The first shallow swing from Lohengrim slammed into a tentacle, not the black clad man smugly smirking at Ondun. "By the way...we have Mons of our own," he added.

  The blast of wind from Zephanie and Maggie slammed into a shadowy wave as a human-like figure, with a cobra's neck and head leapt from the brush, and made a savage slash at Strudel and Venus. Venus in particular narrowed its eyes and let loose a deep, rumbling growl, as they recognized their natural prey. Venus projected a beam of pale blue light from a claw and cut Strudel out of the restraining net that had fallen over him. With a thankful bark of "Aquehound!" Strudel and Venus faced off against the ambushing humans and their Mon allies.

  "Ondun! That's a Dreadvine! It's plant-type, mind the tentacles - they're venomous! Venus, I think that's your natural prey - a Cobrithug. It's a phase above you, don't attack carelessly! It also can weave poison into its attacks!"

  Ondun didn't visibly acknowledge the call-out, but Venus definitely did. They leapt back into easy range for Strudel, Maggie, and Zephanie to cover them. Instead, Ondun flipped his spear around, bringing the edge to bear to slice at a pair of vines that were hurtling straight at him.

  Unfortunately, the Dreadvine belonging to the strange man moved at the last moment and held the massive lance fast. The Cobrithug launched a wave of darkness at Sylphie that Zephanie peeled off to intercept with her improved Wind Wall.

  Ondun had known that the Lohengrim would be intercepted at some point. A basic concept of melee combat, after all, was to get two weapons into a bind, and then react to what was felt. As my opponent is a plant, I think it's time to bring some fire.

  The Lohengrim erupted in a cyan burst of dragon's flame as, instead of pulling away or to one side, he rushed forward, angling the blade at the blue-haired woman. While he intended to pull his attack, he was sure that the Cobrithug would angle an attack at him, giving Sylphie an opening.

  That's exactly what happened. The Cobrithug covered their criminal coach, as she laughed a sarcastic, high pitched laugh. "Worry not, foolish trainers - we'll take your Mons, and leave you on the ground to groan."

  Maggie flashed in close to the woman, and blasted her with a wave of wind at point-blank range, slinging her off the Route and into the dirt beside the path. Even as this happened, Strudel slammed into the Cobrithug, wreathed in the pale blue Light he'd used in his fight with Lowell. Smoke and a small explosion erupted from the impact. Light and Dark are, by default, opposing anima polarities, Ondun recalled. Only where Strudel is a newly evolved Mon, that Cobrithug may have been in his current form for a while now. My hound is at a disadvantage.

  Ondun backflipped out of the counterstroke that had caught the Lohengrim's blade, to land such that he covered Sylphie, who was commanding the Mons. "Zephanie, Maggie, weave and strike! Strudel, Venus, focus on striking when your foe is at unawares! Keep up the pressure, Strudel got the Cobrithug pretty good just now!"

  The two avians were weaving around, pelting the enemy Mons with blasts of Wind that the Dreadvine was struggling to evade, and were leaving deeper gashes than Ondun had been expecting. The Draconian channeled anima about himself, covering his lance in cyan flames, as he flashed forward again, intentionally angling himself so that the carnivorous plant Mon had to dodge straight into a pair of wind blades. With a horrid cry of "Carnivine!" he could see the Mon had been set onto his last legs.

  Meanwhile, the icy-haired woman had recovered and was running straight at Sylphie. "Oh no you don't!" she cried out, reaching into herself, then thrust out her hand, using the basic anima spell that halted the woman for just a moment. The moment was all Venus needed to leap in front of their human friend, and unleash a dazzling blast of Light that blinded the woman. Ondun and Sylphie had foreseen the attack and looked away...as had the redheaded man.

  Unfortunately, the Cobrithug had changed its focus from the Aquehound that had wounded it, to the less powerful Venus. So it was that another blast rang as a blade of dark cracked across Venus' back, slamming the Mon to the ground where he began to slowly shrink, before Sylphie recalled the Luxli.

  It was now two humans and three Mons, one of which was in a second form, against one combat-able human and two second form Mons. Ondun gathered himself for another strike at the red-headed man, but he cooly dodged the lance charge, and a bolt of water from Strudel, who was now aiming attacks directly at the human. Strudel gets the dynamic. He's gotten smarter since his evolution, Ondun realized.

  Unfortunately, the Dreadvine had taken advantage of the anti-human focus. It had jammed its tentacles into the ground, and with a blast of asphalt and earth, they coiled about Sylphie, who cried out in pain and immediately started turning purple as toxins were injected into her. She'll need immediate treatment. I have to act decisively.

  "Going up!" Ondun cried out. Their Mons immediately moved away from the Dreadvine that was restraining Sylphie, and started to work on cutting her out of the plant Mon's grasp. The redheaded human's eyes followed Ondun up. "Hmph...just as they sai-OW!"

  A wave of force slammed into the man. Then from the skies, a spectre of a dragon appeared, roared, and slammed into the asphalt directly between the prone man and his plant Mon. Both cried out in pain, and Sylphie, barely hanging on to consciousness as the poisons gnawed at her, fell to all fours, gasping for air.

  No, no no...not like this! NOT LIKE THIS, DAMMIT!

  Ondun's Dragon Knight powers flexed as two pale cyan wings broke from the back of his armor. Reversing the Lohengrim, he brought the shaft of the artifact weapon to bear, leaping from enemy to enemy, swiping. The Cobriknight went down immediately to a blow aimed at the Mon's back, and a follow up slammed the icy-haired woman to the ground. The man got up and started to run before his legs were swept out from under him, and a purple gauntlet slammed into his face, before the blade cut a line of sap across the Dreadvine, and a powerful downward swing nearly crushed the Mon outright.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Sylphie collapsed then. Ondun immediately dropped his Dragon Knight powers, for those of the Medicus, and deployed all four Spelliths about the woman. "Strudel, Zephanie, Maggie! Cover me while I heal Sylphie!" He began channeling power through the woman's body, systematically finding buildups of toxins and purging them, while using the other Spelliths to awaken organs that were failing, and empowering her body to keep working until the young woman's body had been repaired enough that they could evacuate her to a Coach Center or something.

  Even as he worked, the two birds created a barrier around the two humans, and Strudel kept a vigil, ready to unleash baleful water and burning light on the Mons or humans if they awoke. The redheaded man was trying to crawl to his blue-haired, busty companion, who was quite unconscious.

  Strudel blasted the man with a savage ray of light, throwing him across the Route.

  Eventually, Ondun's healing had reached its conclusion. The visor on his Medicus robes showed that the toxins were purged, and her body's systems were slowly recovering. He raised the visor, nodded to the birds, and stepped outside the barrier, with Strudel switching in to watch over Sylphie.

  Ondun hauled the battered criminal up by the collar of his shirt. "You. You're no ordinary criminals, and I'm not talking about the Mons."

  The man helplessly sputtered, and the woman groaned a little.

  "You aren't just burglars, you were too well prepared for my fighting arts. How did you know what to expect?"

  After another groaning cough, he started to talk. "Someone wanted us to halt your progress, especially when they saw you here heading to Cheng. We already wanted your Aquehound, so we thought we'd introduce ourselves with a bang. Your pup will one day be ours, don't you doubt! Now let me down, you scaled, alien lout."

  Ondun tightened his grip.

  "What did they look like?" After no answer, he gave a shake. "I asked, what did they look like!?"

  "They wore black robes and hid their face. I didn't see capture capsules, they seemed out of place."

  Ondun finally dropped the man, and reached for his smartphone. His limited knowledge of the world's odd letters let him find Lowell's number. He pressed dial. "I hope I'm not interrupting, City Leader...but Sylphie and I were just attacked. We're mostly fine, but she'll need medical attention - a Dreadvine poisoned her. I was able to stop it, but we need a safe haven, and we need it now."

  He could hear a gulp on the other end. "Sending Rangers to you now. The attackers?"

  Ondun gave the red-headed man a kick. "Alive." Were I not a man of my word, I'd deal with them in the Arcanis way.

  "Good. Sit tight, help is on the way. If there's a next time, use this contact code for the local Ranger chapter, though." He then listed a series of numbers that Ondun committed to memory, before hanging up.

  Ondun quickly punched the numbers into his phone, and saved the contact like Dr. Wusiji had shown him nearly two weeks ago. The sound of flapping in the air wasn't long in coming, as a squad of four Rangers descended from the skies, each on Mons that looked like evolved versions of Maggie.

  They quickly apprehended the two young bandits, and another Ranger checked out Sylphie. "The poison's indeed stopped - you did good, sir. She'll need to come with us to base, as will you."

  Ondun nodded. "I'll follow you."

  The Ranger gathered Sylphie up and put her across one massive Leveagle. Ondun followed another Ranger, straddling a second bird. The other two Rangers waved them off, and immediately the birds flew a straight course to a massive building that looked vaguely familiar to Ondun, before he made the connection. This is another Ranger base. They must use similar floor plans for some reason.

  They landed, and a medic team was already waiting. A loud crack sounded as a deep blue bird came from the direction of Xinling with a pink-clad woman atop it. "Valerie Valerian, reporting for emergency treatment!" she yelled as she descended. When her steed was close enough to the ground, she made a graceful leap and began checking Sylphie over. Without looking at Ondun, she extended a hand. "Capture capsules for your Mons. It's important, and you can't opt out."

  He dumbly nodded, and handed over Strudel and Zephanie's capsules. She unclipped Venus and Maggie's capsules as well.

  From there, Ondun was practically frog-marched to a blank room, where he was questioned by a man in a suit about the entire incident, and every detail of the battle. Ondun demonstrated his Dragon Knight armaments when the man doubted the initial details of the attack. Eventually, Ondun completed the recounting.

  "Very well...your statement is in order. The Guardian vouched for you, and it's good to see you're restraining yourself; that'll make the legal part of this all the easier. Why don't you follow the Ranger there..." the door opened for a black-haired man to politely nod, "...to the waiting room, while your friend is looked over. Don't worry, I'm told a Valerian is here, she'll probably be just fine."

  Ondun nodded, frowning. He followed the Ranger out as the suited man gathered up various papers that had been strewn about the table during Ondun's debriefing...or interrogation. It felt a little like both.

  The Ranger escorting him also seemed curious, but said little. Instead he politely motioned to a square, grey loveseat in a square grey room. Some unintelligible magazines were laid out. With a polite nod, the man closed the door, disappearing off into the rest of the base.

  Ondun sat back and exhaled, letting the post-battle stresses dissipate. He released the Knowledge Gem powers, changing back into his Monastrian clothing. I think I'll call this job, "Tamer".

  Ondun organized the battle and its outcome. The rhyming criminals were certainly eccentric, but the adventurer felt he could safely ignore them for the time being. They had been restrained in front of him, and were probably en route to a facility capable of holding them for whatever justice this world adhered to.

  He stretched, and fell sideways onto the loveseat, orienting himself to look up at the tiled ceiling. It was no day- or night-time sky, but Ondun just wanted to not look at anything. He wanted to think.

  The Dark Ones are here. They're likely the ones that summoned the Daemon. Alice defeated and neutralized the Daemon, shattering their immediate plans for Xinling City. However, they recognized me well enough to sic some criminals on me. They told them my general fighting style, and...did what?

  The fact that Ondun couldn't connect that thought to anything was vaguely worrying. He got up and paced a bit, focusing on just moving his body. The tenth lap around the room was when it hit him...

  Ohhh no. Those two were disposable all along. The plan wasn't strictly about defeating me or capturing Strudel...it was to tie me up for any amount of time!

  Ondun immediately fished out his smartphone, and tried to pull up the news site Sylphie had shown him during a training session. It took three tries to find the correct one, but when he did, a picture of a graveyard and a shambling, corpselike figure told him the headline before he deciphered the world's odd writing...

  Undead abominations sighted around Cheng! The City Leader and her coaches are engaging these unusual enemies now. Cheng is under lockdown until further notice.