The giant hummingbirds dove at Lily, Anika’s shout causing Lily to turn and look rather than move, as Anika intended. Anika’s hand swung towards the hummingbirds, reflexively trying to hit them out of the way, when both hummingbirds bodies smashed forward in a cartoonish halt, as if hitting a glass window. The birds began to fall to the ground, necks snapped, and Anika’s open hand slapped nothing but air as they fell.

  Lily completed her turn, able to see the hummingbirds fall to the ground, a whimper escaping her adorable mouth as she looked from the hummingbirds to Anika with a surprised Pikachu face. Anika stared in equal shock, blinking and trying to process what happened. She hadn’t cast a spell - she had been overcome by a more primal reflex - and Lily hadn’t had a chance to react with any magic, as she had barely turned in time.

  A flicker of light had reflected in an orb around Lily’s head when the birds hit, and Anika’s brain managed to make a connection after her eyes rested on the magnificent magenta scarf around the capybara’s neck.

  “The scarf! Tikal’s shield!” Anika tried to breathe, the moment of fear close to triggering a panic attack despite the Calming Aura Lily kept up during every battle. She frantically looked around, hoping no other birds had swooped in past the group’s defenses as they battled the dungeon boss, the rest of the heroes and Sinaya still battling it, unaware of Lily’s near death experience.

  Lily huddled in close to Anika, shivering at the close call, and Anika swooped her up in a hug. She knew they had a battle to get back to, but neither of them were calm enough to return to the fight quite yet.

  “Tikal’s protective shield worked on the birds. He said it worked on projectiles, but I guess anything moving fast enough through the air counts! And good thing!” Anika pet the capybara in her arms, the motion soothing both her and her companion.

  “I need to go see Tikal again. He saved me!” Lily agreed, her voice still quivering despite the sentiment.

  A loud, explosive splash drew Anika and Lily back to the fight, and Anika saw water from the buffalo’s area attack shot by them to hit a wall near Hawthorn as the one behind them shuddered. Hawthorn, thankfully, stood behind the protection of the wall. Three members of the capy pack, however, took the damage, and one of them immediately melted into the goo that signified their death (or the end of the spell’s timer). Epona flew above them, clearly using her magic to go over the attack rather than trying to hide her larger body behind the small defensive walls.

  “The boss attack! We have to check on the others. Go help Hawthorn.” Anika put Lily down and stood up, twirling to face the boss and the rest of the group as pieces crumbled off the wall that had protected them.

  She breathed a sigh of relief as she stood, noting that no one looked particularly injured. Philip’s armor had a thick coating of mud dripping from it, which Anika assumed meant he had used some kind of dirt shield to protect himself. Sinaya and Panu both emerged from dirt walls, both walls crumbling from the force of the boss’s watery blast. They immediately reengaged the boss in a flurry of fiery energy, stabbing the boss with gusto.

  Anika knocked an arrow and aimed for the buffalo’s side. The multiple days of dungeoning in a row had improved her aim again, and she confidently landed her arrow close to the beast’s vital organs. The buffalo had multiple wounds and moved sluggishly compared to its initial engagement. It wouldn’t take much more for the boss to fall at the rate Sinaya and Panu piled on the damage with their weapons, but Anika would do her part with arrows as well.

  In the time it took the boss to fire several more single-target watery blasts, which Sinaya and Panu expertly dodged, and Anika veering off to cast Water Spray behind them for pantopu management, the boss finally fell. Anika sighed with relief, glad they hadn’t been overrun by other monsters during the time, though they had lost several members of the capy pack, and Lily stated she couldn’t replace any more until the cooldown passed. Anika grumbled, as that meant they received less experience from the dungeon boss, but would rather the capy pack disappear than any of her friends or companions receive a serious injury.

  Hawthorn’s rock skin had protected him in his fights with the other sun bears, but he would also need to wait before casting the defensive spell again. Sinaya, Panu, and Philip had used several spells during the encounter with longer cooldowns, leaving them less options to deal with the continuing waves of monsters in the wake of the dungeon boss.

  It seemed, however, that the dungeon boss signified that the Chaos Eruption was drawing to a close. Once they killed the dungeon boss, no more herds of water buffalo or pantopu manifested. Anika hoped the monster manifestations would continue decreasing, as she felt a level of weariness settling in that she hadn’t experienced since her first few days in Etalen.

  The group had moved back into some semblance of a formation when Anika noticed a figure running their direction from another group. As it moved closer, Anika made out the shape of a Kaseta girl with dark black skin and shimmering blue wings.

  “Yasima!” Panu called out, waving casually with one hand while he stabbed a squirrel in the face with the sword in his other hand.

  Yasima, who Anika had not met before, called out as she approached.

  “We must return to the town and temple! Monsters have manifested in the area and we left no defenses! The other groups will manage your area!”

  The group stared at Yasima, not quite able to understand how they had left no one behind to protect the town. Anika remembered from the briefing that they believed the eruption would only impact the immediate area around the dungeon. Clearly, the priests had miscalculated the true nature of the Eruption.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “Hurry!” Yasima called again, as she had already turned to run up the road towards the village.

  Bone weary and stiff, Anika reacted before she could put any more thought into it. She grabbed Lily and threw her on Hawthorn’s back, figuring he could carry her better while running, and followed after the Kaseta.

  —------

  Morigan pushed a strand of white hair out of her face as another small pack of squirrels blew away, caught in her Whirlwind, to slam into a building. The squirrels died, but the window in the wall also shattered with the impact of her spell. She resisted the urge to cringe, never before having felt so exposed by her lack of magical control. She didn’t care about collateral damage when it hurt the wretched priests, but she felt more shame when the destruction damaged the house of the person she tried to save.

  She once again thought about just returning to the temple. She didn’t have to do the priests’ work. This destruction was their fault. Leaving behind no one but the youngest of acolytes in the temple, barely level 10 and with no experience, rather than a defensive force. She had rounded them up by screaming at them, demanding they find carts and follow her to the village, making them do the physical labor of picking up and transporting injured villagers.

  Ultimately, she stayed and continued helping in the town, her father’s words echoing in her memories. At least the adults in the village had passable defensive capabilities, once they knew to expect an attack. None of them had any organizational skill, however. She’d found out the priests had also abandoned the city temple to go off to the dungeons, leaving only the lowest of administrators behind. They had the leadership capabilities of a rock. Ridiculous! She’d yelled at them too.

  It felt good to take out some of her rage on those people, they were priests and other folk affiliated with the wretched gods and their kidnapping plot after all, as well as demonstrate her superiority as a princess. She’d demanded they establish a defensive perimeter in the laughably small village square and set up a medical station. At least they had plenty of competent healers among the craftsmen, meaning she didn’t have to assume that duty any more.

  The children she had healed earlier in the day had lived on the outskirts of town, and the temple had been closer than the village square. After wrangling the acolytes, she had allowed the women to lead her to the village, blasting the surrounding squirrels and nasty little monkeys. They had rescued several other children and parents, and Morigan led them in a haughty parade to the center of town. Upon taking command of the incompetent locals, she’d sent the highest levels out, mostly craftsmen, to escort others to the safety of the defensive square.

  Her little army turned out quite successful, and she knew, of course, that only a princess of her caliber could have turned this little disaster around. But that part of her that raged at being here reveled in the small acts of defiance that came along with her poor magical control, even if those acts were unintentional. She slammed the door of the house open and saw a Mizeta woman and child cowering inside. She glared at them and yelled.

  “Well, stop staring already! Get up and go to the town square before more monsters come!” She held the door open from the outside, gesturing for them to go. The woman hastily stood and picked up her child, running towards the town square and safety.

  Morigan tossed a glare at the offensive yet satisfying broken window before turning on her heel and marching off to the next house, listening for shouts or crying, as well as looking out for the monsters.

  *Princess, I believe you were unkind to those people.* Storm’s voice sounded in her head.

  “I’m helping. No one said I had to be nice about it. They stared at me like I was a monster when I was the one rescuing them!”

  *You did break the window and slam the door open.*

  Morigan scoffed. “If they can’t tell the difference between a Princess and a beast they don’t deserve to be treated nicely.”

  *A beast can be more than just a monster, Princess.*

  Morigan ignored him, stomping down the street to the pantopu she saw approaching. She flicked her arm towards it. Lashing it with her Gust spell, crushing its face as it flew backwards in a heap. The brainless beasts lived on her planet too. Useless creatures, barely even worth killing with their combined stupidity and lack of defenses. They didn’t even have any harvestable ingredients for crafting. A waste of magic. But the sharp quills could still hurt someone with no defenses if it barreled into them, and she had no desire for a bloody makeover.

  She checked several more houses on the street before reaching the end of the road, the houses suddenly turning into farmland with no transition whatsoever. What a boring, poorly laid out place! On Kiliria, they took great pride in creating a landscape that flowed gradually into different areas, creating seamless transitions rather than the abrupt boundaries and sharp edges of this world. It’s like they lacked any creativity whatsoever!

  She missed the arid gardens and delicious desert berries of her home. The sweeping sands and aesthetically pleasing rock landscapes, accented by edible plants, flowed seamlessly from their uniquely stylized, brightly colored homes to the dangerous wilds. She could practically taste the longing for her home, away from this green town of identical pastel homes and strange people.

  She felt a tear slide down her cheek and immediately spun away from the farmland to look back into the town. She needed another monster to kill before the rage overtook her again.

  —--

  “The Chaos manifestations in the immediate vicinity of the dungeon have lessened enough that they can spare a group to return and help the town!” Earth called, relief clear in his voice.

  “Turns out it may not even be necessary,” Air announced triumphantly. “My hero has saved the day. She is clearing the monsters in Kanewek quite efficiently.”

  The rest of the gods stared at Air in surprise before tapping on their monitors, looking in on the village.

  “Why did you not inform us of this before?” Fire demanded, “We pulled people from the dungeon, which may leave the surrounding area at risk, when the town is being contained?”

  “Well, she’s handling it, but she shouldn’t have to do it alone.”

  “More like he’s afraid she will lose whatever bug has bitten her and turn on the townsfolk in addition to the monsters. Do you see how much damage she is doing?” Water gestured at her monitor, where the Air hero’s magic broke a window.

  Aether held up a hand to silence before Air could retort, “We do not need to start an argument. Whatever has changed, we should still offer support to the town. We did not leave sufficient resources behind and one person should not bear that burden.”

  Air and Water glared at each other, but remained silent as ordered.