Luna looked back over her shoulder to see that Abraham had moved over to the next pool - fiercely concentrating on the pocket of clear air hanging above the mire.

Ahead of her, the Monstrum had already come out of the thicket to move in her direction.

The quadrapedic monstrosities weren’t tall, but unmistakably familiar. The central torso stood suspended on four, spider-like legs of thin skin and bone - wrapped tightly with external muscular filaments that pulsed and twitched, moving the monstrosity forwards.

The central mass seemed to be the torso itself - a similar creature that had launched for her closer to the town. She almost found herself wishing it was dark again so as to save her from eyeing the thin, translucent skin covering its writhing interior of tentacular growths - growths that squirmed out from where its arms should have been. It was sickening to see them writhe under the skin, only to protrude from its armpits to spread out through the air like snakes poised for the attack.

She discarded the shivers up along her back at the sight of them and reminded herself that she’d killed them before - one far bigger and far more impressive than these monstrous things. She attempted to assume the mindset of Logan who, despite his faults, was the closest she could get to their natural predator. It made sense in a manner - the flimsy construction of their slow-moving legs, as they were likely meant to be shed as soon as the beast found its new habitat in the bottom of the black pits in the mire, where they belonged.

With her hands curled tightly around the weapon, she readied herself to attack the first of them. The tentacles were long, snapping and whipping through the air, but she could easily keep her distance - for now. But as time moved on, she saw how that would become increasingly more difficult as more and more of them bled out from between the trees.

“Keep going, Abe! I’ll hold them off!” She spoke, throwing a glance at the fiercely concentrated mind-magician next to the long-nosed, empty-eyed hound she’d urged to stay at his side, just as much for his defense as for hers. Yes - this was for her, not for the Logoruum and not for Abraham. This was to be a battle for Pupper’s survival and for the continued existence of Pa’s strange habitat for hounds and, judging by the near-constant flashing of memories of discharging a rifle at these beasts, it seemed her and the symbiote were synchronized in their desire to wreak havoc.

She raised the hammer-scythe and with the flat end brought it down upon the first of the forms, laying all her strength and the weight of the weapon into the strike. Her heart leapt with equal parts adrenaline-fueled rage and excitement as she watched the beast crumple beneath the blow, crushing and bursting its legs as its spine compressed in on itself.

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The gory vines shot out from where its arms might’ve been had the thing been a human - sending red tendrils of blood and muscles firing across the mire, where they flopped around like choking fish and promptly curled up to die.

When she brought the hammer back, it was with a wide grin. This was her element. This was humanity’s element and these were the Logoruum hiding in the shadows. These beasts were meant to pounce at the unsuspecting wildlife from the pools of water, not meant to fight against any form of resistance other than a bite or a scratch.

Now… she was the Monstrum. And they were the prey.

She’d never felt more excited than when she rained blow after blow down on the creatures and watched their desperation grow fiercer with her every kill. Logan had always spoken of how they were highly organized - how they did nothing without cause or reason, but she struggled to see the same as she unleashed her havoc upon them.

In their desperate hunger, they’d shed their legs and devour their dead- sinking their tendrils into the flesh of their fallen to absorb its tentacular growths and tear through its flesh in frenzied feasts.

After what had to be her twentieth kill, she could feel how it was not only her strength that had increased, but her skill to match. The hammer would crush them and leave them broken and helpless, only to recover a few minutes later to shed their legs and continue to crawl for her - albeit with far less flesh on their already famished frames. But if she used the scythe-end to sever the Monstrum horizontally across their pectoral regions, chances were she’d never see the top-half again, as they were flung so far away by the blow that, if they ever made it back, she imagined they could do little to no harm against her or the mind-trickster.

As impressed as Abraham was with the fierce battle behind him, it took all his concentration to continue to build the steadily condensing sphere of combustible gasses. He hadn’t a clue how much he needed, but he imagined he already had quite a bit. Still, he would keep going - from this pool, to the next, then the next until they’d gotten all around the thicket.

To him, there was no failure. There was no life after tonight, as the future of all he cared about all rode on the evening’s heroisms.

He felt a surge of power as his mind strayed to his hands in Serah’s and heard her vague promise - her hinted-at desire to solidify their brief, fiery relationship thus far.

He’d be damned if he’d let her down.