Springcw gorils were weak, as gold-rank monsters went, but they were smart and spawned in rge herds. When one such herd had hidden away in the mountains, the first group of adventurers sent after them had not done well. After a week of fending off gueril tactics from the gorils, they had only a handful of kills and a lot of frustration.

  Resupplying in a rge town at the base of the mountain rahe adventurers entered Jason and his team doing the same. Humphrey offered to take the tract off their hands, without taking the tract rewards. The adventurers were suspicious until they discovered they were dealing with Team Biscuit, looking to rebuild their tactical pybook after ranking up to gold.

  The team had spent limited time together over the st few years as they followed their individual pathways to gold rank. They o revise the strategies they had developed and honed over more than a decade, along with reiing Jason into the team dynamic. They had been w on it during their travels, but Humphrey was satisfied with nothihan perfe. And once perfe was reached, they could train even harder to maintain it.

  Each team member had their owricks, with even basic abilities growing ostentatiously powerful at gold rank. Humphrey’s Mighty Strength power, arguably the most on power in the adventuring world, could now expand his size. The mana cost became more exorbitant the rger he grew, but it allowed him to physically front the often-enormous gold-rank monsters.

  Sophie’s speed left even a fully buffed Jason in the dust, and her aura let her walk through a town, healing the sick like a saintess. Neil’s summon was a trump card against hostile magic, drawing it in like a bck hole before transf into something that tered all it had absorbed. Belinda was the right ao every question, whether it was trolling enemies, emp allies or using items to transform into a warrior or powerful magi.

  Clive remained both the weakest individual batant, and most powerful damage dealer. Zara could match him over wide area, and Jason could over time, but when it came t ohing now, her came close. His previous spikes of destructive output now came much clether, with catastrophic sedary effects.

  Clive also had several powerful buffs that enhanced Humphrey and Sophie especially. One delivered powerful retribution effects to anyone who attacked them, while the other surrouhem with able runes whose effects were varied and random, but alotent. Neil’s means to enhahe team had likewise reached a new level.

  Zara’s power progression was somewhat unusual in that her prew smaller, rather than bigger. Her area attacks had always been fitting for her former title of Hurrie Princess, being as powerful as they were imprecise. She notions that would trate the power of a storm to the size of a fist, tearing through enemies like a saw through custard.

  Humphrey’s role in most of their tactics was to be the buff-derepiece of the team. This usually left him as some bination of initiator, primary on, distra and bait. Clive and Neil used Onslow’s shell as a secure battle ptform while the rest of the team were mobile and flexible, in accordah the team’s needs and current strategy.

  The springcw gorils were ing oppos, not just p out of their hidden mountain ir in a wave. They went for mert caravans and brief hit-areat raids, scouting out targets and drawing off defenders with feint attacks. They demonstrated a clear reition of the threat posed by adventurers, even before entering them. This was a hallmark of intelligent monsters who came into being with knowledge already imprinted on their minds.

  Rather than charge into the mountains like the st team of adventurers, Humphrey decided to make use of Belinda. She had several abilities that let her use specialised item sets to awaken temporary powers, usually taking on warrior or spellcaster roles. Her Instant Adept power could make her a swift striker or powerful archer, but also take on utility powers as well. With equipment suited to a wilderness scout, she awakened a suite of useful trag abilities.

  Humphrey didn’t allow the team to make use of their various flight options, both for the training value and to escape easy dete. The gorils would spot them easily if they flew around, and were stealthy enough to avoid distant observers. Like many ambush predators and high-intellect monsters, they could suppress their auras until even Jason would have trouble sensing them.

  The previous team had taken a flight-and-s approach to poor effect. Most of the time they had found nothing, only to be ambushed oing pt. This was the source of their few kills, but they hadn’t e close to finding the main ir.

  The team ehe mountains on foot, relying on Belinda’s temporary powers. The terrain was inhospitable, with dense forest growth and steep ines. The sharp cliffs and hidden crevasses made the terrain dangerous, not from a potential fall but from the stant threat of ambush. Springcw gorils also came in less aggressive natural variants, rather than monsters, and such terrain was home territory for them.

  Humphrey had his team make their way on foot. Navigating forests and sg cliffs was well within the capability of their gold-rank attributes, but they he skill and experieo make use of them.

  “Jason,” Humphrey said, his voice a warning.

  “Yes?” Jason asked ily.

  “Your climbing skills seemed to have improved siderably, all of a sudden.”

  “That’s because of your excellent leadership.”

  “So, you didn’t shadow jump to that st city and buy a climbing skill book?”

  “Absolutely not. You just lost trae because of my i stealth.”

  “You realise that you’ve given the whole party access to the tactical map, right? The oh our locations on it?”

  “I, uh, did fet about that, yes.”

  ***

  The mountain pass was beautiful and green in the summer, spanning out ahead of Jason and his team. The ground was a mess of thick scrub and rocks dotting the ndscape. A narrow river spilled down in their dire, with a disused and rown road running alongside it.

  “You said these things are smart, right?” Jason asked.

  “I did,” Clive said.

  “Are we talking ‘dog that knows how to opehroom door’ smart et a bunch of ghillie suits and bait us into a trap’ smart?”

  “That depends,” Clive said. “What’s a ghillie suit?”

  “A non-magical disguise. The kind you wear when yearing up to kill some folk.”

  “Defihat one,” Clive said. “You think they’re out there?”

  “They’re out there,” Belinda said. “This is home territory for them. They’ll have realised that we’re trag them by now, and I think the st team showed them that small ambushes won’t stop adventurers. They need an enviro where they still have a ce of getting the drop on us, but will let them bring their o bear.”

  “With us just standialking,” Neil said, “they probably know we know they’re there.”

  “And that we know they know we know they know,” Belinda added.

  “Don’t start,” Humphrey said. “What do you think, a double s?”

  “They probably won’t bite unless we wander in looking oblivious,” Sophie said.

  “Then that’s what we do,” Humphrey said. “Lindy, do you want to go bae or be in the mix?”

  “Bae,” she said. “I’ll help Zara and Clive b bomb the zone.”

  “Zara, cover the others as they withdraw when it kicks off.”

  “On it,” she firmed.

  “Jason, I want you trimming the edges. They’re smart, so there’ll be runners ohings go badly for them. Mop up most of them, but put a tracker on a couple ahem run. We trace them back to their ir.”

  “Will do.”

  “You realise they might not eve there,” Neil said. “Unless someone is sensing something I’m not.”

  “You’re sensing it,” Jason told him. “You’re just not paying attention.”

  “To what?” Neil asked.

  “You’re fog on the gorils,” Jason said. “Look for the auras of everything else. The animals out there that haven’t run already are skittish and hiding.”

  “And stop suppressing your sense of smell,” Belinda added. “Your mundane senses are incredibly sharp at gold rank.”

  “Oh, I’m well aware of that,” Neil said. “I took one sniff of a city and choked off my sense of smell almost entirely. I would have shut it off entirely, if that didn’t make food taste bnd.”

  “Your priorities might be a little off kilter,” Zara suggested.

  “No, I’m happy with where they’re at,” old her.

  “Enough chatter,” Humphrey said. “Stash, you ready?”

  The hill mouse in Humphrey’s pocket made an adorable ‘chu’ sound.

  “Alright,” Humphrey said. “Move forward, and try to look oblivious.”

  “But they definitely know we know,” Neil said as the group moved forward. “Why the pretence?”

  “It’s ‘know we know they know’ chi,” Jason said. “Whoever pretends to be surprised best wins.”

  “I’m pretty sure whoever kills everyone oher team wins,” Sophie said.

  “And I’m pretty sure I said enough chatter,” Humphrey remihem.

  “You always do,” Sophie told him. “It’s adorable that you still try.”

  ***

  The gorils waited until the team had well and truly walked into the middle of them before they triggered the ambush. Jason was impressed to see they actually were wearing something like ghillie suits, the monsters seeming to erupt from the ndscape. They leapt at the party wh into a.

  Jason and Sophie both vanished, Sophie in a blur and Jason into the shadow of a rock. Stash leapt from Humphrey’s clothes, transf into some creature Jason didn’t reise. It was somethiween a bird and a lizard, or perhaps one and a half of a bird and lizard. It had three heads, three wings and three arms that dangled down from a tral body. Existing in fgrant disregard of both aerodynamid biology, it looks like it should get tangled in itself, fall to the ground ao be put out of its misery. Instead, it flitted like a hummingbird, snatg up Neil, Clive and Belinda before taking to the sky. Zara shot up o Stash’s monster form on a bst of wind.

  Humphrey was left behind, being the st target standing for the leaping monsters. Springcw gorils were mile than their Earth terparts, as appropriate for their rank. They were named for their signature leap attacks and the sharp cws delivering anticoagunt venom. Their favourite tactic was to deliver rapid strikes and then back off, letting their enemies bleed to death.

  The gorils had learhat their preferred tactic oor one against adventurers. The presence of healers and potions made ting on bleed afflis an unreliable strategy, but they were smart enough to devise a ter. Much of the group turned from Humphrey as the easy target and focused ohdrawing baers. They didn’t know whie was the healer, but quickly guessed it was one of those trying to escape.

  Using their powerful leaps, they unched into the air at Stash. What they met was a desding wall of wind and water, dropping on them like a crete sb. It smashed them back down, right on top of Humphrey and the gorils he was fighting. At the st moment, Humphrey teleported away, leaving the moo crash into one another.

  What was left was a mess of fused gorils, bodies tumbling and limbs tangling together as Zara’s water bomb washed over them. The ambush had gone very wrong very quickly, with almost a hundred monsters scattered and disoriehey recovered quickly, however, getting up and looking around for their targets. A handful of gorils started grunting out orders.

  The moment the monsters showed signs anising, Sophie reappeared. Dashing through the monsters, she left behind afterimages, seemingly in four pces at ohe gorils resumed their leap attacks at the afterimages, all of which imploded. They turned into points of dimensional su force, the aggressive jumps from the gorils again turning into helpless tumbling.

  The areas around the imploded afterimages were covered with disorienting illusions, triggeriigo in the monsters as they attempted to recover. Wind bdes shot out from the su points still yanking gorils off their feet.

  While this was going on, Clive had called out Onslow, the flying ruortoise expanding his shell to let Clive, Belinda and Neil inside.

  “Sed scoop,” Humphrey said through voice chat. Belinda, peering out from the edge of the shell, looked to the ground below. The four su points formed a square, and she jured a force tether right in the middle. A crystal rod rose from the ground and a force beam shot out, eg with every goril in the area.

  The way Belinda’s Force Tether power worked was t every tethered creature towards it. It inflicted little damage to those that allowed themselves to be dragged, inflig esg damage to those that resisted. In this instahe su points from Sophie’s mirage power did the resisting for them, yanking the gorils away from the tether rod. The gorils were physically powerful enough to resist both effects, but the disorienting illusion from Sophie’s power made it hard to get their feet uhem.

  Slowly but surely, Belinda’s force tether won out as Sophie’s power faded. The gorils were yanked into a pile as the screech of a desding missile filled the air. Humphrey nded right on top of the force tether, destroying it immediately. This triggered the detonation effect of the tether on top of the explosion of Humphrey’s Dive Bomb power. Neil’s Burst Shield power snapped into pce right before Humphrey nded, abs the damage from the tether bst on Humphrey aonating itself, inflig a third bst on the beleaguered monsters.

  After the execution of the double s, the monsters were scattered, hurt and fused. They scrambled to even uand what was happening, let alone mount a terattack. Clive and Zara started bing the area with destructive magic, Belinda alternately redug their cooldowns and copying their powers. The gorils that had been furthest from the tre saw the battle was lost and moved to escape rather than join their fellows. They bolted for the surrounding forests and cliffs, their loping runs punctuated by huge leaps.

  As they fled, shadowy arms jutted from the shadows of the rodscape, stabbing at them with red and bck daggers. The damage seemed negligible, so they ighe minor wounds and tiheir flight. Jason, unnoticed as his cloak pulled shadows around him, softly inted his Castigate spell. The Mark of Sin it inflicted would let him track them, should any of them survive the other afflis his shadow arms had delivered.

  ***

  Jason and Humphrey ed up the handful of mohat survived Zara and Clive’s indiscrimiing. Without any kind of healing, the mohat fled fell to Jason’s afflis. He could sehe ones he had marked verging on what resumably their ir. After looting the dead monsters, the team tracked them down, mopping up what was left of the herd. Only a handful of monsters had beeo guard the cave system they had made a home of, against other monsters and magical beasts.

  “That was ,” Humphrey said iermath. “I think we’re starting to get our cohesion back. Let’s not get pt, though.”

  Jason spped Neil panionably on the back.

  “Mate, I saw the timing of that shield you dropped on Humpy. That was immacute.”

  Neil gave Jason a suspicious look, waiting for a backbiting ent that never came. Jason had moved on, slinging an arm around Clive’s shoulder.

  The team looted the monsters and recovered what they could of what the gorils had taken from raiding towns and caravans. They then portalled back to the towhey’d left the cloud ship. The adventurers whose job they’d taken over said they would go check the battle site before rep the trapleted. Humphrey gave them dires ahem to it. Jason and his paniouro the cloud ship and moved on.