They were barely fifteen minutes through the morning lifting session when the first fight broke out.

  Took three days, which Eron would take as a win.

  On one side stood Priti.

  The diminutive teenager was empowered by a pair of bracelets that turned into brass-colored gauntlets that gave her superhuman strength and durability via injecting microscopic things that strengthened her down at the cellular level.

  Naturally, she had received them through a ray of light one day and even more naturally she hadn’t questioned a single thing before donning them.

  The things were probably technology-based, but they were so advanced that the Threnosh instruments were only about eighty percent sure they weren’t magic-based.

  Eron wasn’t sure how he felt about other powerful beings elsewhere in the spires worlds dumping powerful gear, like that asshole, Tlaloc’s axe, on his planet for their unknown ends.

  “Stupid nanites, probably making her aggressive,” he muttered as she uppercutted a young man in the junk.

  Junaid, the young man in question, also had superhuman strength and such. Powered by literal gas in his gastro-intestinal system. Poor kid. Had to hold it in as long as he could to reach his peak strength. Otherwise he was just a little bit above the strongest possible potential for a baseline Earthian male, which wasn’t that bad considering he wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination a big dude.

  Priti and Junaid both came from a mountain valley between what was once India and Pakistan in the Himalayan Mountains.

  So, he understood the animosity.

  Their two towns still fought every few years when their idiot leaders forgot that they were supposed to be working together against monsters and what not.

  Eron had, in fact, saved them three times while they were in the middle of a conflict when monster swarms had poured out of whatever encounter challenge or spawn zone in the surrounding mountains.

  “Alright. That’s more than enough.”

  He caught a pair of punches before they found their targets and held the wrists in a grip as unyielding as Jupiter’s gravitational pull.

  Definitely as unyielding as Rayna’s gravitational pull, despite his sister’s recent big-headed bragging over what had been, clearly, a fluke circumstance. It wasn’t like he had been trying anyways.

  “She started it!”

  “He started it!”

  “Dude, she’s fifteen.” He stared down at Junaid with a father’s disappointed gaze. “You’re almost twenty.”

  “That’s factually correct, but she is stronger than me. And she punched me in the nuts!”

  He turned his solar-powered disappointment on to the small girl.

  “That was a cheap shot. What do you have to say to Junaid?”

  “I’ll never apologize to this stinky face!”

  “I have been moving downwind to expel my… gases this whole time!” Junaid snapped. “No one else has had reason to complain. And I can’t help it. It’s my power and I didn’t choose it. Besides, how can I participate without using it.” He turned to Eron. “You said there wouldn’t be any problems and I wouldn’t be ridiculed.”

  “That gem I gave you not working?”

  He had given Junaid an enchanted gem that killed the sound and smell.

  Frankly, the kid was being extra considerate by moving away and downwind from people when he had to.

  “No. It’s working fine. She can’t hear or smell shit!” Junaid jabbed a finger at Priti. “She’s just being a little—”

  “Okay. That’s enough.” Eron silenced him with a glare. “Is anything he said incorrect?” He fixed the girl with another glare.

  She mumbled for a bit, hemming and hawing.

  “No…”

  “Then what’s this about, really?”

  “His cousin… waved his thing in my face!” She spat venom.

  Eron let them both go.

  He knew the cousin in question.

  He rounded on Junaid.

  “That perv is still running around naked? I gave you nearly indestructible clothing. Very expensive, indestructible clothing.”

  Junaid closed his eyes.

  “You know how he is,” he shrugged. “It’s not like we like him being naked. And he’s not a cousin by blood.”

  “I’ve warned him and your elders. I don’t care that he’s developed a stupid philosophy that since he has superhuman strength he has to be in his natural state.”

  “Well, now he’s saying it’s a waste of clothes and armor since his skin is so much tougher better to let the monsters strike his bare flesh than ruin clothing and armor better used on the weaker.”

  “That’s not any better.” Eron turned to Priti. “Okay. I promise I’ll have a punch-talk with the perv after I drop you off.”

  She hesitated.

  “Um, it wasn’t really in my face. More like from another ridge… but he knew I was watching for monsters! So… um…”

  “Still wrong. Still going to have that talk.”

  Junaid cursed.

  “Nooo. I don’t want to have to fight you again,” he groaned.

  “Then don’t.”

  “I have to, though. I’m honor bound.”

  “Fine. I’ll throw you— lightly— far enough away you can take your time getting back. Your elders won’t have any idea.”

  “Promise?”

  “Yes. But the two of you are going to have to stop fighting. Like I said before breakfast. I put you two together so that you’d learn that it isn’t so bad to work together. I was going to switch you after lunch, but now I’m going to keep you together until you show me that you can be close without breaking out into conflict. And I mean all types of conflict. So, no verbal sparring or passive-aggressive crap. Understand?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Yes, Eron.”

  The two chagrined youths went back to lifting while the others in their group and those close by tried not to look like they had been watching and listening intently.

  …

  “I’m surprised you allowed that,” Captain Patriot said.

  “Nah, I can’t waste their time by sending them to timeout. They’ve only got two weeks.”

  “I meant the potential sex predator.”

  “Oh. He’s not. I had him checked out when I first found out about the nudism. A hundred percent not a rape threat. He genuinely believes that weird superhuman supremacy thing.”

  “Also worrisome.”

  “His people are working on that. Everyone’s fairly reasonable. At least the one’s in charge now. You know, when they’re not having a blood feud.”

  “After you removed the unreasonable ones?”

  He didn’t dignify that blatant fishing jab with a response.

  “Regardless, he shouldn’t be allowed to flash young girls and, I presume, boys.”

  “Everyone. In both towns. All ages. All genders.” He sighed. “I’m not getting into cultural prudishness levels discussion with you. It’s enough that people have complained and he refuses to be a considerate neighbor.”

  “So, you’re going to punch him until he behaves.”

  “Nah. Hasn’t worked yet and they enjoy the fighting because I take it easy on them. I don’t know. Maybe I can get magic or high-tech clothes that automatically go on him when he goes outside his house? That’ll infringe on his personal freedom, but will protect the freedoms of others not to see his junk. This is why I’m not in charge of anything.”

  “Yeah. That’s a very heavy question.”

  “Well, that’s a problem for later. I’ll add it to my pile.” He regarded the faint red glare at the plow station. He regarded Captain Patriot and Glarey with a studying gaze. “The nose, the chin and the shape of the eyes. Or orbitals in your case. Is she worried about her eyes falling out?”

  “Do you have a face-blindness problem?”

  “Quite the opposite actually. Sometimes I wish I did. It’s alright. I won’t push. Just, I hope, for her sake, you’ve got a plan for the eye-falling out issue.”

  “There is no such issue.”

  He eyed her eye sockets.

  The blindfold and the white light couldn’t conceal the emptiness.

  “You’ve got a free invitation for the finest medical science and wizardry I can access. Her, too.” He floated back to coach. “At least her power’s red. And not white. No worries about that unfortunate connotation.”

  “I was never— I’ve resolved to be better when it comes to following my orders.”

  “Why keep following them at all when you’ve somehow managed to live through all that without losing yourself to their evil? Just a thought.”

  She smirked up at him.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  “Your naked attempt to turn me won’t work. I’m not an impressionable youth.”

  “Yeah, but we both know you’ve been thinking about it ever since you and that idiot in a skull mask killed that eidolon. Weren’t following orders back then. It was very disappointing that you didn’t break with them at that time. Just let them turn you into another weapon kept away while they went even more evil. Have you thought about how different for the people it could’ve been if you didn’t just walk into that cage?”

  She looked away with nonexistent eyes.

  “Always.”

  “Good. I think about my failings all the time too. People like us have to or we end up like that demigod.”

  …

  Eron watched his daughter pushing the massive stone block across the desert.

  She moved at a pretty good clip.

  Almost thirty kilometers an hour according to the numbers on his glasses.

  The ‘500’ he had burned into the stone’s side stood out despite the distance.

  Tiny drones buzzed around her and the stone like angry bees, but they were there for safety lest a careless person decided to ignore all the flashing lights and signs and wander in Lera’s path.

  A mile out and back.

  Pushing, then pulling a stone the size of a small hill.

  There were stones of other sizes in that part of the training compound, though none bigger.

  He was careful not to focus on her in order to avoid even a hint of favoritism.

  He’d share his pride with her in private later.

  His tablet beeped.

  One of his trainees appeared to be in need of a coach’s unhinged yelling.

  Harold, the Gryphon Prince, Gryphy strained against the harness as he flapped his broad brown wings with all his might.

  His sun-tanned face had turned red from the exertion of hovering while carrying a dangling weight a few feet off the ground.

  The matte gray block was supported by thick cables that were slack at the moment.

  “C’mon! Keep it up! You’re not a baby chicken anymore, are you!” Eron checked his tablet.

  Little Gryphy had been at it for nearly ten minutes, which was nearly a minute more than his best attempt from the previous day.

  “You gonna disappoint your mommy?” He floated near so he could land a bit of spittle in the young man’s face.

  Definitely, douchebag behavior, but Gryphy had responded well so far.

  “She’s probably watching right now! You gonna let her and your nation down? Get it!”

  Gryphy’s wing muscles gave out at a little over twelve minutes.

  The safety cables caught the weight, while Eron caught the Gryphon Prince.

  “Hell yeah, dude! Five tons! Over two minutes better than yesterday’s best! Breaking personal bests all day, everyday!”

  “Was my mother really watching?” Gryphy said between gasps as Eron gently let him stand on his own two feet. He looked like he wanted to sit down, but that stubborn young man pride kept him up.

  “She’s probably trying, but no. I promise secrecy, I deliver secrecy. But, don’t worry she’ll be getting video of everything you’ve done and will do here.”

  Gryphy nodded and vaguely tried to hook his harness back to the weight’s cable.

  “Oh, no. You’re staggering over to rest and recovery.”

  “I can go again.”

  “Not according to your numbers, you’re not.” He held up the tablet. “Rest and recovery. Remember—”

  “Maximizing gains. I remember, sir.”

  “Sir?”

  “Everyone else is saying it.”

  The broad-shoulder young man staggered off to rest and recovery.

  Little Gryphy wasn’t so little anymore.

  Eron cast about for someone else that needed a little yelli— motivation.

  …

  “I can still go!” Mo roared.

  Eron regarded the hybrid’s thick, gray-skinned leg.

  The feet and toes were weird.

  Closer to an elephant’s.

  The leg looked fine, but he looked closer and saw a nearly microscopic misalignment roughly mid calf.

  A quick glasses scan confirmed a fracture in the tibia.

  “Nah, bro. You’ve got a clean break.” He held the young man down with a gentle hand on a massive shoulder. “You went an extra two tons on your max advised lift.”

  The rack resembled a high-tech version of the lifts mechanics used to raise cars back in the day more than the standard power rack in a gym.

  The necessary safety systems had prevented the thirty-five tons of weights from falling.

  “I like the attitude in going past your limits, but you got to know the time and the place to do that.”

  “But you said—” Mo grunted as he tried to stand.

  “Time and place, kid. Time and place.”

  The medical team arrived.

  Threnosh in a tiny hovering craft the size of a golf cart.

  Doctor Vindaction Nov 68720 gave instructions in their usual flat-toned voice to assistants as they began scanning Mo with the various spindly arm devices extending from their medical power armors.

  “Patient: Muhammad King Junior. Exceeded safety limit. Tibia fracture. Simple.”

  They looked up at Eron.

  The gray face was as expressionless as always, except for one with the eyesight that could see down to the microscopic level.

  The narrowing of their eyes would be imperceptible even through a telescope, but to Eron it stood out as bright as the spotlights overhead.

  “Doctor. Sometimes we have to go past those safe limits. Especially, if others are counting on us.”

  “That does not apply to this incident. Please, reiterate the safety protocols to my patients. They are there for a reason.”

  “Absolutely.” He shot her a thumb’s up.

  Their assistants had already immobilized Mo’s leg with a shiny brace filled with gel and levitated him to a thin bed that had unfolded out the back of their hover craft.

  “So, how long until he can get back to it?”

  “Twelve hours.”

  Mo groaned.

  “That is the minimum.”

  “Are you sure? He’s got a unique physiology, right? Injuries heal even better than before.”

  “I am aware. Physiological quirk is irrelevant if Patient: Muhammad King Junior does not heal completely.”

  “What if we completely immobilize and support his leg? Can he still lift?”

  “Yes, but inadvisable. Compensation in other areas may lead to future injuries.”

  “I can still lift!” Mo said through grit teeth.

  “Sorry, kid. That’s not your call. The doctor takes precedence.”

  “That is correct.”

  Doctor Vindaction Nov 68720 boarded the hover craft and carried the young hybrid off to the medical tent.

  Eron regarded the other youths in Mo’s group.

  “Like I said. Pushing past your limits are necessary and good, but there’s a time and a place. Those gray aliens are pretty good with the medical stuff, so those numbers they put in your tablets are really your physical limits. I’m not saying you can’t try to go past them, so long as you know that doing that might put you on the shelf and we only have so many hours left in our training arc.”

  …

  “Hello, Eron.”

  “Hey, Magus. What’s up?”

  “It’s time to harvest.”

  “Really? Okay.”

  He gazed into the night sky, then down into the training compound.

  The lights were on, but everyone was in their tents.

  “You’re not going to ask why?”

  “Nope. I mean, I’ve known you long enough. You say it’s harvesting time, then it’s harvesting time.” He studied the ring of monster corpses surrounding the compound at a safe and less odious distance. “Which one’s are you planning to take?”

  “Just the one about to hatch its eggs.”

  Eggs?

  What eggs?

  He had checked all the monster corpses.

  There had been no eggs.

  “Please explain.”

  “That one—”

  A light suddenly appeared over a silver-furred monster as if it was about to launch into a soliloquy on a theater stage.

  “— now has eggs.”

  “That isn’t an explanation.”

  “What else is there to be made? Yesterday it had no eggs. Tonight it does. When one deals with monster bodies one must be prepared for the unexpected.”

  “Maybe I should just destroy it all before they hatch.”

  “Please do not. Such things must be studied.”

  “Okay. I’ll keep an eye on it until your team gets here. I’m destroying it all if they start hatching.”

  “That won’t be necessary.”

  Portals opened around the silver-furred corpse.

  The magus and her harvesters stepped out.

  She appeared to have more monster eyes orbiting around her since the last time he had seen her in person.

  A big eye winked up at him.

  The silver-furred monster was the size of a small house and vaguely shaped like a humanoid mixed with a jellyfish.

  Despite it’s size, they made quick work of it while he kept an eye out for surprise egg hatchings.

  Thankfully there were none and within fifteen minutes the deed was done.

  “Do I need to worry about the other bodies?”

  “They don’t appear to be in danger of developing eggs or sudden clone divisions. The only danger is the stench… for now.”

  “Well, that’s ominous.”

  “Are they keeping your little winter camp free from other monsters?”

  “So far.”

  “Then we shall return once you’re done.”

  …

  “You’ve got incoming, Relentless. Linking you to satellite.”

  A great cloud of dust cut through the desert like a speed boat’s wake.

  “Unbelievable.”

  He counted the issues he’d already run into.

  This fast thing was the third in four nights.

  “Please tell me that it’s a monster.”

  A smaller window popped up in his glasses.

  The thing had a face that not even its mother could love.

  A leering skull between human and animal.

  Some kind of dog or horse.

  Its red skin was stretched so tight against its skull face that it had torn in places, revealing pink-slicked ivory.

  A crown of bloody horns pierced through its tangle of thick, cable-like hair.

  It loped like a gorilla, but at an impossible speed for the noble animal.

  “It’s running at Mach 1. If it can maintain that speed it’ll reach your camp in approximately thirty-two minutes.”

  “Do you know where it came from? A spire? Or a spawn zone?”

  Please say spawn zone, he thought.

  “Spawn Zone.”

  “Okay that’s good. Definitely a monster that I don’t need to try to talk to.”

  “Yeah, Relentless. It tore through the armed encampment the local adventurers and mercs are using to hit the challenges and zones in that area.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely. I can send you the vids.”

  “No need. Does the encampment need aid?”

  “The Raynagon is already on her way.”

  “Great! I’ll just take care of this monster thing.”

  He tucked his glasses into a pocket where it would be safe and flew into the night.

  Slower than sound at first, until he got far enough away that the booms wouldn’t wake his trainees.

  Then he slammed into the monster at hypersonic speed.

  He left nothing.

  Even the blood burned away in his solar heat.

  Apologies to the magus, but it had looked too dangerous to leave intact.

  “Oops.”

  He left a long, straight streak of glass carved across miles of the desert.