Anika loosed an arrow and immediately ducked behind a tree as a rock whizzed past the space recently vacated by her right arm. Inwardly, she cursed past-Anika for telling Leka that she hoped she had a chance to practice using her bow in the dungeon today. Leka had, of course, thought of the perfect monsters to practice shooting.

  Slow moving, she had said. Easy to hit with the bow, she had said. Leka had neglected to mention that the large, yellow, furry creatures with the body and arms of a monkey and the face and hind legs of a sloth had a very effective defense mechanism against ranged weapons.

  The sloth-monkeys’ favorite weapon, as it turned out, was softball sized rocks that they hurled with terrifying speed. First, they collected rocks like a dragon hoards gold, stacking them in neat little pyramids like building blocks and then knocking them down, playing with them as they otherwise lazed about in their rocky forest home. Even in this rocky terrain, Anika had no idea how they found so many perfectly sized rocks to hurl at her head as she tried to aim and shoot her bow.

  Behind and slightly to the left of Anika, Lily hid behind a conveniently capybara sized boulder, peeking her ears and eyes above it to hurl the rocks back at the sloth-monkeys using her telekinetic Aether powers. Anika wasn’t sure if she necessarily liked that strategy, as it also returned ammunition to the enemy. Lily was surprisingly effective with her mind-magic, however, throwing rocks more frequently and hitting more often than Anika could with her bow and arrow.

  Behind Lily a ways, three capybaras that were formerly sloth-monkeys sat and looked on. Lily had polymorphed them at the start of the battle, but they weren’t able to do any damage to the tough hides of the monsters. As they didn’t have any ranged attacks, they weren’t much use damaging the enemy. The sloth-monkeys, seeming to realize that these were not a threat, hadn’t attacked them in return, continuing to attack the humanoids and companions at range, so it was better for them to be out of the way where they didn’t accidentally take friendly fire. They would at least provide a boost to experience for Anika and Lily by being there, increasing the party bonus on the pair from 20% to 35%.

  Philip was a few trees over with Epona, casting his Dirt Disks from range as he used his shield to block the rocks thrown towards himself and Epona. His short stature couldn’t fully protect the pegasus’s much taller form, but Epona was not without her own defenses, using her Air magic to create cushions of air that slowed the rocks enough to bounce harmlessly off her armor or deflecting them from her body altogether. She returned the attacks with her own air magic Gusts, occasionally catching oncoming rocks in her winds, increasing the damage of her attacks.

  Anika assumed they probably would have been more strategic about this had we been given more specifics by Leka about these monsters.. She pulled another arrow from her quiver and aligned it with the arrow shelf, preparing herself to pop out from behind the tree to aim for another of the hybrid creatures. Leka had most likely deliberately downplayed the abilities of the sloth-monkeys for ‘training purposes’. Anika had a sneaking suspicion that Leka’s training style involved encouraging her trainees to get themselves into trouble and see if they managed to get themselves out of it before she’d have to swoop in to save them. The trainer was likely watching the battle rage with the rapt attention of a millennial watching a figurative train wreck on social media. If this world had popcorn, Leka was absolutely the type to watch this battle with snacks in hand.

  Anika drew the bow back and stepped out from behind the tree, taking aim at a sloth-monkey sitting at the base of a tree next to a barely depleted pile of rocks. Her previous shot, she noted with the briefest satisfaction, had actually found its target - a creature that had been sitting in the lowest branches of a tree like a squad leader assessing the battlefield now lay flat on its back beneath the branch, an arrow sticking out of its chest. She’d been aiming for the head, but it worked. She noticed another rock flying towards her head and frantically released the arrow to fly towards her current target. Immediately, she knew the arrow was going to miss, as she started to duck back to safety before the arrow cleared the shaft of the bow, altering its course slightly. A thunk told her that the arrow had struck the tree rather than the monster. She grumbled to herself as she reached for another arrow. At least she dodged the rock.

  “Anika, I see more dots coming!” Lily didn’t stop magically flinging rocks back at the sloth-monkeys, but did look over at Anika to make sure she heard over the thudding of rocks and magic all around.

  “We still have at least 8 of them on the other side of the clearing! Are the new ones coming from the same direction? How many?” Anika prepped another arrow for firing.

  “It looks like they are coming from the left, and there are 6 of them!”

  “We need to find a way to group them up so Philip can use his area of effect spells. Can you move the monsters with your Aether magic?” Anika leaned out and fired the arrow at her last target, relieved to see it connect with the body of the creature before she had to dip behind the tree again. Hopefully it was enough to slow it down if it didn’t kill it.

  “No, they are too big! I can only do small objects and they are very heavy!” Lily squeaked in dismay as she answered Anika before throwing another rock with her magic.

  Anika glanced over at Philip and Epona, “Epona, are you able to make a wall of air that can push them closer together?”

  Philip fired off more Dirt Discs, managing to take out one sloth-monkey and injure another. He blocked an arrow and translated for Epona, “She says she can try. But she thinks they are too big.”

  Anika groaned. What was the point of having magic if they couldn’t use it for a simple task like pushing things together. She was confident that if Lily and Epona were as high level as Philip, rounding up the sloth-monkeys with Aether and Air magic would be easy. Unfortunately, magic had limitations that were highly restrictive at their levels. She remembered Leka talking about the innate aptitude of a person, and wondered if their companions had been given high aptitudes, or if that was something that even the gods could not control. She could manipulate a large amount of water, but didn’t have much skill with it yet. Lily had been practicing her magic, so at the very least it seemed that the gods had not imbued them with any unnatural skills in magic, though they did have access to abilities sooner than people did. That would help them become stronger faster, but still required time they didn’t have now. It did make sense that if Lily had a limitation on how much weight she could lift with her magic, that Epona would have a similar limitation on how much force she could apply with her Air magic.

  Anika fired another arrow, this time popping out to the left side of the tree. It exposed more of her body that way, but it allowed her to also glance in the direction that more enemies were coming from. As her arrow wedged itself into the leg of a sloth-monkey, she assessed the left side of the clearing. She saw movement, but that side of the clearing had taller grasses and bushes than the center part that they were in, and she couldn’t yet make out any monsters. She retreated back behind the tree as a pair of rocks closed in on her location. One of them came in from an angle, and though Anika managed to avoid the first one, the second one hit the side of her left arm just above the elbow. It wasn’t a direct hit - more of a glancing blow - but the shock of pain down her arm almost made her drop the bow. She let out a noise somewhere between a grunt and a whimper and clutched at her bicep with her right hand, willing the pain away. She turned to lean back against the tree, hopefully preventing further rocks from the left.

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  “Anika are you okay?” Lily started to run over to Anika.

  “No, stay there!” Anika shook her head as Lily moved, “You’ll be exposed to whichever one threw that rock at me. How many are left? Are the new ones here?”

  Lily backstepped to the safety of her rock and paused for a moment, “I see four from the original pack and five to the left.”

  “Epona says she tried to move them with her magic but they didn’t move much. She did make one drop his rock! But he picked it back up again. But I just remembered I have a spell that makes things move. Do you want me to use it?” Philip blocked two rocks that were coming towards himself and Epona, moving the shield quickly between the two locations. A third rock sailed over his head towards Epona, but it suddenly veered off course, a sign that Epona had used her air magic to push it aside.

  Anika shook her head. She and Philip were going to have a long talk about spells after this. Though maybe she should actually talk to an Earth trainer. Or find out if there was a list of spells everyone learned somewhere that she could just take with her and memorize. She couldn’t effectively strategize without all the information!

  “Yes! How did it take you this long to tell me about it?”

  “Well, I don’t really use this one. They said it can mess up the fields and so they told me not to cast it…” Philip started to explain, but Anika cut him off, realizing she shouldn’t have asked him that during combat.

  “Never mind, tell me later. Cast it over by the bushes when you see the new monsters appear. Then if they are all grouped up, use your Distortion on them!” Anika commanded, as she rubbed at her arm, trying to push the throbbing away. Her fingers tingled, telling her she probably couldn’t properly grip the bow right now after the shock to her nerves.

  Anika did her best to watch the left side of the clearing from behind her tree, craning her neck to try to keep an eye out for the additional monsters - and for whatever wretched creature had thrown the rock at the right angle to hit her. After a few more moments of rubbing her bicep and flexing her fingers, she saw the first of the sloth-monkeys through the leaves.

  “Now Philip, they are at the edge of the clearing!”

  “Okay!”

  Anika watched for the signs of an attack, having no idea what form this new attack of Philip’s would take. It didn’t take long before a large circle formed on the ground. It looked like a large, invisible rock had been set on the ground as the ground began to indent, the dirt compressing until it looked smooth as granite. The air above the indented circle looked off, like the vague images of a mirage on asphalt on a hot day. The first sloth-monkey that had emerged from the bushes was moving slowly towards the circle, and as Anika watched, a second, then a third creature appeared from the trees, both being dragged towards the center of the spell at a steady pace. They tried to fight it, but they were slow moving creatures by nature, unable to outpace the steady pull. They tried to dig their long clawed toes into the ground, but they continued moving, leaving furrows in the rocky ground behind them. The last two monsters on the left side appeared from the bushes, joining the others in slowly moving towards the circle.

  To Anika’s surprise, she noticed that two of the other four remaining sloth-monkeys, the ones closest to the left side of the clearing, were also caught in the pull of Philip’s spell. The radius of the effect looked around 20 feet, and all the creatures in range were helpless to resist the spell’s effect.

  “Epona, Lily, focus on those last two on the right! Philip, once they are all in range, cast your Distortion! They are all on the ground, so use Warp Earth if you have to as well!”

  “Okay, Anika! I’ll get them!” Lily ran to Anika’s right where she had a better view of the remaining two sloth-monkeys. The ones being dragged were unable to throw their rocks, as even when one tried, it was unable to fight the forces of the spell, and the rock thudded weakly to the ground next to it when released from the creature’s hand, unable to gain any momentum.

  Anika turned to face the last two sloth-monkeys on the right, wanting to ensure they were handled before watching the main group. Her fingers were gaining more sensation back, but she still didn’t feel like she could effectively hold the bow. As she watched, a Gust from Epona managed to take out one of the two creatures that had already been moving slow. It looked injured as it hobbled more than a sloth should, likely having been hit by one of Philip’s Dirt Discs. The creatures were slow and built like tanks, able to take a beating from their attacks before dying. They also were all higher level than Anika, Epona, and Lily, closer to Philip’s level, with a mix of yellow and red aura’s to Anika. Lily pelted the second monster with several rocks, but it was still standing and hurled a rock towards Epona.

  Epona managed to deflect the rock with her Air magic, and Lily immediately took hold of it with her Aether magic, sending it whizzing back in the direction of the sloth-monkey. It connected with the creature’s head, but it was still standing… well, sitting on the ground… its hand reaching for another rock.

  “I think they are all close. I am casting my other spell!”

  Philip’s voice caused Anika to look back over at the larger group of monsters. As she watched, Philip’s Distortion formed in a cube centered on the indented ground. It looked like he was able to maintain the first effect while casting the second, and the 7 monsters caught in the double spell began to flicker and bend abnormally, distorting with the space around them. If the first spell stopped, they would have to move again to get out of Philip’s spell, which means they would take more damage. Hopefully it would be enough to kill them.

  Anika looked back at Epona and Lily’s battle, and noted that the sloth-monkey looked ready to fall over. At the thought, it promptly fell over while she was watching it, despite not looking like anything had hit it. Anika assumed that it was Lily’s spell Telekinetic Squeeze, which did damage over time. It didn’t have any outward effects on the sloth-monkeys, but Anika wasn’t sure if that would always be the case. It sounded like it should do something visible if it was squeezing them, but these creatures’ tough bodies didn’t seem to show so much as a dent or scratch from anything they did, taking the brutal beating without sign of weakness.

  “Great job! Now attack the ones left in Philip’s spells!”

  Anika redirected her attention to the remaining monsters. She couldn’t tell how close they were to dying. As she watched, Philip’s first spell expired, leaving only the Distortion cube. Anika knew it wouldn’t last much longer. The sloth-monkeys were all near the center of the cube, but rather than try to run out, they stood in slightly hunched positions. Their bodies no longer distorted or blurred, though Anika could still see the cube of the spell in the air.

  Rocks began to appear behind each of the sloth-monkeys.

  “Awe, come on! How are they just conjuring more rocks to throw at us!” Anika knew the answer. Magic. Magic was the answer. But she preferred the magic to work in her favor, not the monsters’.

  “Philip, cast your Warp Earth. Lily and Epona, try to steal their rocks and hit them with them!”

  Anika shook her arm out and grabbed another arrow. Looks like she may need to do some more damage herself. Her arm still felt terrible, but she was able to grip the bow. Wincing, she grabbed another arrow and took aim.

  https://prowritingaid.com/lp/novel-november