I want a teleport power. I am still breathing very deeply. But I want it. This is magic at its quintessential. I am also on the ground. No, I am not that much affected. They left the ground full of blood and gore. I slipped and fell on my ass. And I have done some damage to an ankle.

I am sitting in front of a dead mammoth. That is if an furry animal twice as high as myself with four spiky globes mounting on stalks replacing the four tusks you see on some prehistoric relatives of elephants. The spikes also stud a lot of the ground. I’ve been lucky.

Rademacher helps me up. „Try your best.“. He gave me a bag of sand. „There is more if you need it. This space will be stable for a considerable time, but our forces are thin on the ground. We are even not clearing out this space.“.

That means less to me than it should mean to a Network ritualist I am afraid. I go to work. And I fail.

Reinhard: This way we’ll lose. These untrained people are a waste. We need to consolidate.

I am miffed. I did my best.

Rademacher: I saw too much of this the last time.

Did he really casually refer to the Second World War? His speech sounds a little odd for somebody who looks around 50, but that would make him …

They both look at me at the same time.

Reinhard: You can just as well tell him your birthdate. They are going to figure out anyway.

Rademacher: Very well, 5.11.1918 – Get a full set of essences and such things become possible, not easy but possible. You tried hard. If and when this is over, the Network might be recruiting.

I hesitate, but those people are bound to have seen it all I cannot hide too much from them.

P: I won’t pretend to understand everything, but it looks to me like there is a latent conflict between the government and the Network.

Rademacher: You hesitated. That is good. We need thinking people. This is now. Governments change. I can tell you that. We had to maintain secrecy. The world is much bigger …

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

I can see only a blurred action as he spins around to face the hairy giant exploding out of the ground behind him while casting aside a bloody blanket and screaming something unintelligible. Out of the corner of my eye I see a red flash. Reinhard is slowly collapsing to his knees as a javelin of coagulated blood sticks out of his chest. The sheer force of the impact has thrown him a few meters forward and to the side. A second giant is hurling himself through the air in pursuit. A dome of yellow light appears around Reinhard leaving the giant to use his fist and whips of blood forming from small wounds to pound on the defensive structure.

How long would it hold? If either of them goes down, I am dead. These monster cannot be stopped by my rifle. I am sure of that. But do I need to stop them?

» Hey monster. We’ve gotten your friend!

A look of wrath overcame his face as he stares at me. He has actually understood. But he does not understand the little thing looking like a stick in my hands. Two shots, two eyes. I cannot kill him, but taking his sight will do the job for now. Adding a change of position to hide behind one of the hairy legs of the slain elephant-monster seems like a good idea.

Rademacher turns into the world’s most unattractive valkyrie as he jumps about twenty meters with a spear of light in his hands to save his comrade in arms.

They have magical healing potions. Why would I not expect that?

Rademacher has defeated his enemy with only superficial cuts.

Rademacher: I do not know how they hid from me. We cannot risk leaving them here. I think we got the anchor, but if they hid themselves the whole time the detector may have been fooled and now they are dead. That is dead for now.

P: Why are you telling me this and what do you mean by „dead for now“

Rademacher: They are trolls. They will resurrect. We either burn them or loot them. I am giving you a second chance. Do you want to try it.

I’ve tried again. And I’ve gotten two awakening stones from them. I get better when the worst has already happened.

Rademacher slings Reinhard over his shoulder.

Rademacher: I will need reinforcement. I am going to give your base commander instructions on how to radio in a report and I will remain here while you evacuated.

He presses one of the stones into my hand. „Reinhard is my nephew.“