“Bogling!” Renalia shouted, relying on a powered dodge to get out of the way.

The surface of the water crested. The head emerged at the same time as two clawed hands swiped at the hunters on either side of her. Donaldson dashed back while Lexi blocked the surprise attack with her shield. The powerful strike sent Lexi to her knees and pushed her back several feet.

[Dull Emotion] chased away the shock, fear, and awe as she glanced up at it. It was not a black-skinned bogling that had jumped out.

Instead, a silver-scaled lizard towered several feet over them. It kept its arms stretched out on each side, but retracted the curved metallic blades back into its fingers. Sunlight glinted off each polished scale, flickering as water sloughed off faster than one would expect. It looked as beautiful as Renalia imagined a dragon would.

“Run, Renalia!” Lexi shouted, moving between the reptile and Renalia.

Renalia activated [Bogling Speed] and ran, dropping her spear to run even faster. A small part of her did not want to abandon the siblings and the dogs to this monster. But fear and duty drove her. She had not trained to fight monsters like this. Lexi and Donaldson needed real Hunters to help them. She would only get in the way.

Donaldson pointed a finger at the lizard. His magical lance hit it squarely in the chest with a loud plunk. The lizard grunted, but Donaldson’s most powerful ability did not penetrate the armored hide. Donaldson angled his finger up, but a quick twitch of the lizard’s head avoided his second lance.

A forked, metallic tongue darted out as the monster hissed. It raised a clawed hand and dozens of javelins materialized overhead. A swift chop with its arm sent the projectiles flying toward the hunters.

“Earth,” Lexi called out.

Renalia dropped to her knees at the warning, bogling skin protecting her as she slid. Even this far from the epicenter of Lexi’s power, she had to thrust out her hands to brace against the sudden heaviness of her body.

Dozens of javelins buried themselves deep in the soft earth, short of the hunters.

As quick as the lizard’s reactions were, it could not predict the abrupt grasp of gravity on its body. Unbalanced, it pitched forward. But it threw its hand out as it fell.

Javelins appeared just above Lexi, aimed straight down. Lexi released her power and jabbed her hand up. The gravity-accelerated javelins banged loudly on her force shield inches from her head.

The creature, now on all fours, sped toward Donaldson, faster than one would expect from a giant lizard.

Donaldson stood, planting the butt of his long physical lance on the ground with one hand and pointing with the other. The oversized reptile dodged at the last second, trying for a side-swipe with its claws. But it slammed into the force shields Lexi had conjured on either side of it.

Surprised, it tried to leap up and back on instinct. It was the worst thing it could do, as both of Donaldson’s lances caught it in the throat. Scales flecked off as the lizard’s head snapped backward, tracing a short arc of blood.

With inertia, its lower body continued forward. It lashed out with its tail, lightning fast.

“No!” Lexi shouted as the heavily muscled appendage smacked Donaldson at the hips, strong enough to fling him into the air.

Renalia risked a glance back, blinking away her tears. She continued running at normal speed, since [Bogling Speed]–already reduced from assisting Brodir–had expired.

Lexi made her brother lighter as he fell and ran at the downed reptile with her spear. Aided by its tail, it flipped itself upright and deflected the spear with a forearm. The other arm lashed out, five metallic blades extending out. Lexi blocked again with her force shield.

The dogs, finally reaching the fight, lunged at the reptile. The monster whipped its tail again, faster than Lexi could react. It hurtled Porkchop and Killer away, both yelping in pain. Boogie chomped down on the lizard’s ankle but it knocked him out with the back of its hand.

“Back,” Lexi commanded the dogs. The monster turned back to face Lexi but, as it did so, a bruised and battered Donaldson rose from the ground and aimed from a distance.

The lizard’s eye exploded, peppering Lexi with its fluids. It blasted an inhuman, grating screech that halted Renalia in her tracks. She glanced back, far enough away now to need [Bogling Sight] to see the battle.

Blood flowed from the lizard’s eye socket and down the side of its snout. Its lips curled, not in pain, but in anger. And, maybe–as she lacked experience with lizard expressions–joy?

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It screeched again, spewing forth chartreuse bile. Lexi conjured an invisible dome to block. As it splashed to the ground, the plants it touched blackened and shriveled, turning to dust.

“No,” whispered Renalia. [Force Dome] was Lexi’s strongest defensive spell. It blocked everything from crossing its barrier, even magical abilities like Lexi’s own [Gravity].

But it had a short duration.

Renalia took a hesitant step back toward the conflict as Donaldson shot a lance across the top of the dome at the monster. With its remaining eye constantly trained on Donaldson, it casually cocked its head and avoided his ability.

[Bogling Hearing] detected a gurgling sound, which, Renalia realized with horror, was laughter. Through it all, the toxins never stopped.

But Lexi’s dome shrank a little.

“No.” Renalia started running back as fast as she humanly could. Not Lexi, not like this. The barrier would not last the hour that it would take for Renalia to get back with reinforcements.

Boogie regained consciousness, shook his head, and launched himself again at the creature. Five metallic knives came down to meet him. Donaldson dashed around the dome, his magical lance deflecting the clawed hand inches from Boogie’s face.

“No!” Renalia shouted as the swift lizard tail tossed the dog away. Boogie!

She activated [Dull Emotion] and [Restrain Impulse], even using [Resist Hunger] to shut down the part of her mind starting to anticipate lunch. No, she told herself calmly. I have to be faster. She concentrated with her whole being.

Faster than the malnourished child that she was. Faster than any human could be. Faster, even, than any bogling had a right to be.

Lexi needed her help. Boogie needed her help. They all needed her help because there was no one else.

The dome continued to shrink, small enough that Lexi had to crouch, encircled by a pool of yellow-green bile and black specks of dead plants. Donaldson dashed back around the poison-coated dome as javelins flew at him, clutching his injured hip in pain.

Renalia’s mind broke. One thought overwhelmed all others: faster. Subconsciously, she activated her abilities in rapid succession. Claws into the dirt. Strength into the limbs. Leap. Dodge. Skin and slide. Faster.

Renalia’s body broke. Pain laced through, but the thought faster subsumed everything. She barely registered the futile [Disinfect Wound] aimed at the pain or the successful [Find Herb] targeting a numbingweed plant. Claws into the dirt. Strength into the limbs. Leap. Dodge. Skin and slide. Faster.

Her pain did not matter. Her humanity did not matter. All that mattered was getting to Boogie and Lexi and Donaldson.

Claws into the dirt. Strength into the limbs. Leap. Dodge. Skin and slide. Faster.

By the time Renalia reached them, the dome had shrunk so much that it scarcely had room to cover Lexi. Not breaking stride, Renalia leapt at the monster, digging [Bogling Teeth] into its neck. Hot tangy blood spurted down her throat, causing her to cough.

The lizard screamed its harsh shriek again. And the spewing bile stopped.

Not long after, the dome’s duration ended. As it disappeared, it revealed Lexi sitting on her ankles, body bent low, face flat on the ground, and arms wrapped on top of her head.

But not long enough. Not all the bile had drained off the dome yet. Some, not even four inches from the ground and in the absence of a dome, dropped straight down onto Lexi’s boot. It ate through the leather and disintegrated her foot in an instant. She screamed, clutching her knee and writhing in pain.

Renalia raked her bogling claws along the monster’s shoulder and arm. They slid across the scales, not breaking through. But she never imagined they would. She just wanted enough purchase to launch herself upward and bite off the remaining eye.

But the lizard caught her by the throat in mid-jump. It sliced into her thickened neck with a metal claw, causing her to instinctively go slack. Any more movement and she would die. She had never experienced a situation such as this, but the primitive part of her brain knew her life was on a literal knife’s edge.

Lexi had also ceased squirming in pain, as her consciousness became overwhelmed. And not a second too soon. She laid on her side, mid-roll, with the short hairs at the back of her head dipping into the corrosion.

No, it wasn’t supposed to end like this, Renalia thought. I was going to save you!

Even as she watched, the pool of decay, unconfined now by a dome in its center, pressed into Lexi’s circle of refuge. A light breeze carried away the specks of debris as her hair slowly shortened.

Renalia saw Donaldson waver with uncertainty, torn between rescuing his sister or her. Questioning, perhaps, what he could even do with his one battle-suited card.

With a sharp blade at her artery, Renalia wasn’t stupid enough to speak. But she would risk herself to save Lexi. She readied a burst of [Bogling Skin]. She didn’t think it would work, but she didn’t care.

The lizard stopped them both with a wag of its finger. Eyeing Donaldson, it pointed to Renalia, then to the village.

Then it spoke a word, garbled to almost indecipherability emanating from a lizard with a forked metallic tongue. But it was unique enough that both of them understood.

“Jabal,” it hissed.

Papa?