“No kill,” Willbender said. “After I finish, I feed to big wolf.” The little goblin was grinning like it had already won the battle.

The wolf beside it shuffled, sounds muffled by the muzzle over the Matriarch’s mouth.

The goblin retaliated against Lucille’s charge, dropping a strange sphere at its feet as she moved. Her path was en route to moving directly over the loose orb.

The creature moved backward from the object, signaling to Lucille she needed to dodge away.

She stepped to the side, strafing away from the weapon as if it were a bomb. As she dodged, a cloud of purple gas was released from the orb on the ground. Lucille pushed forward again, meeting the Willbender in striking range, forcing it to draw a spear to defend.

The purple gas didn’t look healthy and left Jay second-guessing the kindness of the developers in not implementing dust inhalation.

Jay didn’t have an open shot through Lucille and the gas, so he cautiously moved around the gas with Casey.

Casey was eyeing the wolf with yearning but couldn’t figure out how to help the Matriarch without dealing with the Willbender. The chains binding the wolf had links larger than Casey’s arms.

As they moved, Jay tried to collect data on the elite opponent. He scanned the entry while keeping his eyes peeled for wayward purple gas bombs.

System Message: Analyze successful. Goblin Willbenders possess extraordinary mental abilities to affect beasts. Their mental spells also affect, to a lesser degree, the five sentient Factions of Tumultua. Willbenders have trained themselves beyond lightning weaknesses common to other goblins. They fight using bags of tricks, often relying on illusion or alchemical devices, and are quite formidable with a spear.

Lucille was having a much more difficult time with the elite monster than Jay had expected, so he started looking for a way to help.

Neither combatant could gain the upper hand as they fought. Lucille was a larger target than the Willbender, making it difficult to find a decent crossbow shot as the fighting whirled in circles.

Next to Jay, Casey was similarly hesitating. She tried to cast the bear claw spell but couldn’t complete it. Her line of sight kept getting broken by the flurry of combat.

It would still be dangerous for Casey to enter combat since she was a low-level player. That fact kept Jay from running into the melee with his dagger. He was annoyed at being unable to join the fight directly, but the abilities of the Willbender were too unknown. She could end up being sent to respawn if Jay left her alone.

Truthfully, Jay didn’t know what would happen to the quest if Casey died. Their time limit was slowly ticking down, creating the distinct possibility her death would mean failure.

Casey started muttering a spell Jay didn’t recognize. A moment later, a small green beam of swirling leaves enveloped Lucille, adding a buff to her character nameplate.

“What’s that do?” Jay asked as he watched the fighting.

“Just boosts damage a bit,” Casey said. “If she could land a hit, it would help kill it faster. You should go in there and help her.”

“Are you sure?” Jay asked. “I’m concerned things would hit the fan immediately.”

Lucille started gaining the upper hand as Casey and Jay watched the battle rage. She was learning the fighting patterns of the elite Willbender. Jay could help tip the scales if he entered now. After all, given the Matriarch, there was a high likelihood this goblin was related to Zenya’s mother and her imprisonment.

“I’m sure,” Casey agreed. “I have potions, and I’ll run away if I get attacked. Those gas bombs are slow, so I can definitely get out of the way.”

“Be careful,” Jay said. “I’d hate to fail this.” While he knew the quest was significant to Casey, he was also profoundly interested in understanding the origins of this goblin camp. After all, the goblins were the first thing to connect the party to the Demon players. He had to figure out if this camp related back to them.

Casey seemed taken aback by his words since the quest started with her and her beast contract. She didn’t say anything, just watching his back in puzzlement.

After speaking, he set his repeater aside, grabbing his dagger. The weapon would also need an upgrade soon, but he was fond of how it felt in his hand. He joined in the combat, finding it easy to keep up with the movements of the dueling warriors. They were fast, but so was he.

Jay charged a Wild Strike, causing his weapon to glow with power and distract the Willbender. Even still, Jay’s slash only struck a glancing blow.

His attack did allow Lucille to land strikes of her own, slashing both swords across its thighs.

In response, the enemy knocked aside both Lucille’s weapons with a mighty swipe from the butt of its spear. With a trailing thrust, it caught her in the leg.

Jay punished the creature for the attack, slashing it in the back and dropping its health. He eyed the bar as it neared the 75% mark. Despite its status as an elite monster, the Willbender was also a quest monster. That fact alone made him wary of threshold abilities.

It was good that he was.

The Willbender wavered in place and disappeared. Before Jay could look around to find it, the creature reappeared suddenly. The Willbender and Matriarch teleported, instantly switching places.

The Matriarch, despite her chains, released a muffled howl at Lucille and laid into her furiously. The wolf attacked Lucille viciously, despite her muzzle and chains, straining the metal.

As Lucille dealt with the awkward situation of trying not to harm her opponent, Jay tried to move around the giant wolf. His target was the Willbender, but the creature was too large and close to the goblin. The wolf was landing attack after attack on Lucille, much more fearsome due to its large size. She was not built to be a tank.

“Casey, claw spells!” Jay called out. “Force the Willbender to move out of hiding or die.” The Beast Magician quickly jumped in, muttering her spell as she looked at the enemy. Jay realized the truth of the situation too late when his Perception finally pierced the illusion.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Casey’s claw magic slammed into the Matriarch, which bore the damage without a sound. After all, the spell barely made a dent in her health bar. On the other hand, the others couldn’t see the illusion. Casey was charging another spell as Lucille was being battered by the Willbender under the guise of the illusion.

“It’s an illusion,” Jay yelled, ensuring both players could hear him. “They didn’t switch places. It’s an illusion spell.”

Lucille growled in frustration, repeatedly slamming her swords into the wolf image. The attacks seemed to harm the creature, causing it to yelp until the Willbender’s spell failed under the assault.

Casey stopped her spell, looking disappointed in herself for harming the Matriarch.

Finally, with the illusion dispelled, the fight again turned in their favor. In moments, the melee whittled down the Willbender’s health to 50% with a flurry of slashes.

It smirked, which was not what Jay was looking for—at all.

With a word of command, the earth around the entire arena started shifting. Hordes of small animals pulled themselves out of holes in the ground. Their eyes were empty. The ones closest to Casey ran straight for her.

Lucille urged Jay away, “Go!”

Jay, of course, was aggravated with himself. He expected something specifically like this. Now it was here.

Pleading with his cowboy hat to push him forward, he charged toward Casey.

She backed away toward Jay as the circle of animals advanced on her. The swarm of small critters moved as one, making them impossible to count.

The first animals reached Casey before Jay did due to the radius of the arena. She fought desperately, trying to ward off the attacks from all sides using her staff.

Several small critters landed attacks. The damage was stacking slowly, but there were so many small animals she struggled to find time to pull a potion out.

Jay made his way to her, trying to relieve some of the pressure from the combat. Unfortunately, there were so many enemies he was having trouble handling all of them. The tide of small creatures was coming from every different direction. He recognized them as enraged versions of the forest critters native to the Ilran forest.

Each strike brought one down, but there were two for every one Casey and Jay could cut down. He finally relieved enough of the vermin tide for her to drink a potion, but the move barely kept them above water.

Glancing at the other battle, Jay saw Lucille had the Willbender close to another threshold. She wasn’t striking back, blocking as many of the Willbender’s attacks as she could. The critters left her alone, so she seemed to be stalling.

Jay assumed she didn’t want to push the threshold while he and Casey still dealt with the tide of animals. He was grateful for that.

Jay’s split attention on the other battle created an opening for a critter to bite him in the leg. His body felt the pain surging through his nerves, and he kicked out at it, not even using his dagger. The move sent the creature flying. He couldn’t even tell if it died because there were too many.

Sensing his weakness, the other creatures focused on him. The drawn blood caused him to pull the threat and attention of the critters. That’s kind of what Jay wanted.

That didn’t mean it was best for him. With more of the creatures focusing their attacks on him, he continued to take tiny chunks of damage. With the sheer volume, those little chunks were adding up. Still, he could kill a critter with a single swipe of his dagger. Jay’s Wild Strike was unnecessary, so he conserved the ability to fight the elite whenever he could return to the other battle.

The benefit to his single dagger fighting style was a free hand, so he summoned the first of his novice health potions, drinking it down.

He found himself growing frustrated with Cuddles as he fought on. Jay couldn’t control the pet. Cuddles was wildly inconsistent. He took issue and intervened when the party was dealing with the Shards. But for some reason, he didn’t take issue with this horde of creatures his size.

The fighting wore on.

The phase took minutes as Jay and Casey destroyed every single critter. Jay burned through two more of his novice health potions, which meant he’d taken over 1,000 damage from the enraged animals. Cuddles still watched intently on his shoulder without getting involved. He wasn’t sure if he could have finished the phase without Casey helping swat the creatures away. He hadn’t gained experience—due to his level—but he laughed awkwardly from the adrenaline when the stage was over.

Lucille had stalled the whole time, fighting with a singular focus on defense. The limitations of the game’s monsters became apparent since the Willbender had seemed content to uselessly flail against her the whole time.

Casey had reached level 11 by fending off the enraged beavers, squirrels, and other critters.

They were surrounded by fallen creatures. Jay quickly guided Casey out of the area and into slightly more pleasant surroundings.

“Should I push the phase?” Lucille finally asked. Jay looked at her health bar. She was only sitting at 30%. He could see the flowers from her healing ability around her. It was already spent and would still be on cooldown for several minutes.

“One second,” Jay said, rushing over to her. He activated Wild Strike as he approached. When the Willbender attacked again, he stopped the enemy’s spear with his ability, which didn’t deal damage but forced the weapon backward. “Tank switch.”

Lucille grinned as Jay caught another attack, pushing the haft of the spear to the side with his bare hand. Dodging another, he spun to the side and struck out with his dagger. Unfortunately, his attack missed.

“No need,” she assured Jay, activating another ability. The dead plant material from her Flowers of Angerine ability shriveled completely as green energy melted into the air. The power made its way into Lucille, who gained a buff, which caused her health to begin ticking several percentage points upward every second.

“Your class has insane soloing potential,” Jay said, a little bit of jealousy stirring despite the secret card he was holding.

“Oh, I know,” Lucille said with a cocky smile. “Let’s do this.”

She slammed her blades into the Willbender, pushing it to 25%. The Willbender’s eyes flashed as Jay felt a hot burning sensation in his neck. The pain drove him to one knee as his vision blurred. His health plummeted.

Lucille stepped back into the fray, grabbing the Willbender’s attention with attacks to its forearms. She took over the fighting as Jay grappled with the pain.

Jay realized something important through the haze: Monster Hunters did not make good tanks.

He managed to summon a health potion and drink it, despite some of the liquid dribbling out of the side of his mouth. When his eyesight righted, he saw Cuddles glaring at him without recognition.

Cuddles was charging another eye beam, which Jay realized was what struck him in the neck. He jumped, relying on his momentum to carry him out of the path. Luckily, Cuddles was his pet, so he was relatively familiar with the timing of the ability.

“You… Willbender… I…” Jay struggled to find words to describe his feelings that were proper for polite society.

“You have to kill the pet!” Lucille shouted as Jay dodged another ray of eye beams.

“I can’t. Dunno if he can respawn.”

“He can’t,” Casey said. “My pet died already.”

Jay’s heart fell. He knew they wanted to finish this encounter, but he couldn’t permanently eliminate the Strogian Death squirrel. Even if Cuddles wouldn’t listen to Jay now, he hoped their relationship would build in the long term. Jay even hoped they might eventually be able to fight side-by-side.

“Just finish the Willbender,” Jay said, dodging out of the way of another blast. “I can keep dodging. As long as he doesn’t turn on Casey, we can keep this up.”

Lucille’s health was nearing full again, heavily boosted by the strength of her recently used buff. She would have no trouble finishing off the elite. He just had to survive.

The next beam caught Jay in the leg, sending another rush of pain through his senses. He forced himself to push through it. The fortunate part was that the squirrel seemed wholly uninterested in Casey. Cuddles was being driven to destroy his former keeper.

Jay’s state became nearly meditative. The world started to fall away, and all he experienced was his instincts, focusing entirely on the attacks from Cuddles. The death squirrel never deviated from the eye beam blasts. He dodged. He rolled out of the way. He prepared to—

All of a sudden, Cuddles stopped attacking him.

Instead, the creature slowly began to approach Jay.

The lines on the squirrel’s face fell, causing him to look a little mournful. His tail was even dragging on the ground as he gingerly stepped forward.

Jay received a notification.

System Message: Your bond with Cuddles, the Strogian Death squirrel, has deepened.