Alyssa somehow found her team growing, at least temporarily. Michelle had decided to join her team for the time being. She didn’t really get into details on why and when Alyssa asked if everything was alright the woman just shrugged and stated she was waiting for the trip to the south. Alyssa just assumed after that the young woman maintained a naturally aloof personality. Which was further reinforced with how little the woman engaged her other teammates.

Her other addition came courtesy of the Beastmen. When they found out she was the First Challenger they practically bowed and scraped at her feet wishing to travel with her. She found herself incredibly embarrassed by the attention when a rather normal looking short woman with auburn hair and hazel eyes approached her one night while she sat at the bonfire. The woman, who introduced herself as Talia, noted that Alyssa’s team lacked a dedicated supporter, and it just so happened that Miss Talia was adept at supporting magic and could hold her own in a straight up fight.

It wasn’t until after they had bonded over food and conversation that Alyssa had accepted her to the team. And it wasn’t until they had been set upon by a Navajo Horse Raider patrol that Talia had revealed what her animal form was, which was that of an oversized Honey Badger. Everyone on her side stopped and gaped in awe as the woman tore into a trio of riders and shredded them to ribbons before they could react. When she was finished she quickly transformed back into the stunningly attractive woman that Alyssa had bonded with prior.

It had been a week and several more run-ins with the Horse Raiders before they found themselves once again amongst the buttes around Dilkon trying to track down the Navajo main force. She suspected it wouldn’t be until Eli got his hands on the VTOL craft he had been excitedly talking about that they would be able to find the slippery bastards out in the desert.

Talking to the residents of Dilkon produced absolutely no intel. It reminded her of a movie she had watched where it was common for soldiers hunting the Taliban in Afghanistan to get stonewalled by the people they were trying to protect. They had stopped asking for their whereabouts after the second time the locals had directed them to a major monster den, complete with five star bosses. ‘Fuckers!’ Alyssa thought wryly.

Lulu nudged her elbow looking for an ear scratch while they sat below a particularly tall butte and waited for Brondwyn and his brother Feodr to return from their aerial scouting. As she sat with her back against Lulu’s flank, she felt the breeze tickle her cheek and decided it might be a good time and place to take a nap. Just as she was about to let her eyes seal shut she spotted Brondwyn and Feodr gliding in to land in front of her.

‘Damn it, a nap would have been nice.’

“Challenger! I think we’ve spotted one of their main camps. A couple hundred riders and mounts about 20 miles to the north. If we leave now we can catch them just before nightfall.” Brondwyn reported what he found and Alyssa digested the information, quickly rising from her relaxed position.

“Did you spot Tracey?”

“No, Challenger, we think this is one of their sub-camps.” Feodr provided for his brother. “Another commands this host.”

She sighed in frustration, “Alright, well, we have a few more days before Karl returns from Show Low. It’s a good opportunity to cause some damage.”

“Yes, it will provide a layer of security for the settlement if we cull their number.” Choox’il agreed with the young woman’s assessment.She was slowly gaining an aptitude for seeing the bigger picture. “We begin our campaign to the south in less than a week. Less aggressors means an easier time for our reserves while we are away.”

“So, we smashing some more Raiders?” Talia approached from the other side of the encampment. Alyssa found it hard to believe that the tall blonde could actually transform at will into a honey badger.

“What’s their number?”

“Less than twenty.”, Brondwyn offered, “No less than fifteen.”

“I’m down for those odds, these guys haven’t been particularly tough.” Michelle added from her spot against a distinctly uncomfortable looking rock. She didn’t seem to notice if it was.

Alyssa, again, looked at her motley collection of teammates and slowly chewed the inside of her cheek. Then she rolled her shoulders and addressed them, “Fuck it, let’s try to keep one alive. Maybe an important one. Maybe one that can tell us where to find Tracey. I’m tired of chasing him across the desert.”

The group headed out towards the raiders camp without preamble. They quietly surrounded the men in the blistering Arizona sun. Choox’il shadowed Alyssa and Lulu while Talia, in her badger form, and Michelle took up position opposite their own. Dany, Feodr, and Brondwyn positioned themselves beyond some rocks that placed the three groups in an odd angled triangle formation around the oblivious raiders.

When everyone was in position Alyssa gave the signal and her team sprang into action. Choox’il and Dany initiated the surprise attack with a hail of arrows and electricity. The raiders were loosely gathered in groups of four to five and only one of the groups reacted quickly enough to get a magical barrier up. Alyssa decided that group would be the one with the leader and she focused on identifying him while the rest of her team dismantled the enemy.

As her fighters engaged the other two groups of raiders one man stood out of the protected group that started giving orders. A pair of the men managed to gain their horses in the chaos and attempted to flee. The men were savagely cut down by Feodr and Brondwyn who slipped out from behind a crop of rocks and dehorsed them with a wide swing of their weapons. The horses continued on riderless, kicking up dirt and dust as they sprinted off into the desert with no intent on stopping anytime soon. The men tumbled across the desert in the opposite direction spilling their guts across the ground. The brothers strode forward and ended the men’s agony with a quick slice through each one’s neck.

Michelle was smiling as she fought three men on the other side of the ambush site. Alyssa was about to move to assist when she realized that it was the men who needed help. Not one could land a hit on her as she moved through various forms of her alien kata. She always found herself in just the right position to land bone crunching blows, or striking with knees and elbows in various pressure points and vitals.

Dany provided the distraction she was waiting for when she decided to assault the main group's barrier with her lightning. A white hot lance of pure energy speared down from the sky striking the shield that kept Alyssa and her team from reaching the men inside. Energy flared in all directions and the supporter fell to the ground smoking, Dany’s attack far more powerful than the meager shield the man had summoned.

Alyssa slipped into the shadows with Lulu on her heels as Talia shredded a pair of fighters, not even bothering to transform fully. Furry black arms ending in blood stained claws tore one man’s throat out while raking crimson furrows across another’s chest. Alyssa slid through the shadows past the man Talia had just opened up and absentmindedly lashed out with her sword as she passed, slicing through his exposed hamstring. The man yelped in surprise then fell over in pain that lasted only another moment as Talia pounced on his now defenseless form.

Four opponents remained standing to include the one Alyssa marked as the leader. All but the leader carried rifles, he carried a shimmering blue spear, clearly something earned from a dungeon delve. The riflemen attempted to draw a bead on her team but were suppressed by a withering hail of arrows and lightning for their efforts and only managed to fire blindly over the rocks they took cover behind. ‘The system really does balance shit out, doesn’t it?’ Alyssa thought absently.

Soon Alyssa and Lulu appeared amongst the men in flickers of shadow and smoke. She didn’t bother being flashy, she simply moved between two of the riflemen and activated [Shadow Cleave]. Dark shadow energy spread behind the arc of her swords as the two men’s heads separated from their shoulders and tumbled to the ground. Lingering nerve impulses held the triggers on their weapons down for a half second and bullets streaked into the wispy clouded sky.

Luly emerged teeth first from the shadows and aimed to remove the last rifleman’s head but only managed to steal his arm as he had enough presence of mind to attempt to avoid the mammoth dark coyote. Not satisfied with the meager snack, Lulu lunged further out of the shadows and wrapped her jaws around the shocked man’s body. He finally screamed in fear and pain then Lulu shook him violently, snapping the bones in his neck and back. He went limp in her jaws and she shook again before being satisfied that the man was no longer a threat and dumping his body back to the dirt. Then she once again melted into the shadows.

The leader, now wide eyed and panicking struck out randomly at any and all movement. Alyssa allowed herself to be seen and the man swung his spear to face her. He growled a mindless yell in her direction and began to lunge for her. Alyssa didn’t move however, Michelle appeared above her soaring through the air with a knee extended like one of the Valkyr. She proceeded to land said knee into the raider leader's face, instantly shattering the bridge of his nose. The attack wasn’t complete however as she rode his face down until his head bounced off the rocky ground beneath her.

“All of the raiders are down, Challenger.” Choox’il reported from behind Alyssa.

Michelle knelt next to the man whose skull she just used like a basketball and whipped out some oversized zip tie restraints and proceeded to hogtie him hands to feet. “That was fun, I don’t think I split his skull. He’s still breathing. Meh.”

After a few moments of waiting the man’s eyes fluttered and he slowly regained his senses. An angry grunt and twist of shoulders and hips convinced him he was completely at their mercy and he sighed. Alyssa chose the moment he looked around in anger at her party to emerge from the shadows in front of him. He balked at her presence and looked as if he were about to say something then clamped his mouth shut when Choox’il and the half transformed Talia crowded around him.

“What? Don’t like the refugees?” Alyssa asked with a significant amount of snark.

He looked at her with an amount of disdain she hadn’t seen since her father left her in her Uncle’s “care”. Then he spoke in Navajo, “Little Raven, you fight against your own people? Alongside the invaders? Do you not care for your lineage?”

She stepped up and kicked the man in the ribs and spat, “FUCK YOU! MY PEOPLE DIDN’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT ME WHEN I WAS GETTING RAPED AND ABUSED BY ANYONE WHO WOULD PAY!” She kicked him again and the man grunted.

His eyes locked with hers in disbelief, “None of the people would do that to a worthy child, you mus- HURGHK!” He began to mutter in Navajo when Alyssa kicked him again, harder than the last two times. He skidded awkwardly across the dirt for a few feet before coming to rest with a groan.

“ENGLISH! ASSHOLE! I know you know how to speak it, and you will speak it to me. I don’t give a damn what you believe. In fact the only thing I want to hear you say next is the location of where your shitty boss, Tracey, is. Tell me that right now and I’ll let you go, bullshit me and I will let my good friend, Choox’il, attempt to extract the information I want.” She knelt beside the man and held his throat with her metal arm, the claws slowly extending into his flesh as she spoke.

He looked at her hesitantly then smiled through the blood on his teeth, “Do what you will Little Raven, I will not talk. We will have our land back. From all invaders, new and old.”

Alyssa looked at the man for a long moment, digesting his words with the look on his face. He’s not going to talk unless we break him, and even then the info he shares will be suspect at best. FUCK! She closed her hand around his throat in a single swift motion that caused the man’s eyes to bulge in surprise before the lids slowly closed and his body went limp.

“So, I take it he’s not talking?” Dany jibed from across from her.

“No. He’s just like Tracey, he believes he’s justified. I’m afraid we’re just going to have to run him down the old fashioned way.”

“What’s the old fashioned way you speak of?” Feodr asked.

She looked out across the desert and sighed before responding, “Kill every single one of the assholes we find until there’s either no more to kill or they realize we’re going to keep killing them as long as they keep trying to kill us, and they give up.”

“Well, that sounds positively genocidal. Let’s get on with it then, shall we?” Brondwyn quipped in his odd sort of dark humor.

Lulu came over to Alyssa who reached up to scratch her neck, “Alright, which way should we go Lulu?” The massive coyote looked at her appraisingly, sniffed the air and looked northward. “Alright, north it is.”

Everyone chuckled as Alyssa climbed on the coyotes back and began to trot towards a trio of large buttes in the distance. Her team fell into step with her as they meandered through the desert until a rumbling in the distance soon announced violent tremors that threatened to put them all on their asses. As soon as the tremors passed an urgent notification was pushed into their direct line of sight.

Mana Oversaturation achieved!

Landscaping Protocols Commencing…..

Claimed Settelment areas excluded…..

Warning! Mana Oversaturation detected…..

All sapient beings are advised to seek the safety of any nearby settlement…..

All unclaimed land will now undergo advanced landscaping…..

“The hell is this?” Michelle muttered to herself as another series of tremors threatened to force her to the ground.

Feodr and Brondwyn launched in the air to escape the forceful rumbling and then pointed at the buttes, “Brother, look!” Brondwyn exclaimed.

Alyssa and the rest turned their gazes in the direction Brondwyn indicated and stood slackjawed at what they were witnessing. Just as he had called their attention the three buttes in the distance began to move, not just shake, but seemed to actually be growing in height. Loose rocks and debris rained from the tops of the formations and then a crack at the base of each began to slowly form.

Lulu had dropped flat to the ground with Alyssa still on her back who was mesmerised by what she was seeing. As the cracks formed at the base of the buttes they slowly began to rise into the air. More loose rock and debris fell from beneath them now and still they floated higher and higher. Soon they were at such a height that the distance from the bottom of the floating buttes was equal to each ones individual height before it separated from their earthly moors.

The shaking of the earth ceased beneath them and they all stared in wonder at the scene that played out before them. They thought the spectacle was done, but then, the now floating islands of rock began to shift closer to each other until each one was positioned higher than the last and slightly overlapping. Soon they noticed a large flow of water now poured from the highest butte into the one below it. A few minutes of waiting and the water continued to flow into another waterfall to land in the last floating rock formation. That one then flowed until it was draining into the largest of the craters left behind by the aerial islands. There was no telling where the water was originating from and, at the moment, none of them really cared.

“Well, that’s something you don’t see every day.” Alyssa muttered to herself.