From afar, the meeting taking place would worry people. For all the wrong reasons.

A group of seemingly 9-12 year-old girls sat around a fire that they were cooking on.

The worry would come from the wild lands they were in. A region that only the strongest dared to enter. Monsters, beasts, and other calamities roamed the lands.

Should someone come closer to the merry barbeque, they would probably pass out from the power of the ones at the place. Despite their size, they were the top powers of the world. The ones who toppled gods when needed, destroyed civilisations when they threatened the world, and reminded the world who stood at the top.

A dragon only 30 cm long with black scales and a humanoid body of a girl of 11 years with horns, pointed ears, wings, and a tail.
A leviathan only 40 cm long and 5 cm wide looked an adorable 10 years old in humanoid shape, the blue scales that littered her body matched her blue hair nicely.
A small bunny that easily fit a child's palm reminded everyone of a 10 year-old girl in humanoid shape with black hair and ears.
A seven-tailed albino fox that fit a palm when disregarding the tails looked 11 years old as a humanoid.
A small bat that would probably remind people of large moths size-wise looked 10 as a humanoid with blonde hair and red eyes.
A fluffy wolf puppy that looked 11 as a humanoid with a grey fluffy tail, and grey ears.
A small kitten with two tails that looked like an 11 year-old girl as a humanoid had orange and copper hair.
A handful of slime that looked like a 10 year-old as humanoid and was a transparent rose.

Around the fire and barbeque was a zone emptied of other living beings that ranged for kilometres. Everything that could, had evacuated, some who had been too slow to escape had died from fright as their hearts and minds had given out.

------

"Wyvern steak here." The dragon checked the slabs of wyvern meat. "Looks and smells really good."

The bunny finished mixing the salads. "Tomato salad here, mixed salad over there, potato salad behind it."

"Tuna and salmon steaks are ready too." The leviathan announced.

The vampire turned the sausages before her. "Cheese sausage is done, blood pudding will need a little longer. Can someone check the sweet potatoes?"

The rose slime stuck her hand into the bright glowing blaze and checked the sweet potatoes. "They are almost done, the sweet corn is almost done as well."

The albino kitsune was mixing drinks. "The bloody Mary is done, the mead is heated, who wants cold white wine?"

"I am done with the skewers." The wolf announced.

The kitten started handing out bowls with soup. "Here is the beef broth, we have chicken broth as well."

"I will take some chicken broth." The slime decided.

"Anyone want some blood?" The vampire uncorked a bottle. "I brought dark elven maiden and cowgirl maiden."

"No thanks." "Not interested." "I will taste the dark elf." "Never drank cowgirl blood before, I always drink their milk." "Sure I will take a sip of moo." "Can I have some dark elf on my steak?" "I think cowgirl with salad should work."

"Fish!"

"The soup is great."

"How have you all been actually?"

"I had another challenger, some sea snake decided I am too small to be worthy of the title of 'Lady of Water'," Leviathan mentioned.

The kitty nodded with a grimace. "Some king wanted to kidnap me to get his son resurrected."

"I think I killed a prince a while ago?" The dragon mumbled around her skewer. "Something about taking advantage of the owner of the dragon's horde missing."

"They tried to confiscate my shrine again." The kitsune complained.

"I am fine with living with the people in symbiosis, but they started experimenting on my slimes again." The slime complained.

"They tried to stake me again, that new religion is annoying."

"Is it me or have the countries forgotten who the top powers of the world are?" The dragon wondered.

"So have the gods, that new sea god tried to take over my domain." The leviathan complained. "He escaped with the lower body missing."

"Sure we are small, but it is clear that size does not matter when it comes to power." The nekomata struck a pose, which looked adorable on a little girl like her.

"The empire had summoned a quartet of heroes and had sent them against me." The bunny complained. "Kill the evil murderbun they said, well they will need to summon new heroes once they fix their capital."

"I had my slimes liberate the slaves since they treated the slimes like slaves." The slime giggled.

"We should remind the world what power means."

"Do you have any idea how? I am out of touch with the current empires and religions."

"So am I." "Same." "Never cared." "I just listen to my Tama." "Who cares who sits at the top when they are so fragile." "They die so quickly anyway." "Even the elves have forgotten."

The vampire frowned cutely. "Maybe we should find out what the world is like now?"

"And how do you want to do that?" The fenrir wondered. "They never take us seriously until we break them."

"Go there and find out for ourselves?" The slime offered.

"Who will go?" The leviathan wondered.

"I can." The kitsune offered. "I have done it before."

"Did they take you seriously?" The vampire wondered. "You are small like we are."

"No, naturally they don't until you beat them down." The kitsune confirmed what everyone suspected. "It happens regularly, when I let my aura out everyone is scared, when I don't nobody takes me seriously."

"Same." "Yes." "It is always the same." "Some feel it and don't believe it." "They run if you don't show it." "They died."

"Who goes?" The slime wondered.

"Who won't be missed too much in their domain?"

The topic shifted to picking the expedition members.

Until dessert anyway, that was more important.