The Mountain Fingers conferred at the edge of the ruins, far enough away from their target to speak comfortably.

"I was afraid of this," said George.

Jagna tapped a stick on her palm. The ork woman shook her head and said, "It really is the worst possible combination, huh?"

"That's right," said George. "But remember, we've already talked about this, and we might have a way to deal with it."

Kevin held a hand up. "Can someone clue me in here, please?"

"Of course," said George. The lizard man bobbed his head in what Kevin was starting to realize was lizard man body language for acceptance. "Before we even traveled back to Clearmine, we did some research on the monster that the previous adventuring team encountered here. Several members of that team lost their lives, so it would be foolish not to try learning as much about our enemy as possible."

Fili spat on the tree next to him. "I think I read that damn report they turned into the guild like ten times."

"Indeed," said George. The lizard man crossed his muscular arms and tapped a claw against one of his scales. "Of course, that was them, and we are us.”

“They also had more people than us,” said Jagna.

"Yeah, but we know more than they did." Fili smiled his voice was confident.

“It is still dangerous,” said Tomo quietly. “This is a bad combination.”

Fili made a face and waved the words away. “Are you going to tell Kevin, oh fearless leader?”

George turned to face Kevin squarely. "As you know, the beast is a ruin guardian, a rare kind of monster that makes an entire ruin their territory–this is the reason for their name. Ruin guardians get most of their nourishment and energy from some sort of power source inside a ruin. That is one thing true for all of them. But there are different types of ruin guardians. What's tricky is that the type of ruin guardian has very little, if anything, to do with the actual power source of a ruin that feeds it. Some draw from ley lines, some from ancient machinery, and some even from the corpses of ancient, dead creatures with corpses that still hold power. The actual type of ruin guardian seems to be more about the environment and the time of its creation, not where they live afterwards"

"So it could have been anything," interjected Fili. The reports were vague about its type, just very clearly listed it was a ruin guardian. A feline ruin guardian, but there are at least two score kinds that are cat-like.

"That's right," said George. "Unfortunately, this ruin guardian is a leech panther. And that means it's going to be extremely difficult to deal with because one of our greatest damage dealers," he paused and pointed at Tomo, "is going to have her effectiveness greatly reduced."

Tomo said, “Truth.”

George continued, "Leech Panthers, and especially Mana Leech Panthers–which this one could be, but we don’t know that yet–have a passive shield that protects them against missile weapons. That includes arrows. Our original plan for the fight was to have Tomo ambush the monster by shooting her most powerful arrow, one that Fili would also poison ahead of time. Then before that first arrow even hit, she’d have several other arrows in the air, aimed at the ruin guardian so it would take maximum damage before we even engage.” He flared his nostrils. "That's no longer as effective an option."

Kevin frowned as he understood the problem now. "So what are we going to do then?" he said. “Are we going back to Clearmine?"

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"Hardly," said Fili. "You want to know what we're going to do? We'll do what we always do. Improvise." The dwarf gave him a flashing smile.

Jagna hit her fist into her palm. “We can still do this. The element of surprise will still be powerful.”

“I agree,” said George. “We did plan for this possibility, too.”

***

Kevin hunkered down to one side of a wall in the ruins, his heart beating like the drum. He’d been ordered to stay back a ways. The Mountain Fingers were almost ready to attack. The team was arrayed to one side of the slumbering beast, and this close, Kevin could actually feel the malevolent energy rolling off of the thing. He was fairly certain this was the most powerful monster he had ever seen. It was probably even stronger than Baron Titus had been.

Back in the forest near his parents' mountain, anytime Kevin had spotted a creature even close to this powerful, he had disengaged and made himself as small as possible to avoid notice. There was bravery, but then there was stupidity. He wasn't sure if the current situation was brave or stupid.

George held a clawed finger up and eventually pumped his hand into the sky. That was the signal. Tomo loosed her arrow. In addition to her own magic that she infused the arrow with, Fili had also tied two contraptions to the end, together about half the size of a bean can. Kevin knew that they were some sort of improvised explosives, and it would have been impossible for Tomo to shoot the arrow any kind of distance without a combination of her magic and some other trick that Fili had done to the canisters to make them lighter.

With bated breath, Kevin watched the arrow lob its way towards the monster. His eyes wide, he traced its trajectory as it arced its way down, and could tell it wasn't actually going to hit the leech panther. Instead, exactly as the team had planned, the arrow was coming in short, with the intended explosion planned to create a claymore-like effect, a fan of death. The magic shielding of the leech panther only worked on projectiles past a certain range, and the arrow should drop right inside of it. So this meant that the destruction and shrapnel should shred the thing before it even woke up.

Kevin's heart fell, and his jaw dropped as the arrow hit what looked like an invisible pillow a few inches from the ground and just fell without ceremony. It didn’t explode. The monster was instantly awake and turning, growling like an angry steam engine hooked to a pipe organ, when the second arrow that Tomo had shot right after the first, hit the ground several feet from where the other had dropped. This also had been part of the plan. The second arrow was an insurance arrow, just in case something like this happened, since the Mountain Fingers hadn't been sure how far the ruined guardian's field actually spread or what effect it might have on the arrows..

This time, the arrow detonated. A handful of rocks and debris, even chunks of ancient concrete pulverized by the blast, were shot outwards in a fan of angry shrapnel towards the beast. However, perhaps because now it was awake, or perhaps because the group had underestimated its toughness, the wounds that it sustained looked mostly superficial.

Seconds later, the leech panther, orienting on its attackers, gave a challenging scream and sprinted towards them. "Everyone forward," yelled George. "Get out of the open! I will try to get its attention."

Then the fight was officially on. With a heart beating three times faster than it was before, Kevin followed. He could feel in his bones that even with the support of his team, this was going to be the most dangerous fight he'd ever had in his life.

The monster resembled a demonic fusion of scorpion parts and a giant, blue-glowing jaguar from Earth. The leech panther's size was close to that of an Earth hippopotamus, but it was all lithe and deadly, like darkness made flesh. Its fur, or whatever passed for fur, was so dark that the creature almost seemed like a void in the world. However, just enough blue light—barely enough—bounced off the sharp edges and contours of its body to reveal what once might have been strands of fur, now fused into backward-facing spikes.

The creature's tail was similar to that of a scorpion, curving forward, but instead of a stinger, it boasted a large, glistening blade. Kevin got the impression that this menacing appendage served not as a forward-facing natural weapon but as a means for the leech panther to guard its rear. The beast stared malevolently at the Mountain Fingers, and a third eye opened on the monster's forehead, while huge, steaming fangs flashed menacingly. The third eye shut.

George took the monster’s first swat of the paw, standing his ground, deflecting the blow off of his shield.

The leech panther was built far heavier than any terrestrial cat Kevin had ever seen. Its paws resembled those of a grizzly bear more than those of a panther or tiger. Its enormous claws were extended at all times, never sheathed.

Before the leech panther could pass, George managed to grab the creature’s attention again with a shield bash and a powerful attack, pivoting and dodging to the side as it pounced, barely avoiding being torn apart. Tomo darted in while the beast was turning, her bow string snapping with a deadly thrum before an arrow slammed into the leech panther’s leg.

The monster snarled and turned, its glowing eyes blazing with wrath. At first it looked like it might chase after Tomo, but George delivered a powerful chop to the creature’s other side in the rear. It spun and suddenly Jagna was there, stabbing, probing, looking for a weak point to exploit. None of her attacks had decisive power behind them, they seemed exploratory, but they all seemed to hurt the thing. It spun, taking a swipe at the ork woman, but she dodged backwards with a grace and speed that helped explain how she was a B-rank adventurer.

Although the ruin guardian was powerful, the Mountain Fingers were, too.

Kevin wanted to help, but he was aware that doing something unnecessary at the wrong time could ruin his comrade’s teamwork. Even as he thought so, Fili suddenly darted in from the roof of the small building with the mysterious, locked door behind where the ruin guardian had been sleeping. The crafty dwarf threw a dagger, but the leech panther’s protection field stopped it. The monster swung its massive head back towards the back-pedaling Jagna, and Fili took the opportunity to close the distance.

The dwarf threw a glass beaker at the monster, where it shattered and erupted into a bright flash before a small fire manifested on the creature’s side. It screamed, turning to eviscerate Fili, but George was suddenly there, taking the strike on his shield and trying to slash it in the face with his weapon.

Kevin watched the fighting through slitted eyes, waiting for a chance to act, but hoping that one would never come. If he felt led to act,. it would mean the fight would be going very badly indeed. But for the moment, he was incredibly impressed by the Mountain Fingers. Maybe they could handle it without Kevin getting involved at all.