For once in his life, Thomas Yu was doing as he was told with no complaints. He hung back near the entrance of the main auditorium. Using one one of columns for cover while he flung blades of light at the chitinous horror that was taking up most of the room.

The new girl...the new woman, Margot, was facing the monster head on. The hood and cape of her combat suit flowing in the wind as she leapt into the air. Leaping up onto the upper balcony of the auditorium using that area as a staging point to launch her assault.

She artfully dodged the crab-claws and tentacles that whipped towards her. Managing to get in close enough to get a clear shot at the creature.

“[Lightning Arrow]”

“[Lightning Arrow]”

“[Lightning Arrow]”

Thomas had played enough video games and watched enough competitive martial tournaments to recognize when somebody was just spamming attacks. He was also very clear why everyone else in the world held that doing so was “cheap” but effective.

Crackling, blindingly bright, blue-white bolts of electricity slammed into the horror’s carapace. Tearing through its armor like it was nothing. Blue-gray blood and gibbets of charred flesh rained down the auditorium as each spell impacted against the beast’s body. For a few seconds it looked like this fight would be over quickly.

Then the ustachorobasnu cried out and the room was suddenly full of lesser chorobasnu. The creatures spawning into the room out of pools of the vile gray-blue goo that the beast had shed as its flesh was torn apart.

“Really?! This is one of those bosses?!” said Monty. Sounding more annoyed than alarmed.

Margot had to pause her assault on the ustachorobasnu to deal with the large number of lesser chorobasnu that were either climbing up towards her or charging her position from where they’d spawned on the balcony.

“[Cutting Cold]!”

“[Cutting cold]!”

“[Cutting Cold]!”

“[Inferno Ray]!”

Margot sent three broad blade of sub-artic air and ice flying in the three directions that she was being attacked. The blades tearing apart and freezing everything they passed through.

Then she followed it up with a beam of angry, red, super-heated aether. The combination of temperatures making her surroundings explode in steam and gore.

“Hey, M. Don’t worry about the small fry. That’s what you have me and Tommy here for.” called Monty.

Thomas couldn’t help glowering since he honestly had his hands full throwing his exploding knives at the crowd of monsters that were charging towards the column he was hiding behind.

Thomas’ building feelings of frustration and fear were soon alleviated as he watched dozens of chorobasnu have their heads and upper-bodies blown clean off. Balls of hypersonic plasma smashed into the monsters with such force and speed that man of them died without being clear on the fact. Collapsing a few steps after their torsos had been boiled away leaving only the glowing, charred remains of their lower bodies.

Thomas turned towards the source of the glowing balls of molten matter and saw Monty levitating overhead. His eyes glowing red. Red stars of destruction floating in a sea of perfect black. A wide, manic, smile spread across a face that was growing rapidly and alarming handsome.

“Why are you zoning out for, kiddo? Are you expecting me to squish all these bugs on my own?” said Monty. His head tilting towards Thomas’ position while a growing number of plasma balls were orbited around him only to sling outwards with a crack of noise.

Thomas’ mind trembled. His heart pounding as a part of his mind forgot exactly which of the creatures he was supposed to be afraid of here, the monster that was floating surrounded by balls of solidified flame or the shelled monsters that were running wild through the auditorium.

Monty’s smile softened becoming instantly less alien and malicious. Thomas shook himself out of it, tightening his grip on his radiant daggers.

“Tch...No need to worry about me, man. I can handle this crowd. You keep an eye on Margot.”

“Hmph, look at the stones on you. Margot can handle herself.” said Monty. Chuckling as he increased his assault on the lesser chorobasnu. A red rain of destruction shaking the stabilized space as he slew as many of them as he could.

Left with nothing he could do, clearly aware that he was basically just a bystander in this fight, Thomas shifted his attention to Margot. Doing so just in time to see her flying over to the twisted creature her arms covered in spires of crackling blue ice.

“[Winter’s End]!” chanted Margot.

Her words were punctuated by an explosion of thunder and roaring wind. A cloud of ice crystals exploded from the ice spire. The ustachorobasnu cried out in pain as it many limbs all froze and shattered. Leaving only a badly mutilated main body.

“Almost there….” said Margot. Panting. Sounding positively exhausted after all the dancing around she’d done and all the spells she’d fired off.

“Margot get clear!” called out Monty.

Without asking why, the woman in armor darted away from the creature, and it was a good thing she did. A half-second afterwards the space within the auditorium seemed to explode the entire auditorium replaced by an abstract space where everything was rotted and distanted. The space much expanded with great expanses of beige-black void appearing in the areas where reality wasn’t able to cope with the change.

“What the fuck!?” said Thomas. Crying out after getting knocked off his feet and nearly sent flying into the endless darkness that lay beyond the wall he’d landed on.

“Oh, shit...It managed to possess the good one.”

“What?!”

“It’s fine...Margot. You keep doing your thing. I’ll figure out a way to even things up.” said Monty. Scowling.

“How the hell are you going to fix this?!” said Thomas. Incredulous and afraid.

“Nh...Ah, I know...Like this.” said Monty. Snapping his fingers.

The air around the man rippled and became strange. Suddenly a second Monty stepped out of the first Monty. Then a third monty stepped out of the second Monty.

“This might be cheating a little…”

“But this thing cheated first…”

“Yo, Tommy, if anyone asks this never happened.” said all three Monty’s. Speaking sequentially.

“What never happened?! I don’t know what I’m looking at.” said Thomas.

“That’s the spirit.” said Monty. Smirking. Snapping his fingers a second time. Using his powers to turn some of rubble and torn up upholstery that surrounded him into a set of musical instruments.

The first Monty stepped towards a microphone that was suddenly standing in front of him, with a guitar suddenly hanging around his neck. The second Monty suddenly wore a bass. The third Monty suddenly sat behind an elaborate five piece drum set.

“Hey, Mr. Yu. What the hell do you think you’re doing? You need to get yourself over here because shits about to get crazy.”

Thomas blinked and scrambled to his feet. A pit opening up in his stomach as he tried to imagine what this maniac could be talking about when said things were only about to get crazy now.

“Here...You’re on tambourine, Tommy. Make yourself useful.” said the second Monty.

“Uh…S-, Sure.” said Thomas. Cowed into obedience by the second Monty’s strangely professional manner and the serious expressions on the faces of the third and first Monty.

“And a one...and a two ...and a three.”

Suddenly two songs filled the warped auditorium. One a maelstrom of discordant piano notes and eldritch wailing. The other a cover of a classic glam rock oldie. Thomas felt himself grow strangely calm as the unreality of the moment sank in.

He was stuck in the middle of a rock off between two otherworldly beings. Watching as the fabric of the world was twisted and shredded by their mind melting music. Overhead a young mage in some kind of magitech body armor fought against the “bad” monster. Firing cones of fire and ice at the beast

He vaguely heard the woman’s voice chant out the words,

“[...-uclear Explosion]!”

There was a deafening rumble that swallowed up the songs of both monsters and the world was filled with flame and chaos and some kind of worryingly tingly energy. However Thomas decided not to worry about any of that. Instead he focused on dutifully playing his tambourine. Inspired the amount of energy ‘his’ monster seemed to be putting into giving a good rendition of a certain monarchy-themed band’s grand opuses.

*************************************************************************************************************

Thomas passed out. I had to hand it to the kid. He was a tough little bugger. It wasn’t the radiation, or concussive energy, or sand glassing temperature that did it. I’d shielded him from the worst of those things.

What got Thomas in the end was the influx of aether he received as part of his spoils as a member of our party, when Margot finally took down the ustachorobasnu.

I couldn’t shield him from that…He might not have been able to do much in the final fight but he’d certainly earned his share of the spoils, if only because having him around to look after had kept me from doing anything unwise while Margot and I were temporarily separated.

With the monster killed reality quickly reasserted itself. The grand auditorium growing normalized. The universe squishing the chamber back to its proper proportions. I dropped the stabilized space because if I held on any longer it’d use up my last limited action. The entire building simply ceased to exist, disintegrating into ash.

Suddenly Margot, Thomas, and I were all standing in a mile deep crater.

It goes without saying that the town of Andante no longer existed in any form. All that lay beyond our crater was a flat, blackened, plane.

Margot lay on her back. Clearly exhausted after using up the entirety of her monstrous store of magical energy for the first time. Thomas was dealing with aetheric overload but I was passively helping him work through that.

I was the only one left standing and I was only barely managing to hang on because my own powers were capped at a little beyond Margot’s. It hadn’t been easy fighting that monster for control of the reality within the auditorium.

I clucked my tongue as I looked at the devastation that surrounded us and realized that I’d need to use up that last limited action. Restoring the town to the state it had before our fight because I didn’t think Margot was quite ready for the confrontation that would come from having the mortal and immortal authorities realize how strong she was.