A spider of unimaginable size, black as night; were it not for its ghastly pale webs, even Sharp's trained eyes would not have spotted the silent killer lurking above. Its body was spotted with strange, shifting patterns; its legs were long and curled; its presence was faint, like the wind.
The first idea that came to the minds of those who looked up was that they had the chance to look up, that they were still alive somehow, and that they were somehow in the lair of the biggest predator they could encounter in this area.
Everyone felt cold shivers on their sweat-soaked bodies, but had they not been accustomed to their own versions of apocalyptic horror, their composure would have been more severely shaken.
Luckily for the team, only three laid eyes on the spider: Elena, Sharp, and Adam, the three most capable of composing themselves. Had it been Kave or one of the Privates, they would have panicked in this rather distasteful first direct encounter with an apocalyptic monster.
As for Adam, he had the privilege of seeing something only visible to him as soon as he laid eyes on the spider.
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[ The Purple Menace ] < Huge Monstrosity >
A large, purple-spotted arachnid that dwells in the depths of the darkest caves of Dimloor, a trap expert, with the ability to mentally cripple its prey with fear as they become entangled in its webs.
Web Master — The spider's senses are very keen to any changes in the webs connected to the one it currently touches, with the ability to manipulate many aspects of these webs from a distance, creating lethal traps and inescapable nets.
Dread Spider — The spider emits a fear-inducing pheromone in its surroundings. When inhaled by living creatures in varying quantities, it can cause a sense of dread that can ultimately be fatal, especially to those unable to escape.
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Adam turned to Elena with a serious look on his face. The deep link between the two of them as summoner and familiar urged her to issue a silent retreat order, which her subordinates perfectly executed.
In the confines of a nearby hallway, near the doorway they had opened into the building, Sharp rested against a wall, sweating profusely, and drank his entire canteen of water, before excusing himself to find a secure place to relieve himself. Meanwhile, both Adam and Elena were at their wits' end but still managed to compose themselves.
They must have inhaled some of these pheromones emitted by the spider, causing the mental stress they were experiencing. Adam had to explain the monster they saw and its powers.
"A giant spider?"
"It was dormant, I swear, but if that thing were to see us, or if we were to touch any of its webs, we would be done for." Sharp replied after regaining his composure.
The others fell silent following this observation, thinking of all the possible scenarios where this could go wrong.
"No need to dwell on this. The moment we started drilling walls, we knew the risks. We will avoid this place, mark it on the map as a danger zone, and move past it." Adam spoke to the group, getting their heads focused on the task.
"And leave our backs exposed?" Sergeant Elena asked.
"What you can't kill, you avoid. Our goal is to get to a vantage point, so that's what we'll be doing. We'll find a different way down anyway." Adam said, asserting his full authority over the team.
Yet when he saw their faces painted with worry, he put on a smile and teased them.
"Why the long faces? I didn't even tell you to Fix Bayonets! Heh! And here I thought you Venuxians were tough."
His words, while provocative, made them smile; Buzz and Biscuits were even eager enough to boast about the Venuxian Armed Forces, but Sergeant Elena shushed the group before speaking:
"The Commander is right. The standard tactic is to order a bombardment for such a threat level. We have to forgo the mindset of conquest and act like Terminator Squads. We are on a mission behind enemy lines."
Hearing that assured the group, as their tense faces and erratic movements calmed down. The composure of both Elena and Adam assured everyone on their team.
"What then, Sirs?" Hammerhead was the first to ask for a command.
"Sir? Do we continue through this building?" Sergeant Elena turned to Adam, who was the most experienced in surviving monsters by avoiding them.
"Positive. Corporal Sharp will find us another way. Take the other side of the building and lead us through places with the fewest spider webs. Once there, Hammerhead should try to open another doorway for us." Adam directed as he readied his shotgun.
All team members mobilized right away, traversing the building as he instructed. Since it was also an office building that belonged to a law firm, each floor had its own glass map, which assisted Adam in determining which path to take.
Still, the problem arose when Hammerhead started checking the walls he was supposed to poke holes through.
"Sergeant!" he called to Elena and shook his head. "This is the end of the line. No more buildings to cross to this way."
"So we are near the intersection." Kave concluded.
"The only way left is up, then." Corporal Sharp said as he pointed at the floor map. "We need to be on a higher elevation than the giant spider if we want to observe the streets."
"You heard the man. Move in a single file." Adam gave the command and urged Hammerhead to take the lead as they traversed the interior of the building, aiming for the top floor.
Sergeant Elena approved of Adam taking command in situations where he could practice his commanding skills. Still, she had to keep a sharp eye (pun intended) on the situation around them, along with Corporal Sharp.
As the team climbed up the building, Hammerhead calculated the height they had scaled, confirming that they were now right above the spider. Thankfully, as the floor was made of a thick layer of concrete, there was little worry about their steps disturbing the spider's sleep, but they still chose to be extra careful as they approached the broken front of the building, where they had a complete view of the surroundings.
It was there at the nearby intersection where the source of their curiosity revealed itself to them. The Gobzkins, Gobs, and Hobgobs were converging from multiple directions, carrying crude weapons and clashing with what seemed to be a smaller horde of Dark Hosts.
The hosts weren't simply regular blighters (zombies); there were other abominations as well, three of which were completely different from the variously deformed Host Blighters.
The first type consisted of slender humanoids with tall stature and circular maws that blossomed outward, exposing layers upon layers of gnashing bone. No eyes, no nose, just hunger as their long, tentacled tongues shot forward to grab two or three small Gobzkins at the same time.
The second type was a walking mess of morbidly obese humanoids whose bodies were oozing with acidic goo; every spot they were struck at would burst with acidic fluid that would burn and blind the attacking Gobzkin.
Repulsed and disgusted, the team of seven couldn't help but shudder at the horrible scene, knowing full well that one day—maybe even today—they would have to be on the front lines facing those things with the light weapons they possessed.
"Wh-What the fuck are those… things?" Corporal Sharp expressed his inner disgust with a verbal outburst.
"Hosts, my friend. Blighters are the normal-sized ones; they don't look alike most of the time, but they were once people. The same applies to the other ones: tall ones are Shriekers; they can deafen you with a scream. Fat ones are Bloaters, the nastiest of the bunch."
Adam replied casually as he still resisted the urge to soil his pants every time he sees those things.
"What is that one?"
On the other hand, Kave pointed at something that made Adam frown, a monster that he had never seen before. Just as the two of them focused a little, they saw the information pop up in their vision.
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[ Face Fiend ] < Large Dark Host >
A second-phase-developed host monster that is a quadrupedal beast with a tentacled maw capable of devastating and swallowing its prey.
Thorn Whips — As it lashes out with its tentacles, every hit inflicts terrible damage, the thorned ends of each tentacle shredding its prey. Dark Maw — Once caught by the tentacles, the victim becomes paralyzed by the fiend's venomous saliva and is dragged inside its maw. The fiend's maw can take in creatures larger than itself, mysteriously swallowing them whole without bloating.
——————————
"Holy fuck!"
"Motherfucker!"
As Kave and Adam reacted respectively, Elena looked at the two and asked:
"That bad, huh?"
"Worse!" Adam said and averted his gaze from the monsters' clash.
The Gobzkins were being decimated by the greater force of the Dark Hosts, which were now joined by the Face Fiend.
As the fiend opened its maw and the tentacles shot out, the Gobzkin Workers and Hobgobs were being shredded left and right; finally, they were pushed back from the point they had been defending.
But when most of the Men-at-Arms weren't watching, Biscuits, who seemed to have taken an interest in the fight along with Hammerhead, suddenly asked:
"Hey! What is that big thing?"
"Hammerhead's forehead, most likely?" Buzz joked, laughing, but as soon as he looked to where she was pointing, his eyes widened and he immediately started hitting Kave and Adam, urging them to come and take a look.
Adam and Kave joined last as the whole team was now looking at what Biscuits had pointed at, and as soon as they saw it too, they were speechless…
"Okay, that's the scariest shit I've ever seen." Kave admitted, hands down.
"Be glad it's dead." Adam replied, shaking his head. "That thing is a Gobzkin Gigant."
At the intersection where the Gobzkins were hoarded before getting driven off, there was a huge corpse of a creature 20 feet tall, lying dead on the ground. It was covered from view as the Green-skinned horde was zealously defending the body, but now, it was in the hands of the Hosts.
"They were fighting over that corpse?" Sergeant Elena asked.
"It's a World of Monsters, Sergeant. The Gobzkins frantically cannibalize their dead like some sort of ritual. The Dark Hosts also eat anything made of flesh, red or green. The Gigant is a treasure trove for both sides." Adam replied, as he had seen this scene far too many times in the past few months.
"Fucking vermin." Hammerhead cursed and spat.
"But who could feel such a thing? By that size alone, I don't think any monster here, not even the Great Spider down below, would have killed such a behemoth." Sergeant Elena asked.
"It begins with Captain." Adam said first.
"It ends with Creed." Kave followed as he had the same guess as his friend.
While it would be unimaginable for regular Men-at-Arms to see such a beast dead without a serious barrage of heavy artillery, the next best thing that could have done that was none other than the only superweapon on their side, the Star Paladin of the Slayers, especially with how the tusks of the Gigant were broken from its mouth and shoved into its eyeballs.
Adam and Kave would know that, as they had played the game where Captain Creed was the protagonist. Killing Hell Giants by breaking their horns and shoving them up their asses—that's Creed's MO.
"We can slip away now, Sir." Sharp said as he observed the situation.
"Yes, we got what we came for." Adam also agreed and was about to grab his gear along with the rest of them, but then an echo broke the air…
baaaAANG! BaaNG! BABANG!
"Gunfire!"
The team of seven became fully alarmed as the sound of gunshots came from the direction of the monsters. They all lowered their heads, and Sharp started scanning the streets with his scope before confirming the horrid truth.
"Survivors. Some of them huddled around a vehicle of some sort. Wounded… desperate defense."
Sharp's last verdict felt like a mourning bell, a reminder that the world of mankind was now witnessing the last stand of a once-great civilization.
Elena asked for the scope, looking at the survivors with a solemn face, remembering the many times she was stuck in such a situation. A shudder ran through her spine as she felt that her last stand in her past life might have been something similar to this one.
She then passed the scope to Adam, who looked at his kin, fully knowing that no matter what he did, he couldn't do a thing to rescue anyone, not now and maybe not ever.
But just as he took a look, just as he peeked through the cylindrical object and a magnified image was reflected in his vision, his whole being came to a halt, and only a frightened gasp escaped his mouth.
Everyone heard that, everyone saw his face go a thousand times paler than it ever was.
"She…"
There was no question about it; Kave took the scope from him and looked right away, expecting to recognize whom Adam recognized, and he did.
"Megan? Wait! Megan's alive."
He wasn't hallucinating; Adam's face confirmed every bit of it, and the Men-at-Arms felt the urgency transmitted from their summoner, which gave them an insight into the storm of screams pressing against his ribs, trying to burst with madness.
"Adam! Shoot at them!" Kave immediately cried before pushing the scope back to Sharp. "Sharp! Help them! We need to rescue them… HURRY!"
"Hold him!"
Sergeant Elena immediately instructed, and both Buzz and Hammerhead held Adam off and muffled his mouth as he struggled and squirmed. She turned to Adam, his fright reflected in her face:
"Orders, Sir."
Adam couldn't feel his head, as the sight of Megan fighting along with her injured friends from the trunk of a minivan almost paralyzed him.
"Sir, we'll do what you command." Elena pressed toward Adam, holding his right shoulder, snapping him out of his grim thoughts.
"We can't…" Adam shook his head, unblinking, his lips shivering as they became dry like shriveled sandpaper.
"Auuugh! Errgh!" Yet Kave still struggled; he bit Buzz's hand, causing Buzz to pull it off his mouth, and spoke to Adam: "Coward! That's Megan! Our friend! YOUR MEGAN!"
"I can't… It is too much of a risk!"
"Just shoot! Distract!"
"It won't do anything. I know! I've been there. We'll only get ourselves dragged…"
"THEN DO IT, YOU FUCK!" Kave cried and clawed his way out of the Men-at-Arms' grasp, holding Adam by the collar. "WHAT'S THE POINT OF IT ALL? OF ANYTHING? SHE'S THERE! ALIVE! NOT DEAD! NOT EATEN! NOT BURNT!"
"I'm sor…"
Adam wanted to back away, to prioritize the survival of his group, to be responsible for their lives.
But his heart was beating for the whole group, a mix of sadness, shock, and grief. He may have grown calloused, but Megan was the only part of his heart that remained human. He had thought of her as a memory, but she was now much more than just that.
"Sir." Elena spoke one more time. "Orders, Sir. For Sol Imperius! For the Solarium!"
Elena's generic line would be considered lame any day of the week, but Adam understood one thing from her: She was putting faith into their bond; even if it was just a few days' worth of bond, she would stick it out for a worthy sacrifice.
"Give me a Cell." He looked at her and ordered with madness in his eyes. He turned to Sharp and ordered, "Hook me and drop a line."
Not one order he gave was questioned. A Blazer power cell in his hand, a hooked belt around his waist, and he stepped off the edge, merely one floor down.
Now, he stood facing a window that was covered with all manner of webs and slime. His Glock pistol was in his right hand, the Blazer cell in his left, and three privates held the rope for him.
BANG!
SHATTER!
The glass of the building was shattered by a single gunshot; eight terrible purple eyes stared from within the dark interior in utter rage, fear pheromones spreading like a storm.
Adam was terrified, but his body was on autopilot, and he primed the Blazer cell with his right pinky.
"Wakey Wakey, Eggs and Bakey!"
The cell was tossed inside, and the Men-at-Arms pulled him up in an instant.
KWABOOOOOM!
An explosion echoed and shook the entire building, sending a burst of dust and dropping those above it to their knees. The shockwave inside the interior of the building sent every window fragmenting into millions of shooting shards, and nothing could ignore the mania that followed.
The Men-at-Arms struggled not to let go of Adam; with all their might, he was pulled out right as the monster's eight legs came out of the tight window, trying to burst open and tear Adam apart, but as it failed its instantaneous retaliation, the monster let out a bellow of frustration.
KWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
This didn't go ignored, not by anyone: not by the Gobzkins, not by the Dark Hosts, and definitely not by Megan.
The scream of the spider attracted everyone, and the monster dropped down into the entrance hall, bursting out of its lair to the street level with smoke rising from its terrifying body.
As for Adam, he turned to see Megan, who saw him from her scope. Two souls struck, and despite all the distance, they could still meet eye to eye.
The engine revved back to life in a powerful growl!
"NOW! HIT THE PEDAL!" Qasim jumped into the minivan, screaming.
"GO, BABY! GO!" Toby switched gears, hit the pedal, and the tires screeched against the tarmac.
The stunned monsters didn't pursue or stop them as they registered a greater threat.
The Purple Menace joined the battle; the Gobzkins and Hosts contended for survival with a greater foe, all while Adam was making a heart pose with his arms for her.
Megan reached out to the ring he had given her, which hung around her neck, shedding the regret she had carried since D-Day. His smile, imprinted in her mind as he was being recklessly pulled up the building, now imprinted itself in her soul.
"Live you, bastard!"
He was alive, she was alive. And if the world gets between them ever again, it will burn.
✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧
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