With Sarien starting to close the gate, Goslin turned to face the monster, the trickster beast. It was appropriately named.

The beast had fooled Goslin and the others, luring them deeper into the forest with it shapeshifting features and disembodied cries, but no more. Goslin knew its tricks now.

The form it currently possessed was the same as when they fought it before, a gangly bear-like man covered in short fur. Goslin idly wondered if it was its original form, but he truly didn’t care. It did not matter. It would be dead soon enough.

The leather straps on his shield creaked as Goslin clenched his fingers around it. Pain shot up his shoulder, and he couldn’t help but think of how the beast tossed him through the air so effortlessly.

Goslin couldn’t injure the monster, but that didn’t mean he would be useless in the fight.

“Go, Kax! Go, Hart! Come at it from the sides!”

His two childhood friends moved in to intercept the prowling monster. Hart screamed a wordless battle cry, while Heylien and Lana kept up their assault from afar. The daggers and arrows did little, but enough bites from an ant can fell a tree.

“Tom, with me!” Goslin said.

Goslin and Tomford charged the beast as one, drawing its attention away from Kax and Hart. The trickster beast reached out a long arm to swipe at Tomford’s unprotected flank, but Goslin darted in to block the blow. Attack as a group, defend as a group.

Tactics was the lifeblood of combat. Pain surged through his shield arm again, and Goslin grunted with the effort to stay on his feet. Tomford managed to strike at the beast’s belly, but his fists did even less damage than the blow Goslin inflicted to its right thigh.

The beast ignored Goslin and Tomford, and Lana and Heylien. Their weapons barely scratched its thick and durable skin. Such a creature should not exist, but here they were, struggling against the impossible.

Kax drew close enough to swing, but the trickster dodged to the side with impossible speed, away from the obsidian blade.

Hart bellowed, his eyes wide with bloodlust, and thrust his spear into the beast. The spear struck true, forcing the beast back.

The beast’s bright eyes peered around the clearing before landing on Tvalfager, who still had his eyes closed, focusing on stoking the flames.

“Protect the pyromancer!” Goslin shouted. Without him, they’d be thrown into darkness and be lost. Goslin knew in that instant that the beast knew that as well.

The trickster beast leapt with the grace of a cat, evading their attempts to distract it.

Emeryn stepped out in front of Tvalfager and pointed with her one hand. “Stop right there!”

The beast ignored her, but it could not ignore the pillar of earth that suddenly rose from the blood-soaked grass. It knocked the creature with enough force to throw it off balance. It screamed as it fell, and Goslin saw Emeryn grit her teeth as she opened the earth under the beast. It fell into a deep rectangular-shaped pit, clawing at the loose dirt walls, before, with a grunt, Emeryn collapsed the sides, burying the beast within the makeshift grave.

Emeryn’s chest rose and fell, and her knees wobbled as she took a step back, a shocked smile crawling across her face. “I got it. I really got it.”

Goslin glanced back to check on Sarien and saw that the young man was slowly closing the gate. The air around the opening wavered with bright light emitting out of Sarien’s hand and he couldn’t look at it without feeling dizzy. The wrongness of seeing a tear that led to another world made him nauseous, like his mind couldn’t comprehend what it was seeing.

The ground trembled. “It isn’t holding!” Emeryn shouted, clambering backward. She paled in the firelight, closed her eyes, and bit her lip while concentrating. The quake stopped for a short moment, but then returned with increased intensity.

“It’s coming up,” Emeryn whimpered. “I can’t hold it.”

“Kax! Hart! Get ready!” Goslin yelled.

Kax drew up his short obsidian blade and Hart his matching spear. Both men ran up to the mound of pulsing earth just as the ground exploded. Dirt, small rocks, and roots rained down over Goslin, forcing him to hold up his shield for cover while Hart and Kax advanced. The beast labored to pull itself free from the shifting dirt, bellowing and throwing its arms in wide arcs to stave off the attackers.

Kax sliced into its shoulder, but the cut wasn’t deep. The beast’s claw caught the blade and was sheared off, but the strike followed through and caught Kax’s hip, throwing him to the side with a yelp. He dropped the sword and Goslin rushed in to pick it up.

A wave of nauseating wrongness struck Goslin the second his fingers closed around the hilt of the short sword. He set his jaw, ignoring the sensation, and rushed the beast.

The trickster beast freed itself from Emeryn’s trap. Goslin managed to dodge under a swing of its arm and stabbed into the beast’s side. It danced back and screeched.

Tomford was down on his knees beside Kax, frantically healing the damage the trickster inflicted with its blow. Goslin knew that Emeryn was exhausted and Heylien and Lana no more than gnats buzzing around the edges of the monster’s perception. Only he and Hart stood between them and certain death.

To Goslin’s surprise, the beast pivoted on its hooved foot and charged at Sarien. It was only then that Goslin noticed that the gate was nearly closed, only large enough for a man to fit through.

Hart curled his lip, baring his teeth, and thrust the spear at the beast as it ran by. It leapt into the air, skirting around him.

Goslin was too far from Sarien and could only watch helplessly as the trickster beast rushed forward. Their new friend stood with his back against the fight, oblivious to what transpired behind him. Tomford spotted the creature’s mad dash and shot to his feet, but he was nowhere near or fast enough to save Sarien.

A small shadow soared through the air and landed directly on the monster’s face. Goslin watched, dumbfounded, as Lana bore down with a dagger in each hand, stabbing at the beast’s face in tight, rapid motions. The trickster flailed, trying to dislodge her.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Goslin ran towards the beast with Hart by his side. The creature grabbed hold of Lana and threw her right at them. Goslin dropped his sword and shield and caught her small body as she tumbled into him.

"Are you okay?” Goslin asked, sprawled under Lana.

“Why did you do that?” The young woman glared at him, pushing to her feet. “Just get out of the way next time.”

Goslin looked up just in time to cry out a warning to Sarien. The beast was nearly upon him. “Look out!”

Sarien looked over his shoulder and smiled, a sense of complete serenity on his face. The trickster beast grabbed him by the upper arm. It raised its arm, claws gleaming in the firelight.

Tomford jumped through the air and collided with Sarien hard enough that the beast, still clutching Sarien, was pushed forward, knocking both Sarien and Tomford through the tear.

Goslin watched in impotent horror as the opening closed around the beast’s arm, snapping shut with his friends on the other side.

“No!” he screamed, getting to his feet.

They were gone and the monster’s severed arm with them. The beast grabbed at the stump where his arm once was, screaming in confused anger and pain.

Goslin hurtled toward it, the obsidian sword held before him. “Hart!” he screamed. The sword bit into the creature’s thigh. Its stump and thigh bled a black ichor that smelled of decomposing corpses. Goslin gagged but struck again. This time the trickster managed to dodge, but Hart appeared, impaling its shoulder with ferocious glee on his face.

The trickster beast pulled back and Hart lost his grip on the spear. Lana soared through the air again and landed on its chest, grabbing the spear with both hands. The beast shoved her off.

Was that fear Goslin glimpsed on its face? Losing its arm couldn’t have been in the realm of possibility in its mind, and the wound where Hart’s spear penetrated its shoulder was starting to look black and blue, like the infection in Emeryn’s arm where the luison bit her.

Goslin felt the hairs on his arms stand on end when he noticed how expressive the creature was. There was intelligence lurking behind its eyes. This was no brute animal. It knew what it was doing, and it enjoyed it.

“Kill it!” he screamed, hacking at the beast with his sword. One of the blows landed across its stomach, slicing it open. Black ichor sprayed across Goslin’s face, and he vomited what little he had in his stomach across the wet grass.

An image flashed before his mind. His brothers looking down on him, laughing and pointing.

The momentary loss of focus meant he didn’t see the blow as it came down upon him. It was due to luck alone that the beast struck his shield, flinging him down with enough force to make him see stars. The sword landed off in the grass.

Hart was tossed aside too, and all of Lana’s attention was focused on dodging the beast’s desperate attacks.

A mound of earth grew near the creature, and Goslin shook his head and turned his attention to Emeryn. She was on her knees, palm to the ground, staring intently at the beast. Goslin understood immediately.

Heylien came running from one direction, and Kax from another. The archer jumped off the mound first, crashing into the trickster beast with the bow high over his head. When he landed, Heylien wrangled it around the monster’s neck. He’d brought a thin rope, which he looped around the beast’s remaining arm before leaping down, using his own weight to momentarily incapacitate the beast.

“Kax! Now!” Heylien yelled.

Kax plucked his sword from the ground before leaping off Emeryn’s raised earthen mound, screaming as he threw himself through the air.

“BURN YOU!”

The trickster beast looked up as the obsidian blade tore into its face, cutting into its lower jaw and lopping it clean off. The beast’s tongue lolled out of its mouth. The scream of anguish it roared almost made Goslin feel pity for it.

Kax fell, his sword slick with black ichor.

With the spear still burrowed deep in its shoulder, the monster turned, its injured leg almost buckling under its weight, and fled. A trail of ichor covered the ground where it ran, spurting from wounds all over its body.

Goslin watched as the creature barreled through the wall of fire and disappeared into the forest.

“No you don’t!” Hart bellowed, hurrying after the injured creature.

“Wait!” Goslin screamed. “Don’t go alone!”

Hart did not listen. It wasn’t clear if he’d even heard through his rage. He grabbed Kax’s obsidian sword and leapt through the fire.

Goslin winced. Heylien limped up next to him. Kax laid still on the ground.

Lana grinned. “I’ll return with that bastard, don’t worry!” The flames flickered as a gust of wind pushed her up and forward through a leap, taking her over the flames with ease.

“Can’t keep this up anymore,” Tvalfager said, swaying on his feet. The fire surrounding them flickered and began to die down. “What happened to the fake pyromancer and the tall redheaded fellow? They’re not dead, are they?”

“They fell through the opening in the air as it closed.”

“That burns,” Tvalfager said.

“They’ll be back,” Goslin said, resisting the urge to punch the kid in the face. He would if he had any strength left to do so. “This won’t be the last we see of Tom and Sarien.”

Tvalfager looked to where Hart and Lana disappeared. “You didn’t kill it.” Dawn was approaching, and the dim light was enough to see Tvalfager’s dismayed face. Goslin gritted his teeth. Perhaps punching him once wouldn’t be so bad?

“Why don’t you sit down and rest, Tvalfager,” Emeryn said. “All we can do now is wait for them to return. Right, Goslin?”

“Right,” Goslin agreed, falling back against the ground. Pain radiated from every muscle.

Kax groaned. He sat up and held a hand to the right side of his head. “Did I get it?”

“Nearly,” Heylien said. “You took half its face off.”

“Burn me,” Kax cursed. “Where’s my sword?”

Goslin pointed out into the forest. “Hart is chasing after the trickster. He has the sword. The spear was still in its shoulder when it fled.”

“I hope they’ll come back unharmed,” Emeryn said. “It was stupid beyond belief to chase after it by himself.”

Heylien crossed his arms and sighed. “The thing was nearly dead, I think, and Lana is following. I’m sure they’ll be fine.” He didn’t look all that certain, at least not to Goslin.

“Kax, how are you feeling? You hit your head?” Goslin asked.

Kax grinned. “I’m fine, I think. Not like you could do anything anyway, right?”

“I’ve got some experience in tending wounds,” Heylien said. “Want me to take a look at it?”

Kax shook his head, winced and stopped. “I’m telling you, I’m fine.”

They waited in silence in, hoping that any movement in the trees was Hart and Lana returning and not the beast. The sun was rising, the sky fading from the black of night to a soft pink. Goslin exhaled a breath when he saw Hart and Lana limp back into the clearing, leaning heavily against one another. Lana held Sarien’s spear and Hart clutched Kax’s short sword. Lana looked exhausted, but it was nothing compared to Hart. He couldn’t even lift his head to look at them and it was obvious he was in quite a bit of pain.

“Hart, you bastard!” Kax yelled, rushing up to him. “Did you do it?”

Hart took a deep breath and handed the sword back to Kax. “It’s done.”

“You killed it?” Goslin asked, looking between Lana and Hart. “Are you sure?”

Hart’s glare was enough to set anyone on edge, but Goslin stood his ground, despite a sense of uneasiness washing over him. “Where is its corpse?”

“There is none,” Lana muttered.

“Give me some room to sit, would you?” Hart said, tossing the spear to the side and sat with a tired thud. “When I finally caught up to the creature, it was in the middle of transforming into something. It didn’t see me when I ran up and cut into its arm. There wasn’t much it could do after that. Lana helped by distracting it. We eventually brought it down. It thrashed and that black stuff got everywhere,” he said, gesturing to his stained clothes.

Goslin hadn’t noticed before, but his friends were absolutely drenched in the beast’s blood. “I’m glad you’re still in one piece, my friend,” he said. “But it was not advisable to run after it on your own.”

“It needed to be put down,” Hart huffed out.

“It tried running again after it threw me off it,” Lana said. “Struck a tree with my head and was dazed for a second, but Hart didn’t let it escape.”

“Once it was down, I cut its head off. Figured it might be able to recover from just about anything, and I wanted to bring it with me to show you that I’d done it.”

“That is gruesome,” Emeryn said.

“You should have seen Hart,” Lana chuckled. “He was so shocked that he’d actually killed it, he forgot to bring the weapons. I had to remind him.”

Kax laughed. “So where is it? The head, I mean?”

“That’s just the thing. It collapsed upon itself, both the body and the head. A moment after it died, the whole beast turned into a puddle of that black stuff.”

Emeryn breathed a sigh of relief. “So, it’s gone. You really killed it.”

Hart nodded with a weak smile on his lips. “It’s really gone.”