The glowing tail tip flared, a scare moment before a nearly blinding beam of fiery light shot out at virtually instant speed. But the ship was not where it was. Abruptly, it was to the left of its original position, a giant ship-shaped log in its place. As the beam seared right through the falling log with barely a pause and began to sweep toward the ship's new position, a flurry of attacks were launched by the other hunters at the Ray and Aono urgently tugged on the essence in her soul, urging it to awaken.

A shimmering field sprung into existence around the ship as Horu activated an ability, and the ant slammed hard on the accelerator while pulling the ship into a roll away from the beam, some apparent effect of her ability preventing everyone from being thrown around. Aono pumped mana into her slime summons to evolve them, turning one into a Wizard Slime, the second into a Spitter Slime, and the last into an Artillery Slime. She could hear the pounding of metal on metal as Tamu began working at rapid speed to assemble powerful devices.

Aono noticed Godswar's sword chasing the Master Ray through the air as it twisted and did its own roll to avoid the hunters' attacks and harassing sea life conjured by Mari. Already it bore a few scorch marks from Violet's lasers and a few light wounds from other attacks. It suddenly turned its tail more rapidly than expected and the ship lurched once again, teleporting out of the path of the Master's ray. A solid chasm of the chasm wall crumbled as the light ray cut deeply into it.

As the ship and the monster passed each other and turned around, the spines on the Ray's body suddenly began launching toward the hunters at a rapid pace. Aono could hear cries of pain and other sounds of distress and she urgently urged her domain's healing energies into the wounded. And she realized her healing simply wasn't going to one of the hunter. Glancing over her shoulder to make sure Violet was okay, she saw the Gemfolk's shattered, dead body, a few too many spines sticking out of it.

Aono shut up her rising despair by telling herself she had others to protect right now. She pushed more healing energies into Godswar, who was missing an arm, only for the rabbit to signal to stop. "The bleeding's stopped! I can fight just fine with one arm for now," Godswar yelled, "You need to save your energy for more crucial injuries!"

Godswar's words proved prescient as the Master Ray's beam rapidly swept closer, too close, and even as the ship disappeared and reappeared, Aono heard Kilu and Blood yell as their fur caught on fire just from the proximity of the ray. A rush of water from Mari put that out as well as the flames that had sprouted on the right side of the hunting ship, and Aono quickly worked on healing the two burnt hunters.

It was at this point that the devices Tamu had been building began to activate. Immediately the Master veered sharply out of the way as a projectile shaped like a squirrel head slammed into the chasm wall, creating a hole as big as an elephant. A pie from another cannon unexpectedly exploded midair, spraying the Master with clingy cream which weighted the Master down. Aono could sense the poisonous mana the cream emitted. The last device, shaped like a jester head, emitted a strange laugh that somehow bolstered the hunters' strength while weakening the Master.

The Master's ultimate ability came to an end as the burning ray died out. And Aono got a brief moment to glance at the great ray. Its body were looking considerably more wounded, and pie cream, ice from Aono's Wizard Slime, and Mari's water were clinging to it, slowing it down so more attacks could land. Aono could hear the chanting of the pangolin Noim, who had apparently taken the reins of his body some while ago, guiding the hunters' attacks toward the monster.

"I can only do one more teleport!" Sardu yelled as another wave of spines launched from the Master, doing significantly less damage to the hunters as, anticipating it, they all used their own means of defense. Only Horu, unable to dodge much while piloting, lost an leg. Just as Aono thought the battle was well in hand now, the Master's eyes flashed. And Aono found herself unable to move as the creature's tail tip suddenly flared up again, lancing right toward the ship and its unmoving crew while Monu, having taken back the reins, worked urgently to free them from the paralysis. As the ray cut through part of the ship and Blood's body, Sardu's third teleport kicked in.

"Blood!" Aono cried out as she felt the life in the bisected and charred mouse die out, the large mass of blood they had been manipulating beginning to drop.

Somehow the massed blood started moving again and from it rose the familiar shape of Blood. They pointed and a massive number of blood spears flew at the Master, impaling much of its body. Yet it persisted, sweeping the ray toward the ship. Then Mari stepped forward to the prow of the ship.

Aono could feel the nearly absolute darkness and crushing pressure of the water that appeared in the heated ray's path and immediately began boiling away as it shielded the ship from the deadly ray. And Horu, with fierce determination in her eyes, activated another ability, the glowing field around the ship intensifying. "I'm going to ram it and stun it so you can finish it off!" the pilot yelled as she steered the ship directly at the Master Ray.

More of the water boiled away, and to Aono's horror, much of Mari's body with it, but the ship, with a sudden burst of speed, slammed into the Master, leaving it spinning in the air from the impact, its burning ray dying out. And as it became an easy target, Godswar acted.

Just like that, the Master was cut in half.

Yet that wasn't the end. The halves of the Master began trying to reconnect themselves as a powerful healing ability kicked in. "Won't you just die already?!" Kilu yelled as he leaped off the ship, gripping the Master's body as he began jamming his venomous spurs into it, only to be knocked off by electricity that coursed through his body from the Ray, causing him to plunge into the chasm.

He wasn't the only one desperately trying to finish off the Master Ray as the hunters, Aono included, began frantically launching every attack they could at it. Even a direct shot from Tamu's cannon knocking away one of the Master's halves didn't stop its attempt at regenerating itself, instead beginning to regrow from the other half.

Then Monu's name flickered and changed, and Koku came to the front with a great flare of essence. A transparent, glowing silhouette of a draconic being appeared directly in front of the Master Ray and spoke with sad kindness, "May your suffering as a monster end."

At that, the Master Ray's body turned into a massive flurry of glowing butterflies which flew away to disappear. As the surviving hunters stared wide-eyed, only a small floating ray, looking much like the Master but without the sharp spines, remained. Its status field flagged it as a nameless Folk, no longer a Master. Still staring, Godswar said, "I presume there was a good reason you didn't do that at the outset."

Koku said, "It was only possible because it was weakened, suffering and wishing for an end to the suffering. Before that point its thoughts were filled with nothing but destruction. And this was not without cost..."

At that point, he collapsed, and Aono hurried to him. But as she tried to feed healing mana into him, it did nothing. "There's nothing to heal," Aono said, "He's just severely exhausted."

"I see," Godswar said, "Horu, are you still able to pilot?"

"Yes," Horu answered, "I'll bring us back."

"T-hat was a-absolutely terrible but I'm glad most of us survived..." Blood said, looking at their own body of blood. Their status field now displayed their species as Bloodfolk.

As Godswar beckoned for the former Master Ray to come aboard the ship, shouting could be heard from below. Aono looked down and, there, climbing the cliff wall desperately, was Kilu. "Don't leave me behind!" he yelled.

..oOo..

"That went far better than it could have gone," Godswar said as she stood in front of the hunting lodge's trophy of a stuffed dead monster bear's body, which was posed in a fierce pose.

"What do you mean, two of us are dead! Chaos, Blood died too, kind of!" Kilu said.

"Yes, and it could have easily been far more or even all of us. An unexpected Master is exactly the kind of situation that can kill whole hunting teams." Godswar sighed. "I have seen some such teams limp home bloody and broken, missing most of their members. I've also been on one such team."

"I'll miss Mari. Didn't really get to know Violet, but they seemed alright..." Blood said.

Aono just sat there feeling weary. Her lovers and the other surviving hunters looked just as exhausted. Tamu was just clinging to her arm trembling, while Sardu had taken the other arm and was resting her head on Aono's shoulder. Aono did her best to provide soft yet firm support for Sardu, partially solidifying her shoulder.

Koku was sprawled out on a sofa sleeping peacefully, not having woken up even once. According to the hunting lodge's in-house medic, the pangolin just needed a good long rest to recover from his soul exhaustion. Godswar was still missing her arm, though she did say she would get it regrown later. Horu was using her middle-arm to keep herself upright in place of her lost leg.

And Sardu had a missing eye, another casualty of the Master Ray's first spine spray. Aono felt bad for not noticing that before the fight had ended. There had just been so much chaos and so much to heal, and the eye socket itself was already healed as much as it could be. With a thought, she tossed her level-up ability point into further improving her ability to regrow complex organs and touched Sardu on the shoulder. "I'm going to heal that eye," Aono said.

Sardu roused, saying, "You grabbed something to help you do that... No doubt this won't be the last time we'll need that kind of healing. We're doing dangerous things, Princess."

"Yes, we are, Queen," Aono said with a tired smile, watching Sardu's eye grow back.

It was a gross sight but one Aono refused to look away from. Then from behind her, Godswar's voice said, "Suppose I could bother you to save me some healing fees?"

Aono nodded. "I'll have to recover more mana, I think, to do you and Horu too. But I'm fine with doing this."

"Naturally," Godswar said.

Aono saw the wraith administrator approaching with what appeared to be a fat roll of coinage in her hand and blinked, surprised. "This is a lot of money..."

"The bounty on the Master Ray was very high," the administrator said, "This is the total share for you three."

Aono muttered a thank, only for the administrator to say, "No, thank you and all the hunters. That Master Ray was a real terror of the chasm. Many hunters and civilians have been lost to it. Even a few soldier squads were lost."

"I see," Aono said, "So, uh, how's the ray doing now?"

The wraith said, "We have been reassuring her that she is not responsible for the deeds of her precluding self. She will receive help settling into a new life."

"That's good," Aono said.