A group stepped through the lightly muddy terrain. The wind continued to strongly blow through it, carrying the earthly scent, a mix of damp soil and ancient stone. The white-haired boy looked up. Two giant walls, over a harra tall, towered on both sides, turning a retively wide walking space into a thin blue line at the top. Now and then there was a rge hole surrounded by moss and vegetation.

  Two girls briskly moved their hands against their arms as chilly air smeared against their skin. "Achoo" Aveline rubbed her nose with her finger. "How did they walk all this way? It's freezing in here."

  Garret appeared with zips and pced a cape around her. "Yeah, yeah, you crybaby."

  "Thanks," she said, pcing her palm on his knuckle.

  Meanwhilst, one soldier was looking around, unable to find the garment that cloaked him just a second earlier.

  Finally, their walk ended as a gigantic pile of boulders id before them. They couldn't even see the top properly, let alone figure out how tall it was.

  "Hey! Can you hear us?" Yelled one soldier, trying to reach the group on the other side.

  "Yes!" Tariq screamed back. "Does it look as bad on your side as it is on ours?"

  "Probably!" The man stopped for a second, moving his gaze up and down the pile, "Yes!"

  "You think there is any way to get through it?"

  "No, not at all, but it might be possible to climb with some struggle."

  "That will be enough…" Tariq sighed to himself before taking in a big breath and pcing each of his hands next to his mouth, "Go down to Qamh, ask for a rope or whatever can help us climb!" He then looked around, getting a view of his and Bran's men while they were all watching him. "Also, if possible, try to get us some food. I doubt five days' worth will be enough."

  "In captain's honor," the soldier saluted.

  Tariq turned around, letting out some turbulent air. He walked through the group toward Bran and Draya. "We have solved our initial problems, but I doubt we will get any proper food."

  "We won't be able to get any food at all," stated Bran. "They can yell 'in captain's honor' all they want, but there is no way they are climbing that with solid amounts of food. Maybe with a proper tool…" He stopped for a second before finishing his thought. "They could get an animal down, but I don't think they will find anything like that." Sitting down, he pced his arms behind his head and leaned against the mountain wall. "But, as I've said before, with a bit of organization and food saving, we could go for fifteen days or so. I don't think it will be too necessary."

  Draya shot him a look. "The soldiers can't fight on empty stomachs."

  Bran raised his brows and sucked in his lower lip. "Seriously? How rich are you guys?"

  "This pce is full of beasts. Everybody needs to be at their maximum strength." She snapped back, ignoring his comment.

  "He is right." Tariq tried to calm her down by pcing his hand on her shoulder. "At the end of the day, we can't be certain of anything…"

  "Also, the beasts WERE here. They've either ran or are not coming out." Bran butted in, not allowing Tariq to finish his sentence.

  "Yes… that too," Tariq said. "And because of that, I propose that to continue right away. Do this as fast as possible. We can split into two teams. One can go right and the rest will continue forward. We still need to check on the birds, and…"

  "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down, would you?" Bran stood up and raised his palm, moving it up and down slightly. "Everybody is still in shock, you can't rush this." Bran expressed his stance on the matter. "You even want us to split up?"

  "Why not?" Tariq asked. "Smaller force is capable of taking on a dungeon. Not everybody is needed, and we need to explore both paths."

  Bran raised his finger at him and took another step forward before Draya got between them and shot a gnce in Tariq's direction. "There will be absolutely no splitting up, captain, the risk is too great." She sighed, accepting the fact that despite her gut feeling, the job will continue. "But, if we are pnning to move on, we should do it as early as possible." She exhaled, removing her hand from the men's chests.

  "First, let's check on the birds before anything else." She gave a suggestion before turning away, walking up to a stone, and sitting down. She stabbed her sword into the muddy ground and rested her arm on it.

  Two leaders looked at each other for a moment and then focused on their troops.

  Bran leaned his head slightly. "I think we should take the right path first. It's probably shorter, and I assume there will be more branching paths if we continue forward."

  "Yeah," Tariq agreed. "And given the position, gcifidus birds will probably build their nests slightly lower." He reasoned further.

  Bran spread out his arm, presenting the group in front. "It's your lead."

  Tariq stepped forward and demanded attention, his voice strong, echoing through the whole path. He expined their pn to them. One team would remain behind to maintain contact with the other squad, and they would leave most of the resources with them to prevent any unforeseen problems.

  Meanwhile, the rest will explore the right path, hopefully find a gcifidus den they could reach to check on the birds and then they would exterminate all the monsters that lurked in the dungeons near the beginning of the path. The goal was to finish this task within two days and by then, if luck serves them, they might have a way to get out of the canyon by then.

  While Tariq was expining the pn, the group from the other side slowly walked back.

  "Keke, they've really gotten stuck in deep slurry, ey? Keke."

  Aveline hit Garret on the shoulder. "Be a bit more sensitive, would you?"

  Brushing his shoulder slightly, he looked at her with funny eyes, "Oh, come one. I can see you are holding in ughter. You can't fool me." He lightly tapped her with his elbow.

  Gncing at him, her cheeks puffed. She quickly put a hand up to her small lips to help her hold the air in. "Hahaha hahahaha…" She burst into ughter, clutching her stomach due to ck of oxygen. Her finger removed the water from under her eye before she finally got out some sensible words. "Okay, okay, yeah. That's pretty funn…"

  Before she could finish the sentence, she bumped into a person walking in front of her. "Hey, what a…" Her eyes focused on the entrance of the path. And hers weren't the only ones. One by one, soldiers stopped in their tracks looking at the abomination standing just around seven tira away.

  It was an enormous creature with a half-wolf-like face while half looked smashed in. One arm was normal, but rge. While the other had huge biceps, a thin but lengthy forearm, and huge cws that didn't seem to fit on it. A weird, deformed, but firm body with steel-like fur. One of its legs was rger than the other. A dark cloud almost visibly danced around it, the aura of death.

  Rotting smell traveled to their noses as they locked eyes with the beast.

  It roared, loud enough for the walls to crack, and for a few small stones to fall. It went down on all four and unched at the tranced warriors.

  Tristan was the one to snap out of it first, quickly jumping in front of the beast and cshing his water-cloaked sword with its cws, the impact created a small shock-wave around them.

  The beast came in with a second swing before Tristan could even recover from the initial strike. He created a water shield to his left, hoping to weaken the attack, but there was no way he would be unscathed.

  He tensed his muscles, readying for the impact, but at that moment his water shield froze, creating an icy barrier that completely stopped the beast in its tracks. However, it shattered just an instant ter.

  The lightning spear flew past his head, striking the beast, but it just ricocheted off it and went into the wall.

  Garret clenched his teeth. "That's one tough bastard."

  The dy with blond hair ran up behind him and jumped off his back with a raised sword that reflected the sun which was now just above this part of the canyon. Suddenly her sword became red from heat, as she swung down sparks of red lightning traced behind the sword.

  She struck the creature on the head, creating a big 'BOOM'.

  …

  Everybody squinted their eyes as the cloud of dust slowly cleared. But what they saw wasn't what they had hoped for. Not a single mark was left on the creature and now it held Aveline in its fist. It tried to bite her head off, but in just the st instant, the fiery axe smmed the creature's face, making it drop her.

  With a growl, it snapped its head back. It stared at the soldier who threw the weapon. Recognizing his fear, it took a slight step forward before rushing in his direction, closing the distance before anyone could even notice it left its initial spot. Its fangs tried to sink into his flesh. However, two soldiers behind him blocked the attack, one creating a bronze shield while the other one created it out of dirt.

  The fourth soldier took in a deep breath, squeezing his fists. He made a few steps forward and made a half-circur movement with his arms following his footsteps. Suddenly, three small rock pilrs shot out of the ground at an angle and struck the beast, pushing it five zarra away.

  "Rawr!" The beast's voice shot through the air, almost blowing the soldiers away. It jumped at them again. This time, only a man with a bronze shield defended. Meanwhile, the one that previously created the earth shield kept creating small boulders that the fourth soldier would then throw at the beast.

  Quickly, Tristan and Eira joined in. Tristan fired water projectiles at the beast and Eira would turn them into ice as they traveled before hitting the beast with formidable strength. Slowly but surely, they chipped away at its armor-like fur. It began to show more openings as it found itself on the back foot against attacks from both sides. Eventually, they cornered it against the wall and the relentless barrage of attacks caused it to fall. The beast let out a weak roar that sounded more like it had just breathed out a bunch of air after holding it in for too long.

  The group finally rexed and stopped attacking as they watched the beast breathing heavily on the ground. It growled a little, trying to stand up, but the leg gave up beneath its body and it fell back down, causing the group to ugh.

  "Hey, Tristan, is this what almost ended you? I thought you were going to be the strongest swordsman in the world," Aveline chuckled teasingly. "How will you achieve that if this thing is making you struggle?"

  "Big words for someone who almost got their head beaten off." Eira shoved her face into Aveline's, mocking her with a sharp voice, with Tristan standing behind her. Tristan only lightly scoffed at Aveline's statement, hardly giving it any acknowledgment.

  Garret quickly got between them, pcing one of his arms in front of each. He said nothing, just smiled awkwardly, as the two girls kept gring at each other, but he was ready to prevent any possible physical confrontation… maybe.

  Aveline raised her chin slightly before she responded, "Oh, but all I want is a nice little life with Garret, while your boyfriend over there has some ambitions in his head."

  "He is not my… argh."

  "Hey, hey. Cool it a little. Leave that for ter." One of the soldiers threw in a word of his own. "Now let's finish this bastard." He picked up his axe and walked up to the beast.

  The beast looked at him with shining eyes, lowering its head as the man raised his weapon, ready to strike. But suddenly, the beast unched forward and before the man could bring the axe down, his head flew into the air.

  Before anyone could react, a hulking shadow loomed behind the earth bender and magician, its guttural growl shaking the very ground. They only turned their necks slightly before one's insides spilled on the ground and the other's head was inside the beast's stomach.

  The rest of the group attacked, but the beast was fast, too fast. Before they could even blink, the st soldier was down as the beast tore him apart. It roared into the air while four mercenaries watched in horror.

  "How the hell did it get so fast!?" Aveline screamed.

  "I don't know but we need to…" Eira yelled back, but her mouth closed shut as the creature's cw got just a centimeter away from her face.

  In the st second, Aveline parried the attack away.

  "You okay?" She asked as two of them created some distance from it.

  "Yeah, thanks." She mumbled. Her gaze went back to the creature, and their eyes locked.

  The beast leaned down on all four. Growling, it started to circle them with careful steps, not breaking eye contact with Eira. That didn't escape their notice, so they kept her behind them, figuring that way they could dey its attack for as long as possible.

  There wasn't one person who didn't feel like something was crawling up their backs higher and higher with every step the beast took. Their muscles tensed up, and they kept shielding Eira with Tristan in front. Creature's movements were slow, careful, even graceful. It kept putting the front of the foot on the ground first and then slowly id the rest of it down.

  Front right leg, back right leg.

  Front left leg, back left leg.

  Aveline's teeth were about to crack. She tensed her arm and strengthened her grip on her sword as she took a step closer to Tristan, almost gluing herself to him.

  Tristan took in a deep breath but didn't let any air out. His hands trembled slightly.

  That didn't escape Garret's eyes, whose brain was in overdrive at the moment, he lightly shifted the position of his feet.

  And in that moment, the beast disappeared from its spot. It aimed for the spot between Garret and Tristan. Tristan made a slight shift in his posture and in the same heartbeat, the creature changed its direction, just a bit, before anyone could react, and went between Tristan and Aveline shoving them both to the side, and opened its jaws, trying to bite Eira's head off. However, Garret was ready for that and he managed to block it.

  "Everyone, run!" He screamed as he was tangling with a beast.

  "What?!" Aveline yelled while getting up, "NO! We are not leaving you."

  Garret shifted his body, making the beast run into the wall. "I am the only one fast enough to compete. I can buy the most time. No matter how we fight, we will lose. It's either one of us or all of us."

  "So, what? I'd rather die here than leave you."

  "I will stay." The voice came from Tristan as he, too, stood up. "We can keep it occupied for long enough and that way we might get the opportunity to escape ourselves."

  "No, no, absolutely not." Eira snapped at him, "We are not leaving. We are doing this together or we are not doing it at all."

  He gnced at Garret, and they nodded to each other. "Okay, okay," he said, walking to the two dies. "We will do this together then," he said, pulling Eira into the hug with Aveline standing right behind her. Eira blushed, sinking into his arms, but in that moment she felt a powerful push. Her back hit Aveline, and they both fell to the ground around six zarra away. They quickly sat up, looking at him with wide eyes, but before they could do anything, he grabbed his sword by the bde, holding it backward, and then hit the wall with his full strength. At the same time, Garret coated his spear with lightning and threw it into the other wall.

  Stones came crashing down, creating a barrier between them. It certainly wasn't nearly as tall as the one that trapped the rger group, but it was enough.

  "What?! No, Noooo!" Eira screamed while punching the rocks, but nothing happened.

  Certainly, if they had an air magician like the first group, they could get over this. But Eira is a water bender. Without Tristan, she isn't able to do much in this scenario. She could extract the water from the air or the ground, as they were quite moist, but at best, she would be able to coat her arrows in it.

  Aveline kicked one boulder, "You bastards!" She, too, couldn't do much. She was a lightning magician. Maybe if her mana was stronger or if she had a rger pool of it, she could get across, but it wasn't and she didn't.

  Two men looked at the top of the barrier they created, nodding, concluding two women on the other side won't be able to get across. They fist-bumped as Garret picked up his spear.

  "Grrrrrrr," a deep, rumbling sound came from behind them. The beast shook the rocks off its body. Its steel-like fur glinting in the dim light.

  "I'll take the front," Garret stated, his voice tight with determination. "Like I said, I'm the only one fast enough to keep up with it." He tried to sound casual, but the sound that came out was shaky. He did not move his eyes away from the creature for even a nanosecond. His breathing became fast and shallow. His spear nearly slipped out of his grip as he pointed it at the creature.

  It got down on all four again.

  "I will support you as best I can," Tristan said, even now, his voice remained steady and pin, his face had no notable expression but his forehead was drenched in sweat, some dripping into his eyes and blurring his vision.

  The beast cwed into the ground and tensed up, moving its hind up a little.

  Tristan created a water armor around himself and his sword became a long water whip, while Garret lowered his stance, lightning sparks appeared all around him.

  They stood across from each other, ready for battle.

  All three took small steps to the side, their feet digging into the muddy ground, the gooey sound echoing through an otherwise quiet canyon.

  The beast's pupils got thinner and thinner, the smell of rotten flesh was even more noticeable now whilst the pair's eyes were full of adrenaline, their bodies full of mud.

  The drop of sweat fell down from Tristan's chin.

  And the moment it hit the ground Garret's spear cshed with the cws of the beast, the strike thundering through the canyon.