The Toyreveler attacked without preamble. Without witty banter or thrown barbs.

It was fast, brutish, and straight to the point, like an evil runaway train on a collision course that would wipe out Jay and the others. It was so direct and sudden that it caught the [Freak] off guard.

So, when the entire group froze, the only person who could respond appropriately was trained for such ambushes.

Frank [Calvary Charged] at the dashing mass of limbs grafted to a fleshy puppet’s body. He ran over a scarred wooden floor littered with myriad random toy limbs. The greatsword was in his hands again, cocked back and ready for a dramatic first clash that would tell the party plenty about the Toyreveler.

Too bad Frank’s counter to the dungeon master’s ambush was a hasty and ill-informed one.

The Toyreveler Dungeon Master Boss, Rank 2, swung forward a garishly bright, yellow and green toy hammer the size of a man. Frank stomped down and skidded to a stop that kicked aside a bunch of toy limbs. Jay watched with awe as Frank put all of his Strength, Agility, and training into his Skill [Power Parry] that he’d gained at Level 6.

The air warbled where the sword passed before meeting the boss’s hammer.

The ear-splitting impact derailed the Toyreveler, staggering it and keeping the rest of the party from getting trucked.

Frank’s feet left the ground. His sword flew from his hands. There was no blood, thankfully, but the sheer force knocked him into a hard tumble backward, smashing aside more discarded limbs.

He’d be alright, Jay thought and refocused on the horrid monstrosity of many limbs.

“I’m going for it!” Dennis roared, pressing the quick-release buttons on the rucksack clasps.

With the bag dropped, the [Fighter] rushed at the Toyreveler at a much slower speed than Frank. Still, the boss could target the Superjock and give Jay and Mike ample time to get their reads. Then they could play the game to the best of their abilities and minimize the threat the boss posed.

The Toyreveler’s attention seemed arrested by Dennis, staying still as the [Fighter] raised his colossal sword. A [Mountain Leap] at the end of Dennis’s run threw him directly at the boss’s face with Ogre Hunter raised for a massive and crushing cut. Even if it clashed with the boss’s hammer, Dennis’s [Meteor Drop] was a force to be reckoned with and should keep the creature occupied for follow-ups.

The dungeon master scurried sideways and evaded Dennis’s attack.

Then it rushed forward, gifted a straight shot at Jay and Mike with both of the [Fighters] out of the way.

Jay wrapped one arm around Mike and the other around Kleo. The [Freak] sent them falling upward with [Dance Floor Relativity].

Mike helped him with [Mana Hype], which gave Jay enough boost to use [Moonwalker] to slow their upward descent.

Mike cast a simple Star Shot testingly. An excellent way to check the dungeon master’s magical defense. At the same time, Jay took the time to observe the boss room.

It was an amalgamation of everything they’d seen. Toy castles were grafted hideously into bubbly dollhouses, creating eldritch towers that snaked haphazardly up into the air. A massive bed soiled by old stains and broken doll bodies was in the corner of the giant room. Jay had no desire to investigate that further.

Set against a wall was another massive piece of furniture, a workbench with sick yellow lamps and shelves filled with tools that seemed more home in a medieval torture chamber than in the hands of a toy collecting and maintaining enthusiast. On that workbench were other toys: monstrous, spider-like things made of mismatched limbs, maliciously grinning doll-heads, and the bodies of toy carriages that contained more evil toys. All the toys riding in the monster spider-carriages looked dressed for a villainous ball celebrating their horrid tyrant of a dungeon master. All these creatures were Level 9 or 10 and numbered more than two dozen.

“No, no, no, no,” Kleo said frantically. “This is impossible. This is not something any Rank 1 should ever face. Jay, Mike, please, you need to run away. Get to Frank and tell him to leave. Please!”

“It’s Master Jay,” Jay corrected. “And I will not leave you. You’re my toy, not his. And he’s got to pay for what he’s done here and what he’s done to you.”

“I’m just a nobody, a dungeon monster that’s malfunctioning,” Kleo said. “It’s okay if I die or if I suffer. I don’t want any of you crawlers hurt or worse.”

Jay redirected gravity and had them falling toward the nearest grafted tower of houses and castles. They landed on a merged doorway between a castle gate and a dollhouse entrance. The floor was a riot of colors and motifs that assaulted the senses even if Jay wasn’t all too into architecture. At least it had a usable platform where Jay could set Kleo down.

“I don’t have anything else to say, Kleo. I’ve given you everything you need,” Jay said before turning to Mike. “Any thoughts on this so far?”

“He dodged my Star Shot, which leads me to believe it’s a suspiciously careful creature or lacks in the Health Department,” Mike explained. “I don’t think it lacks Resilience or Poise, so it might be an overly cautious enemy, which checks out with everything Kleo has told us. So, we can’t prey on it for being dumb, arrogant, or stubborn. How it attacks us says most of what we need to know.”

“It’s not giving Dennis or Frank the time of day,” Jay said.

The Toyreveler outran the Superjock each time Dennis tried to chase it down. When Frank found his greatsword and attacked the boss again, the Toyreveler warded the attack with a defensive swing of its hammer. At the same time, its extra limbs grabbed the spare limbs from the floor and charged them with a hint of magic that made them glow a faded blue. Then the Toyreveler chucked the charged-up limbs, destroying them upon impact to release compact but explosive magic blasts.

That forced the [Fighters] to think twice, corralling them toward the center of the room as a platoon of monstrous minions rushed down from the giant workbench and swarmed toward the [Fighters’] backs.

“Mike, I’m going to leave you to reposition and help on your own,” Jay said with authority. “Kleo, it’s going to be alright. If you can’t believe in yourself, believe in your true master who believes in you.”

He gave her a smile and a pat on the head.

Then he dove off the edge and fell under gravity’s normal effect, the wind whipping his short dreadlocks around. The cool, exciting rush of mana drip-feeding from somewhere in his head to everywhere around his body made Jay smile. He used [Moonwalker] to slow his descent and land softly with a dramatic flap of his stained and tattered cloak. His purple eyes brightly glowed as he leveled an amused look on the Toyreveler. The dungeon master’s button eyes and cold, indifferent face turned to Jay.

“Here I am, Toyreveler, the one who will end you and everything you’ve ruined,” Jay announced.

Ever so slightly, the dungeon master proved Mike had made a misjudgment in his first assessment. There was something for Jay to prey on.

The boss monster gave Jay a look that expressed pure and utter hatred. It was an emotion that Jay could only read. He perceived through his sixth sense a huge, roiling mass of evil heaviness clinging to the dungeon master. It wanted nothing more than to destroy the [Freak].

“Sweet, the feeling is mutual,” Jay said, entering a dash.

The Toyreveler blitzed in return.