An immense amount of pressure came down on me. I was a tube of toothpaste with the cap still on and the creature stepping on me was a hammer. I felt my insides press up against my ribs and try to crawl up my throat to escape out of my mouth.

  The magic that bound me was destroyed as the ground I occupied sunk into the earth. My arms had been pinned to the side and I felt like I was in a documentary of a fatal caving disaster. All I could do to survive was maximize my defensive stats and wait.

  Eventually, they had to check whether or not I had survived.

  It was only around thirty seconds even though it felt more like one hundred and twenty seven hours. The ground around me rumbled and the immense foot was lifted off of my torso, allowing for light to pour into my eyes.

  I quickly sprang into action, hopping to my feet and jumping upwards into the moving foot with all of my might. My fists smashed into the bottom of the lifted foot and my wings flapped heavily to gain more altitude. I heard a deep yelp of surprise as the t-rex’s one ankle was made to balance the oversized creature; a task that it was not designed for.

  The creature began to topple over, but before it could hit the ground, it began transforming into something else. The mass shrank considerably and a pair of feathered wings sprouted out of its back.

  I descended down upon it, its speed incomparable to my own. Seeing that it could not escape, it tried to turn into something sturdier. The wings disappeared and a pair of horns sprouted from its head as it transformed into an ox.

  With a heavy punch, I met the creature in the sky, sending it tumbling down into the ground. An explosion of dirt erupted from the crash landing, obstructing vision of the aftermath.

  Not wanting to be the type of villain that leaves unnecessary loose ends, I moved towards the impact site to finish off the job. The ox was still alive, somehow, and was struggling to get back on its feet. It saw me and bellowed in panic, trying to scrabble away from my on its weak legs. But, it would not be able to get very far.

  “T-Tauren! A-Azeban! Help!” The ox called out to its friends.

  I felt a rumble as the minotaur had started charging in our direction. I turned my eyes for a second to see the plume of smoke thundering my way and when I looked back, the ox was gone. In its place stood a large log. I mentally reordered my target list.

  I flew high into the air and the minotaur leapt up to follow me. A geyser of magma propelled him far higher than his muscles could ever push that weighty frame of his. A grin crossed my face and the unstoppable terrestrial beast went skywards. I spun my body around and axe-kicked down with my foot hard on the minotaur’s head. Though he was extremely sturdy, he could not use the ground to amplify his power. Instead, he was sent to the ground like a dropped cannonball.

  I knew that a fall would not be fatal but, unlike the shape-changer, I was not yet interested in dealing the final blow. I had to follow my new order of targets.

  Trees, the annoyance was hiding in the trees. I switched my stats to a magic focus and activated my [Burning Rain]. A deluge of molten tar descended upon the nearby forests. What wasn’t immediately destroyed by the fires would be dismantled by my blows or melted with my [Draconic Breath].

  I saw a small figure hopping through the trees. More accurately, it appeared like it leapt from one tree to teleport into the next one. Soon, the raccoon would run out of places to hide and I’d get to see how strong they were.

  But, before that, I heard a groaned noise. I whipped my over to see where the snake woman was trying to recover from the devastating wound I put into her chest. A pile of empty potions surrounded her as the hole grew smaller and smaller. But, my burning rain was hampering her efforts. She was scrambling to find shelter from the pain, just long enough to fix her more perilous injury.

  Alone. Abandoned. Perfect.

  She saw me barreling towards her, an ever-growing black figure. Mana shimmered on her tongue as the sickly mind control words left her mouth.

  “Look-“

  My feet stomped on her torso, turning her upper-half into something with the consistency of canned tomatoes. I lifted her by the tail and took a large lover’s bite out of the flesh as a little stat gain souvenir for the feelings I temporarily had.

  I pulled my mouth away from the tail. A wooden spike shot through the air where my head used to be. A small grin crossed my lips.

  “There you are.”

  In a blink of an eye, I crossed the distance towards the originator of the spike. Punching the trunk with full force.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Stay away, you’re uglier from up close,” a masculine voice quipped. “Who knew there were cannibals in this day in age? I thought we were better than this.”

  A shape escaped from the trunk and disappeared again. I sent a spray of acid in almost all directions as fire continued to rage all around me.

  I purposefully funneled the damage towards one small part of the grove. Soon, he would have to jump again.

  A spike flung from the surviving patch of trees confirmed my hopes. I moved the damage in the direction of the spike.

  I saw the shadow leap and this time, I wouldn’t let it move again. I gripped the raccoon’s neck in my hands. I saw an item in his hand that he seemed hell bent on pressing. I squeezed the raccoon’s neck with full pressure. The demon’s neck snapped and his head nearly popped off.

  It managed to activate the item. His crushed body dematerialized out of my hands. But the XP that entered my profile told me that he was dead. It was just a shame I couldn’t get the body.

  I heard the rumble again. The minotaur had finally got out of its daze to track me down. Without even considering what had happened the previous time, he exploded off of the ground with a plume of flames that only added to the existing destruction.

  This time, he did not have his axe and instead swung with all the chains that hung from his limbs. The gold-plated whips smashed against my arms and wrapped around my limb. I pulled him towards me and punched him with my full might.

  I could tell that the damage was starting to take its toll. This time, the minotaur seemed a bit more dazed. He faded in and out of consciousness, anchored in the sky by my straining wings. But, he was smiling quite cockily.

  I smashed him in the face again. And, as my fist made a satisfying connection, I felt something cleave into my back and detach a wing. I saw the missing axe falling to the ground with one of my wings in tow. Soon, I dropped with it. The shape-changer, currently in the shape of a large bird, had flown overhead to deliver a gift from the minotaur. It dive-bombed below us and started to bulge out into its massive form.

  A t-rex tail smashed into the both of us and sent us into the ground at high speeds. I bounced off the ground like a rock skipped across a lake and shifted onto my feet. The minotaur also rotated his body to bounce quickly back to his feet. We exchanged bone rattling punches that threw us off balance.

  The t-rex charged into the battlefield and slammed into me. The chains unspooled from my forearm and I gripped onto them to ensure that the minotaur would join me on my trip. The mass of the demon immediately stopped my progress and sent him into the air.

  The chains warmed up. It kept rising from hot to uncomfortable to nearly unbearable. My hands sizzled as I yanked the chain in my direction.

  Fist met fist in a competition of strength. This time, my planted stance won the battle and I heard the minotaur’s elbow pop. He grunted in pain but shoulder-checked me with a good deal of grit.

  I threw a counterpunch when the massive form of the t-rex rejoined the battle. Teeth sunk into my left shoulder and arrested my arm. The minotaur, recovering from the pain, resummoned his axe and swung it horizontally at my neck.

  “You want my arm so bad? Take it!”

  I ripped my torso away from the dinosaur’s mouth, allowing it to swallow my prize. At the same time, I rolled backwards from the axe strike. I activated my [Regeneration] and my arm quickly grew back good as new.

  The minotaur and the t-rex charged me in tandem. I jumped out of the way of the t-rex’s stomp and kicked at the minotaur’s axe.

  They moved back into coordination, but a stream of blood left the t-rex’s mouth. It started gagging, trying to vomit up the arm that was burning it from the inside out. The minotaur’s eyes drifted over to its companion to see what was wrong.

  I pounced on the opening. With all of my remaining power, I focused exclusively on finishing off the minotaur. There was no raccoon to swap it from danger, no snake to cast a spell on me, and no shape-changer to interfere. Just a full pound for pound showdown. Something that I had yet to lose.

  I threw a punch directly at his face and allowed a crushing blow to meet me in response. Before he could start a new swing, two more punches rocked his face and torso.

  He swung again, but far slower. The damage had finally accumulated to the point that he was fighting purely on instinct. His face was swelling up and his eyes were forcibly closing from the damage.

  I unleashed a relentless volley of punches. Dozens of heavy blasts within a few seconds. A sledgehammer was relentlessly smashed into his joints. His skin tore from the sharp scales repeatedly slamming into it.

  Finally, one of the punches in that volley ended him. His knees buckled from under him and he collapsed onto the ground in a bloody mess.

  “You were better than expected,” I complimented the corpse.

  Now all that was left was the shape-changer.

  It was now only a tiny thing, the mana used to maintain more threatening forms burned through with the immense form of the t-rex. It couldn’t move fast enough to get away from me and just stood there frozen, awaiting the blow that would end its life.

  I guess that I’d do that even though it’d feel like crushing a puppy’s skull. I clenched my fist and walked towards the pitiful thing.

  “Hold on, Ishmael. I want to handle this one.”

  Charles had descended from his comfortable position to interrupt the battle now that the difficult part was completed. The dust in the air refused to cling to his fur and immaculate suit. A thin barrier of mana repelled all grime from his body.

  “And why is that?”

  “I’m intrigued by the potential that a shapeshifter has,” Charles explained, dollar signs practically illuminating his eyes with a green glow. “It would be a very useful skill for an agent to have, don’t you think?”

  I looked at the demon and tilted my head. They seemed capable enough, but that was before its friends died. Now it was just a whimpering thing, without confidence or a drive of its own. But, if there was anyone that could motivate such a creature, it was Charles.

  “I’ve only seen it turn into animals.”

  “There’s a lot I can do with that.”

  “Have it your way,” I said with a shrug, finding no real interest in finishing off this sniveling, childish demon. “Just make sure that you’ve disposed of all the bodies. I want to know where that raccoon escaped to.”

  “You make me sound like a janitor.”

  “That is just one of your many jobs and your many talents, Charles. You make this operation go so much more smoothly.”

  “Then give me more XP,” he replied with a chuckle.