“How did you know she wanted us to find a sword?” Sam asked when they portalled back to their fortress home.

  “And Why do you think she'll betray us?” Judy added.

  “It's pretty much how these things go. It's always some lost mcguffin, and if shes paying us that much to find it itd be worth her time to find some way of weaseling out of the deal.” Gavin shrugged.

  “This is based on what?” Val asked pointedly.

  “Two decades of watching every movie and reading every other book from my world.”

  “So just vibes then?” Val asked.

  “Yes, just vibes.” Gavin said as if that was an adequate explanation. “Also, her name is a little too close to Morgana Pendragon for my liking.”

  “Is this the king Arthur thing again? You turned down that healer Florrin sent us because you didn't like his name.”

  “No, I turned him down because he sat on the sidelines until the danger was over.”

  “I do recall you said that you wouldn't allow anyone called Lancelott on the team.” Sam said, pointing a finger at his chest.

  “He did say that, yeah.” Judy said.

  “And look what happened. A lance turns up and instead of healing us when we were injured he was gonna let those pricks kill us. If he'd sent literally any amount of healing I wouldn't have had to eat our beds to keep us alive.”

  “Actually that's a good point.” Judy said.

  “It's really not.” Sam said.

  “Look, I just think we should operate under the assumption she's super clever and will try to betray us somehow. Judy and I can game out ideas if you two don't want to be involved.”

  “I agree.” Judy said. “The way she asked you to make weapons for her gave me the ick. Somethings not right with her.”

  “That's just how nobles are.” Sam shrugged. “They get off on thinking they're the smartest and most powerful people in the room. Any time they see something that could get them even a little bit more power they covet it.”

  “Well, it's done now” Val said, tossing her eaten core over her shoulder into the bin in the kitchen “I think it'll be interesting, we haven't had a good betrayal in a minute.”

  “We shouldn't be getting excited about being betrayed.” Sam argued.

  “Plan for the worst, hope for the best.” Gavin said “regardless, who's up for some Dungeons and Dragons tonight?”

  “Yeah, sure” Sam said, deliberately trying not to look too enthusiastic.

  “I don't have plans.” Val said, picking her fingernails absently.

  “When do we start?” Judy asked.

  “After dinner? I'll chuck a barbie on and we can play after that, I've got some crafting to do this arvo.”

  Gavin giddily teleported into his workshop, eager to finish his latest project. He'd spent countless hours watching gun restoration videos on the internet and as his intellect attribute rocketed upwards, his memory had experienced a similar jump. While he didn't own guns himself, he had used them in the past and was mildly familiar with their function, he had even once made a revolver that worked for a dozen or so shots before it blew half his hand off.

  His latest invention sat propped up against his work bench, a replica of a Winchester lever action rifle, the gun that won the west. The tricky part had been making the ammunition for it. He had been convinced he could refine the rounds so they weren't deafeningly loud, and with weeks of trial and error he'd come up with something useable. Using a rune of force inscribed into the firing pin, the whole thing was essentially a vessel to slam as much magical energy into the bullet as possible. Since he was using magically reinforced tier one materials the resulting weapon would be much more durable and powerful than an ordinary rifle, as powerful as Judy with her new bow even, but with far less mana investment.

  Now all that was left was to enchant it all. His plan was to create a soulbinding enchantment for the rifle and its adamantium ammunition, that way he could shoot and resummon the bullets straight into the gun. He would worry about special ammunition later, for now his goal was to deal as much damage as possible as quickly as possible.

  He began the process of laying out the enchantment architecture within the material. It worked on a very similar principle to an electrical wiring diagram, and he'd been able to adapt the information he'd gleaned from magical theory textbooks with surprising ease.

  This was the delicate part of the process, the part that required the most care and attention, after that it was a matter of dumping mana into his creation to enable the self charging enchantments.

  Hours later, after the technical part of the enchanting process was complete, he went outside to start on dinner. Their fortress was situated high in the mountains above Edomont overlooking the city. He'd plonked their home just inside of portal range of the wardens guild and constructed a wooden deck out over the trees around it, it was now complete with a barbecue area including tables and benches for the team, a copper hot tub for relaxing, and a flying fox that ran down to the bottom of the mountain.

  It was late summer, the warm weather was starting to turn, unusually the days were not getting shorter. Gavin guessed that this world wasn't tilted on an angle, instead assuming it was on an elliptical orbit around the sun to give the whole world hot and cold seasons at the same time, though, ‘magic did it' was also a reasonable explanation.

  He fired up the coal barbecue, retrieving thick steaks and whole vegetables from his inventory to cook on the grill. His teammates all filed out of the house, drawn to the smells of the cooking meat. He set out a bowl of chips and beers for them all on the table to eat while he cooked.

  “Gavin, what is that you're wearing?”

  “Clothes?” Gavin said, checking his user interface to make sure he wasn't missing anything.

  “No, what's that thing you're wearing over your clothes?”

  “Oh this? Gavin said, hooking his thumbs into his apron, “it's something you have to wear while you're cooking on the barbecue.”

  “You haven't worn one before?”

  “Only just had it made.” he shrugged.

  “Well, I think I can speak for all of us when I say none of us are going to kiss you.” Sam said.

  “Judy might.” Val said.

  “I don't think so.” Judy said, turning scarlet.

  “I'm not asking you to kiss me, it's just what you have to have written on the apron, it's a rule, I think.” Gavin said, brandishing his spatula dismissively.

  “What's that you're holding?” Val said, changing the subject.

  “Ahh, a spatula? Do you not know how cooking utensils work?”

  “Not that you idiot, the other thing.” Val said pointing at the gun in his other hand.

  “New weapon, remember that boom stick I made to kill one of those giant crabs with back when I first got here Sam?”

  “Yeah.” Sam said apprehensively knowing how Gavins experiments tended to be unreliable.

  “Its like that, but much better, it's a model of gun that was used like two hundred years ago, modern guns are a lot better now, but they're much more complicated and I haven't watched hundreds of hours of them being torn down to their basic parts and put back together.”

  “Is it ready?” Sam asked.

  “Nearly, after dinner it'll be good to go” Gavin said, pumping mana into it as fast as he thought wise.

  They sat down to their cooked meal, discussing their plans for the next few weeks, what they'd need to buy and any items that Gavin should craft. Finally, he announced his weapon was complete. He demonstrated how it worked to the team, operating its lever action to load another round into the chamber.

  [Item: Gavins pop-gun]

  [Type: Weapon, rifle]

  [Rarity: Level 1, epic]

  [Description: caution, do not leave unattended around children and/or irresponsible adults]

  [Effect: Fires a loaded projectile at the target dealing additional force damage.]

  [Effect: Increases users [Agility] attribute.]

  [Item: big boom bullets]

  [Type: Ammunition]

  [Rarity: Level 1, epic]

  [Description: Warning, may cause injury or death]

  [Description: detonates on contact with an enemy dealing [radiant] and [force] damage.]

  “Alright team, reckon we should try it out?” He said, fabricating some aluminum cans and sitting them on top of the side of the hand rail facing the mountain.

  “How close to the safe mana capacity did you make these things?” Asked Sam tossing the bullet back to Gavin.

  “Pretty close. They'll rupture if you give them a decent hit, which is what does most of the damage when you shoot something.”

  “Isn't that dangerous?”

  “Yes and no, that's why the gun is made out of obstanite, when they're loaded up inside they're safe as houses.” He said, smashing the rifle down on the solid wooden table like a fly swat for emphasis. “Now, let's shoot some stuff.”

  Gavin stood back against far side of the deck, shouldering his new gun. He sighted in his target, squeezing the trigger and flinched as the bullet shot out of the barrel with a crack, missed the row of cans, and hit a tree behind. The ancient oak disintegrated into a shower of splinters, its middle section vanishing in a cloud of light and debris leaving the upper branches to tumble down the side of the mountain.

  “Huh. Sights must be off” Gavin said, watching two of the cans rock with the force of the passing bullet. He reloaded the rifle, unlike the real thing there was no spent brass to eject, his design used caseless ammunition and converted much less of its energy into sound and heat than conventional firearms.

  Taking a second shot, he missed again, then again the third time. The fourth time he hit the can next to the one he was aiming at, though the fifth and sixth shots hit their targets.

  “First try.” Gavin laughed, brandishing his weapon above his head in triumph. “Who else wants a turn?”

  The team took turns shooting at Gavin’s targets, progressing on to thrown cans when they were all able to hit the stationary ones. Judy was especially good shot, and was surprised to find that her special abilities and attacks worked with firearms as well as bows, notably, her multishot ability that let her shoot several cans out of the air at a time with a bit of practice. Gavin felt himself jealous that that ability was a special attack, not a spell, so he couldn't copy it with his magical secrets ability.

  Both Val and Sam put in orders for their own guns so they'd have ranged options in a fight, something Gavin was only too keen to accommodate, eventually.

  ***

  The following day Sam and Val went into town to collect a slew of tier two contracts, leaving Gavin and Judy back at the fortress.

  “You alright Jude?” Gavin asked her as they finished their breakfast.

  “Yeah, it's nothing.” She said evasively.

  “Come on, it's just us, what's on your mind?” he prodded.

  “Its really nothing, I've just been in my own head a bit, it's just, I've trained for years with a bow, then you make that gun and suddenly you three are all as good as me at killing with it as I am, but you're all still better than me with swords and spears too.”

  “Oh, yeah, I see.” Gavin admitted “It's something that happened on my world too. We went for thousands of years with swords and bows being the best weapons, then almost overnight everyone was using guns, archery is just a fun hobby now, no one actually uses them for combat.”

  “Oh.”

  “You're feeling like you're less useful to the team today than you were yesterday?”

  “A little, yes.” Judy said.

  “Well, you're not on the team just because you do a lot of damage to enemies, that's like sixth on the list of reasons” Gavin looked at the ceiling, ticking off fingers as he ran through the list “You're really good at reading the combat and dealing with problems before they affect the team. You're better than all of us at using your powers creatively. You're good at cooking, actually make that number two on the list. You-”

  “Okay, I get it, thanks Gav” Judy said, her dour mood brightening somewhat.

  “I wasn't done though, You're good at smoothing us all out, seriously, I used to flat with a bunch of guys I worked with, it was chaos, we were at each others throats constantly over every little thing. We live and work together all day, every day. We're mates, but it's not normal that people chained at the hip don't have big blowouts. You're the only one of us that even tries to resolve our conflicts, I usually don't see when I'm pissing someone off, and most of the time I don't care that I am. Val spent three years as a guild instructor, so there's not a lot of give when she thinks she's right. Sam trained literally her whole life to lead a team the way her parents wanted her to lead it, we all share the responsibility, but she's a natural tactical commander. It's her job to see everything going on and make snap decisions, without stopping to second guess herself.”

  “You're saying you three are all arrogant assholes and I’m the pushover?” she teased.

  “No one would accuse you of being the pushover, sure, you don't really participate in the big group decisions unless we force you, but you're the one that puts your foot down when we’re being cocks, and when you do, we listen. We trust your judgment Judy, that's way more important that how efficiently you kill monsters.”

  “Thanks Gavin” she said, wrapping him in a hug. He returned it, holding her tightly.

  “That was only four things” she said as they broke their hug.

  “Oh, uhh, you look fuckin cool when you kill monsters”

  “And that's more important than actually killing the monsters?”

  “Yeah, obviously.” He said, rolling his eyes.

  “You're not kidding are you?”

  “Not even a little bit.”

  “You really think I look cool?”

  “Yeah bro, look” Gavin said, using his magical secrets spell to copy her prestidigitation ability.

  He crafted an illusion, like an action scene from a movie, complete with slow-mo and Dutch angles, the contrast ramped right up and the hues tinted towards the orange and blue ranges. His video showed Judy, up on a hill raining arrows down on unseen enemies, dust and debris blasting around her, hair tousled to the side as a gentle breeze caught it like some majestic hero. Her hazel eyes laser focused on her target as she drew an arrow to her cheek, releasing it, unflinching, as it swam through the air.

  “Okay, yeah, that does look good” she admitted, inspecting herself “does my nose really look like that from the side?”

  “Yeah, pretty much.” Gavin laughed.

  “You two ready to go?” Sam asked poking her head around the corner “Judy, why are you showing a picture of yourself to Gavin?”

  “I-”

  “Yeah, we're ready.” Gavin interrupted. “Come on Judes, let's go. Where to boss?”

  “Starhaven, we've got four contracts around there.”

  Starhaven was the site of a meteor strike centuries earlier. A house sized lump of etherium ore had annihilated everything within a hundred kilometers and sparked a major trade war over the fortune that had dropped from the sky. Now, a bustling city had built itself inside the basin, a sister to Edomont, just two portal jumps away.

  Sam directed them to a ridge on the north east side of the crater, where an extradimensional bubble had formed around the hillside. It was heavily forested up here, not quite cold enough to freeze at night, but cold enough to have near constant mist or drizzle.

  The mirror-like bubble undulated violently, it was by far the least stable extradimensional space Gavin had ever seen. The team guessed it had less than two days before it collapsed, which would devastate the area around the ridge if that was allowed to happen.

  Valerie went in first as they'd discussed, she would stand the most chance against whatever lay inside. While she couldn't leave until the bubble was dealt with, she could send them a message through their telepathic link to give them the all clear. Once she was inside she gave the confirmation that it was safe and the team all followed through.

  Inside was a dystopian caricature of the real mountainside, though notably without the view of the city in the far distance. The land around them was full of volcanic rocks, craggy and desolate. The land rose up in imposing spikes like withered fingers. Atop their mountain an elaborate castle loomed over them. It looked like the lair of a powerful evil wizard, almost entirely made of jet black obsidian shards, its high spires and looming parapets appeared to threaten them with their radiating malice.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “Uhh, are we sure we want to go in there?” Judy asked.

  “It'll be all good mate” Gavin said without a care.

  “It's a level two dimensional space, whatever's in here killed the first guy that came in.” Sam said.

  “Idiot.” Val huffed “Should have known better going solo with these ambient magic levels is a very poor idea.”

  “She says taking on a level two contract with a party of level ones.” Gavin said.

  “Don't say things like that” Judy said, sending Gavin a mental flick on the ear “it puts bad vibes on the mission.”

  “This castle looks a lot like the fortress, but like, way more impressive” Gavin said, marvelling at the complex unperturbed.

  “Be on the lookout for traps.” Sam warned as she strode up the mountain, drawing her divinely enhanced sword from its scabbard, washing them in pure white light, the blade trailing thin wisps of ethereal light.

  Her final ability to round out her build had come from Paragon for her part in their capture and escape back in Wildenesse. It allowed her to create an etherial weapon or enhance an existing one indefinitely. The sword Gavin made for her now thrumming with divine power and would deal radiant damage with each strike. He'd originally enchanted it to deal a small amount of radiant damage in addition to its regular slashing damage, it's divine transformation had transformed it into a blade of pure golden light, burning everything it touched with unavoidable damage.

  The party followed Sam's lead, stalking up the hill, grim determination on their faces with the exception of Gavin, who's smile shone with even more radiance than Sam's sword. This was the sort of adventuring he loved, clearing out an ominous castle filled with unknown danger with his friends.

  The gates to the outer wall of the Castle had been disintegrated by the initial person who'd failed to fully clear the encounter. Splinters of black wood scattered across the ground in a wide arc inside the compound. Destruction laid a path that the Knights followed, inside the castle walls was a small guardhouse, armoury, and stable. All of it had been damaged by whatever explosive power had turned the front gate into tiny shards. The team briefly looked around for signs of life and valuables, but it was clear whoever had been here first had thoroughly looted the place.

  The castle itself was in similar disarray, doors blasted open and signs of detonations down the hallways and inside every room. The throne room was especially chaotic, stone shards, thick dust and splintered wood littered the charred ground. The whole area had been the site of a maelstrom of fire and death leaving nothing but a ruined room behind. Whatever had been inside here was long dead, turned to ash as it returned to the ether.

  “Jesus, is the guy that did this right in the head?” Gavin wondered aloud.

  “They don't seem to have been very concerned with completely destroying everything in sight” Valerie agreed, looking around for any sign of movement.

  ‘Or how much noise they were making’ Sam said through their shared telepathic bond.

  Val at least had the sense to look mildly embarrassed, Gavin carried on walking as if Sam had said nothing, though his usual incessant banter did not resume.

  Sam guided them up the stairs to explore the castle with mental commands. The ability itself was fairly rudimentary, only able to convey basic emotions and ideas, but Sam had been practising a lot with it over the past months, able to send more complex signals through the use of a mental shorthand the team had developed.

  If there were any valuables, traps or enemies in the upper areas they'd been looted or destroyed in the chaos that had all but ruined the castle. Returning to the ground floor, the party made their way down into the levels below ground. Ornate black marble paved the way in winding staircases down into the bowels of the mountain, rooms on either side contained nothing but ruin. Gavin threw out a handful of enchanted luminous spheres that hung above them lazily, glimmering a steady light.

  As they approached the bottom of the stairs Sam slipped on a step, regaining her balance before her foot went out from under her. Looking down she inspected the tile, which was covered in a fine film of black soot.

  ‘Judy, Gavin, go in fast, val and I will follow.’ Sam said through their link.

  ‘I go left, you go right?’ Gavin sent to Judy.

  When Judy nodded in confirmation, the two leapt down the stairs, coming up at the entrance to the vault. They had a moment to take in the scene before they were off, sprinting in opposite directions.

  The vault door had been blasted out into the chamber with as much care as had been shown in the rest of the castle. A single blackened cone of soot washed out of the inky darkness, blanketing a wide area around the door and up the walls. Gavin's glow globes drifted into the room as if pulled on a string, illuminating more of the area as he and Judy ran the perimeter of the room. He threw his two new adamantium spiked balls out in front of him, using his force of will to pull them into orbit around himself. They were shaped like a regular twelve sided dice, with the vertices pinched into sharp points.

  [Item: Gavins Deadly D12]

  [Type: Trinket]

  [Rarity: Level 1, epic]

  Description: Caution: Do not mix into your dice bag. I'm serious

  Effect: Highly resistant to all forms of damage.

  Effect: Causes [Bleeding]

  Effect: Soulbound

  Gavin saw a flash from the opposite side of the room as a jet of red-orange washed over the far wall, the flame reflected the silhouette of the great wyrm surrounded by its glinting horde. The dragon was armoured in shards of black glass, and Gavin caught a glimpse of its intelligent beady eyes before the stream of fire subsided.

  The fighting began in earnest then, Samania using her compelled duel to force the dragon to fight, or at least mildly suggest it should. Her power was more or less effective based on the relative power of her strength and the dragon's spirit attributes, damaging the enemy if it strayed too far from their bubble. The efficiency of the ability would be minimal, not only was the dragon an order of magnitude stronger than her, but the damage it would suffer if it left the area would also be negligible, rank two monsters having vastly more health and resistances than their lower ranked equivalents it would very likely heal faster than it was damaged.

  However, dragons were typically arrogant and strong willed, the idea of a lesser being trying to compel it to do anything was an affront to its nature. As soon as she challenged it to a fight the beast had singled her out to be the first to die.

  Val would be its true threat here, she and her four swords lit into the room at high speed. She flanked the dragon in an instant, steel flashing in the dim light and raking deep gouges in its legs on her first pass. She was forced to break off almost immediately to avoid the slashes from its ebony claws as it lashed out at her.

  Samnia strode into the room, Gavin’s old wand of magic missiles blasting bright blue lights across the gloom in quick succession. As she shot bolts of energy from her wand she transformed, growing to nine feet in height as her body became encased in an awakened tree. Thick limbs of oak and vines sprouted to form filigree patterns across her armoured form. Her torso and head were fully exposed inside her new form, bright steel protecting her as she strode into the fight. Her sword, the one Gavin had made for her, grew to fit her new size, trailing dazzling white light as she leapt across the open expanse.

  Judy, who had barely been a priority for the dragon as it focused on the two women hacking at it with stinging swords, shot arrow after arrow at it with her new bow. Shards of razor sharp obsidian blasted off in flakes where her ensorcelled ammunition exploded against its hide.

  [Item: Judy's reflex bow]

  [Type: Weapon, bow]

  [Rarity: Level 1, epic]

  [Description: a weapon made for a friend to help her protect those she cares about]

  [Effect: Arrows shot from this weapon gain additional velocity. Stamina cost required for abilities that used with this weapon are reduced]

  [Effect: Bow contains ten charges. Expend one charge to empower an arrow shot with this weapon. Empowered arrows accelerate once shot until mana is expended, when arrow hits its target all unspent mana is expelled into the target dealing additional force damage. Spent charges recover over time or can be charged by the user by expending mana into the weapon]

  [Effect: Soulbound]

  Gavin readied his new rifle, shooting six bullets at the dragons head, muzzle flash pulsing rhythmically in the dark. Three of his bullets hit, two in the neck, one in the cheek, volcanic scales shattering under the force of the explosions. He jumped to the other side of the room as the dragon turned its head on him after he'd drawn its attention.

  His new focus was on sustainability, being able to deal damage the entire combat, but also to survive whatever the combat threw back at him. His new armour, loose overlapping layers of fabric that concealed his breastplate, light chain shirt, leather bracers and boots were an extension of this new philosophy.

  [Item: Gavin’s armour]

  [Type: Armour]

  [Rarity: Level 1, epic]

  [Description: Self made armour designed to protect the user allowing for as much flexibility and comfort as possible, surprisingly cool]

  [Effect: Contains mana storage that charges slowly over time. When user is at full mana capacity, Gavins armour will drain mana from the user until full, user may absorb stored mana]

  [Effect: Energy shield. When attacked shield will partially or wholly block incoming damage with stored mana until depleted.]

  [Effect: Soulbound]

  Together, these two items formed the core of his fighting style, with the optional backup of his spear for close range fighting.

  He shot off blasts of light at the dragon who seemed less concerned with him and Judy than with Sam and Val.

  The dragon spread its wide ash wings and beat them with a solid flap, roaring a guttural roar that shook the heart of the mountain. Gavin felt its dread presence like talons needling into his heart and felt the instinct to grovel before the magnificent beast. He faltered, legs flailing out from under him sending him sprawling to the hard marble floor. His rifle skittered away, tumbling and rolling out into the shadows.

  Steeling himself he staggered to his feet, his title [imperturbable] lending him a modicum of resistance to the effect. His soulbound gun rematerialised back to his hand and he resumed his flanking manoeuvre, blasting bullets at it, his hands working on autopilot as he gritted his teeth against the weight of the dragons domineering presence.

  Sam took the full brunt of its wrath, furious spittle stung her face as she felt its will lock onto her. She took a raking attack to her torso, the deadly black claws flashing arcs of blue light where they scored her new armour. The attack left deep rents in the metal, something no other monster they'd fought thus far had been able to do. Trusting in Gavin’s crafting ability she fought on, the armour would hold, even against this onslaught. She felt mana flowing from undamaged parts to refortify the hard shield infused into the steel. Her armour was nearly identical to Gavins, though with a greater emphasis on maximum mana and less on regeneration.

  Valerie staggered for only a moment, her enchanted swords missing only a beat as they stabbed and slashed. She'd retreated out of its immediate reach after its tail had battered her aside as she advanced in her second round of attacks. Its sharp scales skittered across her armour, gouging chunks out of the steel and snapping leather straps. From there she'd stood back, concentrating on harrying the creature, slashing at its more vulnerable wings with her animated swords. Her tier two strength was having more effect than the rest of the team, and soon her swords were tearing strips from the hardened membrane.

  Judy was hit the worst of all, having no resistance to the dragon whatsoever, she felt herself crumble to the ground, bow discarded, and mind unable to think. She watched unfeeling as the dragon scoured Sam with a claw then latched onto her sword arm with a snap of its dagger sharp jaws.

  It whipped its head to the side, throwing Sam's body around like a rag doll, hearing bones snap like kindling as it tossed her aside. She hit The ground hard, rolling and sliding to come to a halt at the edge of the room.

  The dragon turned its sights on its most dangerous opponent, Valerie. Lunging For her in great strides, smashing piles of coins with its bulk to rain down like waves in its wake. She watched Val dodge to the side, only to be batted back the other way, crunching hard into the ground, and still Judy could not act, could not think to act.

  ‘Judy.’ Gavin's voice floated into her mind like a distant lighthouse in thick fog. ‘we need you.’

  They needed her but there was nothing she could do in the face of that rampaging monster, tearing her friends to shreds while she was powerless to stop it.

  ‘Be brave Judy.’

  She couldn't, she was terrified, too terrified to move, at least her death would be painless.

  ‘The dragon is in your head, it's making you think you can't win.’

  No, it wasn't the dragon. Her friends were all fighting, the dragon wasn't in their heads. It was her. She was too weak, she knew this would happen, the first time she fought someone she couldn't beat she would falter.

  Except that wasn't true. Judy had stood alone against Vance Stewardson, a level three warrior while she, a lowly level one with less than half of her abilities unlocked, had won. Not only won but it wasn't even close. She had demolished him, and that man was far more powerful than this lizard.

  She stood, her bow returning to her hand and shot arrow after arrow at the thing, watching them zip across the cavernous vault, accelerating, gaining speed and momentum as they showered silver motes of light behind them. Explosions smashed into the dragon's head, distracting it and letting Val get free.

  Sam was up again, in her tree form and charging her quarry, angelic wings extended behind her as she flew through the air, her great sword held high, ready to slice into the dragon's back as it was distracted. The obsidian beast reacted, slamming her with its tail, blasting apart the bubble shield around her and knocking her out of the sky with a loud whump.

  Sam had the skill and presence of mind to interpose her sword, so even as she was sent tumbling back to land heavily against the wall she'd been beaten against earlier, the dragon was left with a sword, burning white light fully thrust through its tail.

  Screeching in pain the dragon thrashed its tail wildly trying to loose the stinging blade. It hammered the sword repeatedly against the tile as it tried to escape the searing radiant light. It turned its razor maw on its own tail, biting and tearing at the flesh to get away from the pain. It snapped its jaws down on the blade, blasting a wave of white hot fire out between its teeth. The sword bent then snapped in half, detonating an explosion that evaporated the end of its tail and cracked its front teeth.

  Valerie was back at the attack, her swords hacking at the more vulnerable areas of their enemy, one was tasked with going for its face, particularly its eyes. The dragon didn't need them to see, having a psychic connection to its lair, but that didn't mean that damaging its eyes was useless. Vals' attacks served to enrage the beast further, driving it frothing mad. These pitiful animals had invaded its home and were needling it to death with their insignificant weapons.

  The dragon turned on Sam, irritatingly up for a third time, and now looking to put her out of the fight for good. It unleashed its flaming breath with its full force, scorching an inferno directly at Samanias unmissable bulk. She blurred to avoid the attack, dodging forward and under it as it followed her in a wide arc.

  She returned to normal speed, leaping into the air with inhuman strength as flames blazed across her legs, she caught its neck and used her momentum to sling herself on top of it. Wreathed in smoke as her lower half smouldered. She resummoned her sword, feeling it tax her mana heavily as it reformed then once again shimmered with radiant light.

  Valerie watched as the dragon, pummeled by arrows from Judy’s powerful bow, being ridden by Samania who was now busy trying to pry scales loose with her sword. She had been too apprehensive to even attack the beast properly, relying on her dancing swords to do the majority of the work for her. Her lower tier friends were throwing themselves into the fight with wild abandon even though she was a whole tier above them all and much harder to put down than the whole team combined, and yet she was hesitating. Shame washed over her as she watched Sam hold on for dear life on top of the colossal creature.

  This would not do. She threw herself into the fight activating her divine aura of rejuvenation spell. Dodging under a ruined tail she darted in, swords chipping glittering black scales off in increments. She joined Sam, leaping into the air and cashing down behind her friend on the wildly thrashing beast, her enhanced reflexes helping her from being toppled off.

  With heavily practised skill, she laid into the dragon's wing joint with all four of her swords, her two animated swords thrusting in to chip the scales while she hacked down with increasing strength. She layered her special attacks to increase her attack speed and power against her armoured target, feeling her mana finally begin to drop even through the compounding buffs.

  She bashed great gouges into the flesh beneath the ruined scales, exposing bone through the welling blood that poured freely. She thrust her two swords down with all her might, lodging both into the joint. Wrenching them opposite ways she felt the wing pop free, tendons severed and flesh tearing.

  The dragon reared up on its hind legs, one wing flopping free to uselessly dangle at its side. Toppling over, Sam and Val were just barely able to leap free before the dragon crashed on top of them.

  “Kill the thing!” Sam shouted over them battle as she regained her feet.

  Gavin, now close to the beast, dumped all his mana into his force of will ability, the two circling spiky lumps howling as they lashed out at the dragon, twisting into its raw wounds like lemon juicers. His rifle didn't stop firing either, detonating its violent energy against its shattered scales scales. He locked onto its ruined face, broken and bloody from Valerie's assault, blasting away flesh and exposing bone below. His mana now fully depleted, he retrieved his spear from his inventory and threw it like a javelin, pushing on it with the final fumes of mana left in the tank.

  The dragon bucked wildly against the onslaught of pain, righting itself with an effort of will to attack whoever it could reach first, sighting Gavin right as his spear slammed it in the nostril. The crackling weapon buried itself straight through the back of its soft palate to stop lodged in its meaty neck. Sizzling white light burst from the dragon as it thrashed, fully in panic now, pain searing it from the inside.

  With a strangled crack the spear snapped, exploding its stored mana out in a concussive wave. Flesh and bone shattered from the creature, it's neck rupturing with a vicious wound. Hot blood flowed as the dragon collapsed to the ground. Dead.

  Gavin slumped down beside it, completely out of mana, a pounding Headache throbbing between his temples.

  “Gavin!” Sam yelled, seeing only her downed companion and not how or why he'd fallen. She transferred her health to him, realising it was mana drain when her healing had no effect.

  “I'm okay.” Gavin groaned as he regained his coherency.

  Val helped him up with an extended hand that he took gratefully.

  “That was so fuckin cool.” Gavin beamed as soon as was able to talk.

  “It was sloppy.” Sam admonished.

  “Are you kidding me, when you and Val were on its back hacking it to pieces that was probably the most awesome thing I've ever seen. ”

  Judy returned to the group in a flash.

  “Nice work Judy, keeping it distracted for so long kept it from tearing me apart.” Sam said, clapping a hand on her shoulder.

  “Thanks.” Judy muttered.

  “You see her fight off the dragon's psychic attack though? Pretty impressive for someone without any defence against it.” Gavin said, sending Judy the mental wink.

  “No, I was too busy getting thrown about the room.” Sam said.

  “You missed out then Sam, you should have seen Gavin faceplant when it went off, he was sprinting full speed then just stopped running. He skidded along the ground on just his face for a good two yards.” Val said laughing off her pent up adrenaline.

  “I'd pay good money to see that.” Sam said.

  “Did it look like this?” Judy asked, perking up as she crafted an illusion of Gavin running then tripping to fall flat on his face, sliding along the ground for a comically long time.

  “Ha, yes, exactly like that.” Val confirmed as the three women launched into peels of laughter.

  “You guys suck.” Gavin said as he gave Judy a mental high five, “just for that, I'm keeping all the loot.”

  “You keep all the loot anyway.” Val said.

  “Do I? Don't think I didn't notice you buying yourself a whole new wardrobe and bed linen last week.”

  “She did what?” Sam screeched “I've been making do with two changes of clothes and the bedding Gavin bought, it's been awful.”

  “What's wrong with that bedding? It was good value.” Gavin asked defensively.

  “Gavin, we have near unlimited money for mundane stuff like that, we can afford the best there is. You spent gods knows how much on inventing potatoes, we can afford the good stuff, look at where we are, in an actual dragons horde, all that cash could buy all the linen in Edomont.”

  “Actually, the potatoes weren't that expensive. I worked out a deal with that wizard and a local merchant to patent and distribute them. I got an up front bonus I used to pay the wizard. They're going to be able to retire off the royalties alone if they merchant we contacted is any good.”

  “How did you even get the money, he keeps it all in his inventory?” Sam asked Val.

  “No, he keeps it all in that big chest at the end of the dining room.” Judy answered.

  “He does what?” Sam all but shouted.

  “Yeah, it's pretty much all in the chest, did you not know?” Val said frowning.

  “No?” Sam said growing more exasperated.

  “Judy and Val have been raiding it for bits and pieces, I just figured you were going with your stoic minimalism thing, only needing the bare essentials to get by or whatever.” Gavin Said scratching His head. “Could have sworn I told you all that's where it was.”

  “No!” Sam said, her voice raising several octaves.

  “How about we go on a shopping trip after training tomorrow? You can get a new backpack or bedroll.” Valarie suggested.

  “Right after I get some new linen.” Sam huffed. “We also need a decent wine stockpile in the fortress.”

  Gavin soured his face. “Do what you like, I'm sticking with beer. Anyway, let's rustle through this things pockets to see what it has.”

  [You have looted: level 2 adult obsidian dragon demon]

  [you have looted:]

  [10 obsidian dragon scales]

  [10 obsidian dragon bone]

  [10 dragon blood]

  [20 dragon tooth]

  [Level 2 potion of alchemical fire]

  [Demon soul: Obsidian dragon]

  [Amulet of the dragonheart]

  [864 level 1 copper coins]

  [576 level 1 iron coins]

  [384 level 1 bronze coins]

  [256 level 1 silver coins]

  [170 level 1 gold coins]

  [113 level 1 platinum coins]

  [75 level 2 copper coins]

  [50 level 2 iron coins]

  [33 level 2 bronze coins]

  [22 level 2 silver coins]

  [15 level 2 gold coins]

  [10 level 2 platinum coins]

  “Ehh not that great.” Gavin said offhandedly as the pile of gold around them vanished into his inventory.

  “How could it not be great? It's a level two dragon?” Val said incredulous.

  “Must have been faulty.”

  “Faulty? Like your power isn't working properly?”

  “No, powers working fine” Gavin confirmed looking around as if bored.

  “What did we get?” Sam asked.

  “Oh, ahh, some okay crafting mats, and some other junk.”

  “What exactly is the ‘other junk’?” Val asked pointedly.

  “Oh, ahh, just a unique obsidian dragon demon soul, couple magic items, and something like one point three million solars.”

  “Wait, what?”

  “Alright, let's get out of here, this place is going to collapse soon, now the monster is dead.”