“What’s behind you?” I asked, trotting over to Mr. Inuus. “Just kidding. I know you’re telling me to hide. Looks like a big attack that’s—uh, why’re you sending your ghost buddies away?”

The clones of Mr. Inuus disappeared, along with their instruments. Mr. Inuus then summoned more instruments and started playing songs that constructed barriers. I took it that he couldn’t go super offensive mode while maintaining his ginormous defenses. That’d be too overpowered if he could do both simultaneously. Mr. Inuus prioritized defense because Karnon was cooking up something huge.

The icicles covering Karnon’s head sparkled, like rows and rows of Christmas lights. Beautiful. I knew it didn’t bode well for us. Freezing fog rolled a rockstar’s entrance, the deadly frost creeping to our side. The earth gleamed, frozen, reflecting the dancing lights of various hues.

I gingerly poked my hoof outside the barriers of Mr. Inuus. My [Greater Pyro Shell] exploded, and my health instantly cut in half. I would’ve died if I didn’t immediately pull back. Had an inkling that’d happen but curiosity compelled me.

“Can you defend against this, Mr. Inuus?” I asked, my brows furrowed as Karnon opened its mouth to fill the tunnel’s width. A small blue orb flickered inside its dark maw. “Where’s your magic circle muzzle thing to stop whatever it’s doing? Looks like we’re in a world of hurt.”

(The restraints of silencing take a long time to prepare, commensurate to how effective they are,) replied Mr. Inuus, probably referring to the skill’s cooldown. The magical muzzle did seem to be a powerful disable that shouldn’t be readily available. (But fret not, Mardukryon friend. My defenses, I am immensely proud of,) Mr. Inuus continued. I felt in his telepathic message a reassuring vibe.

An overly large harp appeared, as tall as me and longer, with what appeared to be too many strings than it should have. Though I didn’t know how many strings a normal harp had. This new instrument had musical notes drawn with orange energy floating around it.

Some secret weapon to turn the tide of battle?

As the harp’s strings vibrated, sending humming voices through my soul, more and more musical notes appeared, swirling and swirling until they arranged themselves into a wall in front of us—rows of notes, looking like a musical sheet piece. As Mr. Inuus constructed this literal wall of music, Karnon continued charging. The tiny prick of light inside its mouth bloomed to fit its expanded mouth with unhinged jaws, only held back by the cage of fangs. The energy ball was a swirl of blue energies, similar to the Mountain Guardian’s breath that we came across earlier.

Once Karnon fires, there’d be no place to hide because this whole tunnel will be filled. And it was too late to run now. But I didn’t doubt Mr. Inuus would protect me.

Then what?

Karnon couldn’t kill us. We also couldn’t kill Karnon. There was no way to cheese the Guardian Serpent with the resources we had; it was rightfully strong, given it was guarding the wardcrafter’s cave. If only there was some other way to get past this stupid overgrown scaley worm.

Maybe there is. I tore my eyes away from the sparkling Karnon and to the tunnel walls. There were large cracks where Karnon smashed against it while trying to remove the muzzle. Some of those had widened into gaping holes as the charging energy ball whipped out wild discharges of energy. Parts of the wall were hollow, not solid rock.

Was the earth porous in this area? A possibility was that the Mountain Guardian’s breath turned this part of the mountain into Swiss Cheese. Could also be that its children were tunneling about, like our friend Karnon here. I surmised there should be another path to the wardcrafter’s cave if we knew where to smash through.

“Mr. Inuus! Can you—?” I started to say. Karnon fired its attack in a deafening roar of winds, cutting off my sentence again, its seemingly favorite hobby.

A swirl of blue and white smashed against the wall of notes. The wall buckled and stretched towards us as the force of the blast deformed it. But the weaved musical notes held. The energy beam whatchamacallit splashed back to Karnon like water from the faucet hitting a spoon.

“Some sort of reflect damage shield?” My theorycrafting mind was in overdrive.

Combining this with similar mechanics such as retribution, many DPSers wouldn’t dare touch me. That was tanking in a sense. Karnon’s health bar steadily went down as it continued to blast us. Well, the giant snake was technically blasting itself at this point, probably for a fraction of the actual damage of its attack.

“If you can keep this up, Mr. Inuus,” I said, “we can kill—oh, there we go. I spoke too soon.”

Parts of Karnon’s energy beam punched through the musical notes wall as if passing through a sift. What I assumed to be a much-weakened attack hit the subsequent barriers of Mr. Inuus, destroying some of them. Still freaking powerful. A direct hit from its full force would kill us, or at least me.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Some of the energy beams continued to be reflected at Karnon, though the damage was nothing we could rely on to turn the tide of battle. Mr. Inuus busily rebuilt the broken barriers and also stopped the tunnel from caving in as the quaking power of Karnon’s energy beam threatened to make everything collapse. Mr. Inuus even summoned golden pillars with intricately carved columns to prop up the ceiling.

“Awesome work on the repair,” I said, observing the gleaming magical columns. Its top excreted golden liquid that glued the cracks together. “I can’t do anything to help you, so I’ll just be a cheerleader. Nifty trick you got there with the pillars, but do you have something that can destroy the walls instead?”

(Why so, Mardukryon friend?)

“I’m sure there’s an escape path for us through the walls. Another escape path, anyway. You know, besides just retreating?”

(I trust your ideas, Mardukryon friend. I have the means of excavating the walls—the Lapus Spears. However, I cannot play the song, given our current predicament.)

“Very understandable,” I dryly said, scanning our surroundings to formulate a plan.

(And we are unaware where to dig. I have the means—)

“But you can’t do it right now,” I cut in. “Can you turn the musical notes barrier? Move it around?”

Mr. Inuus paused his barrier-building duties to look at me behind him. He was supposed to be wise and ancient, but his eyes with horizontal bar pupils gave off an air of blankness. Having lived on a farm for several months, I’ve grown used to the goat’s weird eyes, among other things. Not once did I question it. Would Mr. Inuus know why their eyes were that way?

(I certainly can, Mardukryon friend,) said Mr. Inuus. (What plan have your ancestors whispered to you?)

“I came up with this on my own. No ancestors needed.” I pointed at the wall of notes. “Change its angle so the reflected energy beam will hit the walls. Sweep the entire side of the tunnel, as far as possible. We’ll move to the other side. Do the next side if we don’t find anything. And be quick, Mr. Inuus, before Karnon’s energy beam runs out.”

Mr. Inuus did as I instructed.

The tunnel shook harder. Rocks flew. Those that hit the barriers broke into more pieces.

“There!” I shouted, barely hearing myself. “A hole! Just a small one. Continue, Mr. Inuus.”

The two of us stood at the left edge of the barriers, not an inch past them, as the wall of notes pivoted to deflect part of the energy beam to sweep right. Dust and debris mixed with the rolling frost, furiously swirling through the tunnel. Soon, I could barely see or hear anything.

And then the energy beam stopped. Everything went silent save a few cracking sounds.

“Mr. Inuus, sweep away the dust! Uh, please?”

(Certainly, Mardukryon friend.) A crescent wave of wind sliced through thick clouds and dispersed them.

I didn’t care about what Karnon was doing. I hurried to the opposite edge of the barriers and examined the wrecked walls of the tunnel on that side. Darkness stared back at me from a hole barely large enough for me to squeeze through. The light from my [Greater Pyro Shell] couldn’t reach far enough into the hole. But it did seem to go on deep.

This was it! Probably?

BANG! BANG!

Karnon was muzzled again—Mr. Inuus’ skill was timely off cooldown—and having a grand old time slamming against the walls. The newly-opened part of the wall was crumbling. Our path might get sealed.

“Now’s our time to escape, Mr. Inuus!” I beckoned at my high-level horny friend. “This way!”

(Through there? Where it leads, we do not know. It’s safer to go back whence we came, Mardukryon friend. Why must we—)

“I’m sure this is the right path, Mr. Inuus. My earlier choice did lead us to meet this giant snake, but trust me, your bestest Mardukryon friend. We should go here.”

More violent shaking and an even louder crash behind us. Did the tunnel collapse that way? I couldn’t see because of all the dust. I took it that we didn’t have a retreat path that way. What happened next confirmed my guess.

Out of the cloud of dust, another monster appeared—[Lvl 77 Guardian Serpent: Karnon].

Or the same monster? There were two of them? I didn’t know there could be multiples of the same named monster. Then the fearsome truth dawned on me.

“This bastard has more than one head!” It could be a hydra-snake creature, and it has so far displayed only a fraction of its true strength.

Karnon’s second head came at us, fangs bared. Only some of Mr. Inuus’ barriers covered all sides. Most faced the front, so our back was a weakness. Barriers were destroyed. Karnon was through. Reacting quickly, I planted a Totem. The second snakey head didn’t have the freezing damage aura; my Totem wasn’t immediately deleted and managed to cast a taunt, giving Karnon a pause.

Karnon’s second head chomped the Totem. Mr. Inuus charged at it, horns lowered, hitting its cheek covered in scales the size of shields. The attack barely did any damage but put the second head in a daze. I placed a second Totem for good measure. The second head bit air, missing my Totem. Mr. Inuus must’ve debuffed Karnon.

“Let’s go!” I was already halfway through the hole. I had removed my armor once again to fit easier. Once I was through, I breathed a sigh of relief seeing that it was indeed a passage.

Mr. Inuus came in after me, playing music to collapse the opening behind us.