Staring at Christopher, I shout, “MOVE.”

  Christoper says, “These guys are just tors, I don’t o worry about this, especially since.”

  dra dashes past him and cuts down the wonderbeast, “The leader here is a pro at cutting down wonderbeasts.”

  As the leader moves towards two more of the wonderbeasts, Christopher says, “A fighting style specialized around hunting wonderbeasts, it is said that the users develop instincts sharper than any animal; and the name of this fighting style is.”

  Φ “Four beasts battle arts; Predatory fang,” I say as I perform 2 downward sshes that shatter both of their spines.

  There are 7 tors surrounding us, each of them with razor-sharp bdes on their wings, 3 behind us and 2 on each of our fnks. They are all moving headfirst without any coordination, no wait, it looks like they are peting to see who gets the first kill, they should be easy to take down then.

  No, I was off; there are at least 20 more hiding in the forest lying in wait to see how this frontation goes down; how annoying. I don’t want these guys running away and stalking us because in this enviro we are sure to eventually let uard down, so I guess we must elimihem now.

  “THRIM, ANOUK, GUāNG, I need you all to fain struggling.”

  Anouk says, “Right.”

  Thrim says, “Whatever you and leader.”

  Guāng shakes his head furiously up and down.

  I dash over to our left fnk, and whilst I do I hear Christopher say, “You're all doing a series of near dodges to pretend your struggling almost as if you are trying to deceive the wonderbeasts. The skill and ce it must take to do such things god is surely with you all.”

  That fug brat, if he keeps ag all fident in our skills the beasts will simply run away after sensing a losing situation. “GUāNG, I NEED YOU TO KICK CHRISTOPHER IN THE BALLS RIGHT NOW!”

  Christopher says, “Wait, what!”

  “But that’s a bit too harsh.”

  “I am giving you an order!”

  Thrim says, “There are just some things a man ’t do to another man.”

  “I have seen you craother man's head open like a walnut and somehow this is too much for you?”

  Both Guāng and Thrim say, “YES!”

  “The fuck!”

  Anouk dodging a tor, says, “You giant babies, MOVE!” Then she runs over to Christopher and hits him in the balls.

  On the floor reeling from the blow Christopher says, “This too must be a trail from god.”

  Anouk says, “Whatever keeps you up at night.”

  Around me I feel 20 presences close in around us, so I say, “Guāng protect Christopher, Anouk I need you to shoot the ohat are close by, Thrim keep Anouk safe as she shoots them down, and I will circle around to hit the ones all around us making sure none escape.”

  Anouk and Thrim say, “Right.” But Guāng just shakes his head nervous.

  “Four beast battle arts; Stalking fang.”

  Φ Christopher on the floor says, “The user minimizes all bodily funs which erases their presehen uses spirit energy to propel their body through extreme tration, that is the stalking fang. How amazing you adventurers are.”

  “I am surprised you still talk.”

  Holding his balls on the floor, Christopher says, “God has givehis ce to watch adventures in a, I refuse to squahis opportunity. Look how beautiful those two are fighting.”

  Staring at Thrim, and Anouk I see they are moving vigorously across the battlefield. Anouk is moving around and jumping off of Thrim but as she does, she stantly fires arrow after arrow hitting most of her targets only missing 1 or 2.

  But Thrim is just as impressive even with that heavy great shield he is holding, he is capable of moving just as well as Anouk, then when he sees an opening, he uses the edge of his shield to cut the tors. Though I notiething strange; whenever one of the tors runs into his shield they freeze for a moment almost as if they are in incredibly deep pain.

  Christopher says, “Thrim’s shield is made from the aquatiderbeast, Sy, a poisonous scaly fish. Whenever one of the tors charges into it they are stuck by a ridiculous amount of the paralysing poison.”

  I khese guys were sidered strong, but I might have uimated them a bit. Suddenly I hear another scream, then I turn right to see a tor is running toward me and Christopher.

  Holding my straight sword, I prepare to draw it but as I do I stare at the wonderbeast for a sed. It’s rge, fanged mouth, it’s inhuman speed, it’s sharp wings, it’s strange colours; this is no human this is a beast. I’m scared.

  Suddenly dra appears covered in blood from the forest and cuts it’s head off, and after she does that I fall to my knees.

  “Everyone all the tors are dead.”

  Around me everyos where dra is standing, then Christopher jumping on his own two feet says, “You really defeated all those tor by yourself?”

  “It was nothing special anyone one of us could have dohat.”

  Thrim says, “Don’t downpy yourself in that time period barely anyone would have aplished such a thing.”

  Giving Thrim a high five, dra says, “Maybe I am just amazing then.”

  Walking away Anouk says, “You truly are boss.”

  Christopher walking over to Anouk, says, “What are you doing?”

  “Retrieving my arrows, from these wonderbeasts.”

  “Actually all the wonderbeasts in Fimbulwinter are knoredasaurs because of how they all have a furious hunger for the flesh of others. But if I was to eborate furt-.”

  Getting up, in a furry Anouk says, “SHUT THE HELL UP. IT’S YOUR FAULT WE ARE IN THIS MESS!”

  Shocked Christopher says, “It seems you don’t uand how much of a blessing my presence is!”

  Taking out a piece of cloth Anouk s Christopher's mouth up and says, “For the 3 hours no speaking.”

  Christopher starts to muffle words while being overactive as usual, but Anouk says, “Or I will crush your nuts.” Instantly Christopher quiets down.

  Looking at me, she says, “Now are we going to address the piece of trash with the decorative sword over there.”

  Pointing my head away from her gaze, I say, “Sorry.”

  “Do you think an apology will be enough if one of us dies!”

  dra says, “Stop Anouk.”

  “But.”

  “It is fine, up until this point he has been fighting humans, and both of us know rather well that fighting humans is much different than hunting wonderbeasts.”

  Patting me on my head, dra says, “Don’t be down not everyone is capable of ag right in an ambush, so whe to initiate the battle, I expect it to go well.”

  Holding my sword tight, I say, “Right.”

  “Now let’s go, everyone.”

  -Break-

  We tinued our advehrough Fimbulwinter, avoiding any frontation we deemed unnecessary. But while we are moving through Fimbulwinter, Christopher takes the c of his mouth and says, “Time’s up.”

  “Has it been 3 hours already?”

  “Well 3 hours; 9 seds exactly. Now I finally bless you all with my voice again.”

  Anouk says, “If you tell me any more of your stupid facts, I am going to cave your skull in.”

  “No facts, just a question like why do you use metal arrows when wonderbeast arrows would be much more effective?”

  “Who the hell cares about that.”

  Putting my hand up, I say, “I was actually w the same thing.”

  She gives me a gre, so I bring my hand down and say, “Sorry.”

  dra says, “ime I have to correct you Anouk there won’t be any words just violence.”

  Grittieeth, she says, “Fine. Wonderbeast arrows are expensive ao bloart on tact, so they aren’t cost-effective most of the time unless I know they are necessary for victory. So instead, I use these metal arrows.”

  “But arrows aren’t naturally hard enough to pierce most wonderbeast and they lose spirit energy since you don’t have direct tact, so even if you fire them off really fast you would still be losing spirit energy, so wonderbeast arrows would still be better.”

  Showing me her finger, I see string attached to it then she says, “This string is from the eternal spider of Arendaia, it is a great ductor of spirit energy so I it lightly around each arrow and it allows me to maintain a steady flow of spirit energy into my arrows as they leave; it also makes it easier to retrieve them afterwards.”

  Christopher says, “I hought of such a solution, to the arrow problem.”

  dra says, “Well most people never have to think of that, sihey either use wonderbeast arrows or save up for spirit metal bows from Avalon.”

  Suddenly Anouk gets angry and says, “Don’t mention that piece of shit try again!”

  Scared, I ask, “What happened?”

  Thrim ughing says, “She had spent years saving up for a spirit metal bow, but then when Skydust got destroyed Avalon pletely stopped sending out any forms of spirit metal.”

  Anouk says, “SO THEY NOT ONLY REFUSED TO HAND OVER MY BOW BUT KEPT THE MONEY I PUT DOWN ARE A PREPAYMENT, THOSE GREEDY MOTHERFUCKERS, CHIVALRY MY ASS!”

  dra says, “I doubt you could bme them, the destru of Skydust has led to giant shifts. Now all air delivery has ceased across the p and all the tries are now shifting into war mode, h resources, political marriages, and increasing taxes all across the board. If a tial war breaks out could be dragged into war for the first time in history, maybe us adventuress would even be soldiers.”

  Christopher says, “I wouldn’t worry about that, has no scription policy, and it isn’t the godly war t people into war.”

  Thrim says, “An ever-increasing amount of legacies are being borened war tensions, the dragon sighting in Basileia and now a race of people who live in Fimbulwinter are appearing. I ’t help but feel this is all a bad omen.”

  Gripping my sword, I say, “I know it may seem bad, but I vouch that there are some amazing people out in the world, so I am sure everything will be alright.”

  Thrim says, “If a supposed Prodigy like you says that it must be true.”

  Anouk says, “Don’t stroke his ego, he is still just a ro-.”

  dra says, “Everyone quiet!” Then crouches, and all of us follow her lead.

  Using hand signals she tells us to follow her and as we crouch we see through some bushes a rge wonderbeast with 3 trunks.

  “A Vanir Mammoth. We won’t be able to sneak past something that big,” dra says.

  “Wait, I don’t remember anything about a wonderbeast like that in Fimbulwinter?”

  Popping in Christopher says, “It is actually a wonderbeast from the northern part of Molstoria, around the end of the 2nd cycle they were imported to Victoria.”

  Knog him down, Anouk says, “I mean why the hell is it here! No records of these things surviving on Fimbulwinter have ever been recorded?”

  dra says, “Weren’t there records of a huge Tiritrex in Fimbulwinter? Maybe it died and due to it’s absence wonderbeasts that survived at a higher level of Fimbulwinter have migrated down.”

  Sitting up Christopher says, “It’s hide looks much thicker than normal, it is some form of adaption to Fimbulwinter.”

  Scared, I say, “It’s giant will we be able to take it down?”

  Thrim says, “These things do damage to Wonderbeasts from the dragon ti, so their offensive power is no joke. But if we want to take it down, all we have to do is not get hit.”

  dra says, “We will unch a coorditack, Thrim will grab its attention, Anouk will shoot out its eyes, I will go for its legs and you Guāng, will nd the finishing blow.”

  Gripping my sword, tight I take a deep breath, but all my muscles feel wobbly.