Kat took a deep breath, eyes locked on the banshee glider as it sailed in between the trees. As soon as their team came up with a plan, Stekat had produced a set of herbs that would mask her scent. Apparently, they were fairly standard and easy to produce for players with the Tamer class. After all, they needed to have the ability to sneak up on the animals that they were trying to trap and hunt.

Their first fight had taken annoyingly long. Not necessarily the fight itself. Between Dorrik’s Psi abilities knocking it from the sky and Jaalin’s magic keeping it chained to the forest floor, the rest of the team was able to make short work of the monster. No, the actual delay came from waiting. Banshee gliders weren’t terribly common and even with the party haunting their hunting grounds, it took almost an hour for them to find one skimming through the trees on its own.

Once that battle was done, things had gotten a lot easier. Stekat pounced on the ruined corpse with enough glee to stun Kaleek. After ten or so minutes of rooting around in its body, they emerged with a pair of fist sized pheromone glands that their team used to mark nearby trees.

Within minutes, another glider showed up, angry that another of its kind had intruded on its territory. This time the battle was a little more difficult. They experimented with their tactics, trying to conserve resources while shooting the creature down from the air. Unfortunately, Kat and Sekat’s crossbows didn’t have quite enough power to reliably penetrate its hide. The monster’s wings and neck had thinner hide where the bolts could bite home and deliver their payload of paralytic poisons, but most of their shots failed to puncture its armor. That gave the creature enough time to launch a couple of attacks at Kaleek, forcing the heavily armored desoph to jump out of a tree. He didn’t break anything, but the fall bruised him and damaged his hit points enough that Kat had to spend about a minute healing him as the rest of the team set up the next trap.

Over the course of the afternoon, their tactics evolved until the six of them could take down a glider safely and in under a minute. That led to where Kat was now, crouching in the upper branches of one of the great trees, about twenty paces above where a pheromone smear on the bark was calling out to the elite monster.

She gripped the harpoon in her right hand tight while her left held on to the fairly smooth bark of bough she was hiding on. With a crash of massive scraping claws, the entire tree shook as the banshee glider slammed into it, landing without any sort of grace or finesse. The creature’s talons dug furrows from the wood and its wings wrapped themselves around the trunk, holding itself in place while it stuck its bestial face into the spot where Stekat and smeared the previous monster’s scent glands.

That was her cue. Kat jumped toward the monster’s back, both hands wrapped around the improvised spear that Kaleek and Toorvu had fashioned from her from the femur of one of the previous gliders. It took a conscious act of will to not activate Levitation.

The glider’s hide was too thick for that. She’d need all of the momentum from her fall.

Kat’s spear hit first. The ivory was as sharp as desoph and lokkel blades could carve it, but compared to the precise steel wielded by the rest of her team, that wasn’t terribly impressive. Magic flared from the single use enchantment that Jaalin had layered onto the spear. Between its sudden Sharpness, Kat’s weight and the distance of her fall, the glider’s hide didn’t stand a chance.

She kicked off, jumping into space and leaving the venom coated spear in the monster’s back even as Kat triggered Levitation. A flap of an arm brought her around even as she lined up her crossbow on the creature. After all, half the reason she was participating in the repeated slaughter of the elite monsters was to polish her skills with the weapon.

It twanged, depositing a bolt with deadly precision into the monster’s dinner-plate sized eye. The monster bellowed. Even unfocused its scream of pain and surprise was indistinguishable from a sonic attack, triggering sensory dampening.

With mechanical precision, Kat loaded another bolt. The glider whipped its head around, spotting her inviting form floating gently in the jungle air before its legs tensed, launching itself from the tree toward her.

The monster made it within a half dozen paces, much closer that Kat was comfortable with, before the chain attached to the harpoon in its back pulled taught, snapping the monster back. Its one remaining eye widened in surprise, just in time for Sekat to plant a bolt of their own in it, effectively blinding the bound monster.

It fell to the forest floor, unable to make sense of the conflicting pain and input. There it met its end in short order. Spells blasted it, scorching its wings until they were nonfunctional. Blades hacked and stabbed, carving through thick skin and slashing apart muscle and tendon beneath. It spasmed, head thrashing back and forth and wings flapping fruitlessly as it tried to clear the area of attackers.

Dorrik, Kaleek, and Toorvu dodged the clumsy attacks. At one point Kaleek let the glider’s undamaged wing hit him, weathering the blow on his heavy armor in order to cripple the limb entirely with a greatsword slash. It was barely even a fight. The lokkels and the desoph dissected the monster, cutting it apart with the precision of a butcher.

Whenever Kat got a chance through the thrashing, she loaded up another bolt, punching the envenomed projectiles into spots where the glider’s hide was thinner while she slowly drifted toward the ground.

The poison and blood loss did their work. Attacks became sluggish and the glider’s limbs began to tremble, as if they were too heavy for it to control properly. Soon, it struggled to even lift its head, and by the time Kat drifted to the forest floor, ten or so of her crossbow’s bolts expended, the monster lay unmoving.

Kaleek kept slashing at it, whether to finish the beast off or in one of his usual gleeful frenzies, Kat couldn’t tell. The rest of the team gathered together, watching the spatters of blood and viscera paint the nearby trees as the desoph continued to swing and stab, a blurry dervish of violence as he carved his way deep into the downed monster’s chest.

“We will have to move before we pick the next ambush site,” Stekat said evenly, removing a handful of dried leaves from a pouch in its armor before slipping them into its mouth and beginning to chew. “Fear scent aside, the amount of blood talon-mate Kaleek is spreading will scare any animal with olfactory organs away for at least a week.”

“At least he’s enjoying himself,” Jaalin responded dryly. “I don’t suppose anyone has braved the threat of getting painted with banshee guts in order to collect the beast’s marks and any drops it might have?”

Dorrik nodded, their crest as stiff and uncomfortable as it had been since they left the canopy. They walked cautiously toward the downed glider, prepared at any moment to jerk back and avoid a spray of hot blood as Kaleek continued cheerfully hacking away at the creature.Stolen novel; please report.

They pressed their top right hand to the monster’s side, absorbing the rewards for killing the elite. When Dorrik turned back around there was a smile on their face. About halfway back to the group, where Kat was doing her best to ignore the other three lokkel whispering amongst themselves, Dorrik tossed something a bit smaller than a fist to her.

Raising an eyebrow in question, Kat snatched it out of the air. She turned the object over in her hand, the gleaming gray-white prism of a skill stone. Deep in its depths was the faint image of two knives crossed. It tingled where she touched it, and almost instinctively its specifications and identity rushed into Kat’s mind.

“Anything good?” Jaalin’s question jolted Kat slightly as she turned back to the three lokkel. They were no longer chatting quietly, instead all of their eyes were fixed on her, their crests placid on the backs of their necks.

“Knife II,” she replied. “I’ve already maxed out Knife I and specialized. I had been at a plateau for so long that it was starting to get a little depressing. Like every stab was potentially wasted progress.”

“The tower sees a need and the tower provides,” Toorvu said, inclining their head almost reverentially.

“Never mind them,” Jaalin cut in, waving one of her upper hands. “Toorvu is a member of a group that is… overly focused on the gardeners. Most in the dreamscape are content to know that they are incredibly powerful beings with plans of their own that will evidently be revealed to any being that reaches the final floor. Of course, anyone who is anywhere near the top of the tower stops talking about their discoveries fairly quickly so it’s hard to know anything for certain.”

“There is much to learn from the ancestors,” Toorvu replied congenially, “and their words are as plain as day if you know where and how to look.”

“Ancestors?” Kat asked, almost afraid of the light that seemed to immediately ignite in Toorvu’s eyes.

Before the zealous lokkel could respond, Jaalin intervened once again.

“You’ll have time to preach later, for now Kat should absorb the skill stone. I’m just glad we’ve finally managed to grab something useful after spending most of the day killing elites. Subscription stones, Whip I, assorted perks, we can sell all of that for marks, but it will hardly be useful for improving your team’s survivability in the dungeons.”

Dorrik arrived at their gathering, settling in on Kat’s right even as Jaalin kept speaking.

“Still, I must commend your performance Kat. Even without the dreamscape’s magic, you serve as an admirable light combatant. If your race’s leaders could pull themselves from the barbarism and savagery they find themselves mired in, I’m sure that Clan Ahn would be happy to ally themselves with you. Not every race can adapt to the dreamscape’s martial rigors. I would not be surprised if humanity manages to push a team into the upper floors in the next century or two.”

“Hey now,” Kat replied. “I will admit that our planet is a mess, but that’s no reason to blame all of our leadership. I’m pretty sure I count as one of our leaders actually.”

“It’s true,” Dorrik said, crest finally relaxing as they got a chance to engage in their favorite activity, historical and cultural monologues. “Earth doesn’t have a unified government. Instead the humans are broken up into something similar to our clans, except instead of good natured competitions over issues of honor and commerce, they often kill each other without any honor over commerce. Miss Kat is a member of the ruling council of one of those organizations.”

“Are you being serious right now?” Jaalin asked, leaning forward to peer inquisitively at Dorrik. “Surely this is all a joke.”

“No.” Dorrik’s head bobbed excitedly. “Miss Kat has recently risen to a leadership position. It was rather a great achievement on her part. We are all very proud of her.”

“You don’t see it do you?” Jaalin questioned, looking from Kat to Dorrik. “Somehow, despite knowing more about alien cultures than any but a handful of the most skilled xenologists, you manage to miss the ridiculousness of the situation right in front of us.”

“I fail to understand what you are insinuating,” Dorrik bristled. “I can analyze and reanalyze our group dynamics a dozen times, but I see nothing amusing about them.”

“You’re living out a heroic fantasy for hatchlings,” Jaalin replied, crossing her upper arms while her lower limbs held onto her magic staves. “All we need is a fitting theme song and an advertisement for Grijek's Anti-Gravity Lawn Toys and it would be ready for syndication and broadcast.”

“Explain.” Dorrik’s voice was clipped. They weren’t exactly angry or aggressive, but at the same time the lokkel was more aggravated than Kat had seen outside of a handful of encounters with the stallesp.”

“Noble hero,” Jaalin said, pointing at Dorrik with one of her enchanted rods.

“Comic relief,” she continued, indicating Kaleek’s blood and viscera covered armored form. At some point the desoph had finished venting his rage and begun walking back toward the rest of the team.

“And last but not least,” Jaalin remarked, rolling her eyes in exasperation as she tapped Kat on the shoulder with one of her weapons. “You somehow managed to find a genuine barbarian warrior princess. If I didn’t know how much the clan valued your upcoming coming of age ceremony I would assume this is all some elaborate prank. Perhaps with a hidden crew filming our activities for the purpose of producing an entertainment program.”

“I’m not a barbarian warrior princess!” Kat blurted out, unable to control herself.

“Really?” The female lokkel asked, cocking her head to the side. “You are an accomplished warrior and the member of a leadership caste on an uncivilized world. How in the name of the ancients does that make you anything but some brand of barbarian princess?”

“My title wasn’t inherited,” Kat answered, studiously avoiding the fact that 99% of shareholders acquired shares via the wills and family trusts of their parents and ancestors. “Royalty usually means that the title and power is passed directly down to me. I had to earn every credit and scrap of social standing that I’ve managed to pull together.”

“And how did that happen?” Jaalin asked dryly. “I don’t suppose it was via a democratic vote? Perhaps you won a contest of skill to prove your competence as a leader? Maybe you were selected by the will of a supercomputer that designates leaders from amongst the most fit of the populace? Those are the three most common ways a civilized race selects a leader.”

She smirked slyly at Kat, leaning in with her crest pressed conspiratorially flat against the back of her neck.

“Of course you didn’t kill your way to the top did you? You aren’t a barbarian so there’s no way you would have used force or the threat of force to ensure compliance with your will. You would never do that my innocent and untainted human friend.”

“I might have used the threat of assassination and a powerful mercenary force outside the existing power structure to force the existing shareholders to accept my claim,” Kat mumbled, looking away from the smug lokkel woman.

“There’s no shame in that Kat,” Jaalin replied, her voice gentling slightly. “The lokkel clans used to engage in such practices before we became civilized. It is the way of things. That said, I do not find ‘seizing power as a warlord’ to be a credible counter argument to my accusation that you are some manner of barbarian princess.”

Kat changed tactics, wheeling around to address Kaleek. The desoph was covered head to toe in blood, his greatsword slung casually over one of his shoulders.

“Are you going to stand for this? Jaalin called you comic relief.”

Kaleek just shrugged, his armor clanking and sloshing in time with the motion.

“I don’t know Kat, that seems to be a pretty fair assessment.”