Alyssa spun and swiped the legendary falcata’s she had been gifted and bisected one of the creatures her group had begun constantly encountering as they moved further north away from Winslow. She slipped deftly under another creature’s attacks and shoved her other falcata completely through its guts. The monster hissed at her and then slumped to the ground dead. A bolt of lightning streaked past her left side as Dany cackled madly and fried a half a dozen of the monsters. Choox’il stood on a large rock and kept a steady stream of enchanted arrows flying while Alyssa's two latest acquisitions, Valkyr brothers, carved through the steadily increasing man and horse flesh. One with a two handed sword that was longer than he was tall, and the other with a bastard sword and shield. Lulu fought behind her, ensuring nothing blindsided her.

Soon the impromptu battle was finished and everyone gathered around the bodies of the dead creatures. Dany kicked the foot of one that she had electrocuted into a piece of coal. “That’s probably not one of our refugees, is it?” She snickered at her own joke and shrugged when the Valkyr just looked at her and shook their heads.

“No, I do not believe this to be them, they would not have attacked.” Choox’il stated flatly. She wasn’t happy with how the search had gone thus far. They had ranged several dozen kilometers from Winslow and had yet to find the refugees. The only thing that damnable administrator had told them was they were to the North and they needed help. So while Karl went to liberate/conquer Flagstaff, Alyssa and her team were tasked with finding the other refugees. There was another team on the other side of the Colorado River looking for them as well.

“Let’s head up to the top of that butte. Should be able to see across the entire plain.” Alyssa suggested, “And, I’ve always wanted to get on top of one of those. Can cross it off my bucket list.”

“Seems as good a plan as any, it’s definitely better than running around here and getting attacked by… whatever the hel these are.” Feodr said and poked a dead creature with his bastard sword.

They hiked to a tall narrow butte and climbed to the top. Well, Alyssa, Danny, and Choox’il climbed while Feodr and his brother, Brondwyn, flew to the top. Alyssa and Danny were not a small bit jealous of the brothers. Alyssa pulled herself up using her cybernetic arm without much effort. Dany rolled over the lip of the ledge and flopped onto her back. Choox’il seemed rather suited to climbing and proceeded to survey the land around them. Alyssa joined her and looked to the South at the growing village of SooHoo.

From their vantage point she could see where the Colorado split several times to become the New Winslow River as well as another large river crossing further west on the other side of the town that had yet to be named by the residents. The townhomes along the New Winslow had gone up in the couple days since Karl and Gregor left and the former residents of Winslow had largely settled in the new apartments, the ones with adventuring income greedily snatched up the townhomes.

After Colleen arrived as Karl was leaving, she took the position of City Planner and soon started leasing individual plots of land to adventurers with the funds to afford them. She reserved the length of Third and Second Streets all the way up to where the old Circle K stood as a commercial district that curved around to end on the market at the kiosk. The rare individuals with crafting classes quickly started snatching up these plots and manual construction projects were going up with the help of the Dwarves. There was word that they were also in discussions with Eli on construction of the wall and defenses that Karl had initially wanted to place. Though it seemed with the help of the refugees they were pushing back the onslaught of monsters and had carved a decently sized no man’s land around their slowly growing village.

“Challenger, you must see this.” Feodr called out from the other side of the narrow butte they stood on. She walked a couple hundred meters to the other side of the butte where they had gathered.

Looking out across the dusty landscape to where the Colorado curved around the mesas and buttes she saw a wide column of thick black smoke rising into the air. Hundreds of men on horseback harassed a large group of thousands of people with arrows and spears. It was like something out of an old western movie. Several thousand people trying to find safety were attacked by hundreds of violent natives. A trope as old as America was a country and yet, here it was, actually happening. I really hate my people. Alyssa thought to herself and grimaced.

“So, I heard once from my mom, when she gave a shit to take care of me, that there was a standing policy in the Navajo Nation that if the US ever fell to another power they would do what they could to repel everyone from their ancestral lands. Fucking idiots.” Alyssa commented.

“That certainly looks like a refugee group. They have the numbers but aren’t attacking. See the barriers, they are trying to defend the entire population. They do not have long.” Choox’il summarized the battle and the Valkyr nodded at her assessment.

“Challenger, to the West.” Brondwyn called her attention and she looked in the direction he indicated. A mile from where the refugees had hunkered down she saw hundreds more of their number tied to poles and shoved into cages by other Navajo warriors.

“Fuck, they’re taking slaves.” Dany commented with electricity surging behind her eyes. The young black woman was definitely not all about that.

“The world goes to shit and the people go back to the old ways.” Alyssa mumbled to herself, “I’d try taking that many warriors if we had more people, though I’m sure Karl doesn’t want us starting a war with the Navajo.”

“He probably wouldn’t mind as long as he was certain he could finish it with minimal losses.” Choox’il commented.

“We can definitely take the slave camp.” Feodr added.

“We should definitely take the slave camp.” Dany interjected with enthusiasm.

Alyssa thought out the options. She didn’t like seeing anyone forcibly enslaved, but she knew if she killed the warriors guarding them they would be drawing the attention of the rest of the Nation. And she knew that while SooHoo was becoming stronger, they didn’t have the numbers to face even the army of men that currently harassed the refugees. At least not without losing a significant amount of progress and lives in the process. I’m going to have to talk to them. Fuck.

“I’m going to talk to them, it’s the only way we can stop this before it's too late without causing another headache for the settlement. I’ll need to do this alone. But I want you guys close enough to pull me out if it goes sideways.” Alyssa started giving direction and turned an eye to Dany, “Don’t fry them unless they move for me, and don’t try to free the slaves without us!”

Dany rolled her eyes and planted her hands firmly on her hips then grudgingly assured Alyssa she wouldn’t move without being directed first. “Fine, but you know we can’t let that shit stand.”

“I know, and it won’t, but right now we try to talk. Maybe get some information so we can prepare and preferably manipulate the future fight in our favor.”

“You have been listening to Eli, good.” Choox’il smiled with a mothers pride in her daughter. Alyssa blushed a little then headed for the ledge.

“Let’s go, they don’t have long.” And she dropped the hundred meters to the ground below with a light thud. Lulu appeared from the shadows and scooped Alyssa onto her back and the pair charged off for the battle in the distance.

“Eh, I can’t jump that far.” Dany scowled before Feodr offered his services. Dany smiled and accepted the much larger and handsome Valkyr’s arms around her waist and squealed when they took flight.

When everyone was at the bottom of the butte, they followed closely behind Alyssa as she tore through the desert towards the sounds of battle. Choox’il noted how the areas around the river were growing increasingly greener and the soil was beginning to shift in color and consistency. Mana was accelerating the growth and that in turn was creating an increasingly fertile plain where once a dusty red, and rocky desert dominated. She focused her mind from her reverie as Alyssa’s charge slowed.

They came to crouch behind a gaggle of mesquite trees and thorny bushes nearly a hundred meters behind Alyssa and Lulu. From this distance all but Dany could hear the girl's conversation and would be able to intervene quickly if needed.

Alyssa slowed and approached a group of men, the one in the center she assumed to be the leader of the warband. All the men gathered wore leather moccasins, pants, and were painted for war. The man at the center wore a pair of cargo pants and combat boots, and was shirtless like the rest. While some of the men carried rifles, most carried spears and bows. It was like somehow they had reverted to their pre-colonization selves, while others attempted to straddle the line between ancient and modern.

Alyssa called out in Navajo, “I see you.”

The man in camo pants turned and watched her for a long moment. He was skinny and older, maybe older than Eli. He carried an AR-15 and a stone tomahawk on his hip. His skin was darker than hers, indicative of his time spent in the hot Arizona sun. He decided she was real and responded, “I see you, Raven and Coyote.”

She stiffened at his recognition of her new name. The one she didn’t know of until the System had identified it. Before the System her last name was Brown. Now it was Nightraven, and she had yet to figure out that mystery. She certainly hadn’t changed it herself.

Still speaking in Navajo, Alyssa chose to get to the point, “I’ve come from Winslow, from SooHoo village. I was looking for refugees that the System indicated would be out here.”

The man thought for a moment and responded arrogantly, “I apologize, your search is pointless. There are no refugees here, only invaders and skinwalkers.”

“Skinwalkers?” Alyssa asked, not sure how to turn the conversation.

“Yes, little Raven, come and see the demons in their true forms.” The man beckoned her forward to the edge of the mesa where they observed the rest of the tribe constantly harassing the refugees below.

She watched as a creature, with the body of a man, and the head of a wolf fought a defensive battle against five warriors. As he fought his body shifted further and further til he was the living approximation of a werewolf. As she scanned the thousands of refugees she realized that the wolf wasn’t the only animal represented amongst the people. She saw plenty of cat girls and lizardmen. A handful of bear analogues. The fighters would shift into a ‘were-whatever’ while the non fighters stayed in forms that were mostly human. Though some kept ears and tails, or coats of fur in their ‘human’ forms.

She saw the wolf man fall from several arrows and then a net was thrown over him and he was dragged off by the warriors while a catwoman and child screamed at his abduction but didn’t dare chase out of the barrier that kept the native warriors from charging in and taking the lot of them.

“This needs to stop.” Alyssa said, no longer in Navajo.

The man she had been talking to looked up at her with a sinister smile. “It has only just begun. Once we have subdued this group of invaders, we will start driving out the white man and his allies from our land. Unfortunately for you, Raven, I can’t allow you to leave and inform your white masters of this. Winslow, of course, is next on our list.”

Alyssa looked at the man and silently cursed. Then a smile slowly started forming on her lips as she assessed the situation. She realized that from where she stood, this man couldn’t get any reinforcements to his position and her own were waiting for her signal. She sent a mental message to Eli that she needed reinforcements, that she had found the refugees and a threat to Winslow.

Then she laughed at the man with the arrogant smile, “So what, you think you get super powers and you can fight the world? What a fucking short sighted idiot! And holy shit! When Karl gets wind of this, you’re completely fucked.”

The man’s smile turned to rage as she started laughing at him. When she said Karl’s name his eyes narrowed. “Karl!? Karl who?”

Alyssa looked at him as his men surrounded her with rifle and spear, she sent a mental message to her team, wait for it. She looked at the little native man in disdain. He held his hand out to the men around her stalling them from presumably executing her, and Lulu glared silently waiting for the moment her rider gave the order to murder these bastards. “Karl Brunett. He owns Winslow now. Technically SooHoo now, but everyone just calls it Winslow still.”

He looked at her as if she had just sprouted several more eyes or horns. Then he doubled over laughing and the tension in the group around her eased a bit. “KARL!? THAT FAT FUCK!? GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE! That fat piece of shit is in charge of Winslow now? We should have headed there first. That fucker’s all bark and no bite. Oh, that’s too funny, girl.” He was laughing so hard he had to wipe the tears from his eyes.

While he was amusing himself, Alyssa received a reply from Eli, 30 minutes out. 100 Militia, 100 Valkyr, led by Queen Freya. She relayed the message to her people then returned to her conversation with the arrogant man that stood below her. “And just who are you, and how do you know Karl?” She asked stalling for time, every second she bought or Winslow forces to arrive was one less second she had to fight hundreds of her kin.

“Oh, well, I used to work at the prison with him. See, he came up from Tucson as a Sergeant and then got demoted for being a racist piece of shit. And as for who I am, well, I don’t see the harm in sharing, my name is Tracey. Unfortunately you won’t be around to share that info with Karl, sorry girl, we’re done talking.”

Alyssa sighed in disappointment and then launched off of Lulu’s back and disappeared into the shadows just as Lulu did the same. The men fired off a few rounds where she had formerly been and looked around startled by her disappearance.

“Where the fuck did she go!?” Tracey barked at his men.

“No idea, boss!” A strangled scream from behind them announced that Lulu had made her first attack. The men spun around to look at the source of the scream and found a man’s body falling to the ground missing everything from the sternum up. Alyssa took the distraction as an opportunity to lash out at Tracey, fortunately for him one of his subordinates stepped into the path of her falcatas and gasped in surprise as he looked down to find them wreathed in shadow and buried to the hilt in his abdomen. Before he could cry out in alarm Alyssat twisted her weapons with the cutting edge facing out of the man’s body and violently cut through his guts. The man wavered as the wounds opened wide and then the weight of his upper body was too much for his spine to hold without the support of his abdominal muscles. He twisted to the side with a loud snap as his vertebrae separated at the weakest point and proceeded to collapse into two pieces in the dirt.

The only other warrior besides Tracey with a rifle fell face first into a prickly desert bush when three arrows sprouted from the middle of his back, neck, and head. Alyssa was pleased that her party had joined the battle and she focused her energy on taking out that arrogant bastard, Tracey. He had steadily been creating space since his fighter caught the vicious deathblow that was meant for him. He had reached the edge of the mesa and called down to his men below to help. Before he could turn back though, a bolt of lightning arced down from a cloudless sky and struck the ground at his feet. He barely moved in time to not be fried and ended up tumbling down the side of the mesa towards his men. The last man standing on the mesa with them was run through by Bronwyn and they quickly gathered together as the thundering sound of hoofs striking the hard Arizona desert echoed towards them from the slave camp.

“They are coming, Challenger. A glorious battle awaits!” Feodr mused as everyone watched the growing cloud of dust approach them from the West.

“Alright, Eli and Freya should be here in the next twenty minutes, we hold until then.” Alyssa called out to her team. To her surprise they all casually readied themselves as if this was always the planned outcome. Was this always how it was supposed to go down? Alyssa thought to herself. Lulu answered her thoughts with an ear piercing howl that echoed across the mesa. A similar battle roar sounded from below as the gathered beastmen answered Lulu’s howl with their own howl, hoot, or roar.

The refugees, seeing salvation at hand, had chosen to risk the ire of the System and finally take the fight to their harassers.