The dinosaur had Jamie and the Chief pinned, its clubbed tail a relentless siege engine slamming against the Chief’s fracturing mana shield.

  Shocks of blue light rippled across the shimmering barrier with each hit, spiderwebbing cracks blooming outward like ice racing across a frozen lake. The shield quivered under the force, vibrating with a tortured hum that shook the stones beneath my boots. Jamie braced against the Chief’s back, chest heaving, eyes locked on the creature with a mixture of terror and stubborn resolve. He held his sword awkwardly, as if clinging to the last thread of usefulness before something far bigger crushed him.

  The Ankylosaurus dug its claws into the stone, muscles bulging beneath the plated armor along its back. The air trembled with each movement, the cavern swallowing the sound and tossing echoes along the crystal walls. Its tail rose again, the massive club gleaming with condensed mana. The Chief’s shield flickered, light thinning to a brittle glow. One more hit might shatter it entirely.

  “Shanira!” I shouted, my voice cutting through the chaos like a flare. She stood on one of the raised ledges above the basin, bow drawn, her silhouette framed by pale blue light spilling from the crystals behind her. Her expression sharpened when she heard the urgency in my tone. “I am going to give you an opening. An insane one. Make your aim perfect, or this ends badly.”

  Her brow dipped. She understood just enough to know it was reckless. After a heartbeat, she gave a single, fierce nod.

  Good. We needed perfect. We needed her best shot in the worst conditions imaginable.

  My own heart thrashed against my ribs, but the moment stretched thin, bringing everything into a painful clarity. The air tasted metallic, tinged with the reek of crushed lizard bodies and the ozone bite of mana discharges. The Ankylosaurus inhaled deeply, its massive sides expanding like bellows. The Chief’s shield flickered again, the cracks widening.

  Then the creature lunged, lowering its head and preparing to swing.

  Fuck, I hope this works.

  This is the stupidest goddamn plan I have ever had.

  My legs tensed. Mana gathered instinctively.

  Wind Step.

  The world blurred. Space bent inward, and then I snapped into existence behind the monster, air collapsing around me in a burst of pressure. The dinosaur turned, jaws opening wide as it tried to bite through the Chief’s shield. Its tail swept backward in a brutal arc, an avalanche of muscle and mana-infused bone.

  Perfect timing. Or suicidal timing. At this point, they were close cousins.

  I stepped into its path.

  The impact struck my hands with a crushing force that sent agony exploding up my arms. I felt the mana barrier around its tail press against my palms, the invisible shield humming like an angry hornet trapped between us. My boots slipped across the stone floor as I slid backward, teeth clenched so hard my jaw screamed. My boots finally caught a ridge and I held.

  My armor creaked from the strain. For a breath, I thought my arms might snap clean off. But I held.

  A surprise grunt of effort sounded beside me. Then another.

  Logan and Ryker shot to my flanks, planting their feet like two pillars of iron. Logan gripped the tail with both hands, his stance loose but powerful, muscles flexing under his armor. Ryker locked his gauntlets in place, shoulders coiling like steel cables.

  The tail finally shuddered to a stop, trembling against the combined force of three players who should have been crushed under it.

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  Ryker’s jaw clenched. “What now?” he asked, his voice strained.

  My lungs burned, each breath a shallow rasp. “We jump on three. Lift the tail as high as you can.”

  Logan’s eyes widened. “Lift it? Are you insane?”

  “Probably,” I gasped. “But we are out of options. One… two… THREE.”

  A roar burst from all three of us as we heaved upward. The tail rose inch by agonizing inch. Tendons strained beneath the dinosaur’s armor. My shoulders screamed. Ryker’s boots scraped. Logan snarled through his teeth, a sound not unlike the beast itself.

  But the tail rose.

  The monstrous creature staggered slightly, caught off guard by the sudden force. Its undercarriage, usually hidden beneath layered scales and thick hide, lifted just enough to expose a vulnerable patch of soft, fleshy skin.

  Shanira had been waiting.

  A thin whistle pierced the air. A streak of white light carved through the space beneath us, slicing through the rising tail like a meteor cutting the sky.

  The arrow buried itself deep in the creature’s rear.

  Everything stopped.

  There was a single, muffled thump from inside the creature’s body. Its eyes widened. A pained, guttural bellow escaped its throat, as if it understood the disaster blooming inside it.

  Then the Ankylosaurus detonated.

  There was an eruption of gore and pulverized organs exploding outward in a geyser of heat and pressure. Shards of bone sliced through the air like shrapnel. A massive shockwave blasted across the cavern, flinging me backward as if I had been struck by a wrecking ball.

  My back slammed against one of the fallen Behemoths. Scales absorbed most of the hit, but my lungs emptied in a painful wheeze.

  Then the battlefield fell silent.

  Just the drifting mist of steam and blood hanging in the cavern air. Disbelief thick as everyone processed what they had just witnessed. The sudden explosion of dinosaur.

  I slid off the Behemoth carcass, coughing through the haze of copper and rot. My ribs ached. My arms felt like they had been peeled apart. But I could stand.

  Kira sprinted toward me, her staff illuminating her path with a soft, pulsing glow. The swirl of magic at its tip cast pale reflections along her tunic armor, highlighting the intricate silver patterns etched along its hem and shoulders. The silver designs reminded me of flowing water, subtle curves and interwoven strands that echoed her quiet resilience rather than brute force.

  She knelt beside me, breath sharp and worried. “Are you okay?” Her hands hovered just above my chest before the healing glow intensified and washed over me.

  Heat spread beneath my skin. The grinding burn in my ribs softened, bones knitting, bruises fading. I inhaled deeply as my chest loosened.

  “I will live,” I said, though my voice came out rough.

  Her frown eased. Relief flickered across her features.

  When the healing light dimmed, I pushed myself upright. The cavern had shifted from chaos to aftermath. Bodies of monsters lay everywhere, their blood pooling in cracks along the stone floor.

  I forced my voice out. “How many?”

  Kira blinked. “What?”

  “The butcher’s bill. How many did we lose?”

  “Oh.” Her voice cracked with something between laughter and exhausted disbelief. “None.”

  The word hit like a foreign language.

  “What?”

  Her smile widened, bright and unbelievably hopeful. “No one died, Elias. Injuries, yes. Logan was the worst, but we got to everyone in time. No one died.”

  I stared. My brain rejected it outright.

  Not possible. Not here. Not after that.

  My gaze combed the cavern. People were wounded, leaning against the stones or sitting on crates, but each face I recognized was alive. Bleeding, bruised, shaken… but alive.

  A pressure tightened in my chest until it felt like my ribs were folding again. A sound cracked out of me, raw and jagged. Not a scream. Not a sob.

  A laugh.

  A broken, choking laugh that shook my entire body. It clawed upward, spilling into the cavern. Wild. Uncontrolled. Relief and hysteria mixed into something barely human.

  I dropped backward onto the stone, staring at the cavern roof through tears I had not realized were falling.

  No one died.

  Not one.

  Ryker jogged over, alarm flaring in his eyes. “Is he okay?”

  Kira wiped her cheeks, still smiling. “He is happy no one died.”

  Ryker blinked. “Seriously?” His voice cracked on the word.

  She nodded. “Truly.”

  He stared at the field again. His lips trembled before he gave a strange, half-choked bark. Then another.

  He laughed. A deep, unrestrained laugh that seemed to peel away months of hardened discipline. Tears streaked down the face of the toughest man I knew.

  “I have gotten so used to death,” Ryker said, voice shaking. “I cannot believe this.”

  Chief walked over, his new armor catching the glow of nearby crystals. Gold trim framed the reinforced plates along his arms and chest, the metal embossed with the faint outline of an eagle spreading its wings. The armor looked regal but built for war, perfectly fitting the man who wore it.

  “What is the commotion?” Chief asked, though a small smile tugged at the edge of his mouth.

  “Everyone lived,” Jon said, grin widening.

  A slow, warm pride filled Chief’s eyes. “Good. It is about damn time.”

  Shanira and Logan joined, both exhausted but intact. Logan clapped me on the shoulder, pride shining through the grime. The lion-shaped insignia on his chestplate gleamed as he moved, the stylized metal shining beneath streaks of blood and dust. The armor fit him too perfectly. Loud, bold, unbreakable.

  “That, and Shanira shooting an arrow right up the… what did Ryker call it?” I said.

  Ryker sniffed, still smiling. “Ankylosaurus.”

  “Right. The Ankylosaurus’s ass.”

  Shanira’s cheeks reddened instantly. “It was your plan!”

  “And you followed through,” I answered, the laughter swelling again. “Mad plan.”

  Chief stared at the gory explosion mark, still processing. “You did what?”

  Shanira waved vaguely. “Elias told me to shoot the weak point. Then he and the others lifted its tail.”

  A deep, rolling laugh erupted from Chief. Hearing him laugh like that loosened something in everyone, and the circle of people around us joined in, relief mixing with appreciation for the absurdity of how we had survived.

  When the laughter ebbed, Chief turned a curious eye on me. “What made you think to do something like that?”

  I shrugged. “I treated it like a case. When you hit a dead end, you simplify. Start with basics.”

  I gestured at the scattered remains of the monster. “It was armored everywhere and shielded with mana. Nothing could get in. But nothing living is a closed system. It had an intake and an outtake. The intake was too dangerous. So we took the other option.”

  Chief shook his head in amazement as another ripple of laughter passed through the group. A single, perfect moment of pure joy in the middle of this hellscape.