“So I think the echo came from right over there.” Alliot points off into the distance.

  At the end of his point, there seems to be an orange wyvern. Sophie takes out a spyglass and looks through it. There she sees the subject that her emperor had set her out in pursuit of.

  “That’s it! That’s Krosstetch.” Sophie says to the party.

  “Alright.” Malo cheers.

  “So, looks like we found the damn thing.” Alliot says. “Ordinarily I would like to avoid further confrontation with it, but-”

  “OH SWEET MERCIFUL GODS! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME!!!” a voice screams in the distance.

  The party looks on as the distant figure blows another blast of fire from it’s mouth and more screams are heard.

  “Yeah, I feel like going in there are doing some saving of lives.” Alliot says. “Kinda just a thing I want to do.”

  “Same.” Bron says.

  “I can go for some monster slaying.” Linda says.

  “I’d like nothing more than to stare down that monster’s gullet when it breathes fire.” Malo says.

  “Alright. Let’s get going.” Alliot says. “I'll drop by first. You guys catch up when you can.”

  Alliot rolls his shoulders and begins to take up a fighting stance.

  “Property Damage Style: Downtown Jump Kick!”

  Alliot shoots out from the face of one mountain and cuts through the air by thrusting his foot out in a side kick. He darts through the air like an arrow weaving through two mountains to either side of him. When he draws closer to his target, he adjusts his trajectory in mid air. Soon enough, his thrusted foot collides with the side of Krosstetch’s face. The warped wyvern violently jerks it's head and recoils from the high velocity jump kick. Alliot kicks off the wyvern and lands on the ground. The sound of the impact draws the attention of what few survivors remain.

  “Good afternoon!” Alliot says. “I’m a resident adventurer, and I was hoping you would stop doing the whole killing people thing. Would you mind?”

  The wyvern responds to Alliot’s question with a tail swipe in his direction. Alliot leaps over it and runs in to close the distance. Krosstetch uses that same twisting momentum it used for the tail swipe to pivot into a claw swipe. This catches Alliot in mid air, during his leap. Alliot is forced to try and block this attack in mid air. He brings up his left arm and left leg in a bid to protect his torso. Krosstetch’s claws sweep across and leave his arm and leg with a few painful and deep cuts.

  Status: Injured

  Left Arm Cut Severity 2

  Left Leg Cut Severity 2

  “Damn it! Already?” Alliot cusses.

  Krosstetch winds up another tail swipe at Alliot. When the tail comes down, he manages to dodge this one too, but this time it is a clumsy leap back and there is no counterattack to follow up on after the dodge. Krosstetch rears up on it’s hind legs and swipes at Alliot with it’s fore legs. A flurry of blows comes at him with alarming accuracy and precision. Not one of these blows are a miss or aiming for where someone would predict him to be. Each strike is aimed at where he is and if he doesn’t move, he will be struck by a monster easily a dozen times his size and weight class.

  With an injured arm and leg Alliot manages to dodge the barrage of claws aimed to cut him. However, he is only dodging and not making any progress to winning this fight. If he wants to win a fight, he needs to hit back.

  “Property Damage Style: Tower Crusher!”

  Alliot finds a moment where a claw comes for him. Instead of dodging like he had done up until now, he braces himself to challenge the might of this monster with his skill. With his unharmed right arm, he throws a punch to battle the claw of this wyvern. When the fist and claw meet, Alliot’s fist breaks one of the claws to Krosstetch’s 3 pronged fore leg. Alliot followed up with a normal attack. A hook kick after his broke the claw. Unfortunately, this kick did nothing without the power the system granted him through the use of skills.

  After throwing several dozens of precision strikes and missing all of them, Krosstetch opens its fanged maw and blows a spray of fire breath out at Alliot. The adventurer has to duck and roll out of the way to avoid the flames. However, the warped wyvern isn’t done. It literally shuts it’s mouth. Where a spray of flames once coated the area, a focused jet of flames shoots out of Krosstetche’s elephant like trunk. A highly concentrated jet of fire shoots out and waves at Alliot. It does not flail wildly. The movement of this trunk shooting a jet of flames is direct, precise and focused. With this new focused beam of fire, it catches Alliot in the arm.

  Status: Injured

  Left Arm Burn Severity 1

  “Ow! Same arm! Same arm!” Alliot shouts.

  Alliot violently waves his cut and burned arm in a bid to put out the fire. With the battle becoming fiercer than he was anticipating, Alliot sets himself to use one of his trump cards against this foe. Krosstetch violently takes off in the air. It remains in the air to beat it’s wings a handful of times before it dives down onto Alliot bearing it’s fangs and claws. As Krosstetch begins it’s descent, Alliot slips a ring onto his finger. It is a clean bronze ring with a gen inlaid into the piece. Moments before fang and claw reaches him, Alliot vanishes. He reappears above the wyvern’s head and raises his leg.

  “Property Damage Style: Crater Axe Kick!”

  Alliot’s heel slams into the top of Krosstetch’s head. The wyvern’s head slams onto the ground and it’s chin strikes it with enough force to throw dirt up into the air. The soft dirt had been packed tight using the wyvern’s chin and formed a small crater where it was struck. Not satisfied with landing such a clean hit, Alliot lands and pumps his left leg so that he can flow through and throw out another kick with his right leg.

  “Property Damage Style: Flaring Lamppost Crescent Kick!”

  Alliot’s leg bursts into flames and slams into the side of Krosstetch’s head. The wyvern’s head violently jerks after the impact and Krosstetch recoils from the blow to the head. Alliot steps in to try and extend his combo. When he does, a sharp pain flashes across his hip and legs.

  “Aeh! Ah!” Alliot winces in pain.

  He falls to his side and scrambles onto his knees. Krosstetch is also not in the best form. It violently whips it’s tail and it gets startlingly close to Alliot. He sees the horrid tail of arcing towards him. Alliot clutched the ring on his finger and vanished. He reappeared a room’s length away from the tail swipe still kneeling. Alliot tries to stand again. The pain flashes again and he winces in pain. He takes a heavy breath before trying again. He acclimates to the pain and manages to stand back up again.

  “Aufff! Fighting you is a pain in the ass.” Alliot says under his breath. “Alright. Let’s see about knocking you into next week.”

  At Alliot’s words, Krosstetch shakes off it’s minor concussion. It beats it’s wings and takes to the air. From a lofty height in the air, the wyvern spews out fire from it’s mouth. Alliot sloppily dodges the flame breath without issue. Then Krosstetch shoots out fire again from the air. The wyvern stays in the air and rains down fire from above. As it is out of his range, Alliot can only dodge the fire breath.

  “Ah, damn it.” Alliot says. “What am I supposed to do now?”

  Krosstetch continues to spew fire down onto Alliot. All Alliot could do was helplessly dodge the streaks of fire raining down on him. Thankfully, Krosstetch was interrupted by a talking raven.

  “Do you like your eyeballs mild or spicy?” Borp the raven says.

  From Borp’s talon, it throws chili powder into Krosstetch’s left eye. The wyvern wailed in pain and horror from having spicy powder tossed directly into it’s eye. As Krosstetch wails and flails wildly in the air, the party catches up to Alliot.

  “Hey! What are you doing jumping and rolling around on the ground like that?” Bron asks.

  “Hey, you try punching a bird too. See how well that goes for you.” Alliot shouts back.

  “Well, we’re here now.” Bron says. “Keep your shirt on. We’ll get the blasted thing.”

  “Frost Ray! Lightning Bolt!”

  Malo points his two wands at Krosstetch. A beam of ice and lightning lances out at the wyvern and leaves some minor wounds.

  “How does that taste, you scaly elephant bitch?” Malo shouts. “Gust Blade! Water Arrow!”

  Malo conjures rapid winds and an arrow of water to strike at the wyvern this time. Unfortunately, Krosstetch had no intention of being struck by magic again. As the spells make their way to Krosstetch, it gives a loud roar. Both spells vanish in the wake of the wyvern’s roar.

  “Daow! Fucking hells!” Malo cusses.

  “It’s fine.” Linda says. “See how support spells work with that thing.”

  “Got it.” Malo says.

  Malo points both his wands at Linda.

  “Haste! Enhance Leap!”

  Magic envelops Linda and her legs burn with a surge of power. Backed by Malo’s magic, she leaps up into the air. She gains great height with her leap. High enough to reach Krosstetch. She crashes and grabs onto the wyvern and grabs onto a leg with both her arms. With enhanced speed, she hoists herself up and onto the wyvern’s back. Krosstetch gives another great roar and the magic that once graced Linda vanishes. Still, that’s not enough to dissuade Linda. Now that she is on it’s back, she grabs onto the wyvern’s wings and, with her muscles, locks them in place. Unable to flap it’s wings, Krosstetch starts to fall.

  “Oh shit.” Alliot says. “She’s bringing the big guy down.”

  “I’m not done yet!” Linda shouts. “Supreme Pile Driver!”

  The falling wyvern starts falling faster. It falls at a greater speed than terminal velocity would normally contribute. Using a skill, Linda creates a thrusting force down faster than what would normally be possible. The wyvern hits the ground hard and the impact tosses dirt up to form a crater.

  “How did you like that, you scaly bastard?” Linda says with a mocking tone.

  “Damn girl! You messed ‘em up.” Alliot says.

  “Is it dead?” Malo asks.

  “Well, we can always stab it a bit to double check.” Bron says.

  “I scored some points with the science boys down by the bowling alley.” Borp says.

  “I- I don’t know how to interpret that.” Malo says.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Despite the blow, Krosstetch struggles to get Linda off it’s back and manages to reach a clawed fore leg around it’s back and swat at Linda like she were a bug. Linda leaps off before the claws could cut into her. Linda lands in the dirt that is steadily coming undone the longer this battle continues.

  “Gods, damn it. How tough is this son of a bitch?” Linda shouts.

  “Dude, I don’t know.” Alliot says. “I think the furthest I got was giving the guy a light concussion. Not sure how much that counts for monsters, or wyverns this big.”

  “Has it bled yet?” Bron asks. “There’s this theater line I’ve been saving for such an occasion.”

  The party looks the monster over. There is no visible damage to the wyvern. No blood. No bruises, however that looks like on wyvern scales. Nothing that notes that the monster was harmed throughout the battle so far.

  “I’ve taken a fair bit of damage, and my body is reaching it’s limit.” Alliot says. “So far, my normal attacks haven’t been able to hurt the thing. Only my skills did any damage.”

  “As a level 62 martial artist, you’re probably the strongest here.” Bron says.

  “If you can’t do anything with normal attacks, then we can’t either.” Linda says.

  “We need winning moves here.” Malo says.

  As the party speaks and stare down this monster, the imperial princess Sophie Razneck steps up behind them.

  “I suppose it would do well to lend you all my aid.” Sophie says.

  Krosstetch sprays out another breath of flame. Sophie rushes ahead of the party and a massive shield appears in her hand. She slams it down into the ground and the fire parts before the face of the shield. When the breath of flame subsided, Sophie picks it up and throws it at Krosstetch. The shield surrounds itself with a white light as it spins through the air in Krosstetch’s direction. Krosstetch hops over the spinning shield. The shield spins off into the distance until everyone loses sight of it in a wall of fire that Krosstetch made earlier. The sound of metal striking wood rings out beyond the wall of fire. After a time, the shield shoots out of the wall of fire into Krosstetch’s back. The shield vanished after landing it’s blow on the wyvern.

  A musket appears in Sophie’s hands and she swiftly lines up a shot before firing at Krosstetch. The musket ball punctures the wyvern’s scales. It finally bled. For the first time in this fight, it bled. Krosstetch beat it’s wings and began to take to the air. Sophie tosses her musket aside and it vanishes. Where the musket disappears, a whole canon appears next to her. She strikes the fuse with her bare hand and the canon’s fuse is lit. She kicks the cannon and it points a bit above Krosstetch, automatically accounting for a drop in the trajectory of the cannon ball. The fuse meets the black powder charge and the cannon recoils as it launches a cannon ball striking Krosstetch in the stomach. The pain and shock of being struck by a cannon ball stuns the wyvern and it falls back to the ground.

  “Wow.” Alliot says.

  “She’s making our fight look like a joke.” Linda says.

  “Those were all normal attacks too.” Bron says.

  “Is her weapon swap trick a spell or a skill?” Malo asks.

  Krosstetch stammers to it’s feet and lets out a mighty roar. Despite the roar, a massive two handed sword appeared in Sophie’s hand. When the roar ended, the blade of this sword was wreathed in flames. She charged at Krosstetch with her sword ablaze and swung upwards at the wyvern. Krosstetch roared again. The flames that once adorned Sophie’s sword vanishes in the face of the roar. While the wyvern’s vocal cords still shake, it moves a fore leg up and catches Sophie’s blade with it’s bare claws while the sword is arcing up. Sophie releases the sword and it vanishes in the wyvern’s grasp. While the roar continues to bellow, a spear appears in her hands.

  “Heavy Thrust!”

  Sophie thrusts the spear’s head into Krosstetch. The spear tears through the wyvern’s scales. While the spear struck true, the spear head isn’t that large and in comparison to Krosstetch’s body mass, this spear point is as effective as a pin prick is on a career warrior. This, of course, is not enough to dissuade Sophie or the adventurers.

  “If it can bleed, we can kill it!” Bron says.

  “Yeesh. How long were you sitting on that one?” Malo asks.

  “A good while.” Bron says.

  Sophie backs away after she fails to land a fatal blow. Krosstetch uses this opportunity to shoot another breath of fire. A boomerang appears in Sophie’s hand and she throws it into the encroaching flames. The boomerang begins to spin with a magical force. A faint glow surrounds the boomerang flames part in the face of this magic weapon. The boomerang cleaves through the flames and strikes the wyvern in the jaw.

  “Oh! There’s an idea.” Sophie sneers. “If it’s spitting fire, it can’t roar. If it’s roaring, it can’t breathe fire.”

  In Sophie’s left hand, a glistening shield of the purest white metal accented with silver and blue jewel appears. In her right hand, a shimmering white broad sword with a gold handguard. However the handguard and pommel of this broad sword have empty grooves that seem to imply that gems are to be inlaid in them. With both in hand, she charges at the monster.

  Krosstetch lunges with the claws on it’s fore legs. Sophie blocks it with her shield. The wyvern then follows up by performing a backflip. With the backflip, Krosstetch’s tail swings upward right into Sophie. The mace like tail slams into her shield too, but the force is enough to knock her into the air.

  “Oh shit!” Sophie cusses as she is sent flying

  Krosstetch lands and spews it’s fire breath from it’s mouth. It aims it’s attack for the mid air Sophie. With the threat of a fiery death, Sophie uses one of her skills.

  “Advancing Guard!”

  Sophie is suddenly thrusted into the ground and standing on her feet. The spray of flames misses her in the air, but the wyvern swiftly shoots it’s breath downward and at Sophie once again. Sophie bears the flames with her shield. The sword vanishes from her hand and a golden magic staff with the appearance of three snakes twirling at the top with colored orbs in their mouths appears in her hand.

  “Keep spitting like that. I’m about to remove a molar from that mouth of yours.” Sophie snickers. “Rock Blast!”

  A stone the size of a horse is conjured above Sophie and shoots out at the wyvern. It arcs up and over the stream of fire. A sure hit in the making. Krosstetch stops spewing fire from it’s mouth and roars. The stone the size of a horse vanishes. Sophie drops her shield and staff. They both vanish into the air. In their place, a massive axe appears in her hand. With a blade in hand and in the face of an ear piercing roar, she rushes in for a killing blow.

  “Heavy Slash!”

  With the power of her skill, she slams her axe into the wyvern’s fore leg. Sophie releases her grip on the axe and it vanishes. Her staff appears in her hand again.

  “Abyss Cannon!”

  Magic coalesces in Sophie’s staff as a spell is primed. And it swiftly vanishes. Krosstetch is still roaring. With it’s roar, the magic she intended to use vanishes like many before it.

  “What? You’re still roaring?” Sophie stares up at the monster. “Fine!”

  The staff vanishes in Sophie’s hands. In it’s place, a zweihander appears. As the wyvern resumes it’s roar, a jet of flame shoots out at Sophie. From Sophie’s side, Krosstetch’s trunk aims at Sophie and a jet of focused and pressurized fire blasts into her. With both the roar and jet of fire, Sophie is blasted away and tossed to the ground.

  “Augh! Shit!” Sophie yelps in pain.

  Her armor is covered in fire and she had received a number of burn injuries.

  “Malo, douse her.” Alliot says.

  “Got it.” Malo says.

  “Property Damage Style: Street Wide Devastation!”

  “Conjure Water!”

  Malo tries to conjure water to douse the fires burning Sophie, however Krosstetch is still roaring. No water is conjured.

  “Fuck me! Why is this thing shutting me down?” Malo cusses.

  Alliot moves with blinding speed. He leaps over the wyvern’s jet of fire slides beneath on the ground beneath it’s stomach.

  “I got it. Just give me a second.” Alliot shouts.

  From his sliding position, Alliot leaps up and performs a rising punch right into Krosstetch’s torso. Both the wyvern’s fire breath and roar are cut off from the impact.

  “Try it now!” Alliot shouts.

  “Conjure Water!”

  This time, Malo magically conjures water without issue. Meanwhile, Alliot moves with great speed, but lacks the strength to definitively land a killing blow.

  “This is getting us nowhere.” Bron says.

  “We’re getting our ass beat more than the wyvern.” Linad says. “It’s taking hits. Same as us. The problem is that it has a lot more strength and vitality than all of us combined.”

  “We need a game changer here.” Malo says.

  “I am the game changer.” Sophie says.

  After being doused in water, Sophie stands up. She doesn’t struggle to stand up as one would expect, and the various burns to her body don’t seem to be troubling her or slowing her down.

  “I can beat this thing.” Sophie boasts. “I’m not going to roll over and die the first time some asshole sprays me with fire.”

  “Are you sure?” Malo asks. “At the rate we’re going, we’re done for in a matter of minutes.”

  “Then I’ll finish this in a matter of seconds.” Sophie says.

  “Here I come to save the day.” a distant and familiar girl’s voice calls out.

  “Oh? Ren finally made it.” Linda says.

  Off in the distance, Ren is waving to the party while riding on the back of a monster that looks like a giant pickle with eyes on 4 legs. There is rope loosely draped around it’s snout, but tied tight around it’s neck. Ren’s arm is still in a sling, but otherwise she doesn’t look any worse for wear.

  “What in the world is that thing?” Sophie asks.

  “A boil grigos.” Ren says. “I found it a while ago. Then I got to go places.”

  “Wait, aren’t boil grigos, like, super dumb or something like that?” Malo asks.

  “I- I don’t know. This is the first time I’m encountering one.” Bron says. “What does it even do?”

  “Uh, they have, like, crushing jaws. Some thick hide too. I think that’s about it.” Malo says.

  “That- that’s not a lot.” Bron says. “I was expecting a monster to do a bit more than that.”

  “Cool.” Ren says. “Go.”

  Ren points at Krosstetch. The boil grigos slowly marches behind the wyvern. It then bites down on Krosstetch’s tail. The problem is that it’s tail has a lot of spikes that make it dangerous. Despite this, the boil grigos bites down hard on it. So hard that the spikes puncture the inside of it’s mouth and through it’s head. The tail spikes stab into the boil grigos’ head and seemingly kills it. It’s body goes limp and Ren is knocked off it’s back. She tumbles onto the ground without a hint of emotion. Ren sits up and sees that the boil grigos still has a bite onto Krosstetch’s spiked tail. The jaw locks in place and grips the wyvern, even in death.

  “Well… that was… something- I don’t want to say it was something.” Malo shakes his head at his own words. “There’s gotta be a better word for it.”

  “Delightful? Courageous? Dumb?” Linda suggests some choice words.

  “All of the above.” Malo says.

  Krosstetch tries to back away from Alliot. It’s attempts are thwarted when the body weight of a boil grigos slows it’s movements. Alliot takes this chance to perform an elbow strike onto the back of it’s head. The wyvern then tries to backflip into a tail swipe aimed at Alliot. With the boil grigos still clutching onto it’s tail, it is remarkably slower to attack the speedy martial artist. Alliot handily dodges the slow backflip.

  “I’ll take whatever help I can get.” Alliot says.

  “Okay.” Ren says. “I’m going to stab it and save the day.”

  Ren produces a musket from her extra dimensional space beneath her cloak. She clumsily rests the musket on her arm cast and lines up a shot. With such a big target, Ren could fire without aiming too much. She fires and manages to hit Krosstetch in one of it’s hind legs. A small bead of blood drips down from the wound she inflicted.

  “Try harder, dumbass.” Sophie says.

  In Sophie’s hands a pair of pistols appear. She fires them into the wyvern and two more gunshot wounds appear on the wyvern. Sophie tosses both her pistols aside and they vanish into thin air. Ren was still clumsily trying to load her own musket with one working arm. Seeing this, Ren hides away her musket behind her cloak. She then draws a knife from her belt.

  “Dark Step.”

  Ren dissapears before reappearing on Krosstetch’s back. Alliot was already there to drop a kick to Krosstetch’s back.

  “Woah! Ren! Be careful!” Alliot shouts.

  She tries to stab into the wyvern, however her dagger bounces off of it’s scaly hide.

  “Move it! Both of you!” Sophie shouts. “Whirlwind Slash!”

  She had two daggers in her hands. She lept up at Krosstetch’s face and stabbed the wyvern between the eyes. While the blade cut through the scales, it failed to pierce the skull. The dagger failed to pierce the wyvern’s brain, but that was not Sophies goal with this strike. Sophie performs a spin slash all along the length of the wyvern’s spine. Alliot and Ren have to leap out of the way as the spin slash continues down the length of the wyvern until she reaches the dead boil grigos at the end. A line of cuts extends the length of the wyvern’s back. The wyvern’s blood drips down with each cut.

  “Woah! Watch where you’re swinging, princess bloodthirsty!” Alliot shouts.

  “I told you to move!” Sophie snaps back. “This wyvern isn’t going to capture itself. So I’ll be taking it away. I don’t need you louts slowing me down.”

  Ren emotionlessly stares at Sophie. She then uses her dagger to cut the string holding the sling to her neck. Then she cuts the bandages and wood keeping her left arm in place. There is still a light swelling to her arm. Ren grips her arm and there is no issue with her left hand’s function, on the surface at the very least. Ren then stows her dagger and takes off the training weights tied to her wrists and ankles. They thunk to the ground and once no one was looking in her direction, she stowed them away with her skill as a great thief. She then rested a hand on the hilt of her katana and began reciting a haiku.

  “Blade flashing, steel drawn.

  Your blade sang first, feel cold light.

  In a blink, you die.

  Form 1: Flash”

  Ren draws her katana and closes the distance between herself and Krosstetch in the blink of an eye. She brings her sword down on one of Krosstetch’s hind legs and the blade cuts. Not as deeply as the various wounds Sophie left on the wyvern’s back.

  “Hah! What was that?” Sophie chuckles to herself. “Don’t tell me that’s all you got?”

  Ren stomps her foot down to steady her stance.

  “Feathers grace the sky.

  Winged hunter, fly unmatched.

  Swallow guided blade.

  Form 2: Swallow Dive”

  Ren swings twice. Once downward and again upward. Both of these cut deeper than her first form, but still not as deeply as Sophie's Whirlwind Slash. Krosstetch lifts it’s hind leg and swipes at Ren. She is forced to leap away from the impending claws.

  “Hah! What? Are you trying to show off?” Sophie mocks Ren. “I didn’t take you for a warrior poet.”

  Sophie holds out her hand and a pure white halberd appears in her grasp.

  “Let me show you how it’s done.” Sophie says.

  She winds up an overhead swing aimed at the wyvern.

  “Descending Lightning!”

  From the sky, lighting strikes the head of the halberd. Sophie swings down with the enhanced power and arcing lightning. This too cuts Krosstetch deeply.

  “Well, would you look at that?” Sophie starts to mock. “Your teeny tiny cuts are hardly noticeable. You gonna leave such baby stab wounds all day?”

  Ren does not make any motion with her face. Instead she responds by rushing Krosstetch.

  “Your guard, crushed and split.

  Heavenly divide descends.

  Split helm tells your tale.

  Form 3: Helm Splitter”

  Ren follows up with her own overhead swing. Blood sprays out in the blade’s path. Still, when comparing the two downward strikes, Sophie’s blow cut deeper and drew more blood.

  “Still trying to play catch up?” Sophie sneers.

  Ren takes up another sword stance. Sophie drops her halberd and holds out her hand for a new weapon.

  “Cut upon the wind.

  Beyond my blade, you shall fall.

  With my steel, you die.

  Form 4: Blade Wave”

  “Mach Acceleration!”

  Both Ren and Sophie lay into Krosstech the warped wyvern with their various skills and weapons. Meanwhile Alliot, Bron, Linda, and Malo stared at the two competing to leave grievous wounds on a monster.

  “Holy shit!” Alliot says.

  “Are they the monsters?” Bron asks.

  “Maybe.” Malo says.

  “Hey, the girls gotta show each other who’s on top.” Linda says.

  “Look upon the line.

  At the place where sky meets earth.

  Sweep away my foes.

  Form 5: Horizon”

  Ren moves to swing her sword, but then everyone hears the sound of a bone popping. Ren’s left arm falls to her side limp.

  “Oh.” Ren says.

  “Aw, did the little baby’s arm need another day in the oven?” Sophie mocks.

  Noticing a moment of peace where neither of these girls were slashing and cutting into it, Krosstetch the wyvern rushes off higher into the mountain. The process is very slow as the wyvern needs to drag a a boil grigos’ corpse along with it, but the bloodthirsty ladies seem preoccupied by their little argument. The brow of a giant mountain monster still rests along with barrels of explosives leaning against the skin of this monster. Still dripping with blood, Krosstetch beats it’s wings and takes flight. It lightly hovers above the ground and prepares to spew a breath of fire.

  “Wait, has that pile of powder kegs always been there?”

  Krosstetch sprays it’s fore breath into the collection of powder kegs. A tremendous explosion shakes the mountain face. The blast obscures all vision of the mountain’s peak. The wyvern that lit the explosives begins to fly off. To the untrained mountaineer’s eye, it flies off in some direction that the party cannot discern. More importantly, the ground beneath everyone rumbles and softens while their feet and weight rest on the ground.

  “Ah shit!” Alliot cusses.

  The party leaps from trees and stones that come undone as the ground shakes beneath them. As Ren joins in the party’s leaping, she slides off a tree trunk and begins to fall. Thankfully, Sophie is there to catch Ren by the waist and hoist her up.

  “Am I going to have to save your ass all day?” Sophie says.

  The party manages to find some safe ground to rest on. The party leap onto the safe ground and turn to observe their surroundings. There they see a monster larger than they could have ever imagined. A literal mountain sized monster rolled in response to the massive black powder explosion. Rather, as it stands up it shows that it is the size of a mountain while lying down. Standing up, it easily eclipses the mountains in size. A massive gray figure with a smooth round head towers over the mountain range.