“What in the flaming hot hells is that?! How did we not see that until it was this close? Like zero intel? I feel like it's hard to miss the silhouette of a damn Kaiju!” I screamed out a few more expletives while acid rolled down my cheek, cursing the so-called scouts. I heard similar protests come out from other squads, but like my own, they went ignored.

Each step of the gargantuan reptiles made the earth rumble. Yet not a single soldier from Jaren’s squad even flinched.

“Boss, which one are we taking?” Came from one of the front liners. A ridiculous question, surely we’d need several squads to take on these monsters.

Jaren turned his back, then swept his helmeted head around the entirety of his squad, eventually stopping on our squad. He raised his helmet, showing his eyes for the first time since the battle started, if you could even call them that anymore. No, his eyes were replaced with bright green pools of roiling energy, a single black vertical black slit running down the middle. Light streamed out of them, flickering much like the flames above our heads. A dastardly smile grew on his face. Then he winked.

“Oh, First Ones Above. We have Sub Tens with us.” Daila said while undoing some of the metal buttons and straps of her bandolier. She filled each of her hands with vials, bending her knees slightly like she was about to run.

“We’re advancing,” she said to me without turning her head.

I opened my mouth to protest further, but my words were drowned out by Jaren’s even more ridiculous answer.

“Both!”

“BOTH?”

“You all know the drill!” Jaren twirled his blade around, stopping it behind his back.

“But I don’t know the drill!” I yelled, though instinctively copying Daila’s movements. My body was probably just aware of the fact that there was no point in arguing.

“CHARGE!”

Then, all at once, the frontline ran forward, no more sprinted forward. Which meant we in the diagonal had to follow. I stumbled a few after a few paces into the sprint. My cast covered arm had me off balance. Without missing a beat, one of the supports in the backline portion of the diagonal caught me. She gave me a nod and pushed me forward.

Keeping up was a challenge. Not only for myself either, I checked on the twins and saw they were huffing and puffing just the same as myself. But kept up, we did. Honestly, it wasn’t so bad after we got into the cadence. Odd considering I don’t think I’ve ever run this fast before. I looked up at my status bars, under them sat a little buff icon. A stick figure running his heart out, a billow of wind under its feet.

Ah. Cool. Surprisingly cute. Need to check that out later.

We ran by one of the holes during the sprint, I peeked down it. It wasn’t the same as the one we pulled Fennel and company out of. Monsters, live and dead, filled the base. The live ones were mostly monsters that had no way of climbing, so a bunch of moose and boars was about it.

The other glaring detail of note was that this one was deeper. Heck, it must be at least a full twenty feet. Maybe we could drop the Reptans inside, and fight on an even playing field. Yeah, that has to be why we're moving up. Has to be. A good theory I thought, at least until we blasted right on by, heading deeper into the monsters’ domain.

Maybe the plan was to meet the kaiju lizards before they got to the holes, we’d need all the room we could to fight them properly was my best assumption. Maybe I need to stop trying to logic this crap out. Jaren’s a maniac. Leave it at that.

The Reptans were still a couple of hundred feet out. The Reptan on the left was closer to us, a full body length more than his companion.

Now that I was closer to them, I realized my first estimate was wrong. These guys must have been closer to thirty feet tall, quite possibly knocking on forty’s door. Even if dropped into one of the holes these things would still dwarf us.

But that didn’t stop our little glutton for bloodshed that was the Squad Commander.

Jaren belted out another warcry, this time accompanied by a slight laugh at the end of it. Yep, total maniac.

“I’ll keep Lefty occupied with Terl and Tonsi. Finish off Righty and relieve us.” His final command roared out above the din of battle.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

Just as he finished speaking, he, along with Terl and somebody from the opposite end of the frontline; a large man wearing armor much like Jaren’s, wielding a tower shield and longsword, broke out of the formation and headed over to the Reptan on the left.

Jaren fell back as the shield knight ran in front; Terl stuck close to Jaren. In a matter of moments, they stood before the thirty-foot monstrosity. But the beast didn’t even recognize them, its movements unchanging as it walked forward.

Tonsi, the shield bearer, lifted up his shield horizontally. Jaren jumped onto it and then rocketed into the air, light green energy gathering along the full length of his double-blade. At the peak of the toss—almost level with its head—Jaren slashed out, sending a long arc of energy right at the beast’s head, blowing himself back. After a quick flight, the attack slammed into the reptile's face, exploding into a cloud of green glowing dust.

Its uninjured head pushed through the dust cloud, then lumbered over, searching for whatever dared challenge it. The massive creature peered down at the three men, then opened its mouth, showing off the sea of small, spiny teeth that lined the whole inside.

“EARS!” Daila shouted.

Everyone slowed the running pace down and covered their ears at the command. I lifted my hands to follow suit, making sure to not stupidly disobey an order like that again. My eye still burned a bit. My right hand covered one ear just fine, but the mucus in the other side made it a challenge, an impossible one.

I panicked for a moment before feeling a wetness completely engulf the left side of my head. I looked over and saw Hait holding a hand up to both Tawny and I. Globes of water soon completely surrounded all of our heads.

Man, I really need to start picking up some of the slack. These two are carrying me right now. Not sure who’s the Captain at this point.

I lowered my other hand just as the beast let out its roar. The water sphere vibrated as the cry pealed out, only a small portion of its high pitched sound getting through. I couldn't imagine how loud it would have been without the protection.

It shut its mouth after it finished, raising a huge four-toed foot into the air, aiming a blow at the nuisances that attacked it. Black claws the size of motorcycles flew through the air, heading for the three man team.

Tonsi stabbed his sword into the ground, grabbing onto his shield with both hands, raising it up. Red wind kicked up around him, then focused on his shield. The lone man held up his shield. I nearly turned away, I didn’t care how much energy warped around you, something that large would crush a man with no problem. But some it felt like I needed to watch.

And the unthinkable happened. The foremost claws collided with the shield…and stopped. Tonsi, ahem excuse me, the legend, didn’t even budge an inch from the heavy blow. The red energy rippled around the lizard’s claws, then exploded, pushing it back.

Jaren didn’t miss the chance and aimed a slash at the exposed foot.

“EARS!”

The repeat command rang out again, telling me that it was now our turn to take on the same foe. Righty belted out a roar seemingly twice as loud as its compatriot, rattling the water globe, nearly destroying it. Once it stopped, Hait lowered the watery protection.

The Reptan's mouth hung agape, as a massive amount of drool flooded the ground near the feet of the front liners. Its mouth was daunting. Rows upon rows of small sharp teeth sat in the reptile’s mouth, its tongue lashing from side to side. The stench of its breath nearly knocked me over. Made me wish Hait could make those water helmets more permanent in the future.

I took a second to look around, getting flanked by a different group of monsters would be a death knell. But there wasn’t a single one around, every pack and group raced on by, giving the Reptan, and consequently, us a wide berth. They must have understood on a primal level that getting in this beast’s way was the fastest ticket to the afterlife.

I gulped. It won’t be bad. We have more guys like Tonsi, surely. I gulped again, flinching; little acid went down that time.

The frontliners each readied a shield, huddling together, digging into the dirt as best they could, except for one. A large woman with short black hair and a black cat tail who never had a shield to begin with, only a greatsword, stood behind them. She pulled the hulking blade over her head, orange energy warped around the blade.

The reptile raised its arm, preparing a swipe much like the other had.

Daila grabbed my arm, making me go stiff in an instant.

“On my signal, aim all of your attacks at the opening. Tawny, your order is the same. Hait, block any debris that comes this way.”

She let me go and I regained the ability to move once again. Just in time to catch the Reptan make its move. I raised my mucus covered arm in front of my face.

The vehicular sized foot collided with the front liners, who didn’t take the blow as well as Tonsi did. They were pushed back a few feet. The soldier on the far left edge was thrown away from the collision.

I looked for the cat-tailed woman, but she was nowhere to be found. Another blown away from the attack most likely.

Until a shrill meow resounded from above. The woman was spinning like a top through the air, sword drawn, heading straight for the top of the lizard’s foot. Her blade collided with the clawed foot, and all of the energy was released at the moment of impact. Scales flew through the air, peeling off the lizard’s body along with a huge wave of blood.

Holy shit, if she keeps that up we might have a chance.

“FIRE!”

A whole volley of multicolored arrows flew over our heads, heading straight for the newly created opening. Opening, right!

I saliva and acid pooled in my mouth as I prepared to shoot. But before I could let it out, its foot slammed into the ground, causing a massive quake, throwing me, and a lot of the others in the squad off balance.

Then its other foot came down, blowing more front liners away, including Beyblade Cat Lady.

Holy shit, maybe we don’t.