[There’s probably something holding it open,] Kraken replied, watching the landscape slowly heal. [I’d bet my mana packs on the dwarves, they’re always doing experiments to mess with realms. One of their major beliefs revolves around the idea that they can build a portal to tap into pure Chaos itself and pull unlimited power from it. It doesn’t work but it does cause chaotic things to happen, such as a thinned area of space where portals are far easier to manifest.]

“Right! So how do we close it, or shut it off, or I don’t know?! I’m way out of my depth here man.” Pacing back and forth was not helping me figure out my options. My magic, my sorceries, all of my abilities do not help me out with portal magic. The last portal I messed with I just kind of covered up, but that one at least had a physical structure I could mess with. These were just rips in space, glowing back ovals rippling with colors that made your head hurt when you looked at their edges. Extending my senses out, I felt that actually touching one of the portals with my power would be hurtful. Turning around, I felt a muted glow of life energy from the river, the river bottom to be exact, shit.

I was at the point of pulling my hair out, there were just too many problems right now. I had nephilim bits that just wouldn’t die, a funhouse of portals where weird shit could pop through at any moment, and to top it off, not all of the fucking dwarves and minotaurs were completely dead. As I was going through this in my head trying to work out rational solutions, Kraken stuck his nose in again, [What did you think was gonna happen? You tried to use pure magic on a group of bonded minotaurs? Now they’re basically just in freaking stasis down there in ice, and yes, most of the dwarves are dead except their Magitech Specialists. They probably have some backup life support stuff implanted in them. A decent amount of them were young blood mages.]

The deep whomping sound heralded the return of Spot as he crashed through the forest, dropping the slobbery dwarf at my feet. The wet splat he made was gross, but at least he was in one piece, mostly. Yowling like a kicked cat, the dwarf was clutching his ankle where the foot had been bitten off and cauterized. “Good boy Spot! Don't worry, I got some treats for you! Definitely some stuff you’ve never had before!” I laughed, rubbing behind his ears as my magic wrapped the dwarf in a stone cage, making sure to anchor his limbs to the cage floor.

Looking down at his pitiful figure, quivering with fear and covered in dog slobber, a bit of human empathy stole through me, something I hadn’t felt in quite a while. Not sure if locking away a decent chunk of emotion in order to focus might have some future consequences but it really does help in high-intensity combat. I’ll worry about that later. The dwarf’s beard was thick and black with braided amulets threaded throughout, sparks of mana coming from the amulets. One of them was clearly some sort of shield enchantment that had since broken down, another a kind of radar or sense-heightening enchantment? There were more that I had no idea but the strangest one was the one closest to his throat because it had mana that was greyish in color and tied by intent to his vocal cords.

[That’s a translator enchantment,] Kraken interjected. [Many don’t want to go through the pain of tweaking their own personal translator spell in their minds so they tie it to whatever organ that actually does the communication and then the sounds waves are funneled to and from the translation device.] Fiddling with it for a minute with my mana while prying his beard apart with my hands, I managed to flip it on, giving the entire greasy ensemble a yank.

“Let go’a me ya feck or I’ll make sure’a that a right nastie beastie will be a comin’ tru dat mess of riffs! Yankin’ on me beard like a wee lass wid no tiddies to call her own! And when we’re a dun given’ it to ya from behind wit me axe I’ll take yur head back to me mistress and let her fock’it wit a cock bigger than me own! And it’s gut spikes inner thingie too doncha know? Me wife is even meaner wit her own bastard snatch.”

I was kind of impressed. He went from angry alien to Scottish sailor really damn quick. I couldn’t even be mad, in fact, part of me thought I should be taking notes on how to properly cuss someone out in the face of almost certain death.

“And when I’m dun holdin’ yur face for me brood to do all kinds of unspeakable things to yur mouth hole, I’ll make another hole fer’ em to fock! Yur skull will be ma’ drinkin horn and yur ears’ll be great wipers for me arse!”

Turning his translation amulet off so I didn’t lose my awe at his venom and so that I wouldn’t rip his head off, I listened to him snarl in his native language. “Kraken, dude, why the hell is he Scottish?” I asked, looking at my spirit familiar. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with it but it doesn’t make any sense.”

[It’s the static of the interaction between your brain and his. Your consciousness sorcery is interacting with the translator naturally, allowing for better communication than what normally happens this way but you hear a random accent.]

“Can I keep him? Please Lord Sorcerer, oh pretty please?” Lyra’s unexpected plea stopped me just before I was about to rip some answers from his mind. Hopping down from the vine giant that curled up into a huge thorny ball when not in use, the dryad sauntered over, waves of magic unfurling from her like a flowering opening in the morning. The green energy encircled the dwarf but didn’t touch him, quivering six inches away like a hungry dog being told to wait as a treat is dangled in front of them.

“Keep him?” Turning towards her with an upraised eyebrow, I asked, “What are you gonna do with him? I need answers from this salty piece of crap, like how to turn off whatever they got making rifts around here? And why are they and the minotaurs at each other's throats? I could go on.” My foot tapped impatiently as I quelled the adrenaline from the fight. I looked around just to make sure there weren’t any other nasty surprises in the immediate area.

Reaching through the coarse bars of the stone cage, Lyra placed her hand gently on the dwarf’s sweaty forehead. “Since you are still new to all of this, I’ll explain,” Lyra said, minute green particles of magic gently floating out of her mouth and forming a halo around the prisoner’s head. “We dryads can glamour foolish sentients who defile our lands. We don’t do all of the labor ourselves, but maintaining a healthy forest requires a lot of work. Dead wood must be removed and burned, dying forests need sacrifices to replenish their lifeforce, and even we spirit creatures require the touch of manflesh now and then.” Turning her heated gaze upon me, she continued, “And since you deign not to touch that which you have already dominated, I must look elsewhere for my needs to be satisfied.”

Because I couldn’t help myself, I chuckled with a hint of fear, imagining falling sway to the human version of a carnivorous plant, which is pretty much what a dryad is. They’re the kind of flower that look beautiful and smell delicious, and all the while you’re enjoying what they have to offer, you haven’t even noticed their clutching grasp closing around you with no hope of escape. I wasn’t fooled, but damn I could see how I might be. “Just get him to tell you how to close the rifts or stop the machine causing the problem,” I said, taking a step back but watching intently in the magical spectrum.

Lyra smiled like a cat playing with a mouse. Leaning forward, she slithered her body between the gap in the cage bars and kissed him on the head, breathing magical pollen all down his face. The green motes of power entered him every time he breathed and his countenance relaxed as if we just gave him a shot of morphine. Closing her eyes, I watched as she wove a tether of power that completely shunted his free will and natural defiance into a binding that channeled that energy into pleasing her. The more he tried to resist, the deeper he would fall under her sway.

“Eeehhhh, that’s fucking sick woman! Come onnnn, he’s basically a vegetable now. . . . Like you!” I could see that the little green bits of angry magical pollen were eating his brain, that’s what was happening, and then they were actively replacing the grey matter with some kind of brain plant matter that directed the rest of his brain. I could see it, every bit of it. I took a couple steps back feeling sick to my stomach.

Sitting up and stretching, Lyra stared deep into the dwarf’s eyes. “Come now slave, do as my master requests,” she purred. Turning to me, Lyra motioned at me and then pointed at the cage. Still trying not to vomit a bit into my mouth, I dissolved the stone cage so he could move. He reached up to one of his amulets and pressed it, a ball of light exiting it and flying off into one of the open rifts. A tense minute of waiting later, the temporary portals wavering before closing one by one.

Just before the last rift shrank complete, I was breathing a sigh of relief and turning to look at the mesmerized dwarf when an explosion of red and white light sent shockwaves throughout the area. Svalinn had activated a shield unconsciously preventing any kind of injury, but as I turned to look I was shocked more than anything.

All of the rifts themselves were gone but in the wrecked landscape of the clearing instead were humans, people, normal looking humans, albeit in pretty rough shape. Anywhere from eighty people or more were looking around frantically as if they were in a zoo with all kinds of strange aliens looking and poking at them as if they were the exhibit. And it wasn’t just men that I saw, but women and children and even a couple babies squealing their little heads off. Several men and older teenagers were decked out in medieval looking combat gear with swords and maces, about ten others were in standard US Army camouflage with M-4 rifles and a few of the adults in the center were wearing thick robes and holding what looked to be wizard staffs.

“That’s NOT what I asked for Twiggy!” I growled in Lyra’s direction. “I wanted the rifts closed. Do you remember me asking for a whole bunch of strangers in my fucking neck of the woods, or do you remember something along the lines of ‘close the fucking portals’ huh?”

“That wasn’t us master,” Lyra gulped, her eyes darting between the almost catatonic dwarf and the pile of rogue humans trying to sort themselves out. A decent chunk of them were vomiting, probably due to portal travel, and the more put together ones were already staring in our directions with their weapons clearly pointed at us. The staff holders' implements were glowing bright blue and yellow and I definitely heard the very familiar sound of rounds being chambered. The camo guys had immediately taken cover behind trees and boulders while the medieval dudes had put themselves between me and the bulk of their group.

“Shit, shit, shit . . .” I mumbled, taking in everything. This was not something I wanted to deal with, nor was I remotely prepared for this. Unending streams of messed up magical aliens, that I could deal with. But a crowd of humans, that’s just an enormous headache. Because I also am a human, they’re going to assume that they’re safe with me, and that I should provide for them, and that I’m part of their group, and I know that this is my anti-social paranoia talking, but I really don’t want to deal with this crap. I have bigger fish to fry, not even counting the undying spawn of Heaven’s adultery.

Well, Spot didn’t take to the display of force very well. Stepping over me as if I were just a tiny pebble, my trusty companion put himself between me and everyone else, growling deeper than I’d ever heard before. If a mountain itself could growl, that’s exactly what Spot sounded like, boulders crushing and grinding together as if they were actually aiming at you when they fell. It made my sphincter pucker just a bit.

The improvised mexican standoff held for a minute as both groups looked at each other. I can’t say that they weren’t shocked as I probably would’ve been too. Lyra’s sensuous form was still forest green and her backdrop was the balled up vine giant three feet behind her, and Spot wasn’t exactly normal standing at well over fifteen feet tall right now, dripping liquid flame with patches of solid red scales interspersed throughout his shaggy fur coat. And me, I was covered in magical armor that glowed with mysterious runes while holding my epic version of a wizard’s staff, but a spear simply because it’s way better than a staff. Almost a hundred people, half of them clearly non-combatants, cowered like sheep less than fifty feet away with their armed fighters on the group’s edges. I noticed more than a few weapons being held by not so steady hands.

“Don’t do it,” I muttered under my breath, sizing up the itchy trigger fingers. Cautiously, I double checked to make sure that all of my shields and gear were still in tip top shape and then I checked my batteries which were still plenty full. I haven't had to worry about mana expenditure in a while as I’m always around either the solar generators or working small projects that don’t need much power, but combat definitely makes my stores of energy take a hit.

“Get down on the ground!” The army guy behind a boulder with his rifle propped up on top of it was not one of the nervous ones. This calm and collected man had some serious ice in his veins to not only point a gun at a magically armored dude with a dragon dog but to not even waver as he shouted at me. The barrel of that gun was pointed directly at the spot between my eyes. “Call your dog off or he’s first!”

[Fuck,] I thought. It’s one thing to threaten me, I can get past that, but to threaten my dog when we ain’t done shit? No sir. I could feel the heat of my anger color my cheeks just a bit as I saw a tiny bit of red. I get that they’re scared, but come the fuck on. As far as I know I didn’t drop them here. Sending a quick message to all of my elementals on our shared link, I kept very still and just watched.

“I said, GET ON THE GROUND! All of you!”

An outburst of furious whispers broke out amongst the group as I did absolutely nothing outwardly, but inwardly I was tracking my pack of watery sneaks. Several shouts went back and forth between the group showing me that it wasn’t one big group but actually several small groups that had probably thrown in together for one reason or another.

“We don’t know if he’s hostile Mark! Besides, you can’t just threaten a man’s dog, no matter how big he is!”

“Shut up Tonya! Who’s been bailing your ass out for the past week huh? Me and my crew, now do your hocus pocus crap and protect the women and children and stay outta my way.”

Another voice I hadn’t yet heard spoke up. “I dunno Mark, they haven’t moved but they also haven’t made any noise either. Ain’t we supposed to positively identify if they’re a bad guy before we get ta’ shootin’?”

As they were distracted, I quickly conjured two walls in front of me, Spot, and Lyra, one three inches thick of granite and the other six inches of clay. Their surprised shouting intensified as I wasn’t acting like a scared doe anymore. Taking another second, I covered my walls with a foot thick coating of ice just in case those wizards were partial to fireballs. As soon as I felt that I had a dense enough barrier between me and the desperate humans, I put my hand on Spot to reassure him. “Stay here boy,” I said, scratching under his jaw. Motioning to Lyra to stay with Spot, I stepped to the edge of my wall and called out, “I mean you no harm as long as you intend the same! I’m coming out, but if you point your weapons, any weapon, at me again, you will regret it.”

“You’re outnumbered, outgunned, and we got you pinned down. You’re in no position to negotiate!” Mark’s voice was quickly becoming annoying. My decision making process was being hampered by the fact that there were unarmed women and children here. I’ve always had a soft-spot for the defenseless, but I can’t let some asshole with a gun dictate what I’m going to do. And, what makes it worse is that if I do deal with the one asshole, there are a bunch of other well armed people who might agree with him and force me to deal with them instead of talking to them. Right now, as far as I can tell, there’s only one who’s gungho and antagonistic towards me while the others are just watching, waiting to see how I’ll react.

“Mark! You saw him just raise a freaking earth wall! He’s obviously not defenseless, and might be powerful. Back off for a second!”

“God damn it you coward! Every time we’ve run into something not normal it’s either tried to kill us, eat us, or sacrifice us on a bloody altar. I’m done being nice out here! You already forgot that mess of freaks that thought we were the funniest cattle they’d ever seen?”

“But he’s human-”

“WE DON’T KNOW THAT!”

As they were arguing I had already made a decision. It started with the question, ‘what the hell am I doing wasting time right now’, and ended with me saying ‘screw it’. Giving my commands mentally so as to not alert the contentious mass of people, I made sure to quietly sink the separated pieces of the three nephilim about two hundred yards deep into the earth, and then do the same with their weapons but about fifty yards deeper than that. Spot pivoted and tore off into the woods away from everyone else before they could react and Lyra dove into the vine giant that swallowed her up and rolled down the river bank. My water elementals had taken this time to get into position, slithering like snakes to remain undetected. Their part in my plan was simple, a non-threatening disengagement plan. They identified anyone with a weapon and covered them in ice from the neck down and then retreated to the river. On the other hand, I simultaneously kicked up a giant cloud of dust around me and slapped my hand on my wall, quickly inscribing a short message into it, ‘My name is Nate and I’m not your enemy’.

As soon as I was done, I sprang into the river, using water sorcery to travel faster than a sinking stone down to the river bottom. As my water elementals joined me in their natural playground, I had them separate the dwarfs and minotaurs that were still alive from the giant ice blocks and fuse the living ones into a new ice block for transport on the river. Making sure to grab the separate cache of weapons as well, I moved me and my cargo down the river.