The party emerged into nothing short of chaos as they arrived at the agricultural district's city square. While the party registered the commotion, Aralynn had already shouldered her rifle, crouching behind a crate.
Grango and Amon immediately took cover as well, both preparing their bows.
A monstrous shape burst into the city square, tearing through stalls and scattering terrified citygoers of the agricultural district. Calling it "harassment" would have been far too mild—it was trying to kill everything in sight.
The beast was huge, easily the size of a horsecart with its team still hitched if not bigger. A heavy segmented shell and scale-plated hide protected its lizard-like body as it twisted and lunged with unnerving speed. Six muscular legs pounded against the cobblestones and its thick, whip-like tail smashed through crates and overturned carts with ease.
Aralynn's eyes flicked to the gaping hole dung in the square's center—its likely point of entry.
It had clearly tunneled in from below.
The agricultural district's stone thumb had long since been hollowed and filled with soil for farmland, but how did this thing had get there in the first place...? Did it burrow all the way from ground level and through the stone to the agricultural district? This just doesn't make sense.
The party hesitated. Aralynn didn't. Objection cracked as she squeezed off a shot. The bullet struck the beast's shoulder just as it jerked its head aside, narrowly avoiding a fatal hit.
The ground shook as the gargantuan monster turned, enraged. Its claws thumped against the ground as it barreled towards them. Amon and the party burst out into the clearing, running clear of the rampaging creature.
Aralynn held her position until the last moment. Another shot planted itself squarely in between the creature's eyes as Objection rang out once more.
Just before the creature's maw snapped shut, Aralynn darted skywards, using the extra speed and reflexes gained from her Quicksilver Mastery to take to the air.
[Agility Lv. 8 has been activated!]
[Your movements flow with the wind.]
"Cozith, Champagne Pop—evacuate the square!" Aralynn shouted. "We'll deal with it until guards arrive."
Out of the corner of her eye she could see the two already doing so, herding the citizens away, leveraging their mobility to carry those too frightened to move.
Aralynn flew back around, lining up another shot, though she doubted she'd need one.
The creature surprised her by promptly turning back around and pounding back towards her. The beady eyes sunken into its draconic head were trained on the birdfolk hovering a couple dozen feet off the ground.
Aralynn fired another shot but whiffed, as the monster dodged, the bullet smacking into a paving stone. Aralynn reloaded, racking the bolt.
This thing sure is fast for its size—
Aralynn's thoughts shattered as the monster sprang skyward, its massive maw gaping wide while its multi-ton body hurtled up to meet her in midair.
"...!"
Aralynn snapped her wings shut, diving out of the way.
The creature's maw once more bit down on empty air with bone-crunching force, narrowly avoiding the tips of Aralynn's wings and her legs.
"....kh!"
Aralynn twisted into a tight corkscrew mid-dive, slipping past swipes from the monster's six clawed limbs as it plummeted back toward the ground.
Holy shit, that thing can jump, she thought.
She landed a few feet away and ran back towards cover. However, at this moment Aralynn was met with a not particularly enticing deliberation.
If she got bit a single time, she'd probably die. Even if she had her armour, she doubted she'd be able to survive a single bite or claw. That's the risk that she ran the most while on the ground.
On the other hand, if she hovered low or tried to settle on buildings, the monster could possibly jump or climb up to her, damaging buildings and still harming Aralynn in the process.
If she tried to fly higher, then the steadiness of her aim would be an issue, especially with Hadarai who'd moved into melee with the creature. Using Dexterity wouldn't be enough to not risk hitting one of her allies on the ground.
Across the square, Aralynn could see that Hadarai had summoned his blue flame aura and was hacking away at the creature. He didn't particularly find any success in his attacks, though they were leaving shallow gashes in the monster's shell.
Amon and Grango on the other hand were peppering the creature with arrows.
It'd recovered from its jump already and barreled across the city square once more, heading for them.
The creature's shell didn't seem particularly hard or rigid, but it was especially thick, and the arrows stuck out of it like needles in an extremely angry pincushion of death.
Nothing seemed to harm it.
Amon slung his longbow over his back and drew his rapier as he sank into the shadows. Grango gracefully bounded away of the monster's charge.
"Everyone get down!"
The shout from above came from Amon. He was once again swathed in shadows, the umbral ribbons flapping in the wind as he blinked into sight from the highest building there was in the square.
His rapier had once more morphed into the black hadal lance.
- - -
{Perona's POV}
Perona's eyes locked on to Amon as he blinked into existence, dropping from the shadows high above the rampaging beast.
She knew instantly that he was too far off to land a clean hit. The monster had already spotted him and was twisting away, fleeing the arc of his strike.
Then a realization hit her as Amon continued to plummet.
There were no shadows beneath him—nowhere for Amon to vanish into. He wasn't diving into an attack anymore. He was falling, about to splatter on to the ground.
Not if I can help it. Perona gritted her teeth.
So far in their journey, she'd only used three spells—Healer's Words, Phase Step, and Saizlef's Thunder. However, she had many, many more spells in her repertoire—especially after she'd received the level up from the successful casino heist.
Now would be the time to use them.
She darted forwards.
Perona first activated one of her abilities, targeting Amon—Musician's Favour. Amon was cloaked in a pink glow.
Using this buff on someone increased the effectiveness of their next move—whether that be a skill activation, attack, ability, or something else—by 30%.
Then, she pointed at Amon, who was still falling.
A split second before the devilkin hit the ground, Perona casted Lesser Borrowed Steps. Amon vanished into a pink mist before Perona pointed into the air just above the creature. With a snap of Perona's fingers, Amon rematerialized out of a swirling fog, back on track, above and hurtling towards the draconic monster.
Reacting quickly, he drew back his lance, preparing to stab—and he did just that.
The titanic hadal lance drove deep between the monster's shoulderblades—but only lodged there, embedded rather than fatal.
The beast's howl tore through the square, but Perona could tell—judging by the length of the lance still jutting from its back—that it was nothing more than a flesh wound.
I used Musician's Favour, too. Is that all it could do?
Even though it howled, perhaps the creature simply wasn't used to being hurt, and Perona could easily see why. It thrashed, trying to dislodge Amon, but the devilkin clung stubbornly to his weapon.
When shaking him off failed, the monster turned its fury toward Perona.
Perona spared it a single glance before readying Saizlef's thunder and bolting. She still had a few uses of Phase Step—her short-range teleport—but those were for absolute emergencies.
This didn't count—yet.
Not that it mattered. Amon suddenly backflipped from the creature's back, melting into the shadow of a looming building mid-air before reappearing beside her.
"Get down!" he barked, throwing his cloak over her.
A heartbeat later, massive tendrils of chillingly dark water erupted from the embedded lance, coiling around the beast like living chains. Perona stared, wide-eyed, as they tightened, the dragon-like creature's roars turning into shrieks of pain.
Perona paused. It's not enough… and why tell us to get down? Unless—
Her thoughts were cut short by the detonation. The tendrils burst apart with the force of a dozen cannons, its power bolstered by Musician's Favour. The shockwave ripped through the square and flung bodies in all directions.
Even shielded by Amon, Perona was tossed aside like a ragdoll.
Pain bloomed white-hot in her chest. Her ribs had cracked and blood flooded her mouth as she hit the cobblestones hard.
Through her rapidly dimming vision, she caught a glimpse of Aralynn plunging down toward the monster, but each breath came heavy, ragged, and unbearably painful through her rapidly constricting chest.
Amon lay a couple feet away in a similar state.
She reached for her magic to heal herself and Amon, but nothing came to her.