Det heaved deep breaths into burning lungs as he and the rest of his party stood over the third birokk they’d brought down. For this supernatural body to be tired, they had to have been going at it for longer than he realized. Really, it had all kind of blurred together after they’d brought down the first beast.

  How long have we been fighting? Minutes? Hours?

  At his sides, the others—bloody and exhausted like Det was—gripped their gore-smeared weapons with tired hands. Eriba was on her fourth crossbow, and her millionth quiver of bolts. Or, at least it seemed like that when Det looked at their latest kill. The woman had gotten far better at both reloading and aiming. The dead birokk looked like a porcupine with how many shafts protruded from its skin.

  Near the end, Eriba had taken to aiming at the cuts Sage, Det, and Tena opened up in the thick, bear-like hide. How she’d managed to get good enough at firing a bolt into those injuries while the beast was moving could only be attributed to her ReSouled body. Whatever it was, it’d worked, taking a lot of the pressure off the melee fighters.

  Hell, even Weiss had gotten in there at the end with some kind of punching-dagger-weapon-thing. There was a name for it—like a dagger on the end of brass knuckles—but Det’s brain was too tired to figure it out at the moment. The important thing was Weiss had finally woken up and chosen violence.

  He was also terrifyingly good at it.

  Something the party still needed, with a dozen of the birokks remaining and rampaging through the ReSouled. Part of Det had hoped his party would get a pass when they’d brought down their target. Nope. Not at all.

  While the other groups fought their own monsters—or got dismembered by them, only to be healed by Baba and thrown back in the fight—it became clear the win condition was defeating all the beasts. At figuring that out, Sage had suggested helping out the others, mainly because it would make them look better. So, they’d fallen on their second birokk like a clumsy teenage boy with his first girlfriend.

  They vaguely knew what they were supposed to do, but no real idea how to accomplish it efficiently. Or pleasantly. A lot of experimenting later, the beast had finally stilled at their feet. Slightly more confident at that, they’d moved on to number three. There was significantly less fumbling and unsatisfied grunting that time, with the party working together like a well-oiled—and vicious—machine.

  “Everybody up for number four?” Det said, tossing his bent sword to the ground and jogging over to a nearby table for a replacement.

  “We’ve got more than a few eyes on us,” Tena said. “Instructors.”

  “Bout time they figured out how awesome I am,” Calisco said, a new quarterstaff in hand. She’d even figured out how to kind of, maybe, sort of use it.

  “Anybody else doing as well as us?” Weiss said.

  “Fourth and a few other individuals are showing their skill,” Sage said. “Alone, against a birokk, though, isn’t ideal. They’re only now starting to work with their groups.”

  “Then let’s put number four down, and see if we can get a fifth in,” Det said. “That would be twenty percent dying at our hands. That’s got to earn us something. Choices?”

  “That one,” Tena said, pointing at a smaller but more agile birokk harassing a group of six ReSouled. It had a few injuries across its body, but the blood coating the floor was definitely from the six cadets. “They’ve been getting their asses kicked the whole time. Their Bulwark is a terrible match-up for this. Her magic is all about shifting into a werebear kind of thing, ironically enough. She’s just trying the same thing—throwing her body in front of the birokk—and it’s not working.”

  “Time to make some new friends then,” Sage said and hefted his axe up.

  “Same way we did it with number three here,” Det said. “Tena, get its attention. Weiss, you and me, we’re going right. Calisco and Sage, go left. Eriba, if you can hit an eye again…”

  Det didn’t even get to finish his sentence before the birokk bellowed and staggered to the side, a crossbow bolt jutting out of where its eye had just been.

  “Okay then…” Det said quietly, then just charged ahead with the others.

  They fell on the wounded birokk like a Maritimer on an all-you-can-eat lobster buffet. It was messy. Loud. Chaotic. They only thing missing was the butter, but they made up for it with blood.

  So. Much. Blood.

  The birokk’s—and some of theirs—spilled across the ground in gushing fountains. Yes, they had Baba there to bail them out before they could actually die, but she wouldn’t step in before that. And, if she had to make an appearance, that meant they’d done something wrong. Screwed up. This was a test, sure, but it was also a chance for them to train. To get stronger.

  They made the most of it. Systematically hacking the birokk down. As Weiss had suggested before, first they took care of its ‘wheels’. Tendons and muscles on its back legs were the first to go. Next was the tail, mainly because it was a pain in the ass to deal with, followed by targeting the front legs to limit the dangerous claws. All the while, Eriba and Tena would use their longer range to strike at anything soft and vulnerable.

  A lucky stab from the Bulwark at the same time the birokk jerked forward nearly ended the fight right there, with four feet of her spear disappearing into the monster’s neck and chest. The whole thing shuddered and spasmed, the tip having to be close to—or inside—the monster’s heart. Even if they’d walked away right there, it probably would’ve died slowly over the next several minutes.

  They didn’t walk away. They pounced.

  Sixty seconds later, it lay still on the ground, and the party stalked off with growing confidence looking for number five. New weapons were grabbed as Tena sized up the targets that were left. Fourth and her party finally had the advantage against the one that had been harrying them the entire time, while the other parties were likewise doing the same. For them, it was only a matter of time until they won.

  And, as much as Det and his friends wanted to keep pushing themselves, they also recognized some of the other groups had to accomplish this on their own. That really only left one possible target for them to consider. The biggest of all the birokk’s that’d entered the arena, this monstrosity simultaneously battled three groups trying to contain it.

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  They weren’t doing very well at that.

  Every swipe of its claws disembowelled a cadet. Crushing jaws damn-near bit a ReSouled in two, and there had to be an instructor somewhere with some kind of teleportation magic. That was the only way cadets weren’t getting swallowed left and right. Something that seemed to be making the giant birokk even more pissed off. Not only were the same eighteen or so cadets getting back up over and over again, but it wasn’t being allowed to eat them.

  It was hangry.

  “That’s our final target right there,” Tena said, pointing with her spear.

  “Saved the best for last,” Eriba said quietly. In one hand, she held her loaded crossbow, while she spun a quarrel in the fingers of her other hand like it was a pen. Viscera tangled her bangs, exposing her face covered in a mask of blood. For once, she wasn’t hiding, and her brown eyes locked on the birokk as it whirled and maimed.

  “Slight change of plans for this one,” Det said as he watched the dervish of a birokk tear through the parties around him. “That tail needs to go ASAP.” Even as Det spoke, the clubbed end of the tail batted one ReSouled practically into orbit—only that strange teleportation magic saving them from reaching escape velocity—before hammering down on the another cadet and shattering more than a few limbs. As much damage as the claws and teeth were doing, it was the tail causing real havoc. The speed, length, and angles of attack meant the cadets weren’t reacting to it in time.

  Det and his friends would fare better, but not much. No, the tail needed to go.

  “Tena, take the tail!” Det bellowed.

  “On it!” the Bulwark replied.

  She charged in front of the swinging tail, shield up. The thwack of shield meeting tail echoed across the arena. Tena’s feet dug into the sand of the arena floor as she skidded back five paces, arms shaking from the blow.

  The tank stopped the tail there, one hand reaching out to wrap around the clubbed end. Held like that, the powerful monster looked almost surprised. How could a woman so small hold a beast so strong? The answer, of course, was her ReSouled body.

  “Sage, you’re up!” Det shouted.

  Without a word, the Arsenal charged in, axe high above his head, then brought the weapon down, blade glinting in the sunlight. With a sound like chopping firewood, the weapon dug deep into the birokk’s tail, and the beast let out a mighty roar of pain.

  Its bad day didn’t end there, though. With Det coming in opposite Sage, sword already falling, ReSouled steel met monstrous flesh. The outcome was never in question. Pinned between an axe and a sword, the tail parted—severed mere feet from the rear end of the monstrous birokk.

  As the tail fell to the arena floor, the beast’s maw opened in another roar of pain, only to find a crossbow bolt aimed straight down its throat. The titanic bellow choked off in a wet cough, as the towering beast took a step backward, shaking its head like it could dislodge the bolt.

  It shuffled side to side—distracted—which was exactly when Weiss stepped in. Apparently, the man had completely given up on his vow of nonviolence, fists pumping with the bladed knuckles, driving deep gouges into the feline rear end of the monster. Blood showered across him, coating him from head to toe within seconds as his arms pumped, and pumped, and pumped again. The new, mounting injuries practically eviscerated the birokk.

  As it staggered, the new injuries definitely got its attention. It turned its head, furious maw open and ready to chomp Weiss’s top half clean off. Wide went the teeth—only for a certain quarterstaff to thrust straight down its throat like a spear. Calisco, having watched where Eriba’s crossbow bolt had landed, made no mistake in her strike.

  The iron-bound end of the staff hammered the crossbow bolt even deeper, punching it through the birokk’s throat and into the softer bits beyond.

  Wincing at the new pain, the monster staggered back a step, jaw closing on the quarterstaff but unable to break it from that angle. That was fine, Calisco left it there and stepped aside.

  In her place, Tena came charging in, shield up, and leapt into the air. Hitting the visible end of the quarterstaff with her shield like a hammer on a nail, the bulwark used all her strength, weight, and momentum to drive the quarterstaff and crossbow bolt even deeper into the birokk’s insides.

  More wet coughs escaped the birokk’s throat as it stumbled to the side. Powerful as it was, muscles flexing beneath the thick fur and tough hide, those natural defenses left little protection against attacks directly inside the beast. Together, Calisco, Eriba, and Tena had landed a decisive blow.

  It still wasn’t enough, though. The birokk rocked side to side, its head swaying as it tried to cough out the spear lodged in its throat. Its terrible claws were still a terrible threat.

  For the moment.

  After the beast took another step to the side, Sage and Det came in together again, weapons swinging in perfect unison. The heavier axe, fueled by all of Sage’s ReSouled strength, bit deep into the back of the creature’s elbow. Det’s blade, on the other hand, arced just above Sage’s head, cutting into and through the muscle of the triceps. With the two blows landing within a second of each other, and all the strength behind them, they kicked the birokk’s leg out from underneath it.

  Balance stolen and legs sliding on the loose sand in front of it, the monster began to topple face-first to the arena floor. Its other legs scrambled to keep its great mass in the air, but they weren’t enough as they too skidded through the sand.

  With an arena-shaking thud, the birokk’s jaws closed with all its weight on the haft of the spear, finally breaking the treated wood and permanently lodging the makeshift weapon deep down its throat.

  A great huff from the wounded beast spurted blood from its nostrils, jetting across the arena floor, only to be parried aside by Tena’s shield. Two more steps, and the woman was right there in front of it, shield now above her head, grasped in both hands. Then she brought it down with all her strength.

  The birokk’s skull, like a bear’s, would be too strong to crush, even with her power. Its nose, however, was significantly less durable. The bone and cartilage—or whatever made up a birokk’s nose—splintered and practically powdered beneath the blow, the shield striking all the way through to the arena floor beneath it.

  The others nearby didn’t stay idle either. Sage and Det, who had just landed devastating blows against the birokk’s leg, instead moved to its more vulnerable flank.

  “Take the back leg!” Det shouted to Sage, who moved in to do just that.

  Like chopping lumber, the axe rose and fell, aimed for the vulnerable knee joint in the feline back leg. One, two, three times it came down, leaving the limb almost entirely dismembered, the heavy bone the only thing keeping it attached.

  While Sage planted his feet and did his grisly work, Det came in swinging. Grasping the hilt in both hands, he didn’t worry about form or accuracy. No, he just cut, and cut, and then cut some more. Every kendo instructor he’d ever had would be ashamed at the display—embarrassed, even—but they couldn’t argue with the results. The birokk’s innards spilled across the arena floor in a gush like a waterfall, forcing Det to leap back to avoid getting his boots covered in viscera. The smell assaulted him like a physical thing, practically slapping him across the face and clawing its way down his nose.

  Whatever that thing had eaten… it was disgusting.

  Opposite him, on the other side of the birokk, Weiss was doing his best to turn the monster into a pincushion. His arms didn’t slow or stop as he worked his way from back to front along the beast. With the way he moved, and the surgical precision of it, a sewing machine couldn’t have done a better job of punching in the kind of damage he was doing.

  The birokk likely didn’t appreciate it as much.

  That just left two members of the party unaccounted for. Behind Tena, who continued to bash the birokk’s head in with her shield, Eriba stepped in closer, crossbow up, and finger on the trigger. A pull launched the bolt into the birokk’s one good eye, exploding the orb in a gush of juices that were better left inside.

  No sooner had she done that than another bolt was loaded and ready. A second pull put a second bolt beside the first. A heartbeat later, a third bolt joined it.

  As for the final member of the group, Calisco—she just lifted both of her hands toward the birokk and gave it a pair of one-fingered salutes.

  Yeah. That about summed her up, while also appearing to be the deciding “blow” in the fight.

  Despite not being able to see—on account of having its eye sockets full of crossbow bolts—the great birokk’s heaving chest finally stopped at Calisco’s “finisher”.

  They’d done it. Their fifth and final target had fallen to their weapons, and as one, the six party members threw their hands into the air and shouted in primal triumph.