Dawn carried Dusk while Dusk swung his flail to attack. It was like being one person again with extra steps.

  The ground trembled as an explosion of dust manifested on the horizon. The twins ignored it, focused on their own fight.

  The flail came down on the glass arm holding the hammer but instead hit the hammer as their foe shifted. It proceeded to stumble and fall to its knees as its weapon exploded.

  Not as steady on its salt legs, huh?

  Their flail still lived despite the impact, so Dusk heaved it up and around them before smashing it down at their foe from the other side.

  Even with its posture unsteady, their enemy managed to snap up its mirror shield, deflecting the flail straight into a nearby building before Dusk could readjust its trajectory.

  The twins swore as the skill finally ended. The titan, on the other hand, already began clambering back up to its salty feet and a hammer reformed in its waiting hand.

  “This is not working!”

  Dawn turned on her heel and rushed to the last decently intact building as a wild idea struck them.

  Normally, climbing while carrying someone in her hands would be impossible, even if she carried another geckin, but the two were quite literally the same person and in perfect sync.

  Dawn adjusted her hold on her twin to hold him around his waist, only mildly annoyed by the satchel at his hips getting in the way, and jumped at the wall. Dawn’s feet attached to the wall just as Dusk reached out with his arms and grabbed on as well. In a very awkward maneuver, the twins managed to climb up as if they were a single person.

  They made it up onto the flat roof just in time for the salty hammer to strike the building they had decided to climb.

  The ground shook beneath their feet and they kept running.

  Out in the distance, they saw three more of the glass giants battling it out with a colossal blue slime. Several more hunters jumped around, unleashing their own skills at the monsters. And luckily, a few hunters were also headed in their direction. Meaning they only had to hold on until reinforcements arrived.

  They got all the way to the edge of the collapsing building. Everything but the weapon shop had already turned into ruins unsuitable as landing spaces, and said shop was too far away to make it with a regular jump.

  Acting on yet another wild impulse, Dusk grabbed [Transfrogify] and used it on Dawn as she adjusted her hold on him to put him on his back.

  The twins changed into tailed frogs with a poof. Dusk then held on tight to Dawn’s back, while she leaped across to the weapon store just before the roof under her froggy feet collapsed under her.

  The twins landed and transformed back into geckin. Dawn quickly adjusted her hold again to a princess carry to make it easier for themselves.

  Unfortunately, they only had seconds until their foe walked around the wreckage and continued its assault.

  Nothing they had tried worked. What other options did they have?

  “Do we make a new skill?”

  “We’ll just die. You know what happened last time.”

  “But what else can we do?”

  “Combine skills?”

  “Super flail might work…”

  “And we never tried to double up on [Transfrogify] either.”

  But Dusk’s flail and Dawn’s frog skill still had yet to re-spark, so they needed to stall some more.

  With a ground-shaking stomp, the glass titan emerged from behind the rubble, hammer raised and ready to pulverize their geckin hides.

  They gritted their teeth, turned on their heels, and hopped down the side of the weapon shop. Dusk covered them in [Iridion’s Shawl] to soften their fall.

  Unfortunately, while it helped Dawn from injuring herself as well, the momentum still proved too much and Dusk slipped from her arms with a yelp.

  But just as the giant began menacingly stalking toward them, reinforcements arrived.

  When the giant reared back to pound them to the ground as Dawn scrambled to grab Dusk and run again, a dagger flew in from the side and buried itself in the monster’s neck. The giant staggered and then swung its hammer toward where the dagger had come from instead.

  Out dashed a man in a black cloak and a hood, tossing more daggers at the monster.

  “You’re mine!”

  The daggers morphed, expanded, and turned into ghostly figures in tattered cowls. They circled around their prey and swung their dagger-like claws with an ethereal screech. Claws met the mirror shield and the wraiths dissipated back into daggers as soon as their attacks failed and clattered on the ground.

  The hooded guy didn’t seem deterred by this and conjured a dark blue-rimmed card before throwing it. It turned into a dark projectile with a shadowy trail mid-flight that struck the shield and promptly exploded into pitch-black cloud of smoke that corroded the mirror shield. The titan staggered and stopped its chase entirely to focus on this new threat.

  The twins slowed down now that they didn’t have to run.

  “Oh man…”

  “We’re saved?”

  They wouldn’t dare think of the fight as won just yet though. They didn’t think themselves that lucky.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  They watched as the hammer swung at the newcomer and were about to shout a warning. But he pulled out a card with a purple rim, turned into shadow himself, and phased through the mass of salt before turning back. He followed that up with another barrage of daggers that turned into wraiths.

  In the meantime, their healing skills re-sparked and they once again used them on Dusk, hoping to heal his legs completely this time.

  No dice. While it eased the pain, it couldn’t heal a broken bone.

  “Drat!”

  “Guess we’re back to being one person for now.”

  “Double person.”

  They picked themselves up and refocused on the duel between the hunter and his ‘prey’. Even now, the titan couldn’t land a hit, and nothing the assassin tried did enough damage.

  In other words, their presence would have to tip the scales.

  “We gotta help.”

  While the wraith-summoning assassin seemed pretty competent, they didn’t want him to die because of their cowardice.

  The hunter then pulled out another purple-rimmed card. It flashed and then every dagger littering the ground from earlier abruptly shot out and buried themselves into the glassy flesh of the monster with a series of swishing and glass-cracking sounds.

  “…Or maybe not?”

  “Let’s still help.”

  Once they caught their breath and their skills re-sparked, they ran back into the fray, looking for an opening.

  Focused so much on the dagger user, the glass monster had completely turned its back to them at this point, allowing them to test out how their last shared skill worked when doubled up.

  Dusk palmed the card. Dawn’s appeared in her mouth and she spat it out.

  ““[Transfrogify]!””

  “The fuck?!” the hooded man yelled as his target suddenly turned into a glass frog… with humanoid legs made of salt.

  But despite his shock, he quickly jumped on the opportunity and threw another one of those black exploding daggers at said frog, forcing it to sacrifice its half-broken shield to defend itself. The dagger wedged into the shield, exploded into smoke, and completely devoured it, causing the frog to stumble back as its mismatched legs gave away.

  “Got you!”

  The man ghosted forward, a pair of daggers in hand.

  A few seconds later, the twins turned back into their original forms. The glass frog didn’t.

  Seeing that, the twins joined the assassin by bringing out [Tricky Flail] again.

  But their enemy had one more trick left up its sleeve. It swung its hammer wildly, causing everyone to halt their advance. Then it let go of its weapon.

  The twins jumped to the side, the assassin jumped over it.

  Just as everyone thought they had dodged the attack, the mass of salt detonated right behind them. The twins jerked from the pressure, barely keeping their footing. The other hunter careened forward. Straight into the froggy glass fist of their foe.

  “Fu–“

  He barely managed to get out his phasing card, letting the strike go through him, but he seemed rattled by the action. He backed off momentarily, his upper body trembling, his breaths ragged.

  Force draw?

  The twins reoriented themselves and manifested the flail. Dusk swung it sideways at their enemy.

  Unfortunately, at that exact time, the frog finally turned back into the crippled giant, who held out its hand to reform its weapon.

  Dawn growled, summoned [Cliffhide Fist] into her hand and awkwardly used it while still keeping a hold on her twin. Then she brought out her own [Tricky Trail] and shot it with her mouth, similar to how she’d used the frog skill earlier.

  The giant tried to block Dawn’s attack with its reforming hammer, but Dusk swiped it out of the air with his flail instead, causing the glowing flail to double in size. Dusk quickly transferred the momentum upwards and then slammed it on top of their enemy before it could react.

  The skill wove between the hammer and the giant’s helmet and hit its exposed glassy flesh.

  It exploded in a bright crushing light, tearing through the monster. Shards of glass burst out and showered the surroundings and the twins had to shield themselves with the shawl.

  When the dust settled, only a glassy wreckage remained.

  Though that didn’t stop the other guy from tossing more dagger-wraiths to rip and claw at it. Though the notion was probably pointless, since the mass of glass didn’t move anymore.

  A beat later, an essence popped out of the giant and zipped through the air straight to the twins.

  “Bullshit!”

  The hooded man rounded on them with a scowl visible even through the shadows of his hood.

  “Why do you little shits get the essence when I–”

  He paused to stare as the essence split in two and flew to each twin. His eyes narrowed.

  Crap.

  They quickly grabbed the essences and Dawn vanished hers into her soul pocket, while Dusk inspected his, pretending nothing strange had happened.

  ◆Shatter◆

  Purple lattice rim and a picture of a glass pane breaking into pieces.

  “Oi.”

  The hunter approached them, glaring through his cowl.

  “Hey… Thanks for the save.”

  His furious glare then turned into an evil grin, apparent even through his facemask.

  “Ah, no problem. Let’s split the loot then. I saw you get two essences somehow. Gimme one.”

  The twins fought not to grimace. They didn’t want to give up an Epic, but it would only be fair. He had kind of saved them, after all. Even still, they hesitated.

  “Come on now. Let’s call it the ass saving fee.” He held out his hand, fingers curled in a gimme gesture. He also got close enough for the twins to clearly see that he was a human.

  This time, they couldn’t stop the scowl that warped their faces. Seeing that, the hunter returned the gesture.

  “The fuck are these faces for, huh? We gonna have a problem?” He twirled a dagger around his fingers and stuck out his other hand closer to them, making them twitch.

  Feeling uncomfortable now, they groaned and despite not wanting to, Dusk held out the Shatter essence with a grimace.

  “Here, take it.”

  “But. Don’t tell anyone about what you saw.”

  He snapped the essence up and it disappeared into his soul pocket.

  “Sure. Whatever. Should have just done that to begin wi–”

  They froze. Their vision rippled. Every fiber in their body tensed as a monstrous roar tore through the city.

  It came from a titanic black blob of slime in the distance, its gaping maw opened wider than most buildings around it stood tall. The sheer might of the thing send chills down the twins’ spines, despite knowing the thing was an ally.

  The dark colossus then clamped its mouth shut and its surface rippled and the color shifted to metallic gray. Then its side bulged out, expanded, and grew into a grotesque muscular arm larger than its main body that rose into the air.

  It slammed into the ground. The entire skeleton of the Behemoth city trembled, and both the twins and the hooded human collapsed to their butts.

  Then, and only then did the paralysis wear off and all three gasped for breath. Sweat covered the back of their neck and they shivered at the experience.

  “Got you bitch! Fucking finally!” the victorious roar echoed from the colossal slimy abomination and the twins could only stare in horror and awe.