Riona puts Cass back on her feet and says, “Go, run that way.” she points over to the trees and looks at Thistle, “Thistle! What is this thing?!”

Thistles staff glows, readying for battle, “It’s a Talus Golem! I didn’t think they slept in these areas.”

“How do we stop it?” asked Riona.

“Its head is its weak spot, breaking it’s the only way to stop it. We need to get that thing to the ground so I can smash it,” he responds.

“Got it!” Riona says before rushing at the Golem's left leg.

She slashes the leg and it cleanly crumbles right off, but the Golem doesn’t fall, balancing on its other leg before the pieces from the first reform. The Golem growls in anger roaring like a titanic creature of the day, attempting to crush Riona with a stone fist before she jumps out of the way.

Thistle thinks for a moment before coming up with an idea, “I gotta plan.” he looks in Cass’ direction, “Hey Cass!” she stops backing up and looks his way, “Wanna learn a new spell?” he says while smiling at her.

Cass gasps, yelling in response, “Yes!”

“Great, channel your power into the jewel on your bracelet. Then swing your arm out and imagine you’re grabbing a rope!” Thistle instructs.

“Ok, I’ll try!” Cass says with an optimistic tone.

She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, lifting her right arm and holding it behind her shoulder in an aiming motion, the gem on her wrist begins to glow a heavy orange. Suddenly she jolts her eyes back open as she thrusts her arm in the direction of the Golem. Coming out of her wrist is a rope made out of hard light, that latches onto the Golem's neck right as it is readying itself to pounce at Thistle. Cass grunts and struggles as she uses all of her strength to hold back the monster.

“Heck yeah! MAGIC LASSO!” Cass reacts in gleeful excitement.

Riona looks at what Cass has done in amazement, “Oh nice! Keep that up!” she runs towards Cass, grabs the rope, and goes to the other side of it to help her pull, the Golem falls onto its back with a loud crash, “Thistle now!” she yells as they both pull and struggle to keep it down.

Thistle jumps into the air, brandishing his staff above his head. His body and the glowing light from his staff block the now-setting sun for only a moment before he rushes down yelling, crushing the Talus Golem's head to dust. The monster attempts to raise its arm before it falls back to the ground, finally, it ceases to move. Thistle brushes the dust out of the way as the rope, now attached to nothing, disappears.

Cass, panting, says, “Woah, that was…awesome.” she smiles.

“Ugh! That was stressful. I was never trained to take down something that big.” Riona exclaims exhaustedly.

“Ok!” Thistle points at Cass as he’s standing on top of the leftover stones, “No playing on or touching any large rocks. Under any circumstances.”

Cass twiddles her fingers while looking down with a guilty face, “I, uh…ok. Sorry.”

Thistle sighs, “It’s…It’s alright. Just watch where you step,” he turns and points up at a clear revolving path towards and through a nearby mountain, “That’s our next way, if we can get through there we should be in the city in no time.”

Riona catches her breath, still wheezing from the previous battle, “Great, just…” she swallows, “give me a minute.”

“Alright, we’ll trek once you're ready.” Thistle responds, “After we get what we need from the city we can set up camp somewhere nearby. Then I have a friend that should be able to help us figure out what to do from there.”

Cass speculatively asks with a nervous expression, “There aren’t any like, frosty mountain monsters we’ll need to worry about, right?”

Thistle responds nonchalantly, “Psh, what? No-not at this time of day.”

Thistle walks towards the path as Riona stands up straight once more and follows him. Cass stays back for only a moment making a concerned face, as Thistle’s answer to her question wasn’t exactly the most comforting. After catching her mind drifting she jogs over beside Riona as they walk the path of the somewhat snowy, seemingly safe, frosty mountain of Eden’s peak.