A spear pierced through the chest of the last goblin, and others went into the mountain lions the gobs were using as mounts-and then disappeared. “I hate Hobs!” Tilly shouted, as she slammed into the fight from behind. The hobs faces fell as they now had foes on two sides. One pulled the reins of his Tarsis sideways, desperately trying to turn to face Tilly, while the other moved slowly forward through the mud.

  Eric ignored the wound in his leg, even though he knew it was really bad, and moved to Alicia. The woman had a hole in her neck, and a Lesser Heal stopped her bleeding. “You're hurt!” she cried, and tried to put pressure on his leg wound.

  “I'll be fine,” he said, glancing up as the trained soldiers and agent finished off the hobs. He used another Lesser Heal on himself, and looked at the bright red arterial blood on his pants. “Kendra, need a heal?

  The agent nodded, and Eric used his ability a third time, getting her and Captain King. “Everyone better?”

  The group nodded, and Tilly asked “What are you guys doing back here? Weren't you taking those dwarves to Earth?”

  “Already did, and came back to find you. Your father asked us to make sure you were safe, he will be amused when he finds out you rescued us.” Eric grinned.

  Tilly looked at them, “You would still have won, I just wish you saved at least one hob for me. Still, we got two Tarses.” Looting the dead bodies got them a small collection of coins along with the guns, spears, knives, and armor. Tilly also took the teeth and pelts of the lions.

  “Well, guess we should get back to dad. I was hoping to spend some time with him, but if you are here, is there an emergency?”

  “No, but, well, we humans need to get stronger, and I'm kinda used to you being part of the team.” Eric admitted.

  “Aww, that's sweet.” Tilly smirked, her lip curling away from her tusks.

  “Yeah, yeah. Um, so you have been having problems with the goblins?”

  “Uh-huh, they know the big hitters are gone, and are doing more raids and trying to shift the borders a bit, push us back.”

  “Hey, do you think your people would reward humans who captured or killed goblins on your land?” Eric asked.

  Tilly grinned, “Sure! Er, actually, lets ask my dad.”

  The trip back was uneventful, and Tilly and Eric pitched the idea to Law-chief Mok. He frowned, then said “A silver a level, system reward.” To Eric's surprise, the older orc opened a safe and pulled out a stack of coins, then seemed to hold them up. The coins disappeared, and a piece of paper dropped on the orc's desk.

  “How did, what did I just watch?”

  Mok seemed surprised, “You don't use the system to set up deals?”

  “Er, no, I don't think any of us knew we could.” Eric replied.

  “Oh, well, you just have to, um, how do I explain it?”

  Tilly rescued her father, “I'm sure if they just try when they need it, it will work for them.”

  “Hrm, yes, it should.” He agreed. “Anyway, that should be enough coins for anything your human adventurers want to handle for us.”

  When the group returned, Captain King and Eric met with Major Abdullah and his XO Captain Clark. “So, if your men want to earn some coin and some levels, they don't have to go to another rift any more-if it is OK with you.”

  Captain Clark asked, “You say these 'goblins' have guns? How much danger are our guys in if they do this?”

  Eric decided to be truthful, “Today two of us almost died. I'd make sure any troops who try this job have a healer and are in groups of at least squad size. If anyone wants, I'm happy to teach Lesser Heal.”

  Captain King asked “You are?”

  “Yeah Lashawn, why wouldn't I be.”

  “I've wanted to learn a heal spell since I first saw you use it!”

  “Well, you never asked.”

  Captain Clark interrupted, “Perhaps we could trouble you to visit each of the rift bases around here and teach a class, we can schedule the classes and let folks know, and then you can teach a big group all at once.”

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  “Sure, er, sorry Lashawn, I didn't realize you wanted to learn it. Any others you want to learn?”

  “That light blast?” Eric nodded, and when he left there was an agreement to let soldiers help out the orcs, and he had a plan to visit each of the rift bases over the next few days and teach some of his skills. Then he did an impromptu lesson for Captain King and a bunch of soldiers he waved over right there and then at the orc rift.

  Eric met with everyone the next day at his office. “So, there is a desert rift about an hour and a half north of us. I was thinking of checking it out. It would get all of us the 5 rift quest complete.”

  “Except me,” Alicia said.

  “Oh, after your first experience, I didn't think you would want to go back.” Eric looked at his secretary, and she met his gaze with a steady look of her own.

  “Why wouldn't I? Yeah, I got hurt, but that is part of being an adventurer, and you healed me and kept me safe.”

  Eric felt nervous about the way she was looking at him, but said “Sure, if you want to come too, that is fine.”

  They took two cars, and somehow Eric ended up in the back seat of Guidry's car with Alicia. Over the long trip, they talked about their history and families, the young woman seeming very interested in Eric. Finally, they reached the rift.

  The terrain was rolling dunes of sand, with almost nothing else in sight. They all immediately got a quest to kill 6 scutterbachs, and Eric used his annoying locate spell, trying to ignore how garish the bright green arrow with flashing yellow accents was.

  When they found the monsters, the monsters found them first. Wide, bright yellow exoskeletons, a long, barbed tail, two pincer claws, and six widely spaced legs. Eric thought it looked like a cross between a crab and a scorpion. They were about 2 feet tall if you ignored the tail, or 6 if you didn't.

  Three of them burst from a dune in front of the group, and another three from a dune to the right and a bit further back. They seemed to have swum through the sand, and were basically flying forward as they slammed into Eric and his friends-well into Kendra's shield first, as she was able to get it up just in time. Still, the shield cracked after the second impact and collapsed after the fourth, letting two of the creatures through. One hit Guidry, who managed to block a tail strike with his rifle. “I'm gonna make gumbo outta you!” He called.

  But Eric was too busy to pay attention. Another of the creatures had slammed into him, knocking him to the ground. It was on top of him, and quite a bit heavier than him, but luckily it couldn't seem to reach under itself to hit him with its pincers. It seemed to realize this though and began to move sideways. “Wind Blast,” Eric chanted, and his spell pushed it the other way, re-centering it, and cutting off two of it's legs.

  Meanwhile Guidry was losing his wrestling match, he stumbled back and the creature raised its tail again, but Kendra fired her beamer, and it put a hole through the shell of the creature, killing it. Tilly used her spear to parry a tail thrust and cut off the offending appendage, and as one tried to hit Alicia, she yelped “Permission.” The tail halted a few inches from her, and Captain King used the hesitation to shove his rifle into a gap in the creature's plating and fire. The bullets ricocheted inside the creature's shell, but the armor did the opposite of protecting it.

  But the last two seemed to be offended by what Lashawn had done. Captain King took two barbed tails to his back and side, and everyone but Eric saw them pulse, injecting something inside him that made him scream in pain. “Cap'n!” Guidry yelled in rage, and unloaded his rifle at the two beasts. The shots to the shells of the creatures bounced off, but some shorts hit one in the tail. Tilly leapt forward, hitting the last uninjured creature and then using her spear and body weight to lever its shell open. The creature gave a screech of pain before a second thrust to it's soft inner flesh finished it.

  Eric used another Wind Slash on the creature sitting on his torso, cutting off another leg and one pincer, and Kendra and Tilly were able to kill the two other injured monsters. Eric saw a knife poke into the side of his foe, taking advantage of the missing pincer, and the weight shifted off of him as it died. To his surprise, when he looked up, it was Alicia holding the serrated combat knife.

  “Wow, thanks,” Eric said, before using a Lesser Heal on Lashawn. The Captain didn't get better though.

  “I think it has poison,” Lashawn gasped in pain.

  To Eric's surprise, Guidry smiled, “After las time, I be prepared, yes?” The Cajun soldier pulled out a vial of liquid and fed it into the Captain's mouth.

  “Ugh, tastes like MRE omelete.”

  “Dat bad?! I'm sorry, but is to save your life.”

  Captain King choked down the potion. “Ugh, but I feel better, thanks Guid.”

  “I gotcha back cap.”

  Then Eric got a 'ding.'

  Eric sighed, “So guys, wanna try that gumbo idea?”

  They returned home with the creatures, and to everyone's surprise they were quite tasty, “Like a combination of oyster and lobster,” Kendra said. After the cookout Eric began doing his Lesser Heal classes, while also doing his regular paperwork.

  By chance, Eric's return to the orc rift was the last class of the grouping. He had taught his Sun Bolt spell at the skeleton rift and Lesser Heal at all of the rifts, and now a lot of classed soldiers had healing. After the last class a young Lieutenant walked up to him with a pointed ear tattoo on the top of his left hand.

  He was tall, lanky, with light brown hair, green eyes, and a friendly smile, “Hello, Mr. Brown, right? Can I ask a question?”

  Eric stopped, “Sure, what's up?”

  “Why did you side with the orcs?”

  Eric paused, “Er, what do you mean? They were friendly.”

  “Michael Peterson,” the man introduced himself, “The goblins were friendly to me. Rather annoyed that we started hunting them on their own land though.”

  “Their land?” Eric started, then paused, realizing he had only heard one side of the story. “OK, what proof do they have that it is their land?”

  “It is part of the historical lands of Togobel.” Michael explained.

  Eric sighed, life just became more complicated.