My brother was doing an amazing job at being bait.

  Storbek had told him more times than I could remember that he could find a way to irritate a rock. That skill was being put to good use here as Vin did all that he could to make sure the large serpent was focused solely on him.

  Which was where we had good news.

  The monster seemed to have forgotten about me.

  As if to emphasize that fact, it reared back and spat acid at my brother.

  “NOT THE DRAWERS!” Vin danced around, avoiding the flying venom.

  I wasn’t sure if the shield would disappear if I let go of it, so I only had the sword in my right hand as I sliced parallel to the ground into the basilisk’s back.

  The serpent roared as it dropped to the ground, the part below where I’d cut was unmoving as the upper part tried to focus on me. I’d been a little worried that I hadn’t done enough damage when the blade had only bit a few inches into the body, but that had been enough to cut the spine, taking almost two-thirds of the serpent out of the fight.

  I crouched behind the three-foot square shield as my opponent tried to petrify me with its only good eye.

  “No you don’t!” Vin landed on its back and wrapped his lower two arms around its throat and yanked backwards. He wove the fingers on his upper two arms together and slammed the fist down on the thing’s skull as he pointed its face towards the sky.

  “KILL IT!!!” Vin gritted his teeth as he strained to hold the monster in place.

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  I dropped the shield and as soon as it left my hand, it vanished. That was fine, I wouldn’t need it in a little bit, but it did confirm what I’d feared about summoned weapons.

  I gripped the sword with both hands and sliced into the basilisk’s throat, spraying green blood all over myself. The blood burned while the basilisk gurgled as it tried to roar. I ignored the pain and sliced again as Vin pulled the head back further. Then again and again and again, until we’d removed the head from the monster’s body.

  I dropped the sword and staggered as my body finally started losing against the exhaustion now that there wasn’t a threat to fight. Starna grabbed me and pulled my arm over her shoulders to steady me.

  “You’ll get your clothes bloody.” I wanted to pull away, but I had no strength. For a second I thought about taking the strength from her, but she was trying to be nice and that would be rude.

  “Are you going to prop me up too?” Vin grinned as he wiped blood off his face and bare chest. It looked like some of the black fur had started to melt off, leaving a few patches of bare black hide showing.

  “If you wouldn’t give me magic exhaustion, I would.” Starna looked me over. “Are you okay?”

  “I’ll be fine.” I smiled to try to emphasize my claim, but I was pretty sure that just made me look drunk. “Are you okay?”

  “I had the easy job.” Starna motioned at her breath freezing as soon as she spoke.

  “It helped.” Vin declared as he ripped a few scales off.

  “What are you doing?” I shook my head. I knew the answer, but I couldn’t believe he was doing that right now.

  “Trophies.” Vin motioned around the city. “How long do you think this will lay here before it gets stripped down? Do you have any idea how much a basilisk is worth?”

  “I’ll get some of the guys to haul it to the Ranger’s Station. They’ll make sure you get your cut.” Velt limped towards us.

  “You should get that looked at.” I tried to motion at her petrified arm, which almost knock the two of us over.

  Starna braced to keep us on our feet. “We need to get you cleaned up before you start trying to heal everyone else.”

  “But..!”

  “You can go with her, or I can give you a bath.” Vin bounced his eyebrows. “Your choice.”

  “Fine.” I let my shoulders sag.

  “Great!” Vin turned to the Dwarf. “Where are these boys?”

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