Tom’s world was a chittering horror. They crawled over his skin, their tiny legs touched his ears and the sensitive skin at the back of his neck. He opened his eyes once and immediately closed them.

The world had become a sea of grey carapace flooding from the newly opened portal in the center of the summoning circle, and Tom was in the center of it.

Magical anti-personnel weapons.

They each weighed about two pounds, their forelimbs sharp and their hand-limbs squat like a fog. They had mandibles with thick, wide teeth, ideal for gripping.

Outside the hut, over the tide of insects crawling over him, Tom could hear shouts and screams of pain.

Different ones this time.

Holding his breath, Tom slowly climbed to his feet and dared to stick his head outside the tent. The grey chiton insects flooding the air made it difficult to see, but he could make out the Kinzena forces wildly swinging their weapons at an enemy that simply existed everywhere.

Every swing they destroyed five or more of the insects.

Dozens more piled on top of them, jumping with their froglike legs, latching on with their mandibles and piercing their victims with their razor sharp forelimbs.

This isn’t going to work, they’ve got armor on. Tom thought sourly, noting how little damage had been truly been done. There was a scratch or a minor perforation here and there, and the Kinzena were panicking, but there was little real damage against fully armored warriors.

Until Gunn rallied the Vith.

The old man picked up an iron spear and wielded it like a club, bringing it down on a Kinzena helmet.

The soldier’s eyes shot out of his head as the helmet caved in violently, entire body crumpling to the ground like a coke can somebody had callously stepped on.

“Come together!” He shouted over the screams and chittering, shoving the solid metal pole through the wreckage of a corpse, hoisting it up into the air and waving it like a flag, one-handed.

“Jesus,” Tom muttered unintentionally.

If there’d ever been a doubt in his mind about why the Vith had never been conquered, that pretty much killed it.

The Vith warriors oriented on the livery of the corpse and formed up around Gunn, charging a single section of the encirclement.

Gunn flung the corpse off the end of his spear and followed it with a charge carrying the full power of the village’s warriors.

The Kinzena, busy fending off the bugs, were unable to maximize the advantage of their formation, and in a matter of seconds, a large wedge of the circle of Kinzena soldiers had been smashed. The Kinzena might consistently enjoy the advantages of surprise, better tactical positioning, technology, rest, superior logistics and numbers…

But individually, they were an iota as dangerous as the Kinzena who’d attacked them a mere three hours ago.

And they were nowhere near as dangerous as an enraged Vith warrior.

Vith with iron poles struck outward, breaking bones and smashing vital organs with every swing, while the ones that hadn’t been armed yet leapt like tigers, crossing ten feet or more in a single pounce, landing on their enemies and brutally tearing the steel armor from their bodies with sheer force before giving it back to them, crushing chest cavities or ripping jaws away from skulls.

Tom stepped outside the hut and craned his neck, scanning the surroundings until his gaze stopped, as he spotted the white-haired old man who’d nearly killed him months ago, back on Earth.

Their gaze locked.

Oh, crap. Tom thought ducking down and preparing himself for floating swords or getting stabbed from behind.

Tom’s blood hammered in his chest as he kept his head on a swivel for the inevitable –

“MOVE!”

Nema tackled Tom to the side. The tiny woman hit him like a linebacker, wrenching his spine as she propelled him to the side.

A massive boulder fell out of the clear sky, crushing the hut and everything inside it, blocking the portal of endless insects and nearly taking Tom out with it.

Well, that’s not good.

The invasion of jumping lacerators had been cut short, but the damage had already been done. The Kinzena line was a mess, and the Vith were taking advantage of their panic to stage a full-scale counterattack, breaking the enemy into bite-sized chunks. Sometimes literally.

Tom scrambled to his feet and dove together with Nema as another boulder appeared above him. Nema grabbed his arm and twisted hard, pulling him out of the way of another boulder that he’d dived under. It had been hiding in the other’s shadow.

Boom!

A feminine cry of surprise and pain was cut short by the explosive rumble of the boulder landing.

Shit!

Tom didn’t have the luxury to stop. More boulders were appearing out of nowhere above him, forcing him to scramble an erratic path through the village.

For a brief instant, the battle cleared, and Tom spotted the old man, his gaze still locked on Tom with laser focus, taking measured steps through the battlefield.

Every time his foot came down, another boulder popped up above Tom.

He’s teleporting the bedrock! Tom realized, eyes widening as his brain caught up on an adrenaline supercharge.

The old man had decided he would rather kill Tom impersonally, squishing him like a bug rather than risk wading through a sea of giant vicious insects.

He needs line of sight!

Tom juked left and rolled like he was back in class, playing dodgeball without a care in the world.

Boom! Another rock exploded beside him, but Tom was way too hopped up on adrenaline to feel the dust and shattered stone. The only thing at this moment was moving as fast as he could with every fiber of his being.

Tom’s fingers dug into the sandy earth, adding a tiny bit of extra traction as he lunged forward out of the roll, running directly under another stone with no time to spare. He felt something scrape his back.

Faster!

Tom dove behind a hut, but didn’t stop there, running towards his abode, every muscle fiber screaming in discomfort.

He needed his revolver.

A Vith might be able to shrug one off, but the teleporters just didn’t have the durability. Their bodies were mortal.

Tom made it to his hut and dove in, snagging the revolver and switching directions fast enough to make his knees feel like they were about to give out. Tom didn’t want to get caught inside a hut getting squished.

When Tom emerged, the battlefield…no longer existed.

The old man and a large portion of his army had simply vanished. While there were a few stragglers, they were being dealt with by the Vith warriors.

“…What?” Tom slowed to a halt, his heart beating so hard he could feel it in his teeth. In his confusion, The chieftan approached, casting an appraising eye over Tom.

“Kinzena are cowards to run the moment they find themselves at a disadvantage,” Gunn spat into the dusty ground, an unusual waste of water for the old desert dweller. “They’ll be back when they recover.”

“So what now?”

“Constant vigilance.” Gunn responded with a shrug.

“That’s it? We’re not going to relocate or hide?”

“Moving an entire village without a trace is a fool’s errand. They would track us and attack wherever we went. We would be tired, hungry and unprepared. There’s no running. There’s no hiding. At least here, we can prepare…somewhat.”

So the old man could teleport back in whenever he wants and drop a boulder on my tent, then pop back out. That’s…less than ideal.

Tom’s eyes widened. Speaking of giant boulders.

“Nema.” He breathed before breaking into a run. She’d been hit by one of the boulders, covering for him.

Tom discovered the Vith lying prone, unmoving. For a brief moment, his heart leapt into his throat until he heard her exhale, a grunt of pain. Tom’s tunnel vision widened and he realized there were two Vith using a metal spear as a lever, trying to rock the boulder off her arm.

Vith might be incredibly strong, but relative mass is a bitch.

Oh god, is she gonna lose the arm!? Tom thought, jolted into action. He ran up and added his weight to the lever. With his addition and the help of some nearby adults, they were able to lift the rock high enough for Nema to scoot out from under it.

What he saw…wasn’t great. The arm hung limp, swollen and bruised.

“Looks like it’s broken,” Nema said, wincing as she poked it experimentally. “Oh, don’t be so upset, giant, you look like a confused houyt tree. It’s a clean break in only one spot. I’ll be able to move it in a couple hours and two days from now you won’t even know it’d ever been injured.’

Right. Vith. I don’t know why I was worried. Under the sarcasm, Tom did know why he was worried. He seemed to have caught some feelings for the charming woman.

More charming if she stopped teasing me about my height.

Tom shook his head and recruited some kids to help him dig out his work-hut. He didn’t have a hell of a lot of time. He needed better defences for the village as a whole, now.

The summoning circle was ruined, but thankfully Tom’s collateral didn’t get squished, preserved under the remains of a destroyed table.

The wineskin containing the fat/ash mixture was ruptured, but Tom managed to scoop most of it back in, carefully picking out the dust and debris from the thick, waterproof mixture.

There was enough to call Luz one more time.

Tom grabbed some tools for drawing perfect circles and got to work. He’d long since memorized the Outsider operator number, seeing as it was the only one you truly couldn’t work without.

Sweat beading on his forehead under the beating sun, Tom’s only respite came when a shadow loomed over him.

Ice flowed through his veins for an instant as he thought the Kinzena might have returned for him already, but it was a Vith woman, carrying a baby on her hip, protected from the devastating sun by a thick shawl.

“Eh?” Tom grunted turning away from his desperate spellwork, feeling the sunburn begin to form on his neck.

“I wanted to say…Thank you for saving my baby.” She said, with deep nod of her head. “If you hadn’t stopped her fall, she would have surely died like so many of the others.”

“I did what now?” Tom asked, frowning.

“You stopped her fall. You know, shortly before you were stabbed.”

Tom remembered failing to catch that particular baby. He’d been interrupted mid-catch by the assassin and the stabbing. He assumed he’d missed, and the child had died.

Maybe she bounced off my prone, bleeding body or something. Tom’s memory of the event was pretty sparse, from the trauma and blood loss, despite happening only three hours ago.

A lot’s happened since then.

“You’re very welcome,” Tom said, returning her nod with one of his own. “I just wish I could have done more.”

“I’m certain you will.” She said before leaving, her baby staring at Tom from over her shoulder.

Odd, Tom thought, brows furrowed for a moment before he diverted his attention back to the summoning circle.

I think I’m gonna build something sturdier over it this time. Preferably with concrete. That way a boulder can’t ruin everything in one move.

But for now he had to re-establish contact with Luz.

About half an hour of doodling in the dirt later, Tom lightly touched the circle and injected it with a single Soul Pulse.

“Ah, you’re still alive!” Luz exclaimed upon seeing him. “You’ll be happy to know that the souls funneled through your crypts in the battle mostly paid for the gnasher swarm.”

“I guess that’s good,” Tom said “But listen, we’ve got these teleporting people who could attack us at any time, and I need a way of protecting myself and others from getting killed in our sleep.”

“Teleporters, huh?” Luz asked, looking offscreen for a moment. “It sounds like you need some Keth’zar.”

“…Which are?”

“They’re similar in function to the human myth of gargoyles. You pay a fee, they go dormant until an attack happens, then they spring into action and fight until everything is minced meat.”

“Are they fast when they fight?” Tom asked. it would be pointless to hire them if the teleporters could hit and run before the creatures even woke from hibernation.

“Blink and you’ll miss them,” Luz said with a smile that chilled Tom’s sunburnt skin.

“What do they charge?” Toma sked.

“The standard fee for a Keth’zar is ten soul pulses to guard an area.”

1.2 dead people per unit at our current exchange rate.

“There’s also a transportation fee of fifty soul pulses to create the portal their physical bodies can enter through, which is why most clients prefer to order their services in bulk.”

Tom considered.

“What’s my current debt?”

“One hundred and sixty-seven soul pulses.” Twenty-one people.

“Can we round that debt up to two thousand?” he asked. Tom’s blood cooled as he realized he was agreeing to kill two hundred and fifty people.

If Luz saw his trepidation, she didn’t say anything, instead continuing to handle the transaction like an immaculate professional.

“Of course, the collateral you gave us earlier will cover the majority of that amount, and Keth’zar are considered a good investment, because sooner or later, someone will die. How many Keth’zar would you like to order?”

Tom did some quick mental math and overlaid a map of the village in his head.

“A hundred and twenty.”

“Right away. That leaves you with four hundred eighty three soul pulses remaining.”

“The rest of it needs to go into re-hiring any of the spirits whose bodies were destroyed in the battle.”

“Very well. I thought you might’ve wanted to replace them, so I’ve got their contracts pulled up.”

Luz glanced around at the village, which was partially on fire.

“Would I be correct in assuming you lost their contact information in the battle?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll re-forward that to you, no charge.”

And just like that I’m in crushing debt again.

Tom’s morose attitude lasted until Luz signed the paperwork and stonelike monsters began climbing out of the portal.

They were between three and five feet tall each, with stony carapaces instead of skin. They had mammalian movement, but insect-like skin. Even through their armor, He could see their whipcord muscles moving. Their claws reminded Tom of obsidian surgical blades, glittering in the sun as they buried themselves in the sand.

The creatures exuded danger.

They had small patches of wrinkled, craggy hide around their joints, and where their razor -sharp claws flexed in their forelimbs.

Each of the hundred and twenty Keth’zar languidly prowled through the village, sniffing and appraising the area with a level of intelligence that went beyond that of an animal. They seemed to deliberately mark each and every one of the gawking villagers as a friendly, before each and every one of them found a convenient perch on a nearby boulder or hut, then settled into a squat, freezing in place.

After that, they didn’t move, breathe, blink, or give any indication that there was anything there other than a particularly tasteless statue.

God, I hope that was the right move.

Tom found out later that night.