Day 3, Dentist. The boys are fighting crocs and need a hand.

Underedited, even for me.

All the good things belong to MonolithSoft.

"Hang on, I gotta empty my boot." Mathias matched his words with deeds, plunking himself down on a rock and stripping off the offending gear. He tipped his chunky boot. A trickle of brackish water poured out. "Nice. It's less than last time."

"Come on," said his companion, his tone crossing the border into whining. "We're running out of time." He shifted his assault rifle from hand to hand.

Mathias looked up from unlacing his other boot. "I wasn't the one that ignored a time-sensative mission."

"I was busy this week," Gwin snapped back at his friend. "Irina asked me for help with a grant proposal."

"And you dropped everything to sit and nod during the meetings. Typical." Mathias retied his boots, stomping his feet in the squishy turf. "Look, I hate to say this, but you're going to need a specialist."

"I can't afford three teammates."

Mathias ignored the fact that Gwin would have replaced him if he'd had the credits. "You just need one. When I said specialist, I meant it. What you need is the Dentist."

Less than an hour later, they were ready to fight with their new teammate. Gwin had been worried that their call wouldn't be answered, but apparently this guy fought one thing and one thing only. He didn't go anywhere but Noctilum, this hex sector specifically. He was taciturn and emaciated and frankly a little disquieting.

"Is his vest made of dilus teeth?" Gwin whispered to Mathias. Mathias only rolled his eyes and readied his rifle.

The Dentist ignored the comment, and pulled a chunk of something raw and dripping out of a pouch on his belt. He lobbed several pounds of raw ovis meat into the lagoon.

The water churned as several dilus swam to the surface. Long and jagged backs, thrashing tails, and gaping mouths full of bright teeth slammed around as the monsters fought for the meat. They made the largest Earth crocodile seem puny, and yet these were too unimportant for The Dentist.

Gwin and Mathias fought off the swarm, eyes darting to the empty lagoon. The last animal subdued, the water was as smooth as before the fight. The water exploded. The Dentist's patient had arrived. Launching itself from the depths of the water, a dilus tyrant shot into the air. For a moment, its full body was visible. Then it landed on its powerful squat legs and roared.

Gwin had to admit, the Dentist knew his stuff. He had positioned himself on the exact point of the shore where he could still fight without accidentally having to swim. Gwin wished he could learn that trick himself. It looked like the Dentist had punched the croc in the face with his knife, the plucked out a row of vicious teeth like a string of beads. All he was sure of was that the dilus was dead and they were one win closer to the quota.

"Again?" was all the soldier said.

a/n: I didn't have time to discuss the backstory of The Dentist and the breeding habits of dilus, and most importantly THEY ARE NOT FIGHTING SHELDON, THE DENTALLY CHALLENGED because I mixed up my tyrants and didn't want to rewrite the whole thing.

Moving on. Next up: Forward. Drop a suggestion/dare and see what happens.