~~~Mar~~~

"They all hate me," Mar whispered, crossing her arms and looking away from the judgmental eyes. Even if they couldn't see her.

Bradley was a traitor. He just laughed and then caught her in his arms before she could slip away. Stupid cheating earth magic!

"They don't hate you," he whispered in her ear so the rest of the group wouldn't hear. "We just haven't found the right one yet."

"I really liked that one," Mar grumbled while looking at the now dead creature who'd refused the bond and then fought them to the bitter end.

It had been a gorgeous emerald green cat-like thing. Beautiful. Majestic. Graceful. And it had hated her.

"Come on," Bradley said. "Let's head to the next lair."

Mar followed, her fingers idly fidgeting with the knives on her belt as she looked at Bradley's huge staff... his stone staff! God damn it... Sometimes it was good to be invisible.

She could feel the heat in her face as she remembered the night before, hiding in Bradley's underground room, far from both her mother and Lee's prickly mana...

The embarrassment wasn't so much over what she'd done with Bradley, but that she'd been the one to push him into it. Despite all of her mother's talks over the years about boys and how dangerous they were, how they would manipulate and pressure her into ruining herself...

Gah! Mar rubbed her face briskly and made sure her invisibility never wavered. This is all your fault, mom!

She eyed Bradley as he strolled beside her. So strong and confident. So powerful, and yet... so gentle. Ahh!

It didn't bother her what they'd done. The problem was that she wanted to do more! Only... I'll have to ask Trak. Maybe I can get him away from the building... The last thing she wanted was for Lee to overhear, or worse, her mother. Trak was an alchemist... he knew lots of stuff about the system. He might know how to make a contraceptive...

"You ready for it, Mar?" Bradley asked.

"What!?"

"We're coming up on the next lair," Bradley said, frowning towards her. "And I can feel some serious activity down there. Are you ready for a fight?"

"Y... yes!" Mar said and cursed silently when her voice came out all squeaky. She sighed and did her best to push the distracting thoughts away. This was not the time. Maybe later she could... Damn it! Stop thinking about it!

The cave entrance loomed ahead, and Mar took up her usual position behind Lily, their healer. Lily was nothing like Mar's mom when it came to healing—closer to Maria, but without that crazy dashing skill. Still, she could seal wounds, set bones, drain poisons, and do all kinds of useful stuff.

Mar's job was pretty much just to watch her back, since running around invisible in a fight with Lee's enchanted swords waving about was a good way to get dead. This way, she could intercept anything trying to ambush the healer while also staying out of the way.

Bradley took the lead. He wasn't technically a tank class, and he didn't use a shield, but he was better than any of them, despite that. Stone covered him from head to toe as he strode into the dark with a small plate embedded in the front that shone a bright white light into the depths.

Everyone else, including Mar, uncovered their own lights. Hers would shine through the invisibility, just a little, but she had a better solution than carrying it herself.

It wasn't ideal to watch for ambushes in the dark, which was why she draped her light onto Lily's back. Not only did it light up the tunnel behind them, it also shone straight through Mar, hopefully blinding anything that attacked while illuminating it for her blades.

She wanted to watch ahead for the animals they'd come here to find, but she stuck to her role. Bradley would call her when he got one of what everyone called the Ghost Wolves. Primarily because of their silver-white fur, but also because of how silky soft that fur was.

Mar had a pair of boots made from their fur—boots she'd left behind today for obvious reasons. Those boots muffled her footsteps dramatically, and the wolves were supposed to be even quieter. It seemed like an effect that might lead to higher compatibility with her own class.

"I don't like this," Bradley said, stopping in the tunnel with his head pointed deeper. "It feels like they're fighting... was someone else hitting this lair today?"

"Ultron team hit it last," Victor said, and Mar thought she could feel faint vibrations beneath her feet. "They brought back a lot that time, so I doubt anyone else would come back so soon... but it does explain why we haven't found any wolves yet."

"Maybe..." Bradley murmured. "But something is definitely... Look out!"

Mar felt the mana surge as the earth trembled and was already pulling Lily backward when a nightmare burst through the side of the tunnel ahead.

Rows of gleaming teeth reflected in the lights for an instant. Then Bradley was there, slamming a glowing stick into the monster's face and driving it back... into an unbroken tunnel wall. "Get outside, now!"

Mar hadn't stopped moving after seeing that monster, but she had to drag Lily along. To her credit, the healer girl wasn't balking so much as not wanting to abandon her teammates.

Of course, everyone here knew Bradley. Particularly how powerful he was. So when he yelled at them to flee, they listened.

As much as she wanted to stay back and help, Mar kept running, now in the lead, as they sprinted for the surface. The ground shook repeatedly beneath her feet, and heavy impacts sent shockwaves up the tunnel at regular intervals.

Luckily, they hadn't gone that deep, and E-grade humans could really sprint when they had to. She burst out into the light just in time to see Bradley launch from the earth ten yards away. A reptilian monster emerged on his heels, and it never quite left the earth.

Instead of shooting into the air like Bradley, the creature appeared to be riding a hill that grew rapidly beneath it as it chased the earth mage into the sky.

Out here in the daylight, Mar finally got a good look, and she recognized the creature. It was one of those Stak... whatever they were called. It looked like a crocodile. If crocodiles were ten feet wide, forty feet long, and had six legs. Oh, and if it could swim through the ground like it was water...

This time, Lee wasn't here to enchant a platform.

Bradley stopped ascending into the air, and the earth croc caught up... only to get smacked across the face by an enchanted stick that weighed as much as a car.

That slowed its upward progress, pushing the creature briefly back into the hill it had created and sending Bradley off to one side.

It didn't delay the monster for long, and those massive jaws whipped out to snap at the airborne Bradley.

No! Mar was already sprinting closer when Bradley's stone armor exploded away from him and into the monster's face. The sharp fragments of stone hit and slid harmlessly off the monster, but they also had the added effect of pushing Bradley out of reach from the snapping jaws.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

He reached the ground... and vanished beneath the surface like a pebble into a lake. The crocodile followed, diving into the ground after him.

Mar slid to a stop as they vanished into suddenly calm earth, both of her hands clenched tight on her weapons. She forced her racing thoughts to focus... straining to feel the mana around her. She had to figure out where it was coming back up. She had to help!

Bradley was so strong, but this thing was a direct counter to him. All of his best tricks wouldn't work against the crocodile. He didn't even have a rune blade... but she did.

There! Mar took off, sprinting as the ground trembled and right before the combatants resurfaced.

The sight that greeted her when they emerged was almost the worst possible outcome she'd feared. Bradley was in the monster's mouth.

Luckily, he'd wedged the staff upright between the gaping jaws, and now he was hanging on for dear life as the creature thrashed wildly.

Mar was twenty feet away when a particularly violent shake sent Bradley flying. The staff stayed behind, still lodged in its mouth. At least until the giant head whipped the other way and shook the staff loose.

The monster's jaws snapped close with a deafening thud, and a terrible rumbling sound emanated from the creature as it turned toward Bradley. Her boyfriend bounced off the ground once, twice, then slammed to a stop against a wall of earth that burst up into his path.

Instead of chasing after Bradley, the monster hesitated, and then its head spun toward Mar. She was expecting it. If this creature's powers were anything like Bradley's, then she knew it would feel her footsteps.

It charged, and Mar stepped off the ground into the air. Feel this, you... lizard! She continued sprinting toward the monster, only now she was climbing higher into the air with each step.

The crocodile pounced on the location she'd just left, taking a large bite out of the ground, and Mar came down on its back with twin blades plunging deep.

At times like this, Mar regretted not being able to carry a better weapon, but the short swords she had now were the longest she could wield and still have her invisibility fully conceal them.

She jumped back into the air an instant before the monster dove beneath the surface, and something slammed into her back...

Mar lost some time and came back to herself while still sailing through the air... and shot mana from her feet, flipping over before sending out another blast to halt her momentum in midair. She fell toward the ground while taking in the fight still ongoing back where she'd come from... mostly. The monster was coming after her, and Bradley was chasing it.

"Run!" Mar shouted at the rest of their team, all of them charging her way. "Get back to the fort!" Then she went invisible again.

A few more people wouldn't help against this creature. Not when it could drop the ground out from under them on a whim. Mar worried that she too was practically helpless... and if not for the air-jumping runes, she would be.

The team heard what she'd said and, thankfully, they listened. All of them immediately turned and ran. Unfortunately, the monster turned to pursue them the moment Mar vanished. Fortunately, it didn't disappear beneath the ground while it did so.

Very much like the crocodile Mar compared it to, the beast swam through the earth with only small areas of its body above the surface and its tail weaving behind it, propelling it.

It was fast. Bradley wouldn't catch up in time...

Mar stepped twice off the air to get into its path and aimed her blades between its eyes as they raced closer on an intercept course.

She was only a few feet away when something shifted in the beast. Mar wasn't sure what it was. A tilt of its head. A glint from one of those reptilian eyes... Whatever it was, her instincts screamed at her, and Mar blasted mana out from her left shoe.

The burst sent her tumbling sideways right as the crocodile dove beneath the surface... and right as its tail whipped through the airspace she'd only just vacated. That's what hit me before...

Earth burst from the ground ahead before she had time to congratulate herself on dodging the strike. It shot up at her in a swarm of reaching spears.

Mar triggered her shoes in rapid succession, once to stop spinning, then again to climb above the attack. Then again and again, when the earth kept rising in pursuit.

Like a new mountain growing beneath her, the earth chased her into the sky faster than she could jump away. So she blasted herself sideways...

It came on. Relentless.

She must have hurt it more than she thought if it was this angry with her... but her shoes were running out of charge. She couldn't keep this up... and it would only get worse once she was landlocked.

She should have used the dreaming skill instead of stabbing it... but she'd hesitated rather than reveal she had it. Everyone already looked at her weird... They really wouldn't like it if they knew she could get in their heads now... especially since people were calling it the roofie skill.

Besides, it wouldn't have helped very much since it would just leave her standing atop the monster until her mana ran out or she canceled the skill.

Mar watched what should have been a very earth-centric creature descend out of the sky towards her own plummeting form, its jaws expanding wide enough to swallow her whole. Sure, it wasn't over yet. She probably had a few more charges left in the shoes...

Despite the threat, she still felt a surprising lack of fear at the sight. Because she knew he was coming.

Bradley hit like a cannonball against the monster's side. Slamming into it hard enough that the forty-foot creature folded nearly in half from the impact. Then it launched away from her.

Rather than waste another charge of her shoes, Mar tucked into a roll on impact with the ground and came up running... then slid to a stop at the fight unfolding before her. Only it wasn't a fight. It was a beatdown.

She could feel massive amounts of mana surging from both combatants, but Bradley was the one laying on the hurt.

He'd lost his staff earlier, and that didn't seem to slow him down in the slightest as he laid into the monster with fists of stone. The ground itself leapt and danced around him as he drove relentless blows into the monster's face, side, legs, and any part of it that came within range.

It tried to dive into the earth, and he dragged the ground itself up to force it back into reach. It spun to reach him with both tail and jaws, and he forced the earth beneath its feet to obey him instead. Back and forth, they fought for supremacy over the earth, all while trading blows that sent shockwaves through the ground.

Bradley's expression was a picture of murderous rage as he fought, which, on anyone else, would have sent her fleeing for a dark corner to hide in. But she felt no urge to run. Instead, she only felt... safe. Protected.

They were in the midst of a life and death fight with a monster that wanted nothing more than to kill and eat them, but she felt safe. It was a relatively new sensation that had never really been a part of her life before. A feeling so comforting that she couldn't remember or imagine life without it.

It was something she would fight to keep.

Mar knew Bradley was powerful. She knew he would protect her to the ends of the earth. But she also knew that he was fighting a mirror of himself, one far bigger and with much more powerful natural gifts. He wouldn't win this with his fists. He needed a weapon. Ideally, one he was good with.

She ran back the way they'd come, over churned-up dirt and broken stones. It was going to be a nightmare to find in this mess... so she stepped into the air and ran higher. Mar took a final leap, closed her eyes, and listened to that sense she'd honed throughout so many trials and dangers.

Behind her, mana raged in massive quantities. Off to the side, she felt the smaller flares of her teammates fleeing toward the fort. Below her, she felt the earth... and a faint buzzing. Lee's runes were full of enough mana that she should feel them for miles. Only it was all bound up into almost perfect silence...

Almost.

There! Mar kicked off the sky as her eyes snapped open, and she plummeted toward a tiny glimmer of light peeking from the dirt.

She landed in a crouch, her feet blasting pits into the dirt as her body strained against going from near terminal velocity to a sudden stop. The impact didn't stop her from latching onto the ridiculously heavy staff, and she ignored the minor pains to take off, sprinting. At least as fast as she could while carrying the damn thing.

Sprinting toward a battle that only seemed to be ramping up with each passing moment.

"Bradley," Mar shouted and threw the staff like a spear. "Catch!"

He spun at her voice and took a whipping tail in the back for his momentary distraction. The blow sent him airborne, but also in the direction of Mar's sadly insufficient throw.

Bradley hit the ground in a tumble of limbs. A tumble that ended with him launching back into the air, only now he was wrapped again in his stone armor as he reached out for the staff that flew to meet him.

Unfortunately, the monster wasn't willing to wait, and it sprinted after him even faster than he'd flown through the air. Its six legs ate up the distance, and the ground itself flowed like a moving sidewalk to propel the beast at an insane speed.

It was going to catch him...

Mar had one last Hail Mary up her sleeve. An ability that always made any creature freeze up for a moment, and even a small delay now would make all the difference...

So she cast her new legendary skill on the monster.

Beastmaster Bond.

It worked. The monster's legs stiffened. The earth stuttered to a stop beneath it.

Bradley caught his staff as the earth itself rose up to halt his momentum, and then he launched back toward the monster, his weapon descending like the hammer of God to shatter the world...

Beast Bond Accepted. You have Soul-Bonded with Greater Stakshiak.

Wait... WHAT!?