Xard woke up one morning with his back screaming in pain. It had only been a little over a week since he had joined the Fiends For Hire, but in such little time, the cheap bed he had been sleeping on had taken its toll. “How did Drim sleep on this for so long with no problems?” he grumbled, half awake. “Hmm, or maybe I’ve had it better than I thought.” Since birth, the lad had always had a comfortable bed to sleep in, and had never gone camping or anything of the like. So he never had to ‘rough it’, so to say.

  The groggy boy sat up in his bed and then twisted and turned in all directions, doing his best to stretch and crack his back to alleviate the pain. It went to show how bad the bed really was since it could do so much damage through a Fiend’s tough skin. There was no window in his room to give an indication of what time it was, so Xard pulled out his phone. It was still early, and he doubted anyone was up yet.

  Hmm, might be nice to have quiet time to myself in the apartment for once, he talked himself out of bed and stood up. But didn’t even take two steps before he was frustrated again. There was a pile of Kada’s clothing blocking the door. Xard guessed that after she’d changed last night, instead of opening the door, the woman had just melted her hand through it and dropped the garments. Ugh that girl, she needs to learn to pick up after herself, the involuntary housekeeper sighed as he began picking them up anyways out of habit.

  Before he’d arrived, they already had a chore schedule divided among the three of them, which Kada had laminated for some reason. So they all agreed it would be too much of a pain to go revising it. Because of Xard’s nature of keeping things orderly, he had become the unofficial housekeeper of the group. None of them were extremely messy individuals, but they weren’t great at cleaning either.

  Honestly, the worst offender was probably Drim. Their leader was actually quite organized, but could be a bit oblivious at times. The biggest issue came after jobs that involved killing monsters. Afterwards, he would just walk around in blood spattered clothes. Even when it was pointed out to him, the hunter would just brush it off as being used to it. Xard did have to praise him for hand washing it though, and not just throwing the bloody rags in with the rest of their clothes.

  The newbie had spent the past week shadowing the others, mostly Phon, but Drim occasionally. There had been one instance where it had just been Kada and himself, but that was a quite easy job of finding a lost purse, even though it took forever and Phon had been watching them the whole time with her Curse. Really, there had been nothing as dangerous as he was expecting. He’d only been on one monster slaying job, but it was something quite weak, and Drim had done almost all the work.

  Xard had been expecting it all to be a bit more perilous, risking his life on a day-to-day basis. He wasn’t sure if they hadn’t received any jobs that fit the bill, if they just hadn’t taken him on any yet, or if the world was a much safer place than he thought. There was also the possibility that they didn’t want to do anything too grand to draw the attention of the police which might put their base at risk. That wouldn’t be too bad, though, the young man considered. He wasn’t sure how much more he could take of living in the cramped apartment anyways.

  After he finished putting away Kada’s clothes, Xard opened the door to the bedroom. He let out a hefty yawn as he stepped out. The next thing he knew he was face down flat on the floor, with one of his feet in serious agony. He rolled onto his back and looked at his foot. The top had been sliced open with golden blood gushing everywhere. His eyes darted around for the cause, finding Kada’s anchor sprawled out on the ground. Thankfully, his foot would heal soon, but it didn’t stop the pain and anger.

  “Cosdamn it Kada! You forgot to melt your anchor again!” the victim yelled as he turned his head to look at the couch were the culprit was sleeping—or should have been, but the couch wasn’t there. That was when Xard noticed the puddle he was laying in, and next to him in the puddle was Kada, completely naked. In her sleep she had managed to melt the couch, her blanket, and her wetsuit. Phon had mentioned that the two girls had trouble picking out something for her to wear at night, and somehow Kada had landed on a full wetsuit to everyone’s confusion.

  Pox was currently sleeping on the woman’s face, leaving Xard to guess that he had been snuggling with Kada during the night and moved there to seek refuge when things got wet. The now-soaked and still bleeding man lifted his hand and slapped down on Kada’s bare stomach. She jolted upwards into a sitting position, Pox still clinging to her face. The woken woman pried him off and held him in her arms as she looked to Xard and whined, “Ahh, why did you hit me?!”

  “Look around genius, you tell me!” the redhead chastised her.

  The cause of all of his strife took a good look around the room while blinking the sleep out of her eyes. Once she finally seemed to process what was going on, she turned back to Xard, rubbed the back of her head, and apologized lightheartedly, “Aha, sorry about that.”

  “If you’re sorry then fix the room and get me a bandage for my foot. And put your wetsuit back on for Cosmos’ sake!” her roommate ordered.

  Kada looked down at her own naked body and gasped, and then proceeded to use Pox to cover herself. “Oh wait, I guess I don’t really need to worry about that with you,” she sighed in relief.

  It was true that Xard definitely felt no reaction when he looked at her naked body, but he still wasn’t really comfortable being around anyone naked. “Good thing it wasn’t Drim. Well… it might not be the worst thing if he saw me,” Kada offered as she stood up.

  After she resolidified everything, quickly got dressed, and put away her anchor, she lifted Xard up onto the couch before heading into the bathroom to get the first aid kit. “You know, Phon would beat the living zjik out of you if she heard you say that,” the injured scoffed as Kada wrapped his foot.

  “Same goes for you pal,” the girl sneered. “I’ve seen you glancing at Drim, and some of those stares last a long ass time.” Kada said coyly as she leaned in and tightened the bandage, “But you don’t have to worry about it. I won’t let you win.” Xard took a swing at her but she easily dodged.

  Neither of them said anything more for a while as they sat on the couch, until the man finally muttered out a quick “Thanks,” in regards to the bandage, to which Kada just nodded. A few more moments of silence passed, neither of them really sure of what to say to break the awkwardness. Eventually Xard spoke up again. “It really would be nice if this place was bigger. The smallness of my room is starting to get to me a bit I think.”

  “At least you have a room,” the couch-hogger huffed. “Not having any privacy at all has taken its toll too.” Kada stood up, headed to the kitchen and came back with an empty glass. She sat back down on the couch and propped Pox up on the arm rest. The girl then held the glass between the animal’s legs, and pushed on his stomach. Liquid poured into the glass. Kada took a big gulp and let out a relaxed sigh. “Ahh, that's the good stuff. You want some?” she offered the glass to Xard.

  He held up his hands and reeled back in disgust, refusing her offer. “Yeah, no thanks, I’ll pass on that... Anyways, I know the two of them have mentioned that they won’t stay in Constead forever, and that they believe this place won’t be safe for too much longer, or they wouldn’t be taking so many precautions. However, despite all that, I haven’t seen them show any inclination of looking to move or find a bigger place.”

  “Yeah, I was wondering about that myself,” Kada agreed. “This place really is at capacity with the four of us. It’d be a pain if someone else were to join. Not sure where we’d put them. Don’t think we could justify doubling up anyone else like Drim and Phon. I really don’t know how they manage it.”

  Ever since Xard had moved in, the siblings had shared a room, but there wasn’t even remotely enough space for another bed. Their solution was that they would take turns on the floor in a sleeping bag. However, it was a bit different than how others would handle it. Instead of fighting over the bed, they fought over who would sleep in the sleeping bag since both of their personalities put the other above themselves. It had become a competition between the two to get to bed first so that they could claim the bag and force the other to take the bed.

  “You know what, I think we should go ask those two what their intentions are. I understand that they don’t want or need to tell us everything, but I don’t want to be kept in the dark about this,” Xard stated firmly as he stood up. His foot still hurt a little, but he was resolved now. When he got to their bedroom door, he jiggled the handle, but it didn’t turn. “Wuh, it’s locked?” the man reported as he turned to Kada who had followed him close behind. She had a very worried look on her face, prompting Xard to ask, “Is that a bad thing?”

  “Of course it’s bad!” Kada barked. “You know how weird Phon is around Drim when she thinks he isn’t looking!” The woman then moved her finger to the door and looked to Xard for confirmation. He nodded and Kada tapped her finger and melted the door. The two looked in and the boy wasn’t sure if what he saw was better or worse than what he was expecting. It appeared Phon had won the race to the sleeping bag the previous night.

  Drim was still asleep in the bed, and his sister was standing on the top of the bag while looming over him, recording him as he slept. Xard leaned over to the still baffled Kada and muttered, “I get that she’s in love with her brother or whatever, but this is just creepy.”

  Phon looked up from the video camera screen to the two in the doorway. She had an equally creepy smile proportionate to the action, but that quickly swapped to surprise. “Err, I’m not in love with him okay!” The Vixen stammered. “Well, I do love him, but in a purely platonic way, got it?! I’m just making memories for the future. What’s wrong with that, huh?!”

  “Oi, does that mean you’ve been recording the rest of us sleeping too? Pervert!” Kada chimed in.

  “Gross, why would I ever want footage of that,” the degenerate was clearly repulsed by the idea. “Also, haven’t you two ever heard of knocking? I could have been changing or something you know!”

  All three of them jumped suddenly. A thorn had shot out from the bed and into the video camera, knocking it out of Phon’s hand and pinning it into the wall behind her. Drim sat up in the bed, wiped his eyes, and yawned, “Don’t waste your energy on stupid things, Phon. And why do you even have a video camera? Our phones work better than that hunk of junk.”

  His sister slumped to the floor, sadly picking up the shattered remains of the video tape. “It’s leftover from when I kidnapped, err I mean, was interviewed by Crihound,” she sniffled, mourning the loss of her footage. Xard wondered what else had been on there, but could guess it was almost all footage of Drim. However, this wasn’t the time to be worrying about her weird collection.

  “Uhh, well anyways, sorry for coming in so suddenly. There’s something we wanted to talk to you about,” the intruder mentioned. Both he and Kada returned to the living room after the latter fixed the door, and waited a while to allow the other two to properly wake up. Xard watched curiously after Drim came out of the room and grabbed Pox.

  He watched him take the animal to the kitchen, set him on a burner of the electric stove, turn it on, and pour coffee grounds into his mouth. Drim returned after stepping away for a few minutes, put a mug between Pox’s legs, and pushed his stomach in the same manner Kada had done earlier. A fresh, aromatic cup of coffee was poured, and the boy sipped it with delight on his face.

  Once the two Drazahs had settled down in the living room, Xard and Kada expressed their concerns. “Oh that’s all?” Drim responded, relieved. “I was worried you wanted to leave the team or something. The truth is that we never expected to acquire new members so quickly, and we weren’t planning on moving until we’d made a bigger impact. However, with the four of us now it does seem like a good time to move onto the next phase,” the leader turned his head to his sister and asked, “Mind making the call?”

  “Sure sure,” Phon accepted and took out her phone. A few seconds later, a muffled voice answered the phone to which the caller replied, “Hello Uncle, it’s me.” She stood up and headed off into the bedroom for a more private conversation, but Xard could hear a bit more before she closed the door. “No, I’m not pulling the ‘It’s Me’ scam. It’s Phon. Phhhhooon.”

  Both rookies turned to each other, confused as to who could possibly be on the other end of the line. The Drazahs had never mentioned any living relatives, so they had no idea who this ‘uncle’ person would be. It wasn’t common knowledge if either of their parents had any siblings. Drim didn’t seem to notice their concern and wandered off to do other things.

  Eventually, Phon came back out and addressed them. “It should be all taken care of now, but it’ll take a few days before everything's in order. You don’t mind waiting that long right?” The two sitting on the couch nodded. “Cool. Well Drim and I have an important job we have to do today, and unfortunately you two can’t come. It would be much too dangerous and tormenting for your untrained hearts.”

  “We do?” Drim asked, poking his head out from the kitchen.

  “Yes, we do,” The Vixen confirmed. “So, you two are on your own for today. I’m still a little adverse to you guys doing stuff on your own, but you’ve been good kiddies, so I guess you can.”

  “Wait, you’re finally going to let us do a job unsupervised?!” Kada squealed out in glee.

  “Yes, well nothing too difficult,” Phon added. “I’ve added a job ranking system to the site. It rates difficulty on a scale of one to ten. So for now, don’t take anything higher than a three. Though I’ll be honest, there’s not that much in those levels right now. So an additional option is taking a monster bounty from the community center. Just be careful not to alert anyone important.” The siblings got ready for their job and left eventually, leaving two inexperienced FIends alone, discussing what sort of job they would take.

  ◆◆◆

  Kada looked up at the sunny sky, enjoying the lovely day as she and Xard made the walk to the community center. Phon wasn’t kidding when she said there wasn’t much on the job board that fell under their restriction. “Man, some of those higher level jobs looked really interesting,” Xard complained while walking next to her.

  “Yeah, I really would have loved to take the one for hunting bandits,” Kada added. “I grew up in a safe town, so I’ve never met a bandit—could have been interesting. I get why they’re cautious, but it can be a little overbearing. I mean, I’m older than both of them, but they feel like my parents sometimes. Oh well, it’s nice that we get to do something on our own for once. Also, I have seniority in the group, so I’m leader for today, alright?”

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  “I mean you’ve only been in the group for like three weeks more than me, but fine, whatever,” Xard shrugged. The pair continued on in silence for a while, until the boy chirped up and asked, “Hey, does it always feel like you’re constantly being watched?”

  “Hmm, I guess,” the girl responded after a moment to think. “I mean, look at our hair and what we’re wearing. It’d be weirder if people didn’t stare at us honestly.”

  Xard took a moment to ponder on it for a bit. “Yeah, I suppose, but it feels more intense than usual. When we were in the mall, people would casually glance, but now with every alley we pass I feel like I’m being stared down.”

  “It’s not healthy to be so paranoid, Xard,” his partner chuckled. “Today is going to be great, so lighten up or you’re gonna bring down the mood!”

  When they got to the community center, Kada immediately dashed to the bulletin board. Warrants were generally updated weekly unless there was a specific need for one, and she hadn’t checked in a while. The girl glanced all over the warrant board, but didn’t find her name. In fact, she didn’t find a single one of the four Fiends posted there. Shocked, she frantically searched the entirety of the board. They were nowhere to be found in either the monster section or the community post section.

  Kada let out a large sigh of relief when she found another recently added bulletin board off to the side. The new spot was dedicated to the posters of the four Fiends For Hire. She looked over the posters. Phon was at the top left, and her picture had been changed. She was now in a large office chair in front of some bookcases. Kada recognized it as Vinlot’s office and guessed The Vixen must have gone back at some point.

  It showed her petting Pox who was laying in her lap, like she was an evil villain in a movie. She also had her feet propped up on someone in the fetal position that Kada couldn’t recognize because they had a black bag over their face. Yeah, that about wraps Phon up in a nutshell, she thought as she perused the rest of the poster. New crimes had been added, such as mass murder, but the score hadn’t gone up as much as she expected. It was only at 4460 which was definitely too low for someone who had killed ten people.

  Curious as to the reason, the busybody quickly pulled out her phone for research. After a couple seconds of digging, she found that apparently mass murder for a single incident only counted as two thousand points for one hundred people or less, so as to not inflate the scores too much. I guess the Central peace doesn’t want to incite terror by having someone raise their score too fast without being caught, she jumped to a conclusion before moving on.

  Drim’s poster was to the right of Phon’s on the board. He had a new picture as well that Kada guessed had been taken by his sister without him knowing. It definitely possessed that ‘cool’ vibe that The Slayer was always seeking. He had both blades extended, and looked like he was charging at a monster with his cloak flowing gallantly behind him. It was also probably one of the only public pictures that showed him with his hood down.

  His score was the lower of the two siblings as expected, since he had only killed one person. It was still nothing to sneeze at with a score of 3895. Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone’s scores going up as fast as these two, Kada tried to remember before moving on to her own poster, placed just below Drim’s. She cringed a little when she saw it. The drawing had been replaced, but now she kind of missed it.

  In its stead was a low-res screenshot from security camera footage of when they were racing through the city. It wasn’t a flattering picture at all. Her arm was held out, her mouth was open with a stupid expression, and she was halfway through a melted wall. The woman would surely need to have it changed like Drim and Phon, but didn’t really know how they did it.

  Kada decided to cheer herself up by looking at her score. 2345 not bad, definitely higher than I was expecting. I have a lot of catching up to do, but it should still definitely be much higher than Xard’s. I’ll try to keep my gloating to a minimum, she thought proudly as she looked over to his poster. Her mouth dropped when she read ‘2400’. What the hell?! How is his higher than mine?!

  She then saw the words ‘murder’ listed below it. Confused, she thought back to the past week to see if there were any instances that he had killed someone, or if any of his actions could have led to it accidentally. The woman drew a complete blank but then remembered the night at his parent’s house. He had confessed that he was a murderer to them, and they had likely told the police. While it was true that all four of them had committed murders to become Fiends, he was the only one who would have been charged.

  “Huh, don’t the scores seem off to you?” Xard asked, now standing next to her.

  “You’re Cosdamn right they do! I’ve been a Fiend for years but you have a higher score than me?! Also, you actually have a decent picture, so unfair,” Kada complained. Xard’s picture looked like a standard photo that would be used for an ID. It had likely been acquired from his school or his parents had a copy. However, it didn’t have his new hair and eye colors, so he would likely receive a new one soon too.

  “No, I mean they’re too high. I only have a small amount of crimes, and there’s no way the ones listed would add up to that much,” the redhead deduced.

  Kada scanned them again. Just from a quick count they did seem quite off, so she opened the calculator app on her phone. Excluding the more minor crimes that weren’t listed, they were all approximately a thousand higher than they should be. The woman then noticed a mark at the bottom right of the poster which was on all four. It was their logo. “Well, it seems that just being part of our group has been labelled as a crime, one on par with murder at that.”

  “Hmm, I wonder why they’d do that,” Xard pondered. “Maybe it’s so that bounty hunters know they’d be messing with a powerful group if they went after one of us. Let them know that they would have that additional danger to deal with.”

  “Sounds plausible,” Kada shrugged. “Alright, well you have a look at the monsters and see if there’s anything good. I’m going to go talk to that bland looking man at the counter and see about a picture.” She strolled up to the counter and leaned against it. “So… err… Keith,” the Fiend read his name tag. “How does one go about getting a fancy picture on their warrant?”

  Keith took a long look at her and then said in a drab voice, “Ah, you must be Ms. Susten then. It’s true that while I was putting up your poster, I believed your picture was less than desirable.”

  “Wow, I’m not sure if that’s a jab at me or the picture,” the woman was conflicted on whether she wanted to punch him or not. “Also ‘miss’ is a bit formal, don’t you think?”

  “I believe it will do just fine, miss” Keith persisted. “If all you want is for your photo to be changed, and not to dispute anything else on the poster, I can be of assistance. While I can’t change it myself, I can pass it to my supervisors. They should then update it the next time a new warrant for you is issued. It worked out for the two Drazahs when they gave me their pictures.”

  “Wait, if you know who I am, and know who they are, then why haven’t you reported any of it to the police?” Kada questioned.

  “Very funny, miss,” the clerk didn’t break his serious demeanor. “No job is worth making an enemy of people who could very well melt me with their brains.”

  “Well, I am an expert on melting things,” the Fiend sneered before staring at him intensely.

  “You’re trying to do it right now, aren’t you?” Keith asked, calm as ever.

  “Just your stupid face,” Kada mocked, staring harder now. Her own face started to hurt from the strain so she gave up after a few seconds. “Seriously, do you ever look or sound not so… boring…” Keith just slightly shook his head at this remark. “Alright, well, whatever. Give me your number and I’ll be in touch about the photo thing.”

  “Certainly, miss,” the clerk pulled out a business card and handed it to her. Kada was grateful that he was so compliant, but talking to him and his unbreaking coolheadedness was starting to piss her off. Thankfully, Xard was headed over to serve as a distraction. She turned to him and awaited his findings.

  “Yeah, there’s basically nothing worth killing. I mean, there is stuff up there, but nothing worth having a Fiend kill. It’s stuff anyone with a gun could easily take out,” her partner for the day reported.

  Kada immediately turned away from Xard and back to the counter; slamming her hands down on it. “Oi, Keith, what’s with the zjikky monster list?!”

  “Well, your scary faced friend has gone and killed most of the monsters around here, hasn’t he?” the clerk stated matter-of-factly. “I, for one, am enjoying the new peace. I like taking long walks outside the city, and knowing that I won’t be mauled by something ferocious is quite blissful.”

  “Yeah, nobody cares Keith,” Kada snapped at him. “Do you have anything for us or not?”

  “Wow, going by your hair colors I would have guessed the gentleman would be the hot head,” Keith spouted his dry attempt at humor. “Well, I may have something. The scary boy tore this poster up and demanded that I never let anyone take it. However, you two are his companions, so I feel like you’d be able to handle it. I’ve seen it myself too on one of my long walks. It is quite something, and despite his protests, I do believe it should be dealt with as soon as possible.”

  He pulled out a poster and set it on the counter. Usually on monster posters there was either an image or drawing of what the monster looked like, but on this one, there was just a hexagon printed on it. ‘Beehexoth’ was written beneath. “Hex… Hex… Drim mentioned something about a monster with ‘hex’ in it before,” Kada mumbled. For the life of her, she couldn’t recall what it was. It was really bothering her to the point that she was clenching her hair in frustration.

  Xard must have noticed how spazzy she was acting. He picked up the poster, said “We’ll take it,” to Keith, and pushed her outside.

  The woman was close to having a full breakdown and was muttering, “hex hex hex hex,” over and over finally screaming, “Gahh, I know he mentioned hex before, but was it a Beehexoth?! He talks about monsters so damn much that I guess I could have let something slip through, but no, I listen to everything he says!”

  “So you forgot one thing, what’s the big deal?” her partner was clearly a little worried and freaked out at the same time.

  “You don’t get it. My ability to remember things is all I have. I’m not that smart, but I made it through school with no problems because I could just remember everything. So, unless I find the missing part, I’m just going to obsess over it,” Kada grumbled. “Oh right, there’s an online bestiary, I guess we can find out more there.” She snatched the poster from Xard’s hands. “Wow, there’s really nothing on here except the name, location, and a stupid hexagon.”

  She didn’t know the site address for the bestiary, but a quick web search on her phone found it with no problems. Before looking the monster up she just scrolled through a few entries to get a feel for the site and test its usefulness. Most entries were quite detailed, with high definition pictures and full guides to a monster's habits, weaknesses, and so on. Nearly all of them were submitted by ‘Slayer’ which undoubtedly had to be Drim. It was almost as if he had done the whole database himself.

  Eventually, she searched for Beehexoth, but the entry was almost as empty as the poster. There wasn’t even a class ranking like there had been on every single other entry she’d checked. Where the picture should have been was just another drawing. This time, instead of a single hexagon, though, it was seven; six in a circle, and one in the middle. The only thing written in the entry was ‘Do not engage - Slayer’. “Wow, is this maybe a monster that even Drim can’t handle?” Kada put forward while showing the screen to Xard.

  “Well, it would make sense then as to why he didn’t want anyone fighting it,” the man responded. “Could there really be something so dangerous that Drim couldn’t deal with? I always got the impression he was relentless and unyielding no matter what.”

  “I don’t know…” Kada was unsure but then got riled up, “And that’s all the more reason we should go after it!” Her partner looked at her like she was insane. “Oh come on, if we beat something even Drim couldn’t, they’d have to take us more seriously. Next thing you know we’d be allowed to do like level 8 jobs and never need to be supervised again.” There was also a part of Kada that wanted to redeem herself after her failure with the Gorrizard, and felt this would be the perfect opportunity.

  “That does sound tempting…” Xard agreed, “But if we fail to take it down, or even worse get hurt in the process, they’ll be furious with us for taking on something we weren’t ready for. Especially Drim, since it’s quite clear he doesn’t want anyone fighting this thing.”

  “Oh come on, we’re practically invincible!” the woman blurted. “I can’t melt monsters, but I can melt my way out of any danger, and you can reflect any hits you take. So, if we decide it’s too much, we can just run away and never mention it to anyone. We may have to silence Keith, but I’d still be able to sleep fine after.”

  The other Fiend took the poster and stared at it a bit. It seemed that he was thinking it over. Kada took the time to search the bestiary again, since the gap in her memory was still bothering her. However the word ‘hex’ turned up no other results, so she forced herself to put it out of her mind for now. “Alright fine, you’ve convinced me,” Xard conceded. “Do you know where Naynoc Canyon is, though? I’ve heard of it but never been there.” He was referring to the last known location on the poster.

  “Uhhh… give me a sec,” Kada muttered, switching over to her navigation app.

  ◆◆◆

  Naynoc Canyon was a fair distance away from where the pair started. It would take someone about thirty minutes by car to reach it, but there were no buses headed there today. So, it ended up taking the Fiends around seventy minutes on foot to get there. They still couldn’t maintain Drim’s top speed for long, but they were getting better steadily. The fact that they couldn’t run on main roads, for obvious reasons, didn’t help in getting there quickly.

  About halfway, they were both tired and stopped for lunch at some random restaurant they found before continuing. The whole ordeal had Kada thinking that they definitely needed to reevaluate their transportation needs. After the two got to the canyon, they took a good look around. It truly was a breathtaking sight. The canyon was vast, and unlike the woman expected, it was completely covered in grass. She wondered why it wasn’t more popular. It could have something to do with the only way to get there was through long hiking trails. Plus, the giant monster in the middle of it probably wasn’t helping.

  In the center was a creature larger than any other Kada had ever seen in her life. By her rough estimate, it was about four stories tall. She now understood why the only thing in those pictures were basic geometric shapes. The only thing visible on the monster were white hexagons covering its entire body. There was a slight smidgen of another color that seemed like a brownish pink between them, but that was the end of any diversity.

  The monster seemed like it was in the shape of a human or something else bipedal. It walked on two legs, had a torso and two arms, but it was rather undefined. There were no hands or feet, and the arms and legs were just long cylinders made of hexagons attached to an equally cylindrical body. There was also no head to speak of at all. It was hard to tell at first, but the creature was in fact moving, taking large and slow steps that caused the ground to tremble beneath it with each one.

  “Wow… I uh… Wow,” Xard stammered. “I have no idea where to start fighting that thing… Hmm, maybe you could try melting the ground underneath it. You could stop it from moving or at the very least maybe slow it down. Maybe we’ll get super lucky and it has a weakness to water or something.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think we’ll get that lucky, but it’s a good place to start,” Kada slipped her hands into the ground. The area under the monster started to liquify and it began slowly sinking. Eventually, it was submerged about halfway up its body when Kada relayed, “That’s as far as I can melt with the minerals I can currently touch. This should work out, though. The thing doesn’t really seem like an amazingly graceful creature, and it will probably struggle to get out.”

  Almost as if to spite her words, the Beehexoth began moving strangely. It laid both arms out onto the solid ground in front of it. Then a hexagon popped out of the melting pot of liquids and slid along the main body, until it reached the end of an extended arm and reattached. A whole swarm of bony-textured hexagons followed suit—up out of the water, across the other hexagons, and onto dry land. Once they were all accounted for, they shifted even further, reforming the human-like figure the monster had before, then started walking slowly again as if nothing had happened.

  “What the hell was that?!” Both Fiends cried out in unison.

  Xard added. “I didn’t expect it to be able to reshape and reform itself. Honestly, I'm still not convinced that my eyes aren’t lying to me.”

  “Yup, that thing is hella weird,” Kada was just as flummoxed. “There has to be solid flesh somewhere under all those hexagons, though. So I guess the next thing to try is to attack it directly. If we can get between the slits, we can probably do some damage. I have a crazy idea…”

  Discord, , and Amazon Release (Pending), can be found on the Fiends For Hire .