It wasn’t long before several ambulances showed up to take the injured to the recently completed hospital in Fenton. At least the men were being taken care of that way. Those that remained sat around and waited for me to get away from the muck with the items I found. One of the guys broke into a maintenance shed and got us a lawn hose hooked up so we could spray ourselves off. We needed that badly. While I waited my turn I went over our haul: a rather large axe from an orc, another dagger, a ring, a wand, another communication stone, a weird looking gem, and a pouch. I started with using my own mana and quickly confirmed that the dagger was another ritual dagger and the communication stone was another copy of the previous two. Those were very straight forward. I then Identified the axe and the ring; neither took long.

  Broad Axe of Armor Bane

  This axe was forged in the hell forges on the Abyssal Plains of Einoch. It does additional damage to armor and pierces through it easier.

  Ring of Lesser Force Armor

  This ring constantly generates Lesser Force Armor around the wearer of the ring. This gives them some protection against physical, magical, elemental, and environmental damage. The Damage Resistance is set at 3.

  Those sounded very useful. I might as well finish what I started. I switched to the staff to use it for the rest.

  Apprentice Wand of Fog Cloud

  Apprentice wands are the first type of wands made by young apprentice wizards of the various magic universities within the Seimar Republic. The hone their craft magic wands ability by producing hundreds of standard wands. As with all Apprentice Wands the Caster level is set to 5 with an effect level of the same number. Current charges 22 out of 50.

  Fog Cloud-Tier 2- Arcane, Creation, Air, Water, Conjuration

  This ability causes fog bank to usher forth from the point the user designates. This fog obscures all sight, including darkvision beyond 2 meter depth. The size of this fog is an 8 meter radius with range of 45 meters and a duration of 50 minutes. Any creature within the 2 meters of the edge have some concealment against attacks. Beyond that they are totally obscured. Moderate winds disperse the winds in 30 seconds; stronger winds can disperse the winds in under 10 seconds. Fire completely burns the effect away in the areas of fire. This ability does not work underwater.

  Monster Core-Purple

  This the mana core from a creature between levels 11 and 20. This is the most basic monster core that exists. These are considered powerful magical energy sources to make items, but they are barely considered ones themselves

  Pouch of Storage

  Pouches of Storage are very common magic items found throughout the multiverse. There are no marking noting this to be of any specific creator.

  Capacity for this particular bag is an extradimensional space of 3 meters cubed. The items in the extradimensional space add no additional weight to the wearer of the bag. Anything in the extradimensional space does not age and comes out in the same condition it entered. Living creatures cannot be placed in the ring, either in whole or in part.

  Well, Fuck! There is far too much to unpack here. I could spend an hour or more getting into everything. However, I didn’t have that luxury. I had to lead. Nora had that notebook, but kept it to her chest. She wasn’t letting my dirty hands touch it, at least not until I got cleaned up. Soon enough, I was up and stood there as someone hosed me down. I stripped out of most of my clothes one step at a time to ensure that they were all completely clean. Once I was clean, Nora wasted no time in handing the notebook to me for me to fill it in.

  It was 20 minutes before I copied both the things I identified this morning and the items from a few minutes ago into her notebook. She was looking at me funny the entire time. “What’s so funny?”

  “You didn’t mention that the staff could identify items. I thought it was funny you kept it from me. Otherwise, you aren’t identifying 7 items in one go.” I handed her the notebook with the page open to the staff. I got up and let her chew on all that info. There were a lot of important things to cover with the survivors. I noticed they were all sitting over on the basketball court, laying out, trying to get their strength back after the insanity of the last hour. It was time to see how many I had after casualties were taken away in multiple ambulances. We had thirty-six men and women here. Did we have that many with severe injuries? I would find out shortly.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, good job surviving your first morning of the apocalypse. I’ve never fought one of those giant shit demons before, and I am impressed that we did fairly well against that thing. I have two items to hand out to people to increase our survivability. Those are the dagger and axe over there. Both will pierce through the damage resistance that the demons have and do damage to them like they were just normal creatures and not ones that seem to absorb gunfire for fun.”

  “Wait a second, Sonny Boy,” One of the older men amongst the survivors said. “Does making weapons and bullets magical break through their tough skin much easier?”

  “Yes, it does. On top of that the axe seems to destroy armor and pierce it easier. So that axe, in the right hands, could quite possibly kill an orc in a few hits. Something we can’t accomplish now with our rifles.”

  “Would crafting magical bullets also work?” Now that was an oddly specific question.

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

  “Yes,” I was curious to see where he was going with this.

  “Well, I’ll be. God musta blessed me, cause I can craft magical ammo and guns. Though I only made one pistol before, and I had a fantastic mold to work off of.”

  “Fuck Yes!.... So, your name, sir?”

  “Reggie Wallace, but everyone calls me Smitty, cause I do a lot of machine smithing down at my workshop. Been doin’ it 35 years now.”

  “Reggie, I’m reassigning you to command. You are on bullet duty for the foreseeable future. It may be boring, but every bullet that you make will be ten times more effective than the non-enchanted versions. That may not sound like what you signed up for, but you are going to save more lives than any of the rest of us, possibly combined.”

  He smiled at that. “Wait, so I get to do some good old-fashioned smithing, and that is gonna help that much?”

  “Yes, absolutely.” He is giving us a chance. “Smitty, why don’t you go over there and have a conversation with Nora. She would be extra keen on knowing how your class works.”

  “Now that we have a man making magical bullets for our guns, who has the close combat experience to make use of the axe?” Eventually, a rather large man stood up and nodded. Joe walked it over to him. “The dagger goes to one of the sergeants.” One of them stepped forward and took it.

  “Brittney and Brett, I need you to get the names of those who died, as well as those who were taken to the hospital.” They acknowledged and checked with a few men for names.

  “With items out of the way, I’ve got a few important things to cover, and then we are going to let you get back out on a patrol of this area for stragglers. First, I need to know if anyone has the ability to steal or copy abilities. If you do, go over with Smitty to have a conversation with Nora.” No one got up. “Well, in that case, I need each and every single one of you to use the rest of today, when not patrolling, to contact family and friends to find people who do have those types of abilities. They aren’t in trouble at all. We need them to help fill everyone’s ability slots. They will become essential members of our defensive force. Lastly, never underestimate the enemy. They will be smarter than they look, faster than they look, and deadlier than you would normally give them credit for. I hope this fight has driven that home for you. We lose people when we underestimate them. I don’t want to lose any more people today. Now let’s get out there and kill some demons.”

  My clothes were soaked, and the last thing I wanted to do was go talk to another group of militia. However, Misery loves company. “Nora, Joe, twins, you are all with me. We’ve got to get to Sunset Hills City Hall. They are waiting for me.”

  Billy begged off, “I’m going to go with Smitty and Billy. I want to check out Smitty’s workshop.” I nodded in affirmation.

  The rest of us got to my SUV, and then we headed for Sunset Hills. We needed to get at least this one done today. I felt like there was an invisible clock ticking down until the escalation efforts by the demons caused a break in the consistent missile fire through the portals. There was also the fact that we would simply run out of munitions to fire through the portals before they closed. Simply put, time was not on our side.

  With that thought firmly in mind, we navigated to Sunset Hills and found the City Hall quickly enough. However, we couldn’t even get to the parking lot as every space was filled already. Hundreds of people were waiting. Once we unloaded, we tried to calmly slip unnoticed by everyone to get to the front door. That would not be the case. We were two-thirds of the way across the parking lot and the small sea of people when the same reporter from earlier spotted me.

  “Representative Cassland, if I could have a word with you about an incident just a little while ago.” I tried to force myself not to react, but what the hell. This woman gathered info fast. The people waiting about parted between us as if they wanted this confrontation. I was still wearing wet clothes, but at least I didn’t have shit on my body. She stood up straighter and spoke into her microphone, “It is my understanding that you were recently in a large gun fight with some creatures down by Fenton Park. In that gun fight, you had seventeen deaths and seven more injured Americans under your command. By any measure, that sounds like a lot of people. Care to comment on that?” She thrust the microphone in my direction and a slight smug smile on her face. She thought she scored a point in this fight.

  “Yes, I was, and so was my team, as well as sixty good men and women. We had losses fighting against a dangerous foe. There were dozens of demonic monsters against us, and we prevailed. I take those losses personally, including one man who sacrificed himself to eliminate a twenty-foot-tall demon of shit and trash. His sacrifice meant others survived, so that we are all a little safer.”

  “Were you outnumbered?” She already knew the answer to this question most likely.

  “We were outmanned, but not outnumbered. The Orcs are big durable enemies that take several people shooting them to bring them down. That was where we had most of our losses. They are big, durable, and faster than they look. However, we are working on developing weapons to take them down faster.”

  “It sounds like you were overpowered by a numerically smaller force. If you failed this time, how can we honestly expect you to succeed the next time? And why would we want to take that chance?”

  “Interesting take. The truth of the matter is that we won the engagement, though at a cost of human life. The learning curve against powerful creatures from another plane of existence is a steep one, where every mistake, no matter how small, is going to cost human lives.”

  “So, you’re saying you made mistakes? If so, how can people trust you to lead them?” I really hated this lady.

  “I think I have done exceedingly well given the circumstances. We are at war with an enemy that wants to wipe us out of existence. I won’t apologize for doing my part to win this war. This fight isn’t going to be easy, but working together and supporting one another is how we will succeed.” I really hoped my persuasion and public speaking skills were helping to smooth that out. I was sure they were helping, but not sure by how much.

  “Why would anyone think you’ve done exceedingly well? You were thrust into command inappropriately. Men died under your command. Even a childhood friend of yours died right next to you. You aren’t ready for the responsibility of leading men.” How did she know about Chris? I hadn’t talked about him much. That pain was raw still, but private. Her exposing that was out of bounds.

  “I am doing the best that can be done with the resources that I have. No one can truly be prepared for the events before us. It is down to how we react. I believe I have acquitted myself well. I believe in my team and those who have volunteered. Now, if you don’t mind, I have several hundred people to speak to.” I then turned my back to her and walked towards the doors. That was close. I really didn’t want to talk to her again.

  Upon entering, the lobby was standing room only, and I had to push my way to the front. This got an awful lot of strange and angry looks by all the people around me. Once I got to the front, the woman at the front desk seemed to recognize me, “Representative Cassland, you’re late.”

  “Got held up by demons, couldn’t be helped. It looks like you have spots there behind the counter. I need my team to get in there to start getting people’s information.”

  She sighed, “Sure, fine.”

  I then turned to address the crowd already inside, “Hey folks, I’m state representative Neal Cassland. I’m the guy you are here to see. Once I get my team situated behind the counter to start taking information, I will be in the main meeting room across the way. I will speak to as many people as I can today. Please leave information with them before coming into the meeting room.” I waited for Nora, Joe, and Brittney to get behind the counter, and then I slipped on over to the large meeting room and was bombarded with questions by individual people until late that night.

  Having those conversations, both individual and group, was very useful. I calmed people down and built confidence in my capability as both their representative and someone to help militarily. I was exhausted when I got back together with the team, but we added twenty squads of people to help patrol the area. We gained a lot of logistical support as well. All in all, it was a good evening.