I could see the tension in the Chameleon.

He wanted to dive forth and chew on the escaping Party members. Perhaps his plan all along, even after pretending to make a deal with us. But now he knew as soon as he moved, we would be fighting, and some of his confidence had washed away. I could almost hear the cracks forming in his ego. A powerful Guardian of the System who was meant to be almost unparalleled in power.

Now hesitating due to a couple of small humans in sparkly outfits.

Against better judgement, Tanya and Quinn were hanging back nearby. Their loyalty to our group stronger than the desire for guaranteed safety. It wasn’t ideal, but I couldn’t fault them for it. I could protect two better than twelve, so I ran with the chance of plan.

“The Siren was a lot more sure of themselves when they attacked me,” I said, my unblinking glare burning into the Chameleon still perched atop the temple. “Are you just the weakest of the Guardians?”

He growled and snuffed his nose in disgust, the dense mane around his head waving back and forth. “Goading me with your insolence won’t save you from your fate, even if you let the weaker ones flee.”

“You let them flee,” I corrected him. “Or… did you know you had no chance of stopping me? Is that why you are frozen with fear and unable to strike?”

The powers of this Guardian were odd, or at least what we knew of them. Some sort of self-correcting aura that repaired the base System layer around them, but couldn’t recreate the townspeople. The Siren had drawn me into a pocket dimension of her own that was filled with finger-esque people intending me harm. The Chameleon didn’t feel that much more dangerous than any other monster we had faced.

He was tiring of the back and forth, so we were about to find out.

“Luck has a filthy habit of running out just as you need it most, little one. You clearly are an irresponsible gambler.” Energy hummed around his body, causing my arm to burn. “Time to stop being a blight on this world.”

It would be unfair to say that I was foolish for underestimating him. Mostly because I’d given up on calling myself bad names. But I felt his movement before my eyes saw him—more than likely he had just teleported.

His claws lashed out, the large creature now beside me on the steps. Both and Ren’s shield were up as soon as he moved, and his attack didn’t slash through me. The force still knockedme back, and I stumbled down the steps and…

Stabilized myself, now in a building. The living room of one of the houses. The floor above me groaned from the weight of something, as I tried to understand what had just happened.

A forced teleport? It didn’t feel like one.

The wooden planks of the floor above burst down, and the Chameleon fell down to crush my hell-dove. I spun on my feet back outside on the street, the side of the temple off to the left. Expecting everyone else to still be standing by the front, I couldn’t see them.

[Max: Teleported too?]

[Tanya: Inside the Inn? With Quinn.]

[Wolf: oooos]

[Ren: Not teleported. The town moved.]

Ah, ten points for my protégé. It wasn’t just the ability to reset the town to a default state, but the Chameleon could manipulate all the building blocks within it. Shift them around like some manner of puzzle. That seemed pretty fun.

I turned my gaze back to the house, as the long claws of the Guardian tore the front of the building off, pulling his face through to glare at me with his bulbous eyes.

“Nice trick,” I told him, as brought up magic card. It was red, crackling critical energy. “I bet I could kill you with a single strike.”

He growled, and then I wobbled and felt disorientated. It was like the whole world had just shifted around on a dial beneath my feet. My view swished around to the right down the street before I gathered my senses and turned back.

The house was now back to how it was before, the Guardian no longer there.

Even the power in my arm that warned me of problems such as him seemed to calm. He was moving away, perhaps to one of my allies.

I cursed under my breath. This wasn’t ideal, and I would not have some upstart ruining the show at this stage.

[Max: T&Q Tele NOW]

[Tanya: Done. Stay safe.]

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

If the Guardian appeared by those two, I wasn’t confident they could survive. That sounded unfair of me, but without our support they were on the same level as most Players—and the Chameleon had killed twenty such people recently. I would never forgive myself if something happened to them.

I turned my head back to see that said monster was just down the street from me, appearing in complete silence. Hunched down, ready to pounce like a house cat staring at a bird.

“Almost had a little snack before they vanished. Will you run away scared as well?”

“Oh, no.” I smiled. “With them out of the way, now I can really go all out.”

He went to respond, but my critical card struck him on the top of the head, having dropped from the sky where my demonic ace floated. Didn’t burst him open—he was hardy. As he growled and opened his eyes again, I was standing right in front of him.

“It must feel strange being on the other side of a boss fight, huh?”

The Chameleon opened up his mouth, but instead trying to bite me, a burst of liquid sprayed over my body. By the way that it melted straight through my clothing and burned at my skin, some high-powered acid sounded correct. As my organs ruptured through my thinned skin, and my right arm split off to land on the ground, the Guardian gnashed his teeth—pleased with himself.

I stepped out of invisibility beside him, using myself. Thankfully, the System knew well enough to keep my own body safe from the attack that I had copied with . My own vomit spray covered his left eye, burning through the orb until it burst.

He screamed, and the world shunted violently. Darkness washed over me—my eyes adjusting to find that I was now in a basement.

[Max: Be wary, he is coming for one of you two.]

[Max: Left eye blinded, enraged.]

[Ren: Copy.]

[Wolf: pp p]

After I had first snubbed him, he went for the weakest of us. Once they had vanished, he came back for revenge. Humbled again, he just wanted to shift me out of the way. The appetite for further lessons rubbed away. Now he just wanted to kill.

I could be wrong, of course, and as I looked around at all the muted wood and rough stone in this darkened area, I almost hoped he would come for me again. Resilient or not, I could hear his confidence waver by the second. An egg cracking, my desire to slurp down the yolk almost a disgusting perversion. All that power for our group just dangling in front of us.

Hanging around down here wouldn’t get me what I wanted. I went for the stairs, pushing up through a trapdoor that took me into a kitchen. In the background, I could hear the tearing of wood and collapsing stone structures. A roar of the bear.

I took a step and then wavered, as I was now in a different house.

This was getting exhausting. Hopefully, he would go for Ren next and she could finish him off. I was only slightly ashamed that I hadn’t killed him in one hit like I had said. A bet lost, which was unlike me. Maybe he had magical resistance or something that muted the effects of my cards. I should really stop playing with my food.

The town shifted again, and now I was outside. Down the road to my left was the Chameleon facing down the road to his right. He had been bloodied and was breathing heavily. Wolf hadn’t died, so must have won their scuffle. The Guardian was clearly not having a good time picking targets. At what point would he try to flee?

I had a feeling he wasn’t able to. Tied to the town in some way. I frowned as I tried to locate where my demonic ace had gotten to. The shifting seemed to work in chunks, so despite everything I had been putting out, we were going separate directions, if not within a certain distance of each other.

The Chameleon spun in place to face me as my cannon appeared beside him. Three quick blasts of confetti, before he darted away—not wanting to shift the town again.

I ran my open palm around myself in a circle, expecting him to show up beside me again. He did not, but instead I heard the crack of Ren’s rifle from the other side of town.

[Ren: Sent him running.]

[Ren: Likely to get desperate.]

There wasn’t another shift in the terrain. He had run from the elf in a more mundane way, but it appeared he had either extreme bursts of speed or minor teleportation, like when he had first attacked me. When I had won out against the Siren and enacted my Domain for the first time, she had shown her true form. I was willing to bet that the Chameleon had one last trick up his sleeve.

A thought that was punctuated almost as quickly as a spike ran through my arm. I twisted away from the pain, the pointed piece of… brickwork slowly sunk back into the wall across the street. If I didn’t know any better, that building had green glowing in the upstairs windows, making them look like eyes.

I narrowed my eyes, able to spot the dazzle icons hovering over the roof. That almost felt like cheating.

A light illuminated me, causing my purple suit to sparkle. I took my hat down from my head and bowed, forcing all attention on me. No more running. Twin magic cards burst into being and swirled around me as I twisted away from another jutting spike. It was as if the fabric of the house was being stretched out beyond what the normal material was capable of.

I twirled my attacks in through the upper windows, and the glow faded.

Fingers clicked, and two new cards came out. Two Fire Imps. As my eyes switched to the next house eyeing us up, I turned invisible and ran from my summons. A spike lashed out and impaled the forehead of the first before he could get his spell off, but the second leveled a fireball straight into the side of the building.

I switched place with my demonic ace up on the roof of the temple, dismissing my Imp just as another spike went out to kill him. It just ran across the stone street instead, creating sparks. I stretched out my wings and sighed.

A dove landed beside me, before it was relaced with Ren in a flash. Her left side was bloodied, her suit torn, but she didn’t appear to be injured.

“Such a shame you’re not equipped well for property damage, my dear,” I said, a wry smile across my face.

“You’d be surprised, trickster.” She lifted her nose up and flared her nostrils, some faux disdain leveled my way.

I brought out a critical card. “Would I?”

She brought her rifle up, putting her foot on a box summoned from her inventory, as she narrowed her eye down her scope. A pulse of heat bloomed from her rifle, charging up as the end of her barrel started to glow from the intense temperature.

“I never told you what my newest attack skill was.”