Lightning flashed in the chill of the dark above us, igniting an explosion of flame amidst the tattered conifer trees. The rain above pitter-pattered across the blood-soaked armor of my enemy, a gentle tapping that was punctuated by the loud clang of the vampire’s ebon longsword clashing against the dual crescent flashes of my sickles.

  My undead enemy swept forward with every strike, pushing me back, but Pikesblade and Diamondcutter met and drove back the skull-pommeled blade of Shard every time. The black steel of the vampire’s longsword pulsed with an unnatural glamour that completely contrasted with the white of my polished bone sickles with every parry and block. My arms wanted to come off with every impact, but my exhaustion was matched by the frustration written across the Vampire’s unnaturally perfect face - I might have been running on fumes, but even on fumes, he couldn’t advance this battle with me past a stalemate, and he knew it.

  Still, my eyes caught the glowing forms of giants that strode forth through the mists of the rain like fairies from the ether. demons clad in black steel that hid the infernal red of their bodies from view, helmets that were built around curled black horns in their front. The vampire’s elite guard!

  With a snap of his fingers, The gargantuan demons strode forward to encircle me, each holding a rough weapon of black stone and twisted steel, each almost as large as I was and capable of cleaving through a man and his horse in a single strike. They chanted war cries designed to intimidate and demean, to instill a certain feeling of fear and helplessness in their prey.

  Frankly? Probably would’ve worked on me right now if i hadn’t seen a familiar pair of bestial horns lumbering up behind them.

  My enemy was fixated on crushing me underfoot, giving me no chance to escape this skirmish. Not a single one of them was ready for the steadily encroaching Carnotaurus Sastrei, and most importantly, not one was braced for the rapidly charging Carnotaurus Sastrei.

  For a human, these elite demons were monstrously large and imposing, eight feet tall and thickly muscled. For a reptilian predator weighing four tons, towering at twelve feet, and with horns buoyed with enough force to pulverize a tree into sawdust, these were simply suitable prey. The beast that came through strode with enough force on two powerful legs to slam one of these eight elites with enough force to pulp his body and force me to duck as the demon was sent flying into one of his fellows with enough force to render both of them out of commission.

  The nearest demon turned and raised his brutish axe up to the sky in an executioner’s stance in an effort to kill the giant beast in his midst, but the Carnotaurus rumbled with excitement, his slitted eyes locked on the elite warriors. For his size, he was immensely swift, and his jaws slid around the demon’s neck with a surprising amount of finesse before he bit down, instantly beheading the would-be executioner with a single chomp.

  While my saurian ally was running through the demons like a tornado, the vampire was once again pressing me with a flurry of quick strikes that sacrificed technique for raw speed, yet in the span of three strikes, the theropod behind me had already trampled two of the vampire’s elite guard underneath his vicious talons, smashed a pair more away with his mighty horns, and slammed the last two off their feet with his tail in a motion I hadn’t been able to give enough attention span to be sure was intentional.

  My battle with the vampire was briefly paused as even he turned to watch the carnage in stark disbelief, the Knight of the Black Court retreating a few paces as he tried to gauge the threat of this new predator on the field. As for me?

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  “Good Job, Kevin.” I said with a warm smile, but its attention was already fixated on the vampire in front of me, slit eyes filled with anger. I might love him, but he always was a great big ball of unfocused wrath. Luckily for me, he had a fantastic outlet we could work together on right now.

  I whirled my sickles, as Kevin and I advanced as one on the enemy commander, now holding the advantage. The vampiric knight put a hand to his face as he gave a hideous cackle in response. His cape shifted into black wings of shadow. A yawning void appeared behind him, whistling like a draft through a tunnel, and from it, a vicious form stepped through, primal and unnatural.

  “As satisfying as it would have been to crush you myself, you didn't think I’d leave this trap of mine up to chance, did you, brat?” the Vampire lord spat, brushing a hand through his long, white hair. From behind him, a swarm of snakelike jaws snapped, burning with flame as a beastly form pushed through the underbrush, crushing through trees as though they were paper and stomping through the darkness, as the fire in its gut revealed it for all to see. Nine misshapen heads with a crimson glow emanating from their eyes around a titanic frame. It was only the second time I’d ever seen a Hydra, and they were always impressive.

  “I was buying time for the Black Court’s magic to suffuse this area, to summon reinforcements! And speaking of time…” The vampire proclaimed proudly, leaping backwards and onto the hydra’s back with a smug grin and a frankly pretty impressive backflip. Then, behind him, two more Hydras strode forward, all snapping jaws and thundering footsteps. He’d really summoned three hydras, and I almost went cross-eyed just trying to count all the heads. Then, what he said really hit me.

  I pointed to myself, then him. “Wait, so you were buying… oh. Yeah. I guess that makes sense.” I stutter, scratching at the back of my head. A nervous laugh escapes my body. “...This is embarrassing.”

  As the Hydra approached, the Vampire’s grin stretched ear to ear, and I think he positioned himself specifically to see my face as the beast approached amidst the myriad of necks blocking his vision. “It must be disheartening.” He repeated mockingly. “To be the last hope of this pathetic world, and yet to be so outmaneuvered. So doomed!”

  “No, it’s just… I thought I was doing a really good job here…” I admit with a blush as the earth shakes again, louder than before. The thud of large feet crushing through the forest behind me. “Keeping you distracted, and all. But we just, y’know… had the same plan.”

  With a clatter of feet and the distressed call of fleeing birds and beasts, a true apex predator crashed through the jungle. At fourteen feet tall, she dwarfed even the hydras, and her clawed feet tore through the forest with a speed that was usually impossible for thirteen metric tons of animal. Great slavering jaws larger than a man belted out a low growl that turned into a rumble heavier than the thunder that roared around the battlefield. The ancient giant turned its slitted eyes to each of the hydra’s heads in turn, regarding her opponents with a cold precision that contrasted with the feral snapping of the monsters she readied to face. Her eyes were filled with intelligence… but they were not lacking rage, either.

  The nine-headed hydras screeched in their unnatural warble, and the Giganotosaurus Carolinii replied with a crocodilian roar that reverberated through every bone in my body. I gave a soft smile, the exhaustion leaving me a little as I gave her a warm smile.

  “Just in time as always, Luster.” I murmured softly, as my best friend in the whole world charged the favored monster of the forces of darkness with enough power to cause the earth to tremble.