Eric woke up to see Kamer looking at him like a proud father looks at his son after a marriage. He gave Kamer the classic "shoo" gesture, warding him away like he was a bug. Kamer would not be dissuaded though. He sat down in the couch adjacent to Eric and murmured with a grim face. "I would love to let you youngsters enjoy your time together just a bit more, but there is bad news. I suggest you go back to headquarters."
Eric sighs as he gently shook Mia. "Mia." Mia opens her eyes with a flutter and looked up to see Eric's face. She then noticed that she was laying on him. She stretched out before getting off of Eric, and then froze as she realized they weren't the only two in the room. She turned to Kamer and glowered at him as she walked off to freshen herself up. Eric and Kamer looked at each other with puzzled expressions before both of them shrugged it off. No one had said a single word since Mia roused.
At the battalion headquarters, there was a flurry of activity. Officers and Enlisted alike were walking at range pace as they brought papers to staff officers, and reports one after the other were coming over the net. The picture being painted to Eric before he walked into the command tent was grim. There was only one scenario that led to such activity. Loss of life. Eric sat down with the S2 OIC, and he looked misshapen as if he had stayed up all night. "What happened?" Eric asked as a private handed the S2 OIC another report, this report consisted strictly of pictures from the shadow showing a black crater. "Dragons." Was the one-word response Eric got as he looked at the pictures. "Holy fuck" is all Eric could say as he looked at the reports. The destruction spoke for itself. Massive craters were all that remained where villages once stood. Eric sifted through another report, and noticed an uptick in numbers with each page. "The alliance wasn't lying when they said these things are walking natural disasters." Eric said grimly while reading the tallies. In five days, the dragons had killed an estimated 6000 people. It was a grim reminder that the world they were in wasn't all that much different from Earth.
Milano then walked into the room, he noticed Eric, but didn't say anything about his tardiness. They had bigger fish to fry. "Alright, I want numbers and status." He began to bark out orders with each report he read. Each document that Milano read creased his forehead deeper. Finally, he turned to Eric. "Dryer, I want you to get with your partner and ask her if she knows anything about these dragons in particular. Maybe she can shed some light on who these sumbitches are. Hopefully, we can come up with an OPLAN to wipe these suckers off the playing field."
Eric listened to his orders and scratched his head before confirming his mission. "Yes sir." He says as he begins to walk out. "Oh, and Dryer, try not to come in smelling like perfume next time." Eric heard as he walked out the tent. Laughter erupted as Eric ignored the comment, knowing that any pushback was a losing battle.
Arriving back at Mia's house, Eric knocked and walked in. Mia was already poring over documents as she frowned. Eric knew that she had received intel of similar nature as the battalion had. "Do you know anything about these dragons?" Eric said as he sat down next to her. He slid the pictures the battalion had managed to take of one of the beasts over to her. She looked up at him and searched his eyes for any teasing or amusement before finding none. She then let out a sigh before going back to business. "Yes, and it's the worst kind of news unfortunately. Dragons that take human lives for pleasure and sport are all cursed by Goddess Triamal. They have the black mark of a phoenix burned into their chests, and look: these dragons all have that mark."
Eric sighed and rubbed his face. "Great, just what this world needs, a bunch of cursed dragons running around wantonly. Is there anything else?" She smiled up at him with an evil grin. "Yes, because they are cursed, they do not have the 'fire blessing' that most dragons have. They can die to fire."
Eric's eyes widened when he saw her smile. "Remind me to never piss her off." He thought inwardly as he realized what she was saying. "That's actually very helpful. Thank you, Mia." He then groaned as he looked out at the valley, realizing he had another trek to make. "It feels like I am an errand boy." He intoned as he got up. "I need to go make a report. Are we doing dinner at your place or mine tonight?" She looked up at him with a smile in response. "You can come back over to my place."
As Eric began the trek back to the command tent, he realized something new must have happened. Vehicles were moving, and engines began to roar. Something big was happening. He began to drive faster, gunning the up armored Humvee with little care in the world as to the gas mileage before parking the vehicle and running to the tent without bothering to turn the vehicle off. He knew that with activity at the base like this, he would be going right back to Freedom village. "Commander Milano!" Eric yelled as he ran into the tent. "Dryer! Please tell me you have information." Eric nods while looking around. "Yes sir, I do, but what is all this?" Milano looked Eric with a grimace and weariness evident on his face. "30,000 troops are heading this way, and what's worse is those damn dragons that caused that crater are with them."
Eric's eyes pop as he heard that number. The last time, it was a brigade with likely just around 1,000 soldiers. This time, it was thirty times that. Eric grimaced before looking at the commander. "Well sir, at least we know one thing. The dragons are weak to fire."