More rain sliced down from the sky, soaking Erich as he walked down another one of the dirt paths between rice fields. Derl and Allthier trudged through the mud to his left with another eight members of the militia wielding crude spears moved behind them.

  Michelle shifted on his back, drawing a grunt from Erich.

  “You’re getting a bit heavy there,” he remarked, leaning forward slightly to try and resituate her weight. “I suppose you’re a growing girl, but I didn’t think that one day of eating your fill would make you that much heavier.”

  She growled gently on his shoulder, the playful sound having nothing to do with the garr bobbing in the water off to Erich’s right.

  “I’m sorry,” he replied with a roll of his eyes. “Am I not supposed to say that you’re a growing girl? I talked with Allthier. I’m supposed to be riding your back by the end of the year. You literally should be doubling in size in the next month or so.”

  “Can the two of you put your flirting on hold long enough to let us know if we’re close to the Den?” Derl asked with a chuckle. “I can only see about two hundred feet in the rain and I want to make sure the militia is ready to go before we accidentally stumble on forty of the beasties at once.”

  Erich pulled out the map, running his finger over the grid of rice farms before he found the intersection he was standing on. Rain dripped off of him, soaking through the cloak over his armor and the chainmail like it wasn’t even there.

  “We’re about two fields away,” he replied. “We’ll need to take a right turn up ahead but from there it’ll be a straight shot to the spot I saw the den. Remember, it was in the water so we’ll probably have to wade out to it if we want to kill all the garr.”

  Derl grunted, a sour look on his face for a fraction of a second before he responded.

  “Not surprising, but not unexpected. Garr are amphibious but they spend most of their time in the water. Even if their eggs aren’t submerged, it’s not terribly common for their dens to be completely dry. Still, fighting them when shin or waist deep is awful. You can never get your footwork right.”

  Erich nodded. Magma Blossom was based off of quick but powerful movements, digging one foot into the ground and lunging forward with the force of an erupting volcano. It's violence and offensive nature were blunted completely by fighting in water. There just wasn’t a chance for him to gather enough momentum to charge forward and overwhelm his opponents, even with his tempered and improved body, it wasn’t enough. For the rest of the militia, fighting in the water would be like fighting in the dark or with their hands tied. Suicide.

  “We can fight from the road, but at some point we’re going to have to go into the water,” Erich responded. “The garr will attack us on their own but if we kill too many, they’re going to run away, and I doubt all of this will end until we manage to smash all of their eggs to stop another brood from hatching in a couple weeks.”

  “Agreed,” Derl replied. His eyes dimmed for a second as he paused to think over their options. “Do you think you’ll be able to fight in the water after we thin out their numbers? Obviously it isn’t ideal, but you’re right. At some point at least a couple of us will need to breach the garr den.”

  “How close are both of you to your next tiers?” Allthier butted in. “From what I’ve seen of Erich’s fighting style, he’s strong but inexperienced. If he could advance his sword form or enter another tier physically, I suspect that this battle would go much smoother.”

  “I’m close,” Erich said, pursing his lips for a second as he let his focus shift inward toward his image. “I don’t think I’m going to break through before the battle though. The last couple days have done a world of good for my aether levels, but tiers don’t just grow on trees. I feel like my actual martial arts are on the cusp of advancing as well, but I need something to push myself over. So far, even the battles that I’ve been getting injured in haven’t truly pressed me. A mis-step or a fumbled block here or there aren’t the same as actually fighting until you collapse to the ground exhausted. That’s where the real insight happens, when you push yourself completely beyond your limits for hours on end.”

  Allthier and Derl shared a look at Erich’s side. Finally, Derl broke into a dry chuckle, shaking his head.

  “I guess that’s why you’re a proper swordsman and I ended up attending an academy,” he said, eyes flickering brightly. “I practice my sword form each and every day, probably for years longer than you have, but even with all of that it doesn’t have the same edge yours does. Give it a year and I won’t even be able to carry your scabbard.”

  “I’m not going to lie,” Derl continued. “When we were in the academies we would get jealous at times. What really was the difference between those of us learning an image from a master and someone who forged their own image? Why did society value your kind of learning over ours? Plenty of academy trained warriors are strong, but it’s just not the same kind of strong as the rest of us.”

  “Thanks I guess?” Erich replied, squinting against the driving rain to see if he could spot the garr den in the distance. “It doesn’t do me a whole lot of good right now though. For now, I can fight in the water but it will hamper me a lot. Michelle is probably more effective than I am, but her claws and teeth are smaller than a sword. They’re just fine against a juvenile garr, but I doubt they’ll be able to do decisive damage against an adult if they’re as big as you’ve said they are.”

  “I suppose we’re opening up with arrows from the militia then,” Allthier said with a sigh. “If we can injure enough of the garr from a distance, they’re probably going to charge us and that should let us pick our own battlefield. With two warriors and a bunch of spears we should be able to defend the embankments of the roadway even if we’re outnumbered by quite a bit. After that, I think it will be the three of us and Michelle in the water.”

  “That makes-” Erich paused, head whipping to the right as another pair of eyes surfaced in the water to their right. A second later the garr’s long nose slid into view as well. That made two of the animals watching them as they walked toward the den, one on either side of the road.

  “Say,” he began. “What happens if the garr try to sandwich us? It’s not like all of them will be in their lair. It’s very possible that we might hit from both sides.”

  Before Derl could reply, one of the militia member shouted. Half of the cinderborn pulled crude shortbows from their backs and fired arrows at the garr before any of them could be stopped. The attacks missed entirely, despite some training during the dry season the militia were hardly expert marksmen, but that was enough to send the garr back under the water.

  Allthier and Derl shared a glance before Derl addressed their group.

  “Double time!” He yelled. “We’re getting close, but the longer we stand around here pissing in the rain, the more likely we are for the garr to swarm us before we can even make it to their nest. Keep those bows out and let’s get moving. Erich and I will handle any garr that try to attack you from up close.”

  “I’ll take the south side of the road,” Erich replied, stepping aside so that he could cover the nervous militia members. Derl gave him a quick nod, slipping to the other side while Allthier led their column.

  Michelle jumped off of Erich’s back, sending him staggering forward a couple steps as she scampered along in the dirt behind him. More rain fell from the sky, obscuring his vision until Erich could only see a hundred or so feet in front of him. Overhead, lighting flashed between the clouds, followed a second later by a boom of sound that he could feel deep in his chest.

  They trudged onward, and Erich’s grip tightened on his sword hilt. He couldn’t see them, but he could feel the gaze of almost a half dozen of the monsters locked onto him. Another flash overhead lit the rice field he was patrolling, reflecting in the eyes of gar that sat motionless beneath the water, watching him closely as they waited for their moment to strike.

  A shiver ran down Erich’s spine that had nothing to do with the temperature.

  Then the flash of light was gone and the rice ponds faded into the darkness caused by the omnipresent and constant rain. He strained his ears trying to listen for the splashes and movement of the garr only for the constant howl of the storm to swallow up everything.

  Erich was only left with one option. Biting his lower lip and forging onward, hoping that their group of fighters managed to spot the garr before the animals sighted them.

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  A shout from the other side of the column was his first warning. Derl ran down the line, his legs moving with the erratic speed of flickering candlelight. His sword slashed through the air, cutting a garr down as it launched itself from the water.

  Three of the militia lowered their spears, advancing to the edge of the dirt roadway as they began jabbing downward toward unseen garr. Another two or three began aiming and firing their bows into the water.

  For a second, Erich thought about going to help them only for his instinct to scream a warning at him. Erich spun around, barely reacting in time to thrust his sword into the neck of a garr as it slammed into his chest.

  The blow knocked him off balance, his left foot slipping on the slick mud. Out of the corner of his eye, Erich saw a second garr launch itself into one of the farmers. The man went down together with the animal, screaming in agony as it locked its muzzle onto one of his arms.

  Erich quickly pushed the garr off of himself, rolling to the side and running over to the injured militia member in time to cleave his sword into his attacker’s back and neck. The garr shuddered once before going still.

  “Get a tourniquet on him!” Erich yelled over the driving rain. “We can handle first aid later, but I’m going to need help!”

  Another two garr scrambled over the side of the raised road. One ducked under a spear thrust from a militia soldier while the other rushed Erich.

  The militia soldier screamed, slipping as he tried to step backward only for one of his companions to barely ward the garr off with her spear. Erich simply charged his opponent, mana pumping through his muscles as he brought his sword down in a blinding arc.

  His garr tried to lurch to the side, but it couldn’t move anywhere fast enough to dodge his blade. In one slash, Erich ended the animal before planting a foot into its side and pushing the corpse off of its sword and into its companion.

  The flying body destabilized the garr, knocking it off balance just enough for the militia spearwoman to stab her weapon deep into the creature. Her attack on its own wasn’t enough to kill the predator, but Erich was by her side in under a second, stabbing his sword downward in a double-handed grip into the top of the animal’s skull.

  Another three garr clambered over the side of the embankment only for Michelle to tackle one, sending the two animals rolling down the dirt and back into the water. In the distance, Erich was pretty sure he could hear splashing and sloshing over the wind.

  Hopefully that was just his mind playing tricks on him. The alternative, a massive swarm of garr, wasn’t something that he wanted to consider.

  Rather than let his thoughts linger, Erich ran back into the fray. Behind him, militia members were grunting and firing arrows into the water. Erich ignored them, swinging his sword once at the two garr to keep them at bay.

  Spears thrust and retracted on either side of Erich as the remaining cinderborn returned to battle. The attacks didn’t do much if any damage, rather they used their reach to keep the garr back, preventing them from flanking their group and leaving the actual killing to Derl, Allthier and Erich.

  Heat blossomed in his chest fueling Erich’s arms and legs as his sword exploded into a series of slashes. Not every blow struck home. The garr were hanging back even as more and more climbed up onto the road to surround their party. Still, he was much faster than them, and more than one garr couldn’t escape a sudden lunge in time to avoid his blade.

  Wounds began to pile up on the garr, and as they lost blood their reactions slowed and became sluggish. After only forty or so seconds of fighting, one of the garr that Erich had injured twice made a misstep, stumbling right into a spear thrust from the female cinderborn at his side.

  Even as the creature died, Erich took the initiative to charge into the fray. He kicked one garr, toes hooking under its low slung, rubbery body before mana surged through his body, granting him the strength to flip the creature onto its side and send it skidding into a pair of its companions.

  While the three garr tumbled to the ground, Erich slammed into one of the remaining animals, sword hacking downward twice with vicious blows that sent burning energy exploding through his arms and upper back.

  It stumbled under the onslaught, the first attack leaving a huge wound in its upper back before the second killed it entirely.

  Before the three garr on the ground could completely untangle themselves, one of the archers put an arrow into the creature that Erich had kicked. The projectile didn’t sink all that deep, it was fired from a haphazard weapon by an untrained archer after all, but it drew blood, adding to the litany of injuries inflicted by Madla’s militia.

  Michelle jumped onto the pile, latching herself onto one of the garr’s backs and sinking her teeth into its neck. The animal thrashed angrily, trying to unseat the otter, but Erich didn’t give it a chance to hurt her.

  He rushed into the fray, his feet and legs moving almost on their own through the first two forms of Magma Blossom. His image thrummed with energy, more and more aether settling into it as he lunged and slashed at the garr before pulling back just before their companions could pin him down.

  Erich could feel the power building inside of him. His leg lashed out, kicking a lunging garr in the side of the head and stunning it even as he used his sword to cut down a different animal. By now the garr were pouring over the side of the road, and instead of fear or worry, he was filled with excitement.

  His aether was almost at the tipping point, Erich could feel it. His body was a cup that was almost full, all that was left was a couple more drops of aether and it would all spill over, transforming him into something stronger, something greater than he’d ever been.

  Two garr snapped at him at the same time. He sidestepped the first’s jaws, punishing it for its aggression with a downward slash from his sword that caved in its skull. The second managed to hook its fangs into his calf.

  Erich grunted, slamming the pommel of his sword into the top of the creature’s head, stunning it enough that he could pull his leg free and return to the formation created by the handful of militia fighters. Mana throbbed down his calf and his muscles, hardened by their exposure to the toxins and parasites of hell, tightened, choking off the flow of blood from the wounds left by the garr.

  A spear from his right stabbed deep into the stunned garr’s neck. The cinderborn farmer didn’t have enough strength to pin the animal to the ground, but there was enough weight behind the blow to push it back.

  Another garr charged into the gap left by its dying companion. Erich’s sword glowed dimly red as he slashed it through the air just in front of the rampaging animal, forcing it to draw up short. The militia spearman at his side took advantage of reprieve brought by Erich’s attack to pull his weapon back.

  On his other side, the militia fighter stabbed frantically with her spear, trying to ward off two garr at the same time. A quick glance from Erich revealed that there weren’t any more of the creatures scaling the side of the roadway.

  He sprang into action, ignoring a round of shouts from the other side of the road. Derl could handle himself, and if he couldn’t, there wasn’t anything Erich could do until he eliminated the garr that were threatening the militia members from behind.

  His sword traced a red line through the darkness as he slashed a garr’s flank. The animal lurched to the side in time to prevent the cut from being fatal, but its awkward dodge did not thing to save it from his follow up.

  Mana pulsed in Erich’s arms, red hot and begging to be released. His sword flicked upward before chopping downard in the blink of an eye, cleaving the garr’s head off before it could even begin to regain its footing.

  He stepped over the twitching body, a quick thrust from his sword burying itself in the remaining garr’s shoulder. It thrashed angrily trying to turn around and fight Erich only for him to pull his blade free in a spray of boiling blood and slice upward, cutting an angry red line across the side of its face and blinding it in one eye.

  Then the two militia members on either side of Erich stabbed the garr, their spears hitting it barely a quarter second apart. Neith blow sank all that deep into the angry predator’s rubbery hide, but they held it in place long enough for Erich to switch his sword into a downward grip and jam the point of his blade through the top of its head, pinning the thrashing animal to the muddy dirt of the roadway.

  “Erich!” Derl shouted over the constant wind. “A little help would be nice!”

  He grabbed hold of the male militia member’s shoulder, shaking the man to get his attention. Glowing orange eyes stared blankly at Erich as he wheeled him around.

  “One of you tend to the wounded,” he yelled. At the edge of his vision, Erich saw a huge shape clambering up over the edge of the road. “The other should watch our backs. I need to help Derl.”

  Erich didn’t wait for the man to respond. He pushed his way past the archers, their arrows thwipping past him as they peppered the monster crawling out of the rice paddy.

  It didn’t even seem to notice.

  Derl seemed to glow in the heavy, dark rain. His sword peppered his opponent with a half dozen quick but shallow thrusts in a matter of seconds, but like the arrows, they only left tiny marks, barely more than dimples in the monster’s hide.

  Then, Erich was through the wall of cinderborn militia and he finally got a good look at his target. It was a garr, but where the previous amphibians had been barely knee high with a body like a slightly overweight alligator, this one was a massive killing machine.

  It towered over Erich and Derrl, his head barely reaching the creature’s shoulder. Its snout jutted out in front of it, jaws half open and revealing hundreds of glittering fangs that were as long as his forearm.

  A wave of hot air exited its mouth, overwhelming Erich’s senses as the stench of rotting flesh warred with the constant rain. Behind him, one of the cinderborn retched, dropping to his hands and knees under the assault from the smell.

  Then, its eyes locked onto Derl and the garr growled. A deep sound that seemed to reverberate in Erich’s chest.

  Papa garr was home, and he was pissed.