“See what I mean?” Arrow complained, walking ahead of One Swing while following the other four adventurers in front of her. “That long-haired lunatic is totally out of his mind! You guys see it too now, right? Why did I even agree to come along with this idiot?! I still don’t know what ‘becoming the longest’ is even supposed to mean, dammit!”
“Onesie has his own way of fighting. It’s odd, but I’m not against it.” Barbacoa replied, still taking the lead up the narrow trail, kicking the kobold corpses blocking the path forward into the sheer drop at the trail’s side.
“I don’t care how a weakling wants to fight,” Shashlik snapped, following close behind the wolf-woman. “It’s not even worth acknowledging.”
“Yeah, I was pretty surprised when he flung us like that,” Eye-Licker nodded from next in line, giving his eye a lick of agreement. “But it all worked out in the end though, right? And I’ve seen crazier stunts out on adventures before. Eventually you just have to get used to that kinda stuff.”
“That's right, sister!" Grapple gave a thoughtful flex of his exposed pecs as he walked behind the lizardman. "At the end of the day, adventuring is about synergy and being a team player! As long as we’re able to synchronize, we’ll be able to come together and make it work!”
“What does that even mean?!” Arrow complained, kicking at the moustached man in front of her. “Stop rallying off weird buzzwords at me! Your chance at being seen as some kind of wise veteran figure to depend on is long gone! Ugh… I hate adventurers…”
Slowly making their way up the precarious, corpse-littered path winding itself up the mountain, the group eventually made their way to an obstacle in their path. Or rather, the obstacle was a complete lack of any path. It was the area of volcano that One Swing had destroyed when taking a swing at the swarming kobolds on the other side of the drop. They had finally made it all the way up and around to that point.
“Well, now what?” Arrow complained once again, still clearly in a foul mood.
“If you like, I could throw you all across to where the path meets up again,” Barbacoa commented, nodding to the continuation of the trail in the distance. “My aim is very good. I will not drop you.”
“I, uh…” Eye-Licker gave a hesitant lick of his eyeball. “I don’t really feel like being thrown around twice in one day.”
“Shall I make a bridge then?” One Swing asked, taking his place at the back of the group.
“What do you mean make a—?” Arrow began, but quickly stopped herself when she looked up in realization. “Oh. Right.”
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The other adventurers joined her, each of them gazing up at the sword held tightly between One Swing's hands, the one-hundred-and-sixty-four foot violet blade trailing fifty meters into the sky.
“That’s… a really good idea, actually,” the elf conceded, propping her back against the side of the cliff face to give the man and his sword some room to bridge the gap, the others quickly following suit. “Just don’t be an idiot about it. No swinging or shouting or anything stupid like that, okay?”
One Swing smirked.
“Fusion Synergy Synchronization…” One Swing whispered.
—And then gently placed his sword across the gap.
Stepping across the flat of the violet blade, each of the adventurers safely made their way across the makeshift bridge and over to the other side. Following behind, One Swing too made it to the next intact section of the rocky trail, before hefting his sword up by the blade and shimmying the handle towards him.
Soon, the one-hundred-and-sixty-four-foot blade was back in its usual place, slung across One Swing's shoulder, and trailing fifty meters up into the air.
And, with a satisfied smirk still on his face, One Swing continued to follow the others up to the peak of the volcano. It wasn’t long until the group arrived at the top.
Although there was no dragon to be seen at the top, the location of the giant scaly beast was one that could be easily guessed…
“Hmm.” Poking her snout into the air, Barbacoa gave a light scowl as she gestured into the gaping tunnel sinking deep into the center of the volcano’s peak. Occasionally, hot air and odd smells would waft their way up from the large hole, faintly lit by a warm orange glow flickering from further down. “Smells like monster.”
Despite the sheer size of the beast they had encountered across the frozen ridges of Mount Kyuri-Cumber, the shaft of the volcano was wide enough to accept the winged fiend should it choose such a place as its roost.
“I still only smell shitty eggs,” Shashlik complained, holding his nostrils beneath his hood.
“What kind of monster do you smell, sister?”
“I can’t tell,” the woman responded to Grapple's question. "But the fact that I can't means it's likely to be what we're looking for…"
“Cayenne of the Wrathful Flame.” One Swing nodded, peering down into the ashy pit below. “Harbinger of Hellfire and Destruction and one of the Sevens of old. What a fitting place for one of such a lengthy title.”
“Ah, what the hell?” Eye-Licker gave an uncertain lick of his eyeball. “We really have to go down there?”
“Looks like it…" Arrow replied, kicking a loose stone over the edge of the hole and watching it disappear into the softly glowing abyss. "That's a pretty long way down…"
One Swing smirked.
“As it should be," he said, before walking on ahead, following along the path of the naturally-formed ring of stone spiralling down the colossal shaft of the volcano. "If it were only a short way down, it wouldn't have been worth coming such a long way for.”
Giving varying responses of either eye-rolling annoyance or general indifference at such a typically One Swing-esque reply, the others followed him down the spiral trail into the ashy abyss.
Although the six adventurers had successfully battled their way to the peak of the mountain, all of them knew, there was still a long way to go before their quest would be complete.