Arika fumbled her cast as the loud boom of the shell detonating sounded and lava shot forth in every direction.

The song stopped as Truth fumbled her fingers and the words died in her throat. A wall of the molten rock flew towards everyone present. Each person reacted at once, running for cover or stumbling back from the sheet of burning sludge.

Orion froze, unable to make a decision. There was no way to save everyone… he couldn’t save even half of them. He felt a tug of instinct to Portal himself and Arika out, but he held it at bay. In seconds, the lava would hit, likely proving fatal to anyone covered by the staggering weight and heat of the attack.

His brain reflexively tried to do what he had done once before—to stretch the bounds of his abilities, and to pull everyone to him at once—but it was out of reach; a solid wall as strong as steel blocked his attempts, the bounds of the spell rigid and firm.

He watched with mounting terror as the attack that would cause the death of his friends descended.

Suddenly, the ground between themselves and the boss seemed to ripple and warp. It shot upwards, arching directly up and towards them, shielding their view from both the boss monster and the lava. The ground that shot up was earthen, with the paving stones of the cobbled street interspersed among the solid dirt.

The wall fell away from them, crashing down against the giant snail with a sickening thump. The body of the creature was laid flat by the weight of the attack, but the earth was slowly being absorbed by the protective lava.

“Ohohoho!” a familiar voice boomed out in the silence that followed. “It would appear we are even, friends, now that I have saved your lives!”

The form of Gileal, the giant gorilla, jumped down from a rooftop behind them, crashing down with an impact that shook the ground. He had grown even larger than the last time they’d seen him, appearing half-again as large. More impressive, however, was the control he now had over the ground.

“F-friends?” Frida asked, looking up at the towering primate with wide eyes.

“Did I misuse this word?” he asked Orion.

Orion laughed with relief as what felt like pure adrenaline coursed through his veins.

“Not at all, friend. We couldn’t be happier to see you.”

“Oh, good!” Gileal’s voice boomed out with confidence, “Friends it is, then!” He cast his gaze over the heads of the humans, looking towards the wall that was now mostly absorbed or pushed aside from the body of the snail. “My quest for more family was a success.” He gestured at the top of the surrounding buildings.

Orion looked up, seeing dozens of small primates cresting the rooftops. They looked like spider monkeys, their long, spindly arms in direct contrast to the thickly corded muscles of the bonobo-like creatures that had previously been with the gorilla. With a spark of recognition, he realized they were likely the creatures they’d seen swinging overhead in the Eclipse Forest on their way to slay the mantis boss.

“Nothing could make me happier, Gileal. I’m glad you found a new family, and thank you for saving mine.”

“Is that not what friends do? Now, let me show you what we can do.” Gileal leaped, landing before the reforming gastropod. He let out a short yell, raising his hand and causing a boulder-sized ball of earth to form above the ground. He yelled again and punched forward with his gigantic fist, the boulder flying and slamming into the body of the snail. Its body reverberated with the impact, shock-waves rolling out from the impact zone.

Clearly receiving the message, the monkeys began slinging projectiles from their arms, their comparatively thin arms moving in a blur of speed. What they threw struck the protective lava of the snail, penetrating it easily, the force causing the molten rock to spread and the projectiles to strike the body with meaty thumps.

Orion looked at one of the projectiles as it bounced off the skin and recoiled towards them, rolling to a stop at his feet.

Surely that’s not…

“Is that poo?” Frida demanded.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Ingenious, is it not?” Gileal asked over his shoulder as he shot another boulder forward. “This tribe of monkeys also has an affinity for earth magics, which is how I found them so easily. They infuse their excrement with earth magic, making it incredibly hard. They then save it to use as ammunition. The munitions fly true, and nothing goes to waste.”

“Disgusting,” Arika and Frida both muttered as one.

Truth and Honeypot both laughed uproariously, the former taking up her stool again and starting her song anew, the latter looking at Truth for a long moment before turning and heading for the boss as he went invisible.

The sky lit up as the light of Truth’s buffing song caused the monkey’s projectiles to glow. They struck even harder, the thumps of their strikes sounding like a drum-roll to accompany the lilting song drifting along the air.

“Oh, come on!” Frida yelled, indignation rife in her voice. “The monkey shit counts as an offensive weapon, but this fucking scepter doesn’t? It’s literally a weapon!”

“Have you tried hitting it?” Angus yelled as he reached the boss with his axe held high. “Or being useful?”

She threw it at him, falling short by a few yards. Before it hit the ground, the scepter started to glow with a vibrant green. “Oh, COME ON!” she yelled as she stomped towards her scepter, arms raised in outrage.

Angus roared with laughter.

Truth’s fingers stumbled over the chords as she giggled at her friend, but she quickly recovered, fingers blurring as the song reached a crescendo.

Gileal launched another boulder, both he and the boulder glowing the same green as the mass of ground shot into the side of the boss. The entire body of the boss shot back a few meters with the impact of the strike, the lava seeming to bubble and hiss in outrage.

White light shone through the patches of flesh that were showing between gaps of protective lava on its body. Orion had seen the green glow take hold on the boulder thrown by Gileal and had taken the opportunity to apply his execute to the boss monster. The spell had snapped into place easily, storing an additional portion of all damage dealt.

A moment later, Arika finished the cast she had resumed, the Explosion tearing into existence atop the now-cracked shell of the snail. The explosion caused shell fragments to fly, the shell itself blowing it into five separate sheets of obsidian that clung to the molten body hideously. Light shone from within the creature like a thousand tiny spotlights, the stored damage threatening to detonate when it reached execution range.

The adventurers continued to land blows on the body of the boss. The hail of rock-hard feces continued to fall, doing increased damage to the open section of flesh where the hard shell had once been. Orion considered swapping Shadow in for a finishing blow, but realized that putting him in the monkey’s line of fire may literally and figuratively be too much shit for him to handle.

Gileal bellowed as he unleashed another massive boulder. The glowing mass struck, causing Orion’s spell to detonate. Light flooded out, as did a high-pitched squeal—the sound was like a thousand pots boiling over, the gaps in their lids whistling as air and steam flew out.

Orion instinctively covered his ears and squeezed his eyes shut, doing his best to restrict his senses from the overstimulating onslaught. It lasted longer than any previous detonations of his Time Bomb ability, or at least it felt like it did. When the light finally seemed to subside, and the screaming whistle could no longer be heard, he tentatively cracked an eye.

The boss was no more.

All that remained of the towering creature was a sheet of hardened rock. It spread out on the street before them, draping over the remains of the burning houses the snail’s body had previously spanned. It looked as though a great ball of lava had fallen from the sky, flattening and hardening as it cooled.

A sense of relief followed the realization, but a lack of notifications made Orion hesitate. He teleported to the roof of a three-story townhouse behind him and surveyed the scene of the city.

To the north-east, the burning section of city stopped in its place almost a kilometer back, the smoke clouds from the burning structures beginning to dwindle.

To the north-west, or rather the west from his current position, the smaller slugs that accompanied the boss seemed to have kept pace with it, the smoke billowing from that direction dark and thick, like from below by raging flames.

“What do you see?” Arika yelled up at him.

Orion swapped himself back down.

“I think someone dealt with the two slugs on its right, but the two to the left are still going.”

“We encountered two of the slugs as we followed the smoke trail to the lava snail,” Gileal said in his booming voice. “You say there are two more west from here?”

“I believe so, yes.”

The gorilla bared his fangs in a monstrous smile.

“Then this day is not yet done!” He jumped to a rooftop, peering west. “Leave it to me. Your help will not be necessary in this matter.” He turned to the monkeys. “With me, my family!”

Gileal roared and leaped out of sight, followed by dozens of shrieks and howls as monkeys ran and swung along rooftops after their leader.

“Haven’t seen Cain in a hot minute,” Honeypot said as he walked over and looked at Frida. “He, uh, he alright?”

Frida looked concerned, then stared into space for a second, evidently checking her party menu. “He’s okay, full health even, but I haven’t seen him in a while, either. Has anyone else?”

Angus, Truth, Archer, Shadow, Arika, and Orion all answered in the negative. Orion realized he hadn’t seen him since just after they’d arrived. Orion had originally thought he disappeared to do some sort of attack, but in the battle's chaos hadn’t realized that he never came back.

Arika inhaled sharply, and Orion spun to her in a panic. She was staring past him, down the street from which they’d come. He spun.

A limping form approached them, driving hatred and fear into Orion’s chest.