Midnight Wandering

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 8, Post Number 194

-Fat Monsterland, 12:02 A.M.-

After flying all the way from Silver Wolf Guild Hall to here on the back of Winged Lion Leona finally reached her destination. She landed just inside the border to Fat Monsterland, then hopped off of the back of her summon before dispelling it once her feet hit the ground. Wearing her olive green jacket over a black tank top and olive green cargo pants with boots, Leona looked at the area in front of her as a cold wind blew and knifed through her clothing like she was wearing much less than she actually was.

Maybe she should have put her Adaptable Armor on over her jacket.

The only armor Leona had on was her Argent Gloves, but they did nothing to protect her torso. She would have to be quick on her feet if she wanted to avoid harm, but that was usually no problem for her. She was a lot faster than any of the area's threats, which in her experience consisted of zombies. However, she had not explored the entirety of the area, so she had no idea if there were more threats in Fat Monsterland than just walking corpses.

Even if there were bigger threats than zombies Leona was ready for them. She had her Silver Longsword in its scabbard on her left hip, her Scout Laser Pistol in its holster on her right hip, and Ses Revanche in her right boot. With that triad of favorite weapons plus her magic Leona had plenty of options to use against any enemies she encountered.

Leona looked up and saw that clouds were beginning to cover the moon, limiting the amount of ambient light she had to work with. If she were more superstitious she might take that as a bad omen, but the Wizard Saint chalked it up to just picking a bad night to search for the elemental stone that was supposed to be here. Fortunately she was not dependent on moonlight because of her natural night vision and soon enough she was able to see in the dark with perfect clarity.

She looked back down at the terrain ahead of her and saw nothing but a flat featureless field with a trio of humanoid shapes in the distance. She suspected that they were zombies and drew her Silver Longsword to be ready for them when they noticed her. Leona began to walk towards them with her sword out and they did not respond to her until she was within five meters of them. Once they moaned and began to shamble towards her with uneven gaits she knew that she was dealing with zombies.

Leona approached the first one, a young blonde woman wearing green hunting attire who had large chunks of flesh missing from her neck, right shoulder, and right arm along with an empty quiver on her back and a bow still clutched in her left hand. Leona approached the former archer and raised her sword, then thrust the blade towards its forehead using both hands, punching right through and scoring an instant kill. The Wizard Saint planted her right foot on the zombie's chest, then kicked it off of the sword and freed her weapon for use against the next zombie.

Leona turned a bit to her left and spotted a bald male zombie approaching from six meters away. It was wearing a steel plate cuirass over its torso and greaves over green pants and boasting gaping bite wounds all along the left arm, which was stretched out towards her. It was dragging a bloody claymore in its right hand and as it was being dragged the large sword made a sound that was muffled by the grass. Leona kept her distance and raised her left index finger to prepare a Wind Bullet spell that was aimed at the enemy's head.

When the spell was ready she fired the Wind Bullet; the small silver marble hit the enemy's forehead, causing it to explode on contact and the headless zombie crumpled to the ground two steps later. The next zombie in line was a lanky man who was a good seven inches taller than Leona. He was a shirtless man wearing brown pants and brown leather boots who was dragging a plain steel longsword in his left hand. Bite wounds covered his arms and torso.

Leona moved towards the enemy and when she got in range she thrust the Silver Longsword towards its forehead. The sword punched through for an instant kill and the zombie collapsed, dragging her sword down at an awkward angle. She planted her right foot on its chest and pulled diagonally, removing the sword with greater ease than she expected. Once her sword was free she looked around for any more enemies to fight, but she did not find any, at least right away.

She wiped the Silver Longsword on the grass to remove the blood on it and looked into the distance. The field stretched as far as the eye could see... she did not see any other terrain features like bushes or trees. After surveying the area around her one last time Leona began to move forward to continue her search. She did not have a lot to go on other than what she was after was supposedly in the center of the area, but she was still willing to put in the effort to search for the elemental stone despite the minimal information the riddle had given her.

[Post Word Count: 916]
[Total Word Count: 916/11,000]

-Fat Monsterland, 12:13 A.M.-

Leona had crossed most of the field she had started out in, but she still had a little ways to go before she was all the way across. As she walked she had spotted nine dead zombies lying on the ground... five of them had arrows protruding from their foreheads and the remainder had a single deep cut to the head that was so deep it almost split their heads in half. Leona figured that the trio of zombies she had killed earlier used to be explorers who were responsible for killing the zombies that she was currently seeing.

She walked a little further and she soon came across five more dead zombies, all of them with deep chop wounds to the head. The man with the claymore must have inflicted those wounds because the sword looked sharp and heavy enough to inflict that kind of wound. Leona walked past the dead zombies and kept moving deeper into the area.

-Fat Monsterland, 12:33 A.M.-

Leona had crossed the first field and paused in place to get a look at what lay ahead of her. She looked into the distance and saw five humanoid shapes in the distance, a sight which prompted her to draw her Silver Longsword again. She drew it and began to walk towards the figures until she could properly identify them. When she got close she heard the signature moan of a zombie and when she got within sword range of the first one she saw that all five figures were zombies, so it was time to get rid of them.

Leona approached the first zombie, which was a male of average height wearing leather armor on the torso over green clothing and missing their right arm below the elbow. They were also missing a large part of the left side of the neck. She drew her Silver Longsword back and behind her head, then brought the blade down with all of her might, aiming for the zombie's head. Leona's swing was so powerful that it nearly cut the zombie's head in half; however, the blade lodged in its head, leaving her without her sword.

Leona took a step back and drew her Scout Laser Pistol with her right hand. She aimed at the head of the closest zombie, which was a young woman with copper hair dressed in leather armor over green clothing and leather gauntlets on her hands. Leona held down the trigger and prepared a Charge Shot... when the barrel glowed bright orange she took a moment to steady her aim before firing the shot. The Charge Shot hit the zombie in the head and hit with such force that it ripped the head off and sent it flying into the field, eliciting a wince from the Wizard Saint. Despite that unpleasant sight she could not complain about the results... the female zombie was no longer a threat.

The third enemy, a shirtless male zombie wearing black pants and black boots and holding a bloody dagger in its left hand, was missing its entire right arm plus a chunk of its left shoulder from where it had been bitten. It was only two meters away and to the right when Leona spotted it and raised her weapon, aiming for its head. She held her aim for a few moments before preparing another Charge Shot and releasing it once she was fairly sure it would hit. Again its head was ripped off of its neck and sent flying, scoring another kill for the Wizard Saint.

The fourth opponent was another female zombie wearing a steel cuirass and steel greaves over brown clothing along with steel gauntlets on its hands. It was missing over half of the left side of its face and Leona could see the bite marks from where the face had been chewed. She put away her laser pistol and pointed her right index finger towards the zombie, then prepared a Wind Bullet spell. Once the spell was ready Leona fired it and watched as the zombie's head exploded when the Wind Bullet hit its forehead.

There was only one walking corpse left for her to deal with. Leona faced the last of the quintet, a male zombie of average height wearing a steel cuirass and brown pants with brown leather boots and missing its right arm, right ear, and almost all of the right side of its face. She raised her right hand and prepared an Air Pressure spell and when it was ready fired the silver horizontal column of compressed air at the zombie's head.

The spell hit the target and the zombie's head exploded instantly, ending the threat. Once the last kill had been made Leona paused in place and listened out for the sound of more zombies approaching. Sure enough she heard moaning in the distance, which meant that she would have company very soon. Leona turned and hurried back to the corpse of the first zombie she had taken down... she wanted to retrieve her Silver Longsword before the incoming horde reached her location.

[Post Word Count: 850]
[Total Word Count: 1,766/11,000]

While Leona was busy trying to retrieve her sword from the skull of the zombie she had planted it into she heard more moaning sounds in the distance and looked towards the source. When she did she spotted a lot of humanoid shapes in the distance. Leona looked down, planted her right foot on the chest of the deceased zombie, and then tightened her grip on the weapon's grip before pulling up as hard as she could using both hands. The first attempt moved the blade a bit, but it did not move nearly enough to free it from the skull.

Leona looked up again and saw the new arrivals drawing closer. She tried to pull the sword out of the skull again, but it did not want to budge. Instead of wasting more time on something she did not need to spend time on Leona decided to put the endeavor on hold and focus on eliminating the large group of zombies who were heading for her. She had just the spell to do the job... since she was in the middle of a wide field that had nothing in it but grass and plenty of space, she could use Silver Tempest without fear of causing property damage or hurting anyone.

As the horde approached Leona began to channel silver magic throughout her body and when the spell was ready put her arms out to her side, then began to spin in place. She spun for five full revolutions and when the last spin was completed a silver tornado emanated from where she was, striking everything around her with one of her most powerful spells. All of the zombies in front of her groaned in unison as they were knocked to the ground by the Silver Tempest. While the immediate threat was over, Leona was not going to feel at ease until she was sure that every last zombie was truly dead.

Now that the threat was over for the time being she grabbed the grip of her Silver Longsword, planted her foot on the zombie's torso, and began trying to remove it from its resting place. Leona wrapped both hands around the grip and pulled up as hard as she could. This time she got results... the blade came out so easily that she almost staggered backwards when the sword came out of the skull. Leona did not bother wiping the blood off of the blade because she was going to turn around and use it to make sure that every zombie she had hit with the Silver Tempest spell was dead before she moved on.

-Twelve minutes later-

Leona had just stabbed the last of the zombies through the skull to ensure that they were not going to get back up and shamble after her once she had moved on. All forty or so zombies were dead on the ground and were not going to move again. Leona bent down and wiped the blood off of her Silver Longsword, then put the sword back in its scabbard. She looked ahead of her to get the lay of the land and saw another long stretch of empty field looming ahead of her.

The Wizard Saint looked up and saw that the moon was all but completely covered. It was a good thing she had natural night vision because otherwise she would have had to carry a lantern or wander in the dark. Speaking of the darkness, it made using her summons for backup impractical because they could not see in the dark like she could and thus could not attack her targets accurately. That did not bother Leona too much because she was used to fighting alone. She was also traveling in an open field and did not have to worry about property damage, so she had nothing to fear from using her Silver Tempest spell to deal with large hordes of zombies.

Leona looked down again and looked straight ahead while lamenting the incomplete information given to her by the riddle Dr. Ravenholm had translated for her. She did not know where exactly the elemental stone was supposed to be other than in the center of Fat Monsterland. That clue was not very helpful, but it was all she had to go on. Maybe she should have consulted Dr. Ravenholm for some advice before setting out for Fat Monsterland, but she was already here and was committed to the trip, so she would just have to see it through whether she found what she was looking for or not.

Leona was about to resume walking when she saw several human figures lumbering in her direction. They were the bulky butcher zombies who were slower but tougher than the ax-wielding zombies. She heard moaning and saw a large group of the ax-wielding zombies rushing towards her. Leona took a quiet breath and got ready for another fight.

[Post Word Count: 818]
[Total Word Count: 2,584/11,000]

The fifteen-strong group of ax-wielding zombies rushed by the slower butcher zombies on their way to Leona, who stood her ground and drew her Silver Longsword. Her plan was to divide and conquer by taking out the quicker enemies first before dealing with the others. She was also going to break up the group of fast zombies by using a Wind Blast to knock them off of their feet so that she did not have to deal with all of them at the same time.

When they drew within range Leona raised her left hand and cast a Wind Blast spell that knocked down the first ten in the group, leaving her five to deal with. The fastest among them closed in and raised its ax above its head, but Leona did not give it the chance to complete the swing. She stabbed it through the forehead and kicked it off of her sword moments before the second in line raised its ax.

The Wizard Saint jumped back before the ax fell and landed on her feet, allowing her to face the other three charging at her. Leona quickly used her left hand to cast a Storm Impact spell. The moment she punched the ground the dome of wind staggered the enemies in front of her, giving her just enough time to lunge forward and eliminate another one with a stab through the skull. She withdrew the sword and went after a third zombie with a lunging stab through its skull, catching it just as it recovered from the stagger.

Its fellows recovered and immediately went after Leona, forcing her to leave her sword embedded in the third zombie's skull and retreat before the other two could swing their axes. Leona sprinted away for seven meters, then stopped, turned, and faced her attackers. She took advantage of the distance she had put between herself and them to prepare a Wind Bullet spell with her left hand and fire it at the head of the closer zombie.

The silver marble hit the zombie in the forehead and caused its head to explode. The headless enemy crumpled to the ground and the last of the quintet charged at her. The Wizard Saint stood her ground and drew her Scout Laser Pistol, preparing a Charge Shot the moment the pistol cleared the holster. When its barrel began to glow she raised the weapon and aimed for its head, then fired the shot.

The Charge Shot connected with its head and ripped it off, sending it flying as the body's feet shot out from under it. The headless body hit the ground and Leona turned her attention towards the other fast zombies, who had all recovered from the Wind Blast and were wasting no time in going after her. She had raised the pistol and was about to shoot at the leader of the pack when she spotted a green glob of acid heading for her and jumped to the right to avoid taking a hit to the midsection. She looked in the direction it came from and saw that the butcher zombies had finally gotten in range.

Leona turned away from the fast zombies and used a Zephyr Dash to get away from them before she was surrounded and cut to pieces. Once she was twenty meters away she put away the laser pistol and prepared to cast another Silver Tempest spell to take out all of the enemies at once instead of wasting time and energy by fighting each one separately.

Channeling silver magic into her body and holding her arms out to her sides, Leona spun for five full revolutions and cast the Silver Tempest spell. All of the zombies in the area were hit and knocked to the ground... now all Leona had to do was make sure that they were not going to get up again. To do that she would need to retrieve her Silver Longsword from where it had been left.

-Fourteen minutes later-

Leona had just finished the task of stabbing each downed zombie through the head with her sword. The obese butcher zombies had taken more effort to stab because of the layer of fat in their foreheads, but the job had been done. Now if Leona had to fall back during a particularly tough fight she would not have to worry about being attacked from behind. Leona wiped the blood off of the weapon's blade on the grass at her feet and looked ahead of her.

Ahead loomed another long stretch of field, which was fine with her. She appreciated the open terrain, which made it a lot easier to see approaching enemies. She was aware that if she could see them they could also see her, but that downside was a small price to pay for having the advantages of having a chance to spot them and thin out their numbers from a distance before they closed in to melee range.

Leona felt the night wind blow her hair about as she walked past the dead zombies and pushed further into Fat Monsterland.

[Post Word Count: 850]
[Total Word Count: 3,434/11,000]

-Fat Monsterland, forty-three minutes later-

Leona had been walking for almost an hour without a break, so she paused in the middle of a nondescript clearing and looked around her for a few moments to make sure that it was safe to stop moving. When she saw that the coast was clear she remained standing in place. The wind picked up a little and blew her hair about while cutting through her jacket like she was not even wearing one. Maybe she should have worn a t-shirt under it instead of a tank top.

The Wizard Saint had been searching for the elemental stone for a couple of hours now and she had been heading for the center of the area, but she had found no signs of it. She suspected that she still had some distance to go before she would reach her destination... if she was even heading in the right direction. Maybe she should have brought a map or a compass or something, but it was too late for regrets now.

Leona put her hands on her hips and sighed. She really should have prepared a bit more for this trip. This was what she got for charging off on another adventure before having everything she needed. Leona frowned and stood in place for a minute or two before deciding to continue her journey to the center of Fat Monsterland.

-Fat Monsterland, twelve minutes later-

After resuming her trip Leona had kept her eyes and ears open for any more zombies, but she had not seen or heard any. Normally they would be heading her way in large groups, but she had not spotted a single one since the fight with the last group just a little over an hour ago. She doubted that she had seen the last of them, so she needed to remain vigilant as she moved deeper into the area.

Leona kept walking until she spotted five corpses lying on the ground about three meters ahead of her. She paused for a minute and waited to see if they were going to reanimate on her, but when they remained on the ground she figured that it was safe to approach them... about as safe as approaching dead bodies could get in this place, anyway. The Wizard Saint approached them and as she got closer she noticed that they were a quintet of humans with two greatswords, a longsword, a warhammer, and a battleax lying next to their bodies and a lot of blood lying on the ground beneath them. She placed her right hand on the grip of her Silver Longsword and slowly walked towards the bodies until she could get a better look at them.

When she finally got close enough for a detailed look she saw that all five of them had deep wounds on their torsos. They were all unarmored and the wounds were so deep it looked like the victims would have been cut completely apart had the cuts went just a little deeper. She looked a little closer and soon noticed that they all had three deep parallel marks across their chests like something with large claws had killed each of them with a diagonal swipe. The bodies were spread out a bit but still formed a rough semicircle, suggesting that they had tried to fight something as a team before their untimely deaths.

Leona folded her arms across her chest and tried to think of anything in the area that had the claws and the strength necessary to kill five people in such a fashion. She had seen no such enemy around here, but she had never explored the entirety of Fat Monsterland, so there was the possibility that something larger than zombies existed out there. If it did exist Leona hoped that the weapons and magic she had would be strong enough to take it down.

Having surveyed the grim scene until she had learned everything she felt she could learn from it, Leona decided to move on. She carefully walked past the bodies and paid close attention to her surroundings as she moved. If what had killed the people was still out there she did not want to be surprised by it.

-Deeper in Fat Monsterland, thirty-three minutes later-

Leona had not encountered a single zombie yet and she was wondering why that was. When she walked to the middle of the current field she saw a sight that might go a ways towards explaining why her trip had been uneventful up to this point. She saw a large group of zombies scattered about and lying motionless on the ground.

She slowly edged up to the closest zombie and saw that it was one of the skinny ax-wielding zombies. Its head and torso had been cut in half diagonally and what was left of those body parts had three diagonal lines where the cuts had been made. Whatever had killed the zombie had serious power behind it. Leona moved on from that particular zombie and began to look at the rest of the corpses for any more hints as to what she might be going up against.

[Post Word Count: 862]
[Total Word Count: 4,296/11,000]

Leona continued to walk about the area where she had found the cluster of dead zombies and stopped when she came across another one of the axe-wielding zombies. It had a missing left arm and the neat, clean cut on the end indicative of cutting with a sharp object, but what caught her attention was its head... or what was left of it, anyway. She saw a large footprint left in the mush that used to be its head and swiftly reached the conclusion that this particular zombie had had its head caved in with a mighty foot. Leona had stomped a zombie to death before, but it had taken her multiple times to make the kill. Whatever had done the deed had needed only one try.

Leona walked a bit further and examined more zombies, but she did not see anything new until she spotted a zombie that was missing its head. She stopped and looked at its neck for clues. This zombie did not show any marks that indicated its head had been cleanly severed. Instead it had uneven areas of chewed-up flesh that looked like bite marks. Intrigued by this, Leona stayed where she was and examined the body further.

She quickly noticed that the marks were not concentrated in one area like those left by a normal bite. Instead the marks were all around the neck like whatever had bitten its head off had a mouth big enough to put the zombie's entire head in its mouth. That made the Wizard Saint shudder a bit. Whatever could do that had to be big.

Deciding that there was nothing further to learn here, Leona decided to press on. She left the dead zombies behind and began moving forward again. She was not sure if she would encounter whatever killed the zombies, but she was not going to rule out that possibility either.

-Fat Monsterland, one hour and five minutes later-

Leona had traveled for a little over an hour without interruption and it was a strange feeling. She appreciated the uninterrupted travel time because she was able to cover ground quickly, but she was used to having to fight her way through the area and she had not fought anything in over a few hours. She reached another clearing and heard what sounded like moaning mixed with deep and intermittent roaring in the distance. It was impossible to determine the exact distance, but the sound was coming from a good distance in front of her. Leona began sprinting towards the sound as fast as she could go.

After a minute Leona shifted from a sprint into a full run as the sounds got louder. She was obviously heading in the right direction, so she kept going until she reached the scene. When she got to the scene she stopped to witness a brawl between multiple zombies and a really big humanoid creature with two enormous arms. She was facing the action and all the combatants were facing away from her, but she could see everything clearly.

Leona kept her distance and watched as the larger creature began to cut its way through a quintet of ax-wielding zombies that were in front of it. It lashed out with one of its two larger arms and cut through the head of one of them standing in front of it, then whipped to its right and used the same arm to inflict another killing slash on its new target. A third zombie swung its ax at the creature's left leg, but the attack was about as harmful as using a cardboard tube because the ax blade failed to penetrate the flesh, instead bouncing off. The large figure spun to face the offending zombie and quickly put an end to the latter's life with a forceful slash that vertically cut it in half from the head down.

After that the remaining two zombies were eliminated in short order by the large humanoid figure. It used its two larger arms to kill one of them with a one-two diagonal slash combo that turned the target into a badly clawed mess before turning its attention to the sole survivor. It met a swift and messy end with a claw slash to the head that cut both its head and a good part of its upper body. After defeating the last of its opponents the creature raised its two larger arms to the cloudy night sky and roared in victory.

Leona, having witnessed the "fight" and learning that conventional weapons were of questionable use against it, wondered if her magic would be able to do anything against it. She would soon get a chance to see because the figure whipped its body around and faced Leona, giving the blonde a perfect view of it. When she saw it her face went pale.

It was a dark-skinned and muscular creature that had at least a two-foot height advantage on her. She also noticed that it had four arms... in addition to the two larger arms that protruded from its back it also had a pair of arms that were smaller and much like a human's except for the long talons in place of fingernails. Its face was... frightening, to say the least. It looked less like a face and more like a mask, a white mask featuring a permanent sinister grin that exposed long, sharp teeth and its red eyes had no irises, making looking it in the eye a test of will for the Wizard Saint of Courage.

The most frightening thing about it was that as the blonde was assessing it it seemed to be sizing her up in turn. It tilted its head to the left a little and flexed all four of its hands. A few seconds later it raised its two larger arms upwards and emitted a deep roar before sprinting towards her, each running step sounding like a loud drum being hit. Leona gasped and took a step back at the sight of the running creature. She had figured that something that big would be fairly slow, but in this case she had been proven terribly wrong.

The Four-Armed Creature:

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[Total Word Count: 5,324/11,000]

Leona saw the four-armed creature charging towards her and knew better than to stand and cast a spell to try and stop it. She turned right and sprinted out of its way, getting out of its reach only moments before its big right arm descended in a diagonal slash on where she was standing. When she spun around she had only a few moments to prepare and fire a spell before it went after her again, so she decided to start off with a Wind Bullet to its head.

Leona prepared the spell by focusing magic on the tip of her right index finger and aimed the digit at its head, then held her hand steady. Once the spell was ready formed Leona fired the Wind Bullet at the target's head and closely watched the projectile's trajectory. The Wind Bullet hit the creature in the head, causing it to snap back and eliciting a roar of pain. It staggered back a few steps before its head returned to its normal position and it made eye contact with Leona. The Wizard Saint quickly began to prepare an Air Pressure spell as the giant recovered from having its head snapped back.

It raised its two large arms in the air and held them aloft as it briskly walked towards her. Leona fired the horizontal column of air at its torso and hit it squarely in the chest, but to her dismay the spell did not slow it in the slightest. It closed in on her and lashed out in a one-two diagonal slash combo that hit nothing but air thanks to Leona jumping back three big leaps in time to avoid catching its claws across her chest and taking a nasty wound as a result.

Leona had hit the creature with two of her strongest spells and they had not shown any meaningful effect on it. It strode towards her again and she turned and began to sprint away from it when she heard the sound of booming, rapid footsteps and glanced over her right shoulder. What she saw made her heart skip a beat for a moment.

It was chasing her!

Leona faced forward again and broke into a full run to try and get away from its arms before it could slash her across the back. Despite her renewed effort it was closing the distance and for a few moments it seemed like it would actually get close enough to attack, but Leona pulled ahead of it and kept running. She needed to put quite a bit of distance between it and her before she tried to attack again. Before she committed to an attack she needed to think about the best method of doing so.

The Wizard Saint was not even going to try using techniques against her enemy because it boasted a considerable height advantage, a long reach, and razor-sharp claws that could cut through flesh with ease. All of those factors made hand-to-hand combat with it a very bad idea. Instead she was going to stick to using spells and staying out of reach the best she could... the second part was going to be a challenge because the four-armed menace was surprisingly fast for something of its height and bulk. Leona was keeping ahead of it by a decent margin, but she was doubtful that she could defeat her opponent by outrunning it.

Leona looked up at the night sky and saw that it was still cloudy, meaning that her summons were still not a viable option. She was going to have to fight this thing on her own. Leona quickly paused in place and used a Zephyr Dash to put 100 meters between her and her opponent so that she had enough time to cast a spell. However, that plan was dashed the moment she heard moaning a short distance behind her. She spun around and spotted a small horde of zombies heading for her, including a sluggish quartet of the acid-spitting butcher zombies.

Due to the unforeseen arrival of a new enemy Leona was now in a bind. The Wizard Saint heard the thundering footsteps of the four-armed enemy approaching and faced a choice. She could either take her chances with the big guy or she could try her luck with the zombies. Then she had another idea.

Why not let the zombies distract the bigger threat while she prepared a Silver Tempest spell?

Leona turned to face the charging four-armed menace and sprinted towards it. Running towards something that wanted to kill her was a stupid idea, but she had thought on her feet and it was the only idea she could come up with. If her idea worked it could buy her the time needed to prepare and cast Silver Tempest, one of her most powerful spells. That spell might be able to shift the momentum of the fight in her favor... if the zombies were able to last long enough to be a good distraction.

[Post Word Count: 834]
[Total Word Count: 6,158/11,000]

As she ran towards the worse of the two enemy types Leona got the impression that her snap decision was going to turn out a lot worse for her than she imagined. Not only were the zombies behind her slower than she would have liked, but the creature was rushing to meet her head-on. It was too late to back out now... she was already halfway to it and it was halfway to her. Leona was just going to have to hope for the best.

When she got within range of its larger arms she quickly dove to the ground and rolled on her right shoulder, hoping that her momentum would carry her past the four-armed giant and the zombies would catch up to them, drawing its attention away from her. Her momentum was indeed carrying her, but it did not carry her quite far enough because the moment her roll stopped she saw her pursuer quickly turn to follow her. It began pursuit and when it reached her began stomping at her with its large right foot. Leona had to suddenly roll left to avoid having her head stomped in, but the best way to escape was to get to her feet and use a Zephyr Dash.

After the roll to the left Leona abruptly rolled right and kept rolling for eight full rotations, somehow avoiding catching a foot to the torso for her trouble. On the ninth rotation she stopped when she was rolling on her stomach, then immediately dove forward to avoid getting her spine broken when it brought its foot down where she was lying. She had moved just in time to avoid a crippling injury, but her troubles were far from over. She quickly scrambled to her feet and heard the large beast closing in for another attack.

The Wizard Saint sprinted forward and heard fabric rip as she ran for her life. When she got far enough away to have a moment to breathe she found that the back of her jacket had been ripped almost in half and saw a long strip of olive green fabric dangling from the claws on its larger left hand. That prompted her to frantically feel her back for any wounds that might have been inflicted by the same attack that had ripped her jacket. She did not feel any cuts or any blood, so she had gotten away with just minor clothing damage.

Leona looked towards her opponent and saw the zombies that had been following her finally catch up to it. One of them turned its attention to the four-armed beast and raised its ax, then swung down at its lower back. The large beast quickly spun around to confront the attacker and raised its two larger arms as more of the ax-wielding zombies began attacking it. Leona knew that it was now or never... she began to prepare her Silver Tempest spell.

While the beast began clawing its way through the zombies she began channeling silver magic into her body. Just as she had finished channeling the magic she saw a glob of green acid fly so close to her right shoulder that a bit of the acid got onto her jacket and burned away the shoulder area, also burning her skin a little when it ate through the fabric. It seemed that the obese butcher zombies were not all targeting the large enemy, but she could not stop now. If she did not take this chance to cast Silver Tempest she might not get another.

Ignoring the burning pain on the top of her right shoulder, Leona thrust both hands outward and began to spin in place for five full revolutions. When the last one was completed the silver tornado expanded outwards from her position, hitting every enemy in the area. Upon being hit by the spell all of the zombies that had not been clawed to death by the four-armed beast groaned and fell to the ground, but the main target of the spell barely reacted to one of her most powerful spells.

It quickly turned its attention back to her and began to walk briskly with the larger arms held up and prepared to cut into the Wizard Saint. Leona was surprised by its lack of reaction to her Silver Tempest spell. It walked towards her like nothing had happened, prompting the blonde to begin to try and look for a new way to hurt it. She had a lot of spells and techniques, but the trouble was figuring out which one to use.

While she was thinking Leona looked at the beast and noticed that it had a small eye on its right leg and a large one on its left shoulder. Attacking those areas might be her only hope of hurting it, but she did not have long to act because it began charging at her again. Leona immediately turned and used Zephyr Dash to put 100 meters between her and it. When she reappeared at the end of the Zephyr Dash Leona faced the beast and began trying to think of a powerful distance spell she could use to try and hit the large eye on its left shoulder.

[Post Word Count: 870]
[Total Word Count: 7,028/11,000]

As the enemy ran towards her with thundering footsteps Leona decided to use one of the strongest distance spells she had and use an Air Pressure spell. She raised her right hand and channeled silver magic into it, then fired the spell directly at the eye on its left shoulder. The visible silver column of compressed air was heading for the target and looked like it was going to hit its mark, but to Leona's utter shock the creature saw the spell coming and dropped to one knee at the last moment. The Air Pressure spell soared harmlessly above its shoulder and Leona saw it make eye contact with her before it proceeded to somehow smile wider as if taunting her.

It quickly stood up and began sprinting towards the Wizard Saint, who had to take a moment to rethink her plan of action after the Air Pressure spell missed. Silver Tempest had had no noticeable effect on it, so it was not worth the time and effort to try that spell again. She looked at its right leg and decided that trying to attack that eye was her best bet because it was easier for her to reach. However, she would have to get past its arms first.

When it got to melee range it tried for a one-two slash combo with its larger arms, but Leona did three consecutive backflips without pause and barely avoided being hit during the second one. The moment she landed she rushed towards the four-armed beast before it could recover and quickly faced the eye on its right leg, then prepared a Silver Blade spell. She channeled silver magic into the index and middle fingers of her right hand, put the rest of her fingers together into a fist, and held her fingers down at her side. When the spell was ready she brought her right arm across her body, partially covering her face with her right forearm before slashing diagonally down at the eye with her fingers.

The Silver Blade spell hit the eye and caused quite a bit of blood to erupt from the leg wound. The beast emitted a high-pitched roar of pain and started swinging its smaller arms to and fro in an effort to hit Leona, who quickly dove between its legs to avoid the flailing arms and landed on her stomach on the grass. She quickly raised herself on all fours and scrambled clear of the angry creature, then just as quickly scrambled to her feet as a deep roar sounded a short distance behind her. Leona looked back for a moment and saw that the four-armed beast had glowing red eyes now... it was clearly angry with her for wounding it.

She began running away from it and the pounding footsteps were not far behind. As she fled Leona began to look for another horde of zombies that could take the heat off of her long enough to come up with a way to attack the eye on the left shoulder. None were forthcoming, so the Wizard Saint kept running while taking the occasional glance behind her. She saw her pursuer begin to falter and lose steam after running full speed for fifteen meters... it slowed until it staggered to a halt about five meters away from her. Leona came to a halt about two meters later and spun to face the enemy.

Now was Leona's chance. Quickly reaching for her Scout Laser Pistol, Leona drew it and raised it towards the creature's left shoulder, aiming directly at the eye. She prepared an Armor-Piercing Shot in case the creature's eye was tougher than it looked. When the barrel glowed red Leona steadied her right hand and held it still for a moment before firing the shot. Leona watched the bolt of light race towards the target and hit it dead center, eliciting another high-pitched roar as the beast raised its large left arm to the sky with the fingers of its hand open while clutching the wounded eye with its large right hand.

Leona watched it closely and waited for it to make a counterattack, but instead it spun around and sprinted away from her as fast as it could go, its thundering footsteps heading away from her instead of towards her. Leona was briefly surprised by that but then considered the possibility it was trying to get her to chase it so that it could turn the tables on her when she overextended herself. She did not quite see how it could pull that off considering that the terrain ahead was flat and there were no trees around, but she had gotten overconfident before and had paid the price, so she was going to be cautious as she proceeded deeper into the area. Leona followed it, moving at a brisk walk instead of running so that she had plenty of room to stop if the four-armed creature decided to turn around and attack her again.

[Post Word Count: 830]
[Total Word Count: 7,858/11,000]

-Fat Monsterland, two hours and twenty-three minutes later-

After losing contact with the four-armed beast roughly two hours ago Leona had resumed her search for the elemental stone and was fairly deep into Fat Monsterland. She had not seen the beast ever since it had disengaged from the fight after taking hits to the eyes located on its body parts, but she was not going to relax until she was out of Fat Monsterland. Earlier the large enemy seemed pretty angry that she had managed to wound it by attacking the eye on its right leg and the large eye on its left shoulder, so she could not rule out the possibility that it might actively hunt her down when it was ready for a rematch.

Leona knew that most of her weapons and spells were not of much use against the beast. She had even hit it with a Silver Tempest spell and that powerful spell failed to get much of a reaction from it. The Silver Blade spell seemed to work well against it because of its armor-piercing properties, but its main shortcoming was that she had to get into melee range to use it. The four-armed beast had a sizable reach advantage and she would have to time her approach carefully in order to avoid getting shredded by the claws on its arms.

Speaking of things getting shredded, the back of her jacket had gotten shredded during the confrontation and now she was regretting that loss because the wind suddenly picked up, causing Leona to shiver. She really should have worn a t-shirt instead of a tank top, but she had not anticipated taking any serious clothing damage tonight. Oh well.

Crossing her arms over her chest and doing her best to keep warm, Leona continued walking while watching for either more zombies or the four-armed beast. As she walked she noticed an odd object lying on the ground a good distance away... it was about the size of a fist and was of a color that was hard to determine. Figuring it to be the prize she was looking for, Leona holstered the Scout Laser Pistol and unconsciously began to pick up the pace until she began to run. The cold did not bother her... her prize looked to be so close that she did not care that the remnants of her jacket offered about as much protection from the cold as tissue paper. When she finally reached the object she took a knee and reached for it with her left hand.

Her fingers wrapped around the object and she grasped it, then lifted it towards her face to get a closer look. The lack of moonlight made seeing detail difficult, but her night vision allowed her to make out the shape of a crescent moon on the surface. This had to be what she was looking for. She stood up, crammed the object into her left side cargo pocket, drew the Scout Laser Pistol with her right hand, and immediately turned around and began to retrace her steps. There was a lot of ground to cover and she wanted to cover as much of it as she could before she had to stop and fight something.

-Fat Monsterland, two hours later-

Leona had made fairly good progress on the return trip. She had encountered the occasional lone zombie and they had went down with one good shot to the head from the laser pistol. Now she was taking a brief break and looking up at the night sky to see if the clouds were going to move on and let her have some moonlight to see by. After about five minutes of waiting and looking the clouds did not look like they were going to go anywhere any time soon, so she would just have to get by with her night vision.

Leona looked at the path in front of her and began to walk again when she heard a familiar thundering sound. She spun around and spotted the four-armed beast from earlier charging at her with its two larger arms held in a ready position. The Wizard Saint did not have much time to act, so she quickly rolled to the right moments before it reached her and popped up, then spun to face the enemy. She put away her laser pistol and focused on it.

She knew that its hide was thick, but it was not thick enough to repel a Silver Blade spell. She also knew that her Sonic Slash spell could pierce through armor. However, the spell involved a "flash step" taking her to within melee range of the target and that was the beast's optimal range. While it did not have much finesse, it did not really need finesse when it had power and range on its side. It was also deceptively fast for something that was eight feet tall, but Leona had noticed that it did not seem to have the stamina to constantly run about: instead it used speed in bursts to close the range with its target.

The beast seized the initiative and sprinted towards her. When it got within range it made a one-two slash combo and started off with its larger left arm to try and hit her before she could react, but she managed to dodge the claws by jumping to the right just as its left arm descended. She landed on her feet and faced the beast, then jumped backwards five consecutive times to put some distance between her and it. Once she landed she faced it again and watched its movements carefully.

[Post Word Count: 940]
[Total Word Count: 8,798/11,000]

Leona watched her taller opponent closely and noticed its glowing red eyes as it seemed to watch her for what she was going to do. For a few tense moments neither party made a move until the four-armed beast made the first move. It lunged at Leona with its two larger arms extended like it was trying to tackle her and the Wizard Saint repeated the maneuver of backflipping out of its reach by performing three consecutive backflips, landing on her feet at the end of them. However, it recovered from the lunge faster than she had anticipated and rushed at her with its smaller human-sized arms at the ready.

Leona backflipped again as it swiped its human-sized arms in a one-two combo and felt its talons rake her midsection in mid-air. Leona landed from the backflip and saw that her shirt and her midsection had been cut just below her chest. Her midsection was bleeding, but she did not have time to worry about that because the beast was making another attack on her. This time it took the form of a lunge with its human arms extended as if to grab her.

Leona quickly dove to the ground and hit it with her stomach, then scrambled a short distance on all fours before hurrying to her feet and trying to get away from the beast before it raked her across the back with its claws and either killed her or crippled her enough to be an easy kill. She quickly sprinted away for eight meters before stopping and turning to face it. She was going to gamble on a Sonic Slash to its right leg in order to try and slow it down a little, an act which would hopefully allow her to retake the initiative. Leona prepared the Sonic Slash spell and when it was ready disappeared in a "flash step", then reappeared in front of the beast's right leg and performed a horizontal left-to-right slash with her right hand.

The Sonic Slash hit the leg below the knee and drew both blood and a high-pitched roar. She also drew retaliation on herself in the form of a powerful kick from its left leg aimed at her body, but she managed to evade that with a timely jump to the right. She landed on her feet and faced her adversary as it faced her and raised its larger arms to prepare a strike.

It swung its larger arms down towards her; the hands were close to each other like an ax handle smash but were not completely together or balled into fists. Leona jumped back to dodge the forceful but unfocused strike, easily avoiding it before it could hit her and slam her to the ground. She landed on her feet as it was raising its arms and jumped towards it, quickly preparing a Silver Blade spell to use on its right leg.

Leona prepared the spell and when it was ready brought her right arm across her face until her right forearm partially covered it. She then slashed diagonally downward towards the right leg, aiming for below the knee. She hit it below the knee, cutting into the leg and getting another high-pitched roar for her trouble. It bent down and tried to attack her with its smaller arms, but Leona anticipated that and jumped backwards as it lashed out at her. Its talons barely missed the skin of her midsection but caught her shirt, cutting even more of it off and leaving Leona's midriff exposed.

Leona landed and clutched her bleeding midsection with her left hand as the four-armed beast glared at her with its red eyes. It seemed to be watching her again but it was not attacking. Maybe it was hurt by the Sonic Slash and Silver Blade spells to its leg and was unable to immediately attack again. Leona hoped that it had been hurt because she had used two of her strongest spells and two of her only armor-piercing spells.

The two combatants eyed each other for a minute or so while they each assessed their opponent for weakness. When the time to attack came Leona was first on the draw with a Meteor Jump Kick technique... she leaped straight up into the air, then diagonally descended on the beast's left shoulder with her right foot extended outward in a kick. She was aiming for the eye on the shoulder and hit it squarely with her foot.

The beast roared in pain and staggered backwards for three loud steps while Leona landed and performed a recovery roll onto her right shoulder that took her a short distance to its left. When she rolled back onto her feet she turned to face the beast, which was protecting its left shoulder eye with its larger right hand like it had done earlier. It did not seem keen on attacking her... rather it glared at her for a few moments before quickly turning away and running deeper into Fat Monsterland. The wounded Wizard Saint was not inclined to pursue it... she had been hurt and was not exactly raring for a third encounter, but she would fight it again if she had to.

Clutching her midsection with her left hand and watching the beast thunder off into the distance, Leona turned around and resumed her walk towards the exit to Fat Monsterland. She was hurting a little, but she had driven off her attacker. Now she needed to try and get out of here before it showed up for a third round.

[Post Word Count: 928]
[Total Word Count: 9,726/11,000]

-Capital Crocus, The Ravenholm Estate, three days later-

After walking through Fat Monsterland without encountering the four-armed beast for a third time Leona had spent the past three days at Silver Wolf Guild Hall doing paperwork and recovering from the wounds to her stomach. Thankfully the claw marks had not been deep enough to disembowel her or cause another significant injury, but they still hurt quite a bit whenever she walked, sat down, or stood up.

Leona had also kept an eye out for news of the four-armed beast in case it decided to leave Fat Monsterland to track her down for a rematch. She had not seen or heard anything, so she guessed it had been hurt badly enough to dissuade it from pursuing her beyond its home area's borders. She planned to track it down and kill it to end the threat it posed to Fiore should it decide to leave Fat Monsterland as well as get revenge for the painful wounds it had caused her. That would come later, though. Leona would need to recover and to obtain a weapon that could cut through its hide so that she did not have to always target the eyes on its body.

Right now Leona was in Capital Crocus standing inside the study of Dr. Ravenholm's mansion as the latter studied the object Leona had recovered from Fat Monsterland. The purple-haired scientist studied it while the Wizard Saint stood by and waited for verification of the item's authenticity. Leona was wearing an open blue jean jacket over a green tank top with another pair of khaki cargo pants and under the tank top was bandaging over her midsection. In her left cargo pocket was some money for a planned shopping trip to replace the clothing that had gotten bloody or damaged beyond repair. Once she finished up here she planned to go by Capital Crocus Mall and buy another black tank top, another olive green jacket, and maybe a khaki jacket to go with her pants.

"This is the real deal, Leona. You managed to find the Luna Stone." Dr. Ravenholm reported on the object and gave it a name. Now that it had been brought into the light Leona could see it clearly. It was a fist-sized stone that was as dark as the night sky and had a silver crescent moon carved into its surface. Leona was pleased to hear that her pain had not been for nothing. While she had been unable to kill the four-armed beast that had given her such trouble, she had managed to find the elemental stone that was said to be in Fat Monsterland.

Leona started to walk over to the doctor when she felt a twinge of pain that caused her to take a shallow breath and stop walking. Dr. Ravenholm looked towards her.

"You look like you're in pain." The older woman remarked on the blonde's condition. Leona wordlessly lifted her shirttail up to expose the bandages wrapped around her midsection, eliciting a raised eyebrow from the doctor.

"That explains it." She remarked dryly.

"While searching for the stone I ran into a four-armed beast that's eight feet tall, really muscular, and faster than it looks. It slashed my stomach and while the cuts weren't life-threatening they drew a lot of blood. Now I'm just in pain from the wounds." Leona explained how she got the injury that required bandages. Dr. Ravenholm got out of her chair and walked to meet Leona halfway. By the time her hostess had reached her Leona had lowered her shirttail to cover her midsection again.

"I don't recall reading anything about the mages who scattered the stones leaving guardians behind or anything like that. I'd say that your encounter with the beast you described was an incidental one, not part of some test to see if you're worthy of the stone." She opined to the Wizard Saint. Leona was not going to argue with that. The purple-haired scientist was a reliable source of information on the elemental stones and might have other work for Leona to do once all the stones had been found. She might also be a good source of information on other arcane lore should Leona run into any more of it.

"I don't mind. If there really is a great treasure at the end of this I suppose that it'd be boring if I didn't face any kind of challenges along the way." Leona remarked on her fight in Fat Monsterland. Dr. Ravenholm folded her arms over her chest.

"Maybe. But remember what I said about not getting killed over the stones. You managed to win this time, but don't lose sight of the fact that there's no shame in leaving and coming back for another try. You can't do that if you get killed because you bit off more than you could chew." Dr. Ravenholm reminded Leona that there was no shame in backing off of a challenge if it was too much for her to handle.

"That's why I didn't pursue the beast after I drove it back for a second time. Most of my Wind spells didn't do much to it and my weapons were almost useless against it. Once I drove it back I made my way out of Fat Monsterland." Leona told the doctor how she had put that advice into practice. While the Wizard Saint was taking a big risk in letting the four-armed giant live for now, the truth of the matter was that she could not currently fight it with the weapons and spells she had now. She could have probably done more if she had thought to use Razor Tornado, but in the heat of the moment she had chosen not to use the spell because the time needed to prepare it would have left her vulnerable to attack.

"That's good, Leona. Don't let a need to prove yourself get you killed." Dr. Ravenholm said with audible approval. She then handed the stone to Leona, who put it in her right cargo pocket. She then stood by to listen for anything else the doctor had to tell her.

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-Silver Wolf Guild Hall, Leona's Room, 8:23 P.M.-

Leona had had a good day in Capital Crocus. Not only had she received confirmation from Dr. Ravenholm that the object she had found was the Luna Stone and one of the seven elemental stones required to access a great treasure that was supposedly left behind by a society of mages from roughly three hundred years ago, but she had also had a brief but successful shopping excursion. She had found replacements for the black tank top and olive green jacket that had been shredded by the creature's claws plus the khaki jacket she had thought about getting to supplement her wardrobe... not that she was experiencing a clothing shortage. Still, she had wanted the garments, so she had gotten them.

Now that that was done Leona was sitting in her room with the trio of elemental stones she had found so far lying on her desk to the left of the list of riddles. The ones she had acquired were the Umbra, Terra, and Luna Stones. She had four more to go before she had them all. She was reading the list and looking for a riddle that she could figure out without having to consult Dr. Ravenholm. Her eye was on one that had caught her attention.

Beneath the sands of the canyon one will find the stone.

Leona's guess was that the area in question was the Mysterious Canyons. However, even if her guess was right, the problem would be getting "beneath the sands" to look for the stone. She hoped that she would not have to wield a shovel like she had done in The Forgotten Deserts. She would cross that bridge when she came to it, though.

The Wizard Saint wanted to take a brief break from her search to recover from the wounds she had sustained in Fat Monsterland. They were not life-threatening and she would recover from them, but she probably needed to slow down for a day or two before trekking to Mysterious Canyons to look for the fourth elemental stone. Maybe she would pay a visit to Eliza using the IIC and see how things were going up in space. That would be a good change of pace for the Wizard Saint who was almost always on the move.

[Post Word Count: 386]
[Total Word Count: 11,140/11,000]