Special Needs Forces

Later that same day, the entire team, except for Rigel and Captain, returned back to base. Captain was eager to come back, but the doctors and the team told him to stay under observation because he had a bandaged wound and he was on anesthetic and it was not a good idea to take him to the base right now. As for Rigel, it turned out that the bugs that bit him were more than slightly venomous, but because Rigel was a quarterblood, this venom had a stronger effect on him than it should have. It's good that they brought him to the hospital because if he were left without the intervention of someone who knows how to save human life, he would probably wake up dead tomorrow. Doctors in the hospital did not have much experience in treating people with such an unstable body, so they had to do a lot by trial and error, but it was good that it somehow worked out in the end. They decided to leave Rigel in the hospital for a while longer in case something happened to him, so the team at the base was very shrunken and they had neither a captain nor a replacement captain.

Lukier called Captain and asked what to do next because they only had 4 people with Tanager, Lawenda and Tawny and none of them were fit for power. Captain in this situation was very happy that he had established a team friendship with Crow because he could now instruct Lukier to contact Crow and ask if she would lend them someone who would like to captain 13 while he and Rigel are in the hospital. And so Lukier called Crow and explained the whole situation and asked for some help. Crow sent Lime to them as replacement Captain, and they were just waiting for her to arrive.

Meanwhile, Lawenda and Lukier were talking about the last mission, and then the topic changed to pretty shiny butterflies and then talking about stainless steel soap and then they started to wonder how it happened that this topic started. And Tawny went to his room in the corner to read a book in the dark and cry or whatever introverts do when they feel sad that their favorite person is out of reach. Unfortunately for him, Tanager saw that he was sad and stuck to him and tried to comfort him at all costs. So he grabbed him by the tail, dragged him out of the room, and while Tawny drove across the floor like a domestic cat on a leash, Tanager spoke a long monologue of things he had to do together to cheer up Tawny, and the first thing on the list was to pat Puszymir.

So they went to the garage which had turned into the Puszymir cave and Tawny did not even notice that Puszymir had almost reached his final form because he was almost the size of the ship and he lost all that pink fluff he once had, and instead had iridescent feathers all over his back, like a rooster. The color also changed because he was now dark purple, though not necessarily because in a different light it looked as if it was a completely different color. He had also grown horns, scales on his belly, and long claws, and overall he looked less like a hairy larva and more badass. As Tawny and Tanager were stroking Puszymir, Lukier walked into the garage carrying a large piece of meat, and Puszymir jumped up and almost trampled Tanager and Tawny and then knocked over Lukier, then took the meat from him and ran to the corner to eat the prey making snarling nom nom nom sounds like animals in funny videos on the internet.

"Does it always happen when you give him food?" Tawny asked

"He's just happy" replied Lukier

"It doesn't look safe, he knocked you over like a sack of potatoes and I think he might bite your arms off by accident. I'm starting to wonder if keeping the monster in the garage was a good idea" said Tawny, and Lukier got a little pissed off because he knew Tawny was right, but on the other hand, he didn't even want to think about throwing Puszymir out to the wild because he had raised him himself.

"It's a bit ironic that you say it'' Lukier replied a bit unkindly, but right after he said it, he felt a bit strange inside because he wasn't planning to sound unpleasant.

"Okay, don't mind me, I'm just commenting on what I see." said Tawny, who didn't look like he was offended, but Lukier still had an inner feeling to apologize to him preventively. Then the doorbell rang and they went to open it and it was Lime who was supposed to come to captain on the replacement and she also brought Gloster with her, which ruined Lukier's mood a lot.

"Lime, nice to see you!" said Lukier and then he looked at Gloster with a look that said 'it's not nice to see you' “I thought they would only send you...'

"Well, it was supposed to be just me, but recently they added a new recruit to our team, so if there’s enough people on my team I thought that I would take additional support. Gloster seemed like a good choice because you already know each other so..."

"Haha, yeah... cool" commented Lukier pretending that he does not mind

"We will definitely have a great time on our missions together until your captain returns" Gloster said non-ironically and Lukier had very mixed feelings

Then Lime went right away to check if there was any mission on the board and yes, there was a mission on the board, multiple missions, in fact. One task from the board was to find a crashed flyer of another team who died in some forest and was carrying an important item. Another assignment was to kill the monster in this forest, possibly the same monster that made the above team end up the way they did. The third one was to put up some kind of electric fence in that area, only a hi-tech one from the future, which looks cool but works like an electric fence. The idea was that the monsters wouldn't go on that trail anymore, because people often fly there because there is a marked route on the GPS map. And normally you don't do things like setting up fences, because they don’t use flying vehicles to worry about what's going on on the ground, but once the forest monster smashed a monster killing team it was a sign that it was time to take higher precautions.

“I don't want to be picky but you have noticed that when whole teams die, they get a minute of silence at the meeting and they have to be respected, and when a team loses members one by one, they laugh at the fact that it has a high mortality rate and is weak?” Commented Lukier looking at the board with tasks, because he realized that a lot of teams were dying. In the last months a team from region six was killed in a fight with Sheri on an aircraft carrier, then Crow’s almost died, earlier Tanager’s three teams were killed before joining Thirteen, and that's probably not all, because he didn't follow what was happening with other teams and he didn't even know how many regions there were in the unit.

“I think it's more about the percentage of completing tasks than the K / D ratio” replied Gloster and maybe he was right but Lukier took it personally anyway.

“And if I had to choose I would prefer for them to laugh at me, because the team to which I moved from to 13 a year ago also died entirely apart from me.” he added.

“Okay people, for now we are alive and we have to choose a task, so let's choose a task” Lime said and that's good because it was getting depressing “actually, I suggest taking them all at once, as they are in the same place, we will all fly to the forest and then some of us will go to kill the monster and retrieve the macguffin, and the other part will set up the fence”

And so they did what she said. They all flew with one ship to reduce fuel costs and on the way they went to the hardware store to get the fence, and it turned out that the fence was on sale, and they had the calculated amount to buy the fence and now, apart from the saved fuel, they had money saved on the fence and decided that when they come back from the mission, and Captain and Rigel come back from the hospital, they'll make a cool party for all the saved money.

They flew into the forest and stopped when the GPS told them that there was a risk of accidents on the road ahead, because it meant that they were at their destination.

"Okay, time to split up" Lime announced, "who goes to the monster and who goes to the fence?"

"I'm going after the monster" said Gloster quickly.

“I'm taking the monster too” said Lukier, who maybe didn’t want to be on the same mission with Gloster, but even more so he didn't want Gloster to go on an epic difficult spectacular mission to kill a monster and look for treasure in a crashed vehicle and then brag about it when Lukier will be spreading the damn electric fence.

"I think a monster mission needs a medic more than a fence placing mission" Lawenda added.

"Then I'm going with Tawny and Tanager and we're split in half" Lime announced.

"Um... are you sure you need three people to place the fence?" Gloster asked.

“Placing the fence is a very important and difficult task!” shouted Tanager, taking the net out of the ship “what if, for example, I will be setting up the fence and Tawny will be making sure that it doesn't fall over or he will be watching if it's straight and at that moment we all get attacked by monsters but we’re too focused to react on time? Besides, there are a lot of those poles to be placed and won't be able to carry all of this at once, and I won't fly the ship to carry it, because we were supposed to save fuel. And there’s also a possibility that-”

"Okay, you've convinced me already" Gloster interrupted him and accepted Lime's decision to divide the team equally into equally difficult and dangerous missions. Tawny didn't even say a word, but he was glad that he got the fence task because he didn't want to go on a mission, but he wouldn't say he wouldn't go because he didn't want to. And setting up a fence is a task like painting a wall or mowing the grass, but it's paid the same as for the monster. So the monster team went deep into the forest to look for the monster and the fence team went to stick the poles into the ground, because this fence worked so that when you put two poles into the ground and connect them to the power source and then turned on both poles, they connect and a shock field is created between them.

The monster team was traveling through the forest, which to be honest was not very spectacular, it looked like an ordinary forest and there weren’t even any flowers or mushrooms or anything that attracts attention, everything looked the same and they probably would have got lost if they weren’t going in the same direction and to come back they would only have to turn around and keep walking in the opposite direction, which only added even more monotony to this place.

“I think if we see anything here that is not a tree or grass, it will be our monster” said Lukier because he was fed up with the boring forest and at least wanted to complain about the boringness of the forest so as not to fall asleep while standing up.

"Unless it camouflages and looks like grass and trees, too" Lawenda replied

“If it was an often traveled road and you suddenly need to get rid of a monster, the monster is probably not from here and should stand out.” Gloster noticed and nobody said anything anymore because this conversation was a forced conversation to break the monotonous silence and nobody wanted to continue it.

Meanwhile, the fence team had already placed two poles and Tawny was looking to see if they were standing straight, and Lime was looking to see if anything was trying to attack them by surprise, and it turned out that something was trying to attack them by surprise. It was a fox, but like a big monster fox and Lime noticed it only when it jumped up like those foxes in the videos where they fall into the snow in a funny way, only there was no snow here and it wasn't funny either. Lime shot it in the air and she hit it perfectly because she was, after all, the best member of Crow’s team, which meant something as opposed to being the best member of Team Thirteen. There was a bang and Tanager, who was trying to set the pole so that it stood straight, got scared and jumped and the pole fell and it was necessary to put it up again, but that was not the worst. The bang scared the birds sitting in the trees and the birds turned out to be predatory and very pissed off.

The Monster team also heard a shot in the distance, and that was the most interesting thing that happened in the last forty minutes of their journey. The monster they were hunting also thought it was very interesting and dug itself out of the ground where it was hidden all the time, which explained why they hadn't seen it before. But when they saw it, they collectively concluded that it was the scariest looking monster they had ever seen. It looked like some giant mutant mole rat, his snout resembled something you would see if you googled unsettling images, and it had a nasty pulsating red pimple the size of it’s head on its shoulder.

Lawenda and Lukier stared at the creature like deer in headlights, wondering if they were really prepared to fight something like that. After a short while, they heard another shot behind their backs, but louder, and at the same moment the pimple on the monster's shoulder exploded and the monster fell dead on the ground. They turned around and saw Gloster with a sniper rifle aimed at the monster, and now they were staring at him like idiots.

“Er... are you okay?” Gloster asked because it was getting weird

“How-… How did you know?” Lawenda finally asked

“What, where to aim? Come on plz, haven't you ever killed a boss in a game?”

“Okay, let's go look for that crashed flyer” said Lukier, who snapped out of being scared and surprised, and started to be pissed off because what the hell. He almost died on a mission the day before and had to come up with some almost suicidal plans to kill the monster with its own weapon and he had two nervous breakdowns in a few hours, and now there’s some Gloster who's been away for a year and one-shots the target of the first mission they went on together.

Meanwhile, the fence team was fighting a fierce fight with the birds that had been charging at them since Lime shot the fox. Birds that then got scared by Gloster’s shot also flew to the fence team because when other birds were flying there, the rest of the birds thought that enemies must be there and did not care at all about the existence of the monster team.

Tanager wouldn't abandon his mission under any circumstances, and while Lime and Tawny shielded him, taking out the incoming waves of enemies one by one, Tanager ran with the poles and pushed them into the ground. Once they had a few poles set up, they plugged them in and the birds started to fall into the electric grid and fry like flies in an electric trap and Tawny found it much cooler than watching flies dying in the electric trap, it was more like a spectacular firework show.

On the other hand the monster team was still walking through the boring forest and they were looking for this crashed vehicle and they couldn't find anything, so they decided that when there was no monster in the forest that could knock their ship down anymore, the best way would be to go back to the ship and just fly over the forest and search for their target from above. But at that moment they were no longer on the straight path as before, they couldn’t just turn around and go in the opposite direction in order to go back to the starting point. Now they had to take out the phone and check where they are on the map and it took them a long time to connect to the Internet because the signal in the middle of the forest was shitty, then it turned out that Lukier had a badly calibrated compass on the phone and they argued with Gloster about where north was, until finally Lawenda took out her phone with a properly calibrated compass, and it turned out that north was not in any of the directions that Lukier and Gloster were pointing.

When they got back to the ship, they found the rest of the team portioning meat from the killed birds, because if they already killed so many it would be a waste to leave them, and Tanager knew how to frame the bird, so he taught Tawny and Lime because they only had so much to do after the mission was finished.

“Oh, you're back!” Tanager exclaimed as he saw the monster team return from killing the monster “how did it go?”

“Great.” Lukier replied sarcastically and Tanager didn't catch it because he was himself.

“That’s awesome, it was a bit difficult for us, we should have split up the team a bit differently because frankly we could use more people when I was putting up the fence surrounded by waves of enemies, but we managed and now we have a lot of food for Puszymir and for us too!”

Lukier and Gloster felt a bit silly for rushing on a monster mission and the monster mission turned out to have one difficulty star and the fence mission had more. In fact, Lukier felt twice as stupid because Gloster had one full kill without assistance, even if it was an easy kill. Statistics don't ask if it was easy or not. Lawenda was indifferent, and she just wanted to go back to the ship and do the final part of the mission and go home, but that didn't happen. Tawny went to look for the crashed vehicle himself, and the rest of the team continued to pluck the killed birds because Lukier told them to save on meat for Puszymir. Eventually they returned to base and it turned out that the entire mission took about three hours but to them it felt like they spent at least three days there. Along the way, Gloster told the others how the killing of the monster went, and even though everything he said was true, Lukier was a bit upset about him saying it, because generally Lukier is always upset when Gloster says anything.

“Actually you know what, Lime? I feel like going on one more mission.” said Lukier as soon as they entered the base, because he decided that he also wanted a kill today. Normally, he was happy about the successes of his colleagues, and for three years he hardly bothered that his team was called the worst, but after this mission he felt that his honor had been tainted and he needed to fix it.

“Today we did three missions at once and there is still a lot of day left and I think Captain will be happy when he comes back and hears that we broke the record of missions done in one day, if there's a section like that in the statistics. And if there isn't, there should be and we will be the reason why they’ll add it” Lukier continued.

“I appreciate your enthusiasm Lukier, but I think everyone is a bit tired now.” Lime replied

“Tired? Pff who's tired here? I'm not, and Gloster doesn't look like he is either. You're not tired, are you?”

“What? Uhh no?” Gloster replied confused

“See? we're ready, give me the mission board.”

“Geez, okay, if you want it so much, uhh…” Lime looked at the board “there is some mission, but I say right away that it is for those willing and against my instructions, because if something happens to one of you and Crow will find out that it is because I dragged you through four missions in one day, she will relegate me to painting the fence and mowing the grass.”

“That's great, let's go”  Lukier said and Lawenda then took him aside and asked

“Are you okay, Lukier?”

“Yeah, I said I want to break the mission record in one day.”

"Sure, suddenly you're starting to care about the statistics?"

“Fine, I also want to take that fucking sniper rifle from Gloster and play Russian roulette with it” admitted Lukier

"Your arms are too short to reach the trigger" said Gloster, who had also overheard the conversation.

“Gloster, please don’t go on this next mission” Lawenda asked, hoping that if Lukier was the only person willing to go, he would let it go.

"I'll go" said Gloster, and then Lawenda said that in that case she will also go, because the two of them wouldn't be able to do it, and especially these particular two would probably hunt each other sooner than the monster.

The mission they voluntarily went on was to collect a package from a monster in the canyon. Because the monster stole the package from the courier, not because it was sending the package because monsters don't send packages. Normally, no one would consider it a life-threatening situation requiring the intervention of the monster-hunting team, but the customer to whom the package was supposed to arrive paid extra money to display this mission on the board. No one else wanted to go, Tanager agreed to give them a ride and then pick them up after but not to be on the mission because he had to unpack the meat he brought from the previous mission. On one hand, it was a bit annoying that they were dropped off at the top of the canyon and had to go on foot to look for a package in the canyon (which sounds very stupid when you say it out loud) but on the other hand, Tanager has just learned to fly and flying in the canyon with him as the pilot could probably prove more dangerous than walking.

“This is a very stupid mission and we will probably come back with nothing”  commented Lawenda “Who even let the board be littered with some parcel retrieval missions?”

"Oh come on, a mission is a mission, we won't be saving the world every time" replied Gloster

“Okay, but how are we supposed to find a box in a great canyon full of nests of various monsters that might as well…”

“There it is, in the distance it’s hanging on a stick illuminated by sunlight like an item to be picked up in a game” interrupted Gloster who just happened to glance through the rifle scope while Lawenda was talking

“No fucking way. Show me” said pissed off Lukier and also looked through the scope and it really was as Gloster said. “Damnit,is this a joke?”

“Okay, it looks like we're very lucky and your record-breaking plan will somehow work out.” Lawenda added

“Mm. Okay, I'm going to get it.” Lukier jumped off the rock and walked towards the glittering collectible in the distance.

“Umm... alone?” Lawenda shouted to him

“Yes, it will be faster that way.”

"Okay, then I'll cover you" said Gloster.

“I can handle it.”

“Well, maybe you can, but I won't stand and look idly.”

And Lukier went there because he didn't want to argue, but to finish this mission already because he just started to regret taking it in the first place. He regretted even more when some lesser lizard-monsters emerged from among the holes in the stones and ran towards him with probably unfriendly intentions. But Lukier said he could handle it and he wasn't lying. He managed to shoot the lizards and Gloster wasn’t slacking off either, but he managed to only hit two or so because Lukier was faster by spraying into a group of monsters with PM, which made Lukier happy because he equaled the points in this mission. The lizards that were not shot escaped from the sounds of the other lizards being shot and the road looked clear so he continued downhill because it was still quite low and far away compared to where the rest of the team was waiting for him. When he was approaching the nest in which the package was lying, or rather hanging on a branch, the lizards attacked again, only this time by surprise and at the moment when he was passing through the narrowing between the rocks, so he couldn't react quickly enough because they immediately jumped right on him. But they didn't try to eat him, just stole his weapon, probably just like they stole the package from anyone who was carrying it back then, and then escaped back into the cracks between the rocks. Lukier was reluctant to say on the radio that he would take the cover offer after all, but luckily he didn't have to, because Gloster spoke first.

“Damn sorry that I didn’t help, I didn’t want to accidentally hit you in this crevice. Lawenda is on her way to you and has my handgun so you can defend yourself too. Now come out of these stones so that I can see you better.”

Lukier felt that Gloster was at the top of the table again in this mission and he didn't like it a bit, especially since this time it wasn't even that Gloster had done something right, but that Lukier had screwed up and lost his gun. But in this situation, he really needed support and he would not argue, so he stepped back a little and waited for Lawenda to reach him and share her weapons. To his surprise, she gave him her PM, and she kept the handgun herself.

“Don't you need this?” He asked

"I guess it'll be more useful if you take it."

“What? Why do you think so?”

“Hush, accept the gift and come on.”

And they went together to the crevice one more time and the lizard jumped on Lukier once more, but was immediately grabbed by Lawenda by the neck and brutally thrown to the floor, after which Lawenda executed it by smashing it’s head with a single shot as it was stunned for two seconds. After this macabre action, the rest of the lizards decided to stay in the rock and keep quiet.

“Thanks, that was a very spectacular ass saving” said Lukier, a bit surprised, and then he approached the nest that had the package in it. Now he was reassured that Lawenda would save him spectacularly in the event that something jumped on him for the second time. It turned out, however, that it can be a bit problematic as the package was in the middle of the nest and walking in the canyon compared to entering the nest is a bit like walking through someone's unfenced lawn vs entering someone's bedroom at home and the residents reacted adequately to the situation. The lizards got out again, only this time with intent to murder, not steal. On the plus side the space was larger than the crevice in which Lukier had been robbed earlier, so he managed to react in time. He grabbed the package and then he and Lawenda both started to run from the nest, shooting at the lizards a little blindly. Gloster did not get involved in the shooting this time and Lukier got pissed off and Lawenda was worried, but now there was no time to talk on the walkie-talkie because they were running away and shooting at the same time and still holding the parcel, which by the way made their escape going slower than normal, and shooting less accurately than it should.

“Lawenda, take the package and run, I'll  try to slow them down because this way we'll shoot half of the ammunition into the ground and they will catch up with us anyway” Lukier shouted and threw the package to Lawenda. Lawenda didn't object because, first of all, there was no time for it, and secondly, it sounded like a quite logical idea.

Meanwhile, or rather a few minutes earlier, Gloster watched his companions from afar, ready to fire in an emergency but suddenly a lizard monster came from behind him like a spy from team fortress, and bit him in the shoulder. It wasn't big, but it wouldn't let go, and Gloster saw its fellow lizards approaching him as well, and he didn't have any short-range weapons with him because he gave his handgun to Lawenda. After three seconds of reflection, because he didn’t have more time, he decided that he had to run away, so he tore the lizard off his shoulder in a not very delicate way, which only enlarged the wound, and then jumped on the nearest rock pole with a relatively flat tip. The lizards tried to jump after him but did not reach and fell down. Then more lizards came and began to desperately climb the pole and would probably be able to reach Gloster (who by the way now had nothing to defend himself with because the rifle was left on the cliff) if not for the fact that the top of the column was wider than the base. Moments after that, Lawenda ran far enough to see what was happening to Gloster.

“Gloster, why aren't you saying you're hurt?” she asked over the walkie-talkie

“Lukier said that he can handle it, I didn't want to disturb you in speedrunning the mission”

"Don’t fucking piss me off" Lawenda said impulsively, which was the sharpest thing she said at work so far. "What am I going to do now? How am I supposed to help you? I only have your gun and Lukier is busy.”

Lawenda had a big dilemma about what to do, because if she started shooting at the lizards or came closer, there would be a good chance that they would attack her, and she would not be able to defend herself from the whole hoard with just a pistol. On the other hand, Gloster was injured, and their time was running out, because Lukier wouldn't be able to block the wave of monsters coming from the nest forever.

"He can handle it" Gloster replied, clearly mocking Lukier once again.

"Can you stop turning serious situations into a joke? It doesn't help and we're wasting time.” Lawenda was pissed off

"Wow, for the first time it's nice to hear anyone other than me say it" Lukier cut in on the conversation through the radio

“You also shut up Lukier. What do we do?”

"If you have the package, call Tanager and let him pick us up" suggested Gloster’’

"Oh yeah, you're finally talking on point" Lawenda replied, and she did call Tanager, but it still didn't help much in their current situation.

“Let’s hope Tanager won't be getting here so late that there's no one to pick up anymore.” said Lukier “The lizard hoard is thinning a little, I'm slowly getting closer to you, so Lawenda, you can try… oh fuck, never mind” Lukier cut off and before they could ask what happened they had time to notice and hear what happened. A larger lizard monster happened. And that giant lizard monster apparently noticed the smaller lizards and thought that if dinner came out of their hidey hole and now runs around freely, it will not waste such an opportunity. Good news was that probably thanks to the bigger lizard, the number of small lizards decreased. The bad news was the fact that the large lizard would be as eager to eat a human for dinner as it eats small lizards. Lukier stopped shooting and started to run away, Lawenda also finally took the risk and started climbing the cliff where they started their expedition with the rope they had left for Lukier. In keeping with her fears, some of the little lizards who were trying to climb the Gloster pillar without drawing conclusions all the time began to chase her, but luckily Lukier was there just in time to help keep them away from Lawenda. Now Lawenda was sitting on the cliff, Gloster on the pole, and Lukier was still standing down there with a great lizard running towards them. Lawenda was about to take Gloster's rifle and finish it off, but it turned out that the small lizards under the pole looked tastier than Lukier and the monster started to bite them first. In that case she jumped onto the pole to patch up her bitten friend who at that point looked awful with almost all clothing soaked with blood.

Lukier also took the opportunity and climbed the cliff and noticed that the fight between a large lizard and small lizards is quite fierce. The scales tipped in the small lizard’s favor, which had a single target and attacked the large lizard as a group, which wounded it pretty well.

"Lukier throw me my rifle here" Gloster shouted as Lawenda patched him

“Lukier don't do this" Lawenda shouted as she patched Gloster

“Why the hell not?” Gloster protested

“Because your hand will fall off when you pick it up, don't try to act tough now and don't move.”

Gloster wanted to reply that it was nothing and he was not in pain at all by this serious wound that he could bleed out from, but at that moment the giant lizard screamed its last dying scream and fell bitten by an army of little lizards. For a split second, everyone thought that the problem was solved, but it turned out that there were two new problems in place of the solved problem. The first one was that the lizards were no longer engaged in fighting each other and the team was targeted again, and the lizard army now had a huge monster corpse to use as a staircase. The second problem was that the dying monster had to call for vengeance with its last cry, because now two more began to roam somewhere in the distance, this time from the cliff side.

Lukier first took care of the more pressing problem and started shooting the lizards climbing the corpse to the pillar on which Lawenda continued to patch Gloster, and they were both vulnerable at the moment.

“Damn, get off this pole, I have one magazine left!” Lukier shouted and reloaded, and when he reloaded the lizards had a few extra seconds to climb, so Gloster, against Lawenda's medical recommendations, broke away and stood up to at least knock them down. Lawenda got pissed off that he wasn't listening to her again and pulled him on his uninjured arm and made him sit on his ass while she took care of the lizards. And Gloster, instead of sitting on his ass, jumped back onto the cliff because when he got up anyway, it was better to go to safer ground. But the ground couldn't be safer for a long time because another giant lizard was approaching. Gloster ignored Lawenda again, grabbed his rifle, took aim, and to absolutely no one's surprise, missed. Now Lukier was getting a little embarrassed that he was counting non-existent points in the him vs Gloster table all the time, because at this point Gloster would fall to the bottom of the table, but from the two options Lukier would prefer if Gloster was at the top of the table than bleeding out in front of his eyes during the time when a huge monster is walking towards them. And then he realized there was a huge singular monster, and there were two of them before. And then he realized that the other huge monster was behind him because it had just emerged from the bushes and pinned him to the ground. Lukier tried to shoot it blindly, because the hand in which he held the gun was still free, and Lawenda felt as if she was facing a choice like from a telltale game where she has to save one friend or the other, only that in the telltale game the friends would shout “aaa I'm dying help please” And those two just kept telling her that they can handle it and that didn't help at all in assessing the situation. Lawenda didn't even try to waste her breath anymore and waste time on any thinking, because no one ever answered her seriously or listened to her anyway, so she just grabbed the rifle from Gloster, who was trying to reload with the last of his strength, reloaded for him and fired it from the hip to that closer monster that would probably have eaten Lukier in a few seconds if Lukier hadn't fed it with his last magazine first. Then she turned back to the lizard in the distance and fired some missed shots. Gloster started to whine something there, but she silenced him and fired a few more times until she finally hit it and the last big monster fell. At that time, Lukier dug himself out from under the corpse of the lizard that collapsed on him and it turned out that he was also badly battered. He had all his clothes torn and everything under his clothes too, and he was all beaten up from being knocked over on stones and from the monster falling on him.

"You're both insane" Lawenda began to speak as they made sure they were in a safe position now, and she could continue patching up Gloster, who at that point was holding on to his consciousness only by sheer willpower.

“What?”  Lukier and Gloster replied simultaneously

“Don’t ‘what me!’ You don't think it's painfully obvious what you mean? One wants to show the other how persistent he is. And it’s only because of your moronic rivalry you’re both seriously injured on the mission to retrieve a goddamn package of some rich man who could afford to buy a slot on the quest board.”

“I almost survived untouched to the end” protested Lukier

“This isn't a competition, Lukier.” She replied with seriousness and confidence worthy of Crow and Lukier shut up.

A moment later, Tanager flew to the site and was terrified to see the condition of his colleagues, so he declared that he would quickly fly them to the base so that Lawenda could continue to medicate in better conditions, and he would return the package to the client himself.

At the base, Lime spat out the coffee she was drinking when she saw their condition, but congratulated them on completing the fourth mission anyway. Lukier asked her to check if there was a record of missions in one day in the statistics and said she would check, but before he got an answer, Lawenda dragged him and Gloster to medbay to continue the repairs.

“You look like you fell into a meat grinder and your arm is twisted”  Lawenda diagnosed him professionally. “Is something else happening to you that I can't see but you didn't tell me because your pride wouldn't let you?”

“Okay, I understand now that it was stupid, stop yelling at me. Nothing else is wrong with me.” Lukier said with the look of a beaten dog and Lawenda stopped being so angry.

“I just don't know how to talk to you two. You don't listen to me, you act like you don't take me seriously, and I feel like I’m the only person that was on a mission to actually do the mission. No offense.”

“None taken. If it wasn't for you, not only the mission would fail, but we would've died there” replied Lukier “and ‘the one who died in the mission to recover a parcel’ is not how I want to be remembered.”

Lukier saw that Gloster wanted to say something, but he didn’t want to say it in front of him, so Lukier asked if he could come back to his own room and left, because, firstly, Lawenda deserved an apology from Gloster as well and, secondly, he was tired of being in one place with Gloster for the day.

"I also want to apologize for effectively preventing you from saving my ass." Gloster said when they were alone “Now that I think about it, both teams would be in deep shit if I died on a mission with three people who went without any captain, because the replacement captain of the captain that another captain called asked to borrow a replacement captain.”

“Well, they probably would. And the worst thing would be that you would fricking die.”

“Nice of you to say that, and I thought you didn't like me”

“Oh. I'm sorry if I sound like that. It's just... I said I don't know how to talk to you guys to take me seriously. The truth is, I think I'm some kind of third wheel rookie here that nobody asked for and I don't know how to behave. Rigel and Lukier seem friendly, but I feel the rest of them would kick me out at the first chance they get.”

“You can always apply for a transfer. They moved me like that.”

“But it's not that I don't like this particular team, I have nothing against them, they are just so close and probably not ready for a new member. But when I go to a completely different one, I will probably feel the same, only worse because I already have two friends here and in the new one there will be only unknowns.”

“Come to mine, almost everyone is new there, and you already know us.”

"It's... not a bad idea." It's just a pity that I didn't think about it before they took the other medic from thirteen.

“Don't worry about it too much, if you leave, thirteen will get someone else in return. Or at least that's how it was when I moved, with this new system it may work differently.”

“Well, recently they transferred Frezja without anyone's consent and I doubt that it will be so easy, and certainly not to a specific team that I choose.”

“There has to be some way to do it. Ask Captain about it when he'll get back from the hospital”

"It's going to be a little awkward telling him I don't want to be on his team."

“No, he will understand, he's a cool guy.” Gloster said, and there was a silence in the medbay for a while and then Lawenda continued

“Actually, you are also a cool guy, you are not as bad as Lukier paints you.” Lawenda wanted to ask what actually happened between him and Lukier, she heard some scraps of information about Lukier's dead girlfriend but she had no details or Gloster's perspective on it. But despite everything, she restrained herself because she thought it would be inappropriate if she was so nosy.

Meanwhile, Lukier was sitting in his room and Rigel came to him to ask him what was wrong with him and why he did what he did, but Lukier chased him away because he didn't want to talk about it. Soon after Rigel left his room, Lime came to him to ask what was wrong with him and why he did what he did and Lukier couldn't chase her out of the room because she was a substitute captain.

"Lukier, do you know what will happen now that you went on the mission alone and two out of three people were seriously injured?"

“We are not seriously inju-"

”Rebuke. Rebuke, Lukier. I'm going to get a rebuke. Which leads to you, too, getting a rebuke from me now. You could have died"

“Okay, I know, I've already had a reprimand from Lawenda, you don't have to say the same thing as she did. Better tell me about this table in the statistics you were supposed to check"

"There is no field for the record of missions in one day."

"There is no field for the record of missions in one day?"

"No. And back to the topic, when your Captain comes back, I hope that- "

"Damn, can you send a request to add one?”

"Lukier, are you even listening to what I'm saying?"

"Well, I listen to that about stats and the rest is so-so"

"Jesus, you're starting to act like Biel" Lime shook her head "I hope if you take over his role, he will get smarter and talk to you because I think you would listen to him even if he told you to jump off a cliff" Said Lime and Lukier rolled his eyes

"I did wrong, I put two people's lives at risk and we almost all died because of me, sorry, I regret it, can you now leave the yelling to Biel and answer my question, mom?" Lukier half-mocked, and it wasn't his style, but everything he'd been doing lately wasn't his style. It seems that the presence of Gloster in the base, combined with the absence of Captain made Lukier mentally turn into a rebellious teenager. He was somewhat aware of this and felt a little uncomfortable inside. Lime sighed and then told Lukier what he wanted to know because she had no idea what else to tell him in that rebuke, she wasn't good at rebukes.

"If you want, I can send a request for this table so that your crazy mission like with a shovel on a dragon will not be wasted"

"Yes do that, thanks" said Lukier politely and Lime left.

Lime sent the above request and to her surprise the headquarters said that it was a great idea because it could increase the frequency of doing missions and thus reduce the number of monsters on the planet more, so this column appeared in the statistics, and thirteen was displayed at the top of the list when you checked  'the most completed missions in one day' and it will probably change very quickly, but it doesn’t matter at the moment, just seeing 13 at the top of the rankings anywhere even for a short while was satisfying.