“Yo, this is awesome! Monster fights like this are pretty rare.”

“Yeah,” Fenrir says. “I just hope she wins.”

“Who?”

“The serpent.”

“Ah, got it, bro. The monkey looks pretty badass, but that serpent has been one helluva fighter this entire time. Definitely would’ve lost without you helping, though.”

“Yeah, well, she helped us so it’s only fair to help her.”

“Fair enough! I’m just happy I got over here before it’s over. Had to—”

Fenrir turns around to look at who he’s talking to.

A tall, muscular man with an open jacket and short but spiky red hair that matches his facial hair is sitting atop of what appears to be a tiger-sized, red fox with strigine wings sticking out from the backs of its legs. There are patches of feathers sticking out throughout the beast’s fur. Its tail has the most feathers sticking out from it aside from its wings.

But, that’s not what’s important.

“How… how long have you been here?” Fenrir asks the strange man.

“Dude, you’re about to miss the fight’s climax,” the man says.

Fenrir raises an eyebrow and twitches his ears. He’s suspicious of this random stranger and his mount, but he has a fight to finish watching.

For the monster to attack the serpent, he would need to move into deeper water, so he stays put and prepares to counter the incoming attack of the serpent. He keeps his chain-wrapped arm raised to use it as a shield.

“Sorry,” Serra says. “I made him stronger.”

“It is most alright, Serra! Not every plan can be successful, and sometimes, ideas may have unintended consequences. All that matters is that your heart is in the right place,” Nell says, patting Serra atop her hat.

“But he’s using the chain to hurt her.”

“It was my plan,” Fenrir says, “so I’ll apologize to her later for it. Plus, we still distracted him for a bit, so the plan wasn’t a complete failure.”

The serpent lowers her body and glides through the water.

The monster tries to position his shield of an arm to face wherever she is, but the serpent’s swift movements keep changing which side and angle she approaches from.

Fenrir gets fully immersed in the fight just in time for the winged fox to walk up next to him, sniff him, and then lean up on The Shoebill’s railing to watch the fight itself.

“Shogun, dude, what’d I tell you about just going up to people and sniffing them?” the strange man asks.

His mount yips at him before smacking him with its tail.

“A giant fox-owl thing named Shogun… that’s actually pretty cool. Saya, where can I get a flying fox mount?” Fenrir thinks.

“Onii-chan, you already have a dog made out of rock, a harem which is probably going to get even bigger because of Nyaiko, a boat, a sentient fishing rod, and now you want a big fox to ride around on?”Saya replies.

“But it’s an awesome giant fox… wait, it should be possible for Rock to get that big, but I don’t know if she’d ever grow wings. Probably too heavy to fly.”

“Onii-chan, there is literally an epic monster fight going on and you’re thinking about weird things instead of enjoying it.”

Fenrir shakes his head. Saya is right.

Fortunately, he hasn’t missed anything.

The serpent has stopped her approach and is instead watching the monster’s movements. She won’t be able to swim in the water that he’s standing in as it’s too shallow, but there’s enough water that moving around will still be far easier than if she was on dry land.

Both Fenrir and Nell feel a sudden spike of energy come from the serpent.

It’s time for the serpent’s final attack.

Snaking through the water at full speed, the serpent avoids the monster’s free hand that tries to grab her and glides between his legs!

The monster quickly spins around, swinging its arms out to try and grab her before she has a chance to strike him from behind.

Only, without his chained arm raised to protect himself, his chest is left vulnerable.

Raised up from the water is a serpent with rows of her scales glowing brightly.

She opens her mouth and shoots out a stream of pressurized water that tears right into the monster’s exposed chest! He stumbles backward and tries to raise his arms to protect himself from her attack, but he can’t find the strength to any longer.

The serpent’s undulating call can be heard for the duration of her attack.

A combination of how pressurized the water is and the monster’s chest already being exposed results in the serpent’s attack cutting straight through his bones and organs until it shoots out through his back.

Nobody watching can believe what they’re seeing. Not a single one of them had any idea that the serpent was capable of such an attack, but here she is, shooting a clean hole through the monster’s torso with water.

Her attack only lasts for ten seconds before she runs out of energy to continue it. Her scales stop glowing and she falls down into the water.

The monster looks down at his chest – or rather, what is left of his chest.

He falls forward and lands right in front of the serpent, his head crashing face-first into the water and sand.

“So, going to finish off the serpent now for some extra loot and experience?” the stranger asks.

“No. She’s our friend,” Fenrir answers.

“Seriously? You’re friends with a serpent? How does that even work?”

“You’re sitting on top of a giant fox with wings. How does anything in this game work?”

“You know what, that’s a good point. Anyways, I just wanted to see a good fight, and I got that, so what you do to the snake there doesn’t matter to me. She looks like she deserves a rest anyways.”

The serpent’s breaths are heavy as she struggles to keep her eyes open, the eye on the side of her head facing them looking directly at Fenrir.

Fenrir looks at the stranger and his mount. If he was a bad guy, he would have done whatever he was plotting while they were all distracted. There had to have been dozens of moments for him to act, but instead, he made his presence known and stood around watching the fight with them.

Fenrir has no idea who the man is, but he’s not a threat.

With that, Fenrir dives into the water to swim toward the serpent.

“Is this dude actually swimming over there?” the man asks.

Serra, hiding behind Nell, looks at the man and nods.

The man looks the girls over and whistles before saying, “This boat has got a pretty nice cr—”

“We’re taken,” Nell is quick to interrupt him, her tone sharp and serious unlike what everybody is used to. She even beats Nyaiko to the rejection.

“Da-damn, that was fast. Well, I ain’t the kind of man to violate bro code.”

“Good.”

Serra looks up at Nell. Nell is even intimidating her right now.

With the fight over, Tabitha and Corwin both head below deck to go back to sleep.

“Looks like there’s a couple of beauties over there on the beach at leas—”

“They’re taken,” Nell interrupts him again.

“Seriously?”

Nell and Serra nod their heads.

“Even that short one with the brown hair and horns?” he asks.

Nell opens her mouth to say something but gets silenced by Serra placing her hands over her mouth.

“You can try flirting with her,” Serra says.

“I can? Sweet! Thanks, shortie. Come on, Shogun, we just got a new quest. There’s a lonely princess over there in need of a brave knight to sweep her away into the skies!”

The man pats his mount on the side to take off and fly over toward the beach.

Serra lowers her hands and Nell facepalms. “He reminds me of all the men whom tried wooing me before Fenrir,” Nell says.

“He can join Olly’s harem,” Serra says.

“Those two do seem to enjoy muscles on their men.”

Fenrir reaches the serpent and stands next to her head in the chest-deep water.

“Great job,” he says, stroking her scales. “One of my friends can heal you. Think you can make it over to the beach? Wait, can you breathe outside of water?”

The serpent looks over to the beach where the others are standing, then she looks back at Fenrir and nods her head.

“Let’s get ov—hey! Wh-what are you doing?!” Fenrir panics as the serpent opens her mouth over him.

A couple of her fangs, sharper and longer than most swords are, slide down into his armor to pick him up so that she may carry him over to the beach like an animal mother with her young.

Fenrir’s tail nervously wags behind him as his ears twitch. His eyes are just wide and blinking as he looks around, confused by why this is happening. She’s acting like she’s taking care of him despite her the one being on the verge of death.