"I met your brother." A voice spoke out.

  "He is not my brother," the voice hissed in return.

  "You two are quite different," the first voice continued, "he's charming, smart, and powerful." The other being raced across the room and grabbed the speaking being by the throat.

  "Compare us one more time, and I will end your life right here right now," the man said, choking the other being to death.

  "Put him down, sweetheart," a calm female voice spoke,

  "We can't keep having you kill every servant now, can we? Timo, you should consider yourself lucky I was around. You are here to report something." Walking into the room was a tall, brown-haired woman. She was dressed in a fitting skirt and blouse with a sports coat over it. The skirt was black, and the blouse was pink, with a gray sports coat. She wore glasses, always to help her see. She was carrying a briefcase and walked with the most confidence. This woman knew she was beautiful, was important, and she knew she was brilliant.

  "Keep your pets in order, Lady Benture," he said, adjusting his collar. "If he lays hands on me again, I will end his life."

  "Is that a promise," the beast responded, eyes glowing with excitement at the prospect.

  "Carter, that is enough." Lady Benture spoke harshly. "Timo, what do you want? You are reaching the end of my forbearance."

  "The recruit out of Andohull who quit the assessment has accepted the badge. He has not come to the federation to receive his ID stone. Without that, we will not be able to track him or his progress."

  "I see. Worry not; we can track him through his party stone. This is the draconian, correct?"

  "Yes M'lady"

  "Very good, you're dismissed, Timo. I will see you at the next international executives meeting. Farewell." She said as she watched the strange stubby man walk out the front door. "What an idiot," she sighed to herself. She didn't like Timo. He was an idiot trying to be a genius. She turned to the man next to her. He was much taller than she was, maybe a foot. He looked like a mutant hybrid between a gargoyle and a human. But in truth, he was just a Summoner Warlock. He had stone-gray skin. His body was thick and muscular. His face was that of a human: human nose, eyes (although they were solid stone gray), ears, eyebrows, and a mouth layered with sharp teeth.

  He had two large bat-like wings that spanned 8 feet in length. His soul-link gargoyle gives him the wings. When inside Carter's soul, he carries around a magically infused crossbow that fires magic stone bolts. The bolts would explode on impact. Carter was large and mean.

  "So," she said to the gargoyle man, "your brother is a draconian."

  "As I told the rat," Carter growled. "Oscar-Blane is not my brother, never was, never will be."

  "Very well, if you insist. We have to prepare for my campaign to be elected into the federation in Easadori. We cannot concern ourselves with him. He is heading to the Souadori continent for a quest."

  "How do you plan to win votes in Easadori, Nicole?"

  "Same way I always do, by promising to kill/capture all the dragons." She said with a smirk before jumping up to kiss her husband on the cheek. Then she walked out of the room. Leaving Carter to his thoughts, how is he here? I cannot believe he somehow followed me and IS STILL better than me! Filling with rage, he slammed a fist down on the table, completely splitting it in two. I will do what I should have done in the first place, Oscar-Blane Jones.

  "Help, please," Abigail said as she dodged a trident. "Tridents, where the hell did they get Tridents? OB, where the hell are you!?"

  "I'm almost there, sheesh," OB said to Abigail.

  "Cut the sass; you should have been here by now. The town is overrun by drowned." Drowned were these creatures from the depths of the ocean. They looked like waterlogged zombies, bloated and smelly. They would attack in swarms, and some more capable wielded tridents.

  "I'm almost there!" OB repeated, "We had a crucial stop to make." OB was on his way to the battlefield where his party had been, scouting the small abandoned village. Only to be distracted by a wild Pegasus. A creature of myth and magic, OB just had to get up close to one. He wasn't sure if pictures existed in this world, but he wished they were at that moment. After spending far too many minutes staring at the beasts, he departed to join the fight.

  OB knew he was approaching the battlefield because it smelt like dead fish and rotting flesh. "Absolutely no fire attacks, Eclipse," OB said, choking back puke from the smell.

  "Agreed," Eclipse responded. As the trio of a dragon, a draconian, and a griffin landed, they joined the battle. OB jumped off the back of Zephyrus, his griffin companion, wielding Hades, his scythe. Once he landed, he began sending out light bolts towards the drowned.

  Each slash produced a steady slash of light that would strike enemies and create a small burst. It would cut the enemies in half, and the burst would blow a couple into bits if they were grouped together. OB wanted to use his dragon's breath spell but was afraid of the smell and knocking the team out. This might be the perfect time to try this. OB concentrated on his aura and the aura of his weapon. He could start to feel the aura enter the staff of the scythe.

  Focusing his aura on the scythe, he performed an acrobatic twist and slashed the blades of the scythe toward a large horde of enemies, at least 20 of them. The blades released an orange, red, and black wave of energy towards the group. As soon as the wave made contact with the first drowned, it disintegrated. Just like that, poof into nothing. The wave kept moving; one became three, three became nine, and soon, the entire swarm was nothing. Some of them were brandishing weapons, those clattered on the ground. OB stared at his weapon and hands in disbelief. He could not believe that he just did that. It took a heavy amount of his integrity and manna to use.

  "Damn, love, that was impressive," Maeva said from behind him. She slapped his butt, "showed up just in time, yeah? Go help our leader, she's surrounded. Thanks for clearing this lot, though."

  Abigail hated being dirty. Yet there she was, fighting another monster, getting dirty again. She tried her toxic curse spell, but these monsters seemed immune. She had no other attacking spells, which left her no choice but to use her sword. Fortunately, her sword cut through the enemies like butter. Unfortunately for her, their blood was potent, and her sword was not that long. Slashing, chopping, and stabbing, she mowed enemies down one by one. She was getting tired; she was used to being protected and only using her manna.

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  Help had arrived. OB began releasing light bolts once again. OB became a blur, jumping in and out of shadows and slicing enemies two or three at a time with his long weapon. Abigail looked in the air to see the young solar dragon release light energy toward a horde of enemies, causing them to fall over and die. That's a terrifying sight to see. Thank the gods, she is on our side. She thought.

  Abigail continued to scan the battlefield. She saw Zephyrus, the large griffin, tear through enemies with icy claws and jaws. His attacks were measured and decisive. With every slash, the enemy would fall, and even his wings would tear down some enemies. Abigail watched as two of the drowned jumped on Zephyrus' back, and he took off into the air. Once he reached a certain height, maybe 200-300 feet, he did a dive bomb, twirling while falling, sending the two drowned smashing into a wall. He landed gracefully on his paws. She watched as he roared a loud roar. The roar was invigorating and a battle cry to help his party succeed. It was willing them forward, pushing them to win this fight. It provided them with slight boosts to their stats as well.

  Next, she saw Vincent, her love, firing arrows with precision. Vincent was incredible to watch. His magical bow, which was given to him by his ancestors, was terrific to see. It didn't fire arrows that were handcrafted. It fired bolts of energy that matched Vincent's aura. His manna would surge through his fingertips to form the arrow as he pulled back the manna-created drawstring. Arrow after arrow, Vincent fired. Heads, eyes, and necks are all impacted dead on by the hunter. He didn't miss. Vincent chanted a spell, "The arrows fly hard, fly fast." He turned towards the swarm of drowned and fired. One arrow turned to two, then to four, then 8. Every inch, it would double. The enemies were at least 100 feet away. Thousands of arrows landed on the drowned, Slaughtering hundreds on the spot. "We have to find the necromancer," Vincent said, panting. "We are running out of time, manna, everything."

  "I don't think they are controlled by a necromancer," Ob replied, "look at their patterns, their movements; if we isolate one or two, they stop moving." Ob was right; Vincent paused from the action and looked at the drowned. A pack near Maeva was separated from the group by several hundred feet. Their movements were more jerky and uncontrolled. The ones closer to the coastal line had smoother, more controlled movements. There, Vincent thought, "Something is controlling them under the water at the coastal line." Vincent told the team, "Maeva, can you go scout?"

  "On it, love," Maeva responded while moving towards the corpse. Jumping, ducking, hurdling, Maeva made her way in and out of hordes of enemies in a blur. She was faster and more agile than the drowned. As she approached the sandy shoreline, she jumped out of the way. To her left, a trident two times her size landed on the ground. Had she not moved, that would have crushed her to death. "Oi, there, watch where you're throwing that thing." She said out loud to the giant monster rising from the water.

  The beast from the water looked like an octopus that ate a library. It had eyes lining its head, starting with two large eyes, the size of a bus tire; they began to shrink by 50% as it moved further back its head. From the angle that Maeva could see, the creature had no mouth. She then assumed the mouth was at the bottom, hearing stories about this creature. Bloody hell, she thought to herself, A dark Kraken; why did it have to be a dark Kraken? "Ob, mind coming down to the shore to fight this dark beasty with me?" Ob responded with a quick yep and headed towards the shore.

  "Who's your friend?" Ob asked Maeva as he approached the shoreline.

  "Mmm, I didn't ask his name; how rude of me?" Maeva responded sarcastically.

  "Yeah, where are your manners? Looks like a good guy to hang with," Ob said back with a chuckle. "Any ideas how to take this sucker out?"

  "No clue," she said, "you're the slayer; what does VON say or your instincts?"

  "VON, huh? I guess I have never tried with monsters," Ob said, scratching his head.

  "Ob, you have all these great powers, yeah? You've been here for half a year at this point, and we've been doing this quest for nearly four months. What do you mean you never tried to identify a monster? How have you killed so many already?" Maeva asked in disbelief.

  "I just attacked them," that time, Ob said, embarrassed, "Hmm, let's see." Ob began staring at this massive monster in front of them. He noticed a tiny little purple "i" flash and appeared right next to the dark Kraken. He mentally commanded that to open.

  Monster: Dark Kraken

  Level 150

  Weakness: Attacking the eyes of the Kraken weakens it; Light Magic, kill all of its minions, the drowned.

  "Y'all catch that?" Ob asked the group, and the group all confirmed what they heard. "Bet, Vincent, how much manna do you have?"

  "I have enough to take out a decent amount of its eyes. But, I'd need to be closer, and right now, I'm helping Abigail," Vincent responded.

  "Let's swap Vincent," Maeva said, "I'm no good here with Ob." Maeva sprinted towards the couple as they prepared for a protector swap. It was needed to keep their healer safe. Vincent was next to Ob in a few moments, preparing for the next strategy.

  "What's the plan, OB?" Vincent asked.

  "You take the left, and I'll take the right. Don't die." Ob said with a grin on his face. He loved this. He loved the big boss fights; this mini-expedition was terrific. It was the perfect time to develop deep relationships with his party and allow individual growth. As Ob stared at the Kraken lurking in the shallow water, he conjured his scythe and tightened his grip. With a surge of manna, the feeling of a spark ignited in his belly and made its way towards the staff of Hades. "Eclipse, on me. Zephyrus with Vincent. Eclipse swooped down, getting in a position where Ob could hop on.

  The pair flew over towards the Kraken. As they approached the eyes, Eclipse let out a breath of light energy on the head of the beast. Ob jumped off and landed on the head as she was doing that. Channeling his manna into Hades, he swung down on the creature's first eye. It screamed, and blood started pouring out of its eye. Ob didn't stop there, and he released the light bolt into the eye without lifting Hades out of the eye socket. He just ran. He ran to go towards the next eye. Dragging, ripping, and tearing apart the skull, muscles, and flesh, it was all ripped in two. The sound the dark Kraken made caused the battlefield to go still. It got torn, bit by bit, until he had reached the next eye and kept ripping.

  The noise the Kraken released was one of nightmares; shrieks of pain pierced the ears of the party. Maeva and Abigail looked up from their battle to see what caused such a horrific noise. As they looked up, so did the drowned. They left the two woman alone and started to head towards their master. "Be alert," Abigail warned, "you have company on its way."

  "Great, Zephyrus. Do you mind taking care of those?" Ob said with an exhausted breath. Pulling Hades through the Kraken took significant energy; he could feel his stamina running low. After looking at the damage, three eyes entirely gouged out and a giant slash exposing muscles, Ob began to use the finishing blow. Channeling the rest of his manna into the staff of Hades, he felt the lightbulb's warmth turn into the sun's heat. He pushed that into the staff up through the blade. His weapon provided a bonus when attacking enemies of darkness; the power of this move was devastating.

  With a final slash, a wave of white-yellow energy rushed out of the blades of Hades. It flew towards the gash on the Kraken. As it impacted, the wave exploded. Creating a small crater on the side of the beast's head. The dark Kraken, now dead, began sinking back into the water before exploding into black smoke. Ob, who put everything he had into that attack, was blacked out, free-falling from the point he was standing on the Kraken towards the water. Right before he impacted the water, Eclipse snatched him in her claws and flew him to land. She put him down gently.

  Also, on the Kraken, Vincent had landed gracefully in the water and walked up to the group, "Well," he began saying, "that was cool. That was some attack Ob just did, huh?" He stopped right in front of Ob and watched the rest of the drowned dissolve into ashes and then disappear. Vincent had estimated to be close to a thousand little monsters. He was excited that they were done with that task. This wasn't even a part of their quest; they were ambushed.

  Maeva and Abigail walked up to the Ob, who was on the floor and passed out, and Vincent sat next to the two companions. "Did Ob pass out again?" Maeva asked Vincent. He nodded, "He's gotta stop doing that, yeah? He's gonna get real hurt one time."

  "I agree," Abigail said, "let's find shelter and call it a night so we can rest. We all need it. That was a hard-fought battle. Good job, everyone."