For a blink, the four beasts simply stared at Idalia. Then Zuzie threw her head back and laughed.

  It was a ringing, crackling sound, like fire snapping through dry air. "Eat us?" she scoffed. "Little thing, you would scorch before you even reached my shadow."

  Biakomi's shoulders shook next, a sharp, breathy chuff escaping her as frost curled from her muzzle. "Did you hear that?" she purred. "She thinks she gets a choice."

  Above them, Qingryu let out a low, rolling sound that resonated through the air, somewhere between a rumble and a laugh. "Bold," he said, voice deep and smooth. "Or foolish. The line is thin."

  Genbu did not laugh. He merely lowered his head a fraction, eyes fixed on Idalia, unblinking and heavy as mountains. The laughter continued without him.

  Zuzie leaned closer to Biakomi, wings flexing. "Obviously, I go first. Fire answers fire. It would be inefficient otherwise."

  Biakomi snapped her head toward the Phoenix, five tails lashing. "You are loud and slow. She would slip under you before you even noticed."

  Qingryu drifted lower, his massive form casting a shifting blue shadow over both of them. "Neither of you understands flow. She is momentum. She should be broken by inevitability."

  "Oh, please," Zuzie shot back. "You take half an hour just to turn around."

  Biakomi's ears flattened. "At least I do not need the entire sky to feel important."

  Their voices overlapped, heat and frost and pressure colliding as the argument spiraled faster, sharper. Words turned into boasts. Boasts turned into insults.

  "I am the strongest."

  "I am the fastest."

  "I am eternal."

  Idalia blinked. What was going on?

  They weren't looking at her anymore. They were looking at each other, posturing, circling, snapping words like teeth. The sheer absurdity of it hit her a second later, and her ears twitched in disbelief.

  They were arguing about who got to fight her first!

  Across the field, Cheyin covered her face with her hand and groaned softly. "Not again," she said.

  Qingryu's voice deepened. "Children. Neither of you understand patience. Power that must rush is power that fails."

  Zuzie snapped her beak shut and glared upward. "Say that again while hiding behind altitude."

  "Face her on the ground, sky-fish. Let us see how long you last," Biakomi taunted.

  The air grew hotter, colder, heavier all at once as mana surged in overlapping waves.

  Idalia stared.

  The argument escalated as Zuzie flared her wings, flames licking higher. "Say it plainly. You are afraid I would end this too quickly."

  Biakomi crouched lower, frost creeping farther outward. "Say it plainly. You are compensating."

  Qingryu's fins rippled as his voice deepened. "Enough. I will decide."

  "No, you won't."

  "You never do."

  "Both of you are insufferable."

  Genbu remained silent through it all, massive and still, as if the quarrel were wind passing over stone.

  Idalia swallowed, then raised a claw hesitantly.

  "Um," she said, loud enough to cut through the noise. They ignored her.

  She glanced at Cheyin instead, tail flicking uncertainly. "Hey. Cheyin?"

  Cheyin looked up, weary amusement flickering across her face. "Yes?"

  Idalia hesitated, then blurted it out, words tumbling over each other. "Can you summon my Papa like that? Like, with a scroll? Solrift, I mean."

  The argument faltered for half a breath.

  Cheyin's expression shifted. Not with anger. Not with surprise. Something closed, careful. She smiled, just a little too smoothly. "That is not how this works."

  Idalia opened her mouth to press further.

  Cheyin did not give her the chance.

  She turned, broke into a sprint, and leapt. Zuzie yelped as Cheyin landed squarely between her shoulders. "Excuse you!" the Phoenix squawked. "You could ask!"

  Cheyin laughed, already weaving mana into her hands as glowing reins formed and wrapped around Zuzie's neck and chest. "You love it."

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  "I do not!"

  With a sharp pull, Cheyin urged Zuzie upward. Flames flared as the Phoenix beat her wings, lifting them both into the air. Heat washed over the battlefield as they rose, Cheyin settling easily into place, eyes alight with anticipation.

  From above, she looked down at the remaining beasts and Idalia below.

  "Genbu," Cheyin called. "Would you like to test her first?"

  The argument died instantly. Biakomi froze, tails stilled. Zuzie huffed indignantly from above. Qingryu drifted back, eyes narrowing with interest.

  Genbu moved. He took one step forward. The sanctum shook. Stone cracked. Dust leapt into the air. His massive head lowered until his gaze met Idalia's directly. There was no mockery there. No laughter.

  Only weight and patience.

  Idalia's breath caught in her chest as the enormity of him filled her vision. Her fear surged, deep and cold, then ignited into something fierce and electric. Above, Cheyin settled, leaning against Zuzie's neck, watching intently.

  "Begin," she said.

  Genbu drew in a slow, cavernous breath, and the ground groaned beneath Idalia's feet.

  In accordance, Idalia bared her teeth, claws digging deep into the fractured stone.

  ??? ??? ???

  For a moment, the sanctum was silent except for the low crackle of flame, the distant rush of unseen currents, the creaking weight of ancient shell, and the faint hiss of frost creeping across stone.

  Then Lief spoke. "…I would like to formally state that this exceeds my expectations by a considerable margin."

  Elemae let out a slow, incredulous breath, her hand resting on the hilt of her weapon as if out of habit rather than need. Her eyes tracked each beast in turn, sharp and assessing, but there was an unmistakable glint of awe beneath her usual composure.

  "I have hunted across three continents," she said. "I have seen apex predators blessed by spirits, cursed war-beasts, and things that should not exist outside of legends. I have never seen anything like this."

  Genbu shifted his weight. The floor lurched violently.

  Elemae adjusted her stance without missing a beat. "Correction. I have never seen anything like this and lived close enough to comment on it."

  Zuzie preened, clearly pleased with the attention. Qingryu continued his slow, circling glide, casting vast shadows across the arena. Biakomi never stopped staring at Idalia.

  Lief rotated in place, studying the beasts with the kind of fascination usually reserved for impossible spellwork. "These are not standard summons."

  "No," Elemae agreed. "They are contracts."

  She tilted her head slightly toward Cheyin, eyes narrowing. "Old ones."

  Lief hummed. "Old enough that Master Braunches might actually know what to call them."

  Elemae snorted. "If he does not slip into a disquisition first."

  Lief nodded thoughtfully. "Four beasts of this magnitude, bound simultaneously, implies a lineage of Beast Hero techniques that predates most modern summoning theory. In elven archives, such creatures are mentioned only in fragmented myth."

  Elemae glanced sideways at Lief. "You sound impressed."

  "I am impressed," Lief said. "I am also alarmed."

  He frowned as he focused on Cheyin. "Maintaining even one of these entities would require continuous mana flow, precise synchronization, and exceptional physical resilience. Four at once suggests either reckless confidence or mastery bordering on the unreasonable."

  Elemae smiled. "You forgot stubbornness."

  "That too," Lief conceded. "I am also curious about the toll this exerts on her body. There is no visible mana flare, no instability, no backlash. She is distributing the strain rather than absorbing it."

  Elemae nodded. "Beast Heroes do not channel power the way mages do. They share it. Burden becomes partnership. Pain becomes dialogue."

  Below them, Cheyin stood calm and steady, hand resting lightly against Zuzie’s burning plumage as if it were nothing more than warm sunlight.

  Elemae exhaled softly. "Still. Even with contracts, this is absurd. Four cardinal-level monsters at once is not just rare. It is historically stupid."

  Lief tilted. "And yet she stands."

  Elemae smiled, sharp and appreciative. "Which is why Idalia is smiling like that."

  They both looked back to the field.

  Idalia crouched low, surrounded by heat, frost, pressure, and weight that would have crushed lesser fighters into instinctless fear. Her fur stood on end. Her muscles trembled with exhaustion and excitement. Her eyes shone like a predator staring into a storm.

  Lief watched her carefully. "She does not look overwhelmed."

  Elemae chuckled. "No. She looks like she just found out the world is bigger than she thought."

  ??? ??? ???

  Zuzie leaned slightly toward Cheyin. "Your audience is whispering."

  Cheyin smiled faintly, eyes never leaving Idalia. "Let them."

  ??? ??? ???

  Idalia foresaw the stomp before it struck. Instinctively she evaded Genbu's foot. The ground ruptured from the impact. Luckily, Idalia dove into a {Portal} at the last blinking moment.

  She was expelled elsewhere, a good distance from Genbu. The devastation from his stomp's wake was tumultuous. If Idalia hadn't performed the evasion, she'd have been crushed underneath a boulder-sized stomp that could've annihilated a house.

  Landing on an elevated surface, Idalia stole a glance at the other monsters. Biakomi and Qingryu merely watched, suggesting they would not interfere. Above, Cheyin and Zuzie observed like a stationary hawk.

  That was good for Idalia. This allowed her to focus on one enemy.

  Genbu turned, slow and steady, as though the behemoth were a living mountain.

  He lacked speed, Idalia mused. She took the initiative, pouncing with glee. It would have been the perfect time to attack.

  Her throat rumbled with a growl, but it was build up for something far more clamorous. She roared deep from her core, unleashing {Atomic Burst}. The shockwave slammed into the ginormous beast, tearing the ground into fragments.

  Genbu skidded from the impact. Still, he remained unscathed from the force. The very act pleased Idalia.

  She bounded upwards, her maw belching forth a {Portal}. The {Portal Roar} skill seized Genbu's leg, the limb plunging into the sinkhole ground.

  In retaliation, Genbu, looking no less than a Titanosaurus in his enormous features, swung his mightily long tail. The appendage snapped.

  Idalia ducked.

  Genbu lifted his foot out of the {Portal}. Idalia had believed it was deep enough. But she disliked being wrong. Her opponent lifted his forelegs, and Idalia gasped when his rising stature blotted the sun. His legs were two grand tree trunks.

  The force that crashed to the ground wreaked havoc to the field. Idalia felt herself yanked upward into the sky by the sheer wind that surged from the impact. She spun, caught herself in a hastily conjured {Portal}, and reappeared above her target.

  She was above Genbu. Above Qingryu. Above Cheyin and Zuzie. She dove downward at breakneck speed.

  Her heart pounded harder within her throat from excitement and dread. Genbu had surpassed her expectations. But she was not willing to yield.

  Her thoughts ran. She didn't have an answer to harming a sizable foe like Genbu. If she couldn't harm him. She would move him. And she recalled how {Atomic Breath} worked. Genbu had been pushed. {Portal Roar} had tugged him downward.

  She was closing in. She decided it was time. With a howl, Idalia's {Portal Breath} erupted from her throat and the blast hit Genbu point blank. Below, the giant turtle stiffened. He mustn't have expected the sheer force of the tug as he was pulled into the {Portal Breath}'s portal. Genbu vanished.

  Where had he gone? Idalia dropped to ground, falling gracefully on her paws. She glanced upward in time to witness Genbu being ejected from another {Portal}, hurled toward Cheyin's position like a shell-shaped projectile. It was a hilarious sight watching the big turtle tuck its head and tail, as it headed toward the stunned duo of Cheyin and Zuzie.