Hera took a few moments to get up. The impact of the explosion was almost enough to knock her out. Her thoughts went back to Alex, and for a moment, the image of the assassin stabbed by her own weapon flashed through her mind. The last time Hera tried to save Alex like that, she inadvertently stabbed her and made things worse.

However, this time they were both aware of the possibility. When Hera jumped in front of Alex, they both made sure to keep their weapons away from their torso. What Hera wasn't expecting was how heavy the impact would be. The idea that she would be tossed towards a tree and break its trunk with the impact never once crossed her mind. As Hera was getting up, she realized that she was taking too long, and if there was a monster attacking her, it should have already gotten to her. Looking up, she saw the remaining blades, Beam, Brute, and Lurize, clashing with the creature and keeping it at bay. Loginue couldn't shake off the weapons, but at the same time, they couldn't hurt the bird. Hera quickly jumped to the aid of her court. She tossed her chakram coated with water mana, hoping that this could extinguish some of the flames in the creature's body. She barely ever used that particular reinforcement since imbuing her weapon with a water element wouldn't increase the damage she would do to most things. Only when fighting something made of fire or stone did she ever consider it, but even so, she didn't have the habit of using that element to deal damage.

Loginue didn't notice the attack until it was too late. Hera's chakram slashed its torso, snuffing out some of the fire around its body and cutting a large chunk of feathers off. She followed that up with her handaxe in an upward motion that cut the bird's beak sack. Flames sprouted from the opening, singeing Hera's hair and face. At the same time, her blades took advantage of that opening and slashed at the monster's neck. Alex appeared, emerging from behind the tree that was now on the ground, and unsheathed her blade, creating a crystal blade that flew towards the bird. The combination of attacks left Loginue battered and bruised, but the creature was still alive.

It let out a cry, and several wisps of blue fire appeared around it. Each ball of fire dashed towards one of its attackers, one for Hera, one for Alex, and one for each of the dancing blades. Hera activated her own fire elemental armor, hoping to block the flames using her own, while the assassin dove behind a tree to avoid being hit by the attack. That wasn't all. There were another 5 wisps that seemed to trail off and aim at a different target, hidden among the bushes to the side.

Hera's idea worked somewhat. The fire used by the bird was mostly pushed away by the heat of her armor, but the attack still managed to do some damage. She could feel parts of her armor heating up and burning her skin. Still, what she was most interested in was where those extra 5 balls of fire went to. Using her sensory net, Hera created an area 50 meters wide to search for whatever was around. To her left, she noticed a long furry creature with a snake body. It seemed to be watching them as they fought. Currently, the beast, which Hera assumed was Glimmer, was rolling on the ground, trying to put out the fire on its body.

"Alex, Glimmer should be over there. By the tree with the scorch mark," Hera didn't point but glanced at where she could feel the creature.

In response, Alex just nodded and vanished, hiding in the woods once more. Hera didn't have to say anything. Her plan was to keep Loginue busy while Alex tried to kill Glimmer. Hera could be the better hunter, but the assassin was much more capable of dealing a killing blow. While she was distracted by all that, the bird managed to grab Lurize and slammed the sword against one of the trees repeatedly, making it lose its physical form and return to Hera's court. Daskka was wrapped in one of the branches of that tree. After the explosion, the impact rendered her unconscious for a few moments. Now, after finally waking up, she created a large cloud of mist and flung it towards Loginue. Just like Hera's water enforcement, this attack would help snuff out the flames surrounding the monster's body.

The bird slammed its beak against Beam, moving too fast for the blade to evade the attack. With the impact, the handaxe ended up on the ground, and Loginue held it down with his feet while trying to rip its pieces apart with its mouth as if the weapon was now a piece of meat for it to feast on. In response, Beam started shooting at the bird. Rays of light opened holes in the creature's wings and burned its legs. At first, it seemed like the blade would be able to get out, but the bird ignited its body and started to melt even the ground around it. Seeing that, Hera recalled Beam, not wanting to let her blade be injured for no reason. This also worked as a way for her to understand how her court words. She had yet to see the effects of having her blades destroyed, and what was the difference between that and when she dismissed one of her summoned weapons. However, it wasn't like she was going to check this now. There were more pressing matters at hand.

With only Brute left, Hera commanded her remaining court member to cut down a tree, trying to make it fall on top of the flaming bird. Even if it was made out of fire, it shouldn't be hot enough to melt a tree trunk before it would pin it down. It took the handaxe just three swings to cut down the tree thanks to the special effect of the weapon activating. Somehow, it considered the trees to be structures and not living beings. That felt weird, but Hera wasn't about to argue with the system because of it.

Loginue dodged the trunk and turned to Brute with rage in its eyes. Hera rushed to another tree, and it started chopping away, trying to cut it so we would drop on top of the bird. The noise she made didn't go unnoticed, and the monster realized what she was doing. Apparently, the creature also agreed that this could be dangerous for it and changed targets. Instead of fighting the floating axe, It aimed at Hera herself. The explorer noticed the change, but she kept cutting the tree, unwilling to change her plans. Loginue was slow thanks to the injuries it suffered so far, and even when trying to fly, its wings couldn't lift it up. That gave Hera enough time to finish cutting the tree and allow the trunk to fall toward the monster. Yet, it wasn't enough. The creature saw the tree falling towards it and jumped to the left, avoiding the makeshift attack altogether. It stumbled when it moved, in evident pain due to the injuries on its leg. However, the trunk didn't even hit one of its feathers. The monster looked back at Hera and smirked like it had won something.

Hera was surprised, but not because of the monster. A notification appeared in front of her, but she quickly waved it off. This wasn't the time to read something. Looking back at Loginue, she saw her plan getting into motion. She tossed her chakram and activated the binding thread ability as soon as the string touched the monster, overlapping five bindings on top of each other to stop it from moving. The creature struggled, but it was just for a moment. Behind it, Brute had been working on cutting another three trees that were now falling directly on top of the bird. Loginue couldn't even notice the incoming trunk when it got hit square in the head and fell to the ground, being pinned down by the large piece of solid wood.

Now, the creature was still alive, but it struggled to move. Hera called over Brute and held it in her hand as she got closer to the monster's neck, "Brute, You were the MVP. You deserve the last hit," she said as she brought down her hand axe decapitating the creature.

The monster was killed, and soon after, its body dissolved, leaving only a pair of blue feathers behind. Hera sat down for a moment just to catch her breath before running to help Alex fight Glimmer. As she was sitting, Daskka sent her a feeling of confusion.

"What?…. Well, yeah, Beam might have helped more, but he wasn't around…. No, it's not unfair. I'll thank him later, but we are still in the middle of something. I'm not going to waste mana just to be fair…. What do you mean why? I just felt like it was fair. They are part of my court. It's like they work for me, so they deserve to be rewarded for a good job."

As she spoke, Alex appeared from behind one of the trees, "You need to be careful with that. People might think you are going crazy."

"Hey. Did you lose it?" Hera asked while getting up.

"Are you serious? No, I didn't lose it. I killed it. We even got a notification telling us that we completed the dungeon," Alex scoffed.

"Really?" Hera pulled up her tablet and opened the last notification. It was a good thing that she could dismiss these kinds of things and still read them later.

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You have completed the Dungeon Quest in the Runaway Prey.

By killing your mark, you proved to be a worthy hunter.

Rewards:

150 000 gold, Gloves of Glimmer.

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"Nice, I got the gloves. How about you?" Hera asked.

"I got the boots. And Glimmer dropped this," Alex raised one hand and showed the massive piece of green leather that she was dragging, "Think you can help me get this off the ground? I don't think people will pay as much for it if I drag it all the way back to town. And what about the bird?"

Hera leaned over and picked the two feathers that were still on the ground, "We got these."

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Loginue Flaming Feather identified.

Each feather can be used to improve one piece of the glimmer hunter set once. To enhance the piece of the glimmer hunter set, place the feather on top of the set piece.

You can only do that inside the dungeon after defeating Loginue.

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"Oh?" Hera stared at the notification. Seeing Alex's puzzled look, she passed one of the feathers to her friend.

"Oh, this is interesting. Do you mind if I use this one?"

"Go for it," Hera nodded while taking a better look at the feather.

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Loginue Flaming Feather

A feather of the great Loginue, a creature made out of pure fire. This physical manifestation of the feather is rare and is considered one of the best ways to imbue an item with fire when added during the creation process.

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"I have a feeling this might be expensive," Hera mumbled.

"Yeah, but it's better to use and make something better for us. Or at least that's what I think," Alex put on the boots that she just got. They were dark green with some blue details and seemed very cozy. Hera also noticed that the boots had a very faint blue aura around them. Not to the point of glowing, but just shifting the hue of its surroundings.

"Did it get a nice buff?"

"Absolutely. Before, it would just reduce the noise I make when I move. Now it will still do that and also help me hide my tracks. And when I activate the skill, it will make an illusion that will show my body temperature as the same temperature as my surroundings. It's a bit mana heavy, but when it becomes useful, it's gonna be really useful."

Hera offered to test that out since she had a skill that could work as a thermal vision, and it was just like she said. When Alex activated the skill, her body temperature would match whatever was around her, making the assassin very hard to spot. The buff was considerable, and Hera got curious about what her gloves would look like. So, she tapped the notification on her tablet and retrieved the reward. It was always weird to see an object appear out of nowhere in front of her, but the gloves appeared as soon as she pressed the notification. They were a very nice velvet dark green that shined when the light hit them. Around the middle fingers on each glove, there was a single yellow band that seemed to be made out of some sort of crystal.

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Gloves of Glimmer

Rarity: Uncommon

A pair of gloves made with the fur of Glimmer. It takes some attributes from the beast that once eluded so many hunters.

Attribute Scaling:

Agility: x 4.3 Intelligence: x 4.2 Luck: x 4

Passive skill:

Unseen touch:

Anything you touch while wearing these gloves will be less likely to realize what happened.

Glimmer hunter set (1/6)

Set effect will activate when at least 4 pieces are worn together.

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"That's…. Kind of lame," Hera sighed. It's been a while since she got some equipment from a dungeon that could actually help her.

"Why don't you use the feather? Maybe it will change into something good," Alex suggested.

"Why not," Hera shrugged, already accepting that she would end up selling this pair of gloves. She placed the feather on top of the gloves and waited.

The green velvet instantly burst into blue flames, making Hera drop the piece of gear out of fright, even if she couldn't feel the heat coming from the fire. That lasted for a minute, and when the flames finally died down, she could see what the gloves had turned into.

They weren't full gloves anymore. Now they only covered up to her fingers with the yellow crystal wrapping around her middle finger to keep the gloves in place. It still had the green color, but now there was a feather-like pattern made with very thin blue thread covering the back of the gloves. When Hera picked them up, it seemed like the feathers were a pair of flapping wings.

"That is really pretty," Alex gasped.

"Yeah," Hera nodded, but she was more interested in the status.

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Glimmer Flame gloves

Rarity: Rare

A pair of gloves made with the fur of Glimmer and enchanted by its predator Loginue

Attribute Scaling:

Agility: x 5.9 Intelligence: x 5.6 Luck: x 4.3

Passive skill:

Shrouded Graze

Any attacks made by someone wearing these gloves have a chance to go unnoticed. The weaker the initial impact of the blow, the higher the chance for it to be concealed.

Flame source:

Any weapons that are touching these gloves are imbued with fire, dealing an extra 10% fire damage to its target.

Glimmer Flame set (1/7)

Set effect will activate when all 7 pieces are worn together.

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"Now this, this is a reward," Hera opened a large smile.