Groar!

  The wyrm's cry rumbled through the ground, causing the plants to twist and twitch around us. Then, in a massive explosion of speed, it crashed through the forest, downing countless trees as it moved to cut us off.

  Tristan sped up beside me. "It's so fast!"

  "Damn it!" Vral growled. "Running isn't working!"

  "Look at that thing..." Na-Ya slowed a bit as she pointed to the northeast. "It's massive."

  She wasn't wrong.

  The trees were a bit thinner here, allowing Tristan's light to cut through the forest... and allowing us to see much more of the monster than we could before.

  The wyrm was long and slender with forest green scales that grew darker on its underbelly. Its tail ended in a wicked point, and its head was large and clearly dragonic, with the thick horns, large teeth, and heavy scales that anyone from Earth would recognize. Attached to its head was a thick neck and a half-formed torso, with two smallish T. rex arms protruding from its shoulders, but it had no legs. From nose to tail, it had to be over fifty feet long, and it was at least ten feet wide in its thickest sections.

  As I took the monster in, a wave of hopelessness washed over me.

  How the hell could we beat something like this?

  I tried to push the feeling away, tried to grit my teeth... but despite my best efforts, my hands were starting to shake.

  Slithering across the ground like a giant snake, it covered far more ground than it seemed like it could, given its size. In seconds, it wove through the trees and nearly cut us off.

  In a flash, Ro's sword was in his hand.

  [Wind Slash]

  A wave of translucent energy shot from his sword's edge and cut through the monster's flank.

  As it did, Vral was a blur as she darted across the battlefield, throwing daggers in her fingers. Her hands flashed, and a half-dozen daggers struck the monster's eyes. While doing no damage, they seemed to push the monster back a bit.

  "Keep it up, but don't engage!" I shouted. "Keep pushing west!"

  Vral snarled, but she changed her direction after a few steps.

  "Ark!" I shouted.

  "Boss?" She shouted from nearby. "What do you need us to do?"

  "We can help!" Grort growled as he jogged up to us.

  "I need you all to stay near me. I can only keep you safe if you stick with me." My arm stung as I gave them my orders.

  Her red eyes locked onto mine. "Okay. We can do that."

  "Yeah... got it, boss." Grort frowned as we ran.

  "We're going to keep heading west." Something in my gut told me that Fluffy was leading us to where we needed to go.

  She hesitated before saying, "If we keep running like this, we'll hit Velmire by tomorrow afternoon. Maybe even morning with how fast we're moving. Do you want to get that close to the Black Ears?"

  "If that's what's out there, then that's where we're going." It was what it was.

  With a nod, she shouted, "You heard the boss, boys! Let's move out! We're going home!"

  Klart, Frik, and Lutz all erupted from nearby bushes and began running west.

  Nearby, Na-Ya's staff flashed as she chanted a long chant.

  [Revealing Light]

  The massive wyrm's body began to glow with a pale ethereal light.

  "That'll help us keep eyes on it," She panted, then started running.

  The wyrm, which had begun glowing a ghostly purple color, rumbled. Then, its tail pulled back before snapping toward her.

  [Intercept]

  The world blurred around me. One second, I was beside Tristan and Vral. The very next, I was in front of Na-Ya and Ro, shield raised. A fraction of a second later, the massive pointed tail slammed into my shield and threw me off my feet.

  Ro caught me before I could fly away, then slashed the air with his sword.

  [Wind Slash]

  Another wall of wind shot off his blade and cut through the air before striking the wyrm in the neck.

  The wyrm jolted backward. A single scale fell from its neck and onto the ground.

  Grooooaaaa!

  Another of the wyrm's groans rumbled through the ground. In response, the plants around us began to twist and writhe. It made my skin crawl.

  "Run west! Through the thickest trees!" I yanked Klart and Frik off their feet, threw them onto my shoulders, and ran with everything I had.

  With every stride, I inwardly thanked Renard for all the days he made Tristan and me run from sunrise to sunset.

  ***

  Together, we ran to the west for hours. I had no idea how long we ran for, but by the time dawn was beginning, we'd crossed countless miles and an entire ecosystem, transitioning from dense forests to wet, humid lowlands. All the while, the wyrm was never more than a dozen yards away and doing everything it could to get to us.

  Several times throughout the long night, it tried to fly overhead and cut us off, but we'd managed to use the terrain and dense forest to our advantage. Due to its massive size, the monster struggled to keep up with us until we'd entered the open lowlands. That's when we'd taken some damage. Still, we'd done well at keeping it off of us by jumping from grove to grove.

  Luckily, while we were all getting more and more exhausted, by the time we hit the lowlands, the wyrm was starting to slow down, too. It wasn't able to stay in the air nearly as long as it had before, and it hadn't used its magic or breath weapons at all since dawn had started. Instead, it was keeping its distance and using rocks and trees to pick us apart.

  "It's got another boulder!" Na-Ya pointed at the western sky.

  Looking up, I saw the wyrm was starting to rise into the sky yet again. The early dawn light sparkled on its green-and-brown scales, making them look like patinaed brass up in the sky. In its hands was a massive stone that was easily four times my size.

  "Na-Ya!" Tristan lifted her mace. The mace's head began glowing with pure white light.

  "On it!" Na-Ya raised her staff, which glowed the same color.

  Together, the priestesses chanted in the Goddess's tongue in strong, if tired, voices.

  [Holy Light]

  [Holy Light]

  Twin beams of blinding white energy erupted from the tips of their weapons and streaked through the air. They struck the boulder in the center, shattering the stone to dust, and continued, striking the monster in the center of its abdomen.

  Grooaaaa...

  The monster's cry was low, pained as it fell out of the air. Catching itself before it hit the ground, it redirected, flying farther away from us, to the west. Then, with a loud thump, it landed on the top of a thin stone outcropping and let out an irritated call. Settling into the spot, it dropped its head low and glared at us with its twin emerald eyes.

  "I'll stand guard." Ro walked forward, toward a low, ruined wall that formed a barrier between us and the shallow marsh that marked what I could only assume was the border of Velmire. "If it moves, I'll do everything I can to slow it for you." With those words, he walked up the wall, crouched behind a cracked section that allowed him to see the monster, and drew his sword.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Grateful he was taking first watch, I waved for everyone to hide behind a nearby boulder. One by one, they made their way to me. As they did, I kept my eye on the thing, making sure it wasn't trying to trick us into a false sense of security. Luckily, it was breathing heavily, and its wings were drooping in exhaustion. It wasn't going anywhere, at least for a bit.

  Relaxing a little, I took the area in. There were large, angular stones dotting the landscape as far as I could see. All around them, small, stunted trees stood at crooked angles. Small walls and the shells of old buildings were everywhere, especially out in the marsh, which began about a hundred yards to the west and extended out to the horizon. What I thought was a stone outcropping the wyrm landed on wasn't actually an outcropping. It was actually an old, crumbling tower that jutted out of the marsh. The stonework was clear even from the distance we were at.

  Far in the distance, to the west and a little north, there was a massive tree that split the horizon. It looked like an oak tree, but one that was scaled up about thirty times. I wondered if that was where Fluffy was taking us. Far, far beyond that, one of Reial's outer towers, the Tower of Stars, if I remembered Reial's geography right, was just barely visible as a white line cutting through the sky.

  "Damn..." Ark groaned as she limped to a stop beside me. "I got got."

  Turning, I assessed her condition.

  It wasn't good.

  She'd gotten clipped by a large branch a couple of minutes before, leading to her arm and shoulder getting wrecked. She'd have died had I not jumped in the way and taken the brunt of it. Even with my resilience, [Unbreakable] had been the only thing that kept me alive.

  When she noticed me looking her over, she frowned and said, "We can't take much more of this, boss."

  "I know." I pulled one of Kasimir's green potions, the same ones that let the goblins regenerate from anything the day before, from my belt and handed it to her. "Here. Take this."

  Her eyes narrowed on the potion. "Why would you do that for me? Those are expensive, and I'm nothing but dead weight out here. Keep it for yourself."

  I pressed it into her good hand. "Because you're hurt. Plus, the girls need all the mana that they can get. I can't risk them using magic to heal you this time." They'd already healed us a dozen times throughout the night. They were running on fumes.

  Slowly, she shook her head. "I don't understand you people..." Taking the potion from me, she uncorked it, but before she placed it to her lips, she asked, "You sure you don't want to keep it for yourself? You all are stronger than we are by far. You could use it to—"

  "Drink it." My voice was harder than I meant for it to be. That made my arm itch terribly.

  Her eyes went wide, and with a jerk, she threw the potion back and swallowed it in one gulp. Immediately, the bones in her arm and shoulder began popping back into place. "Dark Father's sweaty asshole..." She groaned and teetered as the bones in her hand began cracking into place.

  Holding her steady, I said, "You'll be okay. We've got you."

  Grort stepped up and took her in his arms. "Are you okay, Ark?"

  "Yeah, I'm getting better all the ti—" Her words cut off abruptly, and her eyes bulged as one of her ribs cracked into place. "Fuck... I didn't even know I broke those..." She gritted her teeth when another rib snapped back into place. Then, she glared at me. "Boss, I saw your arm snap back into place after you saved me..." Her red eyes assessed me. "Are you immortal or something?"

  I laughed. "No, just unbreakable." Pointing to the nearby marsh, I asked, "Do you know where we are?"

  "The edge of Velmire, at the eastern border of the marsh of silent scre—" She winced as another rib snapped into place. "Screams."

  "We've never been here before. We crossed into Calvareth farther to the south." Grort shook his head. "This isn't a great place."

  "With that name, who would have guessed?" I laughed, patted their shoulders, and stepped past, toward where the others were gathered. Aside from Ro and me, who were both still alright courtesy of our [Grit] talents, and Vral, who was a machine, everyone else looked ruined. Na-Ya and Tristan both were pale and had dark rings under their eyes, Frik was nursing a bad wound on his side, and Klart was already face down on the ground and snoring, despite all of the very intense danger we were in.

  Once I reached the center of the group, I said, "The monster's getting tired, too, everyone. Let's take a quick breather. Then, we can figure out what to do next." As I spoke, I handed Frik another one of the potions. That left me with three, and only one of them was green.

  "Thanks, boss." Unlike Ark, Frik took the potion and threw it back in a single swallow. In seconds, the large gash along his ribs knitted shut.

  "Big guy." Vral trotted up to me. "I'm going out to scout. I want to make sure we don't lose track of that thing." She ran a hand through her messy hair. "Okay?"

  "Sounds good." I leaned forward and kissed the top of her head. "Be safe."

  "I will." She gave me a small smile, then turned and ran to the northwest. A couple of seconds later, she passed over a small hill and disappeared.

  "Alex..." Tristan squatted and put her head in her hands. "I know this might be the best shot at taking this thing down, but I don't know if we can do it. I'm completely spent."

  "I am, too." Na-Ya sat next to Tristan. "I can cast one, maybe two more spells. After that, I feel like I'll need a month to recover." She exhaled. "I'm beat."

  Pulling the two unknown potions from my belt, I handed Tristan the yellow one and Na-Ya the blue. "Are either of these mana potions?"

  Tristan took it and closed her eyes. "I don't feel any condensed mana in this one, but I can tell it's strong, whatever it is."

  Na-Ya closed her eyes, then immediately opened them again. "This one's a mana potion." Uncorking it, she drank half, then handed the rest to Tristan. "Here, let's split it."

  Handing the yellow potion back to me, Tristan took the half-full mana potion and finished it. The color returned to both of their faces.

  "Wow," Na-Ya breathed. Flexing her hands, she whispered, "Even with only half of that potion, I feel nearly restored."

  "Yeah!" Tristan stood up. Holding her hand out in front of herself, a large globe of light appeared in her palm before she closed her palm again, causing the light to vanish.

  Holding the yellow potion up so I could see it better, I noticed small glowing wisps swirling deep in the liquid.

  "That's a stamina potion." Ark walked up to my side, looking as good as new. "At least, that's what the old mage said."

  "Good to know." I uncorked it and took a sniff. It smelled like cloves and rubbing alcohol. "You all don't happen to have any left, do you?"

  Shaking her head, she stuck a finger in one of the empty potion slots on her belt. "I'd already used ours by the time you found us."

  "Mine broke when I exploded," Grort added as he walked up to us.

  "I see." I looked down at the pair. "In that case, we'll be using this one." Plugging my nose, I threw a small amount of the liquid back. It burned all the way down to my stomach, but the instant the stuff settled, I felt my body warm. My sore muscles loosened, and my aching feet ached a whole lot less. Once the potion's effects died down, I was left feeling like I'd used a discount [Second Wind].

  Holding the potion out to Tristan, I said, "Drink up. It'll help."

  She nodded and drank a portion of it, then handed it to Na-Ya, who did the same.

  Just then, Vral reappeared next to Ro, then ran down the hill until she was beside me. "The wyrm's starting to move."

  Na-Ya handed her the potion and said, "Drink."

  "Leave a little for Ro," Tristan added.

  "M'kay." Vral swallowed her portion of the potion, then looked at the vial. "Huh, that stuff's not too bad."

  Tristan and I snorted.

  "Alex." Na-Ya stepped forward and leaned close. "I know you won't want to hear this, but now might be the time to consider heading back to the temple." She gestured at everyone. "Even with those potions, we're barely holding on out here." She nodded back to the treeline. "If we sneak back that way, eventually, we should be far enough away from this thing that you can use [Recall], right? If so, let's get Ark and the others back to the temple, heal a bit, then come back out here when we're fresh." Looking at me with those sapphire eyes of hers, she continued. "What do you say? Are we going to keep on and risk getting hurt, maybe killed, or do we cut our losses and fight another day?"

  I thought for a few moments, but my heart was already made up. "If we leave now, there's no guarantee we'll find this monster again. And even if we do, how much damage could it do before we're ready to find it again? Plus, even if I wanted to, I'm not sure we'd be able to get away from it enough to use [Recall]." As a precaution, I'd tried to use it a few times throughout the night when I thought the wyrm was far enough away, but it always said the same thing. "Plus, we just used Kasimir's potions. If we don't take advantage of them now, when the wyrm's tired, we'll lose this entire opportunity."

  "I agree with Alex." Tristan stepped close. "The monster is weak now. It can barely fly. And, for as much as it whittled us down last night, we did just as much damage to it. If we head back, we'll lose that momentum. I'd rather stay and fight. I don't want to leave this quest undone."

  "We don't even know if this monster is part of our quest." She looked over her shoulder and gazed at the wyrm, which was still resting at the top of the tower. "What wyrm saves livestock, avoids people, and turns monsters into crystals?" Her voice lowered further. "I'm not so sure this monster has anything to do with what's happening in Goodfield."

  That wasn't something I'd considered. Ever since the wyrm had appeared, and it matched the tracks Frik had found, I'd assumed things were connected. I'd been doing too much assuming lately, and I kept getting things wrong. I needed to work on that. "That's all true, but this is still a powerful monster. Now that it's morning, I think we have to try to do what we can for the people of Istaera." Quest or not, it was the right thing to do.

  Tristan grabbed my hand and squeezed. "I agree entirely." Her jaw set. "The duty's fallen onto us, so it's on us to see it through."

  Na-Ya nodded. "Then that's what we'll do." She pointed at Ark and her party, who were in various states of exhaustion. "It may be our duty, but fighting the wyrm isn't theirs. What are we going to do with them?"

  Before I could answer, I heard a nearby bush rustle. Drawing my sword, I watched as a small furry figure emerged and ran to me.

  "Ru ri!" Fluffy, who'd leapt off my shoulders and disappeared a while back, came running up to us from the south. Skidding to a stop a few feet away, and started growling and yipping at me.

  "Hey, little buddy." I crouched down. "Where have you been?"

  "Yip!" Fluffy turned and did a full-body point, the way dogs did, to the southwest.

  Following where his nose was pointing, I saw what looked a whole lot like an old cobblestone road, one that was raised relative to the marsh and surrounded by mid-sized stone walls. "Is that a path west, Fluffy?"

  The little critter stood on its back legs and wagged its feet at me. "Ri ri!"

  Reaching down, I pet its little chin. "Fluffy, we have something we need to do, so we're staying here for now." I nodded to Ark and the others. "Even though I know you don't love them, can you lead them to wherever you've been taking us?" I squatted so that we were eye level. "Can you take them to someplace safe?"

  Fluffy dropped back onto all fours and looked at the goblins. For a long time, it stared, and the wheels turned behind its eyes. After a time, it dipped its head and let out a single, "Ri..."

  "Thank you, Fluffy." I pet his head and stood back up. "I'm grateful." Turning to Ark and Grort, I said, "We're staying here to fight the wyrm. When we do, I want you to follow Fluffy. He'll guide you to somewhere safe."

  All five of them looked at me like I'd lost a few screws.

  "Like hell he will!" Ark yelled.

  "We can fight, too!" Grort pumped his arm. "You'll need us!"

  "Yeah, don't look down on us!" Klart screamed.

  Lutz and Frik looked at Klart like he'd lost his entire toolbox.

  "No." I felt my arm burn. "Follow Fluffy. When we've beaten this thing, we'll find you. Okay?"

  My command pushed all of them a step toward the little creature.

  "I don't like this," Ark murmured.

  "It'll be okay. We'll find you after the fight." I gave them all my best grin. "For now, let me keep you safe. You've done enough."