“Azolo?” Clarice called as we walked forward.

  She was the only one in the group who didn’t call me Runt, which was nice for a change.

  Clarice glanced at me as she walked. “How many more do you need for your copper core?”

  “Five,” I said.

  Clarice frowned, her pace slowing just a little. “Then why are we even doing all this before we finish yours? Seriously. Can you imagine how much stronger you’ll be when you actually have an ability? You’re already keeping up with us, and you’re a rank below.”

  “It’s fine,” I said. “I’ve got more than enough time. I’d rather you all get as strong as possible so that when I leave, you can carry me in the real world.”

  Clarice’s expression shifted, uncertainty creeping in. “I’m not sure I’ll even be with you guys after this.”

  Winnie snorted and cut in without slowing. “Of course you are, Claire. You’re part of Winnie’s Lumberjacks, so you’re stuck with us.”

  I shook my head. “We never agreed on that name.”

  Winnie grinned at that. “Alright. How about Log’s Lethal Litany?”

  “No,” I said flatly.

  Winnie kept going. “Runt and the Gang?”

  “Absolutely not,” I said.

  Clarice raised a hand slightly as if testing the idea. “What about Claire and Meka and the Rest?”

  Meka hesitated before speaking, her voice quiet but earnest. “I kind of like Runt and the Gang.”

  I sighed. “I know you do, Meka. You’re the one who made it up.”

  “I refuse,” I added.

  Winnie shrugged. “Well, we do need a company name if we’re going to take real work outside training. Something official.”

  “Yes, I know,” I said. “But it has to be a name that won’t get us laughed out of every guild hall we walk into.”

  “We’ll table it,” Winnie said.

  I lifted my staff and pointed through the trees. “There.”

  The clearing opened ahead of us, and the slime wolf den mother stood in the center of it, her mass slowly shifting as six smaller slime wolves prowled around her. They weren’t smart creatures. They respawned, claimed territory, and guarded it until someone strong enough pushed them out. That predictability was the only reason this quest existed.

  Our contract called for one den mother and thirty regular wolves. We’d already cleared most of the pack. This was the last piece.

  The guild bestiary had been clear about her abilities. A roar that disrupted the nervous system and interfered with mana. A secondary bite, a hidden second row of teeth inside whatever passed for her mouth. Slime pretending to be a wolf, but good enough at it to kill people who underestimated her.

  I lowered my voice. “Winnie, you don’t need to hold back on this one. We’re not here for her core. We need her jelly. As long as you don’t splatter her, you’re fine.”

  “Roger that, boss runt-man,” Winnie said, rolling her shoulders.

  I turned toward the trees. “Clarice, you want to start us off?”

  Clarice nodded once. “My pleasure.”

  She moved before I finished speaking, scaling into the trees with a smooth, practiced motion. She nocked an arrow and drew, and as she did, a curl of wind wrapped around her fingers and then the shaft itself, visible even without mana sight.

  Clarice loosed.

  The arrow struck the den mother square in the head. It would’ve been a killing shot on anything with real vitals, but the force dispersed through her body instead, tearing through her mass and leaving her reeling rather than dead.

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  That was our cue.

  Meka stayed back, already preparing.

  Winnie roared as she charged, and her body grew again, pushing past her usual height until she stood close to seven feet tall. Log grew with her, lengthening and thickening as she swung it down in a crushing arc. The momentum was wrong for something that size, too fast, too heavy, like a meteor about to punch a crater into the earth.

  I moved with her.

  I pulled my staff fully back with both hands, twisting at the waist, then flung it forward in a motion closer to a sword strike than a thrust. The wood warped as it extended, stretching far past its natural length. The extension circuit I’d etched into it answered cleanly, mimicking what Log did under Winnie’s ability, though mine behaved more like a whip than a falling tree.

  I slammed into the back of the slime wolf den mother before the pack could react.

  At the same time, Winnie’s first swing landed. Log came down hard and crushed three of the smaller slime wolves outright before they even understood the fight had started.

  I yanked my staff free and hopped back, resetting my footing as Winnie was already winding up for another strike.

  From above, Clarice loosed arrow after arrow toward the den mother. Each shot drove into the wobbling mass, forcing it to recoil as the earlier stun held just long enough for the plan to almost work.

  Almost.

  The stun wore off faster than I’d hoped.

  The den mother howled.

  The sound hit like a wall. The arrows in the air were shoved aside mid-flight, scattering harmlessly, and the force of it caught me full on and threw me backward through the clearing.

  The howl did something else too.

  It called.

  We heard answering drips and warped howls echoing from the surrounding forest as more slime wolves responded, drawn in toward their den mother.

  I rolled and came up on one knee, staff braced, already recalculating. We’d anticipated reinforcements. As long as I didn’t get swarmed, we’d be fine. That was the theory.

  What we hadn’t anticipated was the shape that emerged behind them.

  An alpha.

  A full boss.

  That was bad.

  It meant a lot of loot, maybe even one of those rare chest drops that sometimes appeared after clearing an absurdly difficult fight. It also meant survival wasn’t guaranteed.

  A boss monster sat a full tier ahead of us. We were about to fight an iron-ranked threat while I was still tin and the rest of them were copper.

  I tightened my grip on the staff and pushed myself back to my feet.

  “This just got complicated,” I said quietly.

  Winnie flashed a grin over her shoulder as she repositioned, already lining up her next strike. “I knew we should’ve taken that other quest. There was always a chance.”

  I glanced at her while ducking under a snapping slime wolf. “You were probably right. Definitely right, seeing it in hindsight.”

  I twisted aside as another wolf lunged and added, “Unfortunately for us, it’s going to be more paperwork. Still, I’m pretty sure we can claim it as long as we bring back the quest items.”

  I raised my voice so everyone could hear me over the noise of the fight. “Does anyone remember what we actually need from the alpha?”

  Meka answered while repositioning behind a knot of roots. “The fangs.”

  “And the core,” Winnie added, bringing Log around in a brutal backswing.

  I frowned as I parried another strike. “Did anyone read the section on him in the bestiary?”

  All three of them looked at me at once, even as we kept moving.

  Clarice shook her head slightly as she loosed another arrow. “That’s your job. Literally no one else is willing to do that. That’s why we keep you around.”

  I huffed a breath that might’ve been a laugh. “Fair enough.”

  I ducked, rolled, and came back up with my staff ready. “I will say this. I didn’t read that part. So we’re doing this live.”

  I pointed with the staff as I spoke. “Let’s clear the rest of the pack first. Take out the adds and the support.”

  I locked eyes with Winnie. “Winnie, drop the den mother as fast as you can. We’ll collect the slime later if it’s still usable. The alpha’s worth more anyway.”

  Winnie’s grin widened. “Alright.” She shifted her stance. “Can I use the new one?”

  I hesitated for half a heartbeat, then nodded. “Yeah. Sure. Let it rip.”

  Winnie laughed, loud and fearless, and her copper teeth flashed as Log ignited. Fire wrapped along the length of the weapon as she charged, swinging into the pack with renewed violence. She drove forward like a juggernaut, heedless of her own safety, smashing anything in her way.

  “Please don’t get hurt,” I called after her. “Or we’re all going to be in trouble.”

  “It’s fine,” Winnie shouted back without slowing. “I can take a few hits. Easy.”

  She said it just as several slime wolves we hadn’t seen broke from the side. They’d been hidden behind her bulk, lost in the blind spot her size created for both of us.

  They hit her together.

  Winnie went down with a heavy oof as the impact took her legs out from under her, Log slamming into the dirt beside her. The sudden drop cleared my line of sight in the worst possible way.

  I found myself standing alone, directly in front of both the slime wolf den mother and the alpha.

  I grimaced.

  As a tin-core adventurer, this was going to hurt.

  I tightened my grip on the staff and shifted my stance, buying time and space where I could. If Winnie could get back up quickly, we still had a chance to finish this cleanly.

  If she couldn’t, things would get ugly fast.

  We all had signal whistles tucked into our gear. One blast would bring whichever instructor was closest running, ending the fight immediately. We’d lose the quest and the rewards, but we’d walk away alive.

  None of us wanted that outcome.

  I set my feet and kept my eyes on the alpha as it began to move, already planning for the worst and hoping Winnie would be back on her feet before I had to find out how bad this could really get.