https://youtu.be/RGHtMCVMWkA

Ashbel's eyes scanned the beast before him, assessing the situation to find the best plan he could. Before him laid a direwolf, whose colours seemed to suggest an earth or wood attribute, but its demeanour was most peculiar - unlike its brethren, it was calm, and seemed just as dedicated to weighing up its opponents as vice versa. It was intelligent, but the plain terrain didn't give either party much to exploit. Knowing what to expect, he cleared his throat, stepping forth and looking back at his allies. "Ready, guys?"

"You bet." Sly smiled, eyeing the wolf closely as he stepped behind the other two, hands entering his cloak. "This bastard thinks he's a wolf? I'll show him the real deal."

"Focus." Viera pointed her staff at its head and charging up a lightning spear on its tip. "He's buying time. We need to wrap this up and go after him."

The wolf, as if listening, nodded calmly, raising its paw to attack as it laid eyes on Ashbel, who stood in front of them with his arms spread out, as if goading it to attack. Paying closer attention to the salamander, it raked him with glistening claws, only to be met by Ashbel's equally-quick blade. Though he struggled against it, he quickly regained his bearings when the wolf raised its other paw to strike from a different angle. This continued for a few seconds, with Ashbel firmly on the defensive while the direwolf tried to find a hole in his guard.

Viera, in the meantime, fired off a spear of golden lightning, which it tilted its head to dodge, an opportunity that Sly took to leap out and toss a flurry of knives into its shoulder. It couldn't react quickly enough to avoid it, but shrugged off the pain as it stared ominously at the two behind Ashbel. It slammed its paw into the ground, and a loud rumbling could be felt beneath their feet.

"Everyone, get moving!" Ashbel commanded, leaping to the right. Viera and Sly followed suit, and giant, jagged rock spikes formed from where they once stood. The stones remained, and Sly climbed up the one closest to him, standing on top of it before jumping in the wolf's direction, a dagger in one hand and smoke bombs in the other, wedged between his knuckles. Meanwhile, Viera electrified her body and punched her rock, shattering it into shards, before turning around and kicking the surging stones into its ankles.

Ashbel, meanwhile, ignored his rock, putting his sword away and drawing his bow, creating a bowstring and arrow out of flames. He watched it closely, observing as Sly tossed his smoke bombs into its face, obscuring its sight with a multicoloured smoke cloud. It did not seem deterred, however, and when Ashbel fired an arrow at its chest, it knew to jump back and to the left, snarling at the trio before closing its eyes.

"Don't bother cutting off its sight." Ashbel corrected, shaking his head slowly as he looked back at the other two. "It'll use every other sense to compensate."

"Even taste?"

"Obviously not." Viera sighed, looking up at the wolf, who seemed to generate a halo of spinning rocks around its head. Turning her gaze back to Ashbel, she stayed on the defence, holding up her staff. "But what do we do?"

"Loud sounds, strong smells, bright lights!" Ashbel advised, bringing his sword out once again. "But first things first; survive!"

Right on cue, the wolf opened its eyes, and above its head, the rapidly spinning ring of rocks began to fire down on the three like a rain of missiles. Sly immediately ducked for cover under a rock, while Ashbel stomped on the ground, raising a dome of black rock over Viera before raising his sword, ready to parry these stones. He took in his surroundings, seeing all the earthen blades flying towards him, and recalling all his training, he moved in to defend.

He swung his blade in a calculated manner, trying to protect himself from the rock storm by deflecting them in order of the biggest and sharpest, while allowing the least threatening ones to hit him. Like daggers to his skin, they pierced him, but he didn't let them get to him, standing strong in the rockslide until the last stone clashed with his blade.

Sheathing his sword with one hand, he pointed towards the direwolf, unleashing a small battle cry as smoke began to rise from his hands. "Someone, get its legs! And one of you, make some noise!"

"The world's expert in making noise, coming up!" Sly grinned, pulling out a pair of firecrackers from his cloak and holding them like daggers. Viera, meanwhile, charged magic into her staff before unleashing a fork of lightning, with a bolt for each leg. Meanwhile, Sly juggled his firecrackers merrily, during which the wolf, leaping back from Viera's attack, thrust its head in Sly's direction, sending forth a whirling dust devil with chunks of rock caught in it.

Ashbel scowled. He knew it had an affinity for earth magic, but wolves like these were typically more inclined towards physical attacks. He stood in front of Sly, parrying the stones so the attack didn't harm him while they both ate a faceful of dust. Sly kept a firm grip on his firecrackers, not wanting them to be blown away in the wind, and once the attack ended, he twirled them around a little more before they finally lit up.

He leapt onto a rock, only to feel it shaking as he landed on it. This couldn't possibly be a good sign, so without missing a beat, he leapt towards the wolf, and just in time, both remaining rocks exploded, shards peppering both Ashbel and Viera. The salamander remained unfazed, looking back at Viera, who was bathed in the healing light of her magic.

"Ready, Vi?" he asked, earning a nod as the light faded away. "Once those explosions go off, we attack. Let's move in."

"Roger."

"No, I'm Ashbel."

Viera rolled her eyes at that, but she didn't waste any time in getting a move on. She and Ashbel ran in the direction of the wolf, while Sly approached it from the air. Seeing this attack on two fronts, the wolf thought quickly, closing its eyes and raising its head before unleashing a mighty howl to the sky. A parade of rocks formed above it before plummeting to the ground, narrowly missing the duo on the ground, who did their best to avoid the shadows forming over them. Now they stood before a terrain that was anything but plain, with no choice but to go through what separated them from their enemy.

Sly, who had jumped off one of the rocks, was now directly above the wolf's head, and as their eyes met, he tossed the firecrackers down at its ears, allowing them to go off as their crackling cacophony rang in its head, triggering its sensitive hearing and paralysing it temporarily. In this time, he pulled out a bladed chain and swung it around as he descended before throwing the blade. It pierced the wolf's shoulder like a grappling hook, and he held onto the other end, letting himself fall and swing right back up onto its back. Pulling out two more firecrackers, he held them out, yelling, "Oh Torchbearer, give me fire!"

Ashbel, who was navigating around the rocks, nodded quickly as he realised what Sly was doing. Quickly getting out his bow, he created two arrows and aimed them at Sly, firing them both. They flew towards the ninja, converging as one, and Sly waited for the right moment before dropping the explosives and jumping back. So, as the fire engulfed them, they exploded, upsetting the wolf once again.

Viera, who had been ploughing through the rocks rather than going around them, had made it to the monster's feet, her staff shrouded in lightning. She swung it like a sledgehammer, smashing its paw and triggering a pained howl. She did not let up, at whaling on it until Ashbel arrived, jumping off a rock and towards it to deliver a flurry of strikes down its leg, flames slowly gathering around his blade before he landed next to Viera.

He brandished his sword threateningly, and the wolf, glaring at him, rapidly dipped its head down, rocking Sly enough to make him lose his footing. It closed its eyes, generating two large spikes and shooting them down towards the grounded fighters. Viera put her staff down and grabbed onto her spike, trying to throw it back at the wolf, her strength clashing against its magic before she won, sending it back to its master. Ashbel, meanwhile, followed his instincts, his blade wreathed in black flames as he sliced effortlessly through the stone, dicing it into pieces.

The wolf clenched its teeth as it was struck by its own rock, watching Ashbel taunting it by waving his sword around, grinning widely. Raising its paws, it slammed them down on the samurai, who jumped back and turned around, hurling a fireball at the shrubbery and watching as it caught ablaze. He then turned back to a mildly shocked Viera, giving a nod.

"I'll keep it focused on me." he said, stepping back and parrying a mighty claw swiped. "When I say 'heal', you heal me."

"Uh- right. Got it." Viera nodded, stepping aside and watching the two fight. Sly drove a pair of daggers into its back, and in a rage, it rapidly slashed at Ashbel, who was gradually moving back while defending himself from its attacks. Eventually, his back was essentially to the wall, cornered against the pagoda with the wolf in front of him, drawing nearer. Ashbel nodded at this, pointing towards it, and the smoke from the shrub blew out, swarming the monster's nose and causing a temporary pause before it screamed, rushing in towards Ashbel. Sly took this as his cue to jump off, cutting into its body multiple times with a spinning slash from a pair of shortswords.

It ignored this, moving towards Ashbel, who saw its head approaching him with its jaws bared and called out, "Heal!". Viera, who had been paying close attention in hopes that he knew what he was doing, held her staff out with a nod, and while Ashbel began narrowly dodging its bite attacks, she began to chant:

"Oh, tenebrous Torch's light...shine upon your chosen bearer, and keep the dawn at bay!"

Her staff shone with a brilliant golden light, as did Ashbel's body. As the salamander had made sure to keep close to it at all times, it kept its eyes on him to know where to strike next, so when his body suddenly went ablaze with light, it immediately felt the pain and unleashed a howl. Ashbel ran his hand along the flat of his blade while he was distracted, and as flames flared wildly around it, he thrust it into the wolf's mouth, making sure flesh was pierced before expelling them from his blade.

The wolf felt its insides being scorched by flames hotter than it could even imagine. It was as though hell was being unleashed from within, and it couldn't bear the pain. But they did not stop burning, and it could only helplessly attempt to cry out for help that it knew would not come before succumbing to the fire, the light leaving its eyes as it collapsed at long last.

https://youtu.be/8GL-q3E5opg

Ashbel, having removed his blade from the wolf, bowed his head in respect, before turning back to the fire he started and putting it out with a wave of his hand. Sheathing his sword, he looked back at the other two, who hadn't torn their eyes from the rather gruesome scene, and smiled. "That went pretty well, didn't it?"

"Haha, yeah..." Sly murmured, stepping closer to the wolf and taking a deep breath. "Didn't think we'd work so well together, eh, Viera?"

"I...guess. Good work, you two." Viera crossed her arms, watching as Sly pulled out some tools and got to work harvesting the wolf's teeth. Focusing on Ashbel, she then shot him a stern look. "But you shouldn't be so casual about the collateral damage. I told you these plants are sacred!"

"Ah, sorry about that." Ashbel scratched his neck with a small chuckle. "I needed smoke, and I didn't have anything flammable on me..."

"What, are your robes fire-resistant?"

"Do I need to explain why I'm not burning off my robes mid-battle?"

Viera cleared her throat at that, deciding that was a good point, though as the image of Ashbel burning his clothing and exposing himself entered her mind, she immediately tried to purge it. "W-Well, can't you at least make smoke?"

"I can control it. But it needs to exist beforehand." Ashbel shook his head. "You're thinking of ifrits. I'm a salamander. Totally different."

"...well, in that case...I guess it was a good play." Viera sighed, looking at him with what wasn't exactly a smile - more like a softer frown than before. "You know your stuff. It's an...admirable quality."

"So is being super strong! Your magic's really cool, Vi!" Ashbel beamed brightly, causing the cleric to shy away slightly in the face of such praise.

"...it's whatever."

"I mean it, really!" Ashbel nodded happily. "But if I had to give you some advice...try thinking outside the box a little more. You're very 'by the book' and I think that might be holding you back."

"You think so?" Viera asked, genuinely curious.

"Yeah! For tough enemies, you'll want to be more tactical. Especially when they can think quickly - like this wolf." Ashbel crossed his arms proudly. "You know what they say; knowing is half the battle!"

"And there's no better teacher than experience!" Sly added, looking up from his work, which was more or less complete. The wolf's head and neck were completely hollowed out, no signs of any bones in sight. Standing up, he stretched his arms out with a smile. "So let's get you killing more monsters. We'll make a beast out of you yet."

"Uh...neat." Viera nodded, unsure what to make of this prospect. Surely, more experience would help her protect this world, right? The Beginning was bound to throw more monsters at the group. Keeping that in mind, she cleared her throat, looking down at the defiled wolf. "So...what was up with that?"

"Oh, this? I needed bones, I saw bones, so I took bones." Sly shrugged. "Some of the teeth were a bit charred, but they should be workable."

"Sorry, man." Ashbel chuckled. "What do you need bones for?"

"I plan to visit a smith after this." Sly explained. "I want some new gear, and wouldn't it be awesome if I had it made from bones?"

"Bone weapons can be good in a pinch...but make sure to get its toughness enchanted just in case." Ashbel said, and Sly gave a thumbs-up in response.

"If we survive this, maybe I can have a look at some of those teeth." Viera mused. "I might be able to work them into something enchanted for you."

"Didn't know you could do that." Sly raised an eyebrow. "What, are you secretly a master crafter?"

"You'd think she'd have more accessories, in that case." Ashbel hummed, nodding as he examined the acolyte and noticed a distinct lack of adornments on her person." Viera, taking note of this, cleared her throat and crossed her arms.

"All acolytes are taught how to craft at an early age. It saves us the trouble of finding someone else to consecrate our items with holy magic." she explained. "What we aren't taught is how to gather the right materials, or even what the right materials are. I didn't want to waste mine on something useless."

"Well, most of those materials are monster parts, right?" Ashbel asked, causing her to look at him curiously. "I do know my stuff about monsters. Maybe if we have any off-time, we can take a few guesses together. We might make something useful."

Viera looked at him for a little while, before crossing her arms and sighing. "...Do what you want." she murmured. "I guess I wouldn't stop you."

"Ooh, let me join in, too!" Sly chirped, his playful words accentuated with a happy wink. "I'm quite the fashionista! We'll make a model out of you yet."

"Ugh, shut up." Viera rolled her eyes, looking at the entrance to the temple. "Now, are we done here? We've got an elf to catch."

"Ah, you're right." Ashbel nodded quickly, and he and Sly looked ahead at the sacred building before them. "Let's go, then."

And so, the three stuck together, moving around the wolf's body and walking in through the sliding door, fully prepared for what perils Van and the Deliverance had in store for them.