I woke up to a loud roar and a lot of shouting. Reflexively, I reached through the haze of sleep to grapple for my weapons. Once I realized that I had left them elsewhere, I rolled and squirmed out of the pile of bodies that I had been sleeping in. Using the light of the campfire’s embers and Victor’s rock, I found my swords and drew them. Looking around, I figured out what was happening as quickly as possible.

I saw that Victor had uncovered a lot of Glasrock and was hoisting it aloft. Their blue glow illuminated our campsite, and the Mist was pushed away even further. The light of the moon also trickled down through the Mist into our little bubble. Between Victor and that, the whole scene was cast in an eerie glow, and I could see what was happening.

Lynn was facing down an Arthus all by herself. She skated around on the snow easily, bending it to her purposes and flinging it into the beast’s eyes. It snapped at her, but she stayed out of its’ range as best as she could. Hope was trying to wake Ann while Victor spread as much light on the scene as he could.

I was already running towards the attacker as the others were stirring and grabbing their weapons. I was on track to hit the creature’s side but at the last second it shifted, turning its’ back toward me, hoping to bludgeon me with its’ tail. But I had already seen that trick, and I converted my forward momentum into a leap.

I knew I couldn’t jump as high as Ann normally, but I had enough momentum that I figured I could get over the tail, putting me in a perfect position to land and cut it off. Just like Ann did during the last Arthus fight. I had made a mistake, though. I had underestimated my abilities. As I got closer to the Arthus, I entered its’ domain of cold, but it hardly affected me. My movements remained as smooth and as fluid as they normally were, the chill passing over me like a slight breeze. My jump, then, had much more power, and it carried me right over its’ tail and onto the creature’s back.

I had the presence of mind to shift midair and avoid getting impaled on the spikes on the beast’s back, my swords automatically plunging down into the thick hide of the beast as I did.

With a surprised roar, it took off at a run into the darkness. The wind whipped through my hair as it sprinted away from the campsite, with me holding on for dear life. I tried to do as much damage as I could, holding on for dear life with one sword stuck in while I stabbed with the other. However, I was promptly shaken loose by the bucking and twisting of the great beast.

I rolled on the ground, mouth and face suffused with snow and dirt before I managed to gather myself to my feet. Coughing and spitting, I searched the Mist for the small blue star illuminating the night, signifying my team’s location. A thrill of relief rant through me when I did, and I hastened towards that guiding light. They were trying to get to me as well, and I felt open air wash over me as I successfully rejoined my cohort. Ann and Julia were on their feet, weapons aloft, and they were frantically looking around to see where the creature would come from next. Victor was doing the same while standing behind them. Al and Hope, who was holding baby Eithan, stood next to him. Lynn stood next to the girls, balls of snow hovering in the air around her. Manipulators traditionally didn’t fight, but that was because they were so valuable doing other tasks. In a pinch, they were quite capable.

I stood next to the girls and began scanning for the enemy, though I quietly hoped that it had run away permanently. No such luck, because it soon emerged from the shadows at the edge of our protective dome, growling and snarling, clearly enraged by its’ wounds. I approached it directly, flanked by the two girls, and stared into its’ Stygian eyes. The deep black pools glistened with hatred, reflecting the Glasrock’s azure light and the amber flame of Al’s recently lit lantern.

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I was hypnotized by its’ glare, such that I almost failed to dodge the first swipes of its’ claw. Fortunately, without the slowing effect of its’ cold domain, I more easily weaved through its’ vicious strikes and dodged a bite that nearly took my head off. I almost fell into a trance as the monster struck at me with its’ front paws and mouth, regularly twisting to try to strike at the girls with its tail. But we had more experience with the Arthus now and weren’t meaningfully slowed by the creature’s insidious cold.

It was clearly doing its’ best to try to kill me quickly, striking and biting with as much ferocity as it could muster until it could finally strike a killing blow and turn to focus on the girls. But I wasn’t making that possible. I stayed close, so that it would continue to focus on me, but I deftly turned aside paw strikes and ducked under its’ saber-like teeth. It was also steadily accumulating minor wounds from the girls on its’ sides as it failed to score a meaningful hit on them with its’ tail. It didn’t help the beast that Lynn would often break the beast’s concentration with a well-placed snowball.

Eventually, it jumped back and out of the range of our attacks, snarling and clearly searching for a different way to attack. Its’ eyes landed on the light bearers of our group, and it growled in interest as it backed into the Mist. It even cut off the power to its’ spikes, so it was impossible to track.

Silence reigned as we stared at the confines of our visibility and the noises of battle wholly ceased. We Fighters had backed up and tried to form a defensive perimeter around the civilians but there weren’t enough of us. Our breaths misted from the cold and billowed into our eyes as we tried to control our breathing, straining to catch a glimpse of the beast. After an eternity of agony, I finally heard Al yell and whirled to see him pointing in a direction that none of us had managed to cover. I quickly heard the thunderous footsteps of the charging Arthus just as soon as it appeared from where Al was pointing.

It bore down on the non-combatants was lightning speed, closing the distance with a triumphant roar. Ann and I were the closest and we managed to bury our swords deep in either side of the creature, but its’ momentum pulled us backward and into the people behind us. I heard a lot of yelling and bellowing as I did my best to arrest the creature’s charge and bring it to a stop.

Things got darker as the rocks that Victor had been holding up fell and began rolling around on the ground. I could have sworn I heard a scream. Luckily, though, both Ann and I finally pulled the creature to a stop, and the moment it did, it gave a great shudder, let out one final cry, and collapsed.

Things were very chaotic after that. People were scrambling to find out exactly what had happened and who had gotten hurt. Al, fortunately, had dived out of the way in time and was unharmed. He quickly brought the lantern up to try and reorganize us. I was relieved to see Hope alive and unhurt, clutching baby Eithan and shivering on the ground. But my heart stopped when I saw Victor and Lynn.

Lynn had large cut on her shoulder that had painted half of her torso crimson. It was slowly closing, though, and she was fumbling with one arm for more berries. With swift treatment, she would be able to save the other arm. Victor was lying face down, unmoving, with an enormous gash on his back. Ann was at his side the fastest, preparing a treatment with hands that moved like lightning.

Julia had moved to help Lynn eat a few more berries, and I was doing my best to stop Victor’s bleeding. I silently, desperately, urged Victor to wake up. Lynn’s injury had nearly healed, now, and she had started to help Ann with Victor’s treatment, manipulating the paste that had been created and guiding it down his throat. We all watched with bated breath.

After another eternity of silence, Victor coughed a bit and his breathing, once so shallow and sickly, smoothed out once again, allowing the rest of us to finally exhale. I started to gather up the Glasrock that Victor had lost in all the commotion, throwing a glance at the corpse of the Arthus.

I saw that it had been speared through the eye, the blow clearly being the decisive one. I caught Julia’s eye, and she grinned and whispered a quiet “revenge” before going back to helping me gather up the precious stones. Once we had done that, we went to butcher the beast’s corpse. We couldn’t take anywhere close to everything, given that we were on the run, but we couldn’t pass up the food.

I immersed myself in the work and breathed a sigh of relief. We hadn’t lost anyone else. That was something to be deeply grateful for. The first rays of a new dawn pierced our little misty domain as we settled into our working rhythm, the delayed crying of Hope and Eithan piercing the early morning tranquility.