Wart, the little mushroom monster, briefly poked his head out from within the folds of Dink’s ragged trousers. Squeaking in dismay at the sheer mountain cliffs below, he clung desperately to the inside of Dink’s leg and hid back inside. The Harpies' nests were growing visible in the distance and the flock began its descent.

  “It looks like we’ve arrived, my new friend. What’s your name? If you’re about to die in glorious combat, I’d like to know it,” Dink jovially asked, with a mischievous grin.

  “Harmon. What do you mean if I’m about to die in glorious combat, what about you? You look like a stray breeze could blow you away,” Harmon indignantly replied.

  “Ha! These fine dies won’t let me fall very far. But I feel sorry for you, Harmon, none of them seem interested in a balding gentleman in his twilight years reeking of horse and road dust. I don’t know what else to tell you, you’re fucked,” Dink teased.

  “Hey! What happened to helping a brother escape?” Harmon objected.

  “You’re no brother of mine. I think I’d know if my miserable father sired a bastard with a donkey. Although, maybe not. You could possibly be reted to me. Fine, I’ll take pity on you just this once,” Dink mocked, watching the nest get closer. A soft gust of wind blew past, causing Dink’s happy mood to dissipate and turn serious. His nose twitched as he sniffed the air, the first to notice an odd scent upwind. “Joking aside, we’re in for some trouble.”

  “I’m already well aware of that. A Harpy may have great tits but they’re filled with bile and vinegar. Every mercenary knows to stay well clear of ‘em,” Harmon said.

  “No, there’s worse things in these mountains as we’re about to find out. Just like the old adage says, when the mice are away, the cat will py,” Dink said.

  “I think you have that saying backwards, Goblin,” Harmon muttered.

  Dink remained silent, staring at the shifting clouds obscuring the Harpy nests ahead. It wasn’t long before their escort began to notice something amiss. They immediately stopped their fussing over Dink and started to chirp in panic. The Harpies at the front shot forward towards the nest, fpping their wings to their limits.

  “Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!”

  “Tell me, mate, it’s like someone set fire to their tail feathers! I’m too blighted blind to see what’s got them all worked up,” Harmon compined, trying to peer his vision into focus.

  “You’re not going to like hearing this. So, I’m not going to tell you,” Dink replied.

  “Fucking Goblin, stop toying with me!” Harmon shouted in annoyance.

  “You asked for it, try not to freak out and get yourself dropped. This time, the pretty girl holding you won’t try to catch you,” Dink warned. Simultaneously, his muscles filled with mana as the draconic runes on his spine filled with eerie blue light, sharpening his senses. “A mature Griffon has decided to turn their nests into an omelette all-you-can-eat buffet. I can see three of them have already been raided with only empty shells remaining. It’s already started feasting on the st one containing eggs. Only two of them look untouched. Whoops, make that one.”

  As Dink spoke, the Griffon became aware of the Harpies' aggressive screeching, crushing an egg beneath an enormous cw as it agilely spun to confront them.

  “Roar!” the Griffon roared in a challenge like a lion from its eagle beak.

  “Gods be damned, am I truly meant to die today?” Harmon cursed, his face flushing pale.

  “You might be but I’m destined for grander things yet,” Dink replied. He reached over his shoulder, peeling the dragonbone sword from his spine.

  The bde covered in glowing runes easily separated from his back, the flesh stretching like a water droplet without tearing until the glowing weapon was in his hand. Dink rotated in the agitated Harpy’s grasp, bracing his feet against her athletic midsection. Without any ceremony, he unched himself away, breaking her grip and hurtling her backwards to propel himself forward. Her expression shifted into one of utter surprise as she flew away in a puff of feathers and jiggling titties.

  Dink grinned with wide-eyed manic delight, savouring the sensation of freefall as raging mana filled his body with supernatural strength. He struggled to wrest it under complete control due to the nature of his Goblin curse but it was forced to obey his iron will.

  I’ve spent too many centuries cut off from the feeling of being an Attuned. I almost have to learn it all again to accommodate this Goblin body. The soul wound I suffered at the hands of the Hags limits me to the Expert realm but that’s more than enough to deal with a Muck bloodline Griffon. Not even a shadow of their progenitor’s power, the flying-mountain, the Roc!

  “Up here! Whooeett!” Dink shouted, shrilly whistling to resonate with the sonic rod properties of the dragonbone sword, unleashing an almost-solid ssh into the air between them.

  The Griffon turned to look in his direction, briefly taking its eyes away from the flock of Harpies pestering it with ineffective cws. It was huge, multiple times rger than an elephant in size. This is why it couldn’t recover from its disbelief in time due to arrogance when the sonic ssh made contact. The Griffon’s thick feathers rippled ft and dispersed most of the impact except for the exposed scales of one foreleg.

  “Roar!” The Griffon cried in outrage as blood spurted from the thin wound that appeared along its length.

  “There’s more where that came from!” Dink shouted, smming into the Griffon with bone-breaking force.

  Mana filling his veins protected Dink from the impact of smashing like a cannonball into the enormous beast and shooting it through the base of the nest. He snatched a stray branch to prevent himself from falling into the abyss below. He hung suspended and watched the Griffon spiral down towards the jagged rocks littering the valley floor. Before it crashed, the Griffon threw its wings wide to catch the wind like a parachute to slow its descent.

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