I wonder how he had so much strength in his body.

Flying just below the clouds, I kept a close eye on the monarch beneath me. It was about the size of one of those large whales out in the deep blue ocean to the west, but had four sets of huge legs that were each as thick and strong as a huge tree. Shaped like some kind of weird dog or cow, it was mostly flat from head to tail, and although it had fur it was so short that from a distance the monarch looked like it instead had leather or scales.

It did currently have a bunch of spikes all over its head and back, but those weren’t natural. The bag that clung to my waist, no longer weighing me down much thanks to how it was almost empty, was the source of those spikes. I had flown up here with two of such bags, each carrying fifty huge spears. I was down to…

Glancing at the bag, I quickly counted the six remaining spears and then returned my attention to the battle below.

Vim had gotten the monarch onto its side. It roared defiantly, but honestly didn’t look like it was putting up much of a fight. Vim had ran straight into it, jumping up into its side with such force it had not just tumbled over… it had rolled continuously down the mountain it had been resting upon. Vim of course had clung to the thing as it rolled down the mountainside, breaking each and every tree in its path as it did. I knew if anyone else would have clung to the thing as it rolled, they would have died instantly. If not from hitting all the trees and debris as it fell, but from the dozens of times the creature had rolled over and around during the fall. The fact Vim hadn’t been squished was rather funny to me for some reason.

Although it was roaring in pain, I hadn’t seen Vim do much damage to it yet. He had climbed up onto its side, and it looked as if he was getting ready to start digging into the thing’s ribcage behind its second set of legs. Odds are that was where its heart was.

Still… it was a little annoying to see and hear it scream in pain finally. I’d been pestering the thing with these spears for nearly an hour now, and it hadn’t done much more than wiggle and shake as it tried to dislodge them. It hadn’t shrieked in pain or even really tried to do anything, even when I dug them deep into its body. I knew from the feel of it, as I pierced the spears into it, that on many occasions I had nicked major veins or hit important bones and organs. Half my body was covered in the thing’s blood, and honestly I was glad that Vim had finally made it.

If the thing didn’t even care about the nearly hundred spears being sunk into it, each as tall as me, then I wasn’t sure how I’d deal with it myself. What kind of damage could I have possibly done to the thing beyond that? Maybe set it on fire, somehow? But how would I do so up here in these mountains?

A loud shriek of utter agony made me flinch, and I shifted my wing a tad as to get me flying away a bit. That shriek had hurt. The kind of hurt that left ringing in my ears. No need to have to endure that type of pain right now. I could put more distance between me and the thing, since Vim was handling it.

The Society’s Protector wasn’t even visible anymore. He had dug himself into the monarch’s side, in a huge hole he’d made behind the thing’s second left leg. The monarch was now moving around with great emotion, trying to right itself upward… though I wasn’t sure what it planned to do after that. Even if it got back to its feet, how would it stop Vim? It had its huge legs, and thick body, but it didn’t have much else. Even its huge head wasn’t too dangerous, though it had countless teeth. The thing’s head wasn’t able to raise up past its own shoulders, thanks to how thick its body was. It was why I had been able to attack and pester it all this time without cause for concern, it had no way to attack or harm me as long as I kept myself out of the reach of its head. It didn’t even really have a tail, not a proper one at least.

In fact now that I was getting a better look at it as it writhed to its feet, I found myself wondering what it was. All monarchs were a type of animal, in some form or shape. I had pegged this thing as a dog or cow, but…

Maybe not a dog or cow, but a bear… yes. Maybe some kind of bear.

Yes. A weird bear. A huge bear with four sets of fat and flat feet. That made more sense, now that I was seeing it try to curl around as to bite at its side. It couldn’t do so, thanks to how stocky and sturdy it was, though.

A dead bear, now.

The monarch who had been flailing and roaring went still. For a few heartbeats the thing just… stood there. Half turned, looking like a dog chewing at a flea on its side, surrounded by broken trees and clusters of rocks and dirt. Then… as I angled my wings to bring myself back around towards the creature it went slump. It fell inward and onto itself, landing loudly as it crushed not just the stuff beneath it but its own body in the process.

By the time I flew down to the creature, Vim was already out of it. The man, like usual when fighting large monarch’s such as this, was covered in the thing’s dark blood. There was a bit of steam around him as he stepped away from the carcass, wiping his face free of blood as he did. I wasn’t sure exactly where the steam came from, since I too had been drenched in the thing’s blood and hadn’t noticed any of it steaming upon me and I had even flown high up in the sky where it was far colder than here on the ground. Maybe it was simply because he had been inside the creature though; it might have been hotter in there.

Stolen story; please report.

“You okay?” Vim asked as he noticed me. He headed for me as I furled my wings inward, folding them up as I approached him.

“Yes. Are you?” I asked. It was hard to tell since he had such a thick layer of gunk all over him.

He nodded as he lifted his hand and showed off the monarch’s heart. Even from beneath the gunk, and covered in blood, I could see the gray color radiating from it. “Thing wasn’t that bad honestly, other than its size. I’m glad we fought it here though and not in a city or something,” he said as he glanced around.

I nodded, agreeing with him. Not far from us, to our north, was the mountain it had tumbled down. You could see the path where it had done so, it went all the way up the mountain and wasn’t small at all. Although Vim seemed to have handled it easily, the price was still steep. At least, from the perspective of nature.

“We fought?” I quoted what he’d just said. “Hard to say I did much, Vim. I know you asked me to keep it here and occupied until you got to it, but I don’t think I even tickled the thing,” I said. One of the many spears I’d stabbed into the thing was nearby, broken in half from its rolling around.

Vim ignored me as he wiped more blood of his face. “I hear water over there, I’m going to wipe off,” he said as he stepped around me.

I sighed and nodded as he left. I couldn’t hear the water he spoke of but I knew what he was talking about. I had seen it from the skies; it was just a small stream. A larger river was nearby though.

“At least we don’t have to clean this up,” I said as I looked back to the monarch’s corpse. It hadn’t budged a feather. Like always once a monarch lost its heart they died, and stayed dead. I knew in just a few short days the huge body would begin to rapidly decompose. Not just the flesh either, but the bones too. And before even a full moon passed, the huge body would just… disappear. Leaving only the destruction it had left in its wake as proof of its existence.

Well, and a heart.

“Heart…”

Glancing down at my own chest, I realized I too needed to clean off. I’d wait until later though; we weren’t far from one of our villages. Close enough that I’d be there before nightfall, and I’d be able to properly clean up there. I didn’t mind bathing in rivers, but I had no extra clothes so there was not much point.

I wasn’t like Vim who didn’t mind walking around naked or in stained clothes. I’d never understand how he walked around with blood soaked clothes, they got all hard and stiff even if you washed them a little.

“Sure you’re okay Lilly?” Vim asked as he returned, not really looking much better. As I had figured his clothes were ruined.

“I am, Vim.”

He nodded as he stopped next to me, to stare at the carcass alongside me. “It’s an elephant,” he said.

“A… what?” I asked.

He nodded again and gestured at it with the heart. “An elephant. Or well, that was its original form. It’s bigger, got more legs, and is missing its snout for some reason, but that’s what it is,” he said.

Elephant…? “It’s ugly whatever it is,” I said.

He chuckled at that. “Most monarchs are. Or were…? I’ve begun to wonder if there aren’t actually many left anymore,” he said.

“This is like… the third we’ve dealt with in ten years,” I said. Wasn’t that a lot? Like… a real lot? These things were the creations of gods. Our ancestors. Things that had existed thousands of years ago. Growing up I had been told stories of them, monarch ancestors, and had thought them legends before joining the Society. Or well, before traveling around with Vim.

“Yes. Not many at all…” Vim though said, as if I’d just confirmed his statement for him.

Glancing at him, I couldn’t help but wonder what to him was considered normal, then. If three in a decade was so few it was the same as them being extinct… what had it been like before? Back when the world had been ruled by them?

A part of me hoped I never had to find out.

“Ah well… let’s get going,” Vim said as he nodded and turned.

Watching him step away… leaving behind the corpse of a literal legend as if it was nothing more than a typical highway brigand, I was forced to once again realize Vim was just… different. And not in a way I understood.

He just, once again, proved he was special. Beyond understanding. Yet to him it was nothing at all. He was walking away, to return to his path of helping the Society, and would likely never again mention this incident to anyone ever again.

Not that I blamed him. Even if one did want fame or recognition… it wasn’t as if anyone would believe him. An average looking man, killing a literal god? Barehanded of all things…?

Shaking my head at his audacity, I realized something odd as I went to follow him.

“You rolled down a mountain, fought that thing and even crawled into its belly… and you still somehow know the way back to the village?” I asked. I knew it was that way back, but only because I’d circled around this area while in the sky for hours. I knew this whole area like the back of my hand right now.

“Hm? Is it not this way?” Vim slowed a bit and glanced at me with a frown.

“It is… that’s what I’m trying to say,” I said with a grumble as I went to follow him.

He chuckled at me. “Why me being able to not get lost upsets you, I’ll never understand.”

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