Kev appeared carrying a rail cannon and his usual rifle. He looked at the incoming target. “That is a really big demon.”

The black demon charging through the forest towards them was ten meters tall. Shadow emanated from it, obscuring all of its real form save only its thin arms. Two bits of red shone through the shadow, presumably the hateful thing's eyes. It didn't walk towards them so much as glide across the forest floor.

It was moments away from the farm. A series of blue bolts hit it as Samuels and Walker popped up and started firing. All of this was absorbed by the darkness, so they had no way to tell if they were doing any damage. Rodriguez was wishing he had brought a bigger dog. A much bigger dog.

Kev smiled as he decided on a plan of action. He tapped four tattoos before grabbing the stake gun: He tapped the honey-eater tattoo and a colorful bird flowed from his body; he sent the small songbird to attack the demon. He tapped his tiger claw and it flowed over his hand, preparing him for close combat. He tapped a flaming boomerang and tucked the summoned item into his belt. Lastly, he tapped a knight in ancient plate mail and his body was wrapped in a blue field.

He then brought the rail cannon to bear. A virtual stream of metal spikes hit the demon; the stream of angry iron got its attention but barely slowed it. This gave the bird a chance to dive in. The bird attacked it with vigor, as its beak and claws left behind glowing white marks. The shade jumped away from the songbird, accidentally hitting it and thus killing it; Kev winced from the pain the death inflicted on him as the bird returned to its place.

The demon continued to charge. Kev tossed down the rail cannon; it was empty anyway and he wanted to try something else. He grabbed and tossed his summoned boomerang; it hit the demon squarely in the head and seemed to have some effect. As he prepared for another toss, he shouted to the wizard behind him, “Douglas, can you summon any kind of flame?” The wizard nodded; Kev pointed at the shade.

"On it.” Douglas performed a hand gesture and invoked a word of power; a ball of flame flew towards the shade and engulfed it. “I'll keep it up as long as I can!” He fired off another fireball.

The soldiers all had the shade in their sights. Even Rodriguez had finally gotten into the act with his machine gun. The shade shuddered and fell. It simply faded as if it had never existed.

* * * * *

The gargoyle picked up the camera and tripod, packed them up, and flew off. Its masters would not be pleased about the shade's death, but the information it had recorded was priceless. It may even save him.

* * * * *

As everyone was cleaning weapons, Lieutenant Sawyer appraised the amount of ammunition remaining. She was somewhat surprised to see that they had only used about half their ammunition; this meant that Douglas had helped them tremendously. Considering that the encounter against the fetch had cost almost their entire supply, that made the mage a valuable asset. She also needed to see if they could get upgrades on their weapons; other squads had access to rail cannons like Kev had used, but they were pretty rare. She needed to see if Rodriguez could take a serious look at Kev's however; that thing packed a serious punch.

There was just one thing bothering her: “Hey, Douglas: How did know when that thing was going to attack?”

Douglas was wiping down the machine guns. “Easy: It hit the wards I set up.”

"Your wards. Are they really that easy to set up?”

He paused. “When I'm in the zone, it's almost like it's part of me. I'm linked to the local mana and can see the eddies and swirls of the energy that make it up. When something big is happening, like a portal opening up or a mana storm, it's hard to miss. But I can also use that energy for a variety of effects, such as setting up wards. When that demon came in, a massive area cleared around the area it was needed to create a portal. With that in mind, it was easy to see we were about to be attacked. When it hit my wards, I could give more specific information.”

"Sort of a neat trick. Could you detect something that was attempting to sneak up on us?”

"It depends if the target has any inherent mana itself. If I focus I can sort of 'ping' the area, send some mana into the area around me and see if it bounces off anything. I can only get a general idea of how powerful the overall source was. That is, a really powerful demon and a group of small ones would feel the same. But keep in mind that it only applies to anyone that uses mana; wizards, magical beasts.”

He put the rag in a pocket and jumped down so he could go to the next. “But Kev there creates a problem. He puts out so much energy that I can't really ping if he's in the area.” He jumped up to the other machine gun. “The ping just ain't effective with him around.” He pulled out his rag and started wiping down the machine gun.

"I'll need to keep that in mind. Thanks for the information.”

“No prob.”

She walked over to Kev. “So, we apparently need to have a conversation.”

He didn't even bother putting his weapon down. “Sure. What about?”

She sat down. “We need to come up with a better system than just 'need help, come running!'. That's great for us, but I'm not sure how that works for you.”

Kev smiled. “For now, it works. While sometimes I do engage in activities that I would prefer not to be interrupted by your summons that is part of the service. I took that on when I volunteered to take on the ring tattoo.” He became very serious. “Trust me when I say that my culture has allowed for this very specific situation.”

She rose. “Okay. But let's revisit at some point, okay?”

"That sounds like a very good plan.” He returned to cleaning his weapon.

She walked over to Rodriguez. “So, think you can get a look at Kev's rail cannon before he heads out?”

He lowered his head so he could look her straight in the eye. “I've been having the beagle analyze that monster since the end of combat. That thing's at least fifty years ahead of anything we have.”

She was taken aback. “Interesting.”

He smiled. “The problem isn't just the design; the issues are all material related. The beagle doesn't even recognize some of the materials used.”

She smiled. “I'll keep that in mind when we head home. How much longer until the weapons are ready?”

"For a field cleaning, we're good. I'm disappointed that we didn't get to test that new strategy.”

"Definitely. But finding out a little more about both his and Douglas' abilities was well worth the trip alone.”

"For sure. We need to seriously explore what Douglas can do; if that kid is an example of those affected by the zone. We seriously need to start recruiting those with his abilities.”

“Granted. He's doing more damage than our weapons and his personal shields are almost as good as some of our lower-tier armors.” She paused to think. “I think I have an idea.” She tapped her mike, sending it to a private subvocal channel. “Hey, Jule; you awake?”

"Sure am. What's up?”

"You're nearest the radio. Can you ask base if we have a power suit about to be decommissioned? I need one.”

"Sure. Thanks to their over-use, they usually have something about to die. I'll check; give me a minute.” Lieutenant Sawyer was able to grab something to drink during the wait. “Yeah; they have one.”

“Outstanding.” She smiled. “Can they deliver it for me?”

“Maybe.” Lieutenant Prowse was getting suspicious. “What's up?”

She smiled mischievously. “Oh, you're going to love this.”