As Roman had feared, the other Party were no slouches themselves. The moment he appeared behind Scott, the gunslinger pivoted and fired. A miniature sun blazed from the barrel. Roman managed to fling himself to the side. The thunderclap of the missed shot was deafening. Vibrations shuddered through the stone beneath his feet as the bullet tore a huge chunk out of the rooftop where he had been standing before.
Roman grabbed for the gun, but Scott slipped away, attempting to disengage. Roman lurched forward in pursuit, only to sense an incoming threat from his side. He leapt away, narrowly avoiding Leo’s thrown spear from skewering his flank. The blade of the weapon glistened with a vibrant green coating--judging from the numbness spreading from his scalp laceration, a poison potent enough to combat his Endurance.
As Roman sailed through the air, he attempted to search for Leo. That was a mistake. Scott had already adjusted and followed Roman’s trajectory through the air with grim aim. With a clench of a finger, another obliterating bullet fired. Roman tucked and twisted in the air as best he could. Instead of taking his head from his shoulders, the blazing bullet tore a chunk the size of a fist out of his left side. The true agony came from the incinerating heat, melting a swath of flesh down to charred ribs. Fortunately, his skeleton and connective tissue held firm. It was only pain.
Roman managed to land on his feet near the edge of the rooftop. A quick [ Flash Step ] brought him to an adjacent building, where Leo’s spear was embedded. He grabbed it by the shaft. Winced as titanium flanges sprouted from the weapon, sharp enough to break the skin of his palm. A fresh dose of Leo’s poison burned in the set of bleeding scratches. Stupid.
Cursing, Roman flung the spear as far as he could. It sailed far out of sight, deep into the enemy territory. Before Leo or Scott could retaliate, another [ Flash Step ] brought him to a far-off rooftop at the edge of his sight.
From his vantage point, he realized that the city was absolutely swarming toward the site of their clash. Some of the smaller and elder goblins were fleeing, but thousands of them were being drawn to the Players’ location in a manic frenzy. Armed with whatever object had enough weight or enough of an edge to do damage--scimitars, wooden boards, jagged chunks of stone.
While he allowed himself to dream for a moment that the horde may kill Scott and Leo for him, he doubted they would be captured by such a rudimentary force. Though he imagined the elites and area boss would be on their way soon enough.
Future enemies for future Roman to deal with. For now, he needed to put down the others, fast. They blended in with the dark environment, shadows in a world of shadows. Roman flooded his eyes with bronze soul energy, overcharging his [ Hunter’s Eye ].
Motes of vivid light bloomed like fireflies throughout the cavern--bits of spiritual energy from weapons or techniques or supernatural entities throughout the dungeon. Roman managed to narrow in on a vague shimmer and the shape of a handgun on an adjacent rooftop. A bloom of light--Scott had noticed him at the same time and fired once more. Roman [ Flash Stepped ] forward.
The gunslinger blinked as Roman’s sudden appearance loomed over him. Despite his surprise, he was swift enough to dodge away from Roman’s descending fist. Then Roman lashed out with his other hand and seized the bastard by the collar. With a pivot and a heave, he hurled Scott up into the air with all of his strength and slammed him down onto the back of his neck. The stone rooftop beneath them shattered from the meteoric impact. Dancer’s Grace allowed Roman to keep his composure as he tumbled down into the building; he landed in a crouch, nimble as a cat, while Scott plummeted down into a broken heap beside him. The enchanted pistol clattered across the floor.
A goblin child, absurdly small, cowered in the corner, wide eyes brimming with tears. Roman ignored it and reached for Scott.
Leo kicked the door open. Face flushed with anger. Holding his older spear now, the one with the wooden blade and metal shaft. Roman surged forward, keeping low. He weaved to the side of the first jab, then Leo must have activated some multi-strike skill, because suddenly the spear was everywhere, five identical wooden blades jabbing directly at Roman’s face.
Snarling, Roman did the only thing he could do. He headbutted the incoming spearheads. Augmented skull met enchanted wood; enchanted wood shattered. A pentagram of wounds flayed open Roman’s scalp, scraped along his skull. Blood poured down his eyes and cheeks.
Leo’s mouth gaped open at the sight. The man was slow, confused. Scott had seemed a bit off as well. The effect of Roman’s [ Impose Will ] domain on other Players, most likely. The bizarre shimmer near Leo’s head remained, though it trembled with apparent outrage. Almost like it was battling against the domain.
Roman managed to regain his focus first after the unexpected clash. He slapped the haft of the broken spear aside and launched into a barrage of strikes. Leo backpedaled away desperately, using his weapon like a staff to deflect Roman’s fists. Soon, it was bent and twisted into little more than scrap. Roman’s forward momentum carried them back out into the streets. The swarm of goblins was waiting, yammering in their gibberish language. Roman glanced back over his shoulder and took a half-step backwards, [ Flash Step ] returning him into the center of the building. Let Leo deal with the newcomers.
Inside, Scott was crawling toward his pistol, dragging himself forward with his elbows. Paralyzed below the thoracic level, his lower body flopping uselessly behind him. Roman kicked the gun away, then knelt down upon the back of Scott’s head, grinding the man’s face into the floor.
“What the fuck’s your problem, asshole?” said Roman, glancing up to make sure that Leo was still distracted by the goblin horde.
“Lucky,” Scott mumbled through bloody drool, his words slurred against the stone. “Without the Contract penalty...we had you.”
“My morning shit took more effort.” The roaring agony of Roman’s exposed ribcage and the swollen glove of his poisoned hand told a different story, but no reason to let anyone know that. Hard to hear through the ringing in his ears from the magical gunshots, too. “Why are you after me?”
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Scott remained disdainfully silent until Roman began drilling his face deeper into the stone; he sputtered something out, indignant. Roman relieved the pressure enough to allow him to speak.
“It was commanded.” There was almost a reverent tone in the prick’s voice.
“Commanded?” said Roman. “By who?”
“It was commanded. Your bounty. Your arrogance. Who wouldn’t want to kill you?”
Roman shook his head. Rude. Then he redirected his attention to the bizarre shimmer around Scott’s head. Something was going on there--something mental or Will-focused, based on its reaction to Roman’s domain.
Before he could experiment with the evolution of his domain, [ Impose Mind ], and see how it would react, a squealing sound from the goblin child drew his attention. The sight of the miniature creature hoisting up Scott’s handgun with both arms--the weapon almost as big as the goblin itself--was almost comical.
Then, it pulled the trigger. The recoil blasted the goblin child off its feet.
In no position to flash away, Roman allowed himself to fall backwards, at the same time grabbing Scott by the shoulders and hoisting the Player up as a meatshield against the force of the enchanted bullet.
Fortunately, without the gunslinger himself to use abilities, the shot was not quite as devastating. It was still enough to annihilate Scott’s upper half into a superheated geyser of blood and offal. The bright flash burned across Roman’s corneas, and the ringing in his ears droned on.
Coughing, Roman heaved Scott’s corpse to the side and wiped his face free of gore. To his surprise, the goblin child had collapsed against one of the walls, twitching spasmodically in a grand mal seizure. It howled as the tip of a wicked horn burst through its forehead. Within moments, the goblin child almost doubled in size until it was as large as a human toddler. Its spine twisted and straightened, vertebrae crackling as it continued to expand. To evolve.
Before the monster could become more of a problem, Roman charged it. It observed his approach with eyes full of helpless malice, unable to break free from the grasp of its metamorphosis. Roman attempted to stomp its head in with a savage kick, but to his surprise, the goblin’s cranium mostly held firm beneath the blow. Its nose shattered in a spray of dark blood, and it swallowed a mouthful of its teeth while convulsing, but it was still alive. Still staring at him with defiance. He stomped several more times, until the stone wall behind it was laced with fractures and its face was a gurgling mess, caved down in between its shoulder blades. It wheezed through its ruined mouth, bloody froth bubbling.
Just to make sure, Roman splayed his fingers across the crushed remnant of its head and activated [ Chaos Touch ]. Its ruptured eyes dissolved into honeyed ambrosia, its skin turned into ancient parchment, muscle fibers transformed into interwoven stalks of plants and colorful silk threads.
For some reason horrified by the completely expected result, Roman stumbled backward and nearly tripped over Scott’s blistered intestines.
[ Mutating Hobgoblin defeated. 2500 experience rewarded. ]
He blinked the notification away. There were more that he didn’t feel like reading. His heart thundered in his chest, and he wasn’t sure if it was from bloodlust, betrayal, or fear. Fear of what? That the creatures of the Chaos Playground were rewarded for killing Players? Something about the notion perturbed him on a deep level. A morbid irony, a reversal of roles—like Earth was a dungeon for the intruders to farm.
The vanguard of the goblin swarm broke in through the open entrance, pausing at the bizarre scene before them. Roman rolled to the side and scooped up Scott’s enchanted handgun in his good hand. If the goblin child could use it, so could he. He charged forward, plowing through the first few goblins and trampling them underfoot.
Once he made it onto the street, he aimed straight down the street and braced himself. A horde of hideous faces greeted him, howling and gnashing their teeth.
Roman unloaded the rest of the magazine, five shots. The world erupted around him, a great wave of annihilating flame washing away all existence. The force of the salvo’s recoil made his heels carve furrows into the ground. Buffeted by an inferno of sound and heat, he managed to stay on his feet.
Roman stumbled back into the building, blind and deaf. He hadn't expected such devastation from the bullets. Must have scaled based on the user's attributes or something. Sharp pinpricks poked against his back and thighs as he retreated—goblin weapons failing to penetrate through his skin. He swiped back with a casual backhand and shattered a goblin’s skull like a ceramic pot.
Panting, Roman backed up all the way to the far side of the building. The all-consuming white across his vision slowly faded, color seeping back into the world. With a painful pop, the ringing in his ears abated, and the outrage of the goblin horde trickled through. Blood stopped flowing down his face as the wounds along his scalp healed.
It took about ten seconds for Roman’s regeneration to make him feel human again. By the time he reoriented himself, goblins had flooded into the room. The expended gun had melted into metal slag from the rapid fire, scorching his hand. Roman hurled it straight ahead, splitting open three monsters in a rough line before it lodged in the fourth's sternum.
The area was too congested with bodies to flash past them without the risk of materializing in the middle of one of the monsters. He could charge through them, but a thousand more were waiting behind them. Their corpses would eventually break his momentum. Instead, Roman pivoted and kicked the wall. Chunks of stone blasted outwards, forming a gaping hole. Not big enough to fit through, but he could see the street beyond—still full of roving monsters, but not as bad as the front.
[ Flash Step ] carried him into the back street. Another one brought him to an adjacent rooftop. The vantage offered a view of the street he had fired down, now a magmatic ruin. Buildings had collapsed for over a hundred feet in that direction, bubbling stone glowing red-hot. Howling goblins, too stupid to avoid the incandescent ground, ran over the ashes of their brethren until their lower legs melted down to stubs and they collapsed into sizzling chunks of meat.
Shaking his head, Roman scouted the surroundings for any sign of Leo. Within seconds, he spotted the man on another rooftop. Leo was a bloody, staggering mess, barely managing to keep upright as he faced what must have been a fully-evolved hobgoblin. It was taller than even Roman, fishbelly pale and bulging with profane muscles, its head adorned with a crown of jagged horns like stalagmites. One of the sub-bosses, Roman guessed.
Neither of them carried weapons. Without his spear, Leo stood no chance. The hobgoblin, glee marring its face, slapped the Player around. When he fell, the monster pulled him up and struck him down again, pointed teeth gnashing in delight.
As much as Roman enjoyed watching the beatdown, he flashed over behind the hobgoblin. Leo’s eyes, nearly swollen shut, widened slightly at the sight of his savior. The hobgoblin noticed and turned, but not in time. Roman seized the back of its neck and let [ Chaos Touch ] flow; its head and spine transformed into rose quartz. A moment later, Roman’s elbow shattered them into a million fragments. The hobgoblin collapsed to its knees, blood pooling through the jagged shards that remained of its head.
[ Hobgoblin Elite defeated. 5000 experience rewarded. ]
The true prize stared up at Roman, an inscrutable expression on his battered face. Roman seized Leo by the scruff of his neck like a kitten and lifted the man until they were eye-to-eye.
“Now,” said Roman. “It's time for answers.”