It was still quite a distance away.

  Or so Calli thought.

  In an instant, the Monarch Elite reared up its back legs and burst from the ground, jumping high into the air, halfway up the cavern ceiling. It landed with a thud on the ground, closing in over a third of the way towards them.

  “We need to get rid of that thing, now!” Calli yelled. “List, come with me. We’ll keep it occupied while the others deal with the horde.”

  List, still dealing with another enemy, looked nervously on the Elite out in the distance.

  “This, uh, might be a little out of my paygrade,” she said. Calli stared coldly as she swapped her gatling gun and pulled out her glide rifle, finishing off List’s opponent. This prompted a nervous smile from List before she finally sighed, “Fine. Let’s go.” Once again, Calli noticed, List was free from injury.

  Calli, aiming towards one of the rocky pillars jutting out nearby the new Elite threat, fired a shot, which dropped slightly from the distance and cracked the rock formation, leading behind a trail of translucent Johrei shards.

  “Ready?” Calli asked List.

  “For what?” List asked, but then realized as Calli grabbed her by the waist and placed her right hand towards the line of Johrei light which was drawn.

  “Wai- ahhhh!” List screamed as the two zip-lined across over dozens of Standard-Grade Enthipids, and towards the Monarch Elite, who started at them through its compound eyes. It sat at the edge of the field of flowers, ready to hop again, but instead began to raise its head up, as if anticipating something.

  Calli, quick to react, released the zip-line and the pair landed a bit roughly on the ground, rolling out the fall’s momentum so as to avoid any lasting injuries. Looking up, she saw where her Johrei trail had broken from the Monarch’s attack. A strange, muted green liquid tore through the Johrei line. Staring at the Monarch, who was still a way’s away, she noticed it rearing up its head again.

  “Get down, List!” she called as the monster’s acidic spew landed a direct hit on List, who began to scream as her skin began to burn from the outside. Attempting to rid herself of the spew, List found that the substance was sticky, making it hard to move around in. Attempting to slash at it with her Johrei blade, she found the blades were quite potent against this. Still feeling the pain of having her skin peeling away, List noticed the Monarch reeling its head again. Was it another attack?

  Why wasn’t List activating her shielding?

  However, what happened next baffled her. The Elite raised its head and let out a guttural screech which alerted all the nearby hordes. They began to converge around the pair, and just as Calli thought they would swarm around her, they instead went after List. Converging around her, they began to climb on top of each other, bottling List within a pile of Enthipid bodies. As List slashed at one of the Enthipids, another one took its place, and despite List’s supposed invincibility, Calli heard a shriek from within, followed by a large inferno which bursted from where the pack had surrounded List.

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  The acid had caught on fire? How? Calli thought, but didn’t have time to spare as a few of the Enthipids began to swipe at her. She blasted a shot clean through the first Enthipid, leaving a short Johrei trail behind, which she used to propel her out of the way of a second attack. An acid trail landed right where she had been, and she cursed at her lack of attention towards the Monarch, who continued to eye the pair carefully.

  Calli, running out of ways to deal with this, fired a shot upward. Rolling out of the way of another swing, she was hit from behind by a swipe, which damaged her shielding. Luckily it was intact, and she began to zip upwards towards the ceiling. Looking out in the distance, she saw Gravel and the others struggling to push back the oncoming horde. A few of the village warriors had already been killed, blood pooling in the locations where they had been stabbed, slashed at, or maimed.

  Aiming her glide rifle, she understood that the Monarch wouldn’t be affected much by her shot and instead fired two shots at the peak of her ascension. The paths of the bullet landed to the left and right of the Monarch, in a near parallel alignment. Using these trails, she ziplined down towards the Monarch, swapping out her glide rifle for her trusty sword and shield combo.

  The Monarch backed up slowly, firing acidic spew in her direction, but she zigzagged between the two Johrei lines, dodging each spew as she closed in. It tried to sweep the spew horizontally, but at the moment, Calli centered herself between the two lines, and using the momentum built moving between them, she decreased and then increased the strength of her pull to each Johrei line, which launched her upwards, like a slingshot.

  Avoiding the last attack, she landed behind the Monarch, who attempted to use its tail to land a fatal blow against Calli. Calli blocked the strike, swiping the tail aside as it crashed against the floor next to her. Droves of petals danced in the air as Calli faced the creature one on one.

  List, out in the distance, looked at Calli staring down the Monarch. Eye missing, skin tearing on multiple fronts, and bleeding from every orifice, List’s ability of regeneration came from the use of her blade. Drawing the life force out from her defeated opponents, she held one of the rarest types of Johrei abilities, the ability to heal herself through damage inflicted on the opponent. So long as she held the blade, the Elite core held within would allow her to fight as long as she needed to, or until her stores of Johrei ran out. Luckily, this weapon drew out Johrei from Enthipids, a strange perk which allowed her to deal with expedition missions much more effectively than others. As a hunter of men, she was not that strong, but as a hunter of the Fringe wastelands, she was among the best.

  Looking at the corpses of the slain Enthipid next to her, she healed up her remaining wounds, gaps of bone and muscle closing in on itself until nothing was left except skin. Her eye now fully healed, she thought about how she had gotten used to the excruciating pain which came with her reckless nature. This ability of hers did not inhibit her pain, but in some strange way, she felt used to it, almost addicted. Another thing she regretted, was not seeing the full extent of what this core could do, as she wasn’t an Inner and could only use a weakened version of the original Elite Enthipid’s abilities which came with its core.

  Regrets aside, she breathed in, and began to sprint past the corpses of Enthipids, and towards the battle being held in the distance between Calli and the Monarch.