Chapter -4 - Monster's Night Prelude: Heroes and a Horde

The sun was setting over the hillside near Misty Lantern Village, and at the very edge of town, three binders were getting ready for an intense battle.

"Great, just great. The one time we decide to take an Empire escort job, it suddenly turns into a defense mission on Monster's Night.", Dolga complained, while grasping his head in despair and annoyance. "I blame you for this, freaking bad luck cat, if you weren't adorable I swear I would keep you in a box somewhere", he said while pointing at the Caticlysm sitting on his shoulder, who was just smiling at him the whole time. "Oh calm down Dolga, the situation is not that bad. If anything it is quite fortunate", replied Melasina as she prepared her bandolier of concoctions, each being a glass bottle filled with strange colored smoke. "If anything it is quite a fortunate happenstance. Oli and I are in need of a third majimonster and you still need a fourth", Melasina said matter-of-factly, "Now all we have to do is just sit here, defend the town and see what comes our way". Melasina finished checking her concoctions, stood up from the rock she was sitting on and walked over to another rock where a short figure wearing an ornate mask was currently squatting."So Oli", she asked, "Think what do you think will be coming our way this time?" Oli just grunted in response whilst staring at the forest's edge. 

The trio watched as the last bit of sunlight disappeared over the horizon and the darkness of the night came to take its place. Countless ancient runes started to glow upon the ground and floated into the air. The aether grew thicker as the moon rose higher and higher into the sky and strange lights began to glow within in the depths of the forest as many strange shapes began to take form in the gloom. The trio knew that at this moment, Monster's Night had begun.

"Well then boys, shall we begin?" Melasina said as she drew from her side an ornate pipe in the shape of a dragon, embedded with drajules in its eyes and one acting as a horn. She proceeded to light the pipe and took a long drag; whilst doing so, the drajule that made up the horn started to glow with the light of summoning. "Come and play Smogre", Melasina said, then exhaled a huge cloud of purple smoke. The purple smoke then began to form the silhouette of a large humanoid creature, a huge pair of golden gauntlets formed where the silhouette's arm ended and an oni mask formed where the head was located.

Oli responded with a nod and a grunt, and proceeded to jam a drajule into a forehead slot in his mask. Oli let loose a battle cry that soon turned into a howl as two headed wolf made of pure fire and ice formed around his body and slowly absorbed into him. As the energy absorbed into him, he started to change shape from a squat figure into a two headed wolfman, the mask on his face splitting into two perfect halves covering half of the face of the two new wolf heads, one with smoke coming out of its mouth and the other releasing an icy breath.

Dolga merely sighed as he moved his Caticlysm from his shoulder onto the ground. Dolga removed his shirt,revealing to the world the three drajules embedded in his chest, located where his heart would be. Dolga took a deep breath and closed his eyes, he channeled energy from the drajules in his heart to his two hands and placed them on the ground. Two summoning symbols then formed to his left and right. The circle on the right was predominantly red with purple-ish outlines, showing fire and mystic-type patterns, while the one on the left was brown with green outlines, showing earth and verdant-type patterns. A strange ghost flame condensed in front of the symbol to the right and began to hover in the air; subsequently, a pair of feminine hands made of wax proceeded to reach out from the symbol and grab the flame. A figure that appeared to be a woman made of wax complete with a wax dress exited the symbol, the flame still burning in her hand.The figure then proceeded to move the flame to her head where a wick was located and placed it there. Meanwhile, the symbol to the left emitted a dense aura akin to a mountain forest. A pair of powerful, chitin-covered arms grabbed the sides the symbol and pulled against it. The beast that pulled itself out of the symbol was a hulking mass of muscle and chitin, but the most prominent feature was a massive horn reminiscent of a trident jutting from its armored head. At the sight of its companions coming out to play, the Caticlysm let out a yowl that quickly turned into a mighty roar as it began to triple in size. With all three of his monsters summoned, Dolga cracked his neck and simply said, "Leggo".