He was sitting at a table in the corner of a small tavern with his two companions: Seer and Wane. The three of them had been going through their supplies and confirming their strategy for the upcoming expedition. He had met his two companions back when he was a soldier of the pangean entente during the second human-mokoi war. He was a ranger for a battalion that was under the direct control of the murugan squad; he even managed to be personally trained by the greatest marksman alive: murugan’s savage archer. Seer was a scholar from Ersatz university that worked with murugan squad in debriefing them on mokoi strategy and behavior. He met Wane in passing at New Heirisson before his battalion and murugan squad embarked to the mokoi badlands with the Saviors; he quickly became friends with Wane in that short time.

Now that the mokoi were pre-occupied with their civil war there had been a pseudo armistice. It was a year after the armistice when he reunited with Wane, he discovered that Wane was once an assassin of the infamous tabulate syndicate but had left the group and was now an adventurer. Wane invited him to leave the military and become an adventurer with him. They later invited Seer who had graduated from the university and they formed the Inapt adventurer group.

They had been slowly building their reputation over the years by battling the remaining mokoi forces within Aegis though they still couldn’t quite bring their popularity up to that of the Banausic Cardinals, but they were planning to change that tonight. The three had decided that tonight they were going to take on the legendary quest of Hengist island.

Hengist island was just off the coast of the city of Horsa sitting in the ocean that divided humanity from the mokoi badlands. This meant that Hengist was a prime location for a forward mokoi outpost to be formed. Being one of the most strongly contested locations of the war had totally destroyed the island. It was only when the Saviors led by the acclaimed Hero of New-heirisson conquest came sixteen years ago that the island was liberated.

The legend says that the moon having witnessed the evil and violence of civilized creatures corrupting the island sent two moon spirits to protect the island from civilized life. The two moon spirits hover atop the inert volcano on the island and watch over the island killing any trespassers that come. That is why when one looks over to Hengist island they can see three moons over the island, the one normal moon of the world, and the two moon spirits watching for any naïve adventurer foolish enough to try and slay the spirits and reclaim the island for humanity.

Since the appearance of the two moons over the volcano, no human expedition to the island had ever returned. Even the clotted forest mercenaries sent a team to liberate the island but not even their numbers or power was enough; although, ever since the death of the clotted devils the mercenary group had only been but a shell of its former glory.

Regardless, the Inapt were three exceptionally skilled and experienced fighters who had tested their might against countless opponents and this quest was no exception. After finishing all of their preparations they left the tavern and made their way to the pier where an old sailor was waiting for them. Some sailors found a profitable side business in ferrying adventurers to the island. The ferry fair was simple, adventurers would give the ferryman all of their money and it would be returned to the adventurers if they themselves returned. In theory the cost of travel was free, but history showed a different result.

The short journey to the island was eerily quiet, it was a clear night and the island was brightly lit by the three moons overhead. The group disembarked from the boat and gave a farewell to the skipper before making their way towards the volcano. The group were walking along a wide dirt road which may once have been a popular trade route. The island was once known for its wonderous fishing industry. Now it was just an empty road for the three to carefully trudge through with their weapons wearily drawn. The group were professional and knew of the dangers they were traversing through. Seer stopped walking as he looked up to the sky. “Wow.”

He signaled to his allies to join him in observing the wonderous sight. All three members found themselves stopped in their tracks mouth agape as they stared up to the night above them. Above the peak of the inert volcano were two small moons watching down onto them. The beautiful white coins hovered in the dark expanse like miraculous beacons. Seer enthralled by the moons watched in pure bliss as they grew larger and larger.

With its large talons faced towards Seer the creature slammed his body into the hard ground crushing his ribs and instantaneously killing him. Between the two remaining adventurers was a great beast with two massive penny eyes shining like a pair of moons. The creature had a long neck twice the length of a human covered in long thick white feathers that puffed out in every direction making the creature seem horrifically large. The creature had two bird-like feet which attached to its small burly body.

The creature faced the two men keeping its body low to the ground protecting its prey from the two. Out of the creatures thick feathered neck an innumerable number of frail thin human arms reached out to grab the dead Seer and carry him into the feathered protection of the creature’s neck where his corpse completely disappeared into.

Wane didn’t allow himself time to be shocked as he quickly shot off a volley of poisonous darts at the beast. The creature immediately waved its body around smoothly rearing out of the way of the shots with impeccable grace before lunging forward with terrifying power. The creature covered the gap between it and Wane nearly instantly. The creature quickly wrapped its long neck around Wane and then more of those frail arms burst out of the darkness behind its feathers grabbing and tearing at his flesh. A pair of arms finally gripped onto his head and twisted it so that his chin faced the sky and with a loud pop he became motionless. The arms then disappeared back behind the creatures feathers along with Wane’s lifeless body.

He hadn’t even knocked an arrow on his bow yet and both his friends were already dead. The creature tilted its head towards the quivering archer. He was frozen still; he wasn’t sure if there was anything he could do that wouldn’t just expediate his death. The creature slowly waddled towards him, its wide eyes watching every detail of his quivering body. The creature stopped directly before the man, the two stared into each other’s eyes. The creature’s head was about the size of the man’s entire body and its eyes the size of his head. Those eyes looked at him with a familiar curiosity, the creature cocked its head as if it was searching through its mind for some memory. If the creature was trying to remember the man before it, it wasn’t successful.

The creature slowly searched around the man analyzing every angle of his body. The creature’s neck was long enough that it didn’t even have to move to do this, it merely wrapped its neck around him. An innumerable number of thin frail arms made themselves known as they slowly inched towards the man, a pair of arms gently caressed around his neck. The man was still frozen still, the only action he could manage to force his body to do was cry. The arms tightened around his neck and it only took a few more minutes for it to be over.

The creature had quickly made its way back up the volcano and carefully navigated itself down the open top to a cave hidden within. There was a small side room close to the entrance of the cave that the creature quickly entered.

A soft strained wispy female voice echoed from deeper within the cave. “Are you back?”

Within the small room that the creature entered there was a large marble bowl the size of a vast pool. Many ropes tied to stalactites were hanging above the marble bowl. The creature approached the stalactites and its many thin arms quickly began working in tying the ankles of the three corpses it collected to a set of ropes so that their bodies hanged upside down over the bowl. Once the creature had finished securing the corpses all but one of its arms retracted back into the comfort of its warm neck.

The creature walked over to a corner of the room where an old rusted dagger and glass vial were left lying. The thin arm picked the dagger up and returned to the three hanging corpses. The thin arm moved towards Wane’s colorful throat. It pressed the rusty blade against his exposed neck and quickly sheared the dagger across. The color of Wane’s throat immediately flushed away as a fountain of blood roared out into the marble pool. The creature sat and watched as the waterline slowly raised. It returned the rusty dagger back to its corner and grabbed the vial. It returned to the marble pool and watched the blood gather.

The voice from deeper in the cave spoke up again. “Hello, Livy are you there?” The voice seemed to struggle with the very act of speaking, but concern outweighed any discomfort of speaking.

When the blood slowed down to an occasional drip the creature dipped the glass vial it was holding into the pool and blood quickly poured into it, the creature then pulled the vial back out. The creature brought the vial close to its eye as it examined the contents. There was a small horizontal scratch near the top of the vial and the blood collected had reached just above that scratched line. The creature carefully tilted the vial over the pool allowing a few drops of blood to fall back in the pool. The creature inspected the vial again and upon noticing that the blood was perfectly level with the scratch it left the room and headed deeper into the cave.

The cave did not go very deep before opening up to a small grassy clearing. In the center of the room a large curving ebony slab littered with cushions rested. Cozily laying within the cushioned slab was a woman. The woman had beautiful pale skin and long flowing black hair. The woman had a long slender frame with nearly no muscle on her. The creature stayed in the hall outside of the opening. The woman struggled to tilt her head towards the entrance and caught sight of the creature.

The creature slowly approached the weak woman. The woman kept her gaze on the creature for its entire walk over. The creature was now standing directly next to the woman and its neck reaching straight up made it tower over her. The creature’s frail arm brought the bloody vial to her lips.

The woman whispered “I’m not thirsty.”; her tone carried a heavy sadness with it. The creature gave out a soft but high-pitched chirp and once again moved the vial closer to the woman’s lips. She silently looked up to the creature for a few moments before meekly opening her mouth and allowing the blood to be poured in. The woman gave a few painful gulps as she drank the entire contents of the vial, shedding a few tears as she did. When she finished drinking, the creature allowed its arm along with the vial to sink back into its feathery neck. The creature leant down and buried its head into the woman’s chest letting out another soft high-pitched chirp. The woman wrapped her arms around the creature and gently hugged it. “I love you to Livy.”

The two stayed like that for an indiscernible amount of time until the sound of a bell echoed through the cave. Livy quickly pulled her head out of the woman’s grasp and climbed over her so that her body completely blocked the entrance from the woman. Livy’s endless arms all jumped out of her neck bearing their sharp nails at the ready to attack.

Suddenly in front of Livy there was what seemed to be a small pink rhombus, or it was a rhombus, but its body would reject any stable state. It would shift and transform, shrink and grow, continuously morphing into other shapes. The pink shape finally locked into a form resembling that of a featureless human with only one limb. The arm was outstretched towards Livy holding a glowing parchment: It read.

You have been invited to The Tournament You are the Monster