The woods were a bit quiet this time around, and Scott was on full alert after he took out what looked like three stone rhinos using a ton of kicks and punches. The outside of the rhino was hard like stone, but the inside of the body was meaty like a normal rhino. His hits took a while to take out each and every one while dodging the other two, leaving him a bit sore and tired. So, he did what any person would do and began to meditate, sitting up against a tree, though he kept an ear open to listen for any predators that were in the area.

  Time passed until finally he felt a great wind fly by with a swoosh that moved the tree behind him to the point it nearly snapped the trunk. He opened his eyes to see a huge flaming bird land in front of him before sinking its red-hot beak inside of the Stone rhino’s carcass.

  Scott slowly activated his invisibility ring and snuck behind the tree while inspecting the bird as he peeked around the trunk to see what level it was.

  [Phoenix lvl 60]

  "Oh man, I'm only level Fifty five and this thing has me by five levels," Scott thought to himself.

  After sitting behind the tree for a good hour, Scott got the bright idea to follow the phoenix back to its nest. If he was lucky, maybe there would be a nest full of young chicks or maybe even a new area to explore.

  Once the phoenix had its fill, the bird took flight with the rest of the carcass in its beak, and Scott took flight and tried to stay as low as possible while following the bird for a good while. With the large bird and the carcass, the phoenix flew slow enough for Scott to keep up; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to keep up with the massive, powerful bird. He passed over a jungle and over a massive lake before finally flying over a desert full of mobs like raptors and large serpents that could devour Scott in one bite.

  Just as Scott reached the base of a massive mountain, intent on following the phoenix, his mana ran out. He landed on a ledge using his feather fall belt, needing a break after three hours of flight, which, combined with his earlier fight against the Stone Rhinos, had depleted his mana potions.

  He kept his eyes on the phoenix until it vanished into a cloud of smoke. Relying on his heat vision, he tried to track it further, only to discover his first problem: the entire mountain glowed a very bright red, and the smoke was thick with ash, making it impossible to see through.

  His second problem arose after he landed in an unfamiliar location. A massive wolf spider leapt out of the darkness with incredible speed, pinning Scott against the cliff before he even registered its presence.

  It was a desperate struggle; both of Scott's arms were pinned. The spider's head dropped, Scott moved his head to the right as its pincers slammed into the ground where Scott's head had been a moment before. Scott was in serious trouble, needing to break free quickly before becoming its dinner.

  With no mana, he had to think fast. In one swift motion, he transformed into his slimmer, faster form. Transformations didn't cost mana, and his recent training with Eve had made him incredibly fast, allowing him to change forms in about three seconds, even mid-fight. This gave him the opportunity to get loose as his body shrunk just enough for him to pull his arms free from the spider's legs and roll out to take off running towards the mountain side.

  His legs moved faster than ever, and for good reason. The wolf spider was hot on his heels, shooting webs over his shoulders that nearly hit him. Two short swords appeared in his hands as Scott dashed toward the cliff face, leaped as high as he could, flipped backward, and slashed with both swords. One blade struck several of the spider's eyes, catching it off guard, while the other, enhanced with a bit of added weight, severed one of its pincers. Before hitting the ground, he was already running again.

  The spider spun around and screeched in pain before moving after Scott once more, giving Scott a bit of distance, allowing him to transform into his beast form, granting him more strength. As the spider charged, he made his stand at the edge of the cliff. Scott knelt down onto one knee as the spider went for his head once more. This time, he brought his heavy blade up with a quick slash and sank the blade up into the bottom of its head before the other pincer pierced Scott’s shoulder as both of them flew off the side of the cliff.

  Standing in the sands of a hot desert surrounded by a few trees and one small watering hole, the crew stood before one large serpent. “Uuuuuuuuuh… Seriously snakes? Why in the Hell does the system hate me so much?” Ann said in disgust. Nearly frozen in place, Ann stood in front of a massive Cobra that could easily swallow her in one gulp.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “Just keep it busy while we get into position from behind,” David said, moving into position with the rest of the party following behind.

  With a roar, Ann grew double in size while her eyes turned a golden yellow. Two wings grew out of her back, and her muscles began to bulge out of her slender elven body. With one spoken word, “Destroy,” her blade grew in size, and yellow energy covered her great sword right before she sidestepped and used the sword to block the first attack.

  A few more blocks occurred until finally Ann yelled in a deep voice, “Come on!” All the while, she used the attacks by the serpent to charge up her blade. Each and every block made by Ann grew her blade in power, and the energy level would grow brighter into a deeper gold until finally even her sword would get too powerful for her to even handle. In turn, she had to time it just right and release the energy before she began damaging herself in the process, allowing her to get one good strike in before starting the whole process over again.

  Ann charged in after the huge serpent. As the snake recoiled after another block by her blade, moving in fast and low before the snake could react, she swung her blade forward, creating a golden light of a swoosh leaving her blade before the initial hit, cutting into the scaled armor of the serpent until she finally finished off the snake with one swing, bringing the snake to the ground with a big boom that shook the ground, revealing three more large serpents behind. Clearly, one of those serpents looked a little bit different as the shading and color was a bit brighter than the rest.

  Not only did the serpent look different on the color scale, but it was also fighting another, meaning David transformed into one and was taking one on his own. The rest of the crew were in the midst of a battle further back and from the looks of it, were barely holding their own.

  “What to do? What to do?” Ann thought to herself. “Either I interfere with David’s fight or help out on the one in the back.” With her mind finally made up, she flew past David in mid-fight and ran her blade down the side of David’s serpent and continued onto the back towards the crew, giving the upper edge to David. Ann then stopped right before the crew, knelt down, and launched herself up and over them towards the open mouth of the serpent with her sword in front of her like a spear.

  The serpent dodged as it dropped down low and spun around, making its tail slap towards the rest of the crew, launching them off to the side before leaping towards the biggest threat, which was Ann, who flew over its head. With a small bit of coil, the serpent shot up behind Ann, going for her backside.

  Just then, out of nowhere, a bird flew over in bird form and transformed into a small owlbear, knocking the snake off path while attaching some bag of sorts to the serpent’s scales and transformed once more into a bird to fly away fast.

  “Boom,” Christy said after creating some distance between the serpent and the rest of the crew.

  Once the serpent was far enough away, a huge explosion blew out the side of its scales, dropping the last beast to the ground, and Ann came sliding across the sand before bumping into one of the few trees there.

  “Good job, everyone,” Cat said before she went around checking on everyone’s health.

  David stormed over in his troll form and began shouting towards Ann, “Don’t you ever interfere in my battle ever again.”

  “David Allen? Excuse me? Did you have to use that kind of tone? And a simple thank you would have sufficed,” Cat retorted, stepping in.

  “Cat, I’m not going to talk about it with you, and I’m not going to apologize,” David said as he walked off and flew away in bird form.

  “Huh, the nerve,” Cat mumbled underneath her breath before apologizing to Ann. “I am sorry for the way he acted. He doesn’t seem himself lately, and I’m not sure why.”

  “It’s fine, I knew there was a possibility he would get upset over the whole ordeal. I think he is just tired. I mean, we have all been tirelessly traveling to get to this mountain. Let’s get moving before the sun sets and we are caught in the open,” Ann said before changing back to her smaller elven form.

  The crew collected all the supplies they could, even filling up their waterskins and barrels with fresh water, and then continued off into the desert, walking a few more hours until David reported back after traveling further north in the desert.

  He flew as fast as he could back to the group and landed nearest Cat before transforming back into his Trollkin form. “I have great news, I saw a……” David stopped mid-sentence as Cat purposely interrupted him.

  “Oh, so the news is you’re going to apologize to Ann right now and then you are going to tell me what you found,” Cat said in her little stern pixie voice, her arms folded, floating in place.

  “Yeah, I’m past that already…,” David said, trying to brush it off.

  “Huh-uh-mmmm,” Cat spoke, standing her ground and giving him the look.

  “Fine, Sorry! Are you happy now?” David said hurriedly, eager to get to the good part.

  “Good, now you may tell us what it is that has you so excited,” Cat said, now pleased with herself.

  David continued, “Okay good, because you’re going to want to see this. There is a huge hole a few miles north of here, and inside of it, I found a dungeon or the dungeon we have been looking for which is being protected by a tribe of Ogres with a few goblins in the mix, and here’s the kicker.”

  “There’s a kicker? Please do tell,” Cat said, picking up on his hype.

  “They have barrels full of monkeys,” David said with the biggest grin.

  Cat wasn’t phased by any of David’s jokes and continued on. “Well, let’s get going before the sun sets.”

  “Get it? Barrels full of monkeys… anyone?” David persisted.

  “Ha ha, funny. Let it rest, David,” Tomas spoke while walking by and swiping the magical stein from David’s belt and singing a tune. “Get your motor runnin’, Head out on the highway, looking for adventure, in whatever comes our way, …..

  “Hey…,” David objected.

  “Hey, we agreed, no drinks before a dungeon,” Cat raised her voice, eyeing both of them.

  David laughed as he snatched the stein back from Tomas and reattached it to his belt. Then he did what he always does: transformed into a bird and flew off while the rest of the crew continued north on foot into the desert, heading for their new objective, the Ogre camp.