Clarissa

[Ghrush The Berserker]

Danger Level: Certain Death

Bravado aside, I'm not actually sure what I'm going to do.

He's a magical berserker walrus right? So what if his blubber can resist the blast or something?

I could try to make the fuel-air variant, but blubber is resistant to fire... or wait is that just from videogames?

Suddenly, as if to interrupt my thoughts, a crack in the ground opened in the ground a few yards behind me and started spitting out brightly-colored spiders.

Startled, I yelped and jumped forward on reflex.

Luckily, I managed to somersault to a stop instead of wildly tumbling.

Thoroughly proud of myself for how well I handled the situation, I stood and dusted myself off.

That's when Ghrush and I finally locked eyes.

Before I could even utter a single word, Ghrush hulked out and ran headlong at me.

I tried to figure out what percentages of gases to use as well as the offset to adjust for his speed and distance from me, but it was all too much to handle at once.

For an instant, I was completely frozen.

My entire body had tensed so much I couldn't move.

I closed my eyes.

MOVE!

Suddenly, the tension left and I jumped out of the way.

Breathing heavily, I opened my eyes to see Ghrush with a fistful of my hair.

In a panic, I flew through the menus and estimated the best distance and mix that I could.

Ghrush rushed at me again with an outstretched hand.

I attempted to dodge to the right, but he caught me with his left hand.

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He picked me up by the neck, and without hesitation, reeled back for a massive punch to the head.

I took a breath in.

Ghrush's right eyeball exploded into gore, which splattered all over my face.

Ghrush's face had also inflated in a circle around the eye, as if someone had put a bicycle pump under the skin of his face and went to town.

As my brain slowly caught up with what happened, I realized that firstly, I straight-up didn't think to add iron into the gas mixture, and that secondly, I found out what a 'Ballooning Fault' was.

Ghrush dropped me to clutch at his now empty eye socket.

Finally having some room to steady my breathing and come up with a plan.

In retrospect, it's a good thing I accidentally didn't add iron, because at this range I could have given myself very nasty burns... or just plain died.

I changed the mixture to have mercury instead of iron and aimed for Ghrush's center of mass.

Ghrush moved, as though he could predict the impending attack, rushing perpendicular to me.

While he managed to dodge the worst outcome, his arm burned to a crisp in seconds.

Without missing a beat, Ghrush tore off his blackened arm and threw it at me.

Out of reflex and disgust, I jumped backward to avoid being touched by it.

"[Bone Breaker]."

Out of nothing, a hammer appeared in Ghrush's remaining hand, and he finally closed in.

I tried to hit him again with the same mixture, but his zig-zagging made it too hard to land.

Out of desperation, I threw sand at his face.

Luckily, this made his aim falter just enough for me to dodge... unluckily, I also hit myself in the eyes.

I tried frantically to blink the sand out of my eyes, I aimed the mercury mixture at his head.

Now, what I was expecting to happen was for his brain to cook inside of his head, or at most for his head to catch fire... what really happened was not that.

Ghrush's head exploded like a water balloon full of tomato paste and sizzling lard.

It wasn't funny in the least, but I just had to laugh.

Everything I just did was so utterly sloppy, but I still somehow came out of it all alive.

I just laid on my back laughing, all the while my eyes stung due to the sand in them.

All I could muster was a single fist in the air to celebrate.

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Yuluulth

"Hey Vindicost, where's Jyn? I haven't seen him all day."

Vindicost looked at me strangely. "You didn't hear?"

"Didn't hear what?" I asked, growing concerned. "Did he quit? I'll apologize if it's-"

Vindicost held up a hand to stop me. "His brother suffered true death yesterday while he was away."

My eyes widened. "How is that possible?"

Vindicost tapped his mandibles together. "Nobody knows, all they found was traces of shattered consciousness data and blood."

"I suppose that means the consciousness data didn't have anything useful on it?"

Vindicost looked at the floor. "No."

For a long time, we both stood in silence.

After a moment, I spoke. "When is the funeral?"

Vindicost looked surprised. "You want to go?"

"Jyn's a chafer, but he didn't deserve this."

Vindicost tapped his mandibles again. "I'll let you know when it's been arranged."

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Ami

Ever since we left that stupid reincarnation wannabe behind, the getting only gotten better.

At first, I didn't believe Drake when he said that it was like an RPG, but after getting five kills, it starts to be.

A day ago, I finally dropped my Hazard title and went up to full Nemesis, which makes me the fifth of our group.

Becoming a Nemesis is true power, not the fake stuff you get from martial arts or weapons, it's the kind you see on TV and pretend you have when nobody's looking.

A few days ago Drake punched a hole straight through stone because he could.

And that was before he got his first [Skill].

I don't even know what it's called, just that his body will sometimes get enveloped in a purple aura and then the next monster he punches dies.

When that happened, he became second stage, and then third.

We're going to stick it to that stupid voice for sending us here to fend for ourselves, we're going to kill all of his precious monsters, and then...

We're going to do whatever we want.