Hunters

"This'll be my first time here in quite some time," Zale said as their vehicle trundled along the road.

Daren drove as he spoke. "Yeah, it's pretty much the same as always. Monsters just roaming the wastelands out there. It's good that we have defense in place, but can't have them slipping through our weak points."

Daren sighed but then composed himself and addressed everyone. "Alright, listen up back there! You've been briefed, but I'll say it again. This will be your first real job. I won't babysit you like I have been. We will patrol just outside the border, where defenses are weaker. Any monsters we find too close to our defenses are targets for elimination. This will be common work later down the line, so get used to it now.

"You will take care of them as a group of five. If things get dicey, I expect you all to have each other's backs. There's nothing worse than a deserter. Fight together, die together. Zale and I will be watching. We'll give advice, but we'll only step in as a last resort. Let's not have that happen," Daren finished.

"Yes, sir," they all chimed after his speech.

"Excellent. Now let's see you put that enthusiasm to use."

They passed through the military's checkpoint that led outside of the claimed territory and proceeded along the now old and broken roads. At some points, the road was a worse ride than the old, overgrown cotton fields next to it. Daren was careful as he steered over the terrain.

It wasn't long until the van came to a crawl a good distance from a pack of monsters, Razor Teeth, all running towards the wall from the forest. They were something like badgers if a badger was five feet long, three feet tall, covered in brown and grey spines, and had two sets of blade-like teeth.

The squad leaped from the back of the van and made their way to intercept the monsters while Zale stayed back to watch with Daren.

Aiden, the frontliner, ran forward, clad in plated armor made from monster materials that exceeded any known metals. "Howl!"

Energy surged from him, and immediately the Razor Teeth stopped their flee to face him. Blind with sudden rage, they snarled and bared their fangs. "Fortitude! Undying Will! Barrier of the Colossus!"

His first two blessings increased his body and equipment's defenses, and his third erected a barrier that surrounded him as long as he stayed inside it. The enemies were on him moments later, doing their best to claw and pierce through his barrier. Their attacks quickly whittled away the barrier, spines, fangs, and claws stronger than his defense. Aiden swung his sword through the barrier to delay them. While their attention was blindly fixed on Aiden, Katarina and Kaleb swept up from the sides.

"Fury Swipes!"

"Axe Gale!"

The assassin-type and berserker-type's blessings shredded flesh and cleaved limbs. Spines shattered, and blood splattered the once green grass with red. The two attackers avoided the retaliation that ensued, their armor doing to deflect any small attacks that landed.

When their aggression pulled attention off of Aiden completely, the pair retreated behind Aiden to make room for their strongest attacker, Abel.

The mage-type, who remained on the backlines with their healer-type, Vicky, stepped forward now. "Rain of Lightning!"

The air crackled and lept with energy the moment the blessing was invoked. The Razor Teeth that remained alive panicked, their senses thrown into chaos seconds too late as lightning jolted from the sky to char and stun them, leaping from the air, between bodies, and eventually fading into the earth.

The team rejoiced, but moments later, a thunderous roar blasted out in response to the lightning. It came from the forest, and the team learned what the Razor Teeth had been fleeing from.