“Why can these monsters see us? What about your Disregard card?” Max said, not taking his eyes off the feathery snake monsters. His concentration triggered Insight.

Quetzalcoatl - Level 5

Ebba replied, “They’re deaf. Bell cards don’t work on feathered serpents. If I was alone, I would just outrun them. They aren’t very fast, particularly on the ground. However, I do not believe all of you would survive running. We will have to make a stand in the center of the clearing. I will assist you this time." Ebba turned to the group. “Do not worry overmuch, these are low tier monsters, even nestlings like you should have no problem killing them.”

The rest of them hurried to keep up with her. Max scooped up the shield as they went. He almost unbalanced from the weight of his pack. Once he regained his balance, he handed the shield off to James and unclipped his pack. As he set it down, he made sure to turn his exolegs off so they wouldn’t trip him up.

“Beware of their initial charge. They will all attack at once by leaping from the trees. Don’t let them wrap around you, their feathers are like knives.”

Max said, “Any advice for us individually?”

“Don’t die.”

Max would have rolled his eyes if the situation wasn’t so serious. Instead he gave it some thought and pulled out his two war hammers. He handed one to Yang and the other to Gus.

He made himself a third one as he said, “Careful with those. The first hit is magical, normal after that. Gus, use your evil twin card when some of them bunch up close. Lily, get out your-” He cut himself off as he saw that the Mushroomantis was already ready.

“What should I do, honored Max?” Kezhi asked.

“Kezhi, you can hit them from here with your glass shards, right? Get one ready. Fern, if Ossification is ranged, I want you to use it at the same time. James, you kick us off with a Decay on the closest feathered serpent.”

“Wait,” Feng said. He handed Max a bottle of brown liquid. “Drink this. I have a nature armor card.”

Max took the bottle, but hesitated. He had the gauntlets and the others needed protection too. He convinced Gus and Yang to take a swig. There was only enough for the two of them. Their skin grew darker, and their forearms formed bracers of wood. The transformation ended there, the low level card unable to do anything else.

The feathered serpents slithered closer and closer. They had know that their prey was aware of them, but they kept creeping closer and closer, tightening the noose around them.

“Now, James,” Max said and gripped his war hammer tight.

James held up his hand with a flourish and pointed at a monster. The quetzalcoatl seemed unaffected. James dropped his hand and slumped his shoulders. The other ranged fighters let loose their attacks with varying degrees of success.

Fern pointed and a wispy white bolt flew through the air and hit a different snake in the midsection. Within seconds, bone white spikes sprouted out of its body. It was like a sea urchin had suddenly appeared within its stomach. The monster opened its mouth in a silent scream and fell from the tree. A small white orb appeared as soon as it hit the ground.

While her magic was working, Kezhi flung his glass shard into the sky. It missed by five feet. He fired again, and again. Since the monsters were thirty feet up in the tree branches, they were able to slither out of the way, even when his aim improved.

All of a sudden, all of the feathered serpents moved. They flashed their feathers and leapt from the tree. Their feathers on the sides of their belly spread out wide. It was enough to allow them to glide down and control their descent.

With Fern’s monster dead, that left eleven monsters coming at them from all sides. One of them didn’t get its feathers wide enough and crashed into the ground head first. It crumpled to the ground in a lifeless heap, a small white orb appearing over the body. Its feathers started turning brown, making Max guess that was the one that James hit. His Decay card must have needed more time to work.

Gus used his Warped Mirror card on the gliding snakes. A blue snake appeared midair, flying alongside the original. It was the same semi transparent blue of Lily's summon. The new snake twisted midair and chomped down on its neighbor. The two of them tumbled from the air as the others continued gliding down. The real feathered serpent landed atop the blue one and popped it. The real monster seemed mostly unharmed.

Ebba did her knife and stick routine and sent the scrimshaw knife buzzing through the air in a circle above everyone’s head. Most of the monsters were smart enough to turn away and land on the ground. Two of them let their instincts blind them to the danger and kept gliding in. Ebba’s knife punched into and through both snakes, spraying blood in a wide arc across the clearing.

One snake landed on top of James. He got his shield up in time, but collapsed under the sudden weight. Max rushed over to help him, but it wasn’t necessary. Ebba’s knife had severed its spine. James scrambled out from underneath the feathers, not knowing it was already dead.

A flash of blue came from Max’s left. He turned to see Gus had used his war hammer on the other feathered serpent Ebba had cut down. That one must have needed an extra hit to go down.

A crack echoed across the clearing and the closest monster fell. Max glanced back to see Ebba holding a thin wooden weapon. It looked vaguely like a wooden rifle, except the barrel was cut in half. She slid it back into her cargo shorts of holding. It must have been a single shot weapon.

Minor amount of essence gathered

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Max grinned at the message. He hadn’t personally killed any of the monsters, so experience must be shared. He was starting to feel optimistic. It was only a few seconds in and they had already killed five. That only left eight snakes slithering closer, less than one per person.

The universe took offense to his optimism.

Ashley cried out from behind him. He turned to see a snake with her arm in its jaws. When Ebba turned to deal with it, four quetzalcoatl struck the other humans. Two attacked Yang at the same time. She slid out of the way of one, only to fall into the path of the other. Gus tried to step in to help her, but only tangled the both of them up. The snakes grabbed an arm each, making Yang scream in pain.

The third snake went after Lily's mushroomantis. The little scythes under its cap sprung out to attack, but didn’t even cut through its feathers. The monster dispelled the summons with a single strike. The final snake struck at Feng and Kezhi, but they danced out of the way. They retreated too far, leaving the circle and opening themselves up to two other feathered serpents that hadn’t attacked yet.

Lily ignored her summon’s death and jumped in to help Yang. She stabbed one of the monsters, trying to get its eye with her pocket knife. Gus had untangled himself and was starting to get up. Max jumped in and went after the snake holding Yang’s other arm.

He swung his war hammer like a golf club, hitting the monster in the back of its jaw. A blue light flashed out when he struck. The top half of the monster’s head exploded like a Gallagher watermelon. Brain and bone flew through the air. The rest of the monster fell away from her arm.

Minor amount of essence gathered

Gus was up and moving by then. He shoved Lily out of the way and used both hands to smash down with the war hammer. The spike of the hammer hit the top of the monster’s head and punched through the bone there. The monster opened its mouth in a silent scream, somehow not dead yet. Yang took the opportunity to yank her arm out of the screaming monster’s mouth.

Gus pulled on his hammer, the monster’s head coming with it. He wrenched it around, but it was stuck fast. The ten foot long monster pulled him along too, he had to brace himself to not be yanked off his feet.

He screamed, “Kill it!”

Lily seemed willing, but her pocket knife was useless. Max stepped in to help, slamming into the monster again and again. He made sure to use the hammer end so his spike didn’t get stuck. Unfortunately, the monster’s skull was too strong for his hammer to do much damage.

The feathered serpent eventually twisted Gus’ war hammer out of his hands and reared up, like a cobra getting ready to strike. Gus saw Yang’s discarded hammer on the ground, the one with a magic strike charge still loaded up. He flipped his foot under the handle and kicked it up.

His aim was off and the hammer flew off to the left. He leaned to try and grab it, but his fingertips missed it. The hammer spun through the air, out of reach. Max reached for the war hammer with his free hand, but it was about two feet too far.

When the hammer was about to fly by, a spectral blue hand flew out of his glove and snatched it out of the air. The magic hand returned with a thunk and held the war hammer fast. Max stared at his hand in shock. That must be the magic power of his gloves.

The injured monster struck then, heading towards Gus with its maw open wide. Max took a step and swung down as hard as he could. The monster’s strike and his own collided in midair and exploded. The hammer’s super strike went off inches from Gus’ face and drenched him in blood.

Minor amount of essence gathered

Gus stumbled back, spitting and wiping at his face. Once Max was sure he would be fine, he turned to the other monsters. His side had only killed four, that meant the others had four more to deal with.

By the time he turned, there were two monster corpses in front of a still screaming Ashley. There were two snakes left alive, a small one and a huge one. Their battle had moved about fifteen feet away. Max’s Insight triggered on the bigger one.

Quetzalcoatl - Level 12

As Max watched, Ebba brought her knife down onto the head of the higher leveled snake. It twisted to the side at the last moment, only earning a shallow graze. They had been at this dance for a little while, more than six shallow cuts bled from the monster’s body. Ebba was entirely unharmed, she flowed around the monster with almost effortless grace. It was clear she outmatched the large monster. The only reason it wasn’t dead yet was that the monster was crafty. Whenever it had the chance, it would lunge for Fern and Ebba had to step in to defend her.

Behind her, Feng and Kezhi were fighting against the last one alone. Feng had his backpack in his hands and was using it like a shield. It was ripped and stuff was falling out everywhere. Feng was using his shards to attack, but they weren’t effective. They kept shattering off the monster's feathers. Max grabbed a second war hammer and dashed over to help Kezhi and Feng. As he ran, he worried that he might be too late.

Feng stumbled after a particularly strong strike and the monster slithered around the opening to get at Kezhi. It tilted its velociraptor face to the side and chomped down on Kezhi’s stomach. It bit down hard and pulled, blood and viscera flying. Kezhi fell to his knees and put his hands to his gut. There was nothing there. He had time to look shocked before he fell to the side.

Max arrived then, war hammers swinging. The monster slid out of the way of both swings and spit at him. Kezhi’s guts hit Max’s left leg as he danced back. The feathered serpent took the opportunity to dart forward. Not at Max, but at Kezhi. A small white orb and a magic card hovered in the air above Kezhi. The monster snatched up the orb and slithered back.

Ebba finished with her fight and jogged over. The snake took one look at her spinning knife and fled. It slithered through the undergrowth and up the closest tree. She didn’t follow. She turned to Kezhi’s body and tsked.

Max stood there in shock, not knowing what to do. He looked around the clearing again, but no new monsters appeared. Gus and Lily were kneeling over Yang, bandaging her arms. Fern had just got out her first aid kit and Ashley was yelling at her to hurry. Feng fell to his knees in front of Kezhi’s body and cried. Ebba started collecting the orbs from the snakes’ bodies.

The hammers fell from Max’s hands. Kezhi was dead. They were out of their depth and their guide couldn’t protect them all. They couldn’t stand against a dozen low level monsters without losing someone.

Max turned away from the body. It hurt to look at him. He had only known Kezhi for a day longer than the others that had died. This one hurt much worse. Maybe because Kezhi always called him honorable and was a nice guy all around. Max felt responsible. He was their leader and he had let them down. He couldn’t think of any mistakes he made, but that made him feel like he was so bad he couldn't even see his mistakes. He knew that he shouldn’t blame himself, but feelings rarely followed logic.

It was hard to get moving again. He had to force himself to stand. He wiped his tears and went to check on Yang. He knew Ashley was going to be fine, her complaining was clear evidence that she would be fine. Yang hadn’t made a sound since the fight ended and that was starting to worry him.