We are running at night. I haven’t been informed for how long or how far we’ll run tonight, though I have been informed that the government is transporting my car to my home town by truck. We do not have the coins to check for intrusions, not that it matters at this speed. Our leutenant must be under orders to win some distance. The road is fairly wide, but a monster with any kind of camouflage will be invisible unless it wanders right onto the road.

They actually do just that. Two headless sheep with a single large eyestalk crowned by a ring of eyes and ears above them, where the head is supposed to be, bearing a ring of tentacles on their rump are standing on the road. Our convoy does not immediately open fire. We are using a place with a relatively broad hard shoulder to get two heavy machine guns on armored cars and a cannon to bear on them, also blocking the road sheltering our truck and the unarmed armored vehicle. I have no idea why we are using a truck to carry extra infantry.

We in the 4WD again branch out into the fields, bringing our heavy machine guns to bear as well as guarding the flanks. Nobody tells me anything except to watch the flanks. Thomas is manning our machine gun, as I can conjure my own weapon, which should be more effective. It seems like our convoy commander is not eager to open hostilities. I really approve. But I also see that we cannot wait here all night long.

U: Hold your fire. I just got orders. Our mission is not to eliminate random monsters. If necessary, fire at the large monster. The cannon will deal with the smaller one.

T: Understood

P: Understood

The monsters are charging us taking that decision out of our hands. A conjured magic gun whose ammunition is also conjured and not producing the fumes a firearm would produce still produces a muzzle flash. Magic is odd.

I am using both my third and second ability. The feeling is very different from the one time I used it in anger and totally different from using it in a shooting range. With fake targets it just does nothing. Instead of feeling like I am pushing a hard wooden stick into earth it is like I am putting something a fair bit softer into something durable. I have gone full auto and it takes several seconds before I get that rush of mana being fed into me. Even so it is diminished. I am getting as little as makes no difference from the rifles our infantrists are firing. The machine guns do make a difference though.

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The smaller monster is taking damage. It is bleeding from multiple wounds and its stalk is swaying like a palm tree in a typhoon. But it keeps coming. An ordinary sheep hit by 25mm shells just blows apart in a shower of gore.

Those of our men equipped with magical ammo have switched to it. The bigger sheep is attempting to zig-zag, as the bullets keep affecting it like a log getting glancing blows from an axe just without the sound. Shallow gauges are opening in its sides, visible as tracer rounds have lit its fur removing it in some sections. That should also not happen. I still sense my reserves going down. I sneak a long burst on the small sheep in. That does the job also getting me mana from it as it walks into cannon fire. I can keep firing.

The small sheep does not quite make it to the armored fighting vehicle before it collapses. They are reaiming the turret, but it is too late. The surviving monster rams into the vehicle and tentacles immobilize the turret gripping the gun barrel. There is a hissing sound, but a normal creature should be scorched and forced to release the barrel. Its other tentacles are searching for anything to grab. The soldiers among us keep firing their bullets on the monster. It is hooting like a demented owl. Shortly after ripping off a tire, flinging it away and embedding it in the windscreen of a 4WD it finally dies.

--

We have two police officers in the front seats of the 4WD severly wounded with lacerations and a concussion. Our medics are at work. About three quarters of our magic ammunition is gone. The armored fighting vehicle has lost its cannon with the barrel warped to a visible degree. Though it seems it still can drive with an axle disabled.

This convoy is done for. Leutnant Jäger, our commanding officer gives an order to circle the vehicles still mobile. That man is a realist and his tactics basically worked.

He is approaching our car.