“Hey Red, do you think that we’ll be friends forever?” A young child looked up at the stars from the palace hallway. The night sky over Gimle shined softly upon the two.

She looked to the red-haired Dragonkin next to her. He looked up from his book towards the sky when she said that. It was always like this between the two of them. Always talking way past their bedtime.

“Stop being boring. This is why I wish Kaguya was here sometimes.” the girl huffed and pouted.

“Sorry, I just zoned out reading this,” the boy said, grinning toothily at her.

The girl blushed a little at his smile before turning away.

“But yeah.”

Her eyes widened a little at his response as he turned to look at her.

“I promise it. You and I will always be together.”

“Pinky promise?” she held her hand up.

“Promise.”

He interlocked his pinky with hers, sealing the deal between a princess and her knight.

“Yuki?”

Yuki blinked as she turned to see Pandora looking at her.

“Sorry, I… I got distracted.” She sat down, ears drooping.

“Red will be fine. He’s strong. Stronger than me, Cal, and Embla,” Pandora said.

“I know. I just can’t help but worry,” she said.

“It’s normal for you to worry. I’m like that with Cal too. It just becomes like that with people you’ve been close to for a long time,” Pandora said.

“Red’s my…” Yuki bit her lip. “Red’s my personal guard back from when I lived in Alfheim. Before… the whole thing with my mom.”

“You don’t have to talk about your entire past now. Especially during a quest.” Pandora patted her back. “Let’s talk about it later when we’re safer.”

“Right, sorry.” Yuki berated herself more than she apologized. She unsheathed her swords, Impregnable Hel, and sat on the branch waiting.

“Embla, Cal, do you two see anything?” she asked.

“Red’s just standing there. Nothing’s come out yet,” Embla said, sitting on the branch.

Cal remained silent, focusing on the cave entrance. “I do see something really big inside.” he looked towards Embla for confirmation.

She nodded. “Yeah, that thing is huge. It looks like it’s sleeping. Someone tell Red to throw a rock or something to wake it up.”

“I got this.” Cal loaded a blunt arrow tip into his bow and aimed for the large sleeping mass inside the temple. With a twang of his bowstring, the arrow flew fast, almost being a blur to the rest of them.

Red stood at the entrance of the temple, waiting for whatever was inside to come out. All of a sudden, he felt a breeze fly past him. He turned around back to the woods to see if any of them had come out. As Red was about to speak, a large guttural growl could be heard coming from inside the temple.

“Oh boy,” he said, drawing his sword. Fire licked the edge of the blade as Red prepared himself for whatever was going to come out. The ground shook slightly under his feet, causing sweat to trickle down his forehead.

Red counted four pairs of eyes appearing from the shadows of the temple’s interior.

Wait… four? Don’t Sabyrs have two eyes? He wondered. Red took a step back when he felt a frigid wind sweep past him, causing some of the plants to have a soft coating of frost appear on their leaves.

“What… in the name of Odin?” Red looked up at the monstrosity that stalked out of the temple.

This beast was at least as large as the temple’s entrance. As he was before, the Sabyr had four venomous green eyes that stared balefully at him. Its long fangs were dripping in black viscous fluid. Two long tails that were barbed at the end swished behind it. Every step it took, left a trail of frost in its wake. It sniffed the air for a moment before turning to Red. All four of its eyes blinked simultaneously.

After a few seconds, the beast’s mouth opened. The lower jaw split into two, giving the appearance of a wide-open jaw as it unleashed an ear-piercing roar.

Red covered his sensitive ears as the unholy incarnation of the sabyr’s roar disrupted the entire flow of the forest. It was as if something truly unholy had set foot upon the land. Something that violated the very laws of nature itself.

Red’s scarlet eyes narrowed as the sabyr crouched. In one powerful motion, it leaped towards him. Its claws splayed out, ready to slice him to ribbons.

However, Red was faster. In the nick of time, Red jumped out of the way. He gripped his sword tightly before remembering the plan. Without even hesitating for another second, Red turned on his heel and ran towards the woods.

Behind him, the Sabyr’s roar, which was more akin to a scream, could be heard. Large booming footsteps began rapidly approaching him from behind.

This thing is fast too. He turned around to see several trees fall as the sabyr leaped into the air. It attempted to pounce on him but Red was able to avoid it. He slashed his sword at its eye, causing it to roar in pain.

Using it to his advantage to gain some distance, Red’s entire body glowed red.

Super Acceleration.

Before the sabyr could recover, Red’s entire body flickered and disappeared in a blur. Within half a second, Red appeared in the clearing several dozen meters away from where he had left the wounded Sabyr.

“Red! Are you alright?” Embla yelled.

“You guys shot it!” he fired back.

“Sorry. It was sleeping so I had to wake it up somehow.” Cal looked down at him apologetically.

“Stop that. That apologetic face looks weird on you,” Embla said.

“How is that weird?”

“Because you’re an asshole.”

“Um, guys?” Pandora tried to get their attention as the ground shook.

“What?” they both turned to her at the same time.

A roar ripped through the forest.

“Jump!” Embla yelled.

The four vacated their branches as the sabyr crashed through the treeline, knocking over several trees with its sheer size. The beast towered a few meters in height, being three times as tall as the rest of them as it stood in its complete glory.

“What the fuck?” Embla looked at the sabyr. “That’s not a sabyr. What the hell is that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it ate the sabyr?” Red suggested.

“No, that’s not right. Those tracks we followed all came to here. While it doesn’t look like it, it has the fa-” Embla jumped as its massive paw slammed down on the ground, sending chunks of earth everywhere.

“Like I said, I can tell that whatever this is was a sabyr. Its long fangs are signs that it was one. And holy hell that thing is strong too!” Embla landed on a branch, staring at the large hole in the ground. The hole was about the size of a carriage and was as deep as a kiddie pool.

“What do we do?” Cal asked.

“Headshots should work on it like it did with the others. All we need to do is get a good shot in. That shouldn’t be hard. It’s a big target. We shouldn’t miss,” she replied. “I’ll get you an opening.”

He nodded and nocked an arrow into his bow.

Embla pushed off the branch, disappearing and then reappearing in eight places. She swung her blades, creating eight simultaneous slashes across its body. The Sabyr roared and swung its tail.

Her eyes widened as she blocked the tail with her swords. The force sent her flying into a tree, knocking it over.

“Ow.” Embla got up, rubbing her sides. Her eyes widened as a heavy shadow came down with the intent of crushing her.

“[Icicle Raid]!”

The sabyr roared as several ice spikes impaled its body.

“Red!”

“[Nova Ride]!” A large wave of fire slammed into its back, causing it to roar in pain. Its scream echoed throughout the woods, stumbling around as the fire ate away at its body.

The sabyr’s tails stabbed into its back and ripped off the burning flesh, tossing it to the side.

“Red! Yuki! Thanks,” Embla said, getting up.

“It’s still here.” Yuki gripped her swords tightly, staring at the beast.

Its entire body trembled as it walked towards them growling.

“Cal! Pandora! Headshot? Any day now!” Red said.

The big cat roared, unlatching its jaw once more. It pointed its open mouth towards them, confusing the three.

“What is it?” Embla asked.

Yuki’s eyes grew wide when her [Hypersensory] picked up a build-up of mana inside of its body.

“DODGE! YOU TWO MOVE! CAL! PANDORA! EVERYONE!”

Everyone heeded Yuki’s orders as a beam of blue mana fired from the sabyr’s mouth. The beam flew past them, plowing through hundreds of meters of forest. Nearly five hundred meters away, a large explosion could be heard. Its blast wave nearly knocked them all off their feet.

“What the hell?” Pandora thought, seeing the frozen trail of destruction. Small patches of ice could be seen on the ground where the beam plowed through.

“Can sabyrs do that?” Cal asked.

“No. No, sabyr, alpha or not, is capable of firing that from its mouth much less make a small lake!” Embla replied, seeing the devastation it wrought.

“We need to be more careful then. As to not get hit by that.” Yuki brandished her blades.

“So what do we do?” Pandora asked.

“Wait… look,” Cal said, pointing at the wound on the mutated sabyr’s back. “It’s not healing like the others.”

“Wasn’t that where Red’s Nova Ride landed?” Embla asked.

“Yeah, it is. Good to know that we can still burn it,” Red said, gripping his sword.

“Um, guys.” Pandora pointed at the beast, which had opened its mouth once more.

“Scatter!” Yuki yelled.

The five scattered in different directions as another beam of blue energy ripped through the forest, destroying a large swathe of land in the distance.

“If fire is the only thing that works, then let’s light this fucker up!” Cal said. He took an arrow from his quiver and nocked it. The arrow ignited and was let loose. The arrow zipped through the air, aiming directly for the sabyr’s head.

One of the sabyr’s four eyes saw the arrow and moved its head out of the way, narrowly dodging the attack.

“It… dodged?” Cal said.

“Its movements are getting more complex too. It’s been learning the entire time it fought us and developing new tactics. Whatever this thing became, it’s not a normal sabyr anymore. I’m not even a hunter and I can tell that this thing isn’t what it’s supposed to be,” Red said.

“If this thing is learning, then we’ll have to adapt accordingly to whatever new movements and attacks it’ll use. Killing it should remain simple. An animal, even if it develops new strategies, is still an animal. There has to be something we can still use against it,” Yuki said.

“There are. Even if it has evolved to use more complex movements, it’s still following a linear pattern of attack. It’ll charge us and retreat with a few extra movements like dodging,” Embla added. “Not to mention that it’s weak to fire. But, didn’t it take off Red-”

They jumped as the sabyr charged at them, knocking the tree over.

“We have no time to strategize. We need to act now. If this thing can be hurt by fire, then we need to burn it completely. Embla, get ready! I’m going to try something! Everyone ready your fire skills and prepare to shoot it into the air okay!” Yuki yelled as she dodged a swipe from the sabyr.

“ROGER!”

Embla dashed towards the large cat and blurred. Eight slashes appeared on the sabyr’s body before Embla reappeared on the other side. She jumped out of the way as the sabyr’s paw came swiping at her.

It roared when Red’s blade dug into its side. Red removed the blade from in between its ribs before slashing at the sabyr’s large body a dozen times. Black blood spurted everywhere as the creature howled in agony. It rounded in Red, swiping its massive paw at him.

Red raised his sword and blocked it, sending him sliding several feet back.

“Yuki, any time now!” Red said, dodging another blue energy beam.

“Right! Embla! Are you ready! We’ve aggroed it!” Yuki said, kicking the sabyr in the face.

“I’ve got it. Just do your crazy plan!” Embla said.

“Right! Everyone, attack the air with your fire skills!” Yuki yelled.

Pandora pointed her staff and gathered fire at the tip. A large fireball formed at the tip of her staff. “[Fire Blast]!”

Cal hopped up onto a branch and thrust his left hand in front of him. A small red magic circle formed and a medium-sized ball of fire appeared in front of it. “[Fireball]!”

Red landed and stabbed his sword into the ground. He clapped his hands together and inhaled a massive amount of oxygen. Sparks built up inside his throat as he opened his mouth.

Yuki kicked the sabyr in the jaw. She jumped back and her body flickered. Five Yuki’s appeared around her. All of them conjured a blue flame in their hands.

“Fire!” she yelled.

“[Fire Blast!]”

“[Fire Ball!]”

“[Fire Breath!]”

“[Foxfire!]”

All four of them fired their fire skill into the same point in the sky.

Embla, seeing the attacks diverging at the same point, sprinted towards the sabyr. Super Acceleration! Her body glowed red as she disappeared in and reappeared in a nigh-instantaneous movement. She spun around and swung her blades at the attacks, mixing them and reflecting the magic towards the sabyr. The combined fire skill doubled in size, becoming as large as a boulder, and slammed into the mutated sabyr.

“Guys!” the others all grouped around Yuki as a large dome of ice formed around them, protecting them from the wave of heat that followed the impact.

The fireball swallowed the beast up and plowed through several trees. It traveled for several hundreds of meters before exploding, vaporizing the earth and plant life around it.

Embla landed on the ground, just in time to feel the shockwave from a massive explosion.

She covered her face as the heat washed over her. “Hot!” she yelped. Embla squinted to see a large smoke cloud rising dozens of meters into the air.

“At least, I didn’t burn up on the inside this time,” Embla said. She glanced over to Yuki’s Icicle Barrier. The barrier cracked before shattering into snow. The others walked out and looked towards the smoke.

“Damn,” Pandora said.

“Our handy work,” Embla said, getting up. She wiped her pants of dirt and walked towards them. “Should we go check on it?” she asked.

“Yeah, we should. Just to make sure and to put out whatever fire we started before it spreads to the village,” Yuki said.

Cal whistled as they neared the edge of the crater. The crater was at least several dozen meters in diameter. In Cal’s rough estimate, the crater had to be at least 50 meters across and as deep as the guild building in Yggdrasil.

“Does anyone see it?” Pandora asked, placing her hand over her brow.

“I don’t sense anything,” Yuki said, scanning their surroundings.

“I have nothing.” Embla deactivated Farsight.

“Me neither,” Cal said.

“I don’t think could’ve survived that,” Red said, pointing at the smoldering, semi-molten earth in front of them. “We should at least take care of the fire before we leave. It’ll destroy a lot of the forest if we just let it stay here.”

“No problem. Yuki and I got this.” Pandora did a small salute and raised her staff. “Ready?”

“I got it.” Yuki raised her hand and a large magic circle appeared in the air.

“Show off.” Pandora pointed her staff at the flames and let loose a jet of water.

Her party leader let loose a small laugh before snapping her finger. The magic circle glowed before snow and wind fell around them, working with Pandora’s water magic to extinguish the flames.

As the snow and water fell, a black tendril shot from the center of the crater and wrapped around Yuki.

Everyone’s eyes widened as Yuki was suddenly pulled into the center.

“YUKI!” Red yelled.

“Come on! Less talking more jumping!” Embla yelled. She disappeared in a blur of speed, kicking up pounds of dirt and dust in her wake. The others followed after her.

As they arrived shorty at the center, Yuki was being wrapped by several tendrils, some already inside her kimono. She struggled against the writhing black mass.

“Yuki!” Embla yelled. She growled and gritted her teeth before her body flickered and reappeared behind the mass. The tentacles were cut in eight places, dropping Yuki.

Yuki landed in front of them. A furious expression was on her face. She gripped her swords. “Tch! It looks like it’s not done yet…”

“Yeah,” Red said.

“Then let’s finish it for real this time,” Cal added, nocking five arrows into his bow.

The tendrils shot towards each of them. They all jumped back, avoiding the tentacles as they zoomed towards them.

“Nova Ride!” Red’s body was engulfed in flames before he shot forward, incinerating a majority of the tendrils. He shot into the air, stopping several meters above the treeline. He gripped his sword and swung, unleashing a firestorm on the tentacled mass.

The tendrils writhed in what seemed like agony as they began to crumble to dust one by one.

“I’m not done yet!” Yuki said, raising her palm towards it. A white-blue flame appeared in front of her hand. The flame magnified in size, becoming the size of a small dragon, and shot towards Red’s scarlet firestorm, mixing together. The mixing flames exploded outward, forcing everyone to jump back. In a matter of moments, the tendrils completely crumbled to the point that even their ashes were vaporized by the flames. The fire burned and burned, using the air and earth as fuel.

“You two.” Pandora shook her head as Yuki walked up to her and Red landed behind her. She waved her staff and conjured a massive ball of water. The water dropped on the flames, almost instantly evaporating. She blinked and looked at them. The two had the decency to be embarrassed, not meeting her gaze. “Embla. Think your burst can magnify this water burst I’m about to use?”

“Yeah, sure. I’m ready when you are,” Embla said.

Pandora pointed her staff at Embla, creating a large blue magic circle. A highly pressurized blast of water shot towards the black-haired girl.

Embla swung her blade, reflecting the water into the raging white and red inferno. A large cloud of mist exploded from the flames upon making contact with the water.

“And that finally takes care of that,” Cal said.

“You did nothing the whole time,” Embla said, sheathing her swords.

“Hey, I fired those skills and saved your ass from that Sabyr the first time,” Cal said.

“Yeah but-”

Red smiled as he watched the two argue. He glanced over to Yuki, who looked at the spectacle with an alien look in her eyes.

“I’ve seen them argue a hundred times now and never once did I feel so odd about it. Is it… is it because of…?” Yuki didn’t turn to Red.

Red sighed. He didn’t need to read her mind to know how she was feeling.

“I think it’s time you sat them down and have a talk. You’ve been treating them harshly these past few days to the point where you feel like you’ve alienated yourself,” he replied.

“It’s a few days left before the tournament. We can stay here in this town for another day and enjoy the circus. I’ll sit down with them then. For now, let’s just…” Yuki reached out to grab Red’s hand but retracted her arm, brushing his fingers instead.

“Yeah, for now, let’s just enjoy this moment.”