Hiro reversed the grip on his blade and bounced forward, intent on doing the same thing that Juan did by landing directly on the spider’s back and delivering some Bleed damage.

“Stabilize me!” he told Bianca as he flew through the air, Hiro veering to the left of one of the spider’s massive legs that continued to engage Samuel and his clone.

Fuzzy tentacles shot out of the shield now on his arm as Bianca latched onto some of the debris and tossed Hiro around to the back of the spider.

The spider shot a web that yanked it to the rooftop of a smaller building while Hiro remained on its back, Juan holding on as well.

There! Hiro lunged for an opening and drove his katana in, shocking the spider enough that the beast naturally buckled forward. Juan used the spider’s momentum to pry part of a bus stop off its body, which went flying to the ground below just as Samuel and his twin appeared.

Thunk! Thunk!

Valeria’s bolts kept coming as Hiro summoned his phantom cats, hoping that they could get into the smaller openings and deliver more damage to the spider’s body.

The huge arachnid jumped to the ground again, Hiro not able to hold on this time. He flew to the ground with it, and would have collided with the trees of the small park had it not been for Bianca.

“Saving your booty once again!” she said as she swung Hiro to the far right of the spider and deposited him safely on the ground.

Samuel and his clone continued to get as many hits in as they could. Valeria did the same from the outskirts, her bolts flying in fast.

Hiro spotted a glint of silvery metal on the creature’s back, indicating that Juan was trying to peel off more of its protective debris. Juan had already used his {El Coquí’s Curse} skill, a swath of the spider’s body now covered in tiny frogs. But there didn’t seem to be enough to devour it, and even with Hiro’s phantom cats and his demon dog, their proverbial pets weren’t making much of a dent.

Hiro thought back to the description.

It had been another one of the Doom System’s strange mish mash of words and historical facts, something about a pair of hoarder brothers that the system claimed had been influenced by the spider.

What if I…?

Jumping back, Hiro got into a position where he was able to fully observe the beast as it fought off the others. He watched as the spider kept opening its mouth and firing venom at the Survivors that remained.

“You ready to finish this motherfucker off?” he called over to Valeria.

“What are you planning?” she asked through quick breaths, the woman overcome with a rage that Hiro had yet to see from her.

“I’ll peg its head, you crush it from there.”

“Got it. Juan, Samuel, get out of there!” Valeria shouted as Hiro shifted Bianca onto his back.

“I need to do something,” he told her.

“Yes, Big Brother Hero?”

“Just get me in close—”

“You got it!”

Hiro took out his Buster Kunai and gripped it tightly as he left the ground courtesy of Bianca, who brought him into the air, the shield traveling toward the spider as if she were moving on stilts.

There! Timing it just right, Hiro loosed his Buster Kunai and put all the strength behind it.

The spider naturally fired a web at the huge weapon, planning to collect it. Yet Hiro’s amplified strength and the momentum of the Buster Kunia morphing to its largest form was too much for the spider to correct, forcing the greedy arachnid onto its back.

Whooompf!

Valeria dropped a wrecking ball on the spider’s belly, bringing its health bar down to critical. The Bleed damage finished it from there, Soul Energy rushing into all of them.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

[A Great Revenant has fallen.]

Hiro fell to his knees, feeling a sense of both joy and apprehension for whatever would come next. He took in a deep breath and then another as everything settled around him.

We did it… he thought as cheers erupted in his head.

“We’re such badasses!” Bianca said, the shield naturally moving around Hiro. He blinked his eyes open to find her shimmying her fuzzy tentacles in front of her. “Fuck that spider!”

Hiro’s phone buzzed.

Normally, he would have ignored it, but the other Survivors phones started buzzing as well to the point that they all got them out in one way or another.

“Great,” Valeria said, the first to respond to the text that now appeared before Hiro. She was bent forward now, trembling, her eyes bulging, face illuminated by her phone.

Hiro read the message that followed with disdain:

“What’s it saying?” Bianca asked as she moved closer to him, the shield peering at his phone. “A survey, right…”

Hiro turned away from the others and gave his phone a quick confirmation. “I’m Ready.”

< How would you rate the Doom System’s overall performance in the First Interim?>

Hiro stared at the question as Juan sounded off somewhere beside him: “Seriously? Fuck you, mamabicho, that’s how I’d rate your performance.”

A bolt of energy fired from the sky. It punched through the back of Juan’s head, the Puerto Rican man dead before he hit the ground.

“Holy crap!” Bianca said.

“J-Juan?” Valeria clenched her eyes shut to contain the anger.

Hiro gulped. “Five stars,” he finally said, hating every bit of what he was being forced to do.

“Five stars,” Valeria said bitterly.

“Nah, yeah. Five. Five stars,” Samuel told his phone, the Australian trembling with rage.

Hiro’s phone buzzed and more text appeared:

“Five stars,” Hiro said.

The others did the same, all three hating every moment of it.

Hiro let out a deep breath. “Five… stars.”

“Five. Stars.”

Hiro started to say five stars and stopped himself. He looked at the others, who had also received the same question. Valeria, her eyes filled with angry tears, shrugged.

For his part Samuel went ahead and gave the Doom System the answer that it wanted: “I rate my own performance five stars.”

“Five stars,” Hiro said before something could happen. It was a small way to show solidarity with Samuel.

Valeria was the third to speak: “Five stars.”

For a moment, Hiro’s phone seemed as if it had frozen on the question. Bianca leaned in closer as new text appeared:

How would I rate my excitement? Hiro thought. What kind of dumbass question is that?

But then he remembered a corporate training session at the fulfillment center. One of the surveys he took had a similar question about an upcoming Black Friday sale and his excitement for another hectic ‘holiday’ season.

“Five stars,” Hiro said, the others doing the same.

His phone flashed, the cracked screen going black. It turned back on after a beat.

“Hiro?” Bianca asked meekly.

Hiro knew his options well enough.

There was his mask, {Kiss or Slap}, {Edging}, the shield, {Demon Hachiko}, his {Buster Kunai}, and {Inseminating Finger Gun}. There had been {Sacra Limina} until the Doom System took it from him, and he also had {Lupine Shift}, which came with a side effect of rage that made him sleep longer than he liked.

Fuck turning into a werewolf…

“{Bianca’s Fuzzy Pink Shield} and {Demon Hachiko},” Hiro told his phone.

Bianca nearly exploded with joy, her whole form shaking. “Really? Thank you, Big Brother Hiro!”

His Companion acknowledged the request: <{Bianca’s Fuzzy Pink Shield} and {Demon Hachiko}. Your requests have been noted.>

Hiro was just glancing at the others, prepared to address the burial of Juan’s body, when the Doom System’s voice spoke to all of them:

[Buy more, sell more, lie more. This will be the motto for the Second Interim, where challenges beyond your imagination wait. Find a gate. The timer starts now. Good luck, Survivor.]