The two vehicles drove through the rocky mountain road as the rough weather gave way to a blue afternoon sky. A vast view of other white-capped mountains could be seen every so often between the evergreen trees of the increasingly dense forest that they drove through. They headed north, going downhill on a path that they all hoped would take them away from the militarized area full of outposts, automated weapons, and enemy detection systems.

  “I hope they’re okay…” Prism shared for the fourth time in an hour. He’d relinquished his magical control of the vehicles after removing the tracking and self-driving tech within them, allowing his allies to drive them instead.

  “Enough with that. They’ll be okay. They’re all professionals.” Ursun shared while he drove in the seat beside Prism.

  "It's a shame that their telepathic link is so limited compared to ours, from what I can tell." Wadaw shared while he looked at Lorias driving the bigger, gun-mounted vehicle behind them through the rearview mirror between Prism and Ursun.

  Leanna shifted in the backseat as she imagined being able to hear Ruz's voice wherever she was. She leaned closer to Wadaw, who was sitting beside her, and said, "That’s probably for the best."

  "Those RED-2 guys are weird. They're way too "friendly" with each other." Srell shared along with his icky feeling.

  Lorias gave the brown-skinned man beside him a quick side-eye. "Isn’t that the sky calling the ocean blue,” he mumbled. “After all these years, have you really not heard about Ruz's Harem?" Lorias spoke aloud again before shaking his head.

  "Harem!?" Srell yelled as he lurched forward in his reclined seat.

  Speet looked back at the two men who'd forgotten he was there, then sighed at their offhanded remarks. He'd been quietly and diligently watching out for any signs of enemies pursuing them, but hadn't found any. He too worried about the safety of RED-2, his team of two years. He knew where to rendezvous with them once RED-1 and Wadaw made it off the mountain, but he’d started to wonder if parting ways with RED-1 in the middle of enemy territory was even smart.

  "You kids and your rumors..." Ursun squeezed his steering wheel before continuing. "They're all adults. As long as it doesn't get in the way of their missions, its none of our business."

  "Major Ruz may be a horndog, but he’s a good leader." Speet shared over the link. Through that same link, he could feel the surprise his voice invoked amongst most of the others, especially Srell, who poked his head out of the window to look at Speet. The gentle giant was sitting in the back, in the gunseat of what was actually an autohowitzer, a weapon far more powerful than a mere machine gun.

  "He isn't forcing you into anything, is he, Speet?" Leanna shared. She frowned and crossed her arms at the thought of someone taking advantage of someone so sweet and considerate.

  "No, of course not." Speet shared. He chuckled out loud in the crisp air as he rocked in the warm bench seat he was in. He looked back in the direction he knew she was in, then shared, "You worry too much, Leanna. You're like a big sister sometimes."

  Prism smiled and nodded. "I second that," the alien twisted around in his seat and said to Leanna directly.

  "Excuse me for giving a damn," she replied psychically. She shook her head and smirked to herself.

  “It’s too empty out here.” Lorias shared.

  They’d seen several tall gray sentry towers during their ride; towers that allowed the Sguvan military to detect most movement throughout the mountains. Prism hid them from the towers with an invisibility field around their vehicles and a few other spells to hide their movement, but none of them thought it’d be enough to avoid detection for long. Their enemies could detect minute changes in air pressure, could detect subtle temperature differences and abnormal chemical signatures. They were dealing with Royalists with access to the most advanced technology on ?ba.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “When was the last time we saw an aerial patrol, or a tower, even?” Srell asked.

  “Doesn’t matter. They’ve got sensors in trees that could find us. I’ve even heard rumors that they have small robotic insects that perform surveillance. Micro-tech from the Kingdom, probably.” Wadaw shared.

  “Etrysian Intelligence has living bug-tech like that.” Leanna shared in turn.

  “Pure conjecture. If both sides had tech like that flying around, we’d all have perfect intel on each other, just about.” Ursun shook his head and dismissed both of their claims with a flick of his hand.

  “They must detect us lumbering through the mountainside at 60 kilometers an hour. The real question is why are they leaving us alone?” Lorias shared. His armored truck rocked and shook as the terrain they drove over became rockier and more uneven.

  “They’re probably afraid of Prism, especially since their pink sedative doesn’t work on him anymore. They’d probably just gas the area if they thought it did.“ Srell shared while gripping a handle on the side of his door to help deal with the rough ride.

  “You’re making two assumptions: that the sedative not working back at the base wasn’t just a one-off, and that these goons still want to bring Prism in alive after he just killed so many of them.” Wadaw shared. He watched the vehicle behind him bounce and jostle its passengers as woods became crag. “We’re being lulled into a false sense of security. They want to catch us off-guard. It’s the only way they’ll stand a change against us.”

  “Fair enough. You know these queenies better than the rest of us.” Srell shared, letting a bit of irritation travel through the link.

  “Be reasonable. He’s spot on, and you know it,” said Lorias after giving Srell a shove. Srell’s eyes became big as he looked at Lorias with an exaggerated but sincere frown.

  “Regardless of all that stuff, I’m ready for them.” Prism shared. He raised his right hand from his lap and created a sphere of white light about the size of an apple to hover above his open palm. He caused the errant mana flowing all around them and their vehicles to become visible to his allies. A kaleidoscope of colorful wind full of dots of equally colorful light filled the air. “See how abundant it all is? This area is teeming with mana.”

  “It is indeed beautiful…” Leanna shared as she raised her hand to try and touch some of the colorful wisps flowing around her. The motes of mana passed through it as if her hand wasn’t even there.

  “This is what you see all the time?” Srell asked. He too was mesmerized by the light show.

  “For the most part.” Prism shared before dispelling the mana-vision for the others.

  “Seems distracting.” Lorias shared after rubbing his eyes. They’d become tired and sore all of a sudden.

  “I’m used to it, so I can tune it out. Mana-vision is too taxing for the rest of you though, from what I can tell.” Prism smiled and shared.

  “Yeah, I have a headache all of a sudden, and I almost never get headaches…” Speet shared while gripping the handle on the minihowitzer to keep himself from being jostled too badly on the rocky road.

  “Some magic just doesn’t work well with human physiology. I could use a bunch of other spells to offset that, but then we’re hitting diminishing returns.” Prism explained through the link.

  Ursun looked over at Prism with his chin raised and said, “Best to conserve your energy.”

  Prism nodded, crossed his arms and replied, "Don't worry; my high is long gone. You know that I can't maintain those extraordinarily high mana levels for long."

  "I've made my peace with your idiosyncracies," Ursun started to speak more softly. "I'm just trying to keep your mind on the mission. It has a tendency to wander, leading to you acting brashly in reaction to something you should've been primed for."

  Ursun's words stung Prism, but Prism couldn't argue with the man. "You're right; I've never been the most stable person. That's part of the reason I'm here on this planet."

  Ursun furrowed his brow, curious as to what the elementeitan meant. He'd always suspected that Prism had a sordid past. It irritated the commander that he knew so little about that past while having to place so much responsibility on Prism. "You're always so cryptic. You must have done a lot of things that you're ashamed of." Ursun said with a tinge of malice.

  "More than you'll ever know." Prism said as he turned away from Ursun to look out the window. The scene outside appeared as a green and gray blur to him as he began to dissociate. Few things bothered him more than having his past thrown in his face.

  Ursun glanced over at Prism with a blank expression that hid his regret. When he looked back at the gravel road, he noticed a large clearing up ahead. "Eyes open. We're entering an open area." Ursun shared with the team.

  Leanna and Wadaw, who'd been listening in the backseat, exchanged part-entertained, part-concerned looks before training their eyes on the surroundings outside their windows. The sparse treeline near the road vanished all of a sudden, revealing a wide glade with patches of pink flowers interspersed with rocky outcrops. Everyone in the vehicles knew that the area was the perfect spot for an ambush.

  "Do you sense anything?" Lorias asked Prism telepathically.

  "Just a lot of peaceful plants and insects." Prism shared. “Hmmm, and something big rolling down the mountainside. A boulder, maybe?” He added as he started to expand his perception to take a better look at their not-so-immediate surrounding.

  "Contact!"

  Speet's deep voice boomed through the telepathic link as he started firing the minihowitzer at the white object that dashed across the field of flowers and into focus. What looked like a sleek white gorilla with large tufts of white fur on its shoulders charged at them at full-speed, moving so quickly that it kicked up a cloud of dust behind it. It started rolling and jumping out of the way of the high-explosive rounds being fired at it, barely losing speed in the process.

  “Hold on!” Ursun shouted and shared.

  He made a sharp turn, putting his vehicle’s back to the fast approaching enemy. Lorias followed after him, giving Speet a direct line of sight to shoot at the creature. As they picked up speed, so did the white creature behind them. Within minutes, it was only a few dozen meters away. That was when Speet struck its head dead on.

  “Big Speet! Nailed a fucking plasma beast like a goddamned hero!” Srell cheered, yelling out the window so that the gunner could hear him.

  The beast slammed into the ground, pushing up earth and dust as it broke through a pillar of rock in the process. Speet leaned back in his gunner’s seat and closed his eyes for a moment to take a deep, relieved breath. He didn’t even see the massive plasma beast leaping through the air with its large fists raised above its head, ready to slam down upon him and his minihowitzer.