Valerie stumbled when she gently landed on one of the lower ledges, her legs still not strong enough to completely support her weight, especially from a drop even if it was a gentle one. She didn’t have a magnetic force strong enough to fly, not yet at least, but she could at least buffet her falls.

However even as she was laying on the ground, Valerie quickly lifted her cane and pointed it towards the thing. It was hunched over amongst a crater of sizzling, slightly magmatised rocks.

Half of its flower shaped face had been blown off, and its twisted body was covered in burn scars. However it didn’t stay like that for long. Its flesh wriggled, the burns retreating as they rapidly shrank before disappearing entirely.

The twisted, purplish-red flesh around its ’mouth’ wriggled as it rapidly grew outwards, replacing what had been destroyed. Even new teeth sprouted from the wriggling flesh mound.

’Regeneration. Dammit, another one like that. Always the most annoying.’ Valerie grumbled to herself, completely ignoring the sheer hypocrisy of that thought,

’At least we know how to beat it.’

<Stop!> Ren’s voice crackled through her ear-piece, stopping Valerie just as she was starting to channel her mana.

<I know what you are thinking, it won’t work. Listen to me carefully, this is a test of endurance. It will regenerate no matter what we do. But it has a limit. Each regeneration takes up mana, when it runs out, no more healing.

Don’t just start hacking away at it though, especially you demon. It’s blood is the same acid that it spits, and if you somehow managed to survive that then you’ll find out that the regeneration occurs on both sides.

Anything you cut off, will grow into a new one, unless it is purged in flames before it can fully grow.>

Valerie’s eyes widened in horror as she heard those last few sentences, as a black blur soared past her. With his wings spread wide, Beans glided past Valerie’s head before diving into the shadows.

Valerie’s hand whipped out, diving into the still mutable shadows as she grabbed Beans by the tail and dragged him out.

The little shadow demon let out an annoyed hiss and a low growl, asking why he had been stopped in his pursuit of blood and destruction. But Valerie simply shook it off and placed him onto the ground,

"Not this time Sunshine. I’m not letting you melt because you wanted a few scratches in. Stay at a safe distance and shoot your little bone spikes."

Beans narrowed his eyes, letting out a grumpy groan as he flicked his tail, but even if he was grumpy about it, Valerie could feel his agreement. They were bonded, after all. Although Beans was not compelled to obey like a certain Thrall was, he was smart enough to understand what she had said, even if he didn’t particularly like it.

He disappeared into the shadows once again, this time moving himself through them to the walls near the creature, instead of underneath its feet where he wanted to slash at its heels. Beans tail spike emerged from the shadows like a sniper’s barrel, and began to fire those bone spikes into the creature.

Each shot was slow, as he had to ’reload’, aka regrow the spike, every time unlike his transformed state where he could fire multiple at once.

Valerie did the same, peppering the creature with long range attacks from her perch high above. She used the ears of her cane’s cat shaped head as an aiming reticle, as the crystal embedded into the head steadily flashed.

With every flash, a bolt of lightning split the sky, letting out a roar of thunder as it struck into the side of the unnatural lizard creature.

Each bolt sent it staggering, but it wasn’t going to sit around and take it. It twisted its body, arching its back to a degree that would have snapped the spine of any normal living thing, all to dodge Valerie’s next lightning bolt, before it tried to run.

However the first step it took, the ground cracked and opened up beneath it. It’s foot slipped into the crevice, which quickly snapped closed again around its ankle, as Trivian tapped his staff against the ground.

The Druid’s face was scrunched up in concentration as he conducted the earth with one half of his mind, and created seeds with the other half.

Small green sprouts had grown from Trivian’s antlers, which were slowly blooming and creating seeds that dropped into his hand. It was a slow process, but soon enough his hand was filled with a variety of seeds that he quickly spread with a flick of his arm.

A figure in pitch black plate armour, with gothic stylings and large spikes on the shoulder pads dropped from the sky. Lucy’s unnaturally beautiful face was hidden behind her helmet, which had a face of a true demon, like an ancient Japanese Oni, built into its design. With a snarling mouth that revealed a pair of twin tusks, and small iron horns that covered Lucy’s real horns.

She let out a warriors cry as she dropped down, her slender hands wrapped around a massive meat tenderiser styled Maul the same size as herself. Yet despite that hefty weight, Lucy showed no signs of any struggle as she heaved it over her head and slammed it down onto the things flower shaped head.

The hammer slammed flat against the ground, cracking it from the sheer force, and squashing the head flat in between. It splattered like a watermelon, sending droplets of purple blood spraying everywhere, which immediately started to hiss where it landed. Including Lucy’s armour.

She didn’t panic however, instead leaping back as she dismissed portions of her armour. The sizzling black armour dissolved into a black mist, as it returned to the state of pure aura, and allowed the acidic blood to drop to the ground, before Lucy rapidly reformed the armour good as new. At least that is what it seemed like, before Lucy’s voice hissed through their comms.

<Dammit, How the hell is that even possible? It didn’t just burn my armour, it actually reduced my Aura levels. How can acid eat pure aura?>

<That acid will eat through anything,> Ren explained with a hint of despair in his voice as he remembered the first time they had fought this thing, and all of the countless people who had lost their lives to it.

<But luckily for you, I am here. And I have the perfect expendable army.>