Argor was grotesque, which checked out, but still. Ew.

He laid upon a pile of human bones, many cracked and chewed, and the beast himself was…wrong.

Steven’s brain stuttered as he took in Argor’s form.

He wasn’t incomprehensible like some eldritch horror. Steven could make him out just fine. It was just that the creature didn’t look like something that belonged in nature.

His shaggy fur was bone white, with bits of it matted with brown and red that Steven chose not to think about.

Each of his four limbs was unreasonably long, with an elbow joint halfway along them, close to six feet away from his body. Those horrific limbs ended in black claws that looked just a little too flexible to belong to a canine.

His body was long and twisted, his hips rested at an odd angle, like a nose that had been broken and reset wrong.

And his face. Steven shuddered.

Its long wolf-like snout was perfectly symmetrical in sharp contrast to the rest of his body. Argor shifted and yawned, exposing twin rows of triangular teeth like those of a shark.

His thick brow flowed into two large ears that turned towards them.

Argor opened his eyes and stared with two yellow orbs.

A bubbling growl rose from his throat as he climbed to his feet, the bones shifting beneath him.

Steven could feel the growl reverberating through his chest like a goddamn jet engine.

And we have to fight this thing?

Wait! The System had said Argor returned kindness with kindness, so maybe-

“While that is a good thought, and I like you thinking outside the box, Argor has slaughtered an entire county. Homie snapped.”

“Fuck.”

“Yup.”

Argor moved, and Steven nearly died on the spot.

The beast covered the room in three lightning fast steps and slashed out, his grotesque arm reaching Steven from over 10 feet away.

He called a shield, but Argor slipped around it instantly. They all jumped back, but not fast enough.

White hot pain lanced through his shoulder as the beast's black claws dug in.

He gasped, forcing himself to keep focus. He slammed shields toward Argor’s back.

The monster scuttled back, his motions somehow jerky and liquid smooth at the same time.

Steven could feel warmth spreading from his shoulder. The pain shot down his arm and up his neck, and while he couldn’t check the bleeding, he could tell it wasn’t good.

What would that hit have done without Micheal’s Skill?

Steven chased Argor with his shields, calling them from every direction.

Green flashed through the air, but Agror squirmed and writhed through the onslaught, his body contorting around the shields like an eel.

And that was the shields that came close. The first two volleys didn’t even graze him; the thing was too fast.

If Steven tried to aim them at where Argor was, the beast would be halfway across the room by the time his shields hit.

He tried to lead his shots, but Argor was slippery, jerking one way before flowing another.

Del ran at him, white light flowing into her shoulders. Kory followed a step behind, her chain held in both hands.

Argor stopped cold and roared. The sound slammed into Steven’s ears like a punch, causing him to stagger.

Argor charged, slashing a claw out at Del.

Steven called a shield, and as Argor tried to slip his claw around it, he used Compass Push to shove it to the right.

The shield slipped between two claws and caught.

Argor strained, and the shield burst.

Pain.

Steven’s vision cleared in time to see Kory slam her chain into Argor’s nose. The red link burst, sending flames roaring over the monster's face.

He bellowed and scrambled back.

Steven started charging a shield.

“Any big Skills that can down this thing?” Del screamed.

Kory shifted her stance as Argor patted at the flames. “Maybe. But it’ll take some time to set up, and once I have it ready, it’s tricky to land.”

Steven released his charged shield. Argor’s yellow eyes widened, and he scrambled to the side. The shield missed, puffing away into nothingness as A Lot Goes A Long Way ran its course.

Argor rushed in, claws scrabbling over the stone. He opened his mouth, his two rows of teeth filling Steven’s vision.

Kory swung, impacting Argor with a link of green and red.

Fire blasted in a cone that shoved as much as it burned.

Argor bellowed, and as he ran in a wide circle, his eyes settled on Kory.

The woman was breathing deep and holding her chain in a two-handed grip. “I don’t have many of those left. I’m chewing through my enhanced links, and they take too long to rebuild to matter here.”

Steven cracked his neck. “If you can buy me room for fifteen to thirty seconds, I can do the same for you and pin him down.”

Kory nodded as Del cracked her knuckles. “Just don’t get our arms or legs torn off while we don’t have magical shields to cover for us. Easy.”

Kory laughed, the sound loud and rich. “That’s the spirit!” Then she charged the monster.

Argor narrowed his eyes and then charged back, his long limbs eating the distance.

He swiped at Kory, and she spun, slipping under the claw and lashing out with her chain. She struck his wrist, and he snarled.

His other claw came around lightning fast.

She brought her chain up just in time to catch the claw. The chain bent, and a green link snapped. Green light flashed out as Kory blasted back.

Steven's heart froze, but instead of splatting, the woman bounced, then rolled to her feet and ran back in.

As Del started attacking Argor, Steven turned all of his attention to the task at hand.

He called all three shields before him, each a foot apart.

He took a deep breath. He had to hurry, or the others would die.

His Class pulsed as if the thought had woken it up.

Thump. Thump thump!

As his Skills began to pound in his ears, Steven reached out to his shields and began to charge all three at once.

The strain was immediate. Pain blossomed in his head like an explosion in slow motion. It started behind his eyes, then spread. With each second, the pain grew worse, but he didn’t stop.

The shields shook in place, trembling against his will.

He grit his teeth as cold agony crashed through his brain.

He glanced up, splitting his focus slightly to take in the fight.

Del leaped a swipe and punched Argor’s burned snout.

Black light covered the beast as her fist connected, and he staggered.

Steven’s vision wavered as he focused back on his shields.

He was so close!

Just as his mind felt like it was going to snap, the shields finished charging.

He sucked in a breath and barked, “Down!” And then released the shields, without using Compass Push.

Del and Kory dropped flat as the shields screamed through the air, three glowing battering rams of green light that shown against the dark cave.

Argor narrowed his eyes, and his entire body tensed. He twisted, angling himself on two legs while sticking the other two straight up.

The shields were going to slip by him.

Steven snarled, reaching out with a hand and clenching it into a fist.

He used his Augment on the two shields closest to the monsters. They trembled, then crashed inward, right into Argor’s path.

His sickly yellow eyes widened, then the shields struck home.

CRACK!

Argor staggered, then fell onto his back.

Steven was already running.

He wasn’t naive enough to hope that the hit had killed him, so when he reached the beast, he called Tower-Shield the instant he was in range.

The green wall thumped into place as close to Argor’s body as he could get it, covering a decent chunk of his chest.

Before Agror could shake himself from his daze, he called Hand-Shields at his armpits and one at the joint of his hip and groin.

“I hope you're getting that attack ready!” Steven yelled over his shoulder, his voice hoarse.

Kory was kneeling with her chain lying on her palms and stared like it held the secrets to the universe.

Argor shook his head. “Hurry!”

Argor started to move, straining against the shields.

“Shit!”

Argor pushed harder, and the Tower-Shield started to crack.

“Oh shit!”

The cracks spread along with a furious growl from the monster.

Steven tried to reach out to his shields, to demand that they hold.

He couldn’t find them.

The pain in his head, the pain in his shoulder, the growl shaking his chest and rattling his bones. All of it piled on, breaking his focus.

The cracks were almost to the edges now. Argor met his eyes, the feral light telling Steven exactly what would happen when the shields failed.

“Steven?” Del asked, her voice rising.

He closed his eyes. They were his shields. His. And he needed them to protect everyone.

Thump thump.

Thump thump!

Steven followed the pounding in his ears. It was coming from inside him, but there was a separate source.

One right in front of him.

He reached out, seizing the pluses with his mind.

He sucked in a breath and commanded his shields.

Hold!

The pounding in his head intensified, almost as if his Skills were rebelling.

Hold!

THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP-

HOLD!

Pain erupted through his body, but Steven felt his Skills pause, then strengthen.

He opened his eyes and blinked against the light pouring off his shields.

Each one glowed so brightly that they lit up the cave, casting harsh shadows that danced at the edge of his vision.

Kory ran past him, her chain trailing behind her. The thing had changed, the links at the end blurring and flowing together to create a link that shimmered with power. It shifted as he watched, moving from bright red to green to pink and finally black before shifting back again.

Argor bellowed, pushing against the shields with all his might.

Steven pushed back.

His shields thrummed as if filled with electricity as Kory skidded to a stop, her boots spraying pebbles as she raised her chain high.

Del snapped her fingers, and white and black flowed out.

Kory flexed, the chain fell, Argor screamed.

The shifting link impacted and color exploded.

Red and green blasted out, but it wasn’t aimless—the explosion shaped by a shell of pink that guided it straight into Argor’s skull.

The Skill slammed down, and as the light left the chain, a cloud of black formed at the back of the attack. It crystallized, and Steven could feel it hanging there.

He didn’t know how, but he could feel the thing's weight, that it was more solid than the world around them.

Then it crashed down, driving the cone of fire and force into the monster with a deafening explosion.

Steven and Del blasted back, the impact hitting his entire body like he’d been socked by a mattress.

He sat up, his head pounding.

Kory stood, her chain clenched in one hand and great, heaving breaths moving her entire body.

Argor lay at her feet, his head and a good portion of his upper body missing.

“Holy shit, you actually did it. Er, I mean, well done! I knew you had it in you!”

Steven gave the System the finger, then he passed out.