Chapter Three: A Killing from Mushrooms

"This is such bullshit. We-"

Whatever else Shadow Stalker planned to say was interrupted by a huge yawn. It was almost funny. Her head tilted back, letting her hood slip a bit lower on her face, but her mask's expression never changed. It remained almost blank, a bit stern.

"What's bullshit?" I asked her once she'd finished.

"You serious? This!" She spread her arms, indicating the terrain all around us.

I looked around, taking in the rolling hills and scattered trees. The sun was just rising, leaving the spaces beneath the branches dark, but casting a rich light on the waving fields of grass. It smelled like morning dew, fresh, with a slight hint of monster dung.

Of course, even if it was dawn here, it was almost noon back in Philadelphia. Shadow Stalker, it seemed, wasn't a morning person.

"Nice place," I said. A few hundred feet away, a herd of aptonoth lumbered out of the forest, making their way to a river or lake I could barely make out in the distance. Probably the source of the less pleasant smells. "Apart from the monsters."

"That's not what I meant, and you know it," she growled, her hand dipping toward her belt.

I debated playing dumb a bit longer, weighing the disadvantage of being punched or stabbed versus the amusement of getting her angry.

"We're being well-paid, at least," I said, opting for safety.

"Well-paid?" she asked. "Like that makes it alright?"

"Well, you did say you were in it for yourself," I pointed out. "I'd think you'd be happy to get a paycheck for picking mushrooms, rather than having to fight for it."

She shook her head, huffing out an annoyed breath. "It's the principle of the thing," she insisted. "We're Protectorate-"

"Junior Protectorate," I pointed out.

"Whatever," she said, brushing away my correction. "We're supposed to be hunting monsters and taking down threats. But our first mission, given to us by fucking Chevalier himself, is to collect botanical samples."

"If it makes you feel better, I'm pretty sure the mushrooms we're after sell for a lot," I said, stepping around a patch of denser grass. Shadow Stalker simply phased through it, not even breaking stride. "They're apparently pretty serious delicacies."

She dropped her arms to her sides and rolled her head. The universal gesture that mask-wearing capes used when they couldn't roll their eyes. "Just great. We're collecting rich-bitch chow. I sure feel like hero now." She looked toward me. "How do you even know that, by the way?"

"No special reason," I said. "I wandered around a bit, after I got my power. You hear things, some places."

"Very nice," she said, her voice thick with sarcasm. "Very mysterious. You bullshitting me again?"

"Yeah," I said.

"They're not just food," Rifle said, and I turned my head in his direction. We were advancing in a line, spread apart, if not quite the way we'd been instructed. Instead of being carefully spaced out so that only one of us could be threatened at a time, leaving the others free to provide support, Shadow Stalker was walking right beside me, while Rifle was pretty far on the other side, Rune even farther beyond him, as well as trailing behind us.

"Hey!" I called out, raising my hands to mouth. "Keep up!"

"Fuck you!" Rune replied, her voice faint with distance, and maybe a little breathless.

I shrugged, then turned my attention back to Rifle. He was dressed a bit differently here than he had been back in the Protectorate HQ. His fancy goggles were gone, replaced with a more normal pair that didn't sport any electronics, and he held a long gun across his shoulders, both hands resting on it, casual and familiar. He was wearing more practical armor, too, though the bandolier was still there, as well as his various pouches and tactical... things. It was all in browns and greens, though, rather than black.

"They're not just food," he repeated a bit louder, when he saw he had my attention. "They've got some interesting anti-microbial agents with high bio-availability. Small doses can eliminate a lot of different kinds of parasites and bacteria, absorb easily into the bloodstream, and have minimal side-effects. Companies are hoping to replicate the results and find some useful alternatives to current antibiotics. If it pans out, there's billions of dollars to be made."

"Huh, I was not aware," I said. "So why do people eat them, then?"

"Same reason," he said. "Their effects are the same when ingested, though with lower efficacy. It even works when they're cooked. So some rich people like to add them to their meals. Gourmet health food, I guess. It's illegal, though. If you're not using them for research purposes you can only get them off the black market."

"Huh," I repeated. "I wonder how people find this stuff out?"

"I always do my research," he said. "Knowing your target and having a good plan is essential when you're trying to pull off a heist. Same thing for a hunt, I figure. Preparation equals victory."

"Oh, I can tell he's gonna be a barrel of fun," Shadow Stalker whispered, discreetly elbowing me in the side.

"He ain't wrong," I whispered back, then raised my voice again. "I mean more like how people found out about the anti-microbial stuff in the first place. Did someone eat one when they had a cold, or something? Who just chomps down on strange mushrooms?"

Rifle pointedly looked at me, his eyes shifting down to my hand.

"Jerky," I said. "It's jerky. Not mushrooms. Meat's meat."

"You say that now, but nobody's done long-term studies on the consequences of eating food sourced from Pangaea," he said. "And to answer your question, just about everything that can be hauled out of here and studied, has been. From the grass, to the air, to the dirt, water, flowers, nuts and berries, ore, crystals, and every part of the monsters. Everything."

"Sounds like if there was a problem, they'd have noticed years ago," I said.

"They're still researching the mushrooms," he countered.

I shrugged. "Strong point," I said, taking another bite and chewing it slowly.

"Hey!" Rune called out. Rifle turned to her. "We getting close yet?!"

"Shout a little louder!" Shadow Stalker called to her. "I don't think all the monsters heard you the last time!"

"Mind your own business, N-!" Rune shouted, then stopped. I could see her clench her fists for a moment, then shake her head.

Shadow Stalker crossed her arms. I couldn't see her face, but I would have bet she was smirking. Or scowling.

Rifle ignored the interplay, stepping up onto a rock that jutted out of the plains, looking around. He pulled a map out of a pouch at his waist, unfolded it, and traced a path on it with his finger.

"Getting there," he said, loud enough so that we'd all hear him. He put the map away, then gestured to a nearby forest visually identical to all the others we'd passed, though there were some higher hills around it. "The mushrooms are reportedly common in the location designed as Area Eight. If we don't find any there, we'll have to move either north or west, to Area Ten or Area Seven."

"God, who named those?" Shadow Stalker asked.

"Naming conventions here were always tricky," Rifle said, hopping off the rock and starting to walk again. We all moved with him, even Rune, though she looked reluctant. "At first everything was named by the first person to encounter it, be it an area, a plant, or a monster. But that got us things like the conga-la-la, the excite-shroom, and a few other embarrassments. Now there's a standard terminology for everything. It's meant to stop disputes, though it doesn't always work, in a lot of different ways."

Shadow Stalker snorted. "Congalala. Fantastic. Wonder who named that?"

"Isn't that the big pink monkey?" I asked.

Neither of us had raised our voice, but Rifle answered anyway. Enhanced senses, maybe, like mine?

"It is," he said. "The alpha-variant of the common conga. Named by one of our mentor's teammates, actually, almost nine years back, when they were still closing portals as a matter of course."

"Oh god, I should have guessed," Shadow Stalker said with a sigh.

"Who's this?" I asked, glancing between them.

"Wait, you don't even know the people on Chevalier's team?" Shadow Stalker asked. "How?"

"Never cared, I guess," I said. "Chevalier's awesome, of course, don't get me wrong. He's a dragonslayer. A real one."

"Of course that's all you'd care about," she said, rolling her head. "Boys."

I ignored her scorn, taking another bite of my jerky. "You just don't understand," I told her, and she rolled her head again.

"Not that I agree with the last part, but I do share her sentiment," Rifle said. "It's more than a bit irresponsible not to know the capes you might be interacting with."

"Yeah, probably," I said. "I prefer to read up on monsters, though. Not like they deploy multiple teams for anything less than an elder dragon, anyway. Who cares who's who if we're not gonna fight beside them?"

"We might," he said. "If a monster breaks through the defenses around a portal, they call in multiple teams."

"Chevalier rolls with Miss Militia, Armsmaster, and Mouse Protector," Shadow Stalker said. "They're all dragonslayers, if that means anything, though only Chevalier's delivered a killing blow. But they all fought. They were there for the first one, even. One of the only teams where all four members survived."

"Not even the Founders did that," Rifle added. "They lost Hero."

"Huh. Alright, you guys got me there," I said. "That's pretty hardcore."

Rifle nodded, apparently satisfied that he'd made his point. Conversation lapsed after that, and we approached the forest in silence.

I'd seen the forests here before, on the trip from New York, and I hadn't thought much of them at the time. Seeing it up close, though, I had to change my opinion. The trees were huge, their roots and branches tangled with each other. They grew in a valley between the hills, somewhere I assumed the soil was deeper than normal, or where they had more access to water.

Whatever the reason, the place deserved to be called more than just a 'forest'. It was a place that had been growing for who knew how long, without the touch of humans to change or tame it.

"The primordial forest," I said.

"This place has already been designed as the 'Forest and Hills' portal zone," Rifle said.

I clicked my tongue. "That's boring."

"There is a place called the 'Great Forest'," he told me. "By all accounts it deserves the name a lot more than this. It's dangerous, though. They don't let inexperienced teams go there."

"This place does look pretty impressive," Rune said, finally catching up with us. We had, I noticed, all come to a stop close together. Nobody had said anything, but we'd done it all the same.

"I've seen better," Shadow Stalker said. "This place isn't much."

"I'm with Rune," I said. "I mean, I did just try to name it."

"You're both newbies," she said, crossing her arms. "What the hell do you know?"

"Enough with the bickering," Rifle said. "The grasslands here are pretty safe, but the forest is another matter. There's been lots of dangerous monsters spotted here, including an elder dragon."

"Oh ho," I said. "Interesting."

"It was killed four years ago," he informed me. "There's regular culls in the area, due to the value of the local plant life. It should be safe, especially since two certain individuals just took out an alpha monster." He gave me and Shadow Stalker a look. "But-"

"How'd you find out about that?" I asked. "Is there a database of who's killed what?"

"There is," he said, annoyed.

"Some people bet on it, actually," Rune told me, giving me a speculative look. She, at least, hadn't known about the velocidrome.

"They do," Rifle said, raising his voice. He didn't like to be interrupted. I made a note of that. "Anyway, the point is that we aren't expected to encounter anything serious, but that doesn't mean we won't. So everyone stay close. We need to keep each other in sight, and respond quickly if anything happens."

"Yeah, fuck that," Shadow Stalker said, stepping forward. "You guys can stay and jerk each other off if you want, but I want this done quick." She stopped for a moment and turned back to us. "Don't worry about me getting lost. I won't. And you three couldn't hide from me if you wanted to. Later."

With that, she activated her power. The day before, under a bright sky in a green field, she'd been hard to see, hazy. Under the dark canopy of the forest, she disappeared instantly.

Rifle sighed. "Hunter, Rune, either of you want to be an asshole and run off too?"

"A bit," I said. "But I'll stick with you."

"Good enough," he said, and started forward. I followed, and Rune was just a step behind.

I blinked as we passed into the darker space under the canopy, my vision adjusting to compensate, the darkness giving way to something more tolerable. Despite the size of the trees, and the darkness they cast, there was a lot of other plant life. Some familiar bushes, some small-leafed plants I didn't recognize, vines and creepers, and little patches of lichen, all growing in the space between the huge trees' roots. Some patches of grass, too, where more light made it through. There was moss as well, sometimes growing right on the trees themselves. Even a few mushrooms. Nothing like what we were looking for, though.

Still, despite the variety of it all, it was a lot easier to move through than the grasslands we'd just left.

"You've got enhanced sight?" Rifle asked after a few minutes.

"Who, me?" I asked, not looking at him, continuing my scan of the area. "Yeah. Hearing and smell too, plus balance, spacial sense, and some other stuff. Gets a bit complicated. I prefer to just say I've got enhanced senses and leave it at that."

"Good to know," he said, in a tone of voice I recognized. He was filing the information away for the future.

Although, something occurred to me.

"How'd you know?" I asked, pausing in the middle of climbing over an especially large root and shooting him a quick look.

"You're moving too fast to have normal perception," he said. "I've got enhanced sight too, so that's where my mind went. Mine doesn't fully kick in unless I'm using it for long distances, but I get some improvements in most situations."

"Right," I said. "Makes sense."

"Okay, now that-" Rune started, then stopped to suck in a breath. "-you guys are done the dick-measuring contest, would you mind slowing down?"

I looked her over. Not much was visible beneath the peaked hood of her robe, but she was breathing hard, scrambling over the roots that I'd hopped over without a thought. I stood there and let her catch up. She did, sinking to the ground and moving a hand beneath her hood, wiping at her face. Then she reached into the front of her robe, coming out with a bottle and taking a long drink.

"I should just use my power for this," she muttered.

"You know you can't," Rifle said. "Monsters are attracted to disturbances."

"Lick me, asshole," she said, stowing her water bottle, then giving him the finger. "I know it. Just bitching."

"If you two are having trouble, I can go ahead," I said. Rifle was hiding it well, taking quick, shallow breaths through his nose that made almost no noise, but I could tell he wasn't doing much better than Rune. "Maybe circle around. Expand our search area."

"Works for me," Rune said. "We can set up here, maybe. Like a central base or something."

"Enhanced agility?" Rifle asked me. "Stamina, maybe?"

"Yeah and yup," I said. "Among other things. It gets complicated."

He sighed, then shook his head. "No, we should stick together," he said, ignoring his own question and my answer to it. "Move as a group. Whatever their limits, six eyes are better than two."

"Figured you'd say that," Rune muttered.

"Same," I said. "I don't disagree, though."

"Same," Rune admitted, reluctantly forcing herself back to her feet. "Fuck it. Let's go."

The deeper we went into the forest, the bigger the trees got, and the less light there was. Regular plants became less common, replaced with others that I didn't recognize, including a wide variety of mushrooms. Some were the common type, recognizable from Earth Bet. Others were unfamiliar, though still clearly mushrooms. A stalk and a cap. The shapes varied, as did the size, the color, and a million other details, and inspecting them soon became routine.

"Over there," Rifle said eventually, and I perked up for a moment. "A monster. Smaller. A boar, I think."

I looked in the direction he was indicating, squinting against the distance and lack of light. I saw it quickly enough. It did look like a boar, if one that was abnormally bulky, with huge tusks. It was large, five feet at the shoulders and probably four or five hundred pounds. Big in our world, but small for here. I recognized it from my reading. A bullfango.

I'd never considered the name before, but now I had to wonder. Had Mouse Protector named this one too?

"It hasn't seen us," Rifle said. "We'll go around."

"Works for me," I said. For all their size, the bounty would be small, and everything I'd read said their fighting ability was basic. Head down, charge, then turn around and repeat until their opponent was dead or they were. Stubborn, but boring.

After a moment, Rifle picked a new direction and started off, head tracking, scanning for mushrooms and possible threats.

"So," Rune said, coming up beside me as we progressed. "You've got enhanced senses, an enhanced body-" I waggled my eyebrows up and down at her, but she wasn't looking at me - "and I guess some other stuff. How's that work?"

"You know what cluster trigger is?" I asked her.

"Yeah," she said, sounding a bit surprised. "Most people don't like to talk about their trigger events, though. No offense."

"None taken," I said, though I wasn't sure where the offense was supposed to be. "And I'm not gonna talk about it. Just explaining."

"Not much of an explanation," she said.

I vaulted up onto a tree root in our path, then offered her my hand. She took it, and I hauled her up, then lowered her to the other side. We kept going.

"So, aren't you curious about my power?" she asked after a minute.

"You're a shaker," I said, then pointed to Rifle. "He's a blaster. You two are gonna be standing at the back of the fight, taking shots, while me and Shadow Stalker hold the monster's attention."

"I can do more than just that," she protested. "I can control things. Big stuff, heavy rocks or tree trunks. I can't move them fast, but I can use them to move myself around, or other people, and put them in the way and stuff. Like shields."

"Huh," I said. That would explain why she'd wanted to use her power rather than trekking along the ground with the rest of us. "Useful."

"It is," she said, nodding definitively.

"For the record, I enhance projectiles," Rifle said. "Longer range, higher speed, better accuracy, although that last is mostly on my boosted vision."

"How big can you go?" Rune asked him.

"That's what she said," I faux-whispered.

"Not very," Rifle replied, ignoring me. Disappointing. "Anything bigger than a fifty cal or ten-gauge is too big. I mostly work with shotguns. My power gets around the range and accuracy limitations that slugs usually have in an unrifled barrel, and I make a lot of custom loads for specific circumstances."

I took a quick look at his gun, but I didn't know enough to tell anything about it one way or another.

"Shame," Rune said, raising a hand to doodle a quick geometric shape on a fallen log as we passed it. Like I'd seen before, light traced the path her finger had taken, quickly sinking into the wood. After a moment the log floated up and moved alongside her. She traced more runes on it, and it sped up, keeping pace. "If I don't have space to make my marks, my power doesn't work. Bullets are too small."

"A shame," Rifle agreed. "It would have been a nice synergy."

"Oh hey," I broke in, pointing to a small hollow at the base of a tree we'd just passed. "That what we're after?"

"Let me see," Rifle said, quickly stepping over and crouching down. His hands hovered around the little white mushroom I'd just indicated. It had the right shape, and the black spots the mission document had described, but apparently his examination was more in-depth.

"This is it," he said after ten or fifteen seconds, reaching down and carefully plucking the cap. "Currently unnamed fungi of the family Agaricaceae. Good. We're one tenth there."

"Fucking kill me," Rune groaned, sagging in place.

So of course that was when the monster stepped around the tree.

It froze, facing us. Twice as tall as the velocidrome, mottled purple, scaled and armor-plated except for a ruff of feathery white hair under its jaw. It had tiny, beady eyes and a comically large beak that was just starting to drop open in surprise. It would have looked goofy if it was any farther than ten feet from us, or if it's head was less than ten feet off the ground.

God, that beak is bigger than I am.

We all started moving at the same time. Rune gestured, and the log flew forward, ramming into the thing's head, knocking it to the side just as it took a step toward us, sending it stumbling. Rifle swiftly pocketed the mushroom and swung his gun off his shoulder in the same motion, picking canisters off his bandolier and loading them with quick, sure motions. I leapt forward and up, kicking off the tree for extra height, drawing my new sword and slashing at the base of the monster's throat, between the armor plates.

My cut was shallow, barely nicking its scales, but the reaction was dramatic. It hopped backwards, forelimbs unfolding into batlike wings – if bats were twenty feet long and armored like a tank – and then it screamed.

It was the only word I could think of to describe the sound, and it wasn't a close fit. It was short, piercing, and intense enough that I staggered, covering my ears and abandoning a follow-up strike. It resonated, too, almost pulsed, and I could see the monster's tongue vibrating against the roof of its mouth.

Just the sound alone was almost an attack.

Light flashed between me and the monster, bright enough to blind, accompanied by a whip of sound nearly as loud as the monster's scream. It reared up, stepping backward and blinking.

"Run!" Rifle shouted, pumping his gun and ejecting a spent casing, his voice barely making it past the ringing in my ears. He suited actions to words and spun on his heel, taking off at a sprint. Rune joined him, slower, and I did a moment later, still shaking my head, trying to clear it.

I caught up instantly, grabbing Rune's arm and pulling her along. She winced and stumbled, nearly lost her footing, but she was light enough that I could haul her along without breaking stride, and I did. If my sword hadn't been in my other hand I would have carried her outright. She skipped along, feet only making contact with the ground half the time, and I could see the muscles in her jaw jump as she clenched her teeth.

Behind us, the monster was already recovered. I barely had time to notice the whiff of smell – almost like burning tar – and jump aside before the fireball tore through the space I'd just occupied. It tumbled ahead of us and hit a tree, bursting in a dull flash and quickly guttering

"Fuck, fuck, mother-fuck," Rune grit out, one hand gripping her shoulder, the other darting out to trace patterns on everything within reach. It took me a moment to realize I'd dragged her with me when I'd dodged. Sprained her arm at the least, maybe worse.

Debris floated upward, drifting and spinning. Rocks, branches, and even clumps of dirt. It all moved quicker than the log had, either because they were smaller or because Rune was putting more effort into it. They moved together to bombard the monster.

I didn't wait around to see how effective it was. I let go of her arm and grabbed her around the waist, hoisting her up onto my shoulder and speeding up. She let out of hiss of pain, but didn't protest as I took off after Rifle, and I made sure that she could see behind us, coordinate her assault.

Rifle stopped and spun, letting off another burst of fire, paired shots that exploded with light and sound, one after the other. Then I caught up and he spun again to continue running.

"Yian garuga," he grit out between rapid breaths. "Largest known bird-class wyvern. Spits flaming chemicals, loud roar for its size."

"Noticed that," I said, pelting over roots and around tree trunks. I'd been worried I'd have to slow down to keep pace, but Rifle could move. Training, probably, given the way he vaulted over things, using a free hand to redirect himself or gain more speed. Parkour, or something like it.

"Vulnerable to bright lights and loud noises, though just yelling at it won't work," he continued. "Hard shell, resistant to most damage. Vulnerable behind the beak, near the eyes and ears. Neck and tail can also be damaged."

"Shit," I said. If the neck was considered vulnerable, then it was damn tough.

"We lose it if we can," he said. "Fighting's a last resort."

"Left!" Rune shouted, and I dived again, hitting the ground with my shoulder and rolling, careful not to crush her or let her go. Fire splashed against the ground where we'd just been. A smokey, sharp-smelling burst. I continued the roll, springing upright as Rune panted, hand clenched against her injured shoulder.

"Sorry," I said.

"Better than being cooked," she grit out. "Don't drop me."

"Wouldn't think of it," I said.

Foliage crashed and broke as the yian garuga stomped after us, the footsteps clumsy but powerful. It gained quickly for a moment, then I heard the sound of wood breaking, followed by an angry croak and a tumbling fall.

"Yeah, eat that, bitch," Rune spat, her voice wavering.

"Keep it up," Rifle said. "Keep it off us. We need to find cover, something too small for it to follow us through."

"Idea," I said. I sheathed my sword, then ducked down and hoisted a hollow log up onto my free shoulder. I stumbled at the weight for a moment, my arm straining, but Rune realized what I was doing quickly enough. Her good arm darted out over my head, tracing her runes on the log, and it floated up. I let it go, eyes darting around the path ahead of us, searching for more ammunition.

We kept running, the monster repeatedly closing the distance before Rune hit it with something, diverting it. It spit fire, flapped its wings in short, hopping flights, but it couldn't catch up. On the other hand, we couldn't escape. Any time we rounded a tree or let it get out of sight, Rune had to halt her attack, and it closed in again.

"Where the fuck is she," Rune hissed. No question who she meant. I'd been wondering it too. Her power would be a hell of help right now.

"There!" Rifle shouted, pointing toward two trees, grown huge and twined together. At the base of them, the roots had been pushed up out of the earth in a tangled mess. There was enough space between them for us, but not for the monster. Even better, I could see some light coming through, indicating a path we could follow.

I put on a burst of speed, pulling ahead of Rifle as he spun, hands flashing, loading and firing shells one after another so fast the sound of the shots blurred together into one long, rippling salvo.

"Brace!" I shouted as I sprinted toward the trees, and Rune's body tightened up, her hand clenched hard onto mine.

I went into a diving slide, my butt hitting the forest floor and skidding forward. I kicked out, snapping a smaller root, and grabbed another with my feet hand, pulling myself forward into the hole without losing momentum. Dirt fountained out ahead of me, roots slapped me in the face, and then we were through. I surged to me feet and spun around in time to see Rifle scrambling through after us, and I reached down, hauling him the rest of the way just ahead of another fireball.

He gasped, then sprung upward, hands beating at his pants, but it was mostly just smoke.

"Come on," he said, then stopped. "Rune?"

"Hurts," she said, the sound coming from between clenched teeth.

"Damn it," he cursed, then flinched as the trees shook. The monster screamed again, a sound of frustration, right on the other side of the trees. I heard it rake at them, and debris hit the ground.

"Can it get through?" I asked.

"Why would I know that?" Rifle snapped, his voice tight.

I shrugged. "You've known everything else so far."

"Well not this," he said. "Damn it. Alright, come on."

He trotted off, and I followed. Then, from behind and above, the sound of shattering wood.

I spun just in time to see the monster, scratching and shredding its way through the twinned trees, up high enough where they weren't joined as tightly, and then it was on us.

I drew my sword and hopped to the side, swinging, but I didn't make contact. The monster hit the ground beside me. Rifle wasn't as quick, too tired or too surprised, and the impact sent him flying. For a moment I thought he'd been hit directly, but it was just that the thing was so big, so heavy, that the wind of its landing was enough to take him off his feet.

"Hey! Assbeak!" I shouted, taking a step forward and stabbing up, under its wing, before dancing backward. Rune made a choked sound on my shoulder.

As I'd wanted, it turned to me, ignoring Rifle as he scrambled to his feet. It didn't scream again, or spit a fireball, as I'd been predicting – hoping – it would. Instead it stepped forward, beak stabbing down at me. I side-stepped it, and it drew back before pecking downward again, and again, and again. I barely kept ahead of it, backpedaling until my ankle caught on something, and I nearly fell.

The beak came down as I was still catching my balance, and there was nothing I could do. My shield was on the arm holding Rune. I twisted, protecting her, and took the blow full on. The beak hit me where my chest met my shoulder, and if I'd thought the velocidrome hit hard, this was in an entirely different league. My knees buckled, and I hit the ground hard enough to bounce. Rune screamed, either in fear or in pain. I didn't drop her, though my sword clattered to the forest floor.

"Fuck-" I croaked as the beak rose up for another strike. "-you. I'm not going down like this!"

My voice gained strength as I went, and I sprang to my feet. For a moment I had no idea what I was going to do – punch it, maybe – and then my sword floated into view, drifting around my shoulder with one of Rune's runes still fading away on the blade. I grabbed it as the beak came down, spinning to avoid the strike, then lashing out. The beak brushed against my side, the incidental contact almost enough to buckle my knees, but I raked my blade against the yian garuga's head, behind its beak, where Rifle had said it was vulnerable.

It reared up, booming out that warbling scream again, blood and fluid spilling out from where its eye had been, and something came loose. A flap of scaled skin fluttered to the ground, even as its twin unfolded on the other side of its head.

An ear. I'd cut off its ear.

"Yeah, bitch! Eat it!" I shouted, brandishing my sword, the edge running with blood and other goop.

"Hunter! Run!" Rifle shouted, his gun booming. Not stunning rounds this time. One slug punched a hole through the monster's wing membrane, and another sent up a spray of blood from its back. It shrieked, burning spit dripping from its mouth, flapping its wings and kicking at the ground, clawing up great clods of dirt.

"Wish I could, man," I muttered, knowing he wouldn't hear me. My attack, and his, had bought some time, but the monster was too close, too fast, too strong, and now just too mad. Running wasn't in the cards.

Black streaks flashed in at it, sinking into its shell and drawing another pained shriek. It scrambled sideways, away from me, and I took the chance to gain some distance.

"Hey, assbeak! Over here!"

I recognized the voice, and it wasn't Shadow Stalker's.

"Motherfucker, are you kidding me!?" I shouted, head turning, looking for the source of the voice, just like the yian garuga was. I saw them. Two girls, my age, up on a nearby ridge. One held an oversized bow, hand already at her back, pulling another six-foot-long arrow from her quiver. The other had a huge gun held low in both hands, braced against her hip.

"Wingtip! Gunner!" I shouted, surprise and pain making my voice rough. "What the fuck are you two doing here?!"