59. Rifts, Plural.

Alex sat up in his chair after hearing her tone. "Elana? What's wrong?” His eyes came up as they caught the movement of Valtherion lifting his head after hearing the tone of Alex’s voice.

"We've gotten multiple reports in the last twenty-four hours that there is a large settlement of people in Missouri that need our help."

"Missouri?" Alex asked.

"Yes. The first report came from one of our smaller branches out there. Unfortunately, the settlement is far enough removed from the nearest Safe Zone that the Hunters Association is refusing to help close the Rifts- at least they won’t any time soon." The tension in her voice was clear.

"Rifts? As in plural?"

"Yes, exactly. Two Rifts have been breaking repeatedly on either side of the small valley. Apparently, the monster population is so thick now that the two groups are clashing in the valley, and our Guild's scouts are worried that it's only a matter of time before the horde makes its way toward civilization."

"Okay, so what do you need? That's not exactly within driving distance…"

"Our branch out there is too small, and they need the backup. I'm paying for a private flight for some of our top members to head west. But, as I'm sure you're aware, some of our top people just got back from a long mission overseas. Can you and Sam help sub in?"

"Yes... Who is going out there?"

Elana sighed on the other end of the phone. "Alex, Rylan will be there. We need his strength."

Alex clenched his jaw, and the silence stretched on for a moment.

"Really? You're going to hesitate now?" Elana's voice cracked like a whip. "I need you to act like an adult. Whatever's going on between you and Rylan, you're both Guild members first. There are people's lives at stake."

Heat crept up Alex's neck. In a way, she was right. Lives were at stake.

Peoples’ lives were at stake when he played his petty games with Mark and Devon.

Alex sat up straight and used his Willpower to rein in his emotions, squashing them completely. He felt almost hollow in a way that he hadn't before, his mind calm and collected as he contemplated how to respond to her reprimand.

"Elana, don’t talk to me like I’m a child. You know what your brother is like and things are already well past what you and the other Moderators should let them get to. We'll go because people need the help. But we really aren’t done talking about Rylan, and you need to keep a tight leash on him while we're there. I'm serious. He's taken things way too far, and it's only a matter of time until I can prove it. If he tries anything here— anything at all that puts my team in danger… there’s going to be a serious problem."

There was a pause, and Alex was sure that Elana was debating if it was still worth having him come despite the potential headache of them clashing. "All right, fine. I’ll speak with him. Thank you, Alex. I'll send you the address to the private airfield and bring as much of your team with you as you can. Try to arrive within the next two hours if possible."

The call ended, and Alex stared at his phone for a moment. Ignoring Rylan wasn’t as big of an issue in public, where he seemed to want to maintain the façade of the Guild's golden boy. If anything, acting normal around him now and not letting him know that he was behind each of the incidents could be to our advantage.

Alex thought about the two Rifts while slowly letting off the extremely tight hold on his emotions. He hadn't actually seen a Rift break in the last few months, only heard the horrifying stories. To think that two of them were in close enough proximity to cause the monsters to clash and potentially build up a wave that could flood a nearby town...

Alex shuddered and stood to go wake his friends but was surprised when none of them were in their rooms. Confused, he made his way downstairs and Valtherion followed him. He would occasionally dart ahead and chase a stray beam of sunlight filtering in through the foyer’s windows. Alex quickly navigated to the kitchen, where he heard grumbles and groans.

Alex found Mark and Sarah already in the kitchen when he arrived. Sam sat in the stool near his parents who both stood on the far side of the island countertop chatting with Gabby, who was at the stove, spatula in hand, as she prepared a small mountain of eggs and bacon.

"Edwin woke us up," Mark explained while stifling a yawn. "Said it was urgent?"

"I was already up," Sarah said and gave Mark a bored look.

Before Alex could respond, Olivia also appeared in the doorway. She looked slightly disheveled and had dark circles under her eyes. Her normally tight ponytail was thrown up in a messy bun with several wisps of hair at the front of her head escaping around her face.

"I'm coming too," she said as she dropped onto the stool next to Sam and snatched a piece of his bacon.

Alex blinked. "Wait. How did you—"

"Heard you on the phone." She accepted a mug of coffee from Gabby with a grateful nod and answered with a mouthful of bacon. "Two rifts, same time. If you ask me, sounds exactly like what I need right now."

"Olivia…" Alex hesitated and could tell how clearly exhausted she still was. "Maybe you should sit this one out and get some rest instead?"

Sam and Mark exchanged glances on the other side of the countertop. Even Gabby paused in her cooking to take a quick look over her shoulder. Alex’s lips thinned into a straight line a bit at suggesting she couldn't handle it, but she was clearly not in top shape at the moment.

"Not happening." Olivia's voice was firm despite her exhaustion. "You know what will help me more than rest? Leveling up. That's what I need, and you've got to admit this is the perfect opportunity." Alex opened his mouth to protest, but she interrupted him. "Alex. I appreciate you looking out. But I'm going."

The kitchen fell silent except for the sizzle of bacon, and Sam squirmed uncomfortably.

"Fine," Alex conceded. "But you stay close to the group. We fight together. No scouting for you on this one."

“Eh!” Mrs. Grant spoke up, then. “That goes for you too, Samuel.”

Sam nodded several times, all of them noting the seriousness in his mom’s voice. Alex needed to suppress a smile, however. It was clear that she didn’t quite understand her son’s role on the team.

Olivia rolled her eyes at Alex but nodded, and he could see her shoulders relax as she realized he would not make a bigger deal about her going. "Deal. Now, Gabby, please, for all that is holy, tell me some of those magical blue eggs are mine. I'm starving."

Val sniffed at the steaming bacon on the plate as Gabby set it down, though he turned his nose up to it. “Mana?” He asked the room.

***

The private jet touched down three hours later at a small airfield in Missouri. From there, it was just a short drive to the staging area the Guild had set up on a hill overlooking the valley. Alex could hear the distant sounds of combat. The inhuman roars and shrieks echoed up from the valley, punctuated by the explosion of magic.

A dozen tents dotted the hilltop, and Guild members moved between them quickly. As they walked into the camp, they saw maps spread across a number of folding tables, and it was clear that someone had set up a basic command center beneath a large canopy in the center of the tents. The early afternoon sun made the greens of the forest stand out, and despite the greenery near his new home, this was a stark contrast for Alex compared to the concrete jungle that they lived in.

As they approached, a man gave Alex a strange look while assessing his odd attire. "This way," he said, and the Guild member directed them toward the equipment tent. "We've got spare gear if you need it."

They had come prepared, but Alex shrugged his shoulders underneath his blue cloak and thought it couldn't hurt to go look at the supplies and cover their bases in case they had missed anything. After they loaded up and turned to make their way toward the command tent, Alex noticed Olivia stumble. He stepped forward and helped grab her forearm, and caught the small box of healing potions she'd almost knocked off the table.

"Sorry," she muttered and glanced down at the box of valuable potions.

Alex held onto her arm and began to use [Mana Infusion] to help ease a bit of mana into her. But before more than a few points of mana could enter her body, her head snapped up, and she yanked her arm away.

"Don't." Her voice was quiet and stern. It took a visible effort, but she straightened. "I know you want to help, but I can't let the bond think that it's easy for me to just continue getting mana. If it does, it'll just keep pushing me lower and lower and force me to get mana elsewhere. It’s my bond, damn it. But it thinks that it’s fighting for survival and is reacting on instinct to pull the mana from me." She shook her head. "I need to handle this myself."

"Olivia—"

"I already said, the only real solution here is to get some more levels. Until then, I just need to keep pushing through." She reached into her spatial pouch at her side and removed the belt that held her daggers.

Alex wanted to argue but gave a slight frown and kept the commentary to himself. Instead, he nodded and pushed down the feelings of worry.

She’s a big girl. She’s tough as hell and if she needs me, she’ll let me know. I can’t keep pushing or it’s going to cause an issue.

He let out a sigh and saw a smile on her face, as if she was reading his thoughts.

“Thanks,” she said.

He responded with a grunt and said, “Just don’t be too stubborn to ask for help. You know you’d say the same thing to me.” Then he tilted his head out of the tent and toward the canopy, where the majority of movement and attention was focused.

The command tent buzzed with activity as Alex's group entered, and he gently pressed a hand over his chest on the lightly fluttering cloak. Several heads turned their way, and Alex saw several raised eyebrows as they were still pulling the last of their gear from spatial pouches. Alex caught a few whispers and wondered again if it was worth them trying to be more discreet about the pouches, at least until such things became a little more common.

Elana stood at a large table in the center of the massive tent with two other moderators. They looked over various maps that were spread out on the table, and she held an iPad loosely down by her hip. She looked up as they approached, and he saw some obvious relief on her face. "Good, glad you guys made it." Her eyes swept over the group, and she gave a slight frown as they passed over Olivia. But she didn't say anything else. "We're splitting into three teams."

"Three teams?" A voice said just a little too loudly. "We better be able to pick our tanks then, wouldn't want someone jumping the gun."

Alex turned to see a tall man with graying hair giving Mark a condescending look. Part of Alex found that funny, considering Mark was easily 2 inches taller than he was and quite a bit wider in the shoulders as well. But Alex knew his friend and that the words likely cut deep—especially since several others around them nodded in agreement.

"Jason," Elana started, but Alex stepped forward.

"That works out well," he said. "Mark is the tank for my team. I know he's a solid tank, and I trust him with my life. Find your own tank and healer."

The tent fell silent, and Alex realized he'd spoken up a little louder than intended, but he didn't look away or back down. He and Jason made eye contact and locked gazes until the older man looked away.

Alex looked over at Sam and saw the healer nodding in affirmation. Alex had thrown in the subtle hint about not getting heals as a jab, just to point out that Mark had as many connections to their team as Alex. People trying to treat Mark like shit and ostracize him in such a public setting made Alex’s blood boil, and he wasn’t above making the man sweat. Healing was a commodity and made the danger of this new world feel lessened to a considerable degree… without access to someone like Sam, the entire mission became significantly scarier.

"If we're done with the dramatics," Elana continued, "here's the plan. Team one will take the northern Rift. That's Jason, Lee, and Diana's group. Team two is led by Noah—they take the southern Rift. Your primary focus will be to get in there, kill a dozen monsters or so to prevent the Rifts from breaking again any time soon, and then rush to the valley and flank the valley monsters while our third team has their attention. The third team is our big hitters and will be pushing into the valley to thin out that monster herd. That team is Olivia, Alex, Mark, Sam, Rylan, Pete, and Ian."

Someone made a quiet groan and muttered about losing out on all the experience.

Elana rolled her eyes and looked in that direction. "This isn't about experience. Get your heads out of your asses, the situation is serious—these monsters are on our planet. They're not trapped in a Rift; they’re less than 300 yards that way." She pointed to the side of the tent toward the sounds of monsters tearing each other to pieces. "If this doesn't go right, and we fail, we can always pull out and cut our losses. But the rest of those monsters are going to go down the valley and kill a few thousand innocent people."

The tent fell silent once more, and several people looked properly chastised. Once Elana felt the message had sunk in, she pointed at several locations on the map. "The valley is overflowing with monsters from both rifts, with them clashing here. We need to deal with that before they spill over into the populated areas. That's why our highest level and strongest team is heading down there. Average monster level is between fifteen and twenty." She looked up at Alex and Olivia, and when they both nodded, she continued.

"The monsters in the Valley are a mix of both rifts. Half of them are from some sort of frozen biome and have large elk and bears that have broken from it, both with white and blue fur. The other Rift seems to have broken from some sort of underwater biome as there are creatures that look something similar to octopi, though the two front tentacles are shorter and have barbed hooks on the end. They're dangerous, and they seem to be the ones currently winning the clash in the valley. Team three, get set up here," she pointed at a spot on the map that led into the valley. "Teams one and two, stay here, and I'll tell you what little we know about both rifts. Your role is to get in and cull enough of the monster to stop them from breaking again, and then head into the valley to help handle the larger group."

Alex looked at his friends as they all turned and began to walk out of the command tent. He saw Sam checking his pouch one last time and was pleased to note that he seemed quite calm despite the impending battle. He glanced at Mark to see his best friend standing a little taller now and didn't seem to care about a few of the looks that were cast his way. Olivia adjusted her daggers, and even though he could tell she was exhausted just by how she was dragging her feet when she walked, he had faith that she could muster the energy when she needed to.

"Let’s go," Rylan called as he moved ahead of them toward the Valley. "We should get into position down below." He looked over his shoulder and smiled at Pete, “Let’s turn this into a bit of a competition, yeah? There are so many monsters down there… we should try to see who can kill the most before the other teams join us to attack the horde…”

Part of Alex was surprised that Rylan hadn’t leveled a challenge directly at Alex, based on their past interactions. Olivia muttered something under her breath that made Sam snicker, and Alex just smiled at the two of them.

Is he playing it casual?

Alex would happily oblige if Rylan wanted to make the objective a competition

As they crested the small hill to make their way down to the opening in the Valley, he started to map out the ritual circle he planned to use. There were hundreds of monsters in the Valley, hinting at the fact that both rifts had had several breaks at this point, meaning that they had likely been around for some time.

I've got a few new tricks that just might wipe that smug smile off his face. I just need to stay alert. It’s clear he’s willing to play dirty.

Pete followed behind Rylan as they started to make their way down the steep hill, and Ian jogged over to keep up with him. Alex hadn't seen Ian since New Year's and gave him a wave as he passed, which Ian returned good-naturedly.

"Well, let's move," Alex said to his friends, and they all followed him as they began to make their way down the tight trail.