seven?” Hirsh’s voice carries over the clamber. Some glance our way at his call, but most ignore him.

“That will be us.”

Turning to the side, Ceph found the three that will be joining them and can’t help a groan. “You can’t be serious.”

The one who spoke is a short albanic with a glaive near twice as long as he. There was nothing wrong with him really, but the fact that he was supposed to replace Glaus tinged at her. The albanic simply didn’t have the same air of intimidation that Glaus could exude.

It was the other two she found the most annoyance with. Why double up on volans? Sure they would be helpful in tracking down the creature, but in a team, they made each other redundant. Even back at the tunnel entrance on the Titan Alps, her team had been a man short. Was this the Order’s way of saying they now had a full team despite disregarding all fundamentals of compatibility?

Sure the stronger of Beiths tended to ignore the more common structures, but these new additions to her team were not that. Neither was Ceph. This was simply calling an eyeball a hand, and expecting it to behave as such.

She noticed the look the volans were giving her, and realised they’d heard her. A twinge of guilt struck at her, but not enough for her to apologise. She turned, and head toward the Beith that was organising the cleanup.

“I’m going to get started on finding out what we’re dealing with,” Ceph said to Hirsh. “You deal with our new teammates.” Again, she didn’t mean to antagonistic, but the snide tone just seemed to slip out.

No matter how much she knew better, it just felt too much like her comrades were being replaced. Like they were nothing more than disposable and replaceable.

“So what is it we’re dealing with?” Ceph asked as soon as she stepped up besides the Beith.

“Ah, Ceph. Your team is heading out?” he asked in a gruff tone, to which she nodded. “Well, good luck. You’ll need it. The beast took out two Luis teams and a pair of old Beiths all before we could gather a proper force.”

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

“It was that strong?” The Luis teams she could understand, but if it took them all out while being assisted by a pair of old Beiths — the ones not tainted by the Mercenary Order’s newly inflated ranks — then… “Why are we being sent out? I doubt our team can handle this.”

The man shakes head. “You’re task is to track the snake down. The Order will send one of their Inner Circle to assist”

Ceph gave the man a doubtful look.

“Of course,” he continued. “If the Order fail to provide, then you have no need to engage… but it would be best for all of us if the Order doesn’t hear I said as such. You know how things have been.”

Ceph sighed at the disappointing state of things. They didn’t have this low trust in their organisation ten years ago, but things had only seemed to spiral since. “Just tell me what you know of the snake.”

The Beith hums before answering. “Well, it’s quick for sure. Bout as long as an albanic, and scales harder than rock. If you want more, visit the survivors. They’ve been taken down to the hospital.”

“So there are survivors?” Ceph asks.

“Barely.” His gaze travelled back to the slope where so many had lost their lives. “It all happened so quick. Besides the volan who escaped with a boost, the albanic to survive… well, you’ll see.”

With that note, Ceph left. She grabbed Hirsh — and the new additions who followed in tow — and ran down the hill to the line of buildings.

The hospital wasn’t a particularly glamorous building, but it was large and one of the first on her path from the defensive circle. As soon as she was through the front doors, an Order manager was by her side and leading her to where she needed to be in moments.

“I’ll speak with the albanic, you find out what you can from the volan.”

Ceph was not at all surprised that the two volans now part of her team followed Hirsh into the separate room, but certainly was by the albanic choosing to come with her.

Deciding it wouldn’t be appropriate to be completely hostile to the people she needed to work with, she asked, “What’s you’re name?” as they walked to the ward for more critical patients.

“Albin,” he said simply.

Ceph swirled her eyes back at the distinctly Theocratic name, inspecting the man’s hair.

Albin the albanic shrugged. “I was born in the Theocracy.”

Born in the Theocracy, had perfectly pure hair, and yet he was a part of the pact nations? She was curious, but not so much as to distract from her current goal.

“Ceph,” she gave her name as she opened the door to the room where a crowd of doctors and nurses crowded the bed-bound mercenary.

A nurse tried to halt Ceph’s path, but a doctor standing at the head of the cot called them off. She approached until she was standing right beside the injured albanic’s head, thankful that she was conscious, but disturbed by the sight.

Around the woman’s neck was a thick, unwieldy brace that seemed almost bolted in place to the bone at the side of her head and spine. She was propped up on her side, but it didn’t at all look like she could move.

“Please keep this brief. She has experienced comminuted fractures to three of her cervical vertebra and a cervical plexus avulsion. We shall operate the moment you are done. Really, if not for her enhancement, she would be dead. It’s already unlikely she will regain motor function.”

“Is the Lu-Lum family not going to help her?” Ceph asked, shocked that they’re not already doing so.

“Not unless you wish to pay.”

“But it’s in our contract. The Order should be paying.”

“For Beiths.” The doctor nods. “But no longer for Luis.”

“Fuck’n bastards,” the crippled woman spits, finally making itself known just how awake she is despite her grievous injury. “Changed it without my knowing.”

Well, this was going to cause havoc amongst the mercs once everyone found out about this. But unfortunately, Ceph needed to do her job. If not because the Mercenary Order ordered it, then the fact that a beast strong enough to do this could cause widespread devastation. They had not yet recovered from the Alps’ collapse; the pact nations couldn’t handle any more disasters.

“Please, tell me everything you can about the snake,” Ceph prompted.

Whether it be a determination on the albanic’s part, or the pain reducing inscription painted into the cot beneath her body, the Luis merc was all too willing to talk.

“Well, we started things as usual; moving in once both shot guns and airburst guns failed. It was, you know, same as usual… until it wasn’t.” She clenched her teeth, and Ceph imagined her gripping her hand into a fist, but that was no longer possible.

“It was completely our failure. We underestimated it’s strength because of both its size, and the lack of aggression it showed at first. We should have backed off. We should have given the battle to those stronger in reserve. But by the time we realised we were in over our heads, it was too late.”

“One moment, it went from passively avoiding our blows and taking the occasional hit, to decimating us. Things were going so well, then, out of nowhere, Icaru flew into its mouth. Dead in an instant. I still remember the crunch.” She pauses to take a breath, her eyes no longer gazing at anyone, but staring into the corner.

“He was the best flyer. His reaction time and instincts were impeccable. If not held back by my team, I’m sure he would have been promoted to Beith years ago,” she said, eyes unblinking. “The snake did something. Altered his trajectory somehow. It had been doing the same to its own the entire fight. Even now I still can’t wrap my head around it; it just seemed to move so strangely, jerking and changing directions sharper than any other serpent I’ve seen.”

“A momentum hyle bound?” Ceph asked.

“I don’t know,” the albanic admitted with hesitance. “It seemed too disjointed for that. Do you know any momentum mage that can instantaneously alter direction, rather than an over time effect?”

“Some creatures have access to some rather unique abilities our mages can’t replicate.” Ceph’s response felt more like an excuse even to her own ears. Sure it was possible, common even, but even the incredibly rare elements like momentum were rather easy to distinguish.

“Well, whatever ability it is, it made our mage fire completely ineffective. No, worse than that; it turned those attacks against us. Poor Junjie…” she glared into that corner as if it had done her personal harm.

“So that’s all I need to worry about? Its momentum-bound abilities?” Ceph asked, acutely aware of the doctor’s impatience.

“No.” The denial came with a snap of the woman’s eyes back to Ceph’s. They were panicked and frantic, as if terrified what she’d already seen would happen again. “Don’t let it close. It is strong. Far, far stronger than anything that size should be.”