He might have blacked out for a few seconds, maybe a minute.

  As he opened his eyes, he felt his body starting its recovery process, but he also saw Akira helplessly on his back, slowly taking a shuddering breath. His chest caved in. Any second could be his last.

  Ben took the few bits of strength that slowly returned to his body and crawled to the man who had tried to warn him. His right arm was mostly useless but he could pull himself forward with his left.

  As he reached the mage he couldn’t access his bag of holding that was stuck between his body and the ground, so with a heave he turned himself around onto his back with three heavy wounds. The pain was almost too much.

  He fought through it and managed to put his hand into the bag of holding and pull out the Greater Healing Potion he had received during their first run of the evolved rat dungeon.

  Akira’s eyes were closed, but he still twitched slightly.

  With a force of will, Ben rolled to the side, uncorked the vial with one hand and, after shifting once more, poured the potion into the man’s half-opened mouth.

  Having done what he could, Ben sagged back and entered [Meditation].

  He did not know how long he was lost in his inner space, but he felt as if the time had done more than just help him recover. As he opened his eyes, Akira sat opposite him in the lotus position.

  “How did you do that?” the man asked with wide-open eyes.

  “Do what?”

  “Save me!”

  Ben shrugged, and was glad to note that the pain was already dramatically reduced. “It was a strong healing potion. A dungeon reward.”

  “Incredible. I was sure I was dead. And you are also almost healed. How many of those potions do you have?”

  Ben chuckled. “I had just one and gave it to you. I am quite resilient myself.”

  The man lowered his head briefly, “I owe you greatly.”

  “Not at all. You tried to warn me, and you only got hurt because they wanted my axe.”

  He slowly got up and tentatively stretched his muscles. He was mostly ok. Not ideal, but it would have to do. There was at least one notification waiting for him, but he ignored it for now.

  He nodded towards the edge of the caldera, “let’s go.” He pulled Akira up and together they walked out of the hellish landscape. Exchanging some inconsequential small talk, trying to get their minds off of their close encounter with death.

  About halfway back, Ben briefly touched his wrist and went silent but then resumed the conversation.

  As they neared the edge, Akira deviated from their unspoken pact to avoid unpleasant topics. “What do you want us to do about the two honorless snakes?”

  “They are in a group of three. Let’s see how things play out. I would like my axe back,” Ben said with a smile.

  “You take this surprisingly calmly.”

  Ben shrugged. “It might seem that way, but we still haven’t taken out all the Drakniks. We will deal with those would-be murderers in time.”

  Jamal and Michael stood as close as they could bear it to the caldera, waiting for them. They were accompanied by the three SEALs, who were wearing grim expressions.

  Ben looked at Michael, who nodded, then turned to Joe, “the Drakniks here are dead, the ritual stopped. How are things on your end?”

  “We haven’t heard from group two and three yet. Unfortunately, Sean, our brother, died before the healers could get to him.”

  Ben gripped Joe’s shoulder, “I am so, so sorry.” He looked at the other two SEALs, “for all of you. We have probably all been through this over the last couple of months, but it never gets easier.”

  The three men nodded, grateful for the words, but they stayed focused on their surroundings and the task at hand.

  “Boss mom is coordinating efforts to comb through the landscape to find the remaining Drakniks,” Jamal explained.

  “Where is your weapon? Did you lose it? It was quite the specimen,” Joe asked.

  “It got stolen…” Ben paused as Michael handed him his axe back. “… but I got it back.” He smiled as he tossed the axe from one hand to the next. “Michael, do you want to lead us to the thieves?”

  Michael nodded and turned towards the lower plateau where they had arrived, and the healers had their base.

  Halfway there, Anne stood over the group of three that included Ashish and Vaishali. All three were bleeding quite heavily and looked beat up. Their weapons were lying to the side.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  Joe and the SEALs were taken aback by the scene and slightly distanced themselves from Ben and the others. “What happened here?”

  “It looks like they resisted arrest?”

  “They stole your weapon? How? I have seen you fight, there is nobody here who can take your weapon from you,” Joe said incredulously.

  “There is, if they stab you in the back while you are already down and if they smash in the chest of the only righteous person around you.” Ben pointed to Akira.

  Joe squinted at the trio on the ground. Thinking.

  Ben kneeled in front of Ashish, who was sitting on the ground, defeated.

  “The world is coming to an end. We are fighting against monsters that want to kill everything that lives on this planet. And you have nothing better to do than kill those who fight for humanity? For an axe?” he paused, trying to clarify his own feelings which were somewhere between genuine incredulousness, outrage, and – if he was honest with himself – hate.

  Hate, not so much for the attack on him, though that played a role, more for what they represented in humanity. The greed, the callousness, the needless violence.

  He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

  He stood up and looked at Akira, “look, I don’t believe in the death penalty, even though these days people seem out to test my convictions on an almost daily basis. But you have been a victim of their assault at least as much as I have. What do you want?”

  Akira looked at him and then at the group of three. “You have led us well so far, I’m happy to leave this to you.”

  Ben looked at him searchingly for a moment, then nodded and turned back to their assailants.

  “Here are your choices. Option 1: you will swear a system-bound oath to never commit crimes again, forsake all your possessions that you don’t need for survival to those in need, and never come near the territory of the Protectorate. You will also lead the charge against the Drakniks, should we find any more. Option 2, I convict you of treason against humanity for weakening us in our fight for survival and on a system mission.”

  The three looked at him in horror.

  “We are in no condition to fight anymore. Your attack dogs did a number on us!” Ashish yelled. “This is a death sentence!”

  “A death sentence is to stab somebody in the back and leaving them to die in an active volcano. But I am not interested in a discussion with you. Make your choice.”

  Vaishali looked at Joe, “you can’t let him do this to us! You have to help!”

  “Are you even denying that what he said is the truth?” Joe asked.

  Vaishali nodded, while Ashish jumped up and tried to tackle Ben. Before he was halfway up Anne’s fist smashed into his neck with a sharp crack. He smashed to the ground, dead.

  “Thank you, Anne,” Ben nodded to his teammate.

  The third man in the group, whose name Ben didn’t know, cursed silently to himself. Vaishali hung her head.

  “Your choice. Now.”

  Vaishali whispered, “Option 1.” The other man just nodded, tears in his eyes.

  Ben quickly recited the oath for both of them and included leading the attack in it.

  After that was done, they returned to the scene of the large battle where Allison was still receiving and sending out scouts. On the path Joe nodded to Ben, “that was not the path I would have chosen, but I respect the commitment to your beliefs.”

  Allison updated them with the latest news. Apparently group one and two had both killed two Drakniks, overall three more fighters had died.

  That left one Draknik somewhere on the volcano.

  Given the position of the fights of group two and three, Allison had sent a bunch of scouts into the one area they hadn’t found any alien yet.

  It took half an hour, but eventually a scout returned, out of breath, and confirmed a sighting.

  Ben led their remaining troops to the area, Vaishali and her teammate by his side.

  He nodded to his mother, who directed the mages to unleash everything they had left on the Draknik’s location. The archers followed.

  Despite the forcefield, it was enough. Before the frontliners even had to engage, the barrage from multiple sides was sufficient to kill the last Draknik.

  The two assailants who had agreed to charge them, collapsed to the ground in relief.

  Incursion closed. Defense of Earth successful.

  This blue and golden message did not wait to be opened but appeared before their eyes, just like the initial alert.

  Those who answered the call, whether directly invited or not, will receive a reward for defending Earth against the first Draknik incursion.

  Those who did not, will no longer be able to receive perks from Mesa, making tiering up unlikely.

  Those betraying humanity in the face of the gravest danger will lose all perks.

  Rise to defend humanity.

  The cries of pain from Vaishali were deafening. She writhed on the ground as she shimmered golden. It looked like Energy was fleeing her body.

  It only took a minute or two, but it felt longer, her pain visible to all.

  Many of the fighters around them had no clue what had happened and looked in shock at the woman.

  Her teammate seemed not affected. He might have schemed with them but given that he was not part of the action the systems apparently chose to spare him.

  Before Ben could finally dedicate some time to open the waiting notifications, he heard the energetic voice of Mesa in his head.

  Well done, Ben! Our projections on participation rate were off. We had expected most of the strongest fighters on Earth to participate, not just little more than half.

  If you hadn’t brought most fighters in the Protectorate the mission would have failed.

  Normally, we would get you two rewards, one like everyone else will get for your personal contribution, and another one for the Protectorate. Instead, we combine them into something that could be a game changer for you personally and the Protectorate.

  I think there is a saying in your language, the reward for a job well done is more work. Meta is going to accelerate evacuation missions for you to get you to Level 3 and simplify her work further. Rifts like today should not happen and would not happen if the Energy influx were more stable and if the context on Earth would be simpler.

  Level 3 represents a significant uplift in capabilities, and you need to reach it quickly.

  Thank you for the ceaseless work you do. Good luck.

  Mesa, if you can hear me, I am grateful for everything, despite the heavy price we had to pay today. If I could ask for one additional reward… I would love a couple of one-time portal tokens…

  Mhh, getting greedy?

  He could hear the mirth in her voice.

  I tell you what, I give you two tokens and the ability to buy them from the System Store, however, you need to keep in mind that humanity needs strong people everywhere, if you monopolize them in the Protectorate, we won’t optimize the whole…

  I understand, agree, and am grateful.

  He felt Mesa leave, and the finger-wide blue lattices he had seen before formed on his palm and turned into marble slips.

  Now he was very keen to see what Meta and Mesa had rewarded him with.