Violet surged throughout Maymun’s body. Her red veins turned violet as she felt the world around her slow down. Her instincts were screaming at her, move. MOVE. MOVE! She felt the threat of death wash over her, icy calmness flowing through her. She acted.

She was lucky she was in an advantageous position to be able to help Ilon and Quyon. She was holding her staff diagonally across her body, her left hand higher up and her right lower down.

She swung her staff forward as fast as she possibly could towards the side of Ilon. She smacked him towards the right, it would be enough to push him out of the way. Finally she was able to see what the threat was, the giant eye was bright red, and she could tell that it was charging up an attack. But she had no time to waste. She had to be faster than she ever was before.

She moved her left hand toward the top of the staff for more control. Maymun pushed her staff behind her with her left hand, having it glide through her right. At the last moment she swung to the left, smacking Quyon in the side, enough to push her out of the way.

She looked forward and saw the attack starting. She knew she had no way to avoid it, she could feel death approaching. But even then, she couldn’t just give up. She knew she wouldn’t make it but she started to crouch anyways, even if there was a 1% chance to survive she had to do it. She felt something on her leg but she was too focused on what was coming to notice what it was.

She could see the attack manifest before her eyes. A red beam the size of her head would pierce through her. There was no way to survive that. She closed her eyes.

Sorry Ilon. You’ll probably blame yourself for this, but it wasn't your fault. I should have been stronger.

Sorry Quyon. I should have listened to you. I love you. I really don’t want to leave you behind, but it looks like I’ll be going first.

The first thing she felt was a wave of heat explode out of the Horror. The next thing was her leg being pulled out from underneath her. Maymun’s eyes shot open as she saw Ilon, still falling to the right, glowing violet. His whip trailing down and curling around her leg.

She was certainly falling faster now, but she didn’t know if it would be enough. She willed it, pushed harder than she ever had before, and more violet energy than ever flooded through her. Now she could see it. The blood red beam inching towards her. She positioned her body in the best way possible in order to fall the fastest, but seeing the beam coming closer and closer, she could tell it wouldn’t be enough.

It would still obliterate the top half of her head. But now she had faith. Ilon alone wasn’t enough, and Quyon alone wouldn’t have been enough. But together, it was possible.

Her eyes crested behind her, allowing her to see Quyon. Warmth flooded through her, erasing the icy chill that was encasing her body.

Quyon was currently twisted in mid air, her right leg arcing in a kick towards her. She was too far away to kick her out of the way and that would just put her in the line of death. Instead she had another trick up her sleeve.

Maymun could see a burst of air shooting out of the kick. She could tell that it would reach her before the beam did. Air slammed into her as she felt herself speeding towards the ground.

Yet before she had even hit the ground she saw the beam trailing over her head, singeing her nose a bit. The beam evaporated a couple of lagging strands of her hair and burned her eyes a little with its intensity.

She felt something crack inside of her as she hit the ground with massive force. But that wasn’t a concern for the moment. They had just survived the first attack, the real fight was to come, and if it could do that multiple times then they were screwed.

“Retreat and regroup!” Maymun heard Ilon shout out from in front of her as the beam faded from her sight.

“Don’t! KILL IT NOW!” Ilon heard Quyon scream with all her might. Fear and adrenaline pumped through him. He had been a moment from death’s door, and the only reason why he was alive was because of Maymun’s fast reactions. He had realized what was about to happen right after Maymun started moving behind him, giving him the time to curl his whip around her foot. Luckily his gut proved to be correct as without that, she wouldn’t have been able to avoid the beam.

Ilon quickly got his train of thought back on track as he turned to look at why Quyon was screaming that. It was made clear in an instant. Where there had been pitch black before, now a wave of light was barreling towards them from behind. It was like a tsunami swallowing the shore and whatever else lay in its path.

Just like the darkness, they would get swallowed up by that amount of monsters and animals as well. There had to be thousands, all launching a coordinated assault at the same time. Ilon looked around and saw similar, yet smaller waves of light coming from the other three directions. Even those would be a gamble on whether or not they could make it through with the injuries they had accumulated from dodging the attack.

Maymun had not held back her power when smashing her staff into their sides, and he doubted she was alright after being slammed that hard into the ground either.

Right, no time to be distracted. Ilon thought after seeing Maymun leap up from the ground. Quyon had already made the call and he trusted her. All they had to do was kill it before they got ground up by the swarm. No time to waste then. He thought as he rushed forward.

Quyon watched as Ilon changed his decision and listened to her without any hesitation. She didn’t know if she had made the right call, but she had an instinctual feeling that the smaller waves of light were just as strong if not stronger than the massive wave. The Horror before them was highly intelligent and she wouldn’t put it past it to make a trap like that for them.

She rushed forward alongside Maymun who had just leapt up from the ground. Quyon could tell that Maymun was hurting, just as she was where Maymun had hit her with her staff. She felt the violet flush through her wound, easing some of the pain. The extra regeneration it provided would cause it to heal within a day or two depending on how bad it was.

Hmm? As Quyon was focusing on the violet she felt her ears pick up on something. It was like a high pitch ringing coming from the direction of the Horror. “Ilon. Dodge!” She shouted as fast as she could. The high pitch ringing reminded her of what she had heard during the previous attack, just that the pitch was even higher this time.

Ilon responded to Quyon’s call almost instantaneously. One of the eyes that was near the large eye started to glow bright red. Violet infused into his veins as he twisted his upper body with unnatural flexibility causing a red beam the size of a finger to shoot past him and into the ground, leaving behind a scorched hole.

The moment that it took dodging gave him a better insight into the Horror. The large eye that had shot the beam that had almost killed all of them was currently a very pale grey colour, while the eye that shot out the most current beam had exploded after firing.

“The small eyes can only shoot once! The big eye might be able to shoot again.” Ilon called out as he controlled his whip to shoot forward towards the big eye. However, the pole on the top of the Horror shot out and intercepted the whip.

Destroying the big eye was a key priority for them. The small beams were a lot slower and were relatively dodgeable. If they couldn’t dodge it fully then they would at the very least be able to avoid the beam hitting their lethal areas. But it was likely that only Maymun out of the three of them would be able to dodge the larger beam.

Most importantly, the big eye could be the key to controlling the swarm. If they destroyed that then they didn’t have to worry about killing the Horror as fast as they could and risk making mistakes that could cost them their lives.

“Ilon!” As Ilon was straightening out his body he heard Quyon yell again. Two eyes that were glowing red moved along the rippling flesh of the Horror, directly in front of them. He barely got a chance to move before they fired off.

He was only able to shift his leg causing the one targeting it to pass by, but the other one managed to hit him in his left shoulder. The red beam that was as thick as a finger pierced through his shoulder without effort, leaving a smouldering hole and the scent of burning flesh.

Pain blossomed and engulfed his left half, yet he didn’t let it distract him from the battle going on before him. He was lucky that he wasn’t moving when the beam hit or else the injury could have been a lot worse, maybe even resulting in losing his arm.

They were also lucky in the fact that the environment was actually to their advantage. Without the pitch blackness around them, save the dim light of the plants around them and the light on the Horror, it would be a lot harder to spot which eyes were firing. In the darkness their slight glow made them stand out, allowing them to react just a tiny bit faster, which could end up saving their lives.

“You alright?” Ilon heard Maymun call over. She was rushing towards the flank of the monster dodging a beam with plenty of time to spare.

“I’m good.” He responded through clenched teeth. He was still in fighting condition, but the wound would slow him down slightly.

“We’ve got a minute or two at most to kill this thing before the swarm arrives. Go all out.” Quyon said as she kicked the air multiple times, sending blasts of wind towards the spider-like legs of the Horror. Loud booms rang out as the wind struck, yet the damage they did was little to none.

“Shit.” Ilon heard Quyon swear before she changed target. This wasn’t the time to be getting distracted, even if there was a hole on his shoulder. If he didn’t step it up then his body would be full of holes and he would be ravaged by the swarm.

This time Quyon’s blasts of air had a greater effect. The lantern-like pole was only able to stop one of the air blasts for every four she kicked out, leaving three that directly hit the body and destroyed eyes. She tried hitting the main eye, but just like the legs there was very little to no damage.

Ilon joined Quyon in attacking from afar and shot his whip out, destroying a couple of eyes with a loud crack.

Maymun had finally reached the flank of the Horror after being forced to dodge a couple of beams. Her legacies of enhanced reaction times and innate danger sense made it easy to identify the path of the beams and position herself to dodge them easily. Luckily it seemed that the Horror could only shoot three beams at a time.

Even then, it would be difficult for Maymun to get closer by herself. However, Quyon and Ilon were there with her to provide distractions. She focused and saw that three beams would be shooting towards Quyon and Ilon, meaning that the chance for her to get closer was now.

She rushed forward with all her speed, reaching the Horror in just a second. She lifted her staff over her head and made it weightless so that she would be able to swing it down with more force. Just as she reached the Horror she jumped slightly off the ground and swung with all her strength, increasing the weight of her staff to the maximum that she could handle once it started descending.

The staff smashed into the grey wrinkled flesh of the Horror, exploding a large portion around her. Unfortunately, the Horor was massive, around the size of a medium large hut. Violet-colored blood spewed out and dozens of eyes were destroyed, yet the attack didn’t seem to have much effect on it’s overall capabilities. It’s flesh boiled and bubbled as it’s grey brain-like flesh warped and twisted, covering the wound. In an instant several more eyes had travelled across the wriggling flesh to replace the ones destroyed.

Maymun landed on the ground and was forced to retreat as several eyes started to glow in the darkness. She heard Quyon and Ilon take advantage of it and attack the Horror, yet time was running out and they hadn’t done that much damage to it. They had destroyed close to fifty eyes, yet the Horror still had hundreds more. A close look also revealed that the large eye was starting to regain some colour and would likely be able to fire another large beam in 30-40 seconds.

If they didn’t do anything to seriously damage the Horror soon then it was likely they would run out of time even if they did end up killing the Horror. If the Horror died, the swarm didn’t just disappear. They were hoping to use the massive infighting when the Horror died as an opportunity to bust through a weak portion of the swarm, but if it was too close then it was likely they would get caught up in it.

“Ilon! Wrap your whip around my leg.” Maymun shouted as she started dashing towards the Horror. A second later she felt it curl around and took off towards the Horror. “Pull me out if something goes wrong!”

“What are you doing?” She heard Ilon shout a second after. She didn’t have time to answer as she had already reached the Horror. Several eyes were already glowing, about to fire off. Yet, it was already too late for the Horror. Maymun dropped to the ground, evading the beams while sliding underneath the Horror. The advantage that the Horror had was it’s massive range and resilience. If she was able to get underneath it then it was likely she would be able to destroy the eyes before they had a chance to fire off or recover. The only problem she was worried about was the Horror dropping to the ground in an attempt to crush her, but she had Ilon as insurance.

What she got was a surprise that she was not expecting. Dozens of eyes on the bottom of the Horror lit up in unison, preparing to fire.