The New Arrival's Guide to Common Things

by Jorbon Delivas

Simply requiring extreme capability is enough, by its very nature, to remove a large majority of beings from the pool of potential enforcers.

The next piece of criteria decreases the potential choices even further. Enforcers are required to have an absolutely clean track-record themselves. Having so much as a misdemeanor on their universal criminal record, tracked by the UICI, is enough to make a being ineligible. For this reason, most enforcers are actually chosen very shortly after arriving to the world from their tutorial.

It has been proven many times over that this is the most certain way to ensure candidates do not accidentally trod upon laws or contracts unintentionally. Candidates are taken away by the faction they've been contracted by and isolated during training. Their training is administered on worlds which are specifically removed from any law or potential contractual break - so there is no chance of an unintended slip of candidacy status during their training.

As one might imagine, the legal training provided during their stay within their faction's enforcer's academy is extreme. Enforcers are expected to know the law, they are also required to follow it - always. The instant an enforcer breaks a law, their official status as enforcer is removed.

As a side note, breaking any clause of a contract which would lead to enforcement being required itself counts as breaking the law and will invalidate their position. It is known that, as a result, enforcer contracts tend to be much less stringent in order to provide them the flexibility and space they need to perform their function.

Piper

Near the Cavern Lake, Second Layer, Chimera M 63

Piper took deep, long, breaths. The sensation of Willow's mana flowing in and through her was much more potent this time than it'd ever been before. At least, so far as she could remember. Twisting her neck and craning her head awkwardly, she looked up at her mother's face. It was set into lines of intense concentration. Sharp blue eyes almost seeming to glow in the cavern's gloom, deep lines creasing her normally carefree forehead where sweat pooled and dripped slowly.

It had only been about twenty minutes since Piper woke to find Willow sitting alone, watching the barrier-blocked passage. She'd had to fly right in front of her mother's eyes to break her out of whatever stupor she was under. For some reason she'd ignored her soft calls and even pinches and hair-pulls. Mother could be very strange sometimes.

Another wave of mana crashed through Piper and she shivered from head to foot. It felt similar to flying at high speeds in a race, but inside her own body. Something was nearly complete, though she didn't know what. It was exciting. Scary. Turning back around, Piper focused on the feeling of mother's finger on the small of her back. The sensation was way more intense than it'd ever been before, more real. She'd had a kind of touch sense for a long time, but it was getting sharper and less vague. If she wasn't worried that breaking Willow's concentration would cause her harm, Piper would have loved to ask why she was increasing her touch sensitivity instead of just making her better able to recover from whatever horrible pain she was feeling in the stepped back place.

"Alright", Willow breathed out softly. "Almost done."

The next blast of energy from Willow's finger was intense and less-than-pleasant. It felt similar to being stabbed by that weird glass, but in reverse. Piper clenched her teeth, which she was shocked to find hardened like normal teeth rather than semi-soft as they'd always been before. I hope she didn't go too far, if she makes me a 'real girl' I'll be way too easy to squish!

The thought was washed away as the pain reflected off of her innards and spread throughout her entire body. A soft whimper escaped her lips unbidden before she could strangle it. Thankfully, mother didn't comment. She did retract her finger though, leaving only the echoes of the power and pain.

Piper stood and turned around, looking up at Willow curiously. Reading her expression, mother answered her unasked question, "I figured some stuff out and had a new technique to test, so I made sure it worked how I wanted on less important things before healing you."

Reaching up to poke her now hardened teeth, Piper frowned, "Will these break?"

"That's what you're worried about, huh?" Mother snickered. "If they break they'll turn into your normal goop and return to your body to reconstruct. It'll hurt, though."

"What?! You gave me pain feelers!?" Piper was aghast! She loved not being able to be hurt! It was so funny to splatter against a wall, peel herself off, and see beings give her a concerned and semi-disgusted look. She'd got almost all of Frella's crew with that one during their trip!

Nodding seriously, Willow explained, "You'll feel about a tenth of the pain a human would, with a certain cap where it'll just cut out."

"Whyyyyy?!" Wings and knees sagged together, the impact of her knee hitting the earth sending a spike of sensation through her. It wasn't pain, not like the not-glass shard, but it was something.

A gentle finger patted Piper's head and stroked down her neck and back, sending a weird floaty feeling through her skin. Oh, that's interesting!

"Two reasons. First, you're way too careless. Consequences make sure lessons stick, but the only consequences you really had available were really serious. Being damaged permanently, having one of your friends die, being captured and held helpless, things like that. Pain is a lesser consequence which will warn you when you're being reckless. At least when it comes to your body. If you had a sense of caution, or had built up instincts to avoid pain, you might have dodged that glass shard thing you got hit with."

Still on her knees, Piper found herself kind of agreeing. She hated it. Pouting, she asked, "What's the second reason?"

Willow's smile this time was gentle, almost… Motherly! "Pain and pleasure are two sides of the same coin. It's not fair that you don't get to feel good things… What if we run into a puppy or kitten and you pet it? Before you would know it was soft, but couldn't actually experience what that means. Now you can!"

Eyes wide, the stubborn annoyance at having been made more 'vulnerable' washed away. Piper immediately leapt up, flying to Willow's hair. She ran her hands through her mother's locks and… "Ewwwwww, why's your hair so greasy?! And are these… Blood clumps?! Gross gross, I'm gonna throw up! Did you give me the ability to throw up? Can you!?"

Willow

Atop sheered off stalagmite, Second Layer, Chimera M 63

Swatting at Piper, Willow could only smile at her antics. Then subtly sniff herself and realize her dramatic side-kick wasn't wrong. She was nasty. Once someone else woke to keep watch she'd have to take a quick dip in the pond.

Turning to stare at the still, dark, surface of the water, she quickly changed her mind. Maybe Frella's team had some kind of portable shower. They had so many incredible pieces of gear all packed neatly into those fancy compressed bags of theirs.

"Anyway," Piper's now normal voice came from above as she flitted around, a distracted expression on her face as she moved her hand around through the air as if caressing it, "I'll go check if I still have any wounds in that other place."

"Come right back regardless. If you're still hurt we'll do another session once I recover more of my mana, if you're not, I want to know right away that you're safe."

"Kay!" With that, Piper waved her feet in an approximation of a step in mid-air and vanished.

A few tense moments passed, then Piper was back and zooming around excitedly. "All better! Even better than better! You gave me armor!? How fucking cool is that?!"

"Language! And you're welcome. What does it look like?"

"The armor? Shouldn't you know, you made it!" Piper stopped, hovering in front of Willow with fists on hips.

Willow shrugged, "I made it so the armor will appear how you want it to look."

Piper didn't reply immediately, a horrified expression appearing on her face - mouth set in an 'O' with her eyes wide and brows nestling as far into her hairline as they could go.

"Well?" Willow prompted.

"I thought you were messing with me…" Piper grumped, kicking at nothing in the air while averting her gaze.

"I was already curious, no need to ramp the tension."

A few seconds passed. Willow stayed silent, assuming Piper was enjoying dragging out the moment of drama. In a very, very, soft voice that Willow only barely heard, Piper replied. "It's a chain mail bikini…."

Once Willow had stopped snickering, Piper had stopped whining, and they both fell into a comfortable silence, Piper hopped up and declared, "Well! I guess it's time to try again!"

Her brave words contrasted sharply with the uncertain expression and hesitant posture of her body. Willow frowned, "You don't need to, there's no reason to put yourself in danger. We can get Koll to slip out and check things out. His stealth is insane, I'm sure he can gather the information we need. Or maybe Naomi and I can help Jonah with his overhead view thing, improve it so it can't be fooled by the monsters."

"No…" Piper took a deep breath. "Naomi asked me to figure out who is behind all this and I found that man and woman. I just need to figure out where they are and then I can lead you all to them so you can beat them up and end this stupid chase."

Willow held her words for a bit, thinking about it. Knowing where the enemies were would be very helpful. On the other hand, they'd probably just move if they knew they'd been found. "Let's wait till Naomi wakes back up. She's better at the plotting and tactics stuff. If they see you again it might be worse for us."

"Oh… I guess so." The pink pixie wilted a bit, floating to the ground and kicking a stone. She yelped and grabbed at her toe as the stone failed to move and her big toe deformed slightly around it. "Ow ow ow!!! Whyyyyyyy!"

Another twelve hours passed before everyone was back up and ready for action. Willow was getting nervous. They'd been in this one cavern for almost twenty-four hours now. Previously, their enemies had been uncannily capable of tracking them down no matter what they did. All of them assumed they'd have maybe six or seven hours to rest before their barriers were battered down and they have to fight their way through the latest group of enemies.

"There's likely a large force gathered outside the tunnel." Frella's words weren't accusing or angry, more resigned. After getting some sleep and having time to think, they all looked more or less defeated. It was a shocking different from the tired, but determined party that had entered the pond-cavern yesterday. yesternight?

Naomi - still just Prism to Frella and co - nodded, "Most likely, yes. System, can you confirm?"

Willow had heard Naomi ask Jonah to scout the exit right when he got up four or so hours ago. This was clearly more for show than anything. Piper apparently thought the same, whispering into her ear, "Doesn't she already know the answer?"

Shrugging, Willow waited with everyone else as Jonah nodded. Less than a minute later he nodded, "There's maybe two hundred monsters out there… That I can see. They've been using something to hide some of the creatures from me, so we should assume there are more I can't see."

"I can check!" Piper volunteered immediately.

Thinking for a moment, Naomi nodded, "Go and check our exit, but don't try and spy on any of their leaders again. We don't want them to be sure what we do or don't know."

"Aye-aye, captain!" Piper vanished with a couple steps.

Shaking her head, Loivl noted, "We shouldn't have stopped here… We created a perfect trap for ourselves."

Seeing the looks thrown at her, she quickly clarified, "I'm not blaming anyone, we were all exhausted and it's not like I argued either, even as I barely squeezed through the crevice to get in here!" Her large hands raised in front of her, warding any accusations before they flew.

Willow shrugged, "I don't know… It'd probably be better to be semi-trapped than exhausted with enemies around every corner." Some murmurs of agreement met her observation.

Before the discussion could progress, Piper appeared on Naomi's shoulder. She leaned over to whisper into Naomi's ear. No doubt to make the entire thing more dramatic than necessary. Naomi didn't appear bothered though as she nodded along.

Once done, Naomi explained - much more succinctly if we assume Piper was actually talking that whole time - "We've got a couple hundred, as System noted already. One of their leaders is also out there, the human man. He's dressed in some kind of black full plate with a longbow on his back and two hand crossbows hanging near his hips."

Unlike most of the others, Willow grinned at the news. Finally, we've got a head to aim at!

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The plan was pretty straight forward, as these things went. Willow had worked with Hosh and Poli, creating a rite. This time, unlike when she'd created her first with Naomi, they'd spent time trying to come up with a way to accomplish their goals by augmenting each-other's spells rather than moving straight to a rite.

To Willow's secret delight, they'd been unable to make it work as two separate casters supporting each other. They'd definitely need to mix their mana. Even better was what they'd ended up making! Hosh and Willow grinned madly at each-other as they sat across from each other. Poli didn't seem as excited as the others, his contribution being both the most minor and the least critical. Still, it would have made the final result way harder to package.

"Who's gonna do the honors?" Willow asked her group-project members.

"I will!" Hosh immediately answered. "Using it falls most in-line with my normal role in a fight anyway. You need to be closer to be effective and Prism wants Poli with Frella since they synergize so well."

"Pah, how dare you have such good and logical reasons to get to use our toy!" Willow mock raged.

Hosh chuffed in amusement, Poli blinked in annoyance.

"Alright, she's all yours." Willow hopped up from her cross-legged position and rubbed her hands together. This was going to be awesome.

"Ready?" Prism's voice came through the party channel. Everyone had been given ten minutes to get in position and settle themselves. After all, there was no reason for them to rush. Their enemies were just kind of milling around, waiting for them. According to Iris, the man seemed irritated and bored. He was sitting near the back of the army in a kind of stone throne. The monsters were getting agitated too, snapping at each other and starting small fights. Unfortunately, whatever control the man had over them was too strong and he was able to quickly end the conflicts.

"Ready", "Yes", "In position", "On your mark", "Yep!", "More than", "Always", "I am"

"Then proceed in Five… Four… Three…"

Phoenix fell into her focus. Instead of just activating the ability normally, she used one of the things Hazel had taught her. Wrapping her discipline and instruction mana within a tube of purpose. The tube created a conduit between the ability and the mana pools, constantly infusing both mana types with separate intents. For now, she didn't activate the moment portion of the ability, so the instruction mana was simply ready to be pulled and infused rather than activated.

As for her discipline mana, its intent was more subtle than what Phoenix had done in the past. Rather than a brute-force demand or concept, the intent was complicated and nuanced. The intent was to reinforce good habits and avoid bad ones. A 'training' intent, essentially. It had taken a long time to work out all the particulars of how it should work with Hazel, but Phoenix was eager to see how it would work.

"…two…"

As the mana finished its first cycle, the world around her changed. Her attention sharpened. Sharp edges became obvious, environmental hazards stood out, her allies turned a bright green color while a vague red outline hovered around the barriers, behind which she knew enemies waited. Unfortunately it didn't let her see through the wall to spy on the enemies like System. A soft pinprick of pain ran through her mind, the unnecessary thought flickering out like a spark trampled under foot.

"…one." Poli collapsed his barriers and Hosh activated the prepared spell. The casing Poli had provided had kept the spell stable and contained until it was time to use it, the yellow light around it winking out instantly.

The star-beam cannon, mark one, fired. Phoenix's eyes were already closed, hands clasped over them, as were all of her companions'. The world lit up anyway. A white imprint of the cave pathway which she'd been facing was etched forcibly into her eyes and mind, the after image hanging there with no intention of leaving despite her closed and covered eyes. The shock of the sudden light was contrasted sharply, and eerily, with the absolute lack of sound, heat, or concussive force. That wasn't because the spell lacked any of that. Rather, it was due to her own contribution to the spell. Those aspects would only be present within the confines of the beam itself.

Phoenix felt her back into it skill nudge her, requesting mana to activate. She allowed it, repairing whatever damage had been done to her eyes. Blinking, her vision cleared and the after-image began to fade. The tight, craggy, bent little tunnel they'd crawled their way through to enter their current pond-dominated cavern was no more. In its place, a ten meter diameter passage of perfectly smoothed rock gaped invitingly.

Without a moment of hesitation, Phoenix chased the last wisps of light down the tunnel. Frella and Slyth joined her on either side, Frella on her right while Slyth's sword guarded her right flank. Each of their swords were highlighted in a yellow-green hue, a warning reminding her they could still threaten her despite their wielder's allegiance. Poli and Kash were mere steps behind. A blur of green was all Phoenix caught of Koll as the gremlin overtook them and vanished into the chaos beyond.

Reaching the edge of the tunnel, the three shock-troops roared in unison. Phoenix unleashing her newest spell at the same moment. Battlesong was essentially an altered version of imperative command with two set effects. Seeing the mass of monsters flinching away, some turning and fleeing entirely, Phoenix confirmed the first part worked as expected. The second part was more complicated.

The greens of all of her allies snapped to a neon hue, confirming the spell's successful application to them. Each of her allies now had a lesser version of her currently active focus. The machine line efficiency that Frella exhibited as her sword flashed out in militant arcs, the graceful swoops of Slyth's dancing blade, and the pin-point precision of Poli's dozens of finger-sized barriers turning attacks and disrupting enemies proved its effectiveness.

"Going for the heart!" Phoenix called through the channel, using the agreed phrase to let everyone know which phase of their plan they were entering.

She only hesitated for the two seconds it took for Prism to reply, "Approved, go."

Fully activating her moment of focus, Phoenix flew. Her body had never felt so light, so perfectly under her command. The world had never been so compliant. The air itself felt as though it bent subtly to avoid resisting her passage, every footfall was as sure as if she was sprinting across pavement rather than a treacherous rocky cavern.

Brilliant joy raged through Phoenix's heart at the overwhelming sensation, yet her objective was never lost. There was never a moment of distraction birthed by ecstatic elation. The intent infused into her instruction mana wasn't to stop, or freeze her enemies as was the default. Instead, its purpose was to aid her. Everything her ability touched was instructed to bend itself to allow her to accomplish whatever goal she was set upon.

The assids and a few other monsters were just as resistant to this form of the ability as they were the other and took swipes at Phoenix as she blurred past them. The attacks never landed, being intercepted by a falling disrupted stone, missing as Phoenix's steps were just a single moment quicker than anticipated due to the ground rolling and pushing her forward, or another enemy appeared to take the attack itself willingly or otherwise.

Her mana was draining much more quickly than it did when Phoenix used the 'default' version of the ability. She'd need to end this quickly. Her eyes were locked on the man in charge of these creatures. A man who had managed to stand, knock and arrow, and fire it. The arrow curved before it struck, bypassing Phoenix entirely and tearing a trench of monster bodies behind her.

"He took out four assids, three of their mounts, and one an armored mole thing we haven't seen before." System reported directly to Phoenix. "Don't let him hit you."

"Got it." Phoenix replied, this time setting her left foot and pivoting around the second arrow, which had been let loose seconds after the first. She was only a half dozen meters away and the space between them was shrinking much faster than should be possible. She arrived before the third arrow could be nocked.

Phoenix's first punch struck true, her imperative command to 'break' shattering the plackart, throwing her enemy backward against the wall and revealing his stomach. To his credit, the man didn't panic or flail. He used some kind of spell or ability and became intangible for a moment, Phoenix's second punch flying through him without landing.

The ghost-like form of the man surged through Phoenix, passing her and flitting halfway down the edge of the tunnel. There was a curve at the far end, which Phoenix knew from System's scouting contained a three way fork and an overhead passage dug by one of the Grubuers. They'd discussed what should be done if the enemy commander tried to retreat in that direction.

"Poli, Hosh, fallback counter" Phoenix requested through the channel.

A brief hesitation, then, "On my mark." came from Poli.

"Heard" agreed Hosh.

Pheonix began to run toward her opponent, taking a dozen steps before she heard Poli, "Mark."

She pivoted and rushed into the melee, flanking the mass of enemies between herself and the rest of her party. Her goal shifted. She needed to rejoin the others now, as she would quickly become vulnerable alone. The enemy had discovered and tried to exploit her tendency to separate from the group several times. They wouldn't be getting the opportunity today.

She couldn't see exactly what happened to her prior target. She'd only heard the mark and saw a beam of Hosh's starlight flash past her. She struck the back of an assid, her fist breaking through it with a disgusting sound. It reminded her of squirting a packet of fast-food sauce back home and - pain.

Checking her mana, Phoenix saw her purpose mana was down to half, while her instruction was at a fourth and discipline nearly empty. Taking a deep breath, she released her ability in stages. In the past when she disabled the ability, everything snapped back to normal. That could be deadly in these circumstances. If a stone which was going to roll for her instead stood firm, she could be sent sprawling.

Just as her discipline mana ran dry, she finished lowing the output entirely and was running at a normal speed without aid. The exhaustion ran deep. She'd rarely used so much mana so quickly and even more rarely used all her mana. She was more exhausted now than she'd been during the second day of their running battle. Thankfully, this particular weariness was much more easily resolved.

"Incoming, need four seconds for mana refill." Phoenix sent to the entire group.

Slyth stepped in front of her as she passed him by, Frella, Loivl, and Kash maintaining the boundary they'd already established. As she staggered to a stop, Phoenix immediately began feeding the remaining exhilaration jubilation her ability's new 'mode' had brought on, along with her anger at the stupid boss running away, fear that her allies might fall, and everything else. Her mind silenced and her discipline mana spiked. She wasn't full, no where near, still sitting at less than half. Still, that was more than enough to run her focus on a slow burn for a protracted fight, so long as she didn't need to get fancy with it again.

Before she spun around to join the others, Phoenix noted Prism and System. System was standing well back, a look of focus on his face as he coordinated and helped everyone. His eyes were open, but unfocused. He was almost certainly focused exclusively on his overhead view. Prism, on the other hand, was doing something. Phoenix could see the absolute faintest outlines of dark tendril-like mana flowing from her. Oh! Can I finally detect her mana?!

The thought didn't quite keep her from remembering to turn and rejoin the fight, though she berated herself for the delay. Taking her place between Frella and Slyth, relieving Loivl who was a little worse for wear - not being a very accomplished defensive fighter.

Coming face to face with one of the 'mole things' System had noted earlier, Phoenix noted the hard carapace-like armor which covered the thing's entire body. It was unlikely a good punch would break through unenhanced. Casting imperitive command on her fists, Phoenix demanded, 'shatter impacted objects' and struck.

The punch hurt. It hurt way more than it would have if she'd sent the command into the armored mole directly. It worked, though. When she pulled back for a follow-up, she found a crater-like impact had been left in the badly damaged armor. Or is it part of the mole itself? Some natural armor over its skin? She didn't have time to contemplate, striking the same place with her other fist.

The sharp straight jab sent the mole staggering backwards, blood pooling in its mouth before it fell. It was quickly trampled by a pair of assids, which were clearly charging their spray. Phoenix grinned wickedly and sent a message through the channel, "Poli, two charging assids. Two seconds max."

"Got it." He answered.

When the gross cavities where a bell-button might have been on a normal creature opened, two plate-sized yellow barriers appeared centimeters in front of each. The assids died screaming as their own attack rebounded, dousing themselves in a mix of the frosty acid of one and bright green standard acid of the other.

"Phoenix, domain break. My mana is positioned. Enough mana?" Prism asked, voice sharp and urgent. There was likely something going on she couldn't see.

She immediately agreed, "Yes. It'll take me out of the fight for a while."

Prism didn't even have to say anything as Loivl stepped forward to swap with Phoenix, Slyth taking a half step away to widen the space between them so they both had comfortable space to fight side-by-side.

Stepping back, Phoenix prepared herself. Prism's command came a moment later, "Now."

Activating her standard moment of focus with a simple intent to 'spread using Naomi's mana' was enough to instantly expand it without expending more of her own mana. They'd tested this after Madrick made fun of them, of course, so she wasn't surprised.

Then she sent her imperative command through, adding a surrounding layer of purpose mana with the intent to only affect enemies. Not allies. Not the environment. "Break".

Phoenix's sight cut out, all of her mana pools draining away at once apparently too much.

Bathrick

The War

Bathrick couldn't quite remember when, or why, he'd been designated as a general for this war. It didn't really matter, though. He'd gained more progress in his path in these last five days than he had in the last year. He was more than happy to serve in the war, it was a good cause anyway. The progress toward his advancement was just a bonus.

He'd been stuck on the last rank for his grind. Once he'd reached the required raw potential, he was certain he'd advance directly up to thirty. He had already managed to fulfill the conditions up to that point. Unfortunately, he still needed to push through the ranker's grind - just like everyone else.

Those had been the thoughts occupying Bathrick before a star had been born on top of himself and his forces. So many screamed, died, in that first blast. That insane bitch that had punched him moments later had disengaged and was slaughtering the remains of his forces along with the rest of her troupe. No wonder the warlord had assigned four entire generals to removing a single small, but elite, force. Cassidy's caution was now well justified.

Continuing to fire arrow after arrow toward the enemy ranks, Bathrick found himself at an impasse. Every time he tried to move closer, a beam of dangerous luminescence sought him. With his armor broken, it couldn't protect him from the light-based attack. The lycanth's starlight was the entire reason he'd been the one to oversee this ambush, as the deadly beam couldn't harm him. At least, it wouldn't have been able to.

Meanwhile, every single one of his arrows was deflected by a tiny angled chip of a yellow barrier. The deflected arrow inevitably reaped the life of one of his own troops. Thankfully, the reinforcements were just about to arrive.

A nasty grin spread across his concealed face and he swapped his bow for a simple wand. He swept the wand in its activation pattern and an illusion of Cassidy appeared. Her eyes took in the scene and she nodded. "Shock troops deployed." She spoke simply, her voice flat, then the illusion shattered. She was the true linchpin of this entire war effort, if Bathrick was being honest with himself. Without her powerful illusion magics the generals wouldn't be able to communicate with each other, and their scouts wouldn't have any trouble noticing all of their ambushes well in advance.

Pain. Pain shot through Bathrick from his back. Twisting. He found a black dagger buried to the hilt in his lower back. He gaped, shocked and confused. How? Then the dagger twisted and pulled. He screamed as his mind finally saw through whatever trick or illusion hid the diminutive gremlin which was grinning up at him with nasty shark teeth. It yanked, retrieving its weapon, before vanishing.

Bathrick realized he was laying down on his stomach. How'd that happen? Wasn't he just up? Gasping, he remembered. He was stabbed.

Grunting, he just managed to mobilize his mana and activate his caught thief's gambit. His body turned incorporeal and rose. He couldn't affect the world around him in this state, but it couldn't affect him either. Well, there were technically some specialized magics that could. Thankfully, they were rare.

The sound of many heavy feet pounding on earth brought a grim satisfaction to Bathrick. He himself had been removed from the ambush, but it wouldn't matter. Three hundred charging Omryxers would be no easy thing to manage. The squat creatures had lizard-like bodies, but muscular bore-like legs. The large plate of bone surrounding and defending their necks protruded with several large spikes positioned toward the beast's heads. Their favored form of attack was to retract their necks, compacting the vulnerable muscle and flesh, then ram their targets with dozens of bone spikes. Spikes that would break off if enough force was applied, but they'd grow back later.

Just before the shock troops arrived to turn the tides of the battle to Bathrick's benefit, something happened. Every single omryxer screamed, as did nearly every other monster under his command. Then they shattered. The omryxer's ridges exploded, flying violently in every direction. Many were killed by their own exploded bone, while many more died from their neighbors'. The armor on the movlies exploded in a similar manner, though less violently as they just kind of fell apart. Monster limbs twisted and broke at odd angles, eyes shattered like glass.

It was chaos. It was their loss. Bathrick turned and fled. It was a loss, but so long as he escaped, it wasn't in vain. They had learned more about their enemy's true capabilities.

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