Zerine woke with a light tap from Varino, who whistled.

“The Starborn have seen a group heading our way? How much time did I get?” Zerine wondered, sitting up then quickly put away her bed roll.

Varino whistled and chimed, drifting on a cloud.

“Somewhere around thirty minutes isn’t bad. How are you and Kimi?”

Bright chime.

“That good, huh? I really can’t wait till I have my crest. Recovering like that must be great.”

Varino whistled.

“Yeah, I know, give it time. But let’s get ready for round two. Did you get a chance to repair the first the wall?”

Varino frowned slightly, but chimed.

“So, some repairs. Okay, we can work with that. After this, I need to go check the bodies for my arrows and some knives.”

Varino perked up and whistled, pointing to a pill that Zerine hadn’t noticed. She saw about twenty-five arrows, a small pile of arrowheads, and four knives.

“Oh, perfect! Thank you!” She said, giving the spirit a bright smile and quickly placing the items into her spatial storage.

Zerine followed Varino to where she sensed Kimi and a Starborn were located. When they spotted the pair, she noticed that it was the red colored Starborn again.

Kimi waved a foreleg at them, while clicking.

“Hey, good to see you're all set, and I am ready and rested. Thanks for asking,” Zerine replied, walking up to them and carrying her bow.

The Starborn made some quick electronic tones.

“The others have gone to help with the rest. Is the fight going well?” Zerine wondered, a little worried.

The Starborn bounced and beeped, which was then followed by a host of tones explaining the situation. It turned out they were needed to help the rest, as the corrupted one was proving to be a resilient foe. The Starborn’s plan was to use a spell that requires nearly all of them present, which will overwhelm the healing factor of their enemy. They needed the others to ensure they were ready to use it at a moment’s notice. As for the fight overall, the Starborn said they handn’t taken any lasting damage, and the fight was more of an endurance test than anything.

“That’s great to hear. You had me worried, though. But is this group coming manageable?”

Kimi answered, clicking and hissing.

“Alright, mid D-rank is the most powerful, that’s…manageable. Then let’s get ready,” Zerine said, pulling out a smoldering arrow.

They headed towards the first wall, which had about a third of it left standing. The rest was just smoldering rubble or splinters. Their group took positions and got ready, arrayed before the ruined part of the forest near the wall. Zerine glanced up at the clouds, which were a pastel rainbow, and the colors were deepening, meaning the mama storm would start soon. Seeing the state of the clouds, she took a long breath in and let it out slowly.

Going to be cutting this close, she thought, nocking the smoldering arrow when she heard movement in the forest.

The first group of enemies were a large group of…

“How are there still more of you!?” Zerine complained as the adorable…no, evil little puff balls bounded into view.

Zerine grumbled while shoving the mental attacks aside.

“Just how many of you little adorrrr...nope! Evil things are there!?”

She was about to attack the little devils, but saw another group of monsters charging in behind the group of evil puff balls. She loosed her arrow at a large slug-like mound of flesh, which burst into flames. Then the true fight started as the charge didn’t slow even as the horde found traps Kimi and the Starborn had replaced. Zerine drew her swords and met the monsters.

As she swung her sword, slicing a puff ball in half, she heard a trilling note from Varino making her laugh. The spirit’s war cry went something along the lines of, “Only I can be the cutest!” followed by, “Zappy zappy time!”

Zerine avoided a swipe from a small bear-like monster, still laughing, then beheaded the creatures, which kinda killed her mood, just a little.

“Varino, we have to figure out a better battle cry for you,” she called, not sure if the spirit could hear her over the sounds of spells being cast and the monster calls.

When Zerine searched for Varino, she spotted another group of monsters heading their way, but this group was looking back behind them, but focused on the enemies in front of them killing monsters and attacking their group. Zerine assumed some creatures had started to attack monsters in the area again. During the first wave, creatures had driven monsters their way, or attacked them when they got distracted. But as she fought, Zerine didn’t see creatures that had been in the area earlier, in fact…

Zerine avoided vines, shot towards her from a monster whose entire body was made from vines. She didn’t have time to draw her bow, so she simply threw a smoldering arrow enhanced with her willpower. During the brief lull as the vine monsters burned, Zerine looked up at the sky and saw a group of the flying lizards fleeing the area. Her gaze flicked in the direction the lizards were fleeing from, observing beams of light and stones rain from the stormy sky.

Zerine swore, their time had run out and the mana storm was starting.

We still have…sometime. The storm’s wild mana will start out mild, then get worse. That process should give us enough time, she thought, avoiding several mana bolts created from stone. All we have to do is-

Her instincts suddenly screamed a warning and dove shouting.

“Shit!” as she moved. The monster she had been fighting exploded in a bloody mist from a powerful spear of metal that continued its flight, smashing into the second wall.

Zerine scramble to her feet as a swarm of Metal heads joined the fray. Several auras washed over the fight, which made Zerine’s eyes go wide. She couldn’t tell exactly how strong they were, but her instincts screaming at her certainly gave her enough to guess they were in trouble.

Powerful easily a D-rank and most likely a C-rank, but where is that more powerful one? she thought, scanning the battle.

The fighting mass of Metal heads and monsters was a bloody mess of magic and physical attacks that made their earlier fight look tame in comparison. Just from the brief look over the fight, she saw a monster rip a Metal head in half, entrails get sent flying as a Metal head tore into a monster’s gut, and spells being cast in every direction, killing or maiming.

She ducked a stray crystalized shard of darkness that exploded when hit the second wall, which wasn’t doing great.

It won’t last a direct attack from a brute, she thought, moving on to the wall so she could get a vantage point with her bow.

Aiming solely for Metal heads, she saw F-rank brutes, a variation of scouts mostly those that crawled on the ground, and thankfully none of the other casts. The most prevalent scout was a centipede. They had a flat head with a single glowing eye and nasty looking pincers, along with a tail that was spiked. Seemingly, the glowing eyes were a common trait because all the Metal heads she saw had glowing eyes ranging from orange, gold, yellow, and green.

Zerine calmly took aim, ignoring the chaos and the ground shaking from the fighting. She loosed arrow after arrow, finding a target every time. The arrows she mainly used were Varino’s lightning ones. The arrows had two variants - one for causing quite a lot of damage to a single target, and the other for dealing with a large group of enemies. She mainly used the latter. Each arrow killed its target, while causing clusters of enemies to be electrocuted, with blue bolts of lightning arching out of their bodies.

Varino would use those clusters to help her use less mana in her attacks, taking the abundant lightning mana to help with her spells. The spirit wasn’t too far from her staying near the wall and close enough for her to help Zerine or the other way around. It also seemed that as the mana storm started, Varino’s spells gain a bit more power. There was more to the spells as well, but Zerine’s senses were simply too overwhelmed with all the monsters’ magic and the mana storm building up to figure out what was different.

Zerine was aiming at a large brute when a small stone bounced off her glove. It was followed by another one, then raindrops, and-

“Sparks!” Zerine muttered, fear racing through her, as a glowing orange speck drifted past her hand.

The mana storm had reached them.

It was strange, but as a boom of thunder and green lightning shattered the sky, Zerine felt calm wash away her fear. Accompanying the calm was a rush of adrenaline. Her focus sharpened as she took a steadying breath and loosed her arrow. It flew true and pierced the eye of the brute, who just managed to roar before its head exploded into a fiery mess.

Blue lightning roared down from the heavens, it was accompanied by a beam of light and a stream of fire.

KA-BOOM!

The ground rocked, and Zerine nearly fell, but managed to stay standing. Zerine didn’t even have time to figure out what had happened before her instincts screamed and she jumped off the wall. A spear of metal cloaked in shadows shot towards the wall.

BOOM!

It blasted straight through the second wall and, to Zerine’s horror, the last one too before slamming into the hill, exploding, sending dirt and debris flying. She looked and quickly found the culprit of the attack. A massive brute had emerged from the forest and was charging through the battle. The brute batted aside monsters and its own kin, heading straight for the enormous gap in the wall.

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It was easily the size of a Colossal Dark Bear, which was somewhere between the size of a truck or a van. It had a flat armored head similar with a look of a hammerhead shark. Its shoulders were large and covered in dark grey metal, while its arms and legs were protected by black metal plates. Zerine guessed they made from some kind of Dark Steel based on the dark affinity that it had used to destroy the walls.

The brute’s advance was too fast. Zerine frantically looked for Varino, but all she saw was a swarm of enemies. When had they gotten separated!? Her heart racing, Zerine realized she would have to handle the brute alone, but then the brute slammed into a glowing rune.

One of Kimi’s traps! she thought, releasing the breath she hadn’t known she held. She took her bow out and aimed, taking advantage of the stunned brute.

Thud thud thud, thud, thud!

She felt the rapid running feet before seeing the monster. Her bow vanished, going back inside the spatial storage being replaced with a sword. Zerine leapt back as a spike of ground shot up where she had just been standing. Then had dodged again from a mana bolt. Two Metal head centipedes attacked Zerine, making her scowl at the interruption.

One had a glowing orange eye in the middle of its flat head, while the other had a golden one. They moved swiftly, closing the distance in a blur. Zerine relied on her instincts, avoiding one spiked tail to then swipe with her blade at the other centipede, who attempted to bite her legs. It avoided her strike, scuttling away.

From the corner of her eye, she saw the other centipede preparing to attack with magic. In one smooth motion, she unsheathed and threw a knife infused with her willpower. The knife thudded into the centipede's mouth, which wasn’t exactly where Zerine had been aiming, but she wouldn’t complain.

The centipede writhed, which gave her time to focus on the one in front of her just in time too. The centipede attacked with its spiked tail, flicking it over its body. Zerine side stepped and slashed, cutting all the way to the bone before it got stuck. She swore and yanked with all her strength, ripping it out with a squelching sound. The centipede, despite being wounded, had leapt at her, latching onto Zerine's right leg with one of its pincers. The other having missed because Zerine moved at the last second.

Zerine bit back a scream of pain. Using both hands, she stabbed down with her sword. There was a screech of tearing metal and the crunch of exoskeleton as her blade stabbed into the monster’s head. It went limp and Zerine pulled her blade out and staggered back. Luckily, the pincer hadn’t stabbed too deeply thanks to her armor, having stopped it from penetrating. That didn’t mean the wound was pain free or not to be worried about. Metal heads ate anything and everything, so it was likely that the wound could fester if untreated. But with a healing pill, there shouldn’t be any cause for alarm.

She had little time to check her wound, as there was a sound of metal shredding. The awful sound made her looked at the other Metal head who had…eaten her knifes blade!?

The hilt fell out of the centipedes' mouth, followed by a small stream of blood. Zerine felt the mana within the Metal head swirl as it prepared something, but a beam of darkness from the storm thundered down. The centipede exploded it into chucks. Zerine fell back as a blast of air struck her.

She sat up on her elbows, stunned. Something warm and wet was spreading from her thigh, which was when she remembered the wound. A pill popped into her mouth and Zerine got unsteadily to her feet.

Not done yet, she thought, picking up her sword and drew the other, knowing she would need them seeing several spider Metal heads heading her way. Fortunately, she saw that the large brute was still stuck in Kimi’s trap. The mana storm had thinned the number of enemies too, she noted. Her sweeping gaze found Varino, who was fighting a scout that was probably as powerful as the brute stuck in the trap, which explained why they had been separated.

Crunch!

Zerine’s head whipped back to the brute to find it had created cracks in the runes surrounding it. There came a shattering glass sound as the runes exploded into green motes of light. The brute roared and began its charge, heading for the breeched walls.

“Mother F-”

BOOM!

An explosion blinded her, followed by a blast of air that smashed into Zerine, flinging her back. Her ears wrung, and the world lurched as she sat up. Zerine found herself in a cloud of smoke, ash, and dust. She felt the ground rumble under her. She knew she needed to get up, but the world spun when she tried. Suddenly a bright glowing eye was moving, no, lunging at her! The sight of a centipede’s pincers flashing made it through her muddle state, and she stabbed out with the sword she hadn’t realized she had held on to.

Her blade stabbed straight through the monster’s mouth with a sickening crunch. The tip of the sword was sticking out from the back of its head. In a last act of defiance, the centipede bit down on her blade, grinding the metal. Zerine jerked the blade back, but the damage had been done. The upper third of the blade was mangled. Part of it was twisted, while others had chunks missing. Zerine crouched, breathing hard.

That had been too-

The clouds of grey smoke and ash suddenly parted as a massive fist moved to crush her. The fist looked like a solid metal hammer. Zerine had only enough time to glimpse that before she had rolled. A blast of air propelled her roll, pushing her further away. She stopped in a crouch, her blade ready.

Didn’t I have two swords? she wondered. Her mind was still catching up with everything, which she didn’t even get time for. A looming shadow appeared in the grey cloudy smoke and ash as lightning light the sky. The shadows had four slits that glowed orange, which glowed brighter as the brute saw her.

Another fist shot towards her, which she avoided. She threw a knife at one of the glowing eyes infusing the knife with her willpower. Her knife crashed into the brute’s head, creating a shrieking sound of metal on metal. Her instincts screamed a warning and Zerine ran, then was tossed as a miniature cyclone made of purple flames tore between the two of them.

Zerine swore, getting to her feet again. She was getting tired of being thrown around and was grateful for the training where she had gone through just that. It was quite the mix of emotions. She was contemplating why ludicrous scenarios kept happening during this test, when a burning spider-like Metal head charged her. Absent-mindedly, she sliced it in half, wincing from the metal-on-metal screeching as the already damaged blade got worse.

Focus Zerine, she thought.

She spotted the burning cyclone, which wasn’t hard to miss in the grey soup shrouding everything, since its light was a beacon. As she watched, the cyclone got destroyed as the brute charged through it, now covered in the fire.

That is exactly what it was lacking! Now it is even more utterly terrifying, she thought dryly, then wondered. Why is it always coming after me?

“Ooh,” she muttered, realizing she was now standing in the largest gap in the wall after a blast of air from a distant explosion cleared the air for a moment.

Next to her was a large boulder used as a part of the wall. Seeing it gave Zerine a rather crazy idea that in her normal state of mind she might have not considered at all. In her somewhat dazed state, it seemed perfect. She moved to have the boulder behind her and shoved the hilt of her sword into a large crack in the boulder as the brute lumbered her way.

Zerine was ready and was standing right in front of her little trap when the brute reached her. This time, the brute attacked her with both fists, aiming to crush her again. Not exactly original, but low rank brutes weren’t known for their intelligence, which Zerine had counted on. She dove out of the way at the last moment. A roar escaped the brute as one of its hands got stabbed by the blade sticking out of the rock. The strength of the brute was insane, though, and shattered the boulder into shards. Several sharp bits cut Zerine as she kept moving away.

The brute turned towards her, its four orange eyes glowing like coals, and it roared again.

Thud, thud, thud, THUD!

Zerine whirled, feeling the pattering of many spiked feet, drawing her scythe in time to block a centipede’s attack. Its pincers slicing mere inches from her throat. A bolt of darkness from the brute grazed her shoulder, leaving a trench of through her flesh. Zerine screamed and pulled out a knife, stabbing the centipede in its eye slit. She had infused her willpower similar to how she used her alchemy mixing bowl, which with the wild ambient magic meant that magic she had just thrust into the Metal head’s eye was volatile.

The creature writhed, pulling her blade out of her hands. There was a sizzling sound like a teapot reaching boiling before a soft thud went off inside its head. Blood and brain matter exploded out of the eye slit, and mouth before it fell limp to the ground.

Zerine didn’t have time to think as she avoided another blot of darkness shot at her from the brute, who was moving closer, each step shaking the ground under her feet. Threads of mana started to appear all throughout the area. Smoke, dust, and ash shrouded everything, while the sky put on a light show. Tiny rocks, rain, and small drops of fire fell from the sky like pouring rain. The once occasional stray beam of darkness and light had grown far more frequent and powerful. Lightning of every color arched through the sky or blasted down.

Several beams of light, and even gods damn bolt of lightning, struck the brute whose armor deflected the light mana as for the lightning. Well, it seemed to stop the brute for a few seconds. It released another roar.

Zerine, meanwhile, was running through all the ways to fight a brute and was coming up short. Blood was coating her armor and poncho, which was in tatters. She wasn’t even sure if the repair enchantment would work after this. She avoided several beams of light from the mana storm and even some streams of fire.

The lightning arching over the brute faded, which was when she felt familiar mana. A glowing rune hit her chest and Zerine smiled, knowing Kimi had given her a chance to win.

Speed enhancement, she thought, gritting her teeth, an idea forming in her mind.

The brute had recovered from being stunned by the lightning and moved rapidly towards her. It was moving like a monkey using its arms and legs, well, one arm. To Zerine’s delight, the Metal head was holding its other arm close to its chest. She could just make out her sword embedded into the hand.

Zerine took a breath and focused, drawing all her willpower for what would come next.

She sprinted at the brute who shot metal and dark spikes at her. Suddenly mana threads wrapped around the brute’s limbs.

Perfect timing, Kimi, she thought, avoiding the attacks, but nearly lost her momentum when a purple and red lightning bolt exploded the ground in front of her. To buy her just a little more time, Zerine flicked a knife at the brute, but it put up its wounded arm to block the attack. It struggled to do so because of Kimi’s mana threads, but due to either the strength of the brute or how the mana storm affected magic, the threads were breaking. Even as the threads snapped, it gave Zerine the chance she had been looking for.

Now close enough, Zerine avoided a blinded swipe from the brute’s hand. Twangs and the sound of breaking glass following the movement as mana threads snapped. She targeted the joints of the brute’s armor. Several precise stabs infused with willpower pierced the brute’s elbow joint of the arm that had swiped at her. But right as she moved to her next spot, a swirling mass of darkness wrapped around her free hand’s wrist. Immediately, Zerine swung her scythe, pouring more willpower into the blow, forcing the ambient magic to respond. Luckily, there was plenty of light mana in the area due to the storm. Her glowing scythe sliced through the dark rope-like attack and dug a trench out of the brute’s side, which poured blood. But even with her quick thinking, she hadn’t been fast enough before there had been a snap.

Nausea shot through Zerine along with pain as the feeling of a broken bone shot through her. Her instincts screamed a warning, but the unknown attack had messed up her plan. A massive hand gripped her right leg, pulling into the air. Several somethings cracked. Zerine screamed again, dangling upside down. Even through the pain, something occurred to her, and desperation took hold. Zerine pulled out three magically infused arrows. Right as the brute roared, Zerine poured everything she had left of willpower into her next move. If it didn’t work, she would die.

Blood dripped from her eyes and pooled in her nose. Zerine threw the arrows. The three arrows shot straight into the brute with more than enough force to pierce its armor. One pierced its collarbone, while another somehow got lodged in one of its eyes, and the last shot into the brute’s mouth down its throat. As she had launched her last attack, the brute threw her.

The air got knocked out of her and she knew ribs had been added to the list of broken bones. She lay there, trying to gain control over her breathing, fighting through the pain, watching the brute. Meanwhile, the brute wasn’t having a good time. It staggered back a step, lightning arching over its body from the arrow in its neck, while a blast of fire cooked the brain of the metal head, making the large flat metal helmet glow red hot. The final blow was a beam of light that carved a hole from the throat diagonally through the brute’s body.

The brute lifeless corpse thudded to the ground and Zerine lay there. She had done it! Her excitement was extremely short-lived as pain pulsed through her with every breath. How long had it been sense she had taken the last healing pill? Where were the others? Zerine looked up at the multicolored sky, which was beautiful despite its terrifying power.

Lighting and fire shot across the sky, twisting around one another while shifting through colors.

Pretty, she thought.

Darkness was encroaching from the corners of her vision. She barely managed to turn head as several tiny rocks and embers fell towards her. This gave her a view of a Metal head spider scuttling towards her.

Gotta to be kidding me!