WhimsicalLantern

  A few days ter, the trio gazed into the horizon at the Wind River Range, rising above the prairie. They had just passed through a ghost town hailing from the te 1800s, and were most of the way across Wyoming at this point. Their ultimate goal was to hunt up and down the Wind River Range, taking advantage of the rugged and remote terrain to find new challenges before having to turn back to Iowa.

  They gazed upon on West Atntic Peak, the southern end of the mountain range. From this distance, it wasn't anything impressive in and of itself, but it was the promise of what y beyond it that had them excited. The rocky terrain of Wyoming's mountain ranges beckoned, with the promise of a challenge in the future.

  "We're almost there, after so long," Colin remarked, staring into the distance. Bridgette grinned, eager for the thrill of combat.

  "Well come on, chicken legs," she teased. "Let's hustle and get there faster! Time to find something to kill!" With that, the trio broke into a gentle run, their easy loping strides chewing through the miles between them and the peaks.

  "I thought there would be more trees," Alice commented. "I mean, yea, there are trees, but somehow I hadn't pictured this as mostly rocks. I wonder what that means for monsters?"

  "In the before times, there were a lot of elk, deer, grizzly bears, bck bears, wolves, and mountain lions. I suspect we'll still find a lot of those in the area, plus probably lots of other crap we haven't thought of," Colin provided. "It's going to be a lot of traversing up and down hills, bouncing around the terrain as we find stuff."

  "It's going to be awesome," Bridgette said, with stars in her eyes.

  An hour ter, they found themselves climbing up toward the summit of West Atntic Peak. They had not seen anything yet, but were keeping an eye out. As they crossed over the ridge line, a rge granite boulder suddenly stood up about fifty feet uphill, shaking itself as various bits of moss and smaller pebbles rained down the hillside. The friends halted, staring in shock as a nine-foot tall creature of stone stood before them, its club-like arms of stone forming into fists as it seemed to pivot towards them.

  "Wow," Alice commented. "That's a big rock." A second creature emerged from the stone directly behind them, smming into Colin as the elf yelped in surprise and pain. The boulder-like appendages smashed into the wizard, knocking him down with crushing force.

  "Fucking hell," he shouted. "These things hurt!" The first creature then advanced on Bridgette, pounding a stone maul into the tall girl with a sonorous roar. As the maul impacted, a thundercp resounded through the mountainside, echoing off the far peaks, and Bridgette was knocked to the ground, battered and bleeding.

  Bridgette regained her feet, swearing, and gripped her axe. "I guess I got what I deserved, begging for a challenge. That was quite a hit," she said. Bridgette shook her head, blood from her nose spraying in an arc as she tried to clear her face. Alice quickly cast a healing spell toward Bridgette, working to counter some of the damage caused by the stone creatures.

  Bridgette raised her greataxe, bellowed a war cry, and swung twice, the axe cnging off the stone with a shower of sparks as rock chips flew in all directions. Colin turned, bsting three rays of fire at the creature that had ambushed him. "B," Colin called out, "Any chance you can tank this guy too? If so, I'll step back and start bombing them, but I can't take many more hits. That one nearly killed me."

  "No promises, but I'll try," the busty redhead replied, trying to dodge an attack from the creature in front of her. She managed to evade the first attack, but the second impacted her right in the side with a loud crack. She stumbled to the side, clutching at her ribs, spitting blood.

  The second creature swung at Colin, hitting the elf once and missing with its second. The wizard was knocked flying, nding in a crumpled heap by another boulder, coughing blood. "Oh fuck," he said weakly, scrambling to the side. Alice reached out and tapped him on the shoulder as he went, whispering "Heal" as she did, watching his wounds magically reverse and color restore to his face, crushed ribs mending.

  Colin turned and unched a lightning bolt at the creature that had hit him, making a "Bzzt" sound as he did. An enormous bolt of lightning fshed forward, ripping through the creature and ricocheting off the hillside into the distance.

  Bridgette lunged past Alice and Colin, swinging her axe at the creature as she ducked around it, trying to get its attention on her instead of the wizard. With a cry, she made two solid hits, showering more rocks onto the surrounding terrain. Alice and Colin were now standing off to the side, while Bridgette faced the two stone creatures, one in melee range and the other about thirty feet away from her, but charging toward her.

  The first creature advanced toward her, stepping rapidly and surely across the rocky terrain of the mountainside. It swung its giant maul at her, Bridgette blocking the first blow but the second hitting her in the shoulder. She stumbled, going down on one knee. The second creature then also attacked Bridgette, its stone hands striking hard as she gritted her teeth and took the blows, unable to effectively block the two rge stone creatures at the same time. Alice could hear the bones snapping as Bridgette took the hits, what were undoubtedly ribs, maybe a colr bone, cracking under the immense weight of the rock fists. Bridgette coughed as the st blow hit her in the chest, her sternum cracking, spraying her blood onto the stone creature's chest.

  Alice cast yet another spell, healing her lover through the power of Lusty Spell Preparation. She was forever grateful she had that cheat code, letting her double her healing throughput as long as she'd had sex the day before. Alice had no idea how adventuring parties without the Aphrodite perks managed to survive, but she was happy to take the assistance. Bridgette's bones began to mend, reversing some of the damage done by the creatures, but not quickly enough.

  Colin rolled his sleeves up, then pointed a finger to where the two creatures stood, dryly commenting "Fireball" in the same tone as the popur singer had done in that one song. A small fsh of light leapt from his finger, fshing across the terrain, and with an enormous fsh and roar, a fireball blossomed into the afternoon sky centered on the two creatures, but carving out a portion of the circle where Bridgette stood untouched by the fiery bst around her.

  Bridgette then immediately leapt forward on injured legs, striking at the more damaged creature with her axe, putting all of her power into the blow. She hit with a resounding boom, the stone creature shattering into thousands of small pebbles as it fell apart around her. She then swung at the other, but missed, her exhausted arms not quite able to keep up with her will.

  The remaining creature then turned, a glowing eye seeming to peer down at her from its rock face, as it swung its maul again at the barbarian girl. Bridgette stood firm, raising her greataxe to block. The creature hit her axe, and once again a thunderous boom erupted and echoed across the mountain. This time, however, Bridgette managed to stay on her feet, her nose and ears bleeding from the concussion, as she staggered in pce.

  Colin pointed his finger guns at the creature, making "pew pew" noises as magical darts flew around Bridgette and impacted on the stone skin of the creature. Alice sent another healing spell toward Bridgette, wishing she could do more than just stand there spamming the same ability, but knowing her most valuable contribution was keeping the team alive through this combat.

  Bridgette, renewed by the healing spell, swung her axe twice more while putting her entire body weight and fury behind the attacks. The first struck hard, huge shards of rock spinning off dangerously into the sky. The creature definitely looked worse for the wear, combat having taken a heavy toll on it. She swung a second time, seeking to capitalize on her success, and tripped, nearly dropping her axe and nding at the creature's feet with a curse.

  The creature struck, shing down at the prone girl, nearly breaking one of Bridgette's legs but missing more critical regions of her body. Bridgette stood awkwardly on her injured leg, wiping blood from her face with a snarl and struck back, her axe screaming through the air. She struck hard, the axe smming into the stone with a boom and a shattering noise, as the creature crumbled into pebbles. Breathing hard, she gnced around. Alice and Colin trotted over to her, Alice giving her a quick side-hug and quickly casting more healing spells on her lover.

  "Nice job, team. Those were earth elementals," Colin said. "They don't do much aside from hit like a fucking freight train, but they can really put out a hurting. We'll have to keep an eye out for them in the future, there's probably a lot around here."

  Bridgette turned, staring out over the forbidding terrain of the Rocky Mountains. She struck an imposing sight, red hair braided into a tight bundle over her shoulder, a chainmail bikini and fur-lined boots her only garb, and a greataxe on her shoulder, with the Wind River Range sweeping into the distance behind her. Alice wished she had a camera to capture the moment, her body suddenly on fire and lusting at how charismatic her lover seemed at this moment.

  "Yea, you don't fucking say," Bridgette quipped, gncing at the boulder-strewn mountainsides. "Any one of these could be a twin to what we just fought. I guess we'll be busy, so much good training here!"