Kid led the way as Sepeti took up the rear, hobbling along towards the mouth of the cave. The dragon glanced back at him, worry evident on its face as it seemed torn between wanting to wait for him and wanting to hurry ahead and assess the situation.

“Go ahead,” Sepeti said through a grimace. “I’ll catch up.”

Kid nodded and bounded off, the messenger shadow beast waddling along behind it.

Sepeti slowed down and caught his breath. The pain was bearable and he could have hurried after the dragon but he didn’t want to. He wanted some alone time. He needed some time so he could sort a few things out in his head.

“Boba,” he hissed as he stopped, massaging his right thigh with his walking stick. It was reassuring to have the stick, he’d grown accustomed to holding it. He just hoped he wouldn’t grow accustomed to being lame. “Get your ass out here, you stupid little ‘god.’”

Something hissed in his head. A trickle of fear sent a spasm down his back but he stood strong. The idiot ‘god’ couldn’t possibly ignore so many affronts back to back.

“I know you’re there.”

“I’m not here,” Boba murmured grumpily. The ‘god’ was also in a mopey mood. “And stop air quoting and lowercasing me!”

“I’ll stop after you give me some answers.” Sepeti dug his stick into the ground and began carving out symbols. The memories of old arrays and various runes coalesced as he quickly laid out a bunch of hasty symbols. He was sure he’d get a skill just for doing a simple array so he wanted to see what would happen if he mixed arrays, runes, and symbols in one go.

“Fine,” Boba pouted. The image of a petulant child filled Sepeti’s mind. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing, don’t worry about it,” he continued with his formation, layering the trap as thickly as he could muster. A weakness rushed through him as he felt his reserves begin to dwindle. Whatever the magical resource was called on this planet, it seemed he lacked an abundance of it. “Give me some info about the humans grouped up outside the cave. Basic shit, even. If I’m gonna be forced to help your worshippers out, the least you can do is give me some info.”

“Fine, I guess, what do you need?”

Sepeti could feel the God watching him work. And why wouldn’t he? The formation he was laying down involved multiple forms of magics, it would probably be interesting even to the most untrained of practitioners.

“Basics. I need to know their average levels, approximate numbers, competencies, whatever you can share.”

Sepeti huffed as he neared the end of the formation. It was hasty and ugly, multiple symbols overlapping multiple runes. It was an incoherent jumble but he was pretty sure it would get the job done. As he scraped in the last line, the whole thing lit up under him. The sound of a roaring avalanche filled the cavern as the symbols activated. The runes came to life as they began to expand, quickly filling up the whole room, decorating every inch of the ground in a garbled runic scrawl.

An ominous thrumming filled the air as the array settled. It felt like he was listening to something humming in a room with thin walls.

Sepeti fell to a knee, wiping sweat and snot from his face as he concentrated on the messages.

Magics Created!

Array Master {Minor}

Runic Writing {Minor}

Symbolism {Minor}

New Skills Acquired!

|Mana Regen| - {Low}, |Mana Manipulation|

New AdSkill Acquired!

|Mana Loss| - {Low - Permanent}

Sepeti took a deep breath as he attempted to stabilize his thumping heart. Setting the formation had taken much more out of him than he’d expected. Maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea to layer opposing forms of magic on top of one another. Yeah, in hindsight it was definitely not the brightest idea.

“Are you stupid?!” Boba screeched. It took the God long enough to react. “You coulda killed yourself! Are you really so stupid?!”

“Shut up,” Sepeti grunted through gritted teeth. “I ain’t dead, am I? Did you get that info or not?”

An angry weight pressed down on him. It was more of an emotional weight than a tangible one.

“You stupid little mortal! If you die then I’m stuck with your stupid unfulfilled contract! Think about my suffering before you do anything stupid!”

Sepeti rolled his eyes as he mopped his forehead with his shirt.

“Shoulda thought about that before you stuffed me in this shitty body.”

The angry weight increased for a moment before it subsided, just a tad.

“Whatever! Here, what you asked for! Just don’t get yourself killed! If anything, let the child-dragon do all the heavy lifting!”

Information flowed into Sepeti’s mind. He got what he’d asked for but he was also given stuff he didn’t need, like ages and measurements for both men and women. Why the hell was the God giving him such useless information?

The emotional pressure disappeared as Sepeti found it easier to catch his breath. He grunted as he pushed himself up onto his feet, noticing that some of the shadow monsters were warily toeing the outskirts of his array. The huge snake and the mammoth were among the milling group, staring at him with mystified expressions. He got the feeling that this would make his life just a little harder than it needed to be.

“Just a standard array,” he called out to the monsters as he approached them. “Nothing to worry about. Shouldn’t harm any of you. I think.”

“Speaker,” the snake hissed. He had to admit, he kind of enjoyed the way it spoke. It was very soothing. “What is this?”

“Prep, just in case. What’s going on outside?”

“The humans gather!” the mammoth announced proudly. Sepeti was pretty sure it only spoke in one volume. “They prepare for battle and we aim to answer!”

“Right, right,” he grumbled as he painfully hobbled past the group. “Well, most of you can wait here. Snake, elephant, you two come with me.”

“Would you like a lift, Speaker?!” the mammoth boomed.

Sepeti paused. That sounded far more appealing than limping his way all the way out to the entrance. Before he could answer, the mammoth scooped him up with its powerful trunk and settled him on its back. He sidled back and forth and found a comfortable position.

It took no time at all for the trio to arrive where Kid and the rest of the shadow monsters awaited. Most of the smaller ones milled about nervously, pacing back and forth as they eyed the mouth of the cave. Kid stood by regally, or as regally as a fourteen-year-old stuck in a dragon’s body could manage.

The mammoth came to a halt next to Kid and immediately moved to pluck Sepeti off its back.

“Wait,” Sepeti halted the monster before it could grab him. “How about I just stay up here for now? It’ll make things easier for when we need to move around.”

The mammoth let out a jovial little trumpet as if it had been hoping for him to ask. It stomped its feet happily as it lowered its trunk. Next to Kid, the bison-lizard stood stock still. It snorted and turned its back on them as it noticed Sepeti.

“So,” Sepeti cleared his throat as he turned to the dragon, ignoring the eyes of the monsters. “I have a plan.”

“Good,” Kid rumbled. “I was hoping you would. Because I still haven’t come up with anything.”

“How good is your eyesight?”

“Pretty good,” the dragon said as they appeared to pull up a screen. “I have a skill that increases my eyesight as well.”

“Good,” Sepeti said as he nudged the sides of the mammoth’s neck. “Let’s move closer to the edge so you can confirm some things for me. Mammoth, get close to the opening but don’t go outside. Can’t have you scaring them before we have time to get ready.”

The mammoth let out a little trill before stomping forward.

As they neared the edge, Sepeti was able to see out into the bright clearing a little better than he had before. The first thing he noticed was the orderly rows of armored soldiers lined up in front of the camp. He suppressed a sigh as he tugged on the hairs he’d decided would serve as reins.

“Hold up here.”

The group halted, each studying the assembled humans quietly. The snake slithered back and forth between the mammoth’s legs, hissing and rattling as it impatiently sized up the humans. Kid looked anxious, shifting from leg to leg. It looked like it wanted to ask Sepeti some questions but was unsure of how to proceed.

“All right,” Sepeti said, rubbing his chin. This body had yet to develop any satisfying beard hair so he’d have to be content with rubbing the slightly bony chin. “Kid, I need you to use |Analyze| on the humans. Don’t worry about anything but their levels. Read them out to me. Only look at the ones that look like grunts, for now.”

The dragon nodded as it squinted. It began rattling off numbers.

“Eight, Nine, Seven, Seven, Nine, Ten, Eight, Eight, Seven, Six, Seven, Ten…”

Sepeti let Kid continue until he was satisfied that the information provided by the God had been fully corroborated. He wasn’t going to trust the bumbling God in anything, not even simple reconnaissance.

“How many do you see right now?”

The dragon stopped rattling off numbers and began counting under its breath. Boba’s information said approximately two-hundred-and-fifteen soldiers were currently assembled outside the cave. This was a bit more than he’d previously counted but that was to be expected, he had expected to have missed a few.

“I think about two hundred,” Kid rumbled, trying to keep its voice as low as possible. “Give or take.”

Sepeti mentally ticked off the provided number. So far, so good. The God hadn’t screwed him over in this, yet.

“All right, I need you to|Analyze| anyone who looks like an officer and give me their levels.”

The dragon nodded, squinting once again as it focused.

“I see a thirteen, fifteen, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, fourteen… I think that’s all of the-- oh no!” The dragon gasped as it looked at Sepeti. “One of them is level twenty-two.”

Sepeti bit his lip. He wanted to curse but he didn’t want to be a bad influence on an impressionable child. For all his faults he drew his line at kids, even if they were currently inhabiting a two-hundred-year-old dragon’s body. He began frantically sifting through the information Boba had shared, skimming through the levels and looking for the highest.

“Can you read off their screen?”

“Malia, level twenty-two, Dragoon, Captain, Rider of Hune.”

Sepeti pinched his thigh. It was bad enough that the average soldier was at a higher level than he was, but they also had someone who was a higher level than a damned dragon. Things were getting trickier with each revelation.

“What’s it look like they’re doing now?” Sepeti would have looked himself but he just didn’t want to. He needed his head to be clear so he could formulate something, anything to get him and the monsters out of this predicament.

“I can kinda hear them but I can’t understand a thing. Maybe they’re going through roll-call or something? Looks like all the officers are shouting something at their respective platoons while the Captain is just watching them.”

“All right, that’s enough,” Sepeti said as he yanked the hair reins. “Let’s get back. We have to prepare fast, don’t know when they’ll attack. Elephant, walk a little slow, I need to do some stuff.”

It might not be the best time to test his new magics out, but he wanted to see if he could lay down trap runes and symbols without physically carving them into the dirt. Concentrating, he aimed his walking stick at the ground and imagined the simplest rune he could remember. His body temperature rose as he felt a sliver of his mana slip away. A rune, ugly and blocky, appeared where he was pointing.

“All right,” he heaved, letting the breath he’d been holding out in a whoosh. “I can do this.”

“You can use magic?” Kid asked, voice tinged with excitement.

“Something like that.”

As they slowly retreated, Sepeti continued to drop runes and symbols in random spots. He was able to muster enough mana to fuel a couple handfuls of spells. He had to scold the dragon a couple times because it kept running up to the freshly placed traps and intently studying them.

He noticed that the large snake was also silently planting little detachments of shadows. He wasn’t sure what they were supposed to be but he appreciated that the snake took the initiative.

The milling group of monsters quieted as the mammoth slowed before them. They all looked at him for guidance, he could see it in their beady, pupilless eyes. That or they were hungry, he wasn’t too sure which it was. He fought the urge to complain about not being able to hide from interacting with the monsters and possibly having to fight a bunch of humans. Now was the time for action, not whining.

“All right, monsters,” Sepeti said. “I have a plan. I’ll need you all to follow it so we can have a chance at surviving.”

“Why should we listen to you?” the bison-lizard said, raising its large head defiantly.

“Still-young!” Kid the dragon rumbled. “Now is not the time to be obstinate.”

“Now is the perfect time. Who is our leader, you or the Speaker?” The blocky creature let out a howl-bleat that failed to be intimidating.

“I’m not your leader,” Sepeti said quickly. That train of thought needed to be nipped in the bud real quick. Leadership was a role best reserved for the idiots who thought themselves rulers. “I’m barely even your Speaker. You don’t have to listen to me. But, if you want a chance to survive this encounter, then you’ll at least consider my strategy.”

The bison-lizard snorted as it turned away from him. “I never asked you the question, I asked Metala. Well, do you have an answer?”

Metala? Who the hell was that? Was that the dragon’s real name?

“I am,” Kid answered as it drew itself to its full height. It towered over the blocky bison-lizard. For once, the kid was looking pretty menacing. Much like it had when he’d first encountered them. “And I say we listen to the Speaker.”

The bison-lizard nodded briskly. “Good, I will follow.”

All the shadow monsters turned their full attention to Sepeti, who was still busy pondering on the dragon’s poor naming sense. He jumped as he noticed the hazy eyes.

“Good, we got all that outta the way. So, here’s the plan.”

“You know, I set this up in such a way that I was supposed to be able to see what the hell was going on. But I don’t have any skills that allow me to do that.” Sepeti grumbled as he rode the mammoth.

“I have a skill,” Kid said meekly.

“You do? What’s it called?”

“It’s called |Lair Vision|. I never found a use for it before, but it might be useful now?”

“Huh, so this is your lair. Makes sense. Yeah, I’ll need you to give a me run-down of what’s going on. So we know how things are proceeding. We’ll have the runners running messages back and forth but your skill should be enough to keep us updated.”

The mammoth lumbered into the main cavern, tiptoeing through the large array-symbol-rune thing. Sepeti noticed the dragon’s demeanor brighten as it laid eyes on the huge array.

“Also, your name’s Metala?”

The dragon blushed, scales brightening as it looked away from him. “That’s not my real name, I just thought it sounded cool when I first got here.”

Sepeti snorted, holding back a laugh by pinching his thigh. It wasn’t the time or place to be joking around with his new dragon acquaintance.

“It’s a fine name!” the mammoth boomed, still tiptoeing around runes and symbols that it didn’t need to avoid.

“Yeah, nothing wrong with it,” he said dully as he looked around the large cave. He noticed that there was only one other room, the one he’d been in with the dragon. But there was no escape route. At least, not one that he was able to pick out on a cursory glance. “Hey Kid, is there an escape route?”

“No,” the dragon shook its head. It looked up at the dark ceiling. “This place didn’t come with one and I never got around to making it.”

“Can you start one right now?” An idea began to form. It would be his last resort.

“I guess, but I won’t be able to use |Lair Vision| while I’m setting one out.”

“That’s fine. All I need you to do is make two separate hallways on either side of the cave,” he pointed at the exact spots he wanted the dragon to start excavating. “Long enough to draw someone in but not too long that it takes up most of your energy.”

“Ok.” The dragon was obviously puzzled but it still seemed ready to follow his instructions.

“Go, get started on those.” He shooed it away. He needed a quiet moment to collect himself. The coming fight would be brutal. For the monsters, anyway. He planned to be as far removed from any fighting as possible. Ever the realist, he was direly aware of the fact that he was outleveled by every other being soon to be involved in the battle. Maybe there were a few soldiers who were of the same level or lower, but that would do him little good. He wasn’t going to be engaging in one-on-one fights where he could eke by due to the element of surprise.

No, he needed to use the monsters that were at his disposal to the best of his ability. Even if that meant forcing the fourteen-year-old-turned-dragon to fight.

Sepeti sighed heavily as he let his mind run some exercises, clearing it for what would soon be happening. He found himself staring at the points in the wall that he’d designated for clearing. Right before his eyes, he observed as the rocky walls were scooped out by invisible hands and crushed, disappearing without a trace. The newly made hall was roughly the size of the dragon so they were pretty noticeable. Mind empty, he watched in abject curiosity, unable to tear himself away.

A message flashed, pushing him out of his musing.

New Skill Acquired!

|Lair Design|

More ideas formed as he read his new skill. This was good. Maybe.

A roar echoed down the long cave entrance as the dragon returned.

“I finished one escape route but I stopped to check my |Lair Vision| and saw that a couple squads have moved in. Still-young has engaged them and is pushing them back as we speak.”

Another roar bounced into the cave. Sepeti wasn’t sure but he hoped that some of his traps had gone off.

“My young have begun their assault,” the large snake hissed. “They close in on our prey.”

“Get everyone in place,” Sepeti said as he nudged the mammoth’s neck. “Then meet me in the room.”