I found Riena sitting on a slain dire tiger. Green blood covered her and her hunt. She panted with exhaustion and gestured to the other corpses around her. “Hey Mari… You’re the first to arrive. Could you harvest… whatever these things are?”

  “These are Vitis. They are normally found in deep wildernesses untouched by civilization. Other sapient minds cause them immense psychic agony for their songs carry their will. Harmony with nature, with each other, and with the cosmos is all that drives them.” I crouched next to the nearest one. Its dodecahedron silica core was shattered, leaking all the vital green fluid that constrained the creature’s mind and magic.

  “So they are basically friendly plant people that can’t physically tolerate the proximity of others.” Riena groaned and put her face in her hands. “That would explain why all I could feel from them was pain.”

  I winced. “Yes, your bond would create an infinite feedback loop and drive the creatures entirely mad. Brutal. I approve.” The next corpse had been melted until the covering of vines had sloughed away, but the core was left intact. A shift in the fluid indicated that the creature was still alive and unable to speak, move, or perceive more than vague shifts in light. A great find!

  As I collected seven more cores, the not-so-dead tiger opened one of its eyes. I froze, drawing Riena out of her musings. “Don’t worry about this guy. He’s friendly.”

  I eyed the creature carefully and finished my collecting while the rest of the team trickled in. Casimir looked pissed. “Riena, I request that we don’t work with their team again. Otherwise, I’ll have to stab them.”

  “Believe me, I found my partner equally unpleasant. What did yours do?”

  He chewed on the question and scratched at the faint stubble of his beard. “I don’t want to talk about it.” Thankfully, we didn’t need clarifying details with Riena’s bond sharing his exact feelings on the matter. He thumbed to me. “I’m surprised Mari contained herself.”

  I ripped out another core and shoved the consciousness into the void of my storage. “I only broke one of her bones. Please limit your thunderous applause to a dull roar. We wouldn’t want to attract too much attention at once.”

  Casimir snorted while Riena closed her eyes and counted to ten. By the time she finished, Nyla and Derek had arrived. The tiger yawned at their approach and went back to sleep.

  Riena nodded to the wall of gnarled roots. “Nyla, if you could get the door?”

  Our Vanguard approached her target and took a calming breath before placing her palm on the wood. Violet flames spread from her hand and engulfed the edifice, generating little heat.

  As I finished harvesting, the door collapsed to dust. I whistled. “Have you always been able to control your flames on the target?”

  She crushed a bit of charcoal in her hand and let it crumble to the floor. “No, that’s new. I always could, but I hadn’t tried it before. The fire doesn’t cooperate unless I’m touching it.”

  I hummed in appreciation. Nyla’s advancing pyromancy would reduce many monsters to cinders before it was quenched by her own demise. “There are many ways to abuse that condition.” I stopped further speculation and examined the dungeon beyond.

  A teeming jungle flourished around an artificial sun under a false sky of blue stone. A small mountain cupped the huge glowing orb. If this was like other artificial biomes, then the radiance artifact would slip into the hollow of the mountain to simulate night.

  Birds chirped, reptiles croaked, and more than a few mammals ran around the underbrush. The rush of wind smelled of rot, flowers, and animals rutting. Environmentally appropriate warmth carried on the wind along with a muggy damp.

  Riena stretched and dismounted the tiger. The creature clambered to his feet and gave our Commander a big lick before bounding back into his home. She wiped her face and addressed us. “Okay, Nyla, Derek and I will look for the next entrance while Casimir and Mari search for the other one. Either one of our groups or one of Scarlet’s should make it to the Orslin’s city. Regardless, we’ll need to search all the dungeons for Axel.”

  We entered the foliage and went our separate ways. Casimir and I elected to take a game trail in the hopes of attracting a predator, but the small shrines lining the path indicated that the Vitis traveled it often. I led our pair and no summons joined us since we were hoping to draw the demons’ counterattack as the smaller party.

  “This annoyance tinged with a hollow violation and a fury at the world is one I’m familiar with. Did our shared burden trouble you again?” I asked.

  “Yeah… I didn’t want to complain in front of the others. Everyone else is struggling with their heritage or destiny, and I’m shitty because a guy asked me out.”

  “I thought you liked men.”

  “Raj fucking doesn’t,” he spat and then sighed. “Sure, Scarlet’s Vanguard seems like the type to go for anything with a vagina, but I thought it was pretty obvious by now that I wasn’t his type.” A seething fury swirled out his mouth and turned into flashes of nightmares before fading away.

  “Ah, I always assumed my prospective paramours were of compatible sexualities or my ravishing good looks awakened previously unknown vistas of desire within their souls.” I rubbed my chin and then collected a glowing flower. Its ultrasonic singing turned to screams as I smelled it. The scent reminded me of drunk ghosts by a river daring each other to swim. “Perhaps they didn’t see me as me. I never considered it.”

  “Whatever. One of these days I’ll be able to whip my dick out at them… but the only surgeon skilled in that procedure is the Savior’s personal physician, and he’s kind of busy saving lives no one else can.”

  I nodded. “He does good work, but he’s not the only option. A few elves perform the procedure regularly and only intentionally kill some of their patients. The Trow are more consistent on medical ethics for voluntary patients. Finding a doctor that accepts voluntary human patients is difficult. I, of course, know the procedure too… but…”

  Casimir paused for only a moment. “But what? I honestly had no idea you performed surgery. It’s a rare skill with the existence of healing magic.”

  “I… never learned anesthesia.”

  “Why?”

  “Even with Exemplar, I have to try and fail a few times to master a skill. I simply couldn’t risk killing a human. For surgical procedures, I could practice on monsters. Many have biology compatible enough to transfer skills, but anesthesia is too precisely calibrated to the human body. My surgical skills have saved some of my companions' lives… They never thanked me afterwards.”

  “How!?” he sputtered. “Wouldn’t the patient thrash around too much?”

  “I’m really good at restraining people.”

  Casimir was quiet until our path was blocked by a dire tortoise’s slow ambling. The megafauna looked back with his head, blinked at us, and then continued his ponderous trot. My Healer finally asked, “What possessed you to master the surgeries for the other direction?”

  “Ah… I had this fear that my ability would alter me down there too, so I wanted to be able to reverse it if that should happen—well not actually want, but you get it. Then I had the idea that I might ‘just try out’ what being a woman felt like, so I learned the other ways too. Sadly, the angles were too difficult for self-surgery. While my pain tolerance is pretty good, there are limits. That torched my idea of spending a summer as one and changing back for the school year, not that anyone ever pierced my male presentation.”

  “Your ability did what?”

  I’ve never explained this to anyone but my doctor. We mounted the tortoise, much to his annoyance, and I told the tale of my own journey to Casimir. He then confided his struggles and doubts. It was freeing to talk about this with someone like me. I hadn’t had the opportunity before.

  Casimir flopped down on the animal’s shell and laughed. “I might take you up on that offer. The sooner I get past this, the sooner I can deal with that prophecy hanging over my head.”

  “What wyrd haunts you?”

  “Oh, an old witch said I would be the prince of my own kingdom. When she said it, it seemed obviously wrong, but…” He gestured to himself. “The prince part isn’t wrong at least. Gaining a kingdom seems difficult and unlikely. Last Stand isn’t a monarchy. If I forged a new one, then I would be king, not a prince.”

  “You could marry into one or be adopted by a monster. A lot of half-breeds are royalty.”

  He eyed me suspiciously. “Are you trying to sell me on your proclivities?”

  I sighed. “We should table this discussion until we handle the ambush.” I hopped down and fed the tortoise a speed boost potion. Unlike a haste potion, a speed boost didn’t enhance your perception. The animal’s mind worked faster than his limbs, so he adjusted to the new pace and fled from the humans.

  Casimir alighted next to me and called forth his horde. “They took the bait.”

  As plant-balls rolled to surround us or swung through the trees, they readied guns made of crystal that shone with condensed sunlight. A few of their number had glass staves with magical berries embedded in the construction. Those started shuddering their leaves in complex incantations.

  I switched to my Infernal armor and summoned by envenomed blade and Hunter to my hands. Casimir’s menagerie of monsters appeared in their formations and attacked. That distracted the foes long enough that I could dash to one of the staff wielders and pierce its core with Hunter. A faint vibration rattled up the blade into my bones as the creature’s limbs turned brown with decay and all its leaves fell off. The fluid that comprised its mind froze into a gelatinous black ichor.

  When I ripped Hunter out, the corrupted Vitis turned and fired a wave of rot over allies behind it. I rushed with the wave and pierced each staggering creature with Hunter while avoiding the aim of enemy rifles. Yellow beams of condensed sunlight shot around me. When errant shots hit trees or plants, they grew or became healthier rather than burn. I did not test the effects on myself while building my own army.

  One of the staff wielders sent yellow bolts into nearby trees. Those plants leaned over and swiped at Casimir with their branches. The Healer stabbed at his attackers and dodged with passable skill, the accuracy enchantment of his weapon doing less work than before, but that wasn’t his strength. He was clubbed, whipped, and sent rolling as beams of sunlight burned through his armor and lanced his flesh.

  The hero always stood up with his wounds mended. A swarm of Coatlies swirled about his head and took shots for him. Bovines with wolf claws munched on Vitis-vine. Large beetles caught trees in their saw-like pincers before wiggling back and forth to fell the animated foliage.

  My own animated tide had broken the encirclement. We swept clockwise through the enemy with Casimir at the center. I jumped into the trees and whipped snipers with my blade—and it barely trimmed them. So many creatures do not care about venom and poison.

  I stowed the substandard creation and swung Hunter with two hands. A scythe is an awkward, impractical weapon, but I wasn’t fighting these frail balls of light, vines, and magic. This was a harvest.

  The top of a tree fell as I sliced through it to strike the Vitis hiding behind. “No, let me keep it!” I ignored Hunter’s request and kicked the mangled corpse into a collection of gunmen. It exploded in green flame that I swirled around me as I landed among them and rushed the staff wielder that had done nothing but chant since the ambush started.

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  It raised the staff aloft and slammed it on the ground, producing a wave of golden light that banished Casimir’s illusions and crumbled my undead to dust. My flames were smothered to nothing, and all the Vitis glowed gold as they moved faster.

  “A valiant effort, but martial prowess can’t be dispelled.” I swept Hunter in a circle, making distance, and lunged the spellcaster. When it blocked with its staff, I paused my strike and ripped the weapon from its grasp. Sunlight burned my left palm as I sliced off the creature’s vines with Hunter.

  Allies rushed to its defense, but I held them off with kicks, the staff, and a few more strikes from my scythe. Once the spellcaster was damaged enough, I stored the staff and ripped its core out with my free hand. Panic rippled through the crowd of attackers. Their leaves vibrated and faint psychic noise brushed my mind.

  Vitis didn’t die when their vines were removed, but there was no way to attach a new set. The shucking of the outer flesh signaled moving onto another existence and was normally performed with ritualistic solemnity on a weary Vitis ready for this life to end. An entire community would sing for days to celebrate the long life of the departed before they interred on their tallest spires to sing with the stars.

  When I stored the core of their elder in a spatial pocket, it was the most sacrilegious of crimes. Panic turned to grief, grief turned rage, and rage turned into a zealous fury that caused all the Vitis to abandon rationality and rush me. Beams hit allies as much as they missed me before the shooters turned their delicate weapons into clubs. When the clubs shattered, they lunged with glass shards. I laughed and laughed as Hunter and I reaped their sorrow.

  The remaining staff wielder kept his rationality, but was locked in a duel with Casimir. My Healer tore through entangling roots, shrugged off poisonous thorns, and tanked sunlight magic. Each destroyed plant fed his healing, and his spear never slowed.

  No new corpses rose in the golden field. The bodies of the slain merged into the forest and rapidly transformed into new growth. As the last of my attackers died, I breathed in the heady aroma of fresh nature. It really is a beautiful culture. I stored my helmet and grabbed a ripe mango from a new tree. The juices were sublime and made for an excellent snack as I watched the conclusion of Casimir’s duel.

  The last Vitis had stuck a seed in my Healer. A fire vine rooted through his veins and sprouted red flowers through his flesh. Casimir roared and tackled the spellcaster. Both of their weapons went flying as the two resorted to wrestling. While the Vitis had the limb advantage, Casimir was stronger and ripped off vines with his bare hands. When any part gave him trouble, he bit through it.

  They rolled like that for several minutes. The creature managed to snap one of my Healers arms and broke an ankle before Casimir pinned the creature and beat its core with a rock.

  Thunk.

  Thunk.

  Thunk.

  After the third hit, the core shattered. The golden aura of the glade faded with the last Vitis’s life. Casimir stood and gulped air before ripping the vines from his body. Termites and leafcutter ants skittered from his shadow and devoured plants, feeding vitality to their master. Casimir’s bones snapped in place and his wounds healed as his breathing calmed.

  I tossed him a mango. “We should leave before nature’s wrath visits this place. Fauna and flora become enraged when Vitis are slain.”

  Casimir grabbed his spear and we fled the battlefield.

  “The armor I gave you appears to be lacking.” It was pocked with holes that showed the freshly mended skin beneath. “I apologize, but I even lack the parts to repair it immediately, and I doubt we find any suitable material in this dungeon.”

  “I’m alive because of it.” He twirled his spear and rested it on his shoulder. “And this spear lets me get personal with monsters in a way I hadn’t before. You were right. Up close, it is way easier to determine the smell of a monster. I think I could fake the appearance of a Vitis if not their psychic profile.”

  “Thank you, but this team has stronger abilities because of my inadequacies as a Crafter. I know I’m not fully doing my job.”

  Off in the distance, a vine covered glass spire fell and crashed into the sun. Nyla pulsed with enough triumph over the bond to pierce my spiraling. The orb shook, but maintained its position.

  “I see that Riena's group is having fun.”

  Casimir conjured a swarm of ravens and sent them into the forest. “Let’s beat them to the next dungeon.”

  I pointed to a waterfall on the opposite side of the mountain from the fallen spire. “90% of the time, those are hiding a secret entrance or boss, especially in Orslin shaped dungeons.”

  “Alright, race you there.” A larger raven swooped out of the trees and carried him off.

  I chuckled and bounded after him. Hunter twitched in my grip with desire to chop trees as we jumped through them. “I can make zombie trees. You don’t notice because trees can’t normally move.”

  There was no reason not to indulge my weapon, so loud crashes followed my wake. I ceased with the wanton deforestation when I passed Casimir. The bird faked indignance at our speed and flapped faster.

  I hopped up from the canopy and examined the figment's flight between falls. “The aura around your summons is weak. You’re limited by the laws of physics.”

  Casimir crossed his arms. “Odd flex, but yeah.”

  “No. My point is that you could expand your aura more fully around your summons. If your aura does something naturally, exaggerating that effect is achievable with reasonable amounts of effort.”

  The Healer furrowed his brows and the aura around his bird grew slightly, marginally increasing its speed. “This is exhausting.”

  “If only you had boundless sources of vitality readily available when it matters.”

  “Point taken. I’ll work on it. My summons grow in strength with me, so I should’ve put that together.”

  “Many heroes only do the bare minimum with their aura. Most scoff at my advice as the impossible expectations of a named hero.”

  Casimir shrugged as his bird gained ground. “I’m not risking my life at Aspiration to be second rate.”

  “Good.”

  I leapt from the last tree and crashed through the waterfall. Like I expected, I landed in a small pocket behind the water. The only notable feature was a steel ladder leading down. Casimir joined me as I pulsed the ‘objective found’ signal down the bond. Riena returned a Command to go forward.

  “Meet you at the bottom.” I slid down the ladder into the darkness below. In my rapid sliding, I failed to account for a sudden disruption in the construction. When my feet slipped into the hole, I gripped the edges only to discover that they were slicked with aura resistant oil. My hand batted for a rung and found empty air. I tumbled through the dark and cracked the stone floor with my back. A lot of effort to get me to land on my ass.

  Casmir cackled as a snake lowered him next to me. “What secret dungeon crawling technique was that?”

  “Hubris.” I settled into my indent, cracking a few more pieces of shale. “This is more comfortable than it looks.”

  He extended a hand down. “I’d hope so. It looks awful.”

  As I grasped his hand, purple runes briefly illuminated the room before we were wrapped in darkness. Casimir dropped me onto the hard nothing that composed the floor to swipe at the walls. He summoned various monsters and had them try the barrier with tooth, claw, and talon.

  “The fuck is this?”

  I stretched and sat up. “We’re in a space trap.” A yawn escaped me. “Get comfortable. It’ll be a few hours before I can bust us out.”

  Casimir paced, mapping the edges of our new domain. He summoned swarms of fireflies to illuminate the dark nothing of our prison. “How are you getting us out of here? Can I help?”

  “These kinds of traps are only meant to delay you. It would unravel on its own after eight hours. If you had more aura mastery, you could alter the permittivity of free space. I won’t bother to explain what that is, but that constant is a backdoor way to effectively adjust the speed of light, which is normally a very magically expensive process. The boundaries don’t actually stop us. We’re both falling through the floor at incredibly low speeds. In a few hours, the magic supporting this will be weak enough that I can snap it with my aura. My Fatecutter could get us out of here faster, but if I get the angle a few microns wrong, then the cut could create a micro black hole that kills both of us.”

  He blinked and sat down. “That was more complicated than I expected. Generally, the meatheads with simpler abilities talk about aura tricks as a way of implementing your will on the world. They will themselves to survive poisons or for their feet not to slide. Do all the named use their aura like this?”

  “No. The Savior probably could, but he has no need to. Most only master a handful of niche techniques outside of resisting attacks or ones directly related to their ability. For example, Absolute can breathe water, and Eviscerate can project her voice. All the ones with my ability are likely mastering what I did. It’s an involved process.”

  “Huh… so we have time to kill.”

  I pulled out Axel’s journals and my light orb. Coatlie uncoiled from my neck and flapped around Casimir’s head. She said, “7 out of 10 for the impersonations. Real Coatlies would have smirked more, and their flying was substandard.”

  “Thank you for the critique,” Casimir responded dryly.

  I held one of the journals open. “Coatlie, would you like to translate and read these aloud? I’d like to get Casimir’s impressions too since he is available.”

  The snake fluttered to my shoulder and leaned down. “Sure. You may have noticed this language is Subject-Object-Verb rather than the Subject-Verb-Object you’re used to. They also use three different writing systems on top of each other.” Her tongue pointed at several words. “Those particles are also important and help things make sense when the subject is dropped in a sentence.” She avoided calling the language ‘orcish’ where Casimir could hear. Not even Riena knew my intent to learn it fully.

  We read through sections of the three journals to determine their chronology with each other. The first two occurred before the other one I read. Axel didn’t break after meeting one group of monsters. He infiltrated dozens of societies and didn’t destroy a single one like the true villain he was. The final journal proved more interesting. This one detailed him revisiting towns and finding some of them destroyed by humans. A particular entry stuck out to me.

  “The Luddle’s reliquary lay in ruin. Every fresco had been torn down and every statue smashed to collect a handful of memory gems. These gems contained the last will of the artist and were placed in their final piece of work to hopefully animate the art in future ages like their Saint, who had led them to this world through a dozen others. Said Saint was shattered in their home. Their shards were crushed and dumped into the town well.

  “Based on the doctor’s notes, the children became sick first as their intestines were the weakest. Those that died were the lucky ones. Ingesting their Saint’s ceramic body cursed the survivors into mad beasts that ate their neighbors. It’s difficult to determine exactly what happened after that, but based on the footprints and a few discarded weapons, Exemplar must have struck while there were enough survivors to sate his” Coatlie paused her reading. “Looks like Axel drew a line through that and left this note: I’ve edited this journal to take into account Exemplar’s current pronouns. If I’m disgusted by the bigotry of Last Stand, then I can’t tolerate any within myself.”

  I said, “At least he is a considerate villain.”

  Coatlie nodded. “Maybe he’s also secretly good looking and will seduce you to the dark side of being nice to monsters.”

  I rolled my eyes. “This isn’t The Sky Princess. I’m not going to swoon at the first guy with glistening scales and pungent pheromones.”

  “Fine fine, I’ll continue.” She fake coughed and picked up where she left off. “—her bloodlust. It’s impossible to distinguish between the deaths from cannibalism and the ones performed by the named hero. She herself isn’t the problem. Last Stand props up monsters like her as the best of us. Humanity doesn’t need its cage to survive in the world… I’m still not sure if we could survive. Some monsters are genuinely good people. Others aren’t, much like humans. This world regularly devours sapient beings of all kinds. I have to hope that a coalition of the decent could stand together against the true monsters. If we can’t…

  “When I see all my friends rotting unburied with none of their rites performed, a deep rage in my guts says that if we can’t survive without means like this, then we don’t deserve to.” Coatlie sighed. “It then repeats the same manifesto we’ve seen several times.”

  My heart thrummed. “After Absolute sealed the details of that deed, I didn’t think anyone was left to appreciate my heroism. The Luddle hearts, livers, and kidneys went for a good price on the market. I think most of them were eaten in fancy restaurants. Extinct species parts always go for a premium among chefs. Still, monetary gain pales in comparison to recognition. Being hated by someone trying to destroy humanity is equivalent to praise. I wonder if I will show up again in his journals.”

  “Mari…” Casimir had been looking more troubled as our storytime progressed. “Did you know that the Luddles were essentially harmless people? This is the first I’ve heard of monsters that didn’t want to kill us.”

  “Obviously. Purging a town can’t be done haphazardly. The number advantage alone puts the odds drastically in their favor. Their Saint was especially dangerous. Last Stand thought they were a tier 7 monster, but every new moon, they reverted to a large pot. Shattering a mundane pot didn’t count as a solo high tier monster kill nor did they count as tier 7 with such an exploitable weakness. I still received accolades for piercing the deception and subsequent purge.”

  “If they didn’t want to hurt us, then why did you kill them?”

  “They were monsters. They were there.” I tilted my head. “Many heroes need these elaborate narratives to justify their heroism. These self-delusions are a weakness and muddle a very simple truth: heroes kill monsters. It doesn’t need to be more complicated than that.”

  “Should it be?”

  “What?” I asked, genuinely confused.

  “Should heroism be more complicated? I’m not sure what I’m saying. Hours ago, the world was much simpler. We fought for our survival against intractable foes. Now—”

  “Don’t let Axel’s ramblings confuse you. Most monsters aren’t people, and of the ones who are, most crave our destruction. The danger is very real. That’s why the Hero Union supports at-will purging. We need all the breathing room we can get. Last Stand is humanity’s final chance against oblivion. Future humans can judge our actions harshly in the safety of their monster-free world. I fight so they can exist.”

  “I guess…” The man’s concerns were somewhat mollified, but the turmoil remained.

  After collecting the books, I stood and pressed my hand against one of the edges of our prison. “It should have been long enough by now.”

  My aura seeped through the space in a small hole and normalized the constants within. This created a hole of light in our prison. Faint as it was, that light stabilized the gap and let me expand the opening piecemeal until we could escape.

  “One more dungeon and we can go home.”

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