Eric's rift-day was Tuesday.

  He had set it up so that all his employees who had levels got one day a week that their assigned duty was going into a rift and getting stronger. By coincidence (not really), Kendra, Tilly, Captain King, and Sergeant Guidry also had a Tuesday rift-day. The group had just exited the Wyvern rift with a good haul of Coltroraptor meat and eggs. A local farmer had agreed to try to tame and raise the animals for food as the meat had become a prized delicacy on Earth, at least in Arizona.

  No one had gained a level, but everyone was closer, and the money was OK too. Eric opened his phone to check for anything important, and saw an e-mail directly from the Commandant of the Coast Guard. It was a video, and after he watched it, he played it again for the others.

  The camera was shaking, and the thunder of helicopter rotors made it difficult to hear the people talking in the video. At first it was just a fishing boat cruising in fairly calm seas, but the video quickly moved to a strange wave, almost a wake. Something big was moving fast under the water. As it rose, blue-green scales came into view, then a broad, flat head with wide set eyes on top of the head and rows of sharp teeth. Its long tail flexed powerful muscles, driving it through the water at speeds ships couldn't reach, and it had clawed fins where a lizard would have legs. Like a cross between a crocodile and some Jurassic sea monster.

  The video followed the creature to where its path intersected the ship, and the powerful jaws opened. Men could be seen leaping off the fishing boat into the water as the creature bit into the ship, swallowing half of it.

  But the humans who had abandoned ship were not safe. Lumps on the creature's back moved, and the camera zoomed in, capturing what Eric recognized as Kappa leaping off of the creature into the water and intercepting the sailors. The amphibian Kappa easily out-swam the humans in the water, and slaughtered them.

  Eric heard the screams, and the voices on the helicopter capturing the video. “Isn't there something we can do?”

  “That thing is level 37! If I had an anti-tank weapon I could maybe tickle it. We need either high level heroes or anti-ship missiles.”

  Having finished the video a second time, Eric re-read the e-mail it was attached to. Telling him that it was clearly Rift related and that the Pacific ocean off California was region 9 according to Dr Cohen.

  “Well Fuck,” Eric said eloquently.

  Guidry said “Didju notice that the Kappa were different?”

  “Huh?” Eric said even more eloquently, then re-watched the video. “They look the same, except that they don't have those blue rings around their necks.”

  “Not jus that, dey be more blue.” Kendra pulled up a picture of the creatures in North Korea, who were all over the internet as the first, or at least one of the first, actual invasions of Earth from a rift intelligent species. Sure enough, the ones in North Korea were green-black, and the ones in the video were green-blue, unless it was just a trick of the light since they were in the ocean.

  Eric sat back, “So what does that mean?”

  An hour later, he was in a meeting room, most of the participants being present via zoom, with a Herpetologist, two Admirals (one Navy , one Coast Guard Vice Admiral), an Air Force LT General, Army General, Marine Corps Major General (Eric was sure they just didn't want to be left out), his two highest leveled heroes (who had just reached 12th and 13th levels respectively), and the leader of an 'adventuring party,' that claimed to be level 16-18.

  When the level of the beast was mentioned, the adventurer and Eric's heroes all agreed there was nothing they could do, which the military folks were happy about. “With good tactics and numbers you can go about five levels up, though breaking a 'tens barrier' is harder. Half a dozen twelves verses a seventeen is a pretty safe fight, but I wouldn't take my group against a level twenty-two. Much less a thirty-seven. If you have a group of low thirty's you could have a chance.”

  The Navy Admiral gloated, “Well we can hit it with a tomahawk and turn it into fish food.” The adventurer gave him a worried look.

  What followed was a bit of a military dick measuring contest, which the Navy seemed to be winning, over which weapons and platforms to use. The Army's weapons were land based, and intended for land targets, and the Marines use Navy Aircraft, so were basically just backing up the Navy. The Coast Guard didn't have anything with the firepower to do more than annoy it. That left only the Air Force to argue that a bomber could use a glide-bomb or air-to-surface missile.

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  By the time even the Air Force LT General had agreed to the Tomahawk plan Eric was worn out. The biggest thing he had learned was that he needed higher level heroes, both in service and among the civilian 'adventuring groups.' The latter tended to be higher levels, as they had been happily rift-hopping while everyone in the government waited to see which way the political winds blew.

  The good thing (if there was any) about the long meeting was that it lasted long enough to get a Tomahawk in the air above the site, and for the Coast Guard's helicopters to find it again-this time approaching an oil tanker.

  “That's not good, tell me the missile will hit before that thing can reach the tanker. If that thing leaks we will have an environmental disaster!” a distressed Eric worried.

  “Relax, that beast is going eighty, maybe ninety knots, and the Tomahawk is going six hundred.” Everyone watched the three objects approach each other, and Eric sighed in relief as the cruise missile slammed into the top of the monster's body and exploded, tossing Kappa's like crumbs. The beast roared and everyone could hear it clearly, even over the sound of the helicopter. Red-orange blood leaked from a gaping wound, and the beast flinched, then stared in anger at the camera. Somehow it sensed that the noisy flying thing was the source of its pain.

  It turned and leapt into the air, before cracking its tail like a whip. “Look out,” someone on the helicopter shouted, but it didn't matter, the camera feed cut out a moment later.

  “Well that didn't work out so well,” the Air Force leader was clearly trying to not sound like he was vindicated.

  “We have a backup missile.” The Admiral said, and a new feed showed up on screen. This was lower quality, and had a lot of static, but it showed the beast once again aimed for the ship.

  “It won't get there in time,” worried Eric.

  “No, it will get there at exactly the right time.”

  As the beast smashed into the tanker, its teeth ripping metal and splashing beast and ship with heavy black oil, the missile struck, igniting everything. A third, even lower quality image from above was displayed, with a satellite number. The ship was burning from stem to stern and it was clear the sea monster's mouth was filled with flames. It rolled to the side and sank below the waves.

  “Did that kill it?” “What a disaster” “Did you plan for that?” Everyone was talking at once, Eric just watched the black stain seep into the water off the coast of Monterey.

  “Admiral Clark?” He asked the Coast Guard representative, “Could you get another helicopter there within an hour or so?”

  “I think so,” He replied.

  Eric looked at his team, “Makai, Mercedes, do you think the two of you could isolate and burn all the escaping oil?”

  The two heroes looked at each other, and shrugged, “We can try, if nothing else we will reduce the damage.” Mercedes says.

  “Try to save anyone from the crew of the ship or the helicopter who survived as well.”

  “Will do boss,” Makai replies.

  Eric asked to speak to the Air Force General as the others left the meeting. He had a just in case plan.

  An hour and a half later Eric joined his two heroes, the fire and water mages, as they fought the oil slick and fire. Seven of the 32 crew of the ship and one of the three people on the helicopter had been rescued, and some remains had been collected as well. With Eric was Jatya and her best mage, Togloth. The latter was wasted with age, his hair white and his muscles withered, but his brown eyes were still clear. Of course, they were on a different helicopter, and a Coast Guard cutter was en route. Then Eric saw the telltale rising water wake of the monster, headed towards the Coast Guard ship.

  While the Sentinel class was one of the more heavily armed Coast Guard vessels, that wasn't saying much. Still, 168 rounds of APDS (Armor Piercing Discarding Sabot) and APDS-T (Tracer) rounds spewed from the main gun, the white light of the tracer rounds showing the accuracy of the guidance assisted weapon. 142 of those rounds struck the beast in just over a minute, the thin penetrator rounds went deep, some going over 10 feet into the massive beast. But while it made the creature roar in pain, the needles did little damage to a creature four times the 150 foot length of the cutter.

  The crew desperately tried to replace the empty drum with new ammunition. From above Eric could see the raw orange wounds on the creature's back, it clearly hadn't had time to fully heal. “Makai, dump oil on the beast, Mercedes, set it on fire once it is on the monster.” Eric called over the radio. Then he used Sun Bolt, his four bolts smashing into the monster and doing nothing visible.

  Jatya said “Cute, now let me show you what an older woman can do!” She pulled a bow and let loose, “Find weakness.” The arrow seemed to arc as it moved towards the massive beast, and slammed into an eye. As large as it was, even the arrow didn't blind it-at first. Then a blast of power erupted from the wound, orange molten metal flowing out and dribbling down the creature's snout as the eye closed.

  “Target the eyes,” Eric said desperately. The Coast Guard ship heard that as well, and almost half of the next 168 rounds, now HEI (High Explosive Incendiary) and HEI-T, struck the other eye of the creature. But even with both eyes clamped shut, it continued to speed directly for the ship.

  Togloth had been muttering the entire time, and suddenly Eric realized it was chanting. Everyone was blinded as a beam of light from the sun came directly onto the beast's scorched back, hitting where the first Tomahawk had blown away the scaly armor of the creature. Eric heard as flesh sizzled and blood boiled, the creature screeched again, but the noise was different, it faded, and as Eric was finally able to open his dazzled eyes, he saw the creature's floating body bump into the Coast Guard ship.

  It still put a sizable dent in the hull, but the creature was no longer moving under its own power, it was finally dead.

  The cutter put a tow line on the monster and took it to the Alameda base.

  Once they reached the base, specialists began to climb over the corpse, and two 'habitation pods,' not destroyed by the battle were found. Roughly 5 foot spheres, they looked designed to be filled with water and had minimal amenities, just a few loose fish that were hypothesized to be combat rations or snacks for the occupants.

  th level and every 10 after, there are a few phase changes, so while someone who hasn't gone through a rift might have about 5 HP and a level 10 might have around 100, a level 20 will have 300, then 700 for 30. A tank probably has about 100-200 HP, and a plane or helicopter maybe 30-70.