The fighters clash. The strength of the beast, despite being smaller than mightier enemies such as The Batrachia and The Bulimik, was surprisingly robust. In spite of its strength, Cyrene uses her own strength to break the guard of the insect, revealing its wide-open stomach. Her eyes darted to the opening. She holds her blade tight and at an angle, ready to thrust forward. But as the huntress advances, the spikes from the monster’s torso expand outward, aiming to pierce her. She quickly holds her blade up near her chest as the protrusions push her back and send her boots stumbling against the ground. Shaken a bit by the enemy’s defenses, she looks back at the monster who charges toward her. It cocks its arm back and delivers a spiked uppercut, but Cyrene performs a backflip and evades the strike by a hair’s breadth, the blade arm grazing her chin. A small slit forms on her chin, and a streak of blood slides down her neck. Cyrene tries to ease her troubled spirit, but her mental state becomes more evident by the frame of her rattled face. The expression on her face stimulates the limbs of the deformity to harden. 

“Boundless fear! A treat like no other!”

Cyrene runs her hand against her chin. She wipes the blood away and puts on a stern face, but is thrown back into unease when she sees the monster squirming on the ground, rushing back toward her. She brings her blade up and performs an overhead slash. The monster defends itself with one of its hardened appendages, and a parade of sparks spews everywhere. She pushes the monster back. She tries to deliver another overhead slash, and the monster blocks the blow with its hardened cranium. It looks straight into the distressed woman’s eyes, who pushed against it. 

“Weak!”

The creature uses its free arms and grabs Cyrene by the legs. It swings her behind it and violently tosses her toward the pole spinner. Quickly, as she flies through the air, she extends her arms out and manages to grab onto the pole. She uses the momentum to whip herself back to the monster. She grips her sword tightly as the creature tries to defend itself. 

“HAAAAAUGH!” 

SCHWING

She takes a slice at the monster and cleanly cuts off one of its left arms. The monster groaned in pain and staggered a bit. Cyrene’s body crashes on the ground, as she is damaged slightly from the fall. 

The monster turns around and stares at the woman with a tilted head. 

“Wretched wench!”    

She swiftly lifts herself from the ground and raises her sword again as the beast squirms across the rugged ground, rapidly moving like a spider toward her. It strikes high and low, switching from bipedal to ground-based attacks with hardened and softened transitions. She manages to dodge the attacks for a time until she attempts a counterattack. As she tries to slash back, the monster evades and strikes Cyrene at her side, cutting through some of her clothing and sending her flying toward the downed trees. The beast makes a run toward her, then rolls into a ball, combining some of its softened body with its hardened body, turning into a spiked ball. Cyrene looks at the transformation and gasps.      

She jumps out of the way of the ball as it tears through the ground and rees. But at the last second, it transforms into its bipedal form and grabs her once more, tossing her straight into the half-broken swing-set. 

“AUUGH!” 

She coughs violently as the topmost pole of the swing-set cracks against her back. The collision fails to halt her momentum, and she breaks the swings. Her body flips and crashes into the pond face-first. Her sword slowly disappears from her hand. The beast approaches the woman with its hardened arm, its feet splashing against the shallow, dirty pond. 

“You have failed the moment you raised your sword against me.” 

It stomps over to her side and recklessly kicks her body, flipping her over to reveal her cuts, bruises, and overall more disheveled appearance. It slowly puts its foot on her stomach, pressing and grinding the weight of its hardened foot onto her stomach.

“AAAAAAAAH!”

Cyrene’s eyes swell, and her screams roar across the rooftop. She tries to push back the monster’s foot, but the creature presses further, pushing Cyrene back. The dysmorph holds its arm high as it continues to grind its three-pronged foot into her stomach. She glares back at the monster with pained, watery eyes.   

“Trite trash! You cannot hope to defeat me with novice experience! You and this ‘kingdom’ shall perish beneath the might, the fury, the omnipresence… that is The Beastmaster!”

The monster brings its heavy arm down toward her head. 

At the last possible second, Cyrene opens her mouth, spawns her weapon horizontally, along her teeth.  She clamps onto the grip of her sword as the creature strikes downward. 

CLANG

She successfully guards the opponent’s blow.  

“GYAH?!” 

The monster hollers in shock. It raises its foot to stomp on her stomach. Before it could deliver the blow, it felt an immense power coming from behind it. It was only able to turn its head halfway before being met with a thunderous kick.

BOOM

The force of the kick sends the enemy crashing into one of the small storehouses. The small structure collapses on top of it. The person who delivered the blow flips onto the pond waters, holding their arms in front of it in a mixture of a defensive and offensive stance. 

Cyrene despawns her blade and rolls over in pain. She looks up to see a dark figure standing in front of her. Terror clouded her eyes as the figure boasted a fiendish form.  

The small figure was humanoid with jagged creases in all of its muscles that made parts of its body appear as armor.  

The figure whips his body to face her. 

“Get up!” He urged. 

A young boy’s distorted voice echoes from behind the figure. The sound of his voice called to the huntress, partially easing her spirit.

“Kai…?” 

BOOM

The monster bursts from the rubble. Kai swings his body back to the huntress. 

“Hurry! It’s coming!”

The monster clanged its hardened arms together and glaring down at the two. 

Cyrene slowly rolls on her side. She gets up, struggling to stand on her two feet, before bracing her body once more. Her blade’s spawn is delayed. Beaten and bruised, she stands upright and clutches onto her weapon as the creature approaches them with unparalleled malicious energy. 

“Enough games…!” It growls. 

Kai dives headfirst toward The Beastmaster. A spiked portion of the boy’s body extends from the back of his wrist. His immense speed catches the creature off guard, and Kai stabs the monster through its shoulder. 

“GYAK!”

The creature rasps in pain, but does not falter. A scythe-like curve then protrudes from Kai’s elbow. He attempts to bring his elbow forward to decapitate the monster, but it shields the back of its neck with its bladed arm, catching the scythe in between its blades. Swiftly, it hoists the boy in the air and hammers him with jagged debris.

SLAM

The weight and power of the throw winds Kai, causing his body to bounce off the ground. For a brief moment, he de-transforms; his face scrunched in a ball of pain. Although hurt, Kai powers through the pain and transforms once more. He does so right before the creature punt kicks the boy into the air, sending him spinning and flying into one of the adjacent abandoned buildings. 

BOOM 

Kai leaps from the cloud of smoke. Still transformed, he extends his arms, his fingernails turning longer and sharpening like daggers. The Beastmaster holds its guard up in the nick of time, but to little benefit. Kai crosses his arms and unleashes his attack.  

SCHWING

Kai breaks off half of The Beastmaster's blade arm, but his momentum tosses him past the beast, and the boy tumbles across the ground and crashes into one of the other small storage houses. 

“Argh!”

The Beastmaster begins showing visible wear and tear. It tries to catch its breath for a moment, but forces itself to prepare for an incoming attack from Cyrene. Her body ached and shuddered, but she pushed forward. With the Beastmaster finally showing signs of exhaustion, she was able to somewhat keep up with its attacks.  

The two exchanged a flurry of quick slashes. The huntress was in a state of utter focus, countering its attacks with eloquent blows, switching her blade in between thrusts and slashes despite The Beastmaster swapping between its bipedal and spider-like forms. Through her relentless, elegant exchange of clashes, Cyrene spots an opening. Despite attempting to shield its chest with an ensemble of hardened thorns, Cyrene powers through the shield and thrusts her blade forward, cutting past the bramble and driving her blade through its chest. She grinds her teeth and grimaces as she looks directly at its face and thrusts deeper into its cavity, causing it to jut out from its back. The Beastmaster slows down, freezing in place. 

The huntress removes her hands from her blade and takes a few steps backward. Cautiously and curiously, she steps back and observes the monster’s behavior. The Beastmaster jagged and weakly stumbled backward. The Beastmaster’s eyesight begins to wobble and fade. For a moment, Cyrene lowers her guard. But before it can fall, it bursts with a heart-wrenching screech.

“GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

A shockwave of fear ripples across the huntress’ face, a feeling bolstered when she sees The Beastmaster charging back with more fervor than before. She attempts to take her blade out of its chest by spawning it in her hand, but there is a delay in her action. Her heart drops as her blade hesitates to arrive. 

Her weapon’s slowed arrival forces her to block the incoming attack. By instinct, as she brings up her arms to block, she is able to negate a large portion of damage from The Beastmaster’s bladed nub, in exchange for being sent flying backward. As Cyrene is launched back, her blade finally comes to her, and she throws her weapon horizontally toward the creature’s head. It spins and cuts through the air at a rapid speed, but The Beastmaster shields its head with its nub blade, blocking the sword and sending it flying through the air, yet shielding its sight. When The Beastmaster brought its arm down to see, Kai was already mid-leap in front of it, his body altered, his arm extended, elbow transformed. 

SLASH

With the boy’s immense speed and power, Kai decapitates The Beastmaster. The monster’s head rolls toward the edge of the park, stopping at the fenced border. Kai lands on his feet. His power utterly drained, he de-transforms and falls flat on his face. For a moment, all is quiet.

 A fallen Cyrene lies still on the ground, her head aimed toward the underground sky. Sight and sound are still. There is a tired look in her eye, and her vision begins to fade. Before her exhaustion could sweep her away, her mind and body were awoken by an unexpected sound. 

“Hegh, hegh, hegh, hegh, hegh, hegh, heeeeeegh…” 

Weak, low-sounding cackling reverberates through her ear. Her eyes widen, and she turns her head to see the decapitated head of The Beastmaster laughing weakly and grinning from ear to ear. Cyrene grimaces, groaning weakly as she struggles to lift herself from the ground and approach the remains of the Beastmaster.    

“I commend you for your FUTILE efforts…” The Beastmaster spat. “But you have only delayed the inevitable... In time, you will scream. You will cry. Your loved ones will fall. And the kingdom that has been the crux of such turmoil will turn to ash beneath my feet.”

Cyrene ignores the speaking of the mad monster's speaking. She pulls her sword out of the ground, which landed upright some ways away from The Beastmaster’s carcass. She grips the handle tightly and continues on her way. Her injuries make it difficult to move. She pushes her weight onto her right leg with assistance from her sword and limps forward. She stops in front of The Beastmaster and raises her weapon.

“Enjoy your final moments in blissful ignorance, whelp. For all you know, this kingdom has already fallen. But it can fall deeper, sinking to where it belongs, buried beneath the might of The Beastmaster…!” 

CRUNCH

Cyrene thrusts her sword downward, piercing between the monster’s mouth and skull, finally ending its life. There is a troubled look in her eye as she releases her grip on her sword. She stumbles back a bit, utterly exhausted. Her tired eyes scan around her until she sees the fallen boy still grounded. The urge to come to his aid awakens her a bit.

“Kai…!” 

She fights through her pain to move to him faster. She looks at his injured hand and reaches out for it. Once in contact, the anomaly of his body causes damage to her. 

“Aagh…!” 

She quickly pulls back and eyes him once more. Kai surprisingly sustained minor damage from his small fight. Cyrene puts her hand on his shirt and notices she does not feel the same sort of harm from coming in contact with his clothing. She maneuvers her arms and hands carefully to lift the boy in her grasp without coming in contact with his skin. She stands up, still eyeing the boy, who appears more tranquil than exhausted. 

Cyrene scans the area once more, eyeing the deceased Beastmaster for a moment, before looking in the direction of the Council’s headquarters. Cyrene finds the nearest set of stairs and begins her slow descent.