“Monkey’s balls,” Amalyse muttered. “Don’t those things know when to give up?”

Avalien was hurrying backwards already, the other guards hot on his heels. “The tunnel! We can use it for shelter.”

“We cannot fight them there,” Rieren said, keeping an eye on the monsters wheeling and screeching in the air.

“Why not? They won’t be able to fly around inside the tunnels. We can use them as choke points.”

“We cannot. You forget that they can change their forms. They would simply adapt to take better advantage of tight spaces. We need to deal with them without giving them the opportunity to try something else.”

Their little argument was cut short when the first of the Shifters finished contemplating and decided to attack. All the flying around had made it harder to tell, but thanks to the pattern of wounds some of them had suffered, Rieren was certain it was the same one that had broken the previous formation as well.

They were standing upon a semicircular ledge of rock at the end of the chamber. There was enough space to hold all of them plus the three Abyssals, but it would be too tight a squeeze.

“Get back,” Rieren said. “Let me deal with this one. They may be difficult to fight, but they are weak to wounds. If you can deliver—”

She was cut off when the first monster landed right in their midst. Rieren was going to make it pay for interrupting her. At least its approach had made the others retreat farther into the tunnel.

The battle that began immediately afterwards wiped thoughts of her companions out of Rieren’s mind. As soon as the monster touched its smaller feet onto the ground, it slammed forward, its arms enlarging as the limbs neared her.

It was easy to dodge to the side. Where the oversized arms struck down, the ground cracked and the whole ledge shook. Rieren’s heart pounded hard at the thought that might break off and plummet into the chasm below. But her thoughts were once more cut off when the monster swung in an oversized arm horizontally.

She had no choice to jump over it. The other arm came in fast as though to catch her while she was airborne. Interesting. It clearly possessed some degree of intelligence.

Rieren used Fray Passage to hasten her descent to the ground to dash under the swinging arm.

The monster wasn’t done. It leaped up, twirling in midair. This time, its enlarging tail came rolling in Rieren’s direction. It seemed the Abyssal refused to give her even a moment to breathe.

Rieren dodged by throwing herself to the side. She had to keep her footing, though. The tail, being far more manoeuverable than the arms, came flashing in after her. She dodged backwards, slicing her blade forward to leave the minutest of wounds on the monster. Not enough. She needed a slice far more severe.

The tail came in like an enormous whip again. Once more, Rieren jumped over it, but the monster had angled itself so that it could throw its arm forward at the same time. As its tail grew smaller at an incredibly fast pace, its arm blew up to a dozen times its original size.

In that tiny moment of time, only noticeable because Rieren had raised her Mind high enough, she knew she couldn’t use Fray Passage to get out the attack’s way. Her current angle meant that the momentum would swing her over the edge of the semicircular ledge altogether. She would fly off and fall to her doom.

It was difficult to think the monster had manipulated her to that degree. An Abyssal who had been so seemingly mindless in their encounter across the chasm displaying this sort of combat proficiency? Very improbable.

But probability didn’t matter. There was no way to really protect herself against the monster’s blow, so she simply held her sword in the stance of Ground Truth.

The Shifter’s arm hit like a rockslide. Rieren was thrown back, and despite the surge of pain, she managed to activate the skill. When she struck the ground, most of the impact was dampened by her defensive ability. Her arm throbbed, but at least she had managed to ward off the worst of the blow’s effect on the rest of her body.

“You were saying? Amalyse asked.

Rieren had a hard time holding back her groan as she rose to her feet. Despite the skill, her whole body was jittery in the aftermath of the Shifter’s last blow.

Worse than that, Rieren had been thrown into the tunnel’s interior. That meant the monster was approaching within, ready to shift its form to kill them more easily in the confined space. Something she had hoped to prevent.

“There is no shame in retreating,” Avalien said. “You cultivators need to start thinking smartly for a change.”

Folend growled at him. Even Rieren was momentarily surprised at his bold words, not that she held it against him. He had a point. In fact, perhaps the way she had been helping and encouraging him had only made him bolder.

“Retreat assumes the monsters will not pursue us,” Rieren said. “Which is not the case. As you can see, they are already entering the tunnel.”

The first Shifter, the one that had thrown Rieren into the passageway in the first place, was sauntering inside. Almost as if it owned the place. The longer this went on, the more Rieren was certain these creatures possessed a kind of strange intelligence she hadn’t given them credit for yet.

Rieren sniffed. “Worry not. I was caught in a foolish position. It shan’t happen again. Wait, and watch.”

Amalyse called her back, but she ignored it. Her concentration was once again entirely on the enemy before her. The Shifter seemed to be relishing facing her, going by the grin on its monstrous face. Not that its expression normally changed from that toothy leer.

The monster burst into action before Rieren could act. It smashed an arm forward, enlarging it in a second. It grew so big that it covered the entire passage with ease, brushing against the ceilings and walls to block her view of the exterior. Rieren grinned. The Shifter couldn’t have presented her to demonstrate what she had been seeking to all this while.

By the time the arm came close enough, Rieren had already pulled her sword into the Ground Truth stance. When the Shifter’s expanded fist connected with her sword, its momentum was diverted into the dungeon’s floor. The limb itself came to a stop as though it had met a wall.

Rieren didn’t wait a second to launch herself into Gale Blade. It didn’t matter that her body would vociferously protest that skill use later.

For now, she needed to deal some significant damage.

Her sword flashed in the low light. The blade sheared through several of the monster’s enormous fingers with her first slash, then cut across the enlarged palm with another deep blow. With the third slice, Rieren took off both the monster’s thumb and a significant chunk of the flesh connected to it.

She might not have gotten to the fourth and subsequent slashes—the monster had screeched out in pain and withdrawn its limb—but she had dealt enough damage. The Shifter was already turning the wounded arm back to normal proportions. It stared down once on the ruined state of its hand, then screeched again, this time in rage.

The next moment, it threw its other claw at her, enlarging it in mere seconds. Hmm. Perhaps it wasn’t as bright as she had thought to give it credit.

Rieren threw herself to one side. As the enormous arm reached her, she slammed into it at an angle, activating Ground Truth at the same time. Her skill once again stopped the oversized limb from doing any damage. The Shifter had learned enough from the previous experience to attempt to pull its arm back as quickly as it could.

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It wasn’t fast enough at all. Not compared to Gale Blade, at least.

Rieren shot forward in pursuit. Her blade sliced through the monster’s arm in multiple slashes, severing fingers and sending dark blood and viscera splashing all over the tunnel. The Shifter screamed as its destroyed arm returned to its original state.

“That is how you deal with these creatures,” Rieren told the others. “Once they have suffered severe-enough wounds, they can no longer enlarge the injured body part. If they attempted to do so, all the mass they use to expand themselves would come pouring out through the wounds, killing them in short order.”

“Ah.” Avalien nodded as though it made perfect sense now that Rieren had explained it. “Brilliant as ever, mistress.”

“All well and good,” Amalyse said. “But I don’t think it’s going to be easy to do that now that the monsters know we’re capable of it.”

Rieren decided to not to point that she had proven herself capable of it, even if the skill was causing quite a bit of pain to grow within her again. The others had to prove they were actually capable of something like that. With how aggressive and powerful the Shifters could be, she had her doubts.

“It is our best hope of killing them,” Rieren said. “We have the numbers to distract them so that one or more of us can land debilitating blows.”

“I think we’ve waited long enough,” Folend said. “Let’s kill these bastards already.”

He had hefted his mace, ready to approach the end of the tunnel where all three Shifters were waiting warily. But before they could make a single move, the injured monster screamed again. With both its arms taken down by Rieren, it reverted to expanding its wings until they covered up the passageway’s opening.

Then it blew the wings forward. The first blast of wind nearly made Rieren lose her footing. She was able to use Ground Truth to prevent that with the next step, but the others weren’t so lucky.

Amalyse, Avalien, and Folend had all hidden themselves behind their own shielding skills, but the other two guards screamed as they were blown farther back into the tunnel. Avalien shouted their name, but Rieren loudly reminded him not to pull down his shield and let the wind catch him.

Rieren held back a curse. They couldn’t kill the creatures if the monsters kept blowing them back. But then, this was another stupid move on the Shifter’s part. After all, they could use the momentum granted by the wind to throw themselves backwards and retreat.

Except, the other two Shifters were now entering the dungeon. They both looked significantly larger than normal. It didn’t take long for her to determine that they had expanded their mass as well, but evenly throughout their whole body to enlarge themselves equally everywhere. A surprising degree of control Rieren hadn’t seen before.

“They’re coming,” Amalyse warned. “This wind is going to make fighting hard.”

She was right. The wind would make it difficult for them to keep their balance. They could use the little pocket of freedom created by the approaching Shifters’ bodies, but they would still have to keep an eye on when they stepped out of the bound and was blown away. Worse, the monsters might make them suffer it on purpose by shifting.

“Take the ones approaching,” Rieren said, raising her voice over the wind. Her throat was slowly turning a little sore. As if all the other pain wasn’t enough. “I will end the windy one.”

“How?” Amalyse asked.

Rieren knew she was going to regret it later, but for now, there was no other option. At least, none that was good. “The same way I have been dealing with it so far.”

There were tiny windows between the blasts of wind. The Shifter still had to slap its wings forward to create the little gale, and every time it pulled its wing back before swinging them forward again created a minuscule lull. Exactly what Rieren needed to take advantage of.

She used Fray Passage in one such break in the heavy wind. A few careful uses took her several pace forward until she was in the protected vicinity of one of the approaching Shifters. The monster growled at her, readying to lunge. But fast as it was, she was faster with Fray passage, easily avoiding it to run past.

The wind struck her again, and she was forced to hunker down. It affected the Shifter that had turned around to pursue her as well, but before it could reach her, the others distracted it by attacking from behind.

Which gave Rieren the freedom to continue towards the monster creating the annoying storm inside the dungeon tunnel.

When she reached close enough, the winds stopped. The Shifter screeched at her, rising a few paces above the ground as it reduced the size of its wings to enlarge its tail again.

As Rieren had approached, she had noted all the sources of danger from her opponent. She was ready.

The tail came swinging in just as she had predicted. She couldn’t continue using her skills in the same manner continuously. Not without injuring herself even more, a risk she couldn’t take unless absolutely necessary, for she wasn’t certain what other dangers might be lurking ahead.

So, Rieren would have to depend on her body’s natural capabilities. Thankfully, she had invested well into the right stats to make it a viable approach.

Rieren leaped over the tail swing with ease, rotating in the air to slice along the appendage’s length. It was still growing, which meant a deep-enough wound would reduce much of the mass the monster was wielding as a weapon.

But even as her blade cut across a chunk of the tail, its mass began decreasing. She had thought the monster had foreseen her action and was reacting appropriately. That wasn’t the case, however, as Rieren found when she landed. Instead of pulling its innards back to its main body, the Shifter had congregated much of it to the endof its tail, forming a big, clubbing end.

Rieren’s blow hadn’t been able to sever the monster’s tail, and now, she never got the chance. With a scream, the Shifter pulled the enormous, clubbing end at her with incredible force and speed.

So much for not using her skills. The club came in too fast and was easily too large for her to avoid. As such, Rieren had to use Ground Truth to prevent it from crushing her.

She wasn’t safe even after stopping it in its tracks. A quick turn showed her that the screaming monster was redirecting its remaining mass into its leg as it charged at her, foot first. It hadn’t pulled in any of the mass from its tail end, likely recognizing that it would only cause much of it spill out through the wound she had left.

Rieren growled. She slammed her sword to actually sever the tail in two. But it also had the secondary effect of providing a pivot with which Rieren was able to throw herself forward, angling the pitch to fly forward just over the monster’s leg.

She twisted in mid-air, seeking to slice through whichever part of the Shifter she could hit. But she hadn’t counted to be just as fast as her in reacting.

As she flew forward and turned, the Sifter spread its mass out from its leg to make itself more even. That had the effect of pulling the body forward faster than Rieren had calculate. So, by the time Rieren had twisted around, she was barely able to hold her blade in a protective stance as she slammed bodily into the Shifter.

Rieren collided with the ground afterwards, unable to soften her landing. Pain was a distant concern to death, however.

She quickly turned around as she got to her feet. The Shifter was already attacking with its next move. Instead of its limbs, it had enlarged its toothy mouth to snap her in half. Long decades of experience told Rieren just how she could take advantage of it.

Throwing herself down just as the enormous maw reached her, she attempted to slice upwards to cut through the monster’s torso. Unfortunately, it shifted its mass again. With lightning-quickness, all the weight transferred from its head to its torso, blowing up its chest in a fraction of a second.

Rieren was not only immediately crushed, her sword barely able to make a dent in the Shifter’s body, she was also being dragged forward. Agonizing as it was to be scraped along the ground in that manner, she also recognized she would simply fall off the side at this rate.

Her Domain came to her rescue. The formation of water between her and Shifter’s enlarged torso was all she needed to free herself.

The monster was forced to fly off, leaving Rieren a broken, drowning mess. She forced herself up, ignoring how bruised and bashed she had become. Just as it had a moment ago, the Shifter was already turning around to resume its assault.

Instead of attacking her directly, it enlarged its leg again, seeking to stomp her from above. Rieren forced herself to wait. This had gone on long enough. She was going to end it.

Just before the enormous leg crashed down atop her, Rieren threw herself to the side. She tried to right herself in time to counterattack, but the Abyssal was already following up with a sweep of its other leg. The first one had decreased in mass to bring the rest of the Shifter down rapidly.

Rieren wasn’t about to be beaten so easily. She was done being on the back foot. Bringing up her sword in a defensive stance, she stabbed it down as the Shifter’s leg connected, activating the Ground Truth again.

The monster’s momentum vaporized to nothing. That momentary pause where it lost all energy caused it to freeze, and Rieren took full advantage of its surprise. She let go of her sword, keeping it in place by biting on the hilt. With her free hands, she grabbed onto the Shifter’s severed-in-two tail.

Her touch made the Shifter get over its shock. It tried to pull itself free, but it hadn’t counted on Rieren’s Body stat being so high. She wrapped her arms around the tail harder, refusing to let go.

The Shifter screamed. With its arms ruined by Rieren’s previous uses of Gale Blade, its leg stopped by her sword, and its tail in her unrelenting grip, there were only two parts left for it to use if it wished to attack. Everything depended on what choice it made. Rieren’s heart pounded fit to burst in the fraction of time the Abyssal took to decide.

She froze when it made the incorrect choice.

The Shifter began enlarging its wings. Rieren grinned, despite having a sword stuck in between her jaws. Just as it was about flap off, likely in an attempt to pull her off the end of the semicircular ledge to send her plummeting into the dark depths, she pulled her head back, and then swung with all the might her neck muscles offered.

There was more than enough strength behind her slice to shear through the point where the nearer wing was attached to the monster’s back. At the same time, she let go of the tail.

As the Shifter screeched and flung itself off the ledge, it sank into the darkness. With only one wing, it had no way of controlling its flight. It tried to grab onto the rocky edge, but it failed. Enlarging its arm only made its viscera burst out through the wound she had made sure to deliver in the tunnel.

It took a few moments, but soon enough, the Shifter’s screams died. Rieren staggered where she stood. There. The accursed Abyssal was finally dead.