"We are going to pin and lay on the damage, Billy! Can you leave a shield and try to tangle the bear?" Jolene asked through the comm-plant, gliding over the mud as if it were ice to dodge a poorly aimed blow from the bear. The ursine mountain didn't stay dazed for long, as Jolene kept close watch on its beady little eyes that were the size of her fist. They panned on her with increasing accuracy despite the direct hits to its face.

Instead of answering via the comm-plant, the smoke lingering in the air pulled into a tight funnel around one of the bear's arms. It was just enough to prevent it from catching its balance and it fell into the mud face first. That was when the draconian struck.

Jolene hadn't been keeping an eye on the kid but she did see the spray of glossy black stone that pelted the eye-level creature. She also heard him roar his attack. "!"

The first spray wasn't the end. An angry orange and black spell chain had taken position around his wrists and he was using his clawed hands to tear fistfuls of old asphalt from the ground. One blunderbuss after another rained on the bear. With each Gift launched, the gem on the draconian's sternum dimmed and the horns on his head spewed more and more ash into the air. After the sixth, the kid dropped to a knee and Jolene knew he was spent. The Mana Shard that had somehow ended up in his chest was dull and the heat haze radiating from his body told her all she needed to know about his mana side effects, even with his heat venting Traits.

Considering the amount of magical shrapnel the Regen Bear had been subject to, one would have expected it to kick the bucket. Instead, it roared its displeasure, a tinkling marking the shallowest of the obsidian projectiles being ejected from its body even as its blood rained onto the earth.

Billy and Jolene didn't waste the opening --openings -- the draconian had made.

With its mouth wide open, Billy chucked something Jolene had totally forgotten about. The bug net. Three glowing crystals were held in it, but the mermaid had no idea what they were until the bear gagged. Its regeneration stuttered as it focused on what had become lodged in its throat only for it to go from bad to worse. The ephemeral bodies of the elementals that Billy had snagged out of the air rushed after their cores. The bear literally swatted at air as elementals poured through its nose and down its gullet.

My turn. Jolene leapt forward, dumping the last third of her mana pool into Amplifying her first Gift. curled in the air, cracking the air as it tore an inch deep gash around the bear's throat and exploded the eye on the right side as it coiled back. Her second pass severed its ear and opened up its shoulder. wasn't as precise as the un-Amplified Gift, but it made up for that with sheer cutting power. The fact that the creature still had a head was a testament to its overall toughness. Blood poured out, a golden glow mixed in with some of the sanguine torrent her attack had released, yet the bear still squirmed as it tried to dislodge the elementals in its throat. Billy added insult to injury.

The elf boldly flew up to the creature's face while staying on the side where his Freeform was pinning its arm. With all the speed his Attunement granted him, Billy stuffed his arm up to the elbow into the bear's nose. Jolene's heart leapt to her throat as the Regen Bear snapped its jaws right onto Billy... only to get a mouthful of mist and sparks instead of a pair of meaty legs. In pain and confused, the creature tried to rear back and failed thanks to the Skill holding it in place. Even if it lost most of its cohesion from the giant beast's enraged tug, the crowd control capabilities that Billy had cultivated were terrifying.

The wild shaking of its head actually helped Billy as the elf used his body as a conduit for the ash and choking smoke that filled the battlefield, even that which was leaking from his Skill. All of it was redirected right into the bear's nasal passageways. cleared the air around the beast in seconds. Smoke exploded out of the other nostril and the bear's eyes widened enough to see the beast's sclera before it flopped to the ground.

Billy finally let out a scream of pain as his arm was twisted out of the socket by the jerking landing. The elf groaned as he tried to leverage himself out with his free arm, the suction of the mucus in the nose having worked in his favor for the attack but against his desires to escape. Before Jolene could close the distance the draconian was there, tugging on the elf's other arm hard enough that it too popped out of its socket. Thankfully, that also released Billy... even if he slumped to the ground in a small pool of snot that was quickly absorbed by his Djinn legs.

"Oh that's gross," the Draconian said, shaking his hands to flick some of the mucus that had gotten on him to the ground. A completely unnecessary flex of his mana burned off the goop as he backed away from the giant bear's head.

Jolene was at Billy's side, grimacing as the elf tried to stay as still as possible while also not hurling every little bit of content from his stomach. The breath of the omnivorous creature had been bad enough, but mixed in with burnt flesh, ash and lord-knows-how-old snot it was a stomach turning mix.

"Why would you think that was a good idea!?" Jolene shouted, shaking her head as she felt at the ball and socket joints.

Billy bit his tongue, holding in the pain as best as he could as Jolene popped the first arm back into place. When the wave of agony passed, he finally released the slightest of relieved breaths. "I've seen Sarah suffocate more than one nasty critter before. You can't exactly heal suffocation."

"Unless they are frogs," the draconian interjected. When both the Bunker Busters looked at him, he lifted up his hands as if in surrender. "They breathe through their skin!"

"Who areaaaaah--!" Jolene took the slight moment of distraction Billy had as he focused on the draconian to snap the other bone back. He panted for a second, sending the mermaid a glare, before he mustered a response. "Who are you all? Why would you be out here in this storm?"

"Oh, sorry I didn't introduce myself. I'm Joe Kelly!" The draconian --Joe-- reached his hand out to shake. He caught a glance of it and his whole expression and body shifted. The limb was retracted, and he nodded as if that had been the form of greeting he'd meant to use from the start.

"We are going to have questions about that," Jolene said, wrapping Billy in a hug that allowed him to stand while he forced the mucus out of his Djinn legs. "For now, we just need to make sure that--"

A gurgling choking sound killed the words in the mermaid's throat. All three of the fighters turned towards the bear in time to see the elementals force their way out of the beast's throat. One of them was even still entangled in the bug net that Billy had used to trap the lower Quotient creature. With most of its magical mass spent, it wasn't able to cut its way out of the tough netting despite drifting through the air like the world's crappiest dandelion.

"Phew!" Joe said, the tension draining out of his scales. "I thought--"

The gurgling resumed, and all of their eyes widened as the eyelids on the Regen Bear flickered. It's still alive! Jolene only let herself hesitate for a second before jumping onto the creature's head. She didn't have enough mana for the full thing, but it would have to be enough. The spell chain for formed around her hands as she straddled the bear, punching her gauntlet right into the beast's neck. The gator teeth barely punched through the thick fur and skin of the creature.

Despite how much her growing Quotient had bumped her Strength, that had never been... her forte. Instead, she leaned on her ability to focus her oldest Gift. While most of the mermaids had gained some variation on her as they grew up, she'd been more fascinated by the power of water. Perhaps she'd done one too many belly flops into Lake Sumter when she was a kid, but it didn't make it any less a part of her. interwove with another chain of deeper blue mana as she Amplified it into . The whip didn't lash out, instead manifesting right in the area her spell chain took up, setting the noose.

She pulled.

The response was instant. Despite not having the usual tearing force of the attack, the mermaid's intent was rock solid as shifted into a buzz saw of water. The last bits of her mana drained into the magic to keep it active as she cut inch after inch into the Regen Bear's neck. Her body grew colder as she tried to hold on past the bottom of her mana pool, but her fingers stiffened and she slipped from the back of the beast only to land in an even bigger pool of its blood. Jolene blinked, staring right into the restored eye she'd taken earlier. It was still milky and bleeding, but it was unequivocally locked on her.

"Give me your gauntlet!" Billy shouted through the comm-plant. At the same time, he yelled at Joe aloud. "Punch it. Blow it up! I don't care!"

I missed part of that conversation... Jolene thought, her brain moving at the speed of molasses even as it shivered. Billy didn't wait for permission before he slapped his palm against her gauntlet. One of the numerous ridges on it cut a gash on his hand, but the young elf was a man on a mission. Silver grey power swirled around his palm for a second before aquamarine light interwove itself in his spell chain. He shivered, feeling the side effects of channeling mana outside of his Attunement, before a near translucent blade formed above the bear.

It fell, digging further into the bear even as the growl coming from within its body grew louder. William was unbending as the same Augmented spell chain formed, twice the size of the first. With a downward swing of his arm as if he was the blade, he roared out its name. "!"

Thunder cracked overhead as a wrist thick ice floe descended onto the bear's neck. It wedged itself beside its smaller sibling and almost entirely severed the creature's neck. The light in its eyes flickered as the eerily silent attack landed. Joe didn't appear happy to leave the thing the opportunity to heal from a severed spine.

"!" The draconian yelled, his claws held up to the sky as if in supplication, the ground beneath the Regen Bear's head heaving as it exploded with all the fury of a volcano. Threads of angry orange mana were interwoven in the air as the last bits of tissue holding the bear's head together were torn and the head itself was sent flying five feet to the north. Joe tumbled to the ground like a snuffed candle.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Billy gasped for air for several seconds, his legs leaving him floating in the air unsteadily until he was able to get his mana effects under control. He made sure that Jolene was okay, if impacted by the mana overdraw, before checking on Joe Kelly. Smoke was still escaping from the draconian's horns, but the elf didn't know whether to assume that meant he was fine or not. After a second, the Mana Shard in his sternum flickered between dull and shimmering while Billy felt the temperature drop around Joe. When the flickering stopped, to be replaced by only the dimmest of glows, Billy relaxed. His chest was rising and falling steadily.

A pair of elementals that hadn't been dissuaded by the smoke filled mantle he'd created tried to rush Joe, but William turned an eye on the creatures. His Partial Trait spun fast enough to let out a soft whine as he glared at the elementals. They drifted uncertainly in the air for a moment before taking to the sky. On the way, they flickered with their own internal lights as if they were fireflies communicating and the dozen or so elementals that had been harassing the caravan abandoned their efforts in seconds.

"Couldn't do that stone cold glare from the beginning?" Joe groaned, his clawed hand rubbing at his brow to clear away just as much soot as he put back.

"I... didn't know I could do that," Billy said, glancing at his curse-turned-blessing of a pair of legs. "Not many elementals where I come from."

"Lucky," Joe said, slumping to the ground. He'd given up on trying to clean his face.

When the sky overhead stopped trying to kill them and the beheaded bear didn't stir for a whole minute, the people in the caravan rushed forward. There were a few lower leveled Life Attuned that provided what ministrations they could for Joe. Billy and Jolene thanked them, but chose to let their own passive regeneration take care of the injuries. The wounds they saw on many of the caravanners were already being neglected in favor of the draconian. Neither of them had been really hurt except in the mana department. With the benefits of being Q6, not even Billy's double dislocation left him in discomfort by the time the caravan had been sorted.

There were many tears shed, especially once people started to finally realize they were roughly in the protective envelop of Ocala. From the downcast looks it was clear to Jolene that the caravanners had lost more than goods in the caravans that had been destroyed. When Joe Kelly was more recovered, the Shard in his chest growing steadily brighter, the group made for the bottling plant's Crystal Ward.

As the group got their one remaining oxen on the way, Jolene placed her hand on the Regen Bear while calling forth her . Joe stammered at the sight of the Bunker Busters manifested spell chains even as he grunted under the deluge of Pith and Dreg. A grimace was plastered on his face, but a spiderweb of orange veins rose up from his body as the energy was absorbed. To say that the two Dreg Warriors had questions would have been an understatement, but the wilds weren't the place for that. They collected something that looked vaguely like a torso sized liver dripping with golden ichor and the bear's Q6 Infusion before rejoining the wagon train. Never before was Jolene so glad that Materials dropped after a creature was dissociated didn't decay like normal organic bits. Even with the canvas bag she'd been quickly given by the caravanners, the squelching sounds were unnerving.

Progress was very slow, and Billy was forced to scare away elementals attracted by either the mass of humans or the Shard-bearing draconian in their midst. Conversation was muted, if at all present. After the initial relief of being saved from the Regen Bear, the whole crowd of survivors were drained. Nevertheless, nearly two hours after they first departed the Ward the tower came into sight. To Jolene's immense confusion, it looked like the sky had started to clear in the horizon; the eyewall of the hurricane was nowhere to be seen.

The Cloth Muscles manning the Ward spotted them quickly, three of them rushing to meet them before the caravan made it to the building proper. Throk was amongst them, the orc looking at the Bunker Busters with a mixture of fear and awe. Where each came from Jolene couldn't be sure.

"We'll get our healer to help here," Throk said, addressing Jolene and Billy without meeting their eyes.

"Sorry about pushing you all around like that," Billy said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "Hec's been through quite a bit already, so I might have overreacted a bit."

The Cloth Muscle only nodded, but the orc's confusion was clear.

"I don't think everyone in the Cloth Muscles knows about Radolfo's efforts with the Metier Crystals," Jolene said through the comm-plant. That prompted Billy to blush furiously, but the mermaid had his back and spoke to Throk directly. "Just because we have information you do not does not mean we are above you. You reacted appropriately. There will be no retribution from us or your supervisors. This caravan was lucky to have a Ward as attentive as this one looking out for them."

A chime echoed through the air. It was a pure high note filled with joy and contentment. Its source was obvious as every person in the caravan and the Cloth Muscles looked to the Entity within the Crystal Ward that glowed with triumphant light for a second before fading to its normal brilliance. Jolene heard the murmuring of the caravanners uptick, and Joe mumbled 'it is a light in the dark' from beside her.

Despite Jolene's attempt to reassure Throk, Hec's likely uncoincidental message had thrown that in the trash. The orc and the other Cloth Muscles showed the Bunker Busters even more reverence. The caravanners, for their part, were just slumped with relief. Only Joe seemed immune to this, taking the opportunity to go ahead towards the tower while the older people in the caravan spoke with the Zebelos representatives. Jolene and Billy shared a look, joining up with the youth and continuing forth to the bottling plant. They didn't say anything, instead letting the young draconian speak for himself after almost a whole minute of silence.

"I don't have anyone else," Joe said quietly. "My parents have been gone for a few years and my uncle was one of the people that died protecting the caravan. This was supposed to be a new start away from the stress of the frontlines!"

Jolene grimaced. It wasn't an uncommon tale amidst the people of Wildwood. Almost a quarter of families in the towns weren't actually blood relatives but instead hodgepodge family units that had formed as widows, widowers, orphans, and the bereaved cobbled together a future. Jolene was the result of such combinations, her parents having lost their loved ones and being placed with adoptive families not long after the Fall. While the mermaid didn't know the specifics of Joe's background, she knew his pain.

"You don't have to be alone," Billy said softly, glancing at Jolene for support and receiving it wholeheartedly. "Things are tough now, but we are doing our best to change that. If Ocala isn't willing to take you in, I'm sure the Wild Guard will have a place for you."

"Thank you," Joe said, chuckling slightly. "At least you two can vouch for my awesome explosions!"

"We have a friend I think you'd get along with great," Jolene said, picturing Daniela the mother-hen over Billy and Joe. The thought of their friends, however, brought their original intent for coming out to the archival Ward to the front of her mind. She didn't regret helping the caravan in the least, but the arrival of such a large group would complicate things when it came to the Factions. Just the fact that other towns and cities had survived the Fall further north had come as a surprise to the Wildwoodians, but that was all they'd been able to glean while in Ocala. Even the records kept by the more economically oriented Zebelos only mentioned them in passing or as an oddity. The mermaid didn't know what goods they were bringing with them, or what news, for that matter.

Ugh. This reeks of politics. Now I really am starting to understand why Ronan tries to avoid or steamroll them whenever possible. The whole 'not all Tendrils are bad' situation was complicated enough. She didn't think it was the most opportune time, but if the Conferences of Ocala were as big a deal as they had appeared to be in the archive records then Ronan would need every ace he could get.

"Joe, I know you probably don't want to talk about it but... what happened?" Jolene asked once she'd solidified her nerves. Sure enough, the draconian stiffened, but it wasn't for long. This kid is tough as nails.

"Not much to tell really," he said, shoulders slumping. The fact that he was taller than both the Bunker Busters didn't make the gesture as obvious as it should have, but they were both focused on the draconian. "Things were going well until they weren't. Not long after leaving the city of Starke our caravan hit a colony of Fire Beetles that was migrating. They weren't too bad, but... there was a big bad in the mix."

The draconian went quiet for a moment, instinctively reaching up towards the Shard in his chest. "One of them had this in their body. Some of the big name military defenders had them too, so the caravan owner knew it was worth a lot. A few days into the trip... well it was becoming obvious that it was attracting creatures. No one knew why that didn't happen in the city, but by that point it was too late to go back. My uncle... he called it sunk fallacy cost or something like that. Every night at the tent ring people would argue that we should just leave it behind, and every night someone would convince them that we were just one day closer to Ocala.

"Four days ago, the wildlife and elementals had finally taken enough of a toll. The first pair died when they fell asleep on watch. The caravan leader followed the next day when a bird the size of that bear tried to pluck him from the ground. With that went any cooperation and everyone was all for themselves. My uncle tried to keep me from the fights, but he was just one person and the fights found me anyway.

"In the chaos... this called to me." Joe tapped his chest, a gentle hum filling the air as the light in the Mana Shard responded to the draconian's touch. "The rest was a lot of death. Before I knew it, I had more than horns and the caravan was looking to me for direction. Which was when the bear found us. The few other Fallen with Gifts stayed back and killed the thing, but we never saw them again and clearly it didn't die. I killed it again with the help of the Fallen that were left, but it wasn't enough. I-- I couldn't just leave everyone, but we weren't making any progress towards the city and then it showed up again and--"

Jolene put her hand on the draconian's uncomfortably warm shoulder. The gesture was the key to the dam Joe had been holding back, and neither Bunker Buster was going to stop it. With no reason to doubt the youth's tale, it was a wonder he'd kept it together at all. Jolene blinked away tears as she pulled the boy close. Billy joined in, sandwiching the draconian and making him feel just a little bit lighter despite how much he'd had to grow up. Mentally and physically.

Unfortunately, the moment couldn't last forever.

The caravan wasn't moving quickly, but they were all eager to be fully ensconced in safety. When the rolling of metal-reinforced wagon wheels reached their ears, the three survivors stepped back and wiped at their eyes. Joe smiled weakly --a terrifying sight considering all the Traits that had left him looking like a predatory lizard-- before motioning towards the Crystal Ward. Just as they were ready to call out to the Cloth Muscles keeping watch from the top of the tower, a clear note rang through the air from the direction of the city. Everyone froze for a second, turning in confusion towards Ocala proper. A second later, another chime followed and then another. As if a cascade of glass were singing in their ears, both foreigners and locals were confused by the sound until the Crystal Ward close to them copied the note.

Billy and Jolene froze as their Implant reacted and information flashed at the edge of their vision.

"Ha! I knew it!" Billy cheered, jumping in the air with enough force to clear a two story building. His whooping voice warbled as it blended with the uncontrolled burst of Air mana he let loose, joining the chimes from the Wards throughout Ocala. Joe was very much confused, but he seemed to join in the cheer by osmosis. If his rescuers were happy, why wouldn't he be? Jolene was also smiling, shaking her head in the direction of Hec's closest offshoot and in the direction that she anticipated her not-quite-boyfriend had delivered a smackdown. The corner of her mouth climbed higher as she pictured his cocky swagger and confident stride after helping slap a force of nature. We might never be able to deflate his ego after this.

It didn't matter. Even with all the unknowns still hanging over their heads, and the troubling timeline the elf-mermaid duo had been able to construct, she knew that the people she fought with were crazy enough to pull off the impossible. After all...

## City Wide Notification (For Those With Friends In Crystal Places) #

## The Primal Elemental Monarch has been rebuffed ##

## Glory to the Dreg Warriors, may their stalwart leader remain a Vanguard to the void's call ##