Tails of flame drift behind Wisp, illuminating the darkness. Cliff faces hurtle past, close enough for me to reach out and touch. Wisp has taken the shape of a giant hawk, the way his feathers leak flame makes it look like he is a legendary Phoenix. It is mesmerizing, in a way, like watching an open flame dance.

Beneath me, the hawk Legion is possessing folds its wings, sending us freefalling into the darkness. Although Wisp lights the way somewhat, it is a poor comfort in the darkness. Quinn’s grip around my waist tightens as we twist and weave between swaying walls of rock, ever deeper into the chasm. She offered to light our way with her magic, but we decided it is best for her to save her power for the upcoming fight. I regret that decision, a little bit.

Last night was a long and stressful one. Holding that image in my mind was exhausting, but I managed to finish in time to get some sleep, but not nearly enough. Quinn and Kandra said that we could probably wait a few more hours to initiate our plan, but I don’t think I could’ve slept more even if I wanted to. Excitement and anxiety ate me up in equal parts at the time, but now anxiety is devouring the lion’s share. It doesn’t help that I’m constantly dodging certain death by clinging to the back of a magical creation that once tried to kill me. I mean, I like Legion well enough, but it is a bit murder for my tastes. The possession thing also creeps me out.

On the bright side, Nevesca looks incredibly adorable all scrunched up to reduce wing resistance. Kandra decided to be Nevesca’s wings instead of transforming into a flying creature to carry her around. I won’t lie the result looks pretty cool. Kandra’s bones wrap around Nevasca’s torso like a glowing exoskeleton, the rest of her body spreading out as a pair of enormous wings. There may have been some grumbling about how much Nevesca weighs, but Nevesca herself seems proud of how dense with muscle she has become. The adorable part is how she has her ears all scrunched back, legs tucked up, and tails waving back forth. She looks so serious, like she is the one dodging the cliffs we are flying past, instead of Kandra doing all the work. What a cutie.

I considered asking Wisp to be a pair of wings for me, but… Well, he is made out of slime and fire. I don’t want to get burnt.

As we fly deeper into the abyss, the rumbling becomes louder and louder, to the point of deafening. In the back of my mind I sense a different sort of noise. It’s a slow and steady beat, like distant thunder caught in a rhythm. The thumping noise doesn’t echo off the walls around us, which raises a few suspicions in my mind, but I ignore them to focus on the task at hand. I have a mountain to kill.

Without warning, the walls around us disappear, replaced by odd, jointed pillars. The pillars, hundreds of feet tall, have patches of green and blue on them, glowing in irregular patterns. I squint at one of the pillars as we fly past to get a better look at what is glowing, but the pillar flexes and moves, raising off the ground just to sway and slam back down into the darkness below. The corresponding soundwave adds to the massive rumbling around us. Belatedly, my mind makes the connection. The pillars are legs. Hundreds, probably thousands, of gigantic legs covered in bioluminescent plants.

“Find the head!” Quinn shouts over the wind.

Wisp flares brightly in response, breaking out of his dive to weave between moving pillars, flames trailing behind him. Without a word, Legion and Kandra spread their wings and follow. After several minutes, we break free of the virtual forest of legs into open space.

Dozens of glowing, yellow eyes, as wide as I am tall, swivel to look at us. The mountain’s gaping maw is illuminated from within and without with glowing green and blue bioluminescent plants, in much greater concentration than the legs. Its head is broad and flat, eyes coating its surface in irregular intervals. Tens of jaws move in separate patterns that arrange into a rhythmic chewing when viewed from a distance. Each jaw is covered in huge, jagged teeth, used to crush and devour gigantic heaps of stone, brought to its mouth by thick tentacles ending in sharp edged spades that I’m sure would dwarf me if I stood next to them. I was expecting the head to be large, but I wasn’t expecting it to be almost a mountain in and of itself.

The mountain, despite its slow-moving pace, acts with a speed belaying its size. A group of tentacles bunch up and shoot forward, moving faster than any arrow I’ve ever seen. Wisp, Legion, and Kandra ride the currents of wind out of their path, avoiding certain death as the tentacles roar by.

“Do it now!” Quinn screams behind me.

With a powerful thrust of its wings, Legion lifts us above the tentacles, up close each one is so big that even three of me linking hands wouldn’t be able to wrap our arms around it. Clear of the obstacles, we hover above the gargantuan creature’s head. I reach into my special bag, ripping out the tablet of ice I worked so hard on. I bring my arm back and twist my waist. Engaging m core, I call upon every ounce of strength in my body. Every point I have of strength I have heeds my call, my muscles reinforced with as much Source as I can pump into them. My dexterity helps me aim, but if I can’t hit a target that big I would be more than ashamed of myself. It is several times larger than the broad side of a barn.

As the tablet leaves my finger tip, I scream the activation phrase at the top of my lungs, Source surging from fingertips to the magic circuit engraved into the tablet.

“To be my enemy is to know fear and to fear me is to know death!” I yell. Okay, so the incantation is a bit melodramatic, but I didn’t want to activate the thing on accident, you know? Besides, it’s kind of cool. “Fear me, for I am your Reaper!”

The tablet shatters against the mountain’s face, bursting into a cloud of mist. The magic circuit, however, doesn’t disappear. Instead, it brands itself into the creature’s flesh. I focus on the emotions swirling around the creature, feeling for the change. Several tense moments tick by where nothing happens, Legion’s twisting and dodging beneath me doesn’t help my unsettled stomach. The colors making up the mountain’s emotions are dull, almost lifeless. I expected as much from what is basically a giant living rock, but it isn’t very reassuring.

Just when I began to feel like all hope is lost, it springs to a life, a tendril of deep green terror tainted with an odd black I’ve never seen before, threads its way through the mountain’s emotions. By the time I notice it, the tendril has grown into a rope, and then a stream. “Now!” The word bursts from my mouth, dripping of desperation.

Quinn doesn’t say anything in response, but she doesn’t have to. The air around us visibly trembles, a result of her magic. An impression of endless teeth, scales, and unbridled fury descends from the abyss above us. Quinn isn’t powerful enough to create a realistic illusion of a dragon big enough to threaten the monster before us, so we decided on another option. With its mind clouded by fear and the mindset of prey, the mountain should fill in all the details itself. All we need is an impression of a dragon, hence the teeth, scales, and fury. It looks like the plan is working because the stream of fear swells into a raging river, consuming the other emotions in the mountain’s aura, other than that odd black one.

The rhythmic thumping I’ve been hearing accelerates and it clicks. I can hear the creature’s heart. Even over its terrible screaming, like no sound I’ve ever heard, I can hear its heart. I wonder if the others can as well? Will I be able to hear the creature’s heart burst, signaling our victory?

My distracted mind is jolted back into the present by a furious sending from Nevesca. Images of danger and certain death flash through my mind, urging me to flee with my life. She must have sent them to Legion as well, because without my prompting Legion rushes into the sky, slipping through the gaps to reach safety. My hands dig into the feathers, gripping for dear life. I cast my eyes toward Nevesca, concern for her safety weighing heavily on my heart.

I turn just in time to see an incandescent beam of energy, radiating heat, pass through Quinn’s illusion. The heat waves turn the blood inside the tentacles to vapor, causing them to burst into clouds of blue blood. Wisp reacts just in time, sending a wall of fire to shield us from the worst of the blast. Nevesca’s sendings of fear and determination reassure me that she is alive, but I can’t see her or Kandra. Panic grips my heart.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. Why is it fighting back? Why won’t it lay down and die?

I look back at the creature and the green fear is still growing. Energy is swelling in the back of its throat, preparing for another blast of energy.

Its defending itself. Instead of dying of fear it is fighting back. Was the illusion not strong enough? Is it because of my weakness? No. More importantly, how can I salvage this situation?

Behind me, I can feel Quinn’s heartbeat straining from the effort of maintaining her illusion. The fight isn’t over yet. I grab a handful of Monster Cores from my pouch, preparing to rain ice spears into the creature’s eyes. Hopefully that will either kill it, blind it, or, this is a stretch, scare it enough for my magic circuit to finish the job.

Before I can even form a spear, a beam of energy cuts into the mountain before us, slicing through several of its legs. I half expected a waterfall of blue blood, but the wounds cauterized as soon as they were made. In response to the injury, a thick band of dark red emotion surges to the surface, mixing with the terror. Terror and rage, green and red, devour the mountain’s aura with webs of black strewn through-out.

With an unearthly screech, the mountain unleashes another solid beam of superheated energy, moving its head from right to left. Legion continuously climbs higher, providing me with an eagle eye view of the chaos down below. The energy passes straight through the illusion, cutting deep into one mountain side, before clipping another. The screeching of the mountain we were originally hunting has grown into a chorus of ungodly proportions. From the side, I can see a massive cliff face barreling towards us, propelled by thousands of gigantic legs.

“Up! Up!” I scream to Legion and send to Nevesca. “We have to get above the mountains!”

For the first time in a long time, I pour my Source into Legion. I don’t hold back. Shoving Monster Cores into my mouth by the handful to replenish my energies, I channel as much into it as I can. Our lives depend on us getting out of here before we become causalities of the battle below.

I bury my face into Legion’s feathers, staying as close to it as I possibly can. In the back of my mind, I register the warm weight of Quinn clinging to my back. It provides a measure of comfort to know she is safe. Nevesca is sending me a steady stream of images, letting me know she is still alive. Through our bond I can sense that she is in danger, but not afraid. If anyone can make it out of here in one piece, it’s my Nevesca.

I peek up from Legion’s feathers just in time to get a view of the world spinning around us. An errant gust of heated wind blows us off course and in between two cliff faces crashing into each other. With no other place to go but up, two long arms of flame surge from Legion’s body, taking hold of the cliffs on either side of us. The arms pull and strain, pulling us up while the hawk’s wings flap in a desperate attempt to gain altitude.

The gap overhead closes at a rapid pace, convincing me that the creatures down below have entered a melee battle. Screeching in defiance, Legion sprouts dozens of arms and braces them against the two walls, pausing them for a moment. A pair of arms latch on to Quinn and I, without warning. The arms heave, launching us into the air and through the gap.

With a sickening crunch, Legion’s body is destroyed, crushed between two warring mountains. I reach the peak of my flight and begin to drop. Panic squeezes my heart, but something grips me under my arms, tight enough to be painful. I look up to see Quinn straining, her wings spread.

“I can’t,” she gasps, her face red. “Hold on for long.”

For half a second, I wonder how Quinn is flying. However, surviving quickly takes precedence. Before I can ever begin brainstorming a solution, a screech sounds from above us. My eyes catch sight of three giant hawks, their bodies burning with dark fire, swooping toward us. With a coordination that is impossible in the natural world, the hawks snatch us out of the air.

Leaving my fate in Legion’s reliable hands (seriously, I feel bad for doubting it now), I take a final look back at the battle below us. Flashes of light swell in the darkness at irregular intervals, but what I’m focused on is the aura of our original prey. The red rage has faded and the green has swollen to an ocean of terror, but the creature still fights on.

Tears well up in my eyes, a byproduct of not knowing how to express the amount of frustration I am feeling right now. It was a failure, an absolute failure. At this rate, I may as well lay down and wait for Quinn’s husband to kill me.

Hoping for some clue, or hope, I continue to watch the creature’s aura as Legion brings us to the safety of the sky above the mountains. The black in the creature’s aura grows to consume it, inciting a burst of activity down below as seen by the mountains rising, falling, and crashing together beneath us. Like a candle snuffed out, the black disappears and the mountain I was watching, our original prey, freefalls hundreds of feet to become a pile of rubble.

A series of surprising messages flash before my eyes.

Title Obtained!

Title: Unconventional Mountain Climber

Description: Instead of climbing a mountain like a normal person, you bring it down to your level.

Prerequisites: Kill one of the Mi’ka’nae, a mountainous creature native to the Dungeon.

Rewards: Based on method of achievement.

Calculating reward…

Rewards: This title grants you the ability to gain experience from the actions of others, granted that you significantly influenced their course of action. Examples: [Mind Control], [Charm], [Manipulation], etc.

Prerequisites met! Additional color added to base emotions.

New emotion added to Lesser Tyrant Empathia color database: Black, the color of madness. Stoking this color results in a frenzy. More information will be available when prerequisites are met.