They reached one of the villages that had reported the rift just a little bit after dawn. It was small, with only a dozen or so buildings, most of which had their windows boarded up. Unlike the structures they’d seen in Swandia so far, these were built of wood rather than brick. Given their heavily forested surroundings, that made sense. Those few people who came out to meet them were skittish, with their eyes darting left and right. They were led by a young man wearing a scarf of ochre and glancing back and forth at the gaps between buildings, as if something could come for them at any time.

“You’re the mercenaries? The ones sent to seal the rift?”

Suraj nodded. “Yes. Please, tell us where we can find it.”

The man looked at them. “There are so few of you.”

“There are as many of us as we need,” replied Suraj. He didn’t say the words as a boast, more as a statement of fact. Somehow that seemed to settle the young man in front of them.

“We believe it is in the woods to the northwest. We have not been able to see it…at least no one we have sent has returned.”

Suraj nodded. “Can you describe what’s come out of it?”

He shook his head. “No. When we searched for those taken, the only things we found were large footprints, and the things people dropped when they were taken. A few times before people began to go missing we saw glowing yellow eyes in the woods. None of us have left the village in days. Children are not allowed to leave their homes.” He sighed heavily. “We are used to seeing more dangerous things. Those things would leave a corpse behind though, or bones. The lake has never been so cruel to us before.”

Michael clenched his teeth. He could feel the fear this was causing them. He imagined it was the same in all of the other nearby villages as well. He took the holy symbol from within his shirt and clenched it as he listened to the words of the gods.

~protect~seal~defend~return~joy~

It seemed as if it was a blend of Nykas and Seras speaking to him. He intended to honor their wishes, as he always had since he’d begun hearing them.

Once Suraj had the information he needed, they all placed their excess equipment into the village chiefs home to free up some weight and made their way into the woods to the north. When they reached a clearing, Suraj stopped everyone.

“Syl, I want you to go scout the area and find the rift. I know there’s a chance the village was being watched based on what they said, but we need to know more about its location as well as the enemies location and disposition.

Syl nodded and left, her footfalls silent even when walking over thick patches of dead leaves.

Everyone waited tensely for Syl to return. Their scout had been gone for almost an hour and it was beginning to make everyone antsy.

“Should we just go for the rift now?” asked Clara as she fussed with one of the many rings on her hand that she used as a focus.

“Syl is always thorough. Give her some time,” replied Suraj, as he leaned against a tree. He seemed to be the only one unaffected by the length of her absence.

Nearly ten minutes later, Syl returned. Her short blonde hair had a few branches tangled in it and she was rubbing some dirt from her green eyes, but otherwise she was fine.

“The information was good. The rift is only about ten minutes west of us. I saw about fifteen guards, all of them were large, two legs, two arms, and two horns. They had armor and weapons, mostly close ranged aside from some spears they could probably throw, and seemed prepared for a possible attack.”

Suraj nodded as he absorbed the information. “Do they sound familiar to you?” He asked Michael and Pytor.

“Yes. The first rift I closed had them inside of it. They’re maneaters, they’re strong, and they work together well.”

“Well, if you can kill three yourself like last time, I think we’ll be fine,” said Pyotr, already starting to tighten his armor up and ready his sword.

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“I had the element of surprise. They didn’t expect me to jump through the rift.”

Some of the others raised eyebrows at the exchange.

Suraj nodded. “How long do you think it’ll take to close the rift once you start?”

Michael frowned. “I’ve only closed two…but how big was it?”

Syl thought for a moment. “About two Surajs’s high and five or six wide.”

Michael looked at Suraj. “If I’m able to focus it should take me less than five minutes.”

Suraj nodded. “Okay, you’re with the other frontliners except for Pyotr. I want you with Clara. Syl, you and the other bowman find some high ground and wait for the fight to start.”

There were a series of nods and Michael had to stop himself from saluting.

“Okay, let’s move.”

They all broke off into their groups and started moving toward the rift, as they did so Michael began feeling the same sense of wrongness and dread he’d felt with all of the others before and had to push down his desire to run. It wasn’t difficult this time. People had already gone missing, and he wouldn’t let them eat anyone else.

He whispered a short prayer for those that were already gone. He then bit the inside of his cheek and started healing it very gradually to get his Wound Man title and Fort Healer deed activated. In spite of the trepidation he felt around them, he was at his strongest around rifts. That didn’t mean he wanted to leave any of his other boosts on the table, though.

Their first encounter with one of the horned men was a half dozen spears flying through the air at them. Suraj raised a two headed axe and one spear shattered on the flat of it. Two embedded in the ground near them, Michael managed to deflect one of them, and the man to his left took one through his leg.

The horned men charged behind their spear throw and Michael tore the spear from the man’s leg, healing him as he did so before he charged forward with it to meet their charge.

Suraj was next to him, catching a slash from a cleaverlike blade on the shaft of his axe before kicking at the knees of the maneater in front of him and slamming his axe into its chest.

“I dedicate this battle to Nykas!” roared Michael as he began to channel smite down the length of the spear he was holding, golden fire beginning to pour from the tip of it. He smashed it into one of the maneater’s chests. “May their death’s return joy to this region.”

He twisted the spear, igniting the body of the maneater he’d stabbed and yanked it out before he stabbed it toward another of them. This one managed to cut the shaft of the spear before it reached him, and slashed toward Michael. He smashed the attack away with his shield and spun, using a move he’d stolen from Pytor, using the momentum of the blow on his shield to strengthen a blow from the broken haft of the spear against the horned man’s leg. When it fell to one knee, a woman in chainmail slammed a halberd down on its skull, crushing it.

Michael went to move toward the next one, but found that he didn’t need to. All of them that had ambushed them were gone.

Suraj took a deep breath in and out, then he looked at them. “We need to keep pushing for the rift, let’s move!”

Michael quickly healed those who’d sustained injuries, but unfortunately they’d lost a man to one of the maneater’s cleavers. The dread in his chest began to reach a crescendo as the angry red scar of the rift became visible in front of him. Before they could reach it, more of the horned men attacked them.

As the beasts reached them,, they all very suddenly tripped as a long silver bar seemed to manifest at their legs. Michael and the mercenaries surged toward them and cut them down, only one of them managing to get back onto its feet before Michael could cut through it with his smite-imbued sword.

Front that point on the fighting didn’t stop. Michael and the other front-liners pushed forward through the massive horned men. They took wounds, and lost another man to a flying spear, but Michael managed to keep the others up with his healing. Whenever they seemed overwhelmed, Clara would throw another spell to give them some breathing room. She wasn’t as quick or powerful as Ollie, but she was much more precise with her casts, managing to do nearly as much damage as Michael had seen Ollie do by choosing her moments carefully. Pyotr was fighting off one of the maneaters that had found them himself. All the while arrows were raining down from trees to help thin out the number of enemies as the scouts fired.

When they got a bit closer, Michael yelled over the din of battle.

“I can start sealing it from here!”

Suraj grunted as he shoved another of the monsters away, into the spear of another fighter.

“Everyone! Form up on Michael.”

They all began to surround him and he raised his hand focusing on the angry red tear in the world that was in front of him. He could feel a response from it, a pushback, as he always did. He began to clench his fist, slowly closing his hands.

A dozen more of the maneaters poured through and attacked them with cleavers and spears. Michael was worried that he’d have to fight and try to seal the rift at the same time, but Suraj and the others kept all of them off of him even as they tried furiously to reach him. It was clear that they were instinctually aware of what he was doing, just as the others had been.

One of them, larger than the others by head and shoulders, stepped through the portal mid-throw, and launched a spear right at Michael. He kept his focus on the rift ahead and the spear shattered in the air a foot from him, his increased protection when around rifts shielding him.

He clenched his fist and the rift sealed closed, cutting off the foot of the large maneater that had just emerged and forcing it to fall down.

Michael drew his sword and channeled divine flame back onto it, stepping forward to join the other in finishing off the invaders.

“You never had a chance at winning. We have the gods on our side,” he said, bringing his fiery sword down.