As the explosion of water and mist fell, the titanic beast was revealed, some fifty feet from end to end. Its long, armored tail draped into the pond, a vertical paddle striking at the water repeatedly, trying to shove the creature further onto the shore. The hips and legs were low-slung, like a salamander, but more thickly armored than an alligator and sporting solid, curved claws. The back was ridged with great keratinous plates stacked atop each other and a double row of barbed spines wrapped in a wet protective membrane, leading up to a thick, boxy saurian head and a maw that could swallow a man whole. The lower jaw was ringed with thick whiskers like a catfish that whipped back and forth, and the titanic jaws were…

still...

open.

The Chosen watched in awe as the behemoth clawed at the shore and drove its tail, forcing Jack backward by a few feet, ruts ground into the soil. His gauntleted hands ran with black ichor where the savage teeth had driven into his undead flesh. The beast flexed its jaws and Jack strained against the maw, shadows continuously uncoiling one after another, driving themselves into the beast’s gums, tongue, palate, and into the sand behind him to grant him more leverage.

The Chosen stood watching, stunned by the incredible display of strength.

“Fucking, A LITTLE HELP IF YOU DON’T MIND!” the nightbringer roared.

Erin grinned fiercely at the rear guard and said, “Watch this.”

“RIDE OF THE VALKYRIE!”

The dreadnought slammed her fists together and a tornado of red fog engulfed her, fulminating with discharges of crimson power that grew into a pair of massive translucent, blood-red wings. In the same instant, she shot forward as though launched from a cannon, screaming with mad laughter and singing an off-key melody, contrails of bloody power streaming behind her.

The beast’s massive tail shot out of the water, bent on intercepting the armored bullet barrelling toward its face. A thousand pounds of muscle, bone, and carapace struck the warrior with the force of a falling tree. Then the vortex of red power surrounding her body consolidated like the edge of an Erin-sized axe blade, bisecting the great tail vertically. A torrent of blood detonated outward as the creature’s tail was explosively amputated. The dreadnought arrived at the beast’s head and unleashed a punch with the momentum of a runaway car, her glowing fist impacting and blasting the monster’s head away from the tower of crimson light surrounding her.

Jack was left standing, surrounded by a forest of shadow tentacles, most of which streamed to his left as though blown by a hurricane-force wind. He blinked, then once again. The shocked spell was broken as Erin collapsed into his arms.

“You ok?” he whispered.

“Yeah. Just… that was pretty much all my Stamina,” she grinned.

“Well, it was fucking amazing,” he grinned back.

“Big ugly is NOT DEAD lovebirds,” Layla shouted as she ran past and unleashed a stream of dragonfire. “More killing, less smooching!”

She shot a glance past the vanguard, but Rory had already vanished. Ahead of her, the beast was flipping the severed stump of its tail, trying to gain enough leverage to roll over. While it was indisposed, Layla activated Mana Overcharge, her latest talent, allowing her to spend additional mana when she cast a spell to increase its power. She felt the talent immediately siphon up a third of her reserves, empowering a hell-storm of dragonfire vastly larger than anything she’d conjured thus far. She watched with glee as the beast roared in agony, her mad laugh easily a match for Erin’s as the cremating power of her magic caused the titan’s waterlogged body to catch fire in defiance of common sense.

The beast finally flopped onto its belly, causing Layla to skitter behind the two armored warriors behind her. It wasted no time in wheeling on the Chosen, opening its whisker-ringed maw and unleashing a fetid roar accompanied by a putrid blast of air.

Its roar was cut abruptly short as Rory appeared next to the beast, his blade shimmering crimson and the tip trailing a stream of pale white light.

“Wind Reaver.”

The salesman cocked his elbow back and a burst of spiraling mana rocketed the quillion forward, where it blasted a hole in the creature’s face, obliterating an eye and spattering blood and vitreous jelly into its mouth and across the grass.

The massive beast rolled away from Rory, scrabbling at its face with its clawed arm and thrashing wildly. Rory leapt away from the creature, traveling nearly ten yards before landing, pale mana coursing along his path. As the beast was righting itself once more and beginning to look for the source of its pain and frustration, another swirl of white mana obscured Rory’s form and he melted into the shadows of the trees.

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“Holy fuck! That was some total anime shit! Did you see that!?” Layla yelled.

The two vanguard turned to look at the succubus, but they found her wide-eyed panicked expression was focused over their shoulder. Erin and Jack wheeled to find the massive beast charging toward them like an out-of-control bus. The creature pounced forward, bringing its torso and giant jaws twenty feet off the ground, then it came crashing down on top of the two warriors.

Erin pushed Jack behind her and shouted, “Impenetrable Tower! Counter-Strike!”

The monstrous beast’s face met her fist, releasing a colossal shockwave, flattening Layla just behind them and forcing Jack to dig multiple shadow arms into the soil. When the dust cleared, the creature’s lower jaw was shattered, hanging loosely from its skull. The dreadnought shook out her hand and grinned fiercely.

“Clobberin’ time, boys!” she yelled.

Jack and Erin converged on the monster, playing havoc with sword and fist as the great beast did its best to maul them with its claws and crush them beneath its bulk. Layla continued to lay down streams of clinging, napalm-like dragonfire. As the beast attempted to heave itself upright to attempt another slam, Rory appeared again and unleashed the strange new drill-like Wind attack they’d seen before, blasting apart the creature’s elbow joint and stopping its charge dead.

Finally, the creature seemed to have had enough of the Chosen and attempted to retreat into the water, but Jack uncoiled a dozen shadow limbs, driving half into the ground and half into the beast’s ruined tail.

“DON’T RUN! I’M NOT FUCKING DONE WITH YOU!” the nightbringer shouted and heaved backward on the beast with all his considerable strength.

As he continued to drag the immense fish-lizard away from the pond, he unleashed a steady stream of curses and insults, his personal affront to having almost been fish food evident.

“No no NO, you giant catfish-faced-fuckstick! You don’t get to just TRY TO EAT ME and then fucking skip out on the CHECK! Get. BACK. HERE! SHADOW HYDRA!”

Another wave of shadow tentacles unfolded from Jack’s body and struck as one into the creature’s back, causing the creature’s rear legs and tail to suddenly go limp. It’s front legs thrashed even harder as the beast sensed the end was near.

Behind him, Layla doled out the meager remains of her mana pool by tossing out Firebolts like Halloween candy to neighborhood kids.

Rory appeared once again, just behind the creature’s jawline and drove his quillion up into the beast’s neck, yanking the blade across the throat and carving a six-inch-deep, two-foot-long furrow in its neck. Hot, crimson blood began to pour out as though shot from a firehose. The beast threw a giant claw at Rory, but the salesman leapt straight up, fifteen feet into the air, white mana swirling around him as he floated back down to land on the monster’s back. He deftly ran along the armored plates toward the tail, avoiding the massive spines.

“I think that does it, lads. Just hang onto ‘im and give it a minute,” he jumped off the creature and slid to a stop next to Layla.

True to Rory’s word, the beast bled out over the next thirty seconds, its struggles slowing, then eventually stopping. Once it grew still, Jack released the creature and folded away his panoply of obsidian limbs.

“Oy Erin, what the fuck was that?” Rory walked over the dreadnought, grinning.

“Used my level thirty talent to create a technique. Combo power that includes my usual heavy hitters. Hard on the Stamina, though,” she smiled, allowing herself to sink down and take a seat on the sandy soil.

“That easy, was it?” he replied.

“More or less, yeah. I think it’s hard for them because they can’t see exactly what they have and what the combos are missing. They show up in your options if you’ve used stuff altogether enough. I expect you’ll have one for your backstab bits,” she smiled.

“Was it my imagination, or were you actually humming ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ when you used it?” Rory raised an eyebrow at her.

“Guilty,” she grinned. “But hey, what’s up with all that fancy stuff you’re doin’ now.”

“I unlocked a new class during the run from the temple. ‘Spiral Dancer’. It’s sort of a magic wind rogue. I fancy it a bit,” he gave her a crooked grin.

“You just… unlocked a class?” Jack sat down near them.

“Yeah. I picked up the basics of Wind from a chap in Mistelein, and the Jump and Acrobatics skills from all the bouncing about in the dungeon, and apparently that was enough to unlock a new class,” he smiled.

Layla walked over and laid down next to Erin, pulling more dried fruit from a pouch.

“You know, legs here isn’t the only one to create a new ability,” she interjected.

“Yeah? What is it?” Rory quirked another eyebrow.

“It’s a Puppetry spell I named Extradimensional Ultra Articulating Disjointer,” the succubus smirked.

“What's it do?” Erin asked.

“Pops every bone in your body at the same time,” Layla laughed.

“Does... does that do damage?” Jack asked.

“No, but it feels amazing.”