“Boss.” The word stuck in my head. I remembered the first one I encountered. The giant balls of limbs and flesh. Something that was so overwhelming and powerful. A monster that Len forced himself to go all out and destroy in one insane blast.

  What would this boss be like? Jaren’s squad spoke about it before the wave began, about it being reptilian in nature. It made sense considering this final wave was filled with lizards and the like. And people turned monsters. But I was putting that one on the back burner for now, all my focus needed to be on the boss. Thankfully Tigris form helped keep those pesky thoughts away. Especially when such a delicious challenge sat before me. My vision turned to the little quest list sitting in the corner of my vision.

  Quest 0: Mimic the Boss (Whatever it may be…)

  Reward: Profit :)

  I trembled as I read the quest log. Not from fear, but anticipation. These little lines gave me a reason to get close to the boss, to fight it, to kill it. I licked my lips. To prove who truly sits at the top.

  They said the boss would be a Gexen if I remember correctly. I looked back over to the dead geckos on the ground. Is that it? A giant version of those sticky lizards. I doubt it will be a problem. It has to be easier than a floating mass of flesh. Hmm. I wonder what boss flesh tastes like?

  I looked off into the horizon, hoping to catch a glimpse of the gargantuan gecko boss. Yet my attention was pulled to some of the battles happening around me.

  Jaren’s backup squad, B3, was busy fighting off a host of reptilian monsters. A bunch of the normal geckos, some cool komodo dragon looking ones, and a few of what I think were chameleons. Just pony sized ones.

  One chameleon shot its tongue out at crazy speeds, slamming it into the side of one of the archers who’d just moved out of position thanks to a gecko slime shot. The blow knocked the man to the ground and sent his bow flying. With a speed no chameleon should ever have, it bolted over to the toppled archer, raising one of its two pronged feet in the air. Its claws fell upon the archer, only to be blocked by a shield. A frontliner caught the attack and held the creature back, allowing for the rest of the archers to turn the chameleon into a pin cushion.

  I nodded my head. Sloppy work from the archer, but an adequate performance from the rest. 3.5 out of 5. I shook my head. Why was I rating them? Freaking Tigris form.

  I looked off into the field again. The orange light of the flames bathed it completely. Off in the distance, I saw a few more of the huge reptans fighting with another squad. Doubtless, they wished they had some of my acid. It's not that I needed it on this form. Tigris’ claws would have shredded it to pieces before its enhanced healing factored in.

  But as the thought left my mind, light burst forth from the reptan’s mouth. Bright white light seared through its eyes, and eventually, the beast fell to the ground, then a giant pillar shot out of its back. It grew up into the sky, cutting through the fire in the sky for a moment. What was that? It died down moments later.

  The whole field was filled with battles just like these, yet as I watched on, a pit in my stomach grew. A lot of the squads looked small, smaller than what hit the field. I started looking at the ground around them. Bodies littered the field, and upon looking closer—made easy with Tigris enhanced eyes—I saw that many of them were soldiers. Some had the auras surrounding them. Small grey ones. Others were completely bare. No emotion, for death, has no emotion.

  Not all of them were armored. A good majority looked just the same as the Ferals that attacked me and Marns. So much death.

  Blood pooled around them, mixing in with the dirt. Then it hit me. Those were people, who had families, lives, thoughts, stories. Both citizens of Laurel Haven born and Ferals alike were dying because of this god-awful Raid.

  We need to end this. Now. Before even more die.

  My face twitched as I scanned the field, my sole objective was to find the boss. Killing it would be the end of this bloodshed. Where was this beast, this boss that had everyone quaking in their boots? My neck flexed as I strained my eyes. Where is it?

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

  I turned my attention back to Daila and Jaren after a minute of fruitless searching.

  “Where is the boss? Why can’t I see it?” I asked.

  Jaren rolled his eyes as Daila just shook her head.

  “Tell me! People, our people are dying, we need to finish this battle now.”

  Jaren and Daila looked at each other with the same look of shock.

  “Lad, glad to see you taking this seriously, but did you not listen to a single thing she said?”

  “No,” I answered flatly.

  “Tiamat on a cracker. I don’t have time for this, she’ll be here any second.” Jaren rubbed his forehead, turning his back to me. Daila coughed, then began to speak.

  “As I was saying, the earlier reports were correct, the boss is a Gexen and close, but—”

  “Then why don’t I see a huge lizard shooting off truckloads of mucus at our forces?” I said, cutting her off. “I’m pretty sure I’d notice something like that with these perfect eyes.” I pointed to Tigris form’s feline green eyes. “But either it's invisible or your scouts are full of it. Really hoping it's not the former. That sounds horrible, but now that I think of it, that is one hundred percent on theme for a bunch of lizard monsters. Oh dammit. It's cloaked, isn’t it?”

  I turned away from Daila, and back to the field. Maybe Aura Sight could help me find it. I just need to focus on it somehow.

  “No, it isn’t, you imbecile.”

  I recoiled from the insult. “Imbecile. Imbecile! Who are you calling an imbecile? Daila, where do you get off calling me that? Had I not helped all of you would still be fighting that—” I turned around as I ranted, looking down toward where the shorter mouse woman’s face would be.

  But it wasn’t a small mousey face I looked at, but a very ample bosom. One covered by tight leather and most certainly did not belong to slender Daila. I looked up only to catch the most condescending glare from the last person in this godforsaken world I wanted to see.

  “Every child in the academy knows there isn’t a single Gexen with such an ability. Oh wait, you never went to an academy. No, you played in dirt and grime outside our walls. Why should I imagine you have any knowledge whatsoever? I doubt you can even read.”

  I stood face to face with Lirae—the beautiful green elf woman with a chip the size of a mountain on her shoulder. Righteous anger filled my chest until I saw the aura steaming off her head. Dark nasty browns swirled around her head. They tugged at my mind, filling me in nothing but pure disgust. A whirlpool of distaste and utter contempt. But at the center of it, deep down, there was something else. Sadness.

  “Jaren, get your pet away from me. If it stares at me any longer I may do something bothersome.” She said, taking a step back and waving her hand dismissively.

  The audacity. To speak down to me. ME. My claws slowly moved as I curled my lips. But before I could do anything else, Daila shot next to me, grabbing onto my forearm. Her aura flared with yellow light. One that sent a single word into my head.

  Don’t.

  I retracted my claws. Daila was right.

  Jaren finally came over and pulled the green woman away. “We just received the news. Is your husband on his way? We don’t have much time, especially with a red stripe coming.”

  “Yes, my dear was just cleaning up a Reptan bothering one of his squads. He’ll be here momentarily.”

  The two walked away, leaving just me and Daila.

  “Don’t provoke her like that. She’d spear you with one of her thorns in seconds if you so much as thought to attack her.”

  “I know,.” I growled. Being in Tigris form made the embarrassment almost unbearable. But even this form understood the difference between me and her. I spit on the ground, then turned to Daila. “Look, just tell me about the boss already.”

  Daila sighed. “It’s a Red Striped Gexen, the deadliest of its kind. And opposite to what you may think, it's not that large. Nothing even on the scale of the Reptans from earlier. Larger than the normal Gexen for sure, but not as large as the Graveball from last month.”

  I nodded along as Daila continued to give me the rundown. Until I caught a flash of movement in my peripheral. A flash of red. I looked over as Daila said something about a copy machine or something. It didn’t matter.

  The monsters standing near began to part the way from something. A gecko the size of a box truck slowly walked past them. Its tail slowly whipped back and forth, a strange silver liquid flung off with each swing. Its scales were a sickly pale, almost translucent color.

  Then I saw it, along its back, running down its spine, where its name came from. A blood red stripe that started from its head and traveled all the way down its body ending at the tip of its tail.

  It didn’t look all that tough. Honestly, the boss looked weak. It looked like prey. If I killed the sickly monsters, then this battle would be over. I would be a hero. No one could speak down to me again.

  Then Tigris took over and I charged.