Boss Battle II
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I had no idea for how long the Arachne brood
mother would remain tangled up, but honestly with the state of mind I was in I
don’t think I care. Dying was…. Weird, I can’t exactly put my hand on it, but I
felt different, an emptiness that I could not put my hands on was growing deep
in my very being, and I couldn’t tell what it was. I looked up as we crossed a
small creek, moving past two massive oak trees that had carvings on it that at
the moment I couldn’t read. Or rather I didn’t understand one bit, the language
was unfamiliar to me and doesn’t seem to be in any elven script ancient or
modern that we’ve been taught to identify and read.

The hill was shaped like a donut, or it would
have been a hill if I didn’t quickly recognize the uneven edges and symmetrical
corners. This wasn’t some natural occurring hill, but rather architecture of
some sort. It had similarities to Mesopotamian or Aztec temples with a set of
stairs going all the way up to the opening that we had noticed on the beach of
the island. Kaixuan did not stand on ceremony as he ran for the stairs,
dragging me along with much more ease than would have been possible for him a
few days ago.

But through it all I just watched it all with
an impassive gaze, it was as if I was here and at the same time I was not. It
was akin to that feeling where you were half asleep and knew you could just
make a conscious effort to get up and you just couldn’t find the will to do so.
I was a spectator in my own body, or at least I was until Kaixuan crossed the
final steps and came into an alcove that was the opening of a cave with two
massive doors closed shut behind it. Everyone else was there, and their looks
of shocks unregistered by me until Kaixuan threw me to the ground roughly and
bent down to lift me up whilst holding my shoulders, shaking me a little too
roughly for my taste.

“Samson! Talk to me! Are you okay! H-how! I-we
saw you die! All of us! How are you alive!” for me everything was a bit too
loud, it was as if after my resurrection everything had been grayscale and the
sounds had been subdued. But now they were all rushing back in full force and I
was getting a bit overwhelmed by it all. I raised a hand and placed it on
Kaixuan’s mouth.

“If you would let me catch my breath I’ll
explain, but before that I don’t suppose any one of you have any extra clothes
to lend me?” luckily for me Salma still had her bag pack with her with an extra
set battlesuit, which surprised me seeing as we were all only ever issued one
for the entirety of our military service.

“What! I have connections okay, and I wanted to
modify this one to make it more fashionable. And fashionable it was, as it had
blue highlights on the sides, inner thighs, with a blue collar that spread a
band to the back, glowing in the dimly lit cave. It was a work of art, and I
could tell it took a lot for Salma to pull this out and give it to me, because
frankly speaking it would have cost a small fortune to not only have an extra
battlesuit, but modify it like this.

“I don’t regret giving it to you Sam, so stop
looking at me like that, if anything I wish I could give you more. You saved my
life, and in return we got you killed. All we’ve done was look down on you and
fuck up, and yet you-you!” to say I was confused was an understatement, why was
she crying, is she supposed to be crying. Kaixuan walked up to me and placed an
arm on my shoulder, I looked up at him seeing as he quite a little bit taller
than the rest of us.

I shuddered, the question was a simple one, yet
it seemed to haunt me, the fact that I really couldn’t answer it got to me in
more ways than one. Was I okay, heck no I wasn’t, I didn’t feel okay yet; I had
absolutely no idea what was wrong with me, everything just hurts.

“Heal me! Heal me please! I’m dying!” Malkova
pushed Kaixuan out of the way, her eyes manic and frantic as she too grabbed my
shoulders. Her knees seemed weak, a little crooked as they too were broken, yet
she was still walking. For all intents and purposes she should be dead ten
times over, but she had a Miracle similar to mine, and with Hades being her
God, death was a close friend, but yet it wasn’t something she would be able to
conquer at all, not one bit. But in regards to healing her, I didn’t feel like
it.

By this point both her and her brother have
been established as grade A jerks. The battlefield had brought out their true
nature and it was hideously ugly. And I’ve been on the receiving end of their
ugly personality, until recently when it was spread to the others, I saved
Andrej’s life and expected him to do the same for the others, but he had
abandoned Salma to die, just to chase after his sister who wasn’t really hurt….
I don’t understand how close the two are, but obviously they only care about
themselves.

Salma crumpled to the ground, a hole in her
stomach from a gunshot wound. Before the rest of us could register what had
just happened, Andrej had placed his booted feet on her neck and was pointing
his rifle straight at her head. the look on his face didn’t look like one that
was ready to broker any sort of deal, there was no room for negotiation as he
obviously crossed a bridge that he couldn’t come back from, he was a man with a
mission, and he would do whatever the fuck it takes to achieved it.

“Andrej what the fuck are you doing!” Tobias yelled
out at him in shock as everyone else picked up their guns and pointed it at
him. But Andrej did not even budge, he pushed down tighter forcing Salma to
choke as he kept his gaze focused on mine, before deciding to speak.

“Didn’t you sacrifice your life to save Salma,
well here is a conundrum isn’t it. She’ll bleed out in a few minutes, she has
just about as much time as my sister before she too dies for good. A situation
you seem to have developed a method to actually escape. Sammy I don’t actually
care how the fuck it is that you are alive, what I do know is that if you don’t
heal my sister within the next 5 seconds I’ll put a bullet in Salma’s pretty
head. didn’t you used to have a crush on her during our first year, believe me
it would be quite a sight to see, the look on your face when she dies.

And don’t think for one second that I have no
way to fight back should I lose my bargaining chip, I’m a fucking Technomancer
and you are all pointing guns at my face. Dealing with you all would be a piece
of cake compared to what you all can do to me. And no funny business Kaixuan,
sure your guns are special, but do you think your bullet will get to me before
Salma’s pretty brains are splattered all over the floor huh? Do you really want
to take that risk? Plus, I believe we’re all facing a fucking crisis, we need
every hand on deck if we want to survive that monstrosity out there, so Sammy
Boy; the ball’s in your court.”

Of course it is, way to put me on the spot
about this, but there was no debate to be had. He didn’t have to go this far, I
was still going to heal the bitch. We were soldiers and with the current
situation in front of us we, I had to be practical. We need the asshole
siblings to be able to survive, every advantage we had would go a long way in
making sure we got through this bloody dungeon. I shifted my gaze from Andrej
and turned to look at Malkova, she really was a pitiful sight and for some
reason seeing her like this was…. Enjoyable. I moved closer to her and then
whispered in her ears.

“Never forget this day Malkova, etch it deep in
your disgusting black heart and know that one day soon, eventually, in one way
or the other a shit fest would be coming the way of you and your bastard brother.
And I’ll be there, to either be the reason it happens, or watch once again as
you pitifully beg for your worthless life, and as you do so, I’d watch Malkova
and I’d laugh, and dance and piss over your living corpse and drink from your
brother’s fucking skull, and then I’ll heal you and the break you down, over
and over again until you beg for death, and then and only then will I let you
croak like the animals you both are.”

“Whoa! Sam, why so dark man?” Ricardo asked in
shock about how twisted and dark my words were, but he was not the only one. I
didn’t think it possible that such words could come out of my mouth, and even
more so was the fact that I meant every word of it. I wasn’t trying to scare
her or anything, I really had the conviction and intention to do everything
that I just told her I was going to do and even more than what I had just said.
Right now, in this moment, I couldn’t recognize myself, not even a little bit;
what was wrong with me?

I had cast the spell absent mindedly, but it
was enough as a stream of multicolored lights shot out of my hands into
Malkova’s body, and then it lept, jumping onto Tobias who was closer, then
Nguyen and the other, bouncing from one individual to the other till it reaches
Salma, who had the bullet pushed out of her, before Andrej. The light made six
rotations before everyone was full healed, before quietly dissipating and
leaving all of us staring at each other. No one knew what to do next, with
everything that had just happened, it was obvious that whatever dynamic that
held this team together was pretty much fucked up thanks to Andrej and
Malkova’s extreme actions.

I ignored everything as I went forwards to help
Salma back up to her feet. She smiled in thanks before turning around to face
Andrej, and not to the shock or surprise of anyone around she gave him a
well-deserved punch in the nose. Breaking it with her superior strength as
Andrej took a few steps back. Salma choked back tears as she looked at him and
asked.

“You thought we what? Huh? Don’t kid yourself
Salma. Just because I fucked you a few times doesn’t mean you’re my girlfriend
or some great love, or one of those stupid shit about romance and true love
you’ve been spouting recently. This is war, I don’t have time for things like
love, and frankly speaking while you’re a good fuck, you’re not the best I’ve
had, in fact if I should be honest, you were a little boring. I mean who wants
to bang a chick who would just lay back and let the man do all the work. You’re
tight though, which is cool, real cool, means you weren’t lying when you told
me you were a virgin, makes the experience all so much sweeter, are my right?

But ultimately between your worthless life and
that of my sister, I’ll choose my sister over you any day any time. And if
using you as a bargaining chip is what it takes to get what I want then,
believe me when I say I would use you. if I should make it simpler, then let my
actions be the manner with which I call things off, we just aren’t compatible
kitten, you were a good fuck, but that’s it, nothing more.”

Wow, that just blew all of our expectations out
of the water. Nguyen and Tobias had struggled to keep their own relationship a
secret yet we all still found out about it. But yet Andrej and Salma having
been hitting the sack, and quite hard from the look of it. But in the end she
was just a pass time. I didn’t feel sorry for her, I didn’t understand why, but
I felt disconnected from this particular issue as I laughed out loud drawing
all attention to myself as I said to him.

“You really are a bastard aren’t you, well you
should….”

I turned around swiftly, smashing my mana clad
fist into the head of the spider that just jumped at me. It exploded in a
shower of guts as I ran towards the entrance of the temple and looked down the
stairs to see that hundreds if not thousands of dog sized spiders were climbing
up and heading in our direction. We would be having our hands full in a few
seconds.

“What the hell is that!” Laurent asked as he
took a step besides me with Kaixuan on the other side. The others quickly
filled the entrance, even Salma who just had her heart broken.

“That’s probably the Spawn Broodlings skill of
the Arachne Broodmother. It’s cute, she sent her kids after us Hehehehe.”

“I don’t see anything funny about this Samson.”
Kimberly said to me with an annoyed tone in her voice, but I only shook my head
as I turned to her.

“There’s a lot of them down there Kim, which
means enough to go around to actually get you all to level ten if not more.
That spider is stupid, we can get strong enough here, strong enough to kill
that bitch. Because I don’t think the gates behind us will open without us
beating her, the elven bones littered in front of it should be proof that we’re
not the first to get here, we need to kill the Cymerian Arachne Broodmother
before we can advance.” I said to them as they all turned quickly to see truly
there was almost a dozen skeletons on the ground, their bones bleached white
with time.

“Can we beat them all Sam, we might die and the
elves failed, what can we possibly do against all of this.” Amina asked with a
pensive look on her face, guess everything she has seen today has shaken her in
more ways than one.

“No
one is dying here today Amina, and I’ve died enough times already to add any
extra time to that list. As for beating them when the elves had failed, did it
perhaps cross your mind that the elves failed because they were perhaps….
Elves? We’re humans. We don’t fail, we don’t give up, and we’re the most
dangerous creatures in all of existence, we will win…. Or we die!”

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