The Matriarch threw its head around blindly. Moving generally in the direction of the hunters but making a meandering path tearing through its own ranks of rats and sliding as it lost any semblance of control over its massive weight and momentum, moving into the path of one of the other matriarchs.

  As the Matriarchs collided, there was a thunderous crash and crack, massive horns splitting piercing the thick plated armor of the blinded matriarch. The second matriarch had driven itself nearly all the way through the first. Its horns lancing through its victim’s side and driving the whole monster sideways as it continued to charge. The injured matriarch let out a screeching cry with pain and rage wrestling and trying to pull itself off of the other matriarch's horns but finding itself completely incapable of doing anything as the second matriarch drove it towards the hunters.

  It came at them like a screeching wall, and they had to run and scatter to avoid being trampled by the nearly fifty-foot-long armored monster. As they dove to the side however they came back into the view of the second matriarch who could only just see them out of the peripheral vision and turned charging at them again.

  The Hunters' plan went out the window as they found themselves completely incapable of injuring the face of the second matriarch. Each time they tried to close in on its face, it would simply turn and charge at them, using the wall of thrashing flesh of the first matriarch as a massive shield.

  Trying to deal with the two coupled Matriarchs left them completely vulnerable as the third joined the fray. It rushed towards Lars and Myla, and while it had initially been Ozzy's responsibility, he was completely caught up trying not to get run over by the first and second matriarchs.

  Stretching his hand out to the side he summoned Frank, the bedraggled rodent popping up in a cloud of green mana.

  “What's the play boss?” Frank asked, rearing and ready to go.

  “If you can hit them from beneath, do that.” Ozzy shouted at the rat and watched him sprint off towards the charging monster.

  Watching the fight, an idea struck Ozzy as the bucking and charging monster reminded him of an earthly animal. He was keenly aware of how foolish and dangerous this plan might just be, but as it was, they were making little to no progress with the first two.

  Sprinting forwards Ozzy charged at the coupled matriarchs, which were currently heading straight for Patrick and Emil. The two hunters were busy trying to do any sort of damage to the second matriarch but had so far been unsuccessful. Each time they’d get close the monster would turn and use its fellow as a shield. The monsters thick armor plating preventing all but scratches from piling up.

  As he gained on the monster, Ozzy began running through a field of blood. It appeared the first matriarch wasn’t doing so well attached to its sister’s horns. The moisture from the blood sept into the ground, and wherever it clung Ozzy found the ground exponentially harder to navigate. It was like stepping in pure clay, only this stuff seemed to want to suck you down.

  It was so hard to navigate through the wet earth that Ozzy abandoned it entirely. Running beside the monster's path rather than directly behind it. It would make what came next all the more difficult. But, he would be hard pressed to keep up running through the bloody trail. As the monster stopped, looking around for where Emil and Patrick had gone, Ozzy recognized his chance and leapt.

  Mid-air he activated his furry form ability and slipped into his rat form sailing through the air and sending a pulse of mana into powder strike. The effect was instant and he was sent sailing 30 feet into the air like a furry missile. Reaching the apex of his journey Ozzy deactivated his Furry Form ability spending the mana required to slip back into human form as he began to fall. This trajectory was only slightly off but he was able to correct it with a couple blasts from powder strike, the explosions moving him ever so slightly in the air.

  His positioning was perfect, and with a heavy thud, he landed directly on the back of the paused matriarch.

  “Ozzy what the hell are you doing?!?!” Emil shouted, his voice a fear and panic salad.

  Ignoring Emil, Ozzy did his best to react to the immediate thrashing from the monster. Thankfully it wasn't able to do more than hop around a little bit, as the massive weight of the first matriarch trapped on its horns kept it from tossing its head and shoulders around. It only took a moment for him to get used to the pattern of the matriarchs bucking, and once he had it down, he was able to scoot forward.

  While he had ridden several horses in his lifetime, riding the matriarch felt more like straddling an explosive warhead. He could even feel the explosive contractions of muscle through the plated bone armor, and he knew intrinsically that had this monster not had the entire weight of one of its sisters on its forehead, it would likely have been able to throw him halfway across the swamp.

  Creeping forward, Ozzy listened as the monster became more and more panicked as he got closer to its face. He made it inches at a time, but his slow pace only worked in favor of the overall group, as the monster stopped focusing any attention on the two hunters that had initially been rampaging for. This allowed Emil and Patrick to leave Ozzy to his own insane devices and help Lars and Myla who were struggling with their own monster.

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  Sending a hand forward, Ozzy gripped the horn that jutted out of the matriarch's left brow. It was hard and rough, like grabbing onto sandpaper. It was perfect for a hunter trying to keep from getting a launched. Slowly he worked his way down the screaming monsters face, placing himself in between one monster and another.

  Leaning over the face and using the horns to support himself as he flipped upside down, he got his first close look at the monster's face. Its eyes widened with alarm as it saw him, and its screams grew even louder and more desperate as it bucked and shook its head as much as it was able. Exerting every possible effort to dislodge the hunter from its face and yet failing at every turn.

  Now upside down and hanging from the monster’s horns Ozzy was left staring into those glowing yellow eyes. They raged at him, pulsing with fury and unblinking hatred. Ozzy summoned his revolver. Despite the situation, he wondered if this might have been one of the few times he'd actually been able to use the knife that had initially come with his revolver. Even without it, however, he was more than comfortable getting the job done.

  Ozzy pressed the barrel of the gun into the monster's eye and felt as with a hollow pop the eye socket gave way. The barrel of his gun pushing into the monster's face he pulled the trigger. BANG. The matriarch jerked, shuddering under him, and he pulled the hammer back, sending it home a second time with another thunderous BANG. The matriarch dropped, likely having already perished with the first shot, it's biology giving out completely with the insurance shot.

  The monster went down with a cloud of dust puffing up around it, announcing its end. Perhaps sensing its own imminent doom the first matriarch, impaled on its sister's horns, began to struggle even harder. Managing to move itself, vainly in a circle, unable to pull itself off of the horns and yet dragging itself ever onward as if by some miracle it might be able to free itself.

  Even had Ozzy left the first Matriarch to its own devices, he knew it was not long for this world. The thickening trail of blood told Ozzy that much. Ozzy hopped from one monster to the next like crossing the stones of a rushing river. Leaping off of the first matriarch, he landed with a crunch on the artificially dry earth. He began moving in the opposite direction the monster was going, summoning his rifle into hand.

  Watching the monster drag its dead sister around by the horns impaled in its own body was as grisly a sight as it was relieving. It was making its way around to him now, and he stopped, raising the rifle and sighting in on the monster's face. BOOM. The round slapped into the monster's armored face. Cracking bone and sending its head into the floor but not penetrating the monstrous armor. BOOM. Ozzy fired again, striking the same spot and sending a spider web of cracks out from the bullet’s impact site. BOOM. The final round punch to the weakened armor, tearing its way through the monster's head and brain, ending its miserable death march.

  ***

  Ice spear after ice spear flew towards the matriarch’s face, shattering into hundreds of shredding fragments. With each attack the matriarch would further guard itself, preventing any harm from reaching its more vulnerable facial features by using its horns to deflect attacks and direct projectiles away from its eyes.

  Patrick helped to fend off the beast and using his massive cleaver he batted a lancing strike from the monsters longest horn to the side, allowing himself to get in closer only for the matriarch to try and pin him with one of the shorter horns that rose out of its brow.

  It was a monster perfectly versed in defending itself from core users, and it fought tooth and nail to keep Patrick and Lars on their toes. Several times it gained ground on them, pushing them back and forcing them to retreat as it tried to use its horns to push them out of the safety of Myla’s kill zone and into the slathering hordes of rats.

  Myla was only just managing to keep ahead of the influx of rats with the help of Emil who was casting spell after spell into the larger groups. Occasionally if they had a moment to breath Emil would try and cast a spell at the matriarch though nine times out of ten the spell would end up just striking one of the monster’s horns and fade away into useless motes of mana. It was a good thing the cavalry was on the way.

  BOOM. Ozzy fired his rifle at the last remaining matriarch, using one of the horns of the matriarch he’d just killed as a shooting rest. Like before the round smashed into the monster’s face, though this time hitting a little bit higher than Ozzy had intended and striking it in the forehead. Now staggering, the matriarch was ill prepared as Lars ducked under a reaching horn and sprayed a wave of freezing mist onto its face.

  Reloading his rifle Ozzy readied a second shot, waiting for Lars to get clear of the monster before shooting and aiming for the exact same spot. BOOM. The monster was much more mobile this time however, and tossed its head to the side, Ozzy’s round instead finding purchase in one of the matriarch’s long horns and nearly breaking it in half.

  Ozzy was down to his last rifle round and he was going to spend it in a way he knew would count. Waiting for the moment where both Lars and Patrick would be near enough to capitalize while also not endangering them Ozzy held his breath. Both hunters danced around the matriarch, striking at its horns and armored face with easily seen experience. They had both done this before and it was easy for Ozzy to tell from where he watched. The two men dancing in and out of the monster’s attacks and turning the fight into a game of whack-amole.

  As both hunters neared monsters face Ozzy knew the time for him to strike had come. Fingering the trigger Ozzy listened to the rifle bark as he sent a round directly for the monster’s head. The round struck home, nailing the monster in the forehead and chipping the armor. More importantly however it gave Lars and Patrick the openings they needed to get in close.

  Lars ducked under the matriarchs shaking horn and pressed against the monster’s snout. A lance of ice growing at speed into the matriarch’-s sinuses, expanding and tearing through cartilage and bone.

  Unseen to the rest of the group the ice spear ravaged the monster’s internal facial structures. Annihilating its nose, mouth, lymphatic systems, brain, and brainstem. It collapsed, sending a plume of dust upwards and into the muggy air.