“No time to be lazy sleepyhead. The Silver Eagles will leave without us.” Elendria’s voice pulled me from slumber.

“Huh?” I groaned, trying to get my bearings.

“For someone who slept for ten hours, you sure aren’t recharged.” She chuckled, sitting down on the edge of the bed. “Both groups have hit the agreed upon lower limit of contribution points. We need to head out hunting.”

“All right, gimme a second.” I groaned, sliding out and searching for a shirt. I splashed a bit of water in my face before putting it on, just as a bit extra to wake myself up. “Gah, ok. So run that by me again. Something about hunting eagles?”

“Close. Hunting with the Silver Eagles. Plan to be gone for a week and a half. We can resupply every four days.” She said again.

“Right. That means enough supplies in the ring for six days minimum.” I muttered, pacing around the room. I went ahead and packed up all my gear. “No sense in renting the room if we aren’t going to be in town.” I muttered as I kept planning. Food wouldn’t be too hard to come by, especially since we tended to eat the less choice cuts while out in the field. “One of the Eagles has an enchanted dowsing rod, that takes care of water. Anything else we need?” I asked turning to Elendria to see her suppressing a smile.

“We are fine, worrywart. It’s nice to see you planning things through, but we have this. Come on.”

“Right.” I nodded, following her out the door. The innkeeper was waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs with a smile on her face. “Annette. Thanks for renting the room to us.” I said with a grin as I handed over the key.

“Always a pleasure having well behaved customers. Be safe out there, and more importantly come back with more contribution so that you can stay here again!”

“Absolutely!” I agreed with a grin, heading into the main room to see our group prepped and ready to go.

“About time!” Carrigan grumped. “We’re burning daylight!”

“Yeah, yeah.” I waved off his fake grumpiness. “Let’s go. I’m sure the eagzards would love to get out and run a bit.”

“About that.” Alex said as we walked out into the street. “We’ll only be taking them part of the way. I have a friend who agreed to watch them for a bit so long as we are out that way.”

“Oh?” I asked intrigued. “I thought Outpost was the only city in the monster lands.”

“It is.” He replied. “Though there are several smaller villages that managed to keep afloat on the edges of the territory. Not quite far enough in to draw the ire of the stronger monsters.” With that last bit, we all swung into the saddle and headed out. Moving through the streets wasn’t very conducive to talking, and once we were on the road we kept quiet and alert.

Our route took us back east for an hour before taking a poorly maintained trail to the south. There were a few beasts that took an initial interest in our group, but upon seeing the size wisely decided to leave us be. Alex let the eagzards set their own pace, and nobody cared enough to change it. Besides, it was a rather easy pace for us to maintain as well, and we didn’t have any reason to push it.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Two days later and we came to a small village protected by a log wall. Alex was apparently well known here, as a quick nod to the guard had us walking easily through the gate. The dirt in the road was well packed, and had the faintest hints of magic, probably from a geomancer. The houses were simple ones, log with thatch roofing. Not too bad, considering that most of the monsters that lived in a forest wouldn’t specialize in flame attacks. The distinctive sound of a hammer on metal rang out from one of the nearby shops, and a shift of the wind brought the telltale stench of leatherworkers.

“Town doesn’t really have a name, but they spread out with a few days travel in between. Father Frank sent a message to me because they are having some simian troubles.” Alex explained, as we headed toward a park in the middle of town. Several varieties of fruit trees were present, with the occasional bench. As we approached, a man stood up from pruning some thorn bushes and headed our way.

“Alex! Thanks for coming. Are these all Silver Eagles? Your group is growing faster than you let on!” He greeted us happily.

“Frank! Good to see you too.” Alex responded, dropping to the ground and pulling him into a hug. “Alas, only Martha and Darrin here are actual eagles. These others are Sean, Carrigan, Elendria, D’Vorak and D’Vaen. They are helping us round out the group, and said they would help us hunt.”

“Excellent, well met, all of you.” The man said. “I’m Frank, priest of Shalora here. Alex here vouches for all of you, so no worries there. Come on in and relax, and I’ll fill you in on the issue.” Shrugging our shoulders, we headed into the park only to hear Frank say, “Oh, and just let the eagzards roam. They’ll be fine in the church here.”

“Aren’t you afraid they’ll wander off?” I asked.

“Not at all. Shalora blesses this place, and they will find comfort here. Besides, I also made a rest area for them with fresh meats. They are already heading that way.”

“You always did hedge your bets.” Alex chuckled, following the priest into the church. We soon took seats at a small, rectangular table.

“Well, now on to the reason I have asked for help. Somehow one of the lesser simians around here managed to evolve, and is proving quite problematic.” Frank said.

“Stonebreaker ape?” Alex asked, eyebrows raised.

“Unfortunately not.” Frank said, shaking his head. “It must have found a large supply of zephyrbells.”

“OH FUCK ME!” Alex groaned. “Frank, you have to tell me if you want us to take on a rare evolution, especially one of those!”

“One of what?” I asked, looking around to find the rest of my group was confused but all the Silver Eagles were looking like someone had kicked their collective puppy.

“I’ll explain, I tend to keep a better head than Alex here.” Frank apologized. “The local simian monster isn’t too big of a threat, unless they go from a group to a horde. Limited to physical attacks, they sometimes throw rocks. At most, they have the ability to leave a nasty bruise with each attack. Give them enough materials, and they can evolve to a stonebreaker ape, which as its name implies can use earth magic to augment itself to the point where it can smash boulders. A much rarer evolution is if it gets its hands on an air aligned herb like zephyrbells. Then we get a howlitzer ape.” My eye twitched at the name, and how close it sounded to Howitzer.

Afraid of the answer, I still asked the question, “How does this howlitzer ape attack?”

“Small spheres of air laced with magic.” Frank explained, holding a hand up when Alex started to interrupt. “Each about the size of an adult’s fist, and striking with the force of a normal simian. The problem lies in the quantity. Someone filled a deceased ape’s lung with water. They managed to hold six gallons, and each ape has four lungs. The other issue is how they attack. They can launch nearly a hundred air bubbles per minute. With the size of their lungs, they can launch a sustained attack for ten minutes. That amount of damage adds up quickly.”

“Luckily there is a bit of warning.” Alex explained, apparently happy with Frank’s explanation. “If you hear what sounds like a bellows rapidly expanding, put up as thick of a shield around the group as you can. That’s the downfall of the ape. If you can get a prepared defense, and withstand the initial barrage, they can’t attack like that again for at least three minutes. With the ape’s weak defense, that’s usually more than enough time to take them down.”

“A weakness the ape tries to cover by keeping a large group of simians nearby to run interference.” Martha grumped. “We need a plan.”

“I’ll take the defense.” I volunteered immediately. “No offense Carrigan, but I’m fairly certain I have the deeper mana pool. Besides, you have better party tricks.”

“None taken, though when you actually see my chain lightning in action I doubt you’ll refer to it as a ‘party trick’.” He chuckled. “Elendria and I can thin the hordes for you guys.”

“I’ll bind his movements.” D’Vorak said. “That is, if I don’t kill him outright.”

“Excellent. The eagles will charge forward and engage when he is recovering, what about you D’Vaen?”

“I’ll stay and guard the mages.” He said. “I’ll be no good out in the forest, but I can do bodyguard detail.”

“Such a well-rounded team! Alex, you’ve got a good group here.” Frank said.

“Thanks, and you’re right. Unfortunately, we just sort of lucked into it, though I’m certain the guildmaster likely had a hand in it. He does like to subtly interfere, though it is usually for the betterment of everyone.” Alex said. “That said, we still have several hours of hunting. Let’s go ahead and get a move on. Frank, where was the last sighting?”

“Due west, nearly half a mile.” Answered, standing. “Before you go, a blessing. May Shalora grant you a bit of her grace, that you may move through her domain unhindered.” As he spoke, motes of green and white light shot out of his hand and soaked into each of us.

Minor Blessing of Shalora received!

Shalora has granted you the ability to move through heavily forested areas much easier. You will find paths more often, and your passing will be much quieter than normal.

Effect will last for 4 hours.

“Thank you, Frank, and you as well Shalora.” I said, using just a bit of spirit infused with a feeling of gratitude. One went to Frank, the other to a large apple tree that seemed to be growing six different kinds of apples on it.

“You have spirit?” Frank’s eyes widened.

“I have a lot of secrets. Don’t worry Frank, this isn’t our first hunting trip. Alex is a great leader and we work quite well as a team.” I said with a smile before turning and jogging a bit to catch up with the rest of the group.

We headed out the north gate, and circled around to the west. Everyone had their guard up, and their senses stretched to the maximum. Even if we were almost certain we could survive the onslaught, it always pays to be alert. Besides, there could easily be other enemies besides the howlitzer ape.

Maybe it was the blessing, or maybe we were just lucky, but D’Vorak seemed to quickly stumble across a fairly well worn game trail. With the narrowness of the trail forcing us to slow down and slightly separate the party, we adopted a new configuration. Martha dropped to the rear in case of an ambush, while the magically inclined clustered towards the middle. D’Vorak was up front with Alex, both conferring on our route.

“You sure we should be on a game route? I almost guarantee that we will be attacked by something eventually.” D’Vorak hissed.

“I know, but chances are that a well-traveled route like this is going to be a favorite hunting ground of our target.”

“Alright, it’s your call. Sean, you need to be ready to drop that shield instantly. Got it?” D’Vorak turned and stared at me.

“I understand.” I said. He really didn’t have to remind me, as I had it ready to go ever since we entered the woods, but it was always a good idea to be on the same page with everyone. Especially the guy you are trusting the entire defense to.

“Two hours.” Alex said. “We will hunt for two more hours, then head back. Should give us more than enough light to return safely.” Plan set, we started forward once more. The longer we walked along the path, the more I was willing to chalk it up to being a bonus from the priest. I never really thought that a blessing that subtle could work so well.

“Path opens up ahead, everyone be ready.” D’Vorak said, and I immediately refocused. We slowly approached, and found that there was a bend in a small creek that the trail crossed. The path of the creek prevented any trees from growing in a fairly large area, roughly thirty feet across. It wasn’t very deep, maybe six to twelve inches, and had a bed of stones nearly two feet wide.

“Look there, some type of deer has been coming here a lot for a drink from the creek.” D’Vorak pointed a bit to our left, where what little bit of a bank had been trampled down. “Sean, can you detect anything on the other side of the clearing?”

“No.” I said immediately, which was concerning. “Something’s not right, it’s like there’s a wall my mana can’t pass just before the forest resumes.”

“Damnit, same thing with my skills. Anyone got a skill that works?” A round of negatives came back, and Alex swore under his breath. “Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Sean, put up that shield now, and walk it forward with us. Martha, I want you back to back with D’Vaen. Let him guide you, but keep an eye on our backtrail. Monsters around this area don’t have any mana blocking properties. Carrigan, Elendria, get ready to unleash hell.”

“You sure we should walk into this?” Carrigan asked nervously.

“Absolutely not. But we are the closest ones, and the best prepared to deal with whatever it is. I know this is going to be a bit more dangerous than what we originally planned, and I’m sorry guys.”

We started moving slowly forward, trying to keep an eye on all of our surroundings. We had just made it to the creek when the wall dropped and I could see a massive ape, nearly twice the size of those on earth, with its head thrown back as it’s chest rose. And rose. And rose some more. I snapped the shield to something three times as thick as what it originally was just in time, as the howlitzer ape unleashed its attack.

“Damn, glad I reinforced the shield.” I grunted as the ape let loose on the shield. I had thickened the mana so much that it had the transparency of frosted glass.

“Found the horde.” Martha called from the back. “Carrigan, you might want to step back here and get ready with your spell.”

“There’s a horde up by the ape as well.” D’Vorak called out.

“How are you holding up Sean?” Alex asked.

“I’m fine.” I ground out. “Just annoyed. Each impact is like holding a vibrating shield. Sends tingles up my arms.” Just as I finished talking, metallic spikes shot up from the ground to knee height. Before anyone could react, each one let out a massive blast of electricity.

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!” Everyone cried out in agony as the power coursed through them, eventually dropping to the ground unconscious. I was only saved because I had reflexively added my own personal mana armor. The attack from the ape stopped, so I lightened the shield.

“What the?” I muttered, looking around at a nearly empty clearing. The hordes of simians were gone! “Ow!” I grunted, as my chest suddenly sprouted three darts. “But, I have a shield…” I managed to mutter as my world went dark.