We mounted up, prepared to head back towards the town. The other dungeon was in the opposite direction to this one and about fifteen miles past the outskirts of the metro area. We weren't in much of a hurry, moving at a sedate pace. We were trying to see if we could find any monster tracks to follow so I could finish my level.

"Come here look at this," Fiona said, pointing to a massive paw print in a damp patch of dirt, "Looks fresh, I say we follow it."

I looked at the paw print. It didn't look like the bear's I fought on day one. It didn't look like any track I could recall, which probably meant it was a beast that got brought over with the System. The paw prints were rather large but it was only the one set. That's what eventually drove my decision.

"Alright, let's see where it takes us. Lead on Miss tracker."

We managed to follow the trail for ten minutes, eventually losing sight of it as we crossed over a rocky area. I wasn't really surprised, neither one of us was all that good at tracking.

"Well, what now?"

I guess-," she started to say before our ravor beasts heads came up suddenly and swiveled towards the same direction. A point about 75 feet away dominated by thick vegetation.

A menacing growl came from the bushes followed by a large feline. This was not a simple cougar or mountain lion. Nope. this was something much larger, and much more dangerous.

Possibly modified by the system, it was tough to tell from this distance. The cat stood eight feet high and had to be almost 14 feet long without the tail. And let me tell you about the horrible, horrible tail. A scaled monstrosity even longer than the cat, tipped by vicious-looking spines. It resembled a bladed mace. Getting hit by that appendage would ruin your day real quick. Our ravor beasts were chuffing angrily at the menacing beast, clawing the ground in an act of dominance.

The beast roared back its challenge and charged, rushing Fiona before I even knew what was happening. Yonel her mount didn't bolt, it charged towards the creature toothy jaw open wide and ready for battle. Fiona must have expected this as she already had her sword out.

Not to be outdone Bella soon followed, cutting to the opposite side of the beast. When the powerful predator finally got close enough I activated Identify.

Chessik | Level 15

I had no idea what a chessik was but I could tell it was an alpha predator. It also had an intelligent gleam in its eyes that didn't bode well for us. The chessik leaped at Fiona and her mount, trying to knock her off with a swipe of its massive paw. Yonel jumped over the attack, using its powerful hind legs to clear the predator. Scoring a grazing slash across its back with its sharp talons.

Fiona didn't escape the attack completely unscathed. The chessik flicked its tail with surprising speed, trying to skewer her on the sharp protrusions. She managed to avoid most of the blow, only taking a large slash across her thigh.

The beast turned to try and capitalize on its injured foe when Bella and I arrived. Bella tried to bite the beast's shoulder. The creature was incredibly nimble, twisting out of the way of Bella's attack. Before the beast could retaliate on me like it did on Fiona I cast Earth Fist, trying to hit it in its soft belly. The beast used my spell to propel itself out of range, kicking off the rising spike of earth.

"Hey, that's my move," I said angrily.

I'll be honest, I was in awe, of both the chessik's ability and the ravor beasts. I had almost forgotten that our mounts were trained for war.

Fiona and I circled the chessik as it eyed us warily, its ambush having failed to score it a meal. I took this time to heal Fiona's wound. Occasionally the chessik would strike out with its tail attempting to score a hit. Our mounts were agile enough to avoid the strikes while keeping the beast penned in.

"Can you shackle it?"

"I'll try but they probably won't hold for long on such a large and high leveled beast."

"Ok, on three," I said, counting.

On three I did two things. I jumped from my mount and as soon as I saw Fiona's spell take hold I hit the chessik with an Earth Fist that tore into its chest. It was only a glancing blow, the beast still managing to pivot to avoid most of the damage. It roared angrily, tearing at the ground to try to break free of Fiona's spell.

As soon as my feet touched the ground I activated Flurry, Aura Strike, and finally Blink Step. I blurred towards the beast with my enhanced agility that was even higher than the beast's. It was too dangerous to close otherwise. I hammered my strikes home at the already injured area on its side.

The beast howled in pain as my strikes landed. It tried to swipe at me but pulled up short as the shackles still held it, barely. Luckily I wasn't alone in this fight.

The beast tried to flick its tail at me but must have lost sight of my mount. Bella had the appendage firmly in her jaws, preventing the angry beast from bringing it into play. I also noticed Fiona's mount rushing over to help Bella hold the tail.

The beast finally managed to break its shackle. I just managed to get my staff up in time to block the blow, the force of which sent me flying a good ten feet. I landed heavily on the ground, the wind knocked out of me.

The beast didn't have time to finish me off though. Fiona, her sword glowing red, slashed it between the ribs on the opposite side. The beast howled in rage again, trying to swipe at the woman but she was nimble enough to back out of its reach. Bella and Yonel were doing a fine job of containing the animal.

I could see blood spilling from the wound Fiona inflicted. She must have imbued her sword with a skill that caused bleeding. It was rare to see Fiona use her abilities. She preferred straight sword combat, or so she told me. I had a feeling she used more abilities than she let on, they were just invisible to the naked eye. I knew she had a few flashy ones though, water whip, shackle, and reflect to name a few.

The chessik was on its last legs. Our combined attacks had wounded it severely. I could see its labored breaths tinged with a bit of red foam. It was still dangerous though so we had to be careful.

I whipped a Stunning Gust at it as it looked away from me to track Fiona.

The beast whimpered and tried to flee but both of our mounts kept it in place. In desperation, it tried to spin around and slash and bite at Bella and Yonel to break free. They jumped back from the attack, yanking the beast off its feet. Before it could right itself Fiona jumped in, cutting a gaping slash into its neck. The beast struggled futilely for a few more seconds before succumbing to its wounds.

You have reached level 11, modifiers increased by 1, 1 free skill slots available

No free skill slots this level but I got a bunch of upgrades to existing skills.

Rejuvenate: Heals 125hp over 30sec, 25m range, Cost 35 mana, cooldown 30sec

Improved Earth Fist: Deals Earth damage INT x .38 Modifier to target within 25m range, Cost 60 mana, cooldown 1min

Enhanced Shield: Grants a shield that absorbs 18% of damage for 5min, Cost 50 mana, cooldown 1min

I was happy to see Rejuvenate get a buff to the amount it healed. Although, that seemed to come with an increased mana cost this time around. Earth Fist got a small damage boost as well. Finally, a spell I hadn't received a boost on since level 5, Shield got an increase of three percent. While it seemed small that could be a lifesaver.

I had the free skill slot and I decided to use it on an ability I passed up at an earlier level.

Imbue: Imbue your weapon with elemental damage for 60min. Must choose damage type when activating the skill - cannot be changed while active, Cost 50 mana, cooldown 60min

I planned on trying something with my old staff and my new skill when we got to the next dungeon.

I also glanced at Fiona, she was still level 12.

"How close are you to hitting level 13?"

"I would say I am about 80% of the way there. When we met I had only been level 12 for a month. My world is not as savage as yours so opportunities to level are few and far between. Honestly, your rise in levels is frightening, especially that Mage's."

I slapped myself, I had completely forgotten to tell Fiona about how they leveled so quickly. So much had happened since that day that it had slipped my mind. I rectified that situation now.

"That's utterly deplorable," Fiona said after I finished telling her about the slave contracts and the Black Dragons likely use for so many slaves.

"I agree, and they need to be stopped but we aren't even close to being strong enough to stop them. Eventually, I will have to head for Chicago to see about disrupting their activities. If we let them keep leveling like this nothing in the world will be able to stand against them. In the end, we could all be slaves."

I saw Fiona's mood sour at the mention of me going alone to Chicago. She knew she had to return to her Commander when her contact finally transported over from her world. Honestly, I would love to just say you know what screw the Black Dragons, I'm going to go be happy. But we both had responsibilities neither of us liked.

Fiona interrupted my dour mood, "Hey look over there."

I looked in the direction she was pointing. Dark plumes of smoke rose over the tree line in the distance, in the direction of the Bazaar.

"That can't be good. We better go check it out before hitting the dungeon."

"Alright. I'll finish up quickly and we can mount up and see if we can offer any help."

Fiona finished her work at looting and skinning the chessik.

The pelt went into the bag for the Sergeant. The meat we split and dumped into the portable stables for our mounts since predator meat was usually not very edible for humans.

I mounted Bella and Fiona mounted Yonel, then we were off, quickly making our way towards the smoke in the distance.