We'd cleared the entire valley, following its winding course for miles higher and higher into the mountains, killing one monster after another until we neared its ultimate end where it looked like it would terminate against a sheer cliff 15,000 feet straight up.

I couldn't see the last section of the valley yet. It was blocked by a final corner. I had actually hoped we'd find one more monster, like an end-of-the-valley boss. Maybe I should have thought that through a bit more.

My pulse quickened with renewed lust for battle, despite my misgivings. Cyrus might be setting me up for a big fight, but I wasn't the same person I'd been while facing Bristleback the first time. I was strong now. I'd nearly killed alpha, the stage boss, and I'd survived Ashkaroth. I could handle one more giant.

I could just turn around and head back to town. Certainly I'd find another monster to fight. On the other hand, I did want that next level. I was so close, I could taste it.

"What do you think? One more?"

Nigel rolled to his feet and shook out his shaggy coat. "We kill monsters."

"Yes, I guess we do." I cracked my neck, jumped off the tower, and trotted forward to see what we'd be up against. I didn't even bother checking the inside of the tower of the troll we'd just killed. None of the giant monsters had anything useful inside their huts. With the next monster already calling for a fight, why delay?

Time was short anyway. I'd kept in touch with Ruby, Steve, and Tomas during the long hunt, and pressure was building for me to return. Everything was progressing like clockwork at the lake with the zombies. Three of the ships were fully repaired, with the rest scheduled to finish by sunset tomorrow. Pretty much everyone in town had reached level 25, except for me, of course.

The problem wasn't with the zombies, but with Alpha. He and his pack hadn't directly attacked the town again, but that didn't mean the crafty boss wasn't making his presence known.

Late in the afternoon on our first day of the hunt, a couple joint hunting parties had gone missing. Zombies reduced to shredded chunks were all the remained. No sign of the humans in those parties was found, so they'd probably been turned.

Then late that first night, somehow one of the catapults on the wall protecting Midmount Vale got turned and fired. An explosive flaming round hit Elizabeth Maberly's Expanse club dead center. Hurt a lot of people and caused a panic. At the same time, Alpha howled, scaring some people into running out the opposite gate and getting taken.

That had been a masterfully orchestrated attack. No one knew exactly how he'd managed it, but the most likely culprit was a missing mage with illusion powers. If they'd been turned, they could have done it. The town council was scrambling to improve defenses.

Yesterday, Alpha targeted the new floating village on the lake, dubbed Lake Town. At least, everyone assumed it was Alpha who somehow triggered an explosion that targeted Burns and Tony and their elite squad.

Their teams were all hurt, 1 killed, along with several nearby crafters. One of Tony's defensive tokens auto-activated, saving him. Burns got hurt bad and folks thought he was dead until he woke up and made an incredibly fast recovery. Some kind of secret recovery talisman. Both settlement defenses were being upgraded, and I'd gotten messages from every councilor demanding I return immediately to hunt down Alpha.

I'd stalled until I could finish my hunt. A couple more levels would help me power up enough to face Alpha and a pack of werewolves with more confidence. Then late yesterday afternoon, a large group returning from Lake Town to Midmount Vale for the safety of the walls there got attacked. Alpha howled, scaring 20 of them to flee into the forest and get taken.

People were scared and angry, and the demands from the town council for my return had grown sharp. None of them had an actual plan for dealing with Alpha, though. They looked to me for the monster killing. I'd promised to get back today, and I'd spent time between fights pondering ways to lure Alpha out and finally kill him.

We needed to remove him tonight before the work project with Noctarus ended. I'd prefer finding a peaceful resolution with the zombies, but some kind of fight was likely. Better to deal with one boss at a time. With all that happening, it meant hunt time was almost over, but I couldn't resist checking out the one last monster.

The giant monsters had been getting steadily stronger, which meant my suspicions of a final boss giant were almost guaranteed to be right. Cyrus would want something big for my 25th level. Time to put on another show.

Soon we reached the last corner and slowed so we could peer around the rocks that blocked our view. Beyond the bend, the valley flattened into a lovely oval-shaped meadow about a mile across, dotted with giant trees that rose at least 1,000 feet, their canopies mingling into a nearly solid roof of green impossibly high above.

In the center of the valley stood a single towering figure. I blinked a couple times as my brain tried to process what I was seeing. The humanoid figure was made of some dark material and stood half a mile away. It's massive torso was at least 20 yards thick, its limbs fully a third as wide, and it reared over 100 yards tall. It was like looking at a sinister older brother to the statue of liberty.

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"Ironwood Colossus. Boss. Level 65. Unique area guardian. Made of living ironwood, this ultimate giant is immune to fire and resistant to most forms of elemental attack. Its power is tripled within the forest that it protects and nourishes. After dominating all other giant monsters in the area, he's not happy you've killed all of his minions. His ironwood hide draws strength from the mountains and is impervious to all but the most powerful physical attacks. Any wounds he suffers will heal by drawing power from his condensed magical core. He will not stop until he consumes your life."

"Oh, Furtwangler," I breathed. Cyrus had done it again. The annoying AI had once more set me up and lined up a monster way more powerful than I wanted to deal with. Its base power seemed totally out of control, and it was triple-strength inside the forest?

"We need to get out of here. Go!" I turned and ran. Despite my super speed, Nigel left me in the dust, bounding away so fast with his new super-speed boost he looked like he'd discovered a teleport ability.

Before I even got up to full speed, the ground shook so hard, even with my high Agility stat, I tumbled. A deep, basso shout echoed from the Colossus and my heart shook with fear like I hadn't felt since facing Ashkaroth.

Rocks cascaded down from the towering cliffs hemming in the valley on both sides. Then giant slabs of stone as big as sky scrapers ripped free of the mountains with snapping sounds that rent the air with concussive blasts of thunder. The sounds were so overpowering, I triggered an Ear Muff potion to protect from auditory attacks.

Then I triggered a Scroll of Ground Walker. With my balance secure, I sprinted back up the valley toward the Colossus as giant stones slammed down right behind me. Smaller stones rained down all around like deadly hail and I pushed my Agility to the max as I ran and dove and dodged while the ground shook and heaved. Without Ground Walker giving me traction, I would have been crushed.

A billowing cloud of choking dust exploded from the impact points as stones fell upon stones with reports like cannons firing, obscuring the entire area and blinding me, even with Wolf Sight. I reached the last corner and crouched under a low shelf of stone, huddling away from the devastation that felt like the entire world was falling around me.

Would the monster just bring down the cliffs and bury me in tons of stone? Phantom Step could protect me if it came to that, but only for 5 seconds at a time.

Long seconds later, the rumbling and explosive crashes faded away and the ground stopped heaving. The choking dust clouds dissipated and I peered out from my hiding spot. The ground behind me was littered with fallen stones, ranging from basketball sized to boulders as big as houses.

Only when the dust finally cleared did I realize the full extent of what had happened. Those giant slabs of stone that had fallen from the cliffs had stacked on top of each other, forming a solid wall that blocked the entire valley between both cliffs. The avalanche had trapped me in the final segment of valley with an angry towering Colossus.

"Well, Schumann," I cursed, glancing from the newly formed giant cliff wall that reared thousands of feet above me to the curve of the valley blocking me from seeing the cause of the disaster.

I hadn't felt truly scared through all the long fights against all the other giants, despite the danger and the many wounds Nigel and I suffered. Part of that was definitely because my Fear Resistance had increased to 65%, but that wasn't everything. I respected those giants, made sure not to underestimate them, but in the end, I'd felt confident I could defeat them, and so we had.

Now that unfamiliar fear chilled my spine and set my heart thundering in my chest and my thoughts racing. Fighting the boss Colossus was a stupid idea, maybe dumber than taking on Bristleback the first time I'd stumbled into his high mountain lair. I'd convinced myself I couldn't walk into a boss fight less prepared, but Cyrus had raised the bar to an insane level.

I could sense Nigel on the far side of the stone wall, so he had escaped the trap, but I was now stuck in what amounted to a huge pit in the middle of giant mountains. I couldn't scale the sheer cliffs fast enough to escape, and Tether Slide would only get me a fraction of the way up. Trying to climb would just get me killed. The Colossus clearly had powerful earth manipulation powers. I couldn't imagine how much energy it took to raise a 10,000 foot wall by ripping the building materials right out of the nearby cliffs in a matter of seconds.

Waiting in that little corner of the final valley near the new wall would guarantee a quick death. If the Colossus came around that corner after me, I'd be trapped against the stone.

Still, I could use a scroll of Ground Walker and sprint up the side of the mountain. Coupled with my Tether Slide, I might make it. I might not, especially if the Colossus could sense me moving up the cliff. What if he dropped a building-sized rock on me?

The thought chilled me. No, I'd keep those options in reserve until I understood more. So instead, I willed my pants to change. My Phantomstep Breeches, which I'd started wearing again the day before, disappeared, replaced by my Thunderstride Greaves.

Thankfully the direct swap worked perfectly, and I applied an earth elemental immunity potion to them. That should help mask my presence from any earth-sensing abilities the Colossus might have so it didn't just drop a slab of stone on my head.

Then I triggered Mirror Cloak and crept back up toward the corner and the waiting Colossus. As I moved, my mind raced with options. If I really needed to, I could escape.

Did I want to escape, though?

The rational part of me screamed that escape was the only sane plan. I'd nearly died more than once facing monsters too strong for me. Why push my luck?

And yet . . . I didn't like feeling scared. The werewolf instincts still lingering inside of me rose up in unbridled fury that any monster would dare frighten me, and part of me wanted to encourage it. If I could defeat the Colossus, I'd gain so much experience and Cyrus would have to give me another level.

If I escaped, what would Cyrus set up as a replacement challenge? Annoying him could make a bad fight even worse. Besides, from what Identify shared, if I escaped, it sounded like the Colossus might leave its high mountain home and hunt me for vengeance. Trying to flee might only lead it on a rampage straight toward my team. It would smash them flat.

That was no doubt exactly what Cyrus had in mind. The fact that he hadn't said anything yet suggested he had in fact set all this up as a milestone level final test. He wouldn't let me get out of it easily.

No, I had to at least try to fight it. If nothing else, I needed to understand the Colossus's powers and abilities. Then if I had to flee, I could prepare a battlefield to my advantage the next time we met.

I stood tall, squared my shoulders, and faced the last turn to the Colossus's valley. It seemed to be waiting for me. So be it.

"Ready or not, here I come."

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