“It’s weakening! Keep up the assault!”

Ralph frowned at the commander’s voice coming from behind. Apparently, something almost as dangerous as the dragon up ahead had flanked the army without anyone noticing. He still didn’t know what it was since it was impossible to see through the ocean of people since he was in the middle. But he could see up ahead, and the dragon was clearly becoming a lot weaker. It was even showing signs of wanting to flee, but arrows the size of javelins were embedded inside of it, and red chains hung from their wooden ends.

Cheers came from behind, and Ralph scratched his head. Whatever it was, it must’ve died. Now all they had to do was finish off the dragon and—an ear-piercing shriek rang over the cheering, causing Ralph to flinch. Or not.

“There’s another one coming this way! W-wait! There’s a whole herd of them! Get them, men!”

The sounds of explosions and flying arrows along with the clashing of metal and the breaking of wood echoed out from behind. Ralph turned around, a deep frown appearing on his face. The army seemed to be splitting into two. A gap had opened up behind him. Should he wait for his turn against the dragon, or should he fight the unknown enemy that had taken the attention of half the army? He didn’t sign up to fight any unknown enemies. Wait. He didn’t sign up to fight a dragon either.

“What are you standing around for, soldier!? Can’t you see the dragon’s almost dead? Help the people behind us!”

A voice coming from the front broke Ralph out of his thoughts. Ralph nodded, reaffirming his belief that being a soldier was nice. He was in a dilemma, and it was solved for him. He turned around and headed another wave of men towards the rear of the army where the clashing sounds were getting fiercer. Just what kind of enemy awaited him ahead? Soldiers were flying into the air as if they were launched by catapults, falling on top of other soldiers trying to help them.

Ralph raised his shield just in time to prevent his face from being impaled by a stray spear. Then he collapsed when a man fell on top of him. The man groaned as Ralph rolled him off. “Hey,” Ralph said and nudged the man who had a deep, gaping wound in his chest that Ralph could see through. It was like he had been pierced by a ballista. “What are we fighting up there?”

The man groaned again and hissed as bubbles leaked out of the corner of his mouth. He tilted his head up and took in a deep breath before wheezing out the word, “Cows….”

Ralph tilted his head. “Cows? The things we milk?”

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The soldier in his arms shook his head. It was an almost imperceptible movement. He gasped for breath and whispered, “Magic … cows…. Im…print…ed.” The man’s head dropped to the side, his eyes glazed over. Then his body melted into a puddle of red goop that disappeared into the ground.

Ralph sighed. Magical cows? Imprinted magical cows? The only creatures with imprints that were left were dragons. Everything that had imprints were killed off long ago when humans conquered the lands. Did that mean these cows were as strong as dragons? Evidently not since so many of them were required to separate half their army from its main mission, but cows? Really? Where did these imprinted cows come from?

“We need backup!”

Ralph climbed to his feet. As a soldier, he didn’t need to think, so why was he doing it? Maybe he should’ve became an officer before joining this army. But officers needed to know how to read, and he couldn’t do that. A sigh escaped from his lips. His mother was right. Education really was the way to the top, but it was almost exclusive to nobility. Well, being a soldier wasn’t bad either. He forced his feet to move, and he marched ahead towards the middle of the fray. The soldier in front of him screamed, and a massive spear tip the size of his head punched through the man’s chest. A second later, he was flung into the sky.

Ralph’s mouth fell open at the bloody beast in front of him. That wasn’t a spear tip; that was a horn. These … weren’t anything like the cows he knew. The cows he knew were fluffy and soft and loved getting scratched on the chin. This cow…, this cow had murder in its eyes. If cows could train their muscles, then this cow must’ve done training equal to that of an elite warrior. It wasn’t any bigger or wider than those fluffy cows he knew, but it was definitely more compact. And its horns being the size of its body didn’t reassure him either. What was he supposed to do against this monster of a cow? A spear was made for its reach, to stab someone with a smaller weapon before they got into range. But this cow had the larger weapon. And there wasn’t anyone nearby who could help him; all the soldiers were entangled in their own mess. Why were there so many cows!?

***

Grimmy rubbed his chin. The beam of light extending from Vur’s bellybutton shone bright, illuminating his scales. A third of the pillar was blue. A small portion was purple where blue met red. Red took up almost two thirds of the pillar. And the black portion was flickering but growing weaker with every passing second.

“Add more! Vur’s soul is dying!” Tafel grabbed Grimmy’s claw and shook it.

“Hold on a sec,” Grimmy said, pulling his claw away. “I’m doing some quick calculations. Hmm. Yeah, more cows.” He reached behind his wing and pulled out several orbs of gaseous light and dumped them onto Vur’s chest. They sank down as if he were made of water, and disappeared inside of him, faintly glowing before winking out of existence. “Ah, crap. Oops.”

Tafel’s eye twitched. “Oops? What do you mean oops!?”

“Nothing,” Grimmy said and shifted his eyes away. His gaze landed on Lindyss, who was reading a book in the corner. “I was just messing with you.”

Lindyss met his gaze and raised her eyebrow, her expression asking, “Were you really just messing with her?”

Grimmy winked at her in reply.

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