“From the left!” Minet shouted, his magic still barely holding back the giant hoof pressing at him from above. In his left palm, he was grasping a still warm bisected arm from one of his companions. Reclaiming it was what got him into the unfortunate position of having to block in the first place.

"I've got it!" the elected leader of Minet's group, Reinhart, shouted. He was some sort of a warrior, wielding a gargantuan greatsword as thick as a leg and as long as his already very tall body. With a growl he jumped between Minet and the attacker, swinging the giant of a blade at their approaching foe: An enraged griffon. Although the beast avoided a direct hit, it was repelled as it once again ascended high into the skies above and began circling. Meanwhile, their other foe moved again: It removed that enormous hoof from Minet’s barrier and the boy quickly used that opportunity to jump back, earning some distance.

“Firing!” another voice sounded from behind, this time female, and a volley of arrows flew above Minet’s head. They were not targeting the griffon, rather, they were aimed at the hulking giant sitting in the middle of the large open area. It towered higher than the tallest building Minet had ever seen, even far above those in the Black city. Its grey skin strangely reflected the moonlight as the barrage of arrows landed on it, most failing to even puncture the skin.

“Fuck, that was my last duplicating arrow,” the woman cursed, though Minet didn’t look in her direction. Instead, he marvelled over the monster facing them in all its terrible glory. It truly made him realise how small his world had been back in that village. Even though he deeply missed his mother, he was able to find a certain degree of excitement from discovering that strangeness. After all, if the creature like the gargant in front of him was merely in the 3rd tier, just what kind of other monsters existed out in the world?

“It’s standing up again!” Reinhart cursed and quickly commanded, “Disperse!” as soon as his words sounded he and Minet ran in opposite directions. The colossus slowly put its legs beneath the torso and with uncertain motions slowly rose. Standing, the creature appeared even stranger and more imposing. Its distinct lack of hands or proper head made it appear just like a giant egg with legs and fur, a single eye open somewhere around the middle of its torso. Minet wasn’t even sure how it fed considering the lack of a visible mouth or how much a creature like this had to devour just to sustain itself.

Remembering not to get distracted, Minet raised his head, searching the sky for the griffon. The two monsters worked in great synchronization. The gargant slammed its body down with slow but difficult to avoid attacks while the griffon used those opportunities to launch sneak attacks from above. The pecked off arm that Minet was holding was the proof of how effective that strategy could be. And Minet happened to look up just in time, seeing the flying creature had just begun its plunge towards him. Just a few hours earlier, Minet would have likely panicked and frozen in place, however, getting as far as he had in as the healer of their group, he had seen far more combat that day than in the entirety of his previous life combined and at some point, he got used to it enough to remain only nervous rather than crippled by fear.

With a wave of his free hand, a barrier was erected, serving as an invisible wall the griffon charged directly into beak first. That much was not enough to cause severe damage but it was enough to make the creature retreat back above. It was still difficult to tell who would win in that war of attrition between their group and the two monsters. Confirming that he was safe, Minet looked up at the gargant who was slaming his body in the opposite direction and with an involuntary sigh of relief searched through the nearby rocks. He was at the very edge of the arena which was in fact either some sort of a crater or an enclosed circular gorge. Soon enough he spotted the marked rock and dashed behind it.

“Need a hand?!” Minet shouted even before he got behind it, remembering his mother’s advice that even a horrible joke can ease patient’s pain. There, behind the chunk of stone sat a young man in the robes of the mages guild missing a left hand. His colours were blue and grey, Minet vaguely remembered that the blue colour represented the Summoning and Binding element.

“It's about bloody time!” he cursed, cringing either from pain or at the joke. Beside him, there was a strange ritualistic circle drawn from chalk with a few drops of his blood. Minet did not dwell on it too long, quickly kneeling next to his companion. Or at least he tried to as in the middle of that motion, the gargant landed, causing an earthquake to spread through the arena. Because of that as well as the deafening boom, Minet fell over, head first. But being well aware of the situation he did not waver over the pain in his face and continued his previous actions with little care for himself.

“This is going to sting,” Minet warned once he got back up and placed his palm on the already healed stump. In order to reattach the hand, he first needed to reopen the wound. With gritted teeth, the mage silently grunted while Minet undid his previous measure and stuck the already cooling hand where it was supposed to be in the first place. He also took out quite a few of his medical resources, mainly using them as a source of vitality he transferred into the half necrotic hand to revitalise it as his light magic did its work.

“You are a bloody miracle worker,” the mage exclaimed, having a hard time believe how perfectly his limb had been reattached, “It’s bloody unfair the Blackburgs got their hands on another talent like you.”

“I need to return to the others,” Minet nodded, “You should rest, Karl.”

“Won’t do,” Karl smiled, “That bird dared taste my blood and is about due for a bloody reckoning. Protect me for a few seconds and I will bring that piece of shit down from the sky,” without waiting for Minet’s reply he crouched in front of the circle he had drawn, placing a palm on either side and began a chant:

Dreadful beast of foul mind

shall this serve as your bind.

Through the blood you had devoured

this bond shall be powered and empowered.

Binding of blood

As the incantation ended, the griffon screeched and turned towards them, starting another lunge. However, this time, its aim was off. It missed Minet’s barrier as it slammed directly into the ground beside them headfirst without even attempting to slow down.

“It’s still a third-tier monster, wish me luck,” Karl said, clearly concentrating as he raised his hands towards the griffon as though he was clutching something in them as he began another chant.

The fetter to me shall cease,

as you will receive release

though only in death.

Hereby ends your final breath.

Familiar execution

The griffon began to screech with renewed intensity, twitching and clawing at the ground around it. As its struggle intensified, so did Karl’s. His hands were violently shaking and dense sweat began to appear on his brows. The struggle lasted for a minute as Minet held his breath when finally a snapping sound sounded. The griffon’s head twisted in an unnatural way and its body stopped moving, though its neck got twisted two more times before the corpse finally fell to the ground, lifeless.

“Go help the rest, I won’t be of much further use,” Karl collapsed to the ground, utterly exhausted. He had after all just killed a monster full tier above him. Minet nodded to his instructions and rushed from behind the rock. He had left the rest to deal with the gargant for far too long. Even though they had mostly figured out how to avoid it, mistakes were inevitable in such a long fight.

That applied to Minet too as the moment he dashed from behind the rock he realised with horror that the moonlight was blocked out by a hulking mass, about to land on top of him. He hastily erected a barrier, but that was hardly enough to stop the body slam of the giant flesh heap as the magic cracked and shattered instantly. Minet did not even have the time to be properly terrified. For a split second, he felt the pain of his knee piercing his lungs and his index finger touching the back of his skull from the inside.

And then everything turned to nothingness.

[You have died during stage 50; calculating]

[Overall scores: Completion: 2842/2842; Surviving members: 2736/2842; Bonus objectives 2030/2842; Contribution 1218/2842;; Final score: 8826/11368]

[Proceeding to the solo stage of the trial of mercy]