That number kept on dropping.

Ever since we took that right turn to gain some distance, they haven't stopped chasing us... and fast at that.

It's not like I could keep the non-Nemeses going quickly for very long, especially in this gravity, so even a light jog for some of these champions would likely close on us.

If that's the case, I'm going to use it to our advantage.

"Alright everybody! We're making a stand! Juohen, you and Second Squad are in charge of traps! Polyu, you're in charge of spotting! Everyone else, find a good spot to shoot from that's easy to escape quickly in case this goes awry!"

"What are you going to do Andrew?" Hund asked.

"I'm going to reduce casualties as much as I can by being the target."

"Right, like I'm going to let you do that by yourself." Sydui asserted from beside me.

I looked her up and down, and then gave a smile. "Fair enough."

After everything was set up to create the best position we could get on short notice, we waited.

Eventually, the enemy champion arrived.

[Jandrilis the Molten]

Danger Level: Certain Death

Jandrilis was a strange sight to behold. She was made of metal and had horns... also made of metal, both with glowing veins of some sort of red-hot liquid (I'd guess either more metal, or lava maybe) flowing in channels in her... skin? Flesh?

Whatever it was and whatever you called what she's made up of, the molten stuff seemed to defy gravity to some extent, flowing up in some places.

She reminded me a lot of something that I'd heard about the Earth's mantle... but the specifics escape me.

She proceeded to make a noise I can only describe as having a windchime made of forks that all scrape against ceramic plates as a gale-force wind blows by.

Which is to say, incredibly unpleasant.

Sydui then bared her fangs at Jandrilis. "He's mine! You can't have him!"

Both of us both looked at her with confusion.

"What did she say?"

Sydui looked at me with residual fury. "She made a comment about making you hers."

I looked down at myself. "...Am I that interesting?"

"Andrew!" Sydui hissed.

Jandrilis looked smugly at Sydui, likely because she was missing my half of the conversational context.

"I'm not saying I reciprocate her feelings, just like... what is with the fascination you know?"

"Oh for the love of-!" Hund said, firing his crossbow.

After that, a deluge of bolts fired at Jandrilis as the other Fifskae followed suit.

Each impact of one of the full-sized bolts caused her to gain a dent, every other crossbow just deflected off with no clear damage.

Jandrilis looked deeply annoyed, she then said something that I couldn't understand.

"'Such is life'? What does that mean?" Sydui asked.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

I tackled Sydui to the ground. "Everybody get down!"

"[Eruption]!"

Jandrilis' mouth suddenly filled with that molten substance and ejected in the shape of a giant pill.

The projectile flew over our heads and burned through several trees before exploding in a massive conflagration.

"Hole Puncher! Max power!"

'Understood.'

I fired a shot at Jandrilis, trying to catch her off guard or on cooldown.

"[Eruption]!"

Both projectiles collided in mid-air spewing molten material and shrapnel everywhere.

"Screw that! Everybody scatter!" I called out. "Sydui, I need you to distract Jandrilis as long as you can!" I pulled out The Gem Of Echoes. "[Ascend, Echo]!"

Sydui was wreathed in shadows, just like the last time I did that.

It looked super badass.

It also made me think of some things that we could try... later on...

I digress.

As soon as Sydui changed, she charged at Jandrilis.

Jandrilis smiled. "[Steel Renders]!"

A pair of catclaw katars appeared on each of Jandrilis' hands.

Sydui dropped into a maneuver remarkably close to a baseball slide, barely avoiding impaling herself on Jandrilis' artifact weapons.

I rounded Jandrilis and waited for Sydui to create an opening.

My moment arrived not long after and I fired a max-power bolt at Jandrilis' back.

She suddenly about-faced and fired another [Eruption] to cancel it out again.

I frantically tried to come up with solutions to this situation.

I can't use Shreddy, he wouldn't be hard enough to scratch Jandrilis.

I can't use The Great Stabbinsky, there's no guarantee that there's something to hit under her outer layer... assuming this even is an outer layer... nor is there a guarantee that he wouldn't melt trying.

I can't use Hole Puncher, because she'll just cancel my bolts out.

Sydui jumped over Jandrilis, doing a handspring off of Jandrilis' head, and landed next to me.

"I have bad news Andrew." She whispered to me.

"What do you mean?" I asked, matching her volume.

"[Slaughter] doesn't work on her because she doesn't have any flesh or bones."

I sighed heavily. "Today just gets better and better doesn't it? This is just downright suicid-" I paused mid-sentence. "I just had a thought. Sydui, use the remainder of your time to distract her as best as you can."

"In that case, I'm off." Sydui shifted into a sprint.

Meanwhile, I rushed Jandrilis from the other side.

Jandrilis made what I assume was an equivalent of a laugh for her species. She then turned so that one of her sides were facing each one of us.

Sydui made her move, readying to attack low.

Jandrilis slashed downward to retaliate, only to find it was a feint.

Sydui dodged to the side and grabbed Jandrilis' left arm.

Jandrilis grinned and said something.

"This is my whole plan, to hold you in place."

Jandrilis' grin faded as she tried to shake off Sydui, who simply wouldn't budge.

That's when I arrived.

Jandrilis switched her attention to me and slashed at me.

She got me squarely in the chest.

I wrapped one leg around her arm and placed the other against her side, anchoring both Saiph and Rigel in place.

Jandrilis attempted to shake me off, to even less effect than with Sydui.

"Sydui! On the count of three, let go and get as far away as possible!"

"But what about-?" She protested.

"Sydui just trust me, I'll be fine!"

"But-!"

"One!" I began.

She gulped, readying herself.

"Two!"

Jandrilis faced her mouth at me. "[Eruption]!"

"Three! Hole Puncher, full power!"

Sydui let go and jumped as far away as possible.

I fired Hole Puncher at Jandrilis' face and used Leonidas to block as much of the concussion and fragmentation as possible.

The barrier shattered under the force of the explosion, causing the molten substance access to my legs and torso.

I screamed in pain as about half of my body was burnt away.

I clutched the rope I tied to The Great Stabbinsky as my entire body shivered in agony.

Luckily, Jandrilis wasn't as lucky as me, and took the brunt of it to the head, killing her pretty much instantly.

Sydui ran up to me, having been demoted again, and clearly winded. "Andrew! You said you'd be okay!"

I shakily held up a single finger, as my voice had long since gone hoarse.

"What does that mean?"

A moment later, the stored [Regeneration] finally activated and my body returned to normal in a matter of seconds.

"Let's never do that again." I said, mentally exhausted.

Sydui tackled me into a hug. "Andrew you asshole! Why would you do that?!"

"It was all I could think of to make sure my shot hit." I winced. "It definitely went worse than I planned though..."

"Damn right it did!"

The rest of the Fifskae arrived and took turns chewing me out for my reckless behavior.

Even Rahyu and Polyu.

I did my best to look at it on the bright side: at least my friends care about me.

----------------------------------------

Yuluulth

Lviyr stared at his viewer. "...He's insane..."

"What happened?" I asked.

Lviyr fruitlessly tried to explain some sort of event that had left him speechless.

When he finally regained his composure, he looked over at Seliel. "Seliel, did you invite Jandrilis as well?"

Seliel looked like a jigadinn in the headlights. "Um... I can't remember..."

"Seliel, you're a terrible liar." I countered.

She cowered behind her desk. "Fine yes, it was me! Please don't pinch me!"

Lviyr shifted. "Seliel, I think you're better at this game than you think you are."

She slowly rose just enough to look at Lviyr. "What?"

"You've managed to invite two incredibly powerful champions... who else did you invite?"

She rose a bit more as she pondered the question. "I can't remember most of them... but there was this one guy with wings, I thought he looked neat... I think his name started with a 'U'?"

My eyes went wide. "Was it Uluriq?!"

She was startled by my volume. "Y-yeah, I think so."

I slumped back into my seat. "Seliel... you invited both of our champions."

The three of us sat in silence as we considered the implications of that.

I think after this round, Jyn is going to have to stop making fun of her.