The further up the cliffs they walked, the more precarious the ground became. The path was narrow and rocky, nothing feeling stable enough for their weight. The water below was aggressive. The ocean no longer looked shining and inviting, but hungry and devouring all those on the coast. They had yet to see any monsters thus far, and that made them more nervous. Whatever was up here was taking too long to see. The wait was maddening. Zalan wished he saw some great creature instead of nothing that might sneak up on him. The gravel-made footholds were already bad enough, it was another thing to continuously watch every corner.

“I could really use Nold’s power right now,” Zalan said, taking baby steps forward and leaning his weight toward the cliff.

“I do not know that I would like to have Nold goading us on this path,” Rep said reluctantly.

“Not Nold. His power. He can make sand platforms out of nothing. We could walk right across this area without worrying about its structure,” Zalan said, regaining his balance after a bad step.

“Ah, I see. Yes, well, when you discover a way to borrow others’ powers, I would love to know,” Rep said.

“Morloch knows how to manipulate people. Enough that he has the title Morloch the Manipulator. Maybe he can talk Elementals into giving you powers without having to do challenges,” Zalan joked.

Zalan words gave Rep pause. He hesitated and turned toward his friend with an inquisitive look.

“What is it that you intend to do with Morloch once you confront him?” Rep asked.

“What do you mean? I’m gonna fight him. I thought we both would,” Zalan said.

“Yes, that I understand. And, of course, I will be there by your side when you do battle. But do you intend to kill him?” Rep asked.

Zalan swallowed hard. He thought about this briefly when he was in Madam Hikma’s presence, but not since.

“I paid attention to her words,” Zalan said uncomfortably. “She just said I need to ‘do battle’ with him. Does that mean I have to kill him?”

“I do not know. Killing a man is nothing like killing a monster. But apparently he is a part of both? A Monster of the Mindscape?” Rep asked.

“Madam Hikma wasn’t really clear on that either. I don’t know for sure that this guy’s a monster. Yelsa definitely would have mentioned it if he was a monster. But maybe it’s got something to do with him being from Aetheria. Sky people might not be like normal people?”

“Is that how you saw Yelsa? Different from a normal person?” Rep didn’t sound like he was making an accusation, but Zalan felt like the question was charged.

“No, not at all,” Zalan admitted, sighing. “I guess I’ll just have to figure it out when I come face-to-face with Morloch. If he really is a monster, I don’t think I’ll have a hard time killing him.”

“Neither would I. To kill a monster is to rid the world of a danger to humans,” Rep said.

“But if he ends up just being a man…”

The thought hung in the air for a few seconds. With nothing more to say, Rep simply nodded to Zalan in sympathy and continued his way forward. The thought dwelled on Zalan’s mind. Zalan had come close to killing Slauson in the Elemental Rage Tournament and felt deeply regretful about it. How bad could he get if he ended up killing someone? Zalan knew he had the propensity to become catatonic like the state he was in before he entered this realm.

But if Morloch was such a bad guy, then he might need to kill him in self defense. But if Zalan was the one going to challenge Morloch, could that really be considered self defense? It would be justified if he went there to stop Morloch from being a Monster of the Mindscape, whatever that was. Or maybe the fact that Madam Hikma was the one to give the quest made it justified. Except she didn’t say that Morloch needed to be killed.

Zalan didn’t like to think about having to take another person’s life. It was almost antithetical to everything his mom taught him about healing and helping. Her rules of generosity were thorough, but she never gave him rules about killing. She just told him to never be ashamed to defend himself. That anything done in the act of keeping himself alive and able to see her again was justified. It was an ironic message to him now. It felt like this entire realm was spent fighting to keep himself alive, and now he couldn’t see his mom no matter how hard he tried.

The cliff curved inland and the path widened considerably. They were moving into even darker parts of the cliffside and it made Zalan focus more on his surroundings. Rep placed a cautious hand in front of Zalan, peering closely at the cliff walls surrounding them.

“Do you see that?” Rep asked.

“I don’t know. I think I feel it,” Zalan said.

The eerie sensation of having several different eyes fall upon them ran up his spine. A sinister feeling hung behind the invisible gaze.

Zalan kept turning his head to try and figure out where the sensation was coming from, but there was nothing but cliff to see. Even the water of the sea was behind the curve of the rock they stood on.

“Earthenbeasts,” Rep concluded. “They can become one with rocks and earth. Similar to Sickly Gargoyles that disguise themselves as rocks, Earthenbeasts can disguise themselves as the walls of a mountain, cavern, and even gemstone.”

“How can you tell that’s what it is?” Zalan asked, staring more intently at the walls in confusion.

“It is something I learned while still studying in the guild. I can inspect to be certain,” Rep shrugged.

Holding out his arm, he blasted a torrent of flame at an unsuspecting wall of rock. To Zalan’s surprise, the wall shifted away from the fire. Then it twisted and folded outward. A large rock beast hurriedly detached itself from the wall. It was uncanny to see the cliff move with life. The monster was so well camouflaged that it looked like the cliff bore an offspring.

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Climbing out of the wall, it tore its arms forward like breaking free from chains of earth. It looked about eight feet tall and was made of wet clay. It was very hunched over, not quite having gotten accustomed to being free of its rock home. Stumbling as it moved, it looked as though it didn’t recognize its own feet. It was of humanoid structure, with little clay indentations on its face where eyes and a mouth belonged. Its shoulders were broad and the head sprouted directly off the top, without a neck in between. It looked down at Rep and Zalan and glared angrily.

“Should we have disturbed it?” Zalan asked, watching as massive rock fists pulled themselves from the wall.

“There was no avoiding it. It would have attacked us the moment we got close enough. It is how it hunts,” Rep said. “According to Sir Kilile, anyway.”

“You were told by the guy you used to travel with? Sounds like you’ve never fought one before.”

“Never once. But now I have the opportunity to take on three,” Rep raised his head to two more creatures pulling free from the walls.

“I thought you wanted to avoid gaining a Level if you didn’t have to,” Zalan said, drawing his sword alongside Rep.

“You want to take on three creatures on your own? Go right ahead,” Rep suggested.

“Sure,” Zalan said confidently. He had been waiting to see how well he would fight monsters by himself since the tournament. Rep took a large step backward, presenting the monsters for Zalan to take on alone.

Zalan stepped boldly forward and blasted one of the Earthenbeasts just as it stood at full height. It didn’t even flinch.Tilting its head to one side, it looked as if to scare off a fly that had annoyed it. Without so much as an itch to show, the monster seemed resistant to his Elemental Lightning.

“All right, I might need some help,” Zalan admitted, imbuing his blade with lightning.

“Might,” Rep said, amused, empowering his own sword with fire.

Rep threw a ball of fire at one of the Earthenbeasts and it quickly raised a hand to protect itself. Roaring sharply, it had some reaction to the flames, which was more than Zalan could say about his power. It wasn’t enough to leave a wound behind, so they couldn’t tell how effective the fire was.

One of the Earthenbeasts dipped its arm into the wall like it was a viscous fluid and threw out a splash of rocks. Zalan and Rep hardly had time to dive out of the way of the projectiles and were pelted with dozens of jagged edges. Zalan tried throwing more lightning at the same creature’s eyes, but it still had no effect. He couldn’t even blind them with his power. Rep followed up by throwing more flame, and the three Earthenbeasts stepped back slowly. Zalan quickly deduced they were trying to avoid the fire despite it not leaving any marks on their bodies.

“Keep up the fire!” Zalan said. “I think it’s doing something.”

“It does not look to be doing anything,” Rep said. Despite his response, he let out more flame from his fist. The creatures retreated further.

“Yeah, but it looks like they’re afraid of it. Even if we can’t kill them, it’s better to have them not fight us,” Zalan said.

In a panic, all three Earthenbeasts grabbed more stones from the walls and chucked out a shower of rocks. Zalan tried to blast the rocks out of the air with lightning, but couldn’t stop the sheer amount of projectiles. Rep had to stop shooting fire to cover his vitals. Both Rep and Zalan were struck hard, leaving them with open, bleeding cuts along their forearms when the rock shower stopped.

“Should we run?” Zalan held out the Homeseeker.

“No! You were right, the fire is working!” Rep insisted, dropping his sword to raise both hands. Letting out as much flame as he could, he took slow steps toward the monsters.

“These monsters might be what stopped Ma’s people! We could retreat and come back with an Artifact or something to take them out!” Zalan said.

“I said the fire is working!” Rep repeated.

Zalan’s forehead burned. The closed space of the cliffs captured the heat of the flames enough to cake them all in a dry oven. Rep kept up the flame, taking note of the new reactions of the Earthenbeasts. They were cowering away now, slowly making their way backward to avoid the flames entirely. Before long, they stopped moving. Rep continued to dump flame upon them.

“Rep, stop!” Zalan called, his skin feeling itchy and dry.

“They are not dead! They still stand!” Rep continued his fiery onslaught.

“Stop and look at them!” Zalan said more urgently.

Reluctantly, Rep stopped his attack, keeping his arms up in case he needed to emit more fire. The Earthenbeasts all still stood, fear on their faces. Rep was panting after having exerted so much of his Elemental Power. Seeing them standing made him breathe in and get ready to let out more flame.

“Wait, and really look at them.” Zalan put an arm on his chest.

“Zalan, I do not want another wave of rocks in my face,” Rep said, rubbing a bruise just under his eye.

“They aren’t moving.”

“I know, but they are still standing.”

“I think they can’t move. They aren’t even looking at us,” Zalan said, taking cautious steps toward the creatures.

Rep finally lowered his hands, watching with interest. Zalan continued his slow movement forward, raising a hand to touch the closest one as he approached.

“Zap it before you touch it!” Rep said cautiously.

Zalan let out a small spark. The creature remained inert. Breathing in deeply, Zalan placed a hand against the monster. It was totally dry.

“I think you dried out the clay. They can’t move,” Zalan said, running his hand over the cracking clay.

“Amazing,” Rep said, picking up his sword and joining Zalan in poking at the creature.

Zalan thought of something and quickly checked his stats.

“I don’t even think they’re dead. I still only have 16 Experience,” Zalan reported.

Rep checked his own stats and nodded.

“I am the same. We should not leave them behind. If they somehow figure out how to move once more, they could flank us,” Rep said.

“Right,” Zalan agreed.

Zalan pulled out his sword, then hesitated before striking the monster. He hadn’t tried his fists against monsters for a while. Using his fists, he bashed off the legs of the Earthenbeast. The limbs broke easily, the clay was very brittle. Zalan smiled at his show of Strength against the monster. He wasn’t totally helpless without Elemental Power or a sword. Once the body fell to the ground, he cut off the head. He checked his stats and saw his Experience at 21.

“Nice, that worked. Now it’s dead,” Zalan said.

Rep nodded, happy to hear they found a way to save themselves the trouble of dealing with a surprise attack. Zalan continued cutting down the next creature. It came down just as quickly, and Zalan killed it without delay. Finding it therapeutic to break things like this, Zalan wanted to have fun with the last one. He cut the legs at an angle with his blade. Then he held his sword up so the Earthenbeast’s head would land directly on his sword. The dry Earthenbeast began to tilt forward, its head going directly where Zalan planned.

“Zalan, wait!” Rep said suddenly.

Zalan had no time to react. The Earthenbeast’s head fell through Zalan’s blade. Zalan looked back at Rep, wondering why he would ask him to stop midway through executing a monster.

“Oh. Right,” Zalan said, disappointed in himself.

Rep was glowing a faint white color. The glow continued to shine until it exploded in brilliant light. Rep had gained a Level, removing their ability to use its explosion as a strategy anywhere else up the cliff.