Len Gripped the chain attached to the flatbed car like several others. The wooden platform to support the car had been fused and built right up to the cars wheels that rested against the ground on their side.

  Alright we're going to start growing the trees on this side when I give you the order start pulling with the chains on yours you want it to roll over in your direction instead of this direction. It shouldn't take too much force," Rick yelled from the other side of the car.

  "Everyone ready?"

  "Yes sir!" Rang back to him.

  "Tighten the slack on the chains!"

  Len and those on the track side pulled their chains.

  "Lifting!" Rick warned.

  The flatbed car shifted, then slowly began to tilt. The trees pushing along the top of the flatbed the wheels digging into the grooves in the wooden platform that Rick had specially grown to make the wheels the fulcrum.

  The flatbed continued to rise then teetered, the chain crews pulling.

  The trees pushing up the car groaned and the entire car shifted. Rick and his people kept growing while Len and his crew kept tension on the car.

  Then the tension started to decreas as they pulled the car towards them.

  It crossed vertical and kept coming.

  "Release!" Captain Sam yelled. Len released his own chain and moved away.

  The flatbed car dropped onto the wooden platform with a crunch, sticking its wheels into the platform's wood, filling the air with a sharp scent of pine and dust.

  Len used a spell to draw water into the area, collecting the dust and dropping it back down to the ground.

  On the other side of the train warped abnormal trees just over a meter tall.

  "Well there we are, that's the first one done," Rick said. "Joe, you and your people are up."

  Joe and his team swarmed over the car to check the frame and wheels.

  "Onto the next one!" Rick said.

  "Gather up the chains!" Captain Sam said.

  Len moved up to undo the bolt and nut that secured the chain to itself.

  "I think that we've got this if you want to keep working on the mana battery," Sam said as she moved up next to him.

  "Alright, holler if you need me."

  Len made his way to where the tender and engine sat. The transformation was remarkable - where there had once been a maze of pipes and valves now there was just the wooden platform that would support the engine.

  Gretchen stood on the side of the tender, directing three engineers as they etched runes into the metal surface. Her usual scattered demeanor was nowhere to be seen as she explained the precise angles needed for the mana flow patterns.

  "Want to curve that line just slightly here," she demonstrated with her finger. "The mana needs to flow smoothly through this junction or it'll start eroding the metal where it meets a sharp angle."

  On the other side, Harold worked with two more engineers, with them showing him the best way to carve into the metal.

  He removed his chisel from his work, the two engineers inspecting it before giving pointers and asking their own questions about enchanting.

  Len smiled, seeing how naturally the two groups were working together. The engineers' precision and attention to detail matched well with the methodical nature of enchanting.

  Power was gathering in the enchanting work they'd done to the train engine, Len had laid out the enchantment on the frame of the engine to turn it into a mana battery.

  Christina and a small team shaped steel patches to the boiler's form, hammering it into the proper curves. The rhythmic clanging of their mallets against the heated metal filled the air.

  Heat spell to make things a bit easier. Len nodded to himself, magic and its uses were becoming more common and second nature to people.

  He glanced past them at their camp, where fires had been started and food was being prepared.

  Between the camp and the train the ground had been leveled out and graded ahead of the engine's position, with wooden rails lying next to it - Rick had made more than they needed.

  With the combined efforts of the engineers, enchanters, and craftsmen, they were making rapid progress.

  Shouldn't take more than a day to get the train upright and ready.

  Then it was just a short trip back to Goran, update the train a bit and they'd be headed for the Stained Mountain Range.

  Len clicked his tongue, soon now, soon. He'd learned patience over the years, without it he would have never been able to infiltrate the arrival's units.

  Len clambered up onto the train, first he needed to make the damn lines that would activate the runes that would activate the different enchantments throughout the new air pressure pipe running to the engine.

  ***

  Len jolted awake at the unmistakable crack of a round being fired from a modified rifle.

  He threw off his bedroll, grabbed his own rifle, and pulled on his Sylvani armor in one fluid motion, shoving his feet into his boots that clamped around his pants.

  Bursting out of the tent, he saw some people milling about in confusion while others looked around blearily, unaccustomed to the new muffled report of the modified firearms.

  Rick pushed out of his tent, pulling on a helmet.

  "Stand to!" Len's commanding voice rang out, snapping everyone to alertness. Soldiers scrambled out of their tents, hastily donning armor and equipment.

  Another shot sounded, closer this time, coming from the west side of the train tracks. Len's eyes met Rick's, both men instantly on high alert.

  A sentry rounded the trees westward that curved with the railroad. He was sprinting frantically toward them.

  The trees snapped and cracked as he ran directly for them. A shadow burst out of the trees as the man kept running, shooting across the intervening ground.

  Len activated his mana sight.

  "Fuck," He spat.

  Trees crashed around the eight meter tall sandstone bear.

  "Firing line off of me!" Len yelled, putting a bullet into his chamber and aiming past the man.

  Len squinted down the barrel, keeping the bead trained on the towering sandstone bear as it charged through the trees. The sentry had the sense to move out of the line of fire, running to the side.

  Len squeezed the trigger, the rifle kicking against his shoulder as the round streaked toward the bear. Rick's rifle barked beside him, both of their shots impacting the creature's rocky face but doing little visible damage.

  More rifles joined in, soldiers taking up firing positions and unleashing volleys at the rampaging beast. Bullets pocked and chipped at its surface, but the sandstone construct shrugged off the impacts, closing the distance with earth-shaking strides.

  "The rounds aren't penetrating deep enough," Len called out. He cycled through his mental inventory of enchantments before snapping his fingers. "Heat and cold! Cast hot or cold spells onto your bullets with extreme temperature effects!"

  Len wrapped the bullet in an enchantment to consume the heat at the point of impact. He slid it into the chamber, raised his rifle and created a small detonation that pockmarked his finger holding the bullet in place.

  He grimaced as his body started to heal the damage, watching the point of impact over his sights as he grabbed another bullet from his pouch, another cold enchantment covering the surface as he reloaded.

  His round hit the bear's shoulder, the sandstone showing frost, more cracked off with the bear's lumbering gait.

  He fired a second round at the creature's face.

  Flares of blistering cold and roaring heat struck the bear, taking off more layers of stone. That what remained shifted around, creating thicker layers to defend against the rounds.

  It was just over five hundred meters from them.

  Its not going to be enough.

  He fired another bullet and looked at Rick, the understanding there.

  They broke away from the line, Len spotted a discarded iron-tipped spear lying on the ground. He snatched it up, feeling the weight as he sprinted along the train tracks toward the overturned engine car, all the other cars had been righted and connected, resting on their platforms. Rick pounded along beside him, hammer gripped in one hand.

  They jumped over the tracks when they reached the edge of the firing line.

  "Watch your fire! Friendlies moving up on the left flank!" Rick barked.

  Tendrils of enchantment curled up the spear's length.

  "Crack its armor and I'll get this as deep as possible," Len said.

  "Copy," Rick said.

  The ground shook with each thunderous step as they sprinted adjacent to the sandstone juggernaut's path as it ran right at the firing line, not caring about the sentry anymore.

  "Cease fire!" Rick yelled.

  The fire slowed as Len gritted his teeth, putting his life in the hands of a platoon he'd just met and hoping they didn't fire at the creature that was barreling towards them, trusting in him and Rick to end the damn thing.

  They came in from the side of the bear, it started to turn its head as they were in the last dozen meters or so.

  Rick leapt, his hammer fairly glowing with mana as he swung it down, smashing it into the bears right shoulder.

  The hammer struck with devastating force, cratering the bear's shoulder. Chunks of sandstone exploded outward as Rick's enhanced strength and the weapon's enchantments shattered the creature's rocky armor. The impact sent shockwaves through its massive frame, separating the shoulder from its body as its momentum carried it forward.

  Its shoulder plowed into the ground, and through the rail road and sleepers, mangling and uprooting them.

  Shit. Len jumped to the side, getting out the way of bear-shoulder-shrapnel.

  He spotted a deep crack running along the bear's spine where Rick's blow had compromised its structure. Len gathered his strength and leaped, the spear held tight against his body as he aimed for that vulnerable point.

  He planted his feet on either side of the fissure and stabbed the spear into the opening, sending mana into the enchantment he'd just created, activating it.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  "Get clear!"

  Len jumped away, trying to keep low to the ground.

  He tucked his shoulder, hitting the ground and tumbling, he turned himself, his legs behind him and fingers dug into the ground facing the bear.

  Power surged through the weapon as the enchantments activated, the metal heating to a brilliant white.

  The spear peeled from butt to spear point, all of the power within it and the surrounding area focused at the top of the spear as it released all of the power in one single rock cracking explosion.

  The bear's right side from neck down its spine to its hips was blown away in a spray of stone pulverized sandstone.

  Rick who was on the left side of the beast with Len jumped towards the beast, his hammer's enchantments flared to life as it connected, magical energy crackling across its surface.

  Half of the bear's head collapsed under impact. The bear turned its one remaining eye on Rick.

  Rick jumped and rolled over the bear's trap and back to the side that Len had blown apart, escaping the bear's left arm that swiped through the space where Rick had been moments before.

  Len threw himself up and forward.

  Got a fucking utility knife.

  "Spear!" Len yelled towards the troops just a hundred meters past the now mangled tracks.

  "Heads!" His father yelled, grabbing a spear and throwing it towards the bear.

  Len bounded off of a rise then a rock and grabbed it out of the air.

  Rick was inside the pocket of the bear's body that had been blown away. His hammer ringing with impacts as vibration and shockwaves carved through the bear's side.

  Going for the core.

  With a burst of mana, Len propelled himself upward, then another burst sent him hurtling at the bear's head.

  Len's boots slammed into the back of the bear's head, using resonating strike to blow out what remained of the bear's jaw.

  He stabbed his spear into an opening the creature's right shoulder.

  He channeled a surge of mana through the metal shaft, and the spearhead erupted in a blinding flash. The bear bucked, its left leg digging into the ground as the metal from the rail road groaned and snapped.

  Len had to keep the creature's attention as Rick carved into its side. He channeled vibration through the spear, making his hands become itchy as he unleashed blast after blast of mana into the opening.

  Jagged spikes of sandstone erupted from the bear's back. whipping towards him with blistering speed. He twisted his body, feeling the disrupted air as the spike barely missed his head. Another grazed his thigh, leaving a deep gash.

  Gritting his teeth against the pain, Len wove a hasty barrier just as another volley of stone lances converged on his position. The spikes shattered against the shimmering mana shield.

  He kept blasting to make the beast focused its attacks on him.

  "Any fucking minute now Rick!" Len yelled.

  His barrier was straining the bear was stronger.

  A spike went up through his boot and foot.

  "Fucker!" Len punched the ground, his spell fusing the stone together underneath him, taking the bear's power out of it—for now, it would recover it.

  His barrier faltered under the impacts as he kept hitting.

  Rick had his own barrier up a he swung for the fences against the beast's side.

  Len saw the attacks shift to Rick. He poured more mana into the spear, the wood fraying with the power going through it.

  The bear bucked with the mana blasts, cracks spreading throughout its body from the point his spear was jammed in, glowing with mana as it seeped through those wound fissures.

  Each blast threw wind and stone everywhere, the beast using its power to fight back.

  Using fucking twenty of the dynamites each time. The mana toll was starting to blur his thoughts.

  Len gave up his barrier to have more mana to attack the bear.

  Stone shaped as claws slashed at him,

  One hit him in the ribs, making him punching through his armor and drawing a grunt of pain. Another raked across the back of his right lega, casuing his leg to buckle and drop to a knee.

  One swiped at his head, he rolled to the side, releasing the spear as the stone claw ripped through the spear.

  Then, without warning, the sandstone claws dropped. The whole bear went still and stone cracked, falling apart.

  ===

  You have earned

  ===

  Len took out a health potion, pouring it on his leg through the ragged remains of his pants.

  "Fuck that was deep," Rick said, breathing heavy.

  Len let his head fall against the beast.

  A roar called out in the distance, then a second and a third.

  "Well, this is the fucking day that keeps giving," Len rolled his legs over to the cavity in the beast's side and dropped down, Rick was covered in sandstone dust holding the creature's core.

  Len threw himself forward a bit to land on some open ground instead of the track that was underneath him.

  Len surveyed the wreckage of the sandstone bear, his eyes narrowing at the sound of distant roars. Two to the west, one to the southwest.

  "Well, fuck," Rick summarized Len's thoughts.

  "Between us and Vordun," Len said.

  "Probably coming for us knowing our luck," Rick said surveying the area. "We're going to have to extend the tracks to get it onto these rails by a few hundred meters. Do that before they get here."

  "Don't sound too confident with that?" Len asked.

  "Nope, I'm not, less confident that we can loop the train around and point it towards Karsh. We do that and we have the problem of there's no train lines that connect to Goran."

  "South to Goran?" Len asked.

  "You want to go through that," Rick pointed at the tree filled rocky terrain. "We were able to move through it easy enough moving as people, but the convoy had to go around for a reason. Also if someone comes here it kind of points right at us."

  They both looked a the gully to the north and the large hilly terrain.

  Len nodded grimly. "North it is, though that is one hell of a decline."

  "Yeah, all the better to pick up speed on. Get the speed that we need to get ahead of those creatures.

  "We'll need to work fast," Len said, picking his way out of the bear's remains.

  Rick tossed him the core, Len slipped it into his pocket.

  Len turned as the others arrived, jogging over the uneven ground towards them. Simmons looked agitated, his eyes darting between Len, Rick, and the ruined form of the sandstone bear.

  "We're going to head north once we get the train loaded up," Rick said as they arrived.

  "North?" Joe frowned, looking over at the rocky terrain in that direction. "There aren't any tracks that way."

  "We'll have to make them as we go," Rick said matter-of-factly. "Joe, Christina i need everyone that you can spare turning wood into rails." He turned to Sam. "Captain, we're going to be laying the track. I want everyone tied in with ropes as we go down the gully side. We're not coming back up here once we leave. Have them take the tools they'll need, we'll extrude stone from the gully and lay the tracks atop and keep moving down the gully and through the valley."

  "Simmons I want your troops to get geared up, store all of the supplies away in the enclosed cargo cars. Strap the carts to the flatbed cars.

  "We defeated one beast we can take three others," Simmons said.

  "Len and I barely got this one and we're low on mana. We're heading into the gully. When we're stronger we'll come back and clear them out. Right now our priority is recovering this train. We can't guaratee that while we're having a pissing contest with eight meter tall wildlife."

  Simmons looked like he wanted to argue further. The officer pressed his lips into a thin line but stayed silent.

  "Len I know you were talking about a way to make railroad tracks on the move. I hope you've developed that idea more, we're not going to have a hell of a lot of track down," Rick said.

  "Right," Len said. "First got to get the engine upright and hooked into the other cars."

  "I'll leave that to you," Rick moved away, Captain Sam moving with him.

  "I'll start getting the camp broken down," Simmons departed too.

  "Christina, going to need your team to get the engine upright," Len said.

  "Right." Christina nodded. It was going to be the trickiest to right as it was tall and had a higher center of gravity that could make it fall onto the other side instead of stay upright.

  "Joe you're on rails, make sure to use the uncommon trees where you can, they'll be the strongest," Len said.

  They broke apart for their tasks, Gretchen following Len towards the camp.

  "What's the plan?" Gretchen asked, her eyes bright with curiosity despite the dire circumstances.

  "Somehow make a system that will lay down a railroad ahead of a train. While its moving," Len gripped his temples.

  "How will we do that?"

  "I have an idea, though there's holes and I thought I'd have more time to properly test it out first."

  The roars in the distance served as an urgent reminder that time was a luxury they couldn't afford.

  "Yeah fuck you too," He growled in their direction.

  "Len!"

  His father reached him as he crossed back over the tracks, eyes scanning Len up and down to check him over after the brutal fight with the sandstone beast.

  "I'm alright," Len assured him, forcing a reassuring smile. "Just need to get this train upright and ready to move."

  Edward nodded, the lines of worry still etched on his face. He pulled Len into a brief, fierce hug before they parted ways to handle their respective tasks. "Look after yourself."

  Len picked up the pace, jogging through the camp to his tent, his mind swimming with the half ideas he'd been thinking of.

  Len ducked into his tent, quickly stripping off his torn and bloodied clothes. He couldn't help but notice Gretchen's blush and averted gaze as she waited at the entrance to his tent, looking away. The other enchanters - Wilbur, Harold, and Peter reached them.

  Wilbur handed Gretchen her bag of supplies, his weathered face grim. Harold paled at the sight of Len's shredded pants, the fabric stained with his blood. In contrast, Peter leaned in with undisguised interest, studying the damage.

  Len paid them no mind, pulling on a fresh set of clothes and double-checking his gear was in order, pulling on his extra layers of armor—even the damn helmet.

  He grimaced, he'd tossed his rifle away. He belted up his sword and pouches. He'd have ripped a strip off of a soldier that threw their rifle away like him.

  He stuffed his bed roll into his pack and face the enchanters.

  "We're going to need to make a couple of enchantments," Len said, his voice clipped with urgency. "First, a wood extruder in the shape of a rail—actually just cut off sections of the railroad, enchant it, its already in shape and made of steel." Wilbur glanced back at the rails.

  "We'll mount that to a flatbed, need to create a hopper at one end of the flatbed, then the extruder on the other side. The hopper drops down wood that is extruded out by the enchanted rail." He looked around at the group, making sure they were following along. "We'll need four of them, to ensure we have enough rails."

  Harold jotted down notes as Gretchen pulled out her notepad.

  The others nodded, expressions focused, even Peter was subdued.

  "The next part is harder. We need to grade out the ground ahead of the train, compress it to spread out the weight of the train, then we need to add in rail ties and then add in the rails themselves."

  "Then we'll need a very defined enchantment to grade the ground ahead of the train," Len continued. "Another one to turn the landscape into railroad ties."

  His mind raced, piecing together the components they'd require. "I'm thinking we need to rig up some kind of contraption to push ahead of the train. We'll need it to be able to bend so we can alter the direction slightly for curves."

  Len paused, chewing his lip as he considered the final piece. "And another one that will drop the rails into the rail ties. Feed it rails like a magazine. It'll need to bend them if we need to do curves." That was a new problem I didn't think of.

  He looked over at Christina, knowing her engineering expertise would be invaluable. "An engineering and enchantment hybrid might work best for that last part. We'll have to extend this whole thing ahead of the train quite a bit."

  Len looked over at the rails behind them, running a critical eye past the twisted metal around the bear's corpse. An idea began to form in his mind.

  "We'll use the rail itself to make the frame we need," he said, turning back to the others. "Five cars long, so if the train needs to stop, it can do so before coming off the tracks."

  Gretchen and Harold scribbled notes.

  "The compactor and shaper will need to be on a movable arm," Len continued, Closing up his pack and moving out of the tent. The camp was coming apart around them. "The arm will have to swing a few degrees to either side to allow for gentle turns, Harold check with the Xinta engineers what kind of degrees we're looking at."

  Len frowned, pulling in all his thoughts, focusing on the ground to not get distracted by anything else. "Add an enchantment on the rail magazine that will allow the wooden rails to alter shape. We'll keep the rear half of the magazine connected to the straight rails, with pillars at the fulcrum and midway down either side. That way, when the movable section moves, the magazine will too, bending the rails into the curve's shape."

  Pencil's scratched on notepads, Wilbur and Peter had pulled out theirs as he talked.

  Len ran an eye over them. "Have you gathered all your gear?"

  There were a few head shakes. "We have it in our tents," Harold spoke up.

  Len nodded briskly, recognizing that he was dealing with a bunch of civvies. "Pack it up then. Keep what you need on your bodies. Tools, notepads, canteens, enough food for half of a day. What you need and can carry comfortably. The rest goes into a cargo car. We can't afford to leave anything behind." He paused to check for understanding among them. "Wilbur, coordinate building the extruder and hopper with Joe Xinta."

  Len looked at the railroad, an idea rolling to the front of his mind.

  "Might even be a good idea to just take out sections of the trail, knock off a few of the sleepers then get a few others to wrap around the rail to hold it steady. Use that as the frame infront of the train.

  "Turn the sleepers up top to give people something to walk on moving forward?" Peter asked.

  He raised his head from his notepad sheepishly.

  "That is a great idea Peter," Len said. "Anything elese?"

  "Well each of them is about the length of a train, so just need to find five of them that aren't messed up by the bear, cut where the joints are. They have plates bolting them together. Should be fine. Use spells around the sleepers to get them up, mana blades on the ties to get them off quick." Use chains, pull it all out as one. Use the ones nearest the train so we don't have to drag them so far." Peter looked at it.

  "Maybe strap them to the side of the train. Keep those plates and bolts, get a few extra cause might lose some. Use them to connect the different sections?" He looked at the others.

  Len grinned. "That sounds like a damn good idea Peter, we'll go with that. Wilbur will work with you and get you helpers."

  Wilbur and Peter hurried away to their tents first.

  "Gretchen you're on the grader, Going to be complex, we want materials dragged together to be able to take a certain amount of compression. See if you can get that from Christina. Harold I want you to make the shaper that will make our faux sleepers and the mounting points that we'll side the rails into. I'm going to work on the section that will lower the rail into place. Good?"

  "Yes Len," Gretchen said.

  "Sir," Harold said determination in both of their faces.

  "Good, lets get to it! Bring your blueprints to me as soon as you've got something workable."

  Len jogged off towards the train.

  They didn't have time to waste.

  Those roars in the distance were a stark reminder of the dangers lurking out there. Len's grip tightened on the strap of his pack as determination surged through him.

  They would get this train moving, no matter what stood in their way.