The party was over and the squads were sent back to work, Avryn and Leifren’s included. Avryn spent his time reflecting on his meeting with Redorick. He held onto his necklace, his thumb circling over the sapphire pendant. Not now, he thought. There was a lot of work to do first.

  The squads took the airship to Outpost E, where they are now stationed. The major in charge of the outpost went by Kryjis Salthome. Avryn and Leifren’s squad landed at the outpost. There were lots of veterans stationed. They see Carolus’s squad preparing for a mission. Avryn and Carolus made eye contact. The latter waved to the former. Avryn returned the gesture and wished him good luck.

  Avryn’s squad reported to the major. He gave them the assignment of scouting the perimeter and eliminate any Corpses that breached it.

  “Right, let’s get back to work,” Avryn rallied them.

  They hopped onto their dualcycles and proceeded with the scouting. They encountered several Corpse wolves. Easy enough at this point, and eliminated them with efficiency. They encountered a family of Corpse bears and had to disembark their dualcycles for this one. Avryn led the charge. They went for what they perceived to be the mother bear. Just as Avryn was about to strike for first blood, he hesitated. The bear took advantage of that and whacked him to the side, sending him flying to the ground.

  Avryn rolled through and responded by firing some bullets. Valoche backed him up by engaging with the bear in melee. Rinna and Tvira shot down the cubs. Avryn hesitated again, as he swore he heard the mother bear cry in anguish. His hands started to shake, his aim became unsteady. Rinna noticed this and picked up his slack. She jumped onto the bear and shot it the top of its head. It dropped dead as its brain was destroyed.

  “Damn it, what’s wrong with me?” Avryn whispered to himself.

  He hit himself in the head with his pistol in frustration, and sighed.

  “Let’s continue with the patrol,”

  And so they did. They reached the halfway, and farthest point of their patrol. They took a break by the river and ate their rations for the day. Tvira took this opportunity to ask Avryn.

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  “Are you alright?” she asked.

  Avryn stared into the campfire before answering.

  “Yes, I am. Just need to focus on the mission.”

  Rinna took note of that, but remained silent. Valoche continued munching on his rations. Tvira finished up first and scouted up ahead. A few minutes, she returned with new information.

  “Nature seems to want to halt our advances in these parts of the land,” she warned.

  They hopped back on their dualcycles and continued patrolling. What Tvira talked about came onto the scene as warped vines tried to slow down their vehicles, but they were too weak.

  “We should go fast before they overwhelm us with their numbers,” Rinna suggested.

  The rest nodded and drove a bit faster. The vines were chopped up by how fast the dualcycle’s wheels were running. They ran into some Corpse boars right after. Avryn forgot to brake and he crashed onto one. He flipped at least three times in the air before he landed.

  “Crap!” he said.

  He landed on his back with a loud thud. He summoned Lerosa to block an incoming boar charging at him. Valoche jumped into the fray with him.

  “You alright?” he asked.

  Avryn stood up and had his back on Valoche’s.

  “Yeah, let’s do this.”

  Combat started as the boar’s reared up and charge against the two. Their defense was stalwart, however. They successfully blocked each charge against them. Rinna joined soon after. Tvira picked apart the boars from afar with her bow. A boar managed to slip under their defenses and caught Avryn. He used the boar’s momentum to ride on it and wrestled control.

  “How about a taste of your own medicine,” Avryn exclaimed.

  He used the boar to charge against its own comrades, wreaking havoc in their formations. He used Lerosa’s explosive shots to dispatch the other boars. A few moments later, he shot the boar he was riding on and jumped off of it.

  The boars, seeing as this fight was lost, all retreated and scattered about. Survival was more important. The squad celebrated this little victory but that was about to be cut short. Avryn’s legs were wrapped around by the vines. He was dragged across the ground and lifted into the air. His teammates were also captured by other vines close by. Avryn scrambled to get fire bullets into his guns chambers. He shot at the fines and let the fire burn them. He was the first to get out and now he looked to get the others free. His aim was true as the fire bullets made quick work of the vines.

  “Time to go,” he ushered them to their dualcycles.

  It wasn’t long until the vines tried once more in capturing them, but it was too late. They managed to evade them as they continued their patrol. Now that they were past the halfway mark, they were on the route returning to the outpost. It was an exhausting day, moreso for Avryn.

  They successfully returned to the outpost and docked their dualcycles inside. Avryn handed in the data report to the recon branch. Leifren’s squad welcomed them back. They also just finished up their mission. They sat by the familiar sight of a campfire and reflected on today.

  Leifren’s squad were sent to deal with a nest of Corpse Tigers that escaped from the battle to build the outpost. Under Leifren’s leadership, they managed to find the nest and eliminate every single one.

  Avryn’s squad recounted their patrol and encounters on their way. They also cited on the grappling vines they fought.

  “Interesting, we should exterminate those quicky,” Leifren thought.

  “I always knew I hated the plants around here,” Harver said.

  Night soon fell. The squads ate their dinner. Rinna asked Avryn for a private talk. They went a few ways away from the others.

  “I know your family issues is affecting you,” she explained. “You should get it sorted out sooner rather than later.”

  Rinna was right. Avryn couldn’t focus. It was his own fault.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll hold the fort here. You go to Baradov and sort this out.”