When Eric got near the area the Wyvern had last been seen, he was stopped by two police officers manning a checkpoint. “Sir, you have to turn around, there is a dangerous animal on the loose.”

  Eric showed his badge, hoping the officer wouldn't take enough time to see that he was just a desk jockey, “We are here to help, if you point us to the animal we will contain it.”

  That was the point when the officer seemed to notice who else was in the truck. “Wait, you...fuck it, sure, Miller, pull the car aside, let them through.” The police car backed out of the way and Eric drove through. After that, it was as simple as following the screaming and screeching.

  A block and a turn later, Eric saw the 12 foot long lizard, standing on two legs and beating its wings as it spat a green, sizzling liquid at a squad car. As he stopped, still a block from the fight, the police car was eaten into by the liquid, which slowly cut the vehicle in half. Eric thought 'don't get hit by spit!'

  Eric took in the scene. To his left was a school, luckily it looked like the kids had stayed inside. To his right was a low wall, with trees lining it. The school had a parking area next to the street, which made a much wider area for the battle to occur. There were four police cars blocking the animal from moving south, further into the city, and Eric saw two officers treating a third, while another officer knelt next to someone covered in the green glop, who wasn't moving. A few police were firing shotguns at the Wyvern, but that mostly just seemed to make it mad.

  Eric stopped, and the orcs got out, moving forward with Eric at the rear. The Wyvern seemed to recognize them as the only real threat and ignored the police, who scurried out of the way now that they could.

  The Wyvern acted first, spitting sizzling green slime at Grom, who held up his shield, blocking most of it. A few splatters hit the group, including Eric, who hissed in pain. Even the drop that hit his shoulder did 4 HP of damage, 1/5th of his total.

  Eric responded with a Wind Slash, which poked a small hole in they Wyvern's wing, pissing it off but not much else. A green haze surrounded the orcs, and Eric found himself healed. Meanwhile the orc in the dark cloak, Meznick, used his staff to fire some sort of black beam at the Wyvern, which hissed in pain. A thrown dagger appeared in the Wyvern's shoulder, and then the metal clad orc, Mizch, slammed into the beast, burying his twin axes in the animal's chest.

  The Wyvern bit into Mizch and dragged it's claws against his metal armor. While it failed to pierce it, the beast was able to make the metal buckle, and Mizch screamed as his shoulder was crushed. Then Grom was there, his sword slamming into the neck of the Wyvern, piercing its thick scales, though not taking it out of the fight. The beast slammed Mizch into Grom, throwing both orcs aside, then began scrabbling towards Meznick, apparently angry at the black beam.

  The dark robed orc responded by firing another one, and the creature screeched in defiance, but was clearly weakened. The white robed orc, Keena, said something and a glowing white shield appeared before the Wyvern. The creature screamed and slammed into it, and it shattered, but served it's purpose, slowing the beast long enough for Grom and Mizch to get up again. Eric desperately threw a Sun Bolt, which had almost no effect.

  “No,” Meznick yelled, “Don't use sun or life magic, it will counter my beams!” Sure enough, the Wyvern seemed to be faster and stronger for a moment, until Meznick blasted it again. Grom and Mizch struck the wings of the Wyvern from behind, almost destroying both. It spun around, throwing Grom to the ground again, then its tail rose and slammed into Mizch. Eric saw it pulsing, injecting something into the orc, and used Wind Slash on the bulb near the tip of the tail, scoring a cut into it.

  A black liquid began to leak from the cut Eric had made, and the tail stopped pulsing, Mizch wasn't moving though. Two more thrown daggers sunk deep in the beast's chest, and Meznick struck it with another black beam, as Keena ran to her fallen friend, heedless of the monster above her. Eric threw Wind Slash attacks as fast as he could, watching as the Wyvern's jaws approached the unprotected orc cleric, Keena being too focused on healing Mizch. Then a sword struck the Wyvern's neck in the same place it had before, this time severing it. The beast's head fell to the ground a few feet behind Keena, and the rest of the monster slumped to the ground.

  Keena's hands glowed white and green, as she muttered prayers. Suddenly Mizch gasped, and sat up. Keena pressed him back down, telling him to rest, then saw to the injuries Grom had suffered from being tossed around.

  Eric moved towards the beast, while it was long, it was somewhat snake-like, 12 feet in length but not much wider around than Eric himself. It's wingspan was similar to its height, and Eric wondered if it could really fly or it they were like penguin or ostrich wings. The mouth was a cross between a gila monster and a crocodile, jagged, sharp teeth but a shorter jaw. The tail had a sharp, curved tip, just below the bulb Eric had slashed open, dagger sharp but able to inject its poison. Its claws were also wickedly sharp.

  As Eric inspected it, a group of military vehicles arrived, Major Thompson hopped out with a number of his men, forming a firing line. “Civilian, out of the way, we are taking these monsters into custody.”

  I looked around, first at the dead bodies of 2 police and at least 4 civilians, then at several people with phones out taking video. Thank goodness for the video age.

  “Major Thompson, just to be clear, you want a bunch of videos circulating of these orcs killing a monster that was rampaging in Mesa, Arizona, and then you arresting the orcs for saving human lives? You want millions of Americans to watch you arrest heroes?” I was laying it on a bit thick, but the important thing was to get Major Thompson's name on all these videos.

  “They are dangerous monsters! They probably released the monster so they could fight it and be heroes!” Major Thompson yelled, but it was clear from his voice that even he didn't believe it.

  “Fine, Major Thompson, I'll offer a compromise. I will personally escort them back to their world, and make sure they don't return to Earth until your superiors authorize it. Do you agree?”

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  Major Thompson could tell he was in a corner. He knew that my 'compromise' was what I, and the orcs, wanted anyway. But being against the 'banishment' of what he was calling dangerous monsters wouldn't make sense. He growled, “I will escort all of you to the rift and personally ensure they leave and do not return.”

  Grom and I both nodded, and the orcs got back in the truck. Major Thompson's three vehicles bracketed us all the way back to the rift, and he had men pointing guns at us all as Grom and his group left Earth. The way Major Thompson looked at me as I left told me I had made an enemy. But I had gotten my new friends home.

  When I got back to the office, and parked John's truck, I went inside to cheering. “Um, what?”

  John spoke first, “We all saw the fight, you were awesome, just throwing blasts of magic and slicing into that monster!”

  “Well, it was the orcs who did most of the work.” I downplayed my meager contribution.

  There were some frowns at that. Roger asked “What was up with that Army guy at the end. We all watched the monster basically playing with the cops, then you and your orc buddies rocked up and saved everyone, and then the army got mad at them?”

  “It was Major Thompson's job to keep the rift the orcs came out of 'secure.' He saw the tail end of a fight and joined in against the orcs, and lost. He has had it out for them sense.” I explained to the office.

  Just them my cell rang. It was my new boss. “Yes Monika?” I asked.

  “Get back in that conference room, now!” I hurried to obey.

  Once inside I told her “OK, I'm here.”

  “Good, get back on the conference call.” I was worried that people had stayed on the call, but I could see it was just opening back up. Monika looked annoyed, and the Colonel looked like he had swallowed a lemon. The Agents quickly joined from the Bureau, and Thompson joined voice only.

  The Colonel started. “You made us look really bad today.”

  Major Thompson said “I know, that civilian is a menace, I want him kept away from all rifts!”

  “I was talking about you, you dolt!” The Colonel yelled. “You know what the most popular YouVid video is right now? 'Amazing battle at Mesa, including army idiot at the end.' I have had to apologize for you all the way up the chain. People are calling for me to fire you. I'm going to give you another chance though. Pull your forces out, I have the location of the Mesa Rift, you will be in charge of that one. Since the Orcs seem friendly, we are posting a different guard force there, so leave your barriers for the next unit. We will tell the public that we are moving to the higher threat rift, not that I no longer trust you to talk to possible allies.” The Colonel finally calmed down a bit, and everyone shifted a bit in their chairs.

  Monika spoke next. “I think for now, perhaps Agent Parks and Mr Brown should go into the rift and try to make official contact with some sort of local government?” Eric was surprised his boss would tap him for this, but she gave him a reassuring nod.

  Colonel Melendez nodded, “That sounds like a good idea, I'd like to send someone as well, Captain King is the XO of Thompson's company, and I'd like him to get some field experience, get him ready for rapid promotion if needed.” Major Thompson gaped at his superior, then gave a tense nod.

  The meeting ran another half hour, Agent Park's boss was pulled in, and approved the mission. There was some arguing about who should lead it, which Eric stayed out of until he was surprised that the Army and Bureau decided putting him in charge prevented either of them from losing face somehow. That Parks suggested it as he would have the highest level and had the most experience with the terrain may have helped.

  During the meeting, Eric couldn't resist pulling up his messages:

  'Wait, I didn't have enough XP to level, not just from quests.' Eric thought, then he realized he was probably also getting XP for defeating foes, like in a video game, you get 15 xp for killing each wolf, then 50 xp for killing 5 wolves for the hunter. He wondered how much XP he had, and his status popped up:

  Eric frowned at all those unused skill and ability points. He wondered how much he needed to know to get an ability, would just seeing it work? He tried to get the black beam attack the orc had used on the Wyvern, but nothing happened. Then he thought of skills, could he learn to dodge?

  OK, that answered that question. What other skills did he want. Was there a political infighting skill? Wait, no, he didn't want that one. Still, being in charge of other people, was Administration a skill?

  Fine, that works. He decided to enhance one of his spells too, and as soon as he picked which one:

  Eric turned back to the meeting, to find that it was just ending.

  Eric and Agent Parks saw Captain King and another man approaching them at the rift entrance. The Captain explained, “I wanted someone with real combat experience to watch my back-er, no offense, I saw you fight, and you were good, but you are not a soldier.” Captain King was a tall black man, his head shaved, with glasses. Sergeant Guidry was a fit, tanned, black haired white guy with a cajun accent.

  Eric nodded, “No offense taken, I still think of myself as an office jockey. Heck, my class is all about being nice and running away when needed. Traveler. I just picked up a few combat abilities along the way. Mostly from the orcs.

  The Sergeant asked “How tough are they anyway, Ro-Day? I saw you fight, and the ones with you seemed tough, but I wasn't there, ya know? Also, what is with the voodoo? How powerful is it?”

  Eric paused, “I think my magical attacks are probably similar to a rifle? I just upgraded one so it might be more powerful now. I don't know what that black beam Meznick used was, but it was more powerful-but I think it was weakening the Wyvern more than hurting it. You saw how useful healing and shielding were. Wait, can I learn a heal spell?”

  Eric chuckled. “I guess I'm the healer now. Anyway, as far as power, that Wyvern was roughly the strength of a tank. That tells you something about the power of that group.”

  Guidry nodded. Then Captain King asked “are we doing this?” And the group went through the rift.