Things were looking grim.

  Volis, a purple haired youth stood with his knees bent, both hands resting on the hilt of his katana by his side. He eyed the bull in front of him with hatred. Engaging with this Celestial had been a mistake, and now his team was paying for it.

  He glanced at his friend Torvis, his orange hair pulled back swaying in the wind. Like Volis, he was glaring hard at the bull as he brandished his weapon, a war hammer.

  “This isn’t good,” Volis said. “We need to get Liva out of here. If she doesn’t get treated soon, she’ll die.”

  “We’re not looking so hot right now either,” Torvis said. “The bull is dead-set on making sure none of us return alive. If we make it out of here, you know what you have to do right?”

  “Get stronger?”

  “You have to make it up to Liva. Spend time with her.”

  Volis looked behind at the pale form of Liva. Her chest was rising and falling with every shallow breath she took. He feared that every breath could be her last.

  “She deserves some more good in her life,” Volis said in agreement.

  The bull huffed again, and stopped stamping its foot. There was a single second of it doing nothing, followed by it starting to charge forward.

  “Here it comes!” Volis yelled.

  The bull took several steps before it stopped dead in its tracks. It appeared to tremble as it looked towards them.

  “What?” Volis wondered aloud.

  “Is it scared of us?” Torvis asked.

  They both felt a pulse of orange-tier aura from behind them and looked towards its source, seeing a group of four people, consisting of an average looking black haired man surrounded by a group of bombshells. Volis and Torvis both felt that it was the tall bronze woman who was releasing such an aura. The group slid down the crater and stood side by side with Volis’ team.

  “Need some help?” the average man asked.

  *****

  Savish knelt down next to the blond woman who looked to be in pain even while unconscious. She met Volis’ eyes, who she pegged as the leader.

  “Its not too late yet,” she said. “The girl can be saved.”

  “She can?” Volis returned, hope returning to his eyes.

  “I can get her back to the compound for treatment. I’m faster than everyone else here as orange-tier.”

  Volis’ gaze turned steely and he slowly turned to face the blast bull that was still eyeing Savish with mild fear. His hand settled on the hilt of his weapon.

  “Meaning that we'll have to stall until you return,” he said.

  “Its not ideal, but it's the only way to save your friend.”

  “That's a gamble I'm willing to make,” Volis said. “Please, ma'am. Please save Liva. We'll hold out as best we can, but our best is only around ten minutes.”

  “We can extend that timer,” Arden said, cracking his neck. “You're in luck. I doubt there's a protostar in existence with as much experience in being set on fire as me.”

  Savish looked between the cowering blast bull and the large group of Starborn. She picked Liva up and carried the injured woman on her back.

  “Once I'm gone, my aura will disappear with me. It won't hesitate to attack once that happens.”

  A sinister smile played across her lips.

  “It's in your best interest to get a preemptive strike in there to give it a handicap. I'll make a break for it when that happens.”

  “Who would be willing to go out there and launch an attack?” Torvis asked. “We're all only red-tier protostars.”

  “All of us,” Arden said. “At the same time. We're all only protostars, but even we can pack a punch. We're glass cannons, but cannons nonetheless.”

  “Do you honestly think that'll work?” Volis asked. “There’s no way the bull will stand there and take a hit from all of us at once. It won't attack for the moment, but it will definitely act in self preservation.”

  “Not if we prevent it from making a move, then pour everything we have into it. I doubt we'll kill it, but we'll at least injure it. From then, it'll be a waiting game.”

  He turned to Vera and Sya.

  “Vera, poke Sya. We're in need of her blood.”

  A knowing smile appeared on both of their faces. A low chuckle escaped from Sya’s lips as Arden’s plan came into focus.

  “I like devious Arden,” Sya said.

  “I like him too,” Arden replied.

  A few seconds later, everyone's weapons were smeared with Sya’s blood. The new duo was hesitant at first, but agreed when it was explained to them that the blood was poisonous, hence its ominous dark color.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “We're running out of time,” Savish said. “If you don't begin in the next two minutes, the girl won't make it.”

  Arden looked at everyone. They were all wearing expressions of grim determination. He thought they should lighten up a bit. They were about to hunt a super cow, after all.

  “You guys will know when to attack,” Arden said. “Trust me on that.”

  Arden lowered his hood, and his presence became harder to detect as he snuck away from the group and towards the blast bull. The only indication of his presence was a dim red light glowing from somewhere in his armor, similar to the one that shined from the pendants hanging from Sya’s and Vera’s necks.

  He gave it a wide berth, sticking to the edge of the crater before closing in on the beast. As he approached it from behind, he was reminded of a cartoon bomb by the blast bull's tail. The sparks being cast off looked more like one of those than a sparkler.

  Especially considering the sparks were halfway between the end of the tail and the body.

  ‘That is incredibly worrying.’

  He didn't want to think what would happen when the fuse met with the rest of the bull. Worst case scenario, it would gain a power-up turning this difficult challenge into an impossible one.

  His chortle was muffled by his hood at that thought.

  ‘The impossible is not what can't happen, but what shouldn't happen. Should it become impossible, we'll just do it anyway.’

  Arden’s remaining Bone Talon disappeared. He clenched both of his hands as he prepared his attack. If it worked how he wanted it to, he would give the group opposite him the opportunity required for Savish to escape with the injured girl and pile on some serious damage to the supergiant Celestial.

  From the opposite end of the crater, the girls saw Arden raise his hands and raised their weapons in return.

  “Get ready,” Vera said. “Arden’s about to make his move.”

  Volis and Torvis both readied their weapons as well and Savish prepared to use her orange-tier agility to race back to the compound they came from.

  ‘Grab it!’ Arden commanded, desperation prevalent in his mind.

  As he made the command, he felt another voice in his head. One that told him that it was time to feast.

  Again, he felt a desire to devour everything. The entire world was nothing but an appetizer to him. His soul growled like an empty stomach, and it was reflected in his attack.

  Tendrils burst from his hand like parasites that were dissatisfied with their host. They snaked through the air mimicking the streamer stag's antlers and quickly found their way to the blast bull. As soon as they made contact, Arden felt the satisfaction, the bliss, that came with devouring biomass.

  A wicked smile crossed his face as saliva leaked from his smile. He wanted more.

  There was some sharp pain in his mouth followed by the trickling of blood from, snapping him from his ravenous state. He almost lost himself again.

  “Now!” Vera cried.

  The blast bull was aware that a follow up attack was coming, but it could not react. Not while its strength was being slapped by the monster behind it. It lowered its stance into a more defensive one as four weapons collided with it.

  As soon as Savish saw the attack land, she left. The group fighting the bull had their job, and she had hers. Hers was to deliver the girl to safety and return in time to help with the subjugation of the blast bull. She disappeared into the foliage heading back the way she came, hearing the roar of the Celestial as her aura stopped affecting it.

  *****

  The plan worked as well as it could have. All of the attacks connected, but it was Torvis’ attack that stole the spotlight, even more than Arden’s. His war hammer slammed into the side of the bull, launching it a short distance away and out of Arden’s tendrils.

  Unfortunately, the bull didn’t seem too hampered by the strike. No bones were crushed, and it remained on its feet, just as angry as before

  It was the rest of the attacks that actually did the most damage to the bull. There was only so much poison a hammer could administer. Delivering a payload to the bloodstream was something that required precision, not mindless strength. It was the girls and Volis who gave the blast bull gashes across its brawny body. Black blood dripped from the slices left in its flesh by the attractive members of the Starborn group.

  The bull lowered its head and began to charge towards the only member of the group who was alone, and the one that the bull felt most threatened by.

  Arden, who was currently holding a book in his hand, flipping through the pages.

  Every step kicked up smoke as it came closer. Its horns curved upwards, giving them an appearance not too different from that of devil horns.

  Arden dismissed the Codex Momenti Proximi and clicked his tongue, disappointed that it came for him instead of Torvis. Arden didn’t exist in the book, so the actions taken against him would not be recorded.

  ‘Oh well,’ he thought. ‘The fight isn’t lost just because the monster isn’t doing what I want it to do.’

  The other members of the party sprung to action as the bull charged. They weren’t dumb enough to think that the blast bull would be slain by just a single attack. They didn't plan around that. They only wanted to weaken it with Sya's blood.

  Now that it was poisoned, the fight could begin in earnest.

  Volis appeared directly in front of the bull like he teleported and immediately drew his katana, performing an iai strike that had the perfection of years of practice. He finished the strike behind the bull, as if having teleported again.

  It had the intended effect, drawing a line across the left side of the torso of the charging beast. More of Sya’s tainted blood seeped into the Celestial's bloodstream, but it still showed no signs of succumbing. It didn't even react to Volis’ attack, and just continued its charge.

  “This will take a while,” Volis said with a scowl.

  Arden backed up, going up the incline of the crater. It was time to put his parkour training into practice. He saw the other members of the party race towards the bull from behind as it continued its charge.

  “Special technique!” Arden shouted, grinning ear to ear.

  The bull was right in front of him and slightly below him. If Arden didn't follow through now, he would be skewered. Summoning all the strength in his legs, he leapt up into the air, over the charging bull that was slowing down thanks to the steep incline.

  “Vertical jump!”

  Arden reached his hands towards the back of the bull, intent on devouring enough of it to injure it, but not enough to turn it into a dried up, empty shell. He didn’t have to worry about that happening with this attack. It only lasted a second at most, and this thing had much more biomass than any other Celestial that Arden came in contact with, with the possible exception of the Stonelord. It was much more potent as well.

  Arden landed directly behind the bull, a few steps closer to it than everyone else. Knowing that Devour was going to be more useful than his Bone Talons at thai juncture, he elected to keep his hands bare.

  He thrust his hands forward to begin devouring again when he noticed the sparks from the tail. They were moments away from reaching the main body of the Celestial. Arden’s eyes widened as he hurriedly whipped his head around to shout a warning while taking a step away from the bull, realizing that he was right to imagine a cartoon bomb before.

  “Get back!” he yelled to his approaching team.

  Sya was the first to realize what he meant, but she wasn’t fast enough to act on it before another explosion rocked the forest. The blast wasn't enormous, but the explosion alone had a diameter three times the size of the bull itself.

  Large enough to swallow Arden in its embrace and knock the rest of the party back with its shockwave.