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Claire grabbed Alex, whose leg was still charred to a crisp, and dragged him to the side. The two of them half ran, half-stumbled as streaks of flame streaked away from the Field Boss and hurtled toward where they\'d been standing. Smoldering hot air prickled against Alex\'s back as the attacks just barely missed.

The Nagagaga slammed its staff into the ground with a trio of furious hisses. Fire coiled around the monster\'s body, rising from the ground beneath it and rolling out in waves. The air around it was hazy and Alex could practically taste the heat on his tongue.

"Do you really think they\'re going to be able to do anything other than get themselves killed?" Claire asked Alex as they repositioned, both looking for an opportunity to strike and finish the Field Boss off.

"Probably not, but at least this will show us who\'s worth actually trying to help," Alex said. He pushed the pain from his mind, his fingernails biting into the palm of his hand as he kept himself focused. "We don\'t have the resources of a massive family. If they can\'t fling rocks at this thing while we keep it distracted, they won\'t have the guts to fight anything in the Mirrorlands."

And they\'re way behind the curve. If they want any chance to survive the Apocalypse, then they\'re going to have to start fighting way above their weight limit. They\'ll always be weak if they don\'t.

A white flash of magic split the air behind them. Alex\'s eyes just barely managed to pick up on a shard of ice flashing through the sky before it slammed straight into the Nagagaga\'s shoulder, biting deep into the wound that Claire had left in its flesh.

The monster screamed and swept its hand forward. Tongues of fire rolled out in a wave, washing over the area the attack had come from, but the monster had aimed far too close to itself.

Orchid, who had thrown the attack from well over twenty paces behind where the Nagagaga\'s fire scorched the earth, lowered her own staff, a determined look on her features.

She wasn\'t alone. All around the campsite, the townsfolk that weren\'t already caught up in a fight with a weaker monster stared at the Nagagaga. Many of them still hid. Hesitation gripped their bodies — but some of them still moved.

Around ten townsfolk, nearly all Outworlders from their appearance, stepped forward. None of them looked to be in any rush to get closer to the raging Field Boss, but they readied their weapons and bit back their fear.

Alex couldn\'t afford to pay them attention any longer. The Nagagaga may have been blind, but it was flinging magic in every direction with no signs of slowing. It had burned the ground around it to the point where it was just a solid black crisp where there had once been dirt and foliage.

The thick smell of ash and smoke infused the air to such an intensity that it almost blocked out the scent of blood that had been spilled in the fight prior.

Almost.

Alex\'s jaw clenched as he studied the Nagagaga. They needed a real opening. It was blind, but the monster was surrounded by so much magic that Glint and Spark still didn\'t have a good way to get close to it without dying before they could get their attacks off.

If this thing was weaker, I\'d send them on a suicide mission. Even if they died, they\'d probably land one strike and that would be enough. But this is a Field Boss. It\'s tanked a lot more damage than I would have thought it could have. Glint and Spark can\'t kill it in a single strike.

We need to weaken it even further before they can get close.

"You got any other tricks stored up?" Alex asked, keeping his voice as low as possible to avoid calling the Nagagaga\'s attention right to them.

Claire shook her head. "Yes, but not ones that are going to do much here. I need to be up close. There\'s just too much magic in the way. I\'m not flame resistant, and I\'m not nearly fast enough to dodge everything if I got any closer to it."

"Figured," Alex said.

A loud whine filled the air as the Nagagaga lifted its staff and formed a fireball at the tip. Its tongues lolled out of its mouths like it was a rabid dog. The blood streaking down the sides of its faces certainly didn\'t help improve that image.

Hissing in fury and pain, the Nagagaga swept its staff down. Alex and Claire dove to the side as the fireball screamed out and slammed into the ground about twenty paces from them, detonating with a loud explosion.

Fire licked across the ground and danced into the sky before fading away, its crackle swallowed by another whistling shrill. The Nagagaga was forming another fireball.

"We can\'t keep dodging. It\'s going to land something eventually," Alex said. "Especially with my leg the way it is. I feel like a piece of chicken."

"Tasty?"

"Fried," Alex replied. He bit back a curse. "I think I\'m going to have to sacrifice Glint to get the Nagagaga off balance and waste some of the magic it\'s flinging around everywhere. I don\'t think anyone else can—"

A guttural, wordless battle cry rang through the battle scarred clearing.

And, from behind a cabin, a lone form sprinted out and darted straight for the Nagagaga, a katana clutched in his hands like a baseball bat.

It was Aaron.

The cry had been so loud that even the Field Boss couldn\'t have missed it. The monster twisted in the direction of the sound instinctively, pointing its staff and sending three tongues of flame leaping in Aaron\'s direction.

"Fuck!" Aaron screamed, his eyes wide in wild fear. The first and second flames streaked past him harmlessly. He nearly got hit by the third, but it hit the scorched ground a few feet in front of him instead of connecting with its target. Aaron leapt over the blackened dirt, which fortunately had nothing left to actually burn. "Fuck me!"

The Nagagaga flung another flame in his direction. Aaron stumbled past it, nearly losing his footing in the process, but managed to keep his balance. He let out another scream as he continued charged toward the Nagagaga.

"What the bleeding hell is he doing?" Claire asked, aghast.

"I think I should have been more specific with how we wanted help," Alex muttered, more than a little awe in his voice. "I was thinking people would throw shit or used ranged attacks. Not… this."

Sprinting straight at an Adept ranked monster as a Novice was ridiculous. It wasn\'t just insane. It was suicide. Aaron definitely knew how significant the difference between Novice and Initiate was, but here he was running right at what had to be the strongest opponent he\'d ever seen without so much as a shield to hide behind.

The Nagagaga\'s heads followed the approaching noise. If the monster had just waited until Aaron was upon him, the fire surrounding it would have fried him long before he even got a chance to attack.

But it seemed Princess had left lasting effects. The monster wasn\'t about to let another opponent get anywhere near it easily. It thrust its staff forward as a fireball twisted to life at its tip.

"Come on! Don\'t make a Nativeworlder fight this thing on his own!" Abby called, bursting into motion. Several other people followed after her, raising their weapons and letting out battle cries of their own.

They\'re all fucking insane. Does nobody have a goddamn bow or something?

That did nothing to keep a grin from pulling across Alex\'s lips. He still had some energy, and Princess\' magic was doing wonders to seal the damage in his leg. It held his weight properly once again.

And if a bunch of Novice ranked Outworlders were charging an Adept, then he\'d be damned if he sat around and did nothing.

Hell yeah. Let\'s fucking get it.

"Alex," Claire warned, noticing the look on his face. "Don\'t you even—"

"Charge!" Alex roared, bursting into a charge along with everyone else. He drew on his magic, preparing to cast Funhouse to re-direct the Nagagaga and keep its fireball from connecting.

Someone else beat him to it.

"Don\'t touch my brother!" May yelled.

A faint crack split the air as a sleek bolt of lighting carved through it. The magic collided with the side of one of the Nagagaga\'s three heads, doing no more than singing its scales ever so slightly.

The Field Boss staggered back, lifting its staff defensively before it and sending a streak of flame from its Partial Domain out for Aaron — and through either sheer luck or just the virtue of proximity — this one was right on target.

Even from across the field, Alex saw Aaron\'s eyes wide with fear. He lifted the katana before him as if to block the magic with it.

The earth before him exploded. A stone wall erupted up an inch away from him. The bolt of fire slammed into one side of it, splashing off the stone and dissipating harmlessly, and Aaron ran face-first into its other side.

He staggered back, reeling, as Orchid lowered her staff.

"For Rin!" an Outworlder yelled, pointing a sword up at the massive monster. "Cook the liz—"

A serpent of flame slammed into the man\'s chest, killing him in an instant. He crumpled, but the rest of the Outworlders didn\'t even slow.

May sent another largely harmless bolt of lightning into one of the monster\'s faces. Abby dodged out of the way of several streaks of fire and sliced her sword down, sending a thin blade of white wind slicing through the air and into the Nagagaga\'s scales.

The attack did little, but it drew the monster\'s attention to her. The Nagagaga lowered its staff and aimed in her general direction as a fireball gathered at its tip. Flashes of fire danced all around it, seeking out the Outworlders, but the monster was starting to panic. Its movements were getting erratic.

Letting out a hiss of both fury and fear, the Nagagaga brought its staff down. Alex\'s heart skipped a beat. The charging Outworlders were nearly upon it. If the magic got anywhere near them — they were all dead.

Change of plans.

He grabbed the last of the Qi he had and shoved it, along with every last scrap of magic he had in his body.

Then he cast Funhouse.

Reality shattered. The Nagagaga staggered as it was twisted like a cloth in a tornado. Funhouse spat it out to the side, sending it staggering. The monster\'s fireball slammed into the ground a dozen paces away from any of the campers.

It tripped and fell back, hissing and writhing. The monster flung its domain-granted flames around haphazardly, sending them streaking in every direction.

And then there was nothing left.

Fire bubbled at the ground as it rose, to replenish the Field Boss\' reserves, but would be a second or two before it could attack again. The Nagagaga had spent its defenses in their entirety.

Glint and Spark exploded into motion.

A silver blur marked Glint as he bounded across the ground and alighted on top of the Nagagaga\'s chest. His wing drove straight down into the monster\'s heart, piercing clean through its scales and into its heart.

At the same time, Spark materialized beside the monster. His daggers flashed as he drove them into its eyes. The Field Boss screamed and thrashed, flinging Glint off.

Spark swapped spots with his shadow and dashed at it once more, carving deep furrows into the monster\'s body.

Glint wasn\'t one to be outdone. His wing snapped out in its blade-form, slicing a deep furrow through the Nagagaga\'s chest. It flashed twice more, leaving two more wicked wounds upon the monster.

The two of them bore down on the Nagagaga. It dropped its staff; clawed at them in a desperate attempt to pry the monsters free. The Nagagaga managed to wrap a hand around Spark, only for Glint\'s segmented blade to cut its arm clean off and free the Knight Wraith.

Their assault was relentless — and the Nagagaga had no ways left to defend itself. Snakes of fire finally rose from the ground, but they were too late.

It collapsed to the ground, thrashing pitifully, still somehow alive. The monster\'s body was incredibly resilient for a mage. It had managed to survive nearly ten seconds under Glint and Spark\'s combined efforts, but it had finally met its end.

A wave of magical energy poured into Alex, and all around the camp, a breath of relief went up.

The Nagagaga was dead.