Luna sprinted all the way through the town, listening to the battle against the invading Mongruuls from all around. She was in total tears, believing that she was nothing but a coward for abandoning her friends and sister while they stayed and fought.

  Eventually, after some time, Luna was able to make it out of the town towards the trees in the distance. The sound of hooves galloping caught her attention as she turned her head in its direction.

  “Hey!” It was Abe who called out, looking worried. He approached Luna with his carriage, parking alongside her. “I was taking a gander at the land when I heard the bell ringing, what's…” He then noticed her trying to wipe away her tears. “Did something bad happen? Everything’s going to be alright, Kid. Just calm down.” He reassured.

  “The town's under attack and I need to wake up, Barry.” She explained to Abe, making her way to the carriage door. Abe realized the severity of the situation and acknowledged it. He wasn’t sure how bad the situation was, but he would be ready in case they needed to escape.

  Upon stepping inside the carriage, her eyes shifted to the same place she last saw Barry and found that he was still there on a couch, still sleeping despite the chaos outside. “Barry!” She shouted, rushing over.

  “Barry! Wake up, please!” Luna cried, shaking his body with urgency. “Please! We need your help, get up!”

  Within a few moments, Barry’s eyes opened wide and shot up from out of the coach, landing behind it with his intense gaze fixated on the person violently shaking him. He then realized that it was just Luna, but saw how upset she looked and eased up. “What is it? Why are you-”

  “Help! Everyone is being attacked by monsters in a town we stopped by at. Please, Barry, I’m worried about the group.” Luna summarized in short.

  The first thing that was on Barry’s mind was why the group chose to make a pit stop at some town, he figured it might have been for a supply run, but still, they didn’t even bother to inform him of their intentions. “Aggh, fuck!” He cursed with a pissed expression, Luna was startled by his response. “Attacked by what!?” He asked.

  “M-Mongruuls, hyena looking people.” Luna was nervous now, she didn’t care if Barry chewed them all out, as long as everyone was alright in the end. “T-There’s a quest that’s been given to us.”

  Barry swiftly checked his active quests and saw what she meant, then began stomping towards the carriage door to join in on the situation in a fit of rage. “Stay here with Abe, while I go and help defend this damn town you all went to without me knowing.”

  Despite hearing Barry telling her that he was going to go help, it still didn’t make her feel any better than she was expecting. Luna felt horrible for leaving everyone behind, and she knew that running away every time from her problems would only give her trauma. “W-Wait! Take me with you!” She demanded.

  “Hell no.” Barry refused, not wanting to look after her in this dire moment. “You’ll just be a burden to me, I want this shit done and over with, so stay-”

  “Please!” She shouted in frustration as more tears poured from her eyes. “I can’t keep running away anymore, I want to be strong like everyone else. If I just let everyone do everything for me, what good am I to the group if all I do is stand back and watch!?”

  A familiar feeling began to stir inside of Barry, the same uncomfortable burning sensation that he would feel during times of when people required his help. He clutched his heart, placing a fist on the carriage door as his vision started to blur. ‘Damn it…why now of all times!’

  Luna resumed pouring her heart out about how feeble she was compared to everyone. “I don’t want to be dead weight for the team, I want to be there for everyone else, rather than running away from my problems. My sister would take care of me every day before this sick game began, so seeing others work just as hard to protect me makes me feel so angry with myself.” She pounded the nearest table.

  Images of the same boy as he once saw in one of his memory fragments emerged, the boy that the True Barry saved from a monster attack. The way that Luna was voicing her emotions was similar to the boy because they both hated themselves for being too weak to protect those with them. ‘No…don’t make me take her…she’s only going to slow me down, I’m in a hurry!’ He could feel something inside urging him to tell Luna that he would supervise her.

  “Barry…please take me with you, I need to get back in there so that I can unlock my Class. If I don’t, I’ll never be able to forgive myself for being the coward of the group!” Luna was no longer crying, she was filled with anger, determined to better herself for the team.

  Barry struggled to resist the feeling inside himself. He really didn’t want to bring her along, but like every time this moment occurred, it would always end the same way Barry despised. And with one rageful slam with his fist against the wall, he opened his mouth to give her his final decision. “For fuck's sake, FINE! Now come on!”

  Although startled by his outburst, Luna couldn’t help but feel relieved to hear him agree to take her along. She rose from the floor and rushed over to his side, remaining silent but attentive to his every order.

  His vision returned back to normal and looked down at her, he hated that this mysterious force inside of him would always have its way no matter what he thought. “Kid.” He said, trying to ease up on his tone. “The moment I see you look like a deer in headlights, I’m sending you back here. You WILL obey everything I tell you without hesitation. Do I make myself clear?”

  Luna nodded firmly, she saw this as her only chance at overcoming her fears. “I understand, Barry. Whatever you say, I’ll give it everything I’ve got.”

  “You better.” Barry said, before slamming the door wide open and running out, with Luna tagging behind him.

  Abe would then see them sprinting out and around the carriage towards the town. He wasn’t expecting for Luna to jump back into the fray again despite appearing heartbroken before, but didn’t question it. “Good luck y'all! Come back in one piece, I don’t know what I’d tell Calista if anything terrible happens to y’all!”

  The two rushed back into the town, passed some fences and into the alleys. Barry took the lead and kept releasing pulse scans to check the area around him, ahead and behind, for any figures that looked like the creatures Luna described as. Luna instructed him of the path that she took, with him taking the lead.

  As the two travelled down the route back to where Kat, Puck, and Anna were at, eventually Barry would pick up something in sight that was highlighted by his pulse scans ahead. There were a couple of people that were running away on the streets, the sound of terror filled the air, he figured trouble had to be ahead to make them flee.

  His bothersome sense of doing the right thing by helping others resurfaced. He wanted so badly to look away from their distress, but these feelings continued to persist no matter how much he tried resisting. After clenching his teeth in frustration, he submitted to these feelings of justice and took a detour, telling Luna to follow behind.

  Upon closer inspection, the people were equipped with gear but had sustained injuries that discouraged them from continuing their fight to protect the town. And from Barry and Luna’s perspective, they were able to locate the Mongruuls that were hounding them. The sight of a humanoid hyena with equipment on was something that was odd to Barry, and their hysterical laughter as they chased their prey was rather annoying to him.

  He drew his greatsword and readied himself to ambush the Mongruuls from the side. “I’m going to cut them down to size for you to finish these chuckle fucks. Keep your distance till I give you the go, got it?”

  Luna gave a firm nod. “Yeah, I got it.”

  Barry waited a bit longer before lunging in to turn the tables against the pack of Mongruuls. There were a total of 8 enemies chasing the other contestants, with their attention completely focused on the people running away, Barry was able to launch a successful sneak attack.

  He landed the tip of his foot on the ground and pivoted in a twirl, carrying his momentum around to unleash a devastating blow to half of the pack, which were grievously injured. He was able to cleave through half of their HP with just one attack.

  The Mongruuls were taken by surprise, not expecting someone like Barry to appear out of nowhere. He continued to take advantage of this sudden shock and gave another hefty horizontal swing at the rest of the group, slicing through their flesh as he heard their whimpering. “Not funny now, is it!”

  The people that were running away stopped for a moment to see Barry, who had entered the fray to handle the Mongruuls. Barry glanced in their direction and shouted. “The hell are you stopping for!? RUN!”

  And without any complaints, the people did as told and kept evacuating the area. Looking back at his opponents, almost all of them had been taken down, with some being knocked back.

  He quickly picked two targets and slashed at them just enough until he saw that their HP were nearly critically low. ‘Not yet, I still need to weaken the rest before telling the kid to jump in.’

  Some of the Mongruuls rose from the ground and charged at Barry with a vengeance, their whimpers turned into strange growls that could only mean that they were angry.

  He watched them approach him with feral movements, anticipating their next action. The first enemy tried attacking him by swinging two swords at each of his sides, thinking that they had gotten Barry. But missed due to Barry leaping into the air with a front flip, as he delivered a downwards swing on the hyena’s back. This attack caved the hyena into the ground with just enough force to keep it barely alive for Luna to kill.

  More hyenas attempted to land a strike on him while he was still in the air; however, Barry was able to evade their attacks with a simple use of his double-jump and moved on to his next opponent with a diagonal slash. These Mongruuls would slowly come to realize that Barry’s evasion maneuvers proved to be too much, the idea of retreat seemed pretty good in their minds.

  After crippling 5 Mongruuls, the rest of them started to flee from the area due to Barry’s display of strength. As much as Barry would have liked to clean up loose ends, he didn’t want to waste too much time. “Luna!” He called out. “Now! Finish the one’s on the ground.”

  The moment Luna entered the scene, Barry kicked one of the Mongruuls weapons that were on the floor, which was a hand-axe, towards Luna. She picked it up, thinking that it would be faster for her to hack at them with a melee weapon than with her slingshot.

  She didn’t have the strength that Barry had within him, but Luna gave it her all to hack away at the fallen enemies that Barry laid out just for her. As much as she didn’t like getting blood on herself, this was something that she would just have to get used to as she participated in this game.

  Barry kept the crippled Mongruuls pinned down while Luna finished each one of them down, after killing them all; she would inform Barry that she had obtained a level. As happy as she was getting closer to unlocking her Class, Luna knew that she would have to stay vigilant.

  Luna gave Barry directions to where the others were and continued to travel down the streets. They would encounter another group of people trying to defend the town against more Mongruuls that outnumbered them. And the moment Barry felt his body trying to tell him to do the right thing, he surrendered to it because he knew that there was no point in resisting.

  So again, Luna took cover and waited for Barry to set everything up for her. She wanted to at least use her slingshot to help somewhat, but knew that if she did, there was a good chance that Luna would draw in unnecessary aggro towards herself.

  Hopping up on the buildings, Barry decided to mow down the ranged attackers that were launching arrows, spears and such at the contestants below. Taking them by surprise, Barry lacerated the crying hyenas just enough before tripping them over the edge for Luna to get the killing blow.

  The contestants were in awe of Barry’s arrival, overjoyed by the fact that someone like him appeared to help them out. He pushed off the last hyena above, before jumping off to dispatch the rest of the enemies that were still tussling with the other contestants.

  He took Thalia’s teaching to heart, being mindful of his footwork and hip placement when avoiding his foes' strikes. His blade clashing with the other at the correct section that was most favorable for him to overpower his enemies.

  These types of enemies were fought like savages that relied on their innate nature to pressure their prey relentlessly without a moment to catch their breath. However, because these hyenas paid no mind to themselves, Barry was able to exploit their carelessness by striking them whenever there was an opening.

  ‘Compared to every other foe that I’ve fought, these guys only care about filling their bellies rather than paying any mind to the injuries they sustain. Dense mutts, they’ll run away when a bigger predator enters the fight.’ It would not take long for Barry to defeat a majority of the hyenas around them, which caused the rest to flee after witnessing their members get owned.

  One of the tiresome contestants smiled at Barry before giving him their thanks. “Wow man, that was pretty gnarly of you to-”

  “Luna! Come pick up your kills!” Barry cut off the kind teenager who was just trying to show some appreciation for his group.

  The group of strangers then watched a 10-year-old girl enter the area with a bloodied hand-axe, immediately chopping away at the weakened hyenas that groaned in pain. Never had they seen someone like her age with blood all over her body, hacking away with anger in each swing.

  They watched Luna kill all the Mongruuls, who then sided next to Barry before taking off to continue searching for the others. This peculiar scene that they all witnessed made them feel somewhat embarrassed because they could not believe that a little girl was actually butchering enemies with an axe.

  “W-What did I just see?” One person questioned with a bewildered look.

  “I-I don’t know man, let’s just be glad that we were saved by that guy.” Another person replied, he then thought about Luna killing the hyenas and Barry’s display of heroism. “But it does make me feel weak to be shown off like that…”

  Every one from his group felt the same way, they all agreed that they should have had their wits together instead of being so scattered, brained and in fear of the ambush that the hyenas unleashed upon them.

  It took Barry and Luna a couple more minutes until they arrived at the same place Luna last saw her group. There were corpses of fallen Mongruuls and other people that gave it their all to defend the town, building walls were destroyed, the ground shattered from possible blunt impacts. No one was left alive from what they were seeing.

  “No!” Luna was worried about everyone else that was with her, she didn’t like the morbid scene but looked around, hoping that neither of the bodies was someone that they knew. But it was concluded after a quick scope of the aftermath, that Kat, Anna, and Puck were not a part of the dead. “They’re not here, so they have to still be alive. Right?” Luna wondered.

  Barry had belief that his group was capable of retreating when necessary, the one that he was most worried about was Puck because he had some connection to him due to knowing the True Barry that he was borrowing his name from. “They damn well better.”

  He then switched on his ‘Detective Mode’, and scanned around for any leads of where the battle might have shifted to. One piece of evidence that he found, which stood out, were Puck’s Kobold footprints. “Yup, that’s clearly you, Puck.”

  Apparently, Puck’s footprints were highlighted green and lead off towards another direction of the town, along with other different footprints that followed. “On me.” Barry called out to Luna. “They fled this way, they all retreated.”

  Luna did as told and accompanied Barry down an alley way, taking them to the tall bell tower that signalled the warning for the entire town to hear. And as they got closer, the sounds of active combat reached their ears.

  Barry’s inventory opened up automatically without his intention, showing him that the star amulet that was gifted to him from Puck was glowing a bright light. ‘I’m in belief that this amulet really does tell me where Puck is whenever I think about him. Well, good, I’m almost there.’

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  The two then witnessed the sight of a few human bodies flying in the air with some debris, their echoes of cries spooked Luna as they drew near the battle.

  “Luna.” Barry said, snapping her out of her dark thoughts. “Remember, you asked to be brought here to get stronger. You knew what you were getting yourself into, so if you still feel like turning away, go ahead and do so. Otherwise, steel yourself because I sense a challenge up ahead.”

  As scared as she felt at the moment, it was not enough to frighten her to run away because she had something to prove not just to her friends, but also to herself. “Not this time, I’ll keep going because it’s the only path I see to breaking my fears and becoming something more than a coward.”

  He accepted her answer, thinking that she might actually be able to unlock her Class during this confrontation with whatever was causing the chaos up ahead. “Then show me how badly you want to help carry the weight of the group.”

  The two would exit out of a route leading to a wide circular town plaza with the bell tower in the center. More people were in the area, fending off the vicious Mongruuls alongside 3 other larger sized Mongruuls that looked like veterans based on their battle scars, torn-off ears and monstrous physiques. Each of them were geared with armor and heavy weapons to fit their big hands.

  “Look there!” Luna pointed out immediately. “They’re all still alive!”

  Barry looked at where she was referring to and saw that she was right. Kat, Ron, Anna, and Puck were doing all they could to hold their own against one of the giant Mongruuls. Buford was contesting with one on his own, having converted to his werewolf form in order to stand a chance. The last giant Mongruul was hashing it out with a large group of other contestants, having a field day crushing them all with its twin greataxes.

  Weighing his choices, it was clear to Barry that if he helped the other contestants, then they could assist the others. “We’re assisting the randoms first before moving on to the others.” Barry told Luna and the two rushed to join in.

  Luna pulled out her slingshot to provide ranged support against the average sized Mongruuls, while Barry paved his way to aggro the giant Mongruul. The brute’s chuckles terrorized all those around him, giving a moral boost to his savage hyenas with its presence. If Barry took down one of these brutes, then it was possible that the Mongruuls would lose their bearings after seeing one of their strongest forces defeated.

  After bouncing off the face of one of the Mongruuls, rising up into the air, Barry unleashed his own aura boosting skill to increase everyone’s chances of overcoming these annoying laughing hyenas. ‘King’s Commanding Presence!’

  Barry, as well as everyone in the town plaza that he deemed as allies, felt a surge of hidden power within. His skill boosted everyone’s physical prowess by nearly 50%, refilling their confidence and morale. This was what was needed to get the random contestants back into the fight in order to complete the quest and defend the town.

  Anna and the rest felt the effects of Barry’s ability, they wondered where this sudden burst of power was coming from until Anna looked in Barry’s direction from the other side. “Barry’s here!” She informed the group, which grabbed their attention to glance at Barry, who had slashed at the nap of one of the brute Mongruuls. “Luna managed to wake the grouch up.”

  Anna’s group felt more confident in knowing that Barry was here, they knew that losing to these monsters was most certainly not an option. Especially to Kat, Ron, and Puck, they didn’t want to appear weak in front of Barry, and wanted to show that they were just as capable of holding their own against something as sadistic and ravenous as these giant Mongruuls and their minions.

  The brute that Barry snuck up on, growled at him, now gazing at the pest that was able to inflict its first wound. Now that Barry had grabbed its attention from the rest of the randoms, he baited the brute to follow him away from the group so that he could go all out. ‘That’s right, just me and you, you steroid freak. No one else.’

  The brute gave a loud and eerie howl at him, swinging downwards with one axe, crashing it down at the ground where Barry was at before he dodged. The ground shattered upon impact, Barry wasted no time to move in closer since the monster had a reach advantage compared to him. Another axe swing was made in a horizontal motion but was avoided after a quick hop over the double-edged weapon. ‘It’s fast, without the physical enhancements that I’m getting from my skill, I would be having a much harder time evading its attacks.’

  Barry knew that he would have to defeat this brute before his temporary enhancements timed out. He ducked and weaved through the barrage of thrashes, nicking the creature's long arms every chance he could.

  Soon, the creature would grow tiresome of his evasive maneuvers and go full berserk, charging straight at Barry without care. Barry swiftly bunny hopped to the side, watching the creature crash into a building, revealing innocents inside that were taking shelter. The monster then eyed the people inside, and clamped its jaws shut on one of the civilians, chomping them into chunks before swallowing. Screams of terror overfilled the air, another innocent was trapped in the jaws of the monster now.

  An uncomfortable feeling stirred inside Barry, not from himself, but from the unknown within that he still could not understand where it came from. ‘Yeah, I know! I’m working on taking this guy down.’ He told this unknown sensation.

  He took a firm stance before performing two heavy, yet swift, swings with his greatsword to deliver two sharp blades of wind aimed at the creature's throat. His projectiles were a direct hit, cutting deep after the second hit, causing it to spit out the trapped civilian. “Right here, you mutt! Don’t forget about me!” He taunted, grabbing its attention.

  Although wounded, with its HP at 50% from all the attacks Barry dished out, Barry could see that the brute’s HP was regenerating somewhat. ‘Could it be that these Mongruuls heal after consuming flesh? This will be annoying if they keep feasting…’

  Once again, the battle raged on. Barry would have to get a bit more aggressive now after taking note of the creature’s ability to heal. And not only that, the creature was more ferocious than before, Barry would receive a couple of cuts that grazed his skin from dodging the monster’s destructive strikes.

  His plan now was to close the gap between each other, taking advantage of the monster’s recklessness, and was successful upon reaching the waist of the brute. He flipped to avoid being struck from behind and landed back on his toes, twirling around to maintain his momentum as he leaped over another attack, until finally unleashing his most powerful move yet. ‘With “King’s Commanding Presence” combined with “Kinetic Output”, my next few strokes of wind blades should be able to deal a huge amount of damage to this bastard!’

  Barry pulled the trigger, lashing out at the monster’s limbs with his compressed wind blades, grievously wounding the monster by the joints, which spurted out blood. The brute then looked at the innocent people that were fleeing and lunged at one of them, in an attempt to heal itself after a quick snack. “No you don’t!” Barry growled.

  He then bunny hopped below the jaws of the creature, driving his greatsword straight up in the air to slice through the gapping mouth of the Mongruul that bared its row of canine teeth. “CHEW ON THIS YOU CHUCKLE FUCK!”

  Barry pushed off the ground for some extra force in his attack, dragging his weapon straight through the mouth and out the back. He landed behind the creature, back on his feet, feeling quite a bit exhausted after fighting the brute. ‘I tried hard not to get hit by one of these guys, damn am I tired.’

  A notification window appeared, telling him that he had leveled up. He glanced at the brute, seeing that it was defeated with half its mouth cleaved clean through. “That’s one giant Mongruul down. So how is the kid doing?” He looked over where he last saw her, joining the random contestants.

  It appeared to Barry that the group of randoms were able to turn the tide against the raiders, especially after Barry had eliminated one of their brutes. As for spotting Luna, it wasn’t hard for him to spot her, given her age as a kid. Luna seemed to be staring at something in front of her in shock. ‘Seems like the kid must have unlocked her Class, so she got what she wanted.’

  Barry shifted his focus to the rest of his group that were still fighting their own battles, Buford looked like he had finished wrapping up his own fight against a brute. He dug his claws into his foe’s chest after pushing it off its balance, eventually ripping out the brute’s heart in hand, crushing it. ‘So gory, yup, Buford is definitely not to be fucked with.’

  He then looked at the others, and was impressed to see them triumph over their own brute together. Puck was on top of their fallen foe, raising his hands in the air with joy. “Look, Barry!” The Kobold called out. “Puck and friends beat weird looking doggy!”

  As pleased as he was that the others were able to hold their own against one of these brutes, he was still irritated at the fact that they didn’t bother informing him about their pit stop to browse the town. And just as he was about to go and give his group a stern talking, a loud and bellowing howl was heard. It startled everyone in the area, freezing them in place.

  Suddenly, more Mongruuls began to appear, flooding out of different paths leading to the plaza and immediately engaging everyone in there. ‘There’s more!?’ Barry grabbed a recovery potion from his inventory to prepare for the next wave of enemies.

  And leading the charge with these Mongruuls, was an even larger Mongruul compared to the brutes that were taken down. Up above on a building, there was a commanding Mongruul that had reddish skin, ash-like fur with veteran scars, one of its eyes was presumingly blind because of its milky color. It wore spiked armor with horns protruding from its shoulder blades. The creature’s long tail was equipped with its own blade to serve as a weapon. And in its hands was a staff with a flail of spiked balls on one end and glaive on the other. It twirled its weapon around in the air before crashing down, whipping its flail at the other random contestants, knocking a chunk of them to the sidelines.

  Barry’s whole group rushed to his side, with Anna being the first to speak. “Listen, I know you might be mad about us stopping here. But- Luna! What are you doing here!”

  Luna hugged her sister, they were both glad to know that the other was alright. Luna then replied. “I came because it didn’t feel right for me to standby and do nothing. I wanted to get stronger for everyone, it bothers me to see everyone fight besides me.”

  Anna didn’t want Luna to participate in their battles because of the fear of losing her only sister, she didn’t want to think about what she might do if Luna were to lose her life. “Luna, I can’t have you fighting with us. I don’t-”

  “Stop treating me like a kid! I’m in this life or death game just like everyone else.” Luna voiced in frustration. “I almost died back at Haglethorn without you to protect me. I was scared, helpless, and I hate that feeling. That’s why I’m here, so I can overcome those feelings. I want to do my part as well for everyone!”

  “Luna…” Anna was unsure about Luna’s decision to prove herself to everyone.

  “Hey.” Barry said towards Anna. “There will come a time when every one of us will have to think and fend for ourselves with no help at all. Realizing it now, having your little sister hang back without any experience can be just as dangerous for her as it is having her join our battles. With that being said, continue looking after her during our challenges so she can keep growing like she wants. But remember, like she said, you can’t be there for her every time she needs help.”

  Barry approached the raging battle in the distance, bracing himself to go dance with the mob boss Mongruul. “Talk about this later, we have more chuckle fucks to handle right now.” He then dashed off.

  Puck, Buford, Ron, and Kat tagged along to assist the losing contestants, leaving Luna and Anna behind. Luna looked at her sister and back at the others before motioning towards them, but was stopped by Anna, who grasped her hand. “Anna-”

  “Wait…” Anna told her, she was hesitant about what she was about to tell Luna. “What Barry said was true…and so were you about me not being able to help you when needed me. As much as I would like for you to be safe away from all the danger we face, the possibility of you being alone by yourself again with no one else to help you, scares me. So…I’ll allow you to join us so that you can become strong enough to protect yourself on your own.” Anna felt like she had lifted a heavy weight off her chest.

  Luna was happy to hear her sister agree to her wishes, she was even more motivated than before. “Thank you, Anna. It means a lot to me to hear you say that.”

  Anna looked onwards at the fight that was taking place. “Now, how about we get you some experience points to unlock your Class.”

  “Oh, that’s already been taken care of already with Barry’s help.” Luna told her, which shocked Anna. “You’ll see soon enough what my powers are.” Luna had a cheeky smile on her face as she said it.

  Barry and Buford were engaged with the Mongruul boss monster; the swinging force of the monster's weapon, despite narrowly dodging them, was enough to send a gale of wind that pushed others around it back a bit. “One hit from this Mongruul is enough to hospitalize you, Barry. Be extremely careful.” Buford advised.

  “Like hell I am, who wouldn’t avoid getting hit by this giant meathead.” Barry insulted the boss, which reached its ears and specifically targeted Barry. “The fuck! Did it really take that as an insult!?” Barry was entirely on defense at that moment.

  Kat attempted to bind the boss’s legs with her magic chains, but not even that was able to restrain the monster. Puck’s fire was able to leave a bit of scorch marks, but not enough damage to draw any aggro from it.

  Ron then channeled his illusion magic into constructing a giant red-scaled dragon that was similar to the one that he made to intimidate the Kobold’s at Puck’s previous home. He manifested it right behind the Mongruuls, making it seem as though it flew in. He mimicked the roar of a dragon and everything to make it all seem real.

  This show of performance was able to catch the attention of everyone in the plaza, including the Mongruul boss that roared back; whereas its minions stopped to gaze at their new foe, shocked to see a dragon appearing out of nowhere. The other contestants were even more frightened than before, thinking that this whole event was a total blow out and that they were all going to die for good.

  “Ron, I appreciate the cheesy dragon…” Barry commented. “But what now, we know that’s not real but if the other contestants think it is, they’ll run away.”

  Ron hadn’t thought about that, he was just trying to scare off the Mongruuls and hoped that it would accomplish the result of defeating them. “Uh…I haven’t-”

  The Mongruul boss then chucked a handful of timid Mongruuls at Ron’s illusion. Everyone then witnessed the bodies phase right through without any resistance, this raised suspicions. “Ron…” Barry whispered.

  “Ah, forget it. It costs too much mana to maintain this sort of illusion. Close your eyes!” Ron then controlled his dragon to dive bomb the entire mass of enemies and allies, before detonating the dragon in a burst of bright light that dazzled all the enemies around them, including the boss.

  The contestants were able to shut their eyes in time before Ron’s spectacular performance and took advantage of the Mongruuls moment of vulnerability by breaking down their numbers. Buford, Barry, and even Anna, who appeared, attacked the boss from different angles to confuse the monster.

  It got to a point after suffering too much damage that it began to go on a rampage, no longer carrying about friend and foe. No one was able to get in close to resume damaging the angry Mongruul. Gale forces spurred around, pushing everything and everyone around from its reckless flailing.

  Suddenly, it felt something strike its only functioning eye after recovering from being blind by Ron’s flash of light. “Over here, ugly!” Luna taunted with her slingshot, appearing unaffected by the whirlwind.

  The Mongruul, pissed at the little girl now, decided to give chase to her. Its legs stomped the ground as it approached Luna, flailing its morning stars in the air. “Luna!” Anna shouted, worried that the monster was going to kill her sister.

  Anna tried teleporting closer to reach the boss so that she could draw in aggro herself, but not only were the swinging morningstars something that was keeping her back, the wind did so as well. ‘Damn this monster! If only I can get its attention!’

  The rest of the smaller Mongruuls that recovered from the blinding light, continued to attack everyone to keep them busy. While their boss chased Luna towards the bell tower, she continued to empower each rock that she used to pelt the boss with to break through the wind barrier.

  Luna’s back was against the wall of the tower, completely unaffected by the wind, yet she had to drop prone to avoid getting pulverized by the morningstars which broke a chunk of the tower's base. ‘Just a bit more…’ She thought to herself, continuing to fire her rocks that only bothered the boss even more.

  Barry felt a sudden burning feeling inside himself, he knew that it was his body urging him to help Luna out. His cooldown for his skill, ‘King’s Commanding Presence’, was refreshed and activated again to empower himself and his allies once more before rushing off to help out Luna, alongside Anna.

  The boss stopped flailing its weapon around, ending the gale force, and lifted its glaive high in the air. Anna and Barry sprinted to go and save Luna before she got demolished. Anna teleported on the creature’s shoulders, stabbing away at the boss's thick head, telling it to back off. But it was too late, it had already committed to a full downwards swing on Luna.

  However, Barry reached his hand out towards Luna and activated his title skill that was given to him by the Unicorn that licked him in the face. ‘This barrier better do its job!’

  Enveloping around Luna was a rainbow dome with Unicorn shapes, sparkles, and glitter. Luna was in awe of what she was seeing, she couldn’t believe that something so girly was one of Barry’s special skills. She could also feel the shield’s recovery effect inside, as she watched the glaive that was about to hit her, clash against the dome and bounce back.

  Barry then slid underneath the boss, cleaving through its legs just before the barrier disappeared and stopping next to Luna. “Kid, there was no need to grab this specific bastard’s attention. Why did you-”

  “I had a plan with my powers.” Luna told him. “The truth is…” She then explained to Barry what she had in mind, and he realized what she was trying to do.

  Anna kept stabbing away at the monster, she was relieved to see that her sister was alright, although curious of how Barry was able to conjure a Unicorn barrier. The monster tried reaching for Anna, but she continued to teleport around different sections of its body. It then swung its flail around to create a whirlwind that would shake Anna off its body. The morningstars struck the tower once again, crumbling it some more.

  “Luna!” Anna shouted, as she saw Barry get carried away by the wind, but Luna remained unfazed, oddly enough. ‘Why is she still there? But also, why isn’t this strong wind pushing her away?’

  The boss kept trying to kill Luna with its destructive force but missed every time, until eventually it managed to achieve its goal. Its morningstar struck the final support of the tower, as well as landing a hit on the pesky little girl, Anna’s cries were heard that made the monster chuckle.

  But as the morningstar slammed against the side of Luna, the boss believed that it saw a smile form on the little girl’s face. “You’ve been bamboozled, you big meathead!” Luna mocked, before witnessing her entire body shatter into shards of magical glass.

  Befuddled by what had just happened, the boss was unaware of the tower that was about to topple on top of it. It then tried to move away, but felt resistance at its legs. Looking down, it was shocked to see what was there.

  “You’re going nowhere!” It was Luna that said it, but not just her, but multiple of her. There were at least 10 of her holding onto one of the creature’s legs. “You’re staying right here!”

  The boss tried to attack her, but was struck with repeated wind blade projectiles from Barry, making it buckle to its knees. ‘Nicely done, kid.’ Barry complimented, he was impressed by her idea to use the tower as a means to finish the Mongruul off.

  And with no time to avoid the falling bell tower, the boss monster was crushed against the weight of it all along with the rest of the clones that Luna had created.

  The fight against the other lesser Mongruuls was over, and everyone watched as they saw a little girl appear from behind the rubble, standing on top of the defeated boss monster. “How’s that for an epic finale!” She shouted, feeling proud of herself.

  The crowd of contestants cheered, along with Barry’s group that applauded her efforts. The quest to save the town was complete, bringing an end to the Mongruul invasion.