The White House

President Keener returned to his office after giving his speech and enjoying a fine lunch. He had nothing left for his schedule today aside from preparing for the upcoming meeting with the Sonarans and Mekkanese representatives from the alien planet. Essentially, the rest of the day was for relaxation, since his staff would handle all the details regarding the meeting. Just as he was about to retire for the day, a frantic man rushed into the room. Keener sighed internally.

“Can it wait?” President Keener asked.

“Ah Mr. President, there’s been a development on Gaerra…”

President Keener sighed. “What now?”

The aide scratched his neck before replying. “The team that went out scouting a few days ago sent an urgent report. They’re being tailed by a large uh… Hydra, sir.”

“What?!” President Keener exclaimed. His initial shock faded away, replaced by exasperation, evident in his sighing. “Details?”

“The team initially encountered the hydra a few hours prior, part of their original mission to scout the forest for any dangerous fauna that might disrupt our plans for expansion and colonization. Fort Grenden sent out a UAV in order to keep tabs on the monster, and that’s when the operator found out that the monster was following in the general direction of the team.”

As the aide continued to speak, President Keener’s frown grew deeper. Why must things always go wrong in this alien world, he asked himself.

“Mr. President?”

Keener snapped back to reality, and muttered a response. “Yes?”

“Do you want to warn the citizens of Felomia? Alpha Team is still at the town, waiting for orders.”

“How long can reinforcements get there?”

“It’ll take about 40 minutes for the two fighters serving a rapid response role. Over an hour for something that might actually be able to kill the monster, since most of the base personnel have the day off today.”

“I thought we had cruise missiles there already?”

“Ah,” the aide chuckled nervously. He did not want to reveal the Vice President’s contradictory orders from a couple weeks ago. With preparations finalized for Operation Upper Hand (Chapter 23), the Vice President had taken a gamble in order to expedite the RoI (return on investment) from the scientists stationed in Gaerra. Discreetly, he arranged for the delays of numerous military shipments, instead sending scientific equipment, personnel, and supplies to Site Beta One and various research labs.

“Let me guess, Stanley’s at it again, huh?”

The aide now looked like a cartoon character who had a large drop of sweat forming on his head. “Yes?”

“Always trying to think he knows best… Well, to be fair, he didn’t know something like this would happen. In fact, he would’ve been right if it weren’t for this monster randomly deciding to follow one of our teams. Anyway, have the base send reinforcements immediately and warn the Felomian townspeople. Oh, and make sure they send out the drone with the good camera! Those damn Hollywood folks put too much human drama in their monster movies.”

“Yes, Mr. President!” The aide quickly left the room in order to relay his orders to General Harding.

——

Fort Grenden

Major Adam Gryffin nearly choked on his hot dog when he was asked to suit up. Luckily for the general, he hadn’t been able to get wasted yet.

“What’s the matter?” Griffin asked, chewing madly in order to finish his hot dog before leaving.

“Monster attack at the town Alpha Team is in, sir!”

Adam sighed. “Alright. C’mon Dragonslayers, let’s go make some fireworks!” He waved his hand in an exaggerated motion, gesturing for his squad to follow him. There goes the plans for beer and barbecue, he thought.

——

Border town of Felomia

Ecith, U.S. Territory

266 miles from Fort Grenden

“Can you send that again, command?” Emma asked in disbelief.

The rest of Alpha Team was crowded around her as they too needed to confirm the message.

“—Hydra en route to the town of Felomia, 30 miles out. ETA: two hours.

“What?” Henry asked. “How could the Hydra have followed us?”

“I don’t know sir, but we’re really lucky the UAV operator noticed the monster’s heading. Any later and we wouldn’t be able to get there in time.”

“ETA for reinforcements?”

“About 40 minutes sir, but they’re only the fighters we had in case of emergencies. They don’t have specialized CAS load outs either. It’ll be an hour and a half until the Dragonslayers get to you.”

Henry smiled upon hearing that. The Dragonslayers has gotten quite popular around the base ever since their battle against the Epic Dragon. It wasn’t quite heroic as depictions in fantastical medieval tales, but then again, there was nothing glorious about annihilating a target miles away using guided missiles. Hopefully the Dragonslayers will prove to be just as effective at ground targets as they are at aerial ones. If their ordnance isn’t enough to take out the monster, then they’ll have to harass it with their guns to keep it busy until the next set of reinforcements arrive. Earlier, they didn’t observe any attacks that could really threaten the high flying jets, although the third head’s signature attack was obscured. They’d be screwed if it was anything similar to the attacks shown in this decade’s Godzilla movies.

Major Donnager began to direct his team to help evacuate the locals, as per the President’s orders, but given the town’s population of over 9,000, a timely evacuation within a couple hours would be near impossible.

——

Local Lord’s Estate, Felomia

Master Tamer Kor Sholion wrinkled his nose in annoyance at the local lord who had stubbornly opposed his advances. Back in the Imperium, he wouldn’t have had to deal with such blatant disrespect and in this particular case, severe idiocy.

“Hmmm I must say once more, I do not have the authority to allow that! You must take your concerns to the Ecithean capital.”

“That’s hundreds of miles down along the coast! Surely, no one would notice! You can earn extra gold just by securing the necessary lodging for my party!” Kor nearly growled, exhausted at the local lord’s stubbornness.

“The Americans will notice. They say they have eyes everywhere, and I am quite frankly not too keen on the idea of the Americans finding out that I have authorized the eviction of the inns’ customers for some… foreign soldiers.”

What would it take for this man to concede!? And why does he have such a neutral face? Thinking about his predicament infuriated Kor, but he kept his temper. If his tough visage wasn’t enough to persuade the lord, if his men’s intimidating appearances weren’t enough to force the lord to capitulate to his demands, then he must play along by his rules and use cunning to secure a deal. Oh, he definitely would’ve simply taken what he needed by force, but the Emperor’s strict orders were to be discreet. A quick taming of the hydras needed to be as covert as possible, so as to not arouse the suspicion of Mekkan or the Divinian Empire.

Kor paused for a split second to come up with a counter. “Ah, we’re not foreign soldiers. We’re merely adventurers!”

“Oh? Is that so?”

“Yes, yes.” Kor smiled as best he could, although his expression looked more like a sneer due to the scars on his face. “We are Tier 1 adventurers looking for the dreaded Forest Hydra!”

The lord broke his neutral expression for the first time in their conversation, leading Kor to cheer mentally for this small victory.

“Ah! My apologies. I would be honored to serve such high ranking adventurers!” The lord bowed deeply, then continued once he returned to an upright position. “But first, may I please see your Tier 1 badges?”

Kor’s eyes widened slightly. The look on the lord’s face, it was none other than that of a victorious man! His evil grin! Did he really need to see the badges?

“Uhh…” Kor looked back to his ‘party’ members, as if he could somehow find and answer. “I left it at home?”

The lord frowned and merely stated, “Then I cannot allow you to take lodging from the inns’ paid customers.”

“Ah to the hells with this…” Kor was on the verge of breaking the Emperor’s strict rules, but his decision making process was interrupted by a set of knocks.

——

Suddenly, a set of knocks hit the door. The lord called for a servant to open it, and to his pleasant surprise, a group of familiar faces strolled in.

“Ah! Major Donnager and friends! I was under the impression that you all would have gone back home by now?” The lord greeted Alpha Team.

Henry spared a glance at the rough looking individuals off to his right, marking them as a potential threat. “We have bad news, Lord Talvin,” Henry replied in a low voice.

Lord Talvin looked over to the supposed ‘adventurers’ before asking, “Is this something that needs to be discussed privately?”

“No, sir.”

“Very well. Please tell us this bad news…”

Henry summarized the details given by the radio operator who had informed him of the Hydra’s advances. After recommending an evacuation of the city, Henry voiced his concerns about the speed at which such a task could be accomplished.

——

Kor eyed the newcomers suspiciously. One was clearly Sonaran while the others seemed Mekkanese, except their black outfits and weapons only minimally resembled those of the Mekkanese. He deduced that these must be the Americans. The patches on their clothing matched the article that fluttered gloriously on a flagpole in the front courtyard.

As a master tamer, Kor was privy to most of the pieces of information released to Emperor Evalion’s inner circle. The same could not be said for his fellow tamers, who were struggling to identify this strangely dressed group.

Three of them moved professionally, likely soldiers. The other two, the Sonaran Wizard and the mage with the masterfully crafted scepter, moved behind the three. What surprised Kor was that a woman was among the three. While females working as adventurers was not unheard of, this one displayed a level of professionalism only present in a trained soldier.

Kor smiled at her, once again his smile being distorted by his scars. The woman frowned, likely because his distorted smile appeared to be quite creepy. Disregarding her obvious disapproval, Kor continued to watch the group and eventually the leader approached the local lord and whispered something inaudible. The tone however, was unmistakably that of urgency.

The expression on the lord’s face was negative; whatever news he had just received must’ve been terrible. He then nodded and walked towards Kor, explaining the situation.

“Perfect timing,” Kor replied. “Let me and my party handle the beast!”

“Very well,” Lord Talvin agreed. After all, if they were truly Tier 1 adventurers, then handling a legendary monster wouldn’t be much of a problem. Lord Talvin quickly excused himself and left to relay the order to evacuate the town, leaving Alpha Team and the Eanish Tamers in the chamber.

Kor snuck a peek over his shoulder and saw the strangely dressed people talking amongst themselves in hushed voices. With them preoccupied and the lord gone, he ushered his fellow tamers toward a corner in order to discuss the situation privately.

“Sire, I don’t believe we can tame the beast in two hours,” one of the tamers voiced.

Kor scoffed. “Of course not! We will trap the beast using standard procedure, except this time, we have an entire town as delicious bait!”

The trio laughed evilly as they hurried to inform their fellow tamers of the approaching hydra and their arcane strategies to trap it.

——

“What was that about?” Jones asked, looking at the trio running out of the mansion.

“Dunno, but those guys gave me the creeps, especially the one with the scars over his face,” Emma said.

“Something doesn’t seem right about them,” Ron added, causing the rest to nod.

“Who are they anyway? They don’t look like bandits and they don’t look like soldiers, despite their gear,” Jones wondered.

“They are most likely adventurers,” Kelmithus answered. “Although I’ve never met a group as suspicious as this one.”

“I’ll keep an eye on them. They said they could handle the hydra. If that’s true, then we might learn a thing or two from these professional adventurers,” Henry surmised. He then clapped his hands. “Alright! The rest of you, try and catch up with Lord Talvin; see if you can help him out with the evacuation. Actually, Dr. Jones and Kelmithus: try to find a way to slow or defeat the hydra. I’m going to follow these other guys and see what they’re up to.”

Alpha Team subsequently split up, leaving Henry alone in the chamber. Reaching into his pack, he fished out a small drone with a camera on it and sent it in the direction where the trio was running off to. The Spider Wasp PRS, a more predatory looking version of its predecessor, the Black Hornet PRS, boasted a stealthy radar cross section, speeds of up to 120 mph, and a stable internal mount for a camera or weapon.

Because of the relatively isolated position of the mansion, which had its own medieval-era defenses, it was easy to spot the trio running off into the northeastern woodlands. Henry pursued them with the drone, keeping it away from their range of detection. Seeing their trajectory, Henry moved the drone further into the woods, hoping to catch a glimpse of their camp. Surprisingly, it was much larger than expected. The mass of people looked more like a small army rather than a group of adventurers, unless adventurers in this world tended to group in the dozens.

Due to the bustling activity and commotion coming from the camp, Henry was able to move the drone closer, allowing it to rest above a tree. Then, he activated the machine’s listening device and spies on the conversations from the people below.

——

Outskirts of Felomia

Imperial Tamer Camp

“You there! Hurry and pick up the pace, or you shall become bait for the beast!” A rough overseer type yelled out, lashing his whip toward a group of people in rags.

Henry frowned as he watched the video feed. He was surprised that the Sonarans and Nobians didn’t have slaves, since they were relatively primitive societies. Well, maybe it’s because each nation cultivated borrowed traditions from their respective patrons. Both the Mekkanese and Divinians did not practice slavery, and so the idea of free labor was passed down after the era of colonization.

He rotated the drone a bit more to the left, finding more of the slaves before he had to do a double take. Wait a second, Henry thought. They didn’t look like people! Zooming in to get a clear picture, his suspicions were confirmed: the slaves were indeed of a different species than humanity - beast people. Remembering some details from prior briefings, he realized that these weren’t adventurers; these were troops from the Eanif Imperium! So that’s why they were so relentless in their campaign against the beast people, he thought. They needed physically strong slaves.

As he continued to watch the actions of the Imperials and their slaves, he slowly realized that they were building a large trap meant to be placed under foliage. The trap was similar to a Terran bear trap, except this one had additional notches for mana gems. Connected to sets of runes, the device and its engravings looked much more complicated than anything seen amongst the Sonarans and Nobians.

The scene thus begged the question: why would the Eanif Imperium want a Hydra? Utilizing knowledge of role playing games, Dungeons and Dragons, and other fantasy related media back on Earth, Henry deduced that the Hydra must drop some good loot when killed. The Spyders he killed back when first exploring Site Beta One left behind mana gems and husks made of an intriguing, durable material which was also highly flexible. He was too busy fighting for his life to even think about checking the bodies, not realizing that such a strange RPG mechanic would apply in real life. At least they didn’t unrealistically drop gold or anything, he thought.

Focusing his attention back on the presence of Imperials, he debated whether or not to allow them to carry on with their work. Of course, he wouldn’t stop them if they were indeed attempting to prevent the Hydra from destroying the town.

“Alpha Lead to all Alpha Team members,” Henry called into his radio. “Be advised, Unknown Trio is in fact a group of Eanif Imperials. Base camp is in the woods, bearing North East from the mansion. Lamarr, please inform command of this new information.”

“On it, sir,” came the reply.

Henry flew the drone back to the mansion and stored it away before setting off to find Lord Talvin. Perhaps he would know something about the Imperium.

——

The continuous hour of hard labor that the beast slaves had to endure, under threat of being used as bait, was finally interrupted by an unfamiliar roar that pierced the skies. Staring into the skies, the Imperials and their slaves were unable to spot the two silvery objects in the horizon, which was obscured by the tree line. Only when the low flying jets were directly above them did they notice, as many of the weaker slaves were pushed to the ground by the immense winds from the jets that skimmed above the trees.

None of them had seen such monsters before, aside from a few tamers who had knowledge of Mekkanese airplanes. As such, most of the slaves and overseers burst into commotion, delaying work for a few minutes.

One of the Eanish men led a crowd of both slaves and Imperial soldiers to Master Kor’s command tent.

“Master Tamer! I beseech thee: abandon these lands! Let us work on the Hydra’s taming on our own accord, without this deadline we are given!” the soldier called out to Kor, who stood unconvinced.

Murmurs of agreement ripples throughout the crowd.

“Yes, this land is overrun by monsters!”

“If we leave now, we can escape with some of the townspeople!”

When the crowd became silent, Kor spoke. “We will not have another chance like this in the future. The main reason why we have not attempted a taming of the Hydra sooner is because of the beast’s elusivity! We would have to spend additional months tracking the beast! We were lucky that it came to us within the first revolutions of our arrival.”

“But my lord,” the soldier dissented. “If we wait and plan, more of us may survive! We will die trying!”

“You can die trying, or you can die where you stand,” Kor said coldly.

“But, my lord!” The man attempted to protest again.

Kor frowned and in a lightning fast movement, drew his new Second Form revolver and shot the borderline rebellious soldier in the head.

“Back to work! Or I will retire you immediately,” Kor commanded.

The crowd quickly dispersed and returned to work, fearing the Master Tamer’s iron fist and big iron on his hip.

——

Felomia Western Forests

Two F-15E Strike Eagles flew at a low altitude, speeding past the town and venturing into the wilderness of the forest. After exiting the airspace of the town, the F-15’s initiated their slow deceleration so that they would reach their target flying at cruising speed.

In one of the Strike Eagles, the pilot spotted an irregular shape trodding through the trees.

“Hey Chuck,” he called out to his copilot.

“Yeah?”

“You see that thing, walking into that clearing down to our left?”

The Strike Eagles were approaching rapidly, granting the copilot but a few seconds to identify the object before it became a blur.

“Shit, isn’t that the Hydra?” Chuck replied.

Indeed, the three heads of the towering beast were unmistakable. It angled itself toward the planes, which were still barely above the tree line at this point. Suddenly, a large glow began to form in one of its heads.

“Oh crap!” the pilot replied as he jerked his joystick, pulling the Strike Eagle into a steep climb.

The fireball missed. Even if the pilot hadn’t executed such a maneuver, the fireball still would’ve missed, since they were still moving at Mach 1.2.

The other plane, seeing the quick movement of its partner, radioed in. “Monster One, what’s going on?”

“Damn Hydra just shot a fireball at us!” Monster One’s pilot answered.

“What the hell? Intel says it's supposed to be 10 klicks out still. Damn, we need to circle back around. Overshot by a damn mile.”

“Roger that, we’ll hit it from the front while you hit it in the back.

“Solid copy. Make sure you let the Dragonslayers know the situation, and please ask Ghost One to hurry their asses up.”

“Will do,” the pilot of Monster One said as he moved his jet back toward the town and did a 180 in order to attack the Hydra.

With a loadout of 2 short range Sidewinder missiles, 2 medium range AMRAAMs, and four AGM-65 Maverick missiles, this essentially meant that between the two fighters, they had eight opportunities to deal damage to the beast. Once they ran out of their ground attack missiles, they would need to switch to their guns and harass the Hydra for as long as possible.

With Monster Two having completed its turn, both jets fired a missile each. The missiles were specifically designed to penetrate armor, but how well could they do against a monster’s hide? The 300 pound explosive ordnance in each missile detonated as the missiles made contact with the Hydra’s skin. After the smoke settled, the jets made visual confirmation of the damage done, which was comparable to the chipping of paint on a warship. Because of the speeds at which they moved, the pilots couldn’t see that the missiles had actually torn off small chunks of flesh. They could only see a slight charring on the surface of the beast’s skin.

As they circled back for another attack run, the Hydra angled its head, trying to predict the trajectories of the planes. The next set of missiles impacted, creating a cloud of dust and debris. From this smoke, the Hydra shot a fireball into the air, narrowly missing Monster One.

Each attack run was met with a close call, closer than the preceding calls. After the jets exhausted their ground attack missiles, they switched to their guns, requiring them to enter the Hydra’s effective combat range.

“Got the target in my sights!” A pilot said over the combat network.

“Guns! Guns!”

A stream of bullets erupted from the plane’s mounted M61 Vulcan, hitting the Hydra in the face and creating a small scar where the skin was deformed by the kinetic energy of the impacts.

—

The enraged hydra seemed to almost grin at the sight of the approaching planes. Feigning defense by throwing one of its arms up, it secretly charged a fireball and was able to successfully hit one of the pesky metal gnats.

—

The fireball scorched Monster Two’s left wing, corroding the metal and almost entirely disabling the left aileron.

“How bad is it?” the pilot asked.

“We can still fly, sir, but it’ll be harder to perform complex maneuvers to dodge the Hydra’s attacks.”

The pilot contemplated. “Hmm, okay that’s not too bad. Let’s shorten our strafes just to be safe. A few more attack runs could make all the difference, especially now that the damn thing is this close to the town.”

—

The Hydra watched the gnats angrily as they had come around for another pass, the injured one it hit earlier flying higher. The Hydra saw this as a mixed blessing and curse, since it meant that their piercing attacks wouldn’t hit it as often. Sure, the piercing attacks were capable of dealing damage, but nothing so far could pierce its thick hide. Having a decorated history of battles against other large beasts, this particular Hydra was truly an apex predator, even more so than the rest of its kin, which are known to regularly challenge massive sharks and krakens. Still, the beast felt a sense of unease as the pesky fliers retreated and it marched toward the delicious smell of food.

After moments of silence, the unease drifted away and eventually it saw lights in the distance — a glaring contrast to the darkening skies. Its stomach rumbled as it pushed forward, relishing the thought of a full belly and biomass with which to heal itself.

——

“But the evacuations aren’t even halfway done!” Lord Talvin cried out.

“You must ask the people to leave their belongings. We can get them supplies and help rebuild the town once the Hydra has been dealt with.” Henry’s tone was solemn; he’s seen livelihoods destroyed once before.

“Yes, I shall do that. I only pray the beast does not destroy everything we have built here. Perhaps the Eanish can stop them before they get here. I know not why they had to lie about their intentions and status, but as long as my people are safe, I will leave them to their arcane beast traps.”

The two men stood in silence until Lord Talvin spoke again. “May I use your radio messengers?”

Lord Talvin’s wording lightened Henry’s mood and he granted the Ecith man’s request with a smile.

“I will likely never cease to be fascinated by your nation’s magic. And after hearing of your victory against our Nobian overlords, I will never cease to be grateful.”

“We fight for freedom,” Henry replied, smiling internally because he finally got a chance to say that line. His chest was swelling with pride.

Lord Talvin then communicated his orders to Ron and Emma, who were paired with some of the lord’s aides in order to expedite the flow of information. They quickly got to work, and soon enough, the flow of evacuees on the road increased.

With that settled, Henry decided to check up on Kelmithus and Dr. Jones.

“Any breakthroughs?”

The tired voice of Kelmithus replied. “Yes, we have just finished collecting metal from the town barracks; anything that the guards could not carry with them.”

“You alright Kel? You sound a bit tired.”

“Oh, yes, yes. I am just mama exhausted. I will be fine once I regenerate my mana using the few gems that the Guard Captain has graciously donated.”

“What do you have planned?”

This time, Dr. Jones replied.

“We all know that we can’t outright kill the creature with our available materials and given time, so we came up with a solution to buy as much time as possible!”

Kelmithus continued in his place, smoothly explaining the details of his plan. “A stun spell is simple, such that most beginner wizards are able to learn it easily. It is a variant of the lightning spell, which uses electricity to stun a target. I have learned many things about currents and conductivity that I have never known before, and today I would like to apply my experiments on the field, as you Americans may say. I will need some time to prepare the remaining gems and I need a straight line of sight.”

Henry recalled the plans of the Imperials. With Captains Lamarr and Owens keeping tabs on the Eanish, he was able to deduce their overall strategy.

“Kel, you might want to set up around the town circle. There, you’ll have a clear line of sight to the western gate, which is where the monster should be coming from. Be careful with the Eanish. They’re setting up traps using these pylons or cones scattered in some shape, alongside an enormous pitfall trap.”

“Very well. Dr. Jones, let us commence our work.”

——

Western Gate

Kor watched his people toil endlessly as they hurried to ready the trap. Looking back at the two wizards setting up their little spell conduit, he scoffed. These people should leave the difficult work of handling large monsters to the professionals. They couldn’t even get the beast’s estimated time of arrival correct! As a master tamer, Kor had long ago sensed the approaching Hydra, and now, gazing upon his workers finalizing their conduit placements, he felt ready.

He heard two roars. One was distinctly from the Hydra, another came from behind him. The Americans brought a vehicle in order to escape! How cowardly!

He turned his attention back into the forest, where a large, three headed beast suddenly appeared.

“Let me show you how a master tames a monster!”