The white truck was splatterd with green blood as the Nature's Assassin screamed in pain. A small hole had blown through the shell, causing the creature to reel on the ground. Green blood drenched the side of its head, completely covering one of its red eyes. Zahra was still slowly getting up as the others figured out what was going on.
Someone had shot the monster, although I couldn’t see from where. Were they trying to help us? Was it the military? I couldn’t waste the opportunity while the creature was incapacitated.
I could see Christian peaking through the now glass-less windows of the truck.
You’re lucky we need your help. I really didn’t want to give you this.
I went into my menu as I moved, yelling Christain’s name as the Hydrarian Rope appeared in my hand.
“Catch this or else, Poole!” I threw the magical item as Christain made eye contact with me. It wasn’t heavy, and effortlessly arced through the air above everyone’s heads, landing in Christain’s hand as he jumped to catch it. Before he even landed, the rope had split into three magical heads, each moving and stretching out.
The twinges of the world’s smallest smile formed on his ever-deepening frown.
“Now that's what I’m talking about!” He said, running forward and striking down at the wriggling monster with his new item. The three ropes wrapped around the mantis, constraining its neck, arms, and legs together. It writhed and screamed, hissing and attempting to free its scythe arms enough to cut its restraints.
Unlike the first rope, however, this one was magical and obviously must be stronger.
The Nature’s Assassin thrashed in a fit on the ground, each attempt to break the hold foiled by Christian as he controlled the Hydrarian Rope. I could tell from his grunts of exertion that it wasn’t easy.
I limped ahead on my still-forming feet, passing the crater where the creature had transformed. I grabbed the closest weapon I could see with Greater Observation, my grip pulling out a single piece of rebar from the crumbling building nearby. I used the steel pole as a walking stick, helping me hobble to the creature just as it began to roar.
The mantis got up to its feet, flexing and stretching the rope apart. Christian was lifted off his feet and into the air as our enemy finally broke free of its constraints. Lightning and a storm of stones hit the creature as Maria and Ritesh attacked from a distance, but they weren’t effective against the monster’s hide.
That didn’t matter though, because I had snuck up behind it, the rebar raised above me, aiming for the small crack in the side of its scaled head.
Just as I was about to thrust the rod and skewer the bug, it spun towards me, its arm raising as it prepared to slice through my neck with its forearm blades. It dodged my strike with ease, and every reflex in my body tried to escape. It wasn’t going to be enough.
The creature was faster than me, and it had baited me in.
I could have swore I saw its mouth flaps stretch upwards in a grin. Or maybe it was just getting ready to bite through my collarbone, It was kind’ve hard to tell.
Just as the life-ending slash was about to connect, I heard a large crunch from my left. Something had hit the creature, causing the blow to change trajectory and pass a few inches from my nose.
I looked over and saw the familiar form of Zahra, her heel breaking through the creature’s exterior shell and destroying its knee. It hissed in pain which only grew louder as the wound caught on fire, her skill activating. She bounced back as the creature lurched forward, attempting to grab her.
“Yoooou… bitch!… eat!… first!” It gurgled out, its beady red eyes consumed by furious indignation.
“Dude, I’m literally cooking you right now. Just scurry away like a good little cockroach.” she rebutted, spitting a glob of thick blue blood and phlegm on the ground before dashing at the creature and engaging it again.
It was pissed, hungry, and unpredictable. The shot had done some damage however, and it wasn’t nearly as strong as before. My health bar was around 60%, which wasn’t enough to instill confidence. I was still recovering, and had only a single use of Density Shift left. I could see Mariah and Ritesh were in a similar spot. They all had a look of ‘what the fuck’ on their face, except Amy, who was hiding behind Ritesh.
The sound of hissing, screaming and glass shattering suddenly echoed in the distance. The other Nature’s Assassin’s had heard the call, and were coming as backup. We had to finish this fucker quickly, and get the hell out of campus.
Out of my peripheral, I saw Christian get up. He had been thrown near the building to my left, while Zahra and I were still near the truck with the others. She was focused on dodging each slash the mantis threw out, barely attacking herself. They were nearly even, until I picked up the small cuts and scratches slowly growing across her skin. She was breathing heavily, the air growing dense with grey smoke and smog.
Whatever evolution the mantis had undertook made it faster than Zahra, if not by a fraction. A message appeared as the girl fought.
Zahra: I’ll keep distracting it! Run! There’s more coming!
Levi: No! If we lose you, we’re dead regardless!
I yelled out to Christian, “Get ready!”. The three-headed ropes began to slither and sway in the air, as he watched the fight between the two speedsters.
I ‘ran’ towards the others. I had an idea, and it would have to work. I just had to hope that we could pull it off.
“Maria! I need you to throw me into the air like you did with the overgrown!” The woman stared at me, panicked and covered in dust. “What?!” Ritesh stopped firing lightning to join her bewildered gaze.
“Trust me! It's the only way! Pop me right above the monster!” She stopped firing stones, acknowledging the deadly-stupid seriousness on my face. I turned to Ritesh.
“Ritesh, when I’m at the highest point, hit me with a lightning bolt.”
He and Maria responded with a simultaneous “What the fuck?” Even Amy stopped sobbing to observe through the gaps in Ritesh’s body.
We all stopped and turned as Zahra cried out, a small gash appearing on her thigh. She recovered before jumping back as the mantis attempted to leap on her again.
“We need to do this! Now!” I said, desperation thick between my heaving breaths.
Maria paused for a second, before nodding. Her lips formed a thin line as she placed her resolve on display, front and centre.
“Seriously?” Ritesh said, looking between the two of us before shaking his head in disbelief. “I can’t make the bolts any weaker, you know. They do about 50 damage each, give or take. Can you handle that?” He made direct eye contact with me, observing everything like he was a second away from refusing the plan all together.
“I can. We have to move, now. Maria, on my mark.” They both nodded as we turned to the battlefield. The street was littered in paint strokes of blue. It was Zahra’s blood, flicked off the hunter’s blade as it wore down its prey. The cuts across her skin were getting longer and longer, her clothing tattered and shredded. She was still moving, but she was slowing down.
We had to attack, and quickly.
“Ready, 3… 2… 1… Now!” I yelled, the countdown finishing as the ground below me exploded up, shooting me into the air like a cannon. I was easily a good 15 feet above the two fighting, and while I wanted to look around, I had no time.
I raised the rebar in preparation for what was coming next. I activated Density Shift on the only thing I could think of.
My heart. I wouldn’t be much help to Zahra in cardiac arrest.
Just as the skill went off, I felt the tingle of electricity in the air.
And then, everything was on fire. My muscles, my lungs, my head, all consumed by the sensation of my skin vibrating and burning away. Ritesh had landed the bolt right on my back, and I could feel every inch of it. Then, just as quickly as it happened, it passed. I tasted the iron of blood in my gums and swallowed it down my throat as my vision cleared in front of me.
I was still 5ft above the Nature’s Assassin, who was currently barely held down by Christian’s ropes. It looked up at me, the rebar crackling with electricity as Greater Observation let me plot out the direct path to its oozing shell opening on its head.
I wish I could say I said some kind of cool catch-phrase, or badass line.
In reality, I just screamed as loud as I could as the rebar made connection with the creature’s spongy eye socket. I activated Force Reasonance as soon as i felt resistance, channeling all of the pain, anguish, and frustration these things had caused into the strike.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
The piece of metal suddenly pushed down with massive force, piercing through the creature’s skull and into its abdomen, finally poking out of the left thigh. I landed with a heavy slam next to it on the ground, every molecule of air pushed out of my lungs as I coughed and gasped.
Through the legs of the Nature’s Assassin, I could make out Zahra, similarly collapsed on the ground.
The creature was pinned upright, steam and green blood oozing out of the cracks in its shell in waves. I looked up to its face, expecting some kind of hatred or final attempt to dismantle us.
Instead, all I could see was a completely deflated, depressed resignation, staring up to the sky. Clear droplets fell from its bug-eyes, more human than anything I had seen from these creatures so far.
It was unsettling.
That raspy hiss made a final noise, I realized its last words.
“I’m sorry…mom. I’m not stronger. I’ll see… you soon.”
Mom.
Mom? What the fuck did that mean?
The creature’s body suddenly began to shake with violent force. The scaly outside began to fall away, showing the fleshy green organs of the bug’s interior. With a final rattle, it melted, most of the green liquid pooling below it.
Relief filled my body as the System showed me the ‘Loot’ option now above the creature. I looked at Zahra, crawling on my hands and knees towards her. She was stirring, but still down. We had to get out of here, now.
In my textbox, I received a bunch of new messages. Notifications I glanced at, reading the words ‘symbiote’ and ‘achievement’ before I closed it. I would have to wait.
Suddenly, I was lifted from the ground as a soft, spongy bubble appeared below me. It reminded me a little bit of the air ball that Aang rode from Avatar the Last Airbender. Zahra had promised we’d watch that movie for April Fools. Apparently any other day would be too insufferable to handle.
I looked back and saw Amy with her hands outstretched in my direction, gently moving me across the battlefield. As we crossed the body of the Nature’s Assassin, I clicked the Loot option. Two items appeared, along with a rather concerning message from the System.
Warning: 4/6 items rewarded by the System have been confiscated by the Graxis Institute. Remaining items have been adjusted.
Fine. If we can’t give out loot how we want, we’ll find another way. You can’t just adjust the difficulty to your own whims, Graxis. There's a process to this, and we do not enjoy being messed with.
I stared at the message, trying to understand. Did Graxis just take our rewards? After all of that? What was the fucking point of this? At least we got something from this, but it just felt like we couldn't win.
I shook the frustration from my head as I looked at the items.
Cloak of the Hunter (Very Rare)
While equipped, this cloak coloured in shades of green gives +2 to Dexterity, and +1 to Strength.
You deal 25% increased damage to enemies’ backs.
Attacks made against you with the fire element deal 25% more damage.
Skill Box: Dowsing Rod (Rare)
Consumable: Learn the skill ‘Dowsing Rod’.
Dowsing Rod allows a user to search for a specific item once per day. This specific Dowsing Rod searches for symbiotes, and has a radius of half a mile on your map.
Note: Multiple parties and individual applicants participated in successfully destroying the evolved Nature’s Assassin. One individual has been disqualified due to proximity.
Even snipers need to join from a reasonable distance. Or plan with someone, at least. You know who you are.
Three others have been disqualified due to ineffectiveness. Get creative a bit more creative like your friends, Okay?
That leaves two groups as the main contributors. Levi Whitaker and Zahra Mansour, along with Christian Poole and other applicants (not involved). Each group will be allowed a fair share of rewards (one item for each group). Whoever loots the corpse first gets first choice on item, with the other item automatically going to the other applicant’s inventory. Applicants who created their group will get first choice on item distribution among members.
I didn’t have long to choose, there were still other things trying to hunt us. The bubble was bringing me towards the group, and Christian was helping Zahra get up. I didn’t want to give the second skill to Christian, but I already had Art’s ability to point symbiotes out to me.
I needed power, and I needed it now. I mentally clicked the cloak, the green poncho-style cloak suddenly appearing in my inventory. I equipped it, feeling the cool fabric on the inside rest on my skin. I heard Christian go, “oh! Nice!” from behind me, finishing the reward distribution.
Ritesh ran up to the bubble, stopping himself from patting me on the back as a smile broke across his face.
“You are crazy, brother. You’ve gotta be the toughest person I’ve ever seen!” He laughed, his belly shaking from the chortles. Amy stepped out from behind him, looking at me.
The bubble I was on slowly got smaller and smaller, until I landed on my still-forming feet and it disappeared. It hurt more than i thought, my ankles had reformed but the rest was still regenerating in front of everyone.
“Thanks,” I said. “Thats a really comforting bubble.”
She didn’t really react, staring at my feet and new cloak, but said, “It's a part of my class, it's supposed to help you feel a bit better if you rest on it for a bit. I don’t have Energy left to keep it up, though. Why are you dressed like a hunter?”
"I guess the System doesn't have the best sense of fashion." I said, trying to bring some light to her despair-riddled face. She cracked, the faintest hint of a smile breaking through the near-permanent frown on her face.
"It wouldn't look bad if you accessorized. Like you need a Maymei hanging from your waist." She said. I assumed she meant the cute, large-eyed doll hanging from her belt loops.
Ritesh looked back at her in confusion. "I thought that was a Laboobie? Or whatever". Amy furrowed her brow, and long "nooooooooo!" moaned in response.
I laughing as Christian and Zahra ran up.
“Good shit, Levi!” My silver-haired friend said, her arm wrapping around my shoulders as she bumped into me, body full of energy. I barely kept my balance but couldn’t help laughing a bit, until my lungs reminded me of the damage I’d taken.
“You really impaled that thing! I think I got some notifications too, but we should focus on getting back to the hospital.” No one disagreed with her, especially as we’d all taken some damage.
Maria nodded. “I think I’m done with the university. I used up nearly all my energy trying to help, and my sensing distance is really limited right now.” She looked around nervously, the tall buildings around us hiding the creatures that could infest them.
I don’t know why we didn’t immediately leave. Maybe it was exhaustion. Shock of the day. Gross fascination over my regenerating leg. Either way, we stood there for too long.
Every glass window around us shattered as an ear-splitting scream threatened to render everyone deaf. It was incredibly sharp, cutting through my ear drums with sharp frequency. I felt the warm trickle of liquid down my neck and knew I was bleeding. So was Zahra and Christian next to me, although his blood was still red. No one fell, although I was teetering by the end of it.
Just as the ringing stopped, a massive CRASH! shook the street. Something heavily landed on the building next to us as pieces of brick smashed into the ground below, a few hitting us as we ducked and ran. Zahra picked me up to help, my feet still not reformed. I couldn’t catch a break, my regeneration wasn’t keeping up enough to heal my lost limbs and HP to full. We began to escape from the chaos, turning around back down the street.
As the group ran, I looked behind us, hoping to get a look at whatever was coming.
Instead, I saw Amy.
She was still there by the truck, huddled in the fetal position, glass sticking out of her Hello Kitty sweater as she covered her ears with her hands.
She hadn’t moved.
I tugged at Zahra’s arm to get her attention.
“Zahra! Turn back! Amy’s still back ther-”.
As Zahra slowed down, a massive shape jumped down between us and Amy, shaking the ground like an earthquake and creating a crater in the middle of the street. Everyone stopped and turned to see a massive beetle, its shelled back pointing towards us. It was brown and grey in colour, thick insect legs and smaller arms poked out of the shell. It must have been 10, no, 15 feet tall.
And it was staring right at the young girl, hissing and chittering as it locked in on its prey.
“We have to help her! Amy! Run!” I screamed, hoping my words would reach her. But all I could hear was faint sobbing. The massive beetle turned to us, showing a huge half-circle of a face poking out of the insect body. Red, hay like hair sprouted from its forehead, and a huge black ‘#37’ was carved in the space between its eyebrows. A horn as tall as a street lamp made of black ivory extended out of its head, perfect for impaling foes.
The system description popped up, and I wished with every part of my being I had ignored it.
Name: Linebacked Beetle
Level: 2
Warning: This creature is a Graxis S.A.I (Symbiotic Artificial Intelligence). This creature guards the Pauley Pavillion Safe Zone.
This creature of Earth was once a fairly accomplished football player, which, from what I’ve seen, does not contain nearly enough foot-to-ball. But whatever. Graxis transformed this once star-athlete into a guard of the Swamp King. There’s nothing it loves more than piledriving an unsuspecting target. With its new strength and size however, there isn’t much left of the things it hits. Guarenteed it will still go for a celebratory bruski with the 'boys' no matter what.
No. No. It can't be possible. It just isn't. I refused to believe what I was seeing. My mouth had gone dry, and i felt nauseous, like i was going to collapse from the weakness.
Its mouth stretched impossibly wide as it chuckled at us.
Before we had a chance to move, it dropped down into a squat, a small arm embedded into the pavement in front of it as it prepared to tackle her.
I couldn’t think. It was too many similarities. A part of me refused to believe what I was seeing. I was overwhelmed by the information, not even registering as Zahra began moving.
Continuing to run away.
I was screaming and crying, the hot tears burning against the smog and my dust covered face. Zahra just kept saying “We can’t!” Over and over until her voice broke, her fists scrunching the back of my shirt. My feet were still out of commission, and would be for another minute.
“Down…orange sixteen…set…” The massive beetle rumbled, in a voice that I couldn’t help but remember. The familiarity was impossible to ignore.
I knew what was about to happen next, and i could do nothing but uselessly watch as Zahra carried me off.
"HUT!"
The Linebacked Beetle burst forward, as if propelled by a rocket. As it moved, I could see beyond its massive form to Amy, almost like it was slow motion. Greater Observation made out every inch of her tear-stained face, curled up on the ground as she looked in our direction. Her lips moved as she raised an arm towards us, completely unintelligible through the screaming and hissing of the creatures who approached our position.
I watched as the horn skewered her through the stomach, her body flying through the air as it threw back its head and laughed. Her head and arms flew one way while her legs and abdomen flew the other.
We turned the corner before I saw her land. I didn't know if that was better or worse.
Ritesh was screaming. Maria was crying.
We couldn't stop. We couldn't stop for her.
Latched onto Zahra, I choked back a sob as we turned the corner, disappearing back into the smog, and towards the hospital.
Would you have given the cloak to Christian? or Zahra?
