“How’s she doing?” Angel whispered, nodding to Vanessa.

“Better than I would have expected a noble brat to,” Silver replied. “If I had more time, she could have become an incredible fighter.”

“You could always stay with her at Molten Ridges,” Angel said. “I’m certain that her mom set up some form of protection for her there, but it’ll be far from safe. She might even be willing to pay you, so long as you don’t mention the whole kidnapping thing too much.”

Silver scoffed. “Reduced to a glorified bodyguard.”

“Nothing wrong with protecting people. It’s a nice change of pace from killing them.”

Silver didn’t respond to that immediately. He shook his head and gestured to Angel’s bag. “And what of you? Figuring out the world’s secrets?”

“Doing my best to. This one seems promising. Not a whole ton of protection from what I’ve found so far, so I might actually make some decent progress. Maybe even find something new.”

Silver nodded thoughtfully. “I see. I’ll take first watch, then. Lilian volunteered for third, so you’ve been elected to take second.”

“Fair enough,” Angel said, grimacing. He wrapped his heavy blanket around himself and settled down, drifting off to sleep shortly after.

Silver woke him several hours later, giving him a small nod before laying down himself. Angel scrunched his nose as he sat up, hugging himself with his metal arm to try and bring some warmth back into his body as a crisp wind danced through the camp.

Angel considered examining the orb again, but he decided against it. He settled for sitting down in the center of the group and filling more canisters with magic. The first two hours of his watch passed quickly.

He could feel the draw of sleep tugging at the back of his mind, but he pushed it down. Even so, his eyelids threatened to droop closed. Angel shook his head, nearly missing a small blur of motion out of the corner of his eye.

Blinking the sleep away, Angel squinted at the dune in suspect. He flicked his eyepiece down and scanned the area. Faint traces of magical energy showed up along the dune and surrounding sand, but there was no sign of anything else.

Angel rose to his feet, loading the canisters he’d filled into his arm and nudging Silver awake with his foot.

“What is it?” Silver asked.

“Look over there,” Angel said, nodding at the dune. “Movement in the dunes.”

“Ah. We have company coming, then,” Silver said, rolling out of bed and rising to his feet. He grabbed his sword and rolled his neck before helping Angel silently wake Vanessa and Lilian.

“Where is it?” Vanessa asked, squinting out through the night. “I don’t see anything.”

“Maybe it left,” Angel said, not believing his own words.

“As if we’d be so lucky,” Silver said with a low chuckle. “The real question is if its intelligent enough to realize that it got spotted or not.”

Several tense moments passed without action. The four of them scanned the desert, their eyes peeled for the faintest amount of movement. It was Lilian who spotted it next, pointing out at a dune only a short distance from them. “It’s over there. Underground. Some sort of burrowing monster.”

Angel flexed his hand. Anticipation built up within him. The waiting was always the worst part. Vanessa fiddled with the gauntlet on her wrist, shifting from foot to foot uncomfortably. “I almost wish it would just attack already.”

“You know what, I just thought of something,” Silver said, his eyes lighting up. He flipped his dagger around and sheathed it in a smooth motion.

“What? I doubt it left after getting this close,” Lilian said.

“Of course it didn’t,” Silver said. “But if it was really that strong, it probably would have attacked already. The fact that it hasn’t means that its wary of us, so it shouldn’t be too hard of a fight. Let Vanessa do it. She needs the extra magical energy anyways.”

“Silver, there’s a difference between training and life or death battles,” Lilian said. “She isn’t ready to fight something that lives in the center of the Barren.”

“Angel can help her,” Silver said, shrugging. “And you can protect her too if you want. Babying the girl won’t make her stronger.”

“Can’t get stronger if you’re dead,” Angel said.

“I’ve seen the way you fight, Seeker,” Silver said. “The unpredictability and the lack of any real flow, paired with strange techniques. I recognize it. You learned combat by fighting monsters.”

“My master was a psychopath,” Angel replied. “And even I wasn’t fighting in the center of the Barren.”

“Well, she’s hardly alone,” Silver said. “Help her a bit. But if I participate, she’ll barely get anything out of this. She wants to get stronger, so let her.”

Angel shook his head. The monster, whatever it was, seemed content to watch their small argument from within the sand. It was probably waiting for one of them to step away from the group so it could pick them off easier.

“We can hold back,” Angel said finally. “So long as the monster isn’t ludicrously powerful, Vanessa can try to do all of the damage to it, so long as she’s okay with that.”

Vanessa swallowed and gave Angel a small nod. “I’ll try.”

They didn’t have to wait much longer. The ground beneath them rippled. Angel grabbed Vanessa and jumped back, pulling both of them away. Silver and Lilian both dodged to the side as a sinkhole appeared in the sand beneath them.

A large, froglike creature the size of a chopper clambered out from beneath them, its two bulbous eyes flicking from person to person. Thick saliva dripped from its maw, which was lined with hundreds of tiny little teeth. Angel flicked his eyepiece down and scanned the creature.

Race: Mouther [Old World]

Level 49

Status: Healthy

Information accuracy: 93%

Strength: 30

Intelligence: 4

Nimbleness: 25

Toughness: 39

Rating: Somewhat dangerous

Weak point(s): Not Enough Information (0/100)

Element(s): None

Error: Unable to analyze further. Information incomplete

“It’s strong, but within the realm of handling,” Angel said. “Just don’t get eaten.”

Vanessa raised her hand, pointing the gauntlet at the large creature even before Angel had finished speaking. A bolt of green energy shot out, searing into the creature’s side. It let out a screech as the attack burned a small hole into it.

It leapt at Angel and Vanessa. He tugged them out of the way again, narrowly avoiding the large creature as it slammed to the ground beside them. Vanessa tracked its movements, firing another blast into its back. It let out a furious croak and spun back towards them.

“Stop babying her!” Silver snapped. “The girl knows how to dodge. You’re not doing her any favors by doing all the work.”

Angel pressed his lips together. The frog leapt forwards, its large mouth stretching open as it attempted to swallow Angel and Vanessa whole. The girl fired another blast of energy into its mouth before diving forwards underneath the creature as it flew through the air. Angel slipped out of the way as well, stopping himself before he could raise his hand and blast the monster with a bolt of lightning.

It landed hard and burrowed downwards into the sand, kicking up a small plume before vanishing beneath the earth. Vanessa activated her skates, watching the ground and keeping her hand pointed towards it.

Sand slipped down around Vanessa as a sinkhole formed beneath her. She shot out of the way as the Mouther leapt up, its jaws snapping closed. She sent another blast of energy into one of the creature’s eyes. It popped, sending milky fluid across the sand as the monster let out a pained scream.

It leapt at Vanessa. She shot to the side with her skates, avoiding the monster by just mere inches. She sent one more blast into its side and grabbed a new canister, feeding it to her gauntlet.

The Mouther let out a loud croak, blurring towards Vanessa and trying to bite her in half again. She danced towards its bad eye, sending another bolt of energy into the monster. It spun midair, kicking her with one of its long, powerful legs and sending the girl tumbling across the sand.