[Five.]

The plan was simple, but I found myself wishing we’d been able to prepare more, like getting more points to unlock better ammo.

[Four.]

Unfortunately, Selene had told me there were no other easy patrols to target, the remaining ones containing too many Anathema to safely handle.

[Three.]

Which did nothing to alleviate my anxiety, even with Selene helping me develop my plan further.

[Two.]

Every muscle in my body felt tight, like wires about to snap.

[One.]

I placed my left hand on the door handle, licking my dry lips as my chest constricted around my lungs.

[Go.]

I threw the door open, immediately using my foot to push the now empty box I’d summoned earlier in front of the door as a makeshift doorstop. A wave of cold air hit me as my gun snapped up to point into the interior of the room, but it was utterly devoid of motion. I flicked my eyes over the layout, taking in the details Selene had warned me about.

It was a long, rectangular room, maybe two soccer fields in length and one and a half wide. Pillars lined the length, three on each side. Each one had blue metal tubes running along them from floor to ceiling, a mesh wire cage enclosing them. The ceiling itself stretched up high, easily the height of three average rooms stacked together. With only a few red emergency lights to illuminate the entire room, shadows veiled the majority of the space.

I tried to keep my eyes on the ceiling, squinting to adjust to the poor visibility, but I couldn’t help but notice the ground. Splashes and sprays of scarlet, semi-reflective liquid painted the floor in puddles and bootprints. There were copper colored bullet casings littered around, and I spotted a few dark shapes that might have been discarded handguns.

Even having heard Selene’s warning, I felt my throat constrict. I forced myself to remain calm, searching the ceiling as I aimed through the doorway. My eyes caught on a few silvery threads crisscrossing across the ceiling and tops of the pillars, and egg shaped masses of the material were stuck in various corners. There were a few splotches of webbing on the floor too, almost like a ball of the material had been thrown and exploded on impact.

My eyes caught on a shape near the farthest right pillar, and I almost took an involuntary step back. It was big, though the shadows and distance made it hard to properly gauge its exact size. I could make out the vague shape of many limbs curled up around a large body, all covered in a slick black, armor-like material.

Moving at a slow, deliberate pace, I took a few steps back, carefully measuring out the distance before I settled into a crouch. Selene sat next to me, already in position just to my left. Slowly, I raised my gun and set my sights on the form. I couldn’t make out the specifics of my target in the curled, shadowy mass, so I simply settled for getting my targeting reticle to be as small as possible in its direct center. When my reticle stopped shrinking, I let out my breath in a gentle, controlled exhale.

Then I fired sixteen bullets in half as many seconds.

The noise was deafening. Even with the lesser silencing enchantment, the gunshots echoed and bounced through the narrow hallways like thunder. The muzzle flashes were practically blinding in the dim lighting, forcing me to squint. I tried to let none of it distract me as I focused on keeping my shots on target. The shape of the Anathema twitched as my shots bit into it, some of them drawing sparks as they skipped off chitinous plating.

My Umbra’s slide clicked back into the empty position before the last shell casing hit the floor. Blinking through the sudden lack of strobing muzzle flashes, I saw the form of the creature writhe, uncurling itself as it dropped to the floor with an unearthly grace. As it rose to its full height, I found my eyes widening.

The Arachnomantis was mostly a half spider and half mantis creature, but there were human features mixed in that gave it a twisted edge. The lower half of its body was like a giant spider but covered in dark, chitinous plating. Each of its eight legs tapered off into blades that clicked against the tiled floor with each movement. Where the spider’s head should have been was where the “mantis” portion began, a torso sticking upward in a centaur-like fashion.

The torso itself was more human looking, petite with gentle, feminine curves. It was covered in more black chitin that stuck closely to its figure, accentuating its too-thin, alien form. The arms themselves looked like that of a mantis, double jointed and ending in wicked, serrated scythes of gray metal. Finally, the Anathema’s head was human shaped, but had the fanged mouth and eight eyes of a spider. The gleaming black orbs reflected glints of red light, almost like eldritch pupils searching for prey. The Arachnomantis set those eyes on me and let out a screeching, chittering hiss.

I shuddered, suppressing the wave of disgust and fear that rolled through me. I’d seen the Arachnomantis before, in Magical Girls’ Sunset: Rebellion, but that was on a phone screen. In person, the eerie mix of features was nothing less than horrific.

Trying to push through the overwhelming sensation, I held my left hand out to my side, glancing in the same direction. Selene sat there, at the ready, each of her nine tails curled around a magazine. I’d bought another nine in preparation for the fight, and the second I beckoned to her, she slapped a fresh magazine into my palm. I released my spent mag, pushed the new one in, hit the slide release, adjusted my aim, and opened fire again.

The Arachnomantis had just finished landing, taking its first step toward me. This time, my aim was off-center as I targeted the side of its body. More specifically, I was targeting its legs, trying to do as much damage to them as possible. Although they weren’t very big targets, the way they were spaced next to each other gave me a fairly decent chance of hitting at least one as the monster skittered towards me.

My second magazine went as quick as the first, and I barely noticed myself ejecting it as I tried to see what damage I was doing. Between the distance and the lighting, it was almost impossible, but I had the feeling between my rapid fire approach and its chitin plating, I had yet to make a real dent.

Which is why it’s a good thing I bought a lot of bullets, I thought to myself as I finished reloading and resumed firing.

The Arachnomantis wasn’t sitting idle, charging towards me as it shrieked in protest. The closer it came to me, the bigger a target I had, and I saw one of my bullets spark against its armored leg. It was tempting to switch to targeting the Anathema’s torso, especially as its gleaming scythe legs and arms drew closer, but I forced myself not to panic. Another fifteen bullets went by, and this time I saw the legs spasm as some shots seemed to punch through its armor.

Just as I finished reloading my fourth magazine, the Arachnomantis reached the doorway. With its spider lower half and long, arcing legs on either side, it was too wide to fit through. It was also tall enough that if I was standing, I would only come up to where the spider half began turning into a torso. It hunched down to see me through the entrance, chittering in rage as it stretched out one of its overly long arms in a lightning-quick stab.

I almost fell backwards as the scythe’s tip shot towards my face, but forced myself to remain calm. The blade fell a half meter short, leaving the Arachnomantis awkwardly stretching an arm through the entryway. It clawed at the floor, cutting a furrow through it with ease as it tried to reach me.

Shrill panic and excitement rushed through me as I lifted my gun, aiming at the Arachnomantis’s head now that its legs were obstructed by the doorframe. With my slightly shaking hands, my reticle was huge, but at the relatively short distance it hardly mattered.

The first few shots blasted against the plating of its head, at least one penetrating as it screeched in pain. The Arachnomantis skittered backwards, pulling away from the doorway, and I put the rest of my fourth magazine’s shots into its torso as it bobbed its head in a wild, evasive motion.

As the Arachnomantis continued retreating back into the room, I reloaded and returned to firing at its legs. A sudden crisp, cracking sound snapped out along with a mist of black blood as one of my bullets seemed to find a joint and blow through it. The Anathema’s second most forward leg to my left went limp, making the creature stumble to the ground. I took the opportunity to target the forward most leg specifically, aiming at another joint as I emptied my fifth magazine.

The Arachnomantis screamed in pain as my shots landed, bullets punching through chitin plates. It pushed itself away, scurrying as fast as it could in the direction of the pillars. Reloading into my sixth mag, I changed targets, aiming for the legs on its other side.

The Anathema reached the first pillar, dipping behind it. With how wide the Arachnomantis was, it could only really hide the center of its body, leaving its legs exposed. I aimed my shots carefully, slowing down my rapid fire to a more methodical cadence as I tried to avoid hitting the pipes lining the pillar. It wasn’t hard considering the Arachnomantis had stopped moving other than the occasional twitch as its body bobbed up and down in a weird undulating motion that…

My eyes widened in recognition, and I quickly emptied the rest of my mag, grabbing my seventh and slotting it in with a hurried motion.

“Get ready,” I told Selene, getting up from my crouch as I moved closer to the door. “It’s-”

The Arachnomantis suddenly threw itself out from behind the pillar, lurching in an awkward, off-balance manner as it moved to the center of the room with surprising speed. Then it spun, turning so the back of its spider abdomen faced me as it pushed itself upwards, almost as if tensing its muscles.

I moved, sprinting into the room just as the Arachnomantis shot out a stream of webbing at the door. My run turned into a dive, and I managed to just clear the entryway as the webs hit the doorframe. I landed on the ground hard, the magazine holsters around my waist digging into me painfully. Scrambling back to my feet, I turned in time to see the Arachnomantis finish coating the doorway in a thick barrier of silky webbing. Selene had made it through in time, sitting at my side with three more magazines still clutched in her tails. I found myself shivering as the cold air of the room bit into me, but my eyes were fixed on the only entrance and exit the room offered.

We were trapped now, and I felt fear stab through me as the second phase of the plan began. Even if it was all going more or less like Selene and I thought it would, I definitely hadn’t appreciated just how terrifying it would be. The idea of being confined with a monster whose arm scythes were as tall as I was hadn’t really sunk in until now. My body thrummed with nervous energy, filling me with a painful, electric edge that clawed into my muscles with every beat of my heart.

I snapped my attention back to the Arachnomantis as it spun to face me, letting out a triumphant hiss. It staggered forward, blade legs clicking against the ground as it charged. I choked down a yelp as I stumbled into motion, sprinting in a curved arc that would put pillars between us as I continued firing. My targeting reticle went wild, growing huge as I moved while trying to aim at the Anathema’s legs again.

Even with two of its legs out, the Arachnomantis was fast. The only thing that saved me was the pillar I put between us, forcing the Arachnomantis to try and circle around. Now that it was closer and obstructed by the pillar, it offered the perfect target. Shots pinged off its chitinous armor and leg blades alike, but even in the dim red light I saw some bullets putting holes in it.

Unfortunately, the Arachnomantis was still faster than me, and in the time it took me to empty my mag, it managed to catch up. It raised both of its scythed arms above its head, and I recognized the motion. It was the same pose it took in Rebellion right before it used its Falling Scythe attack.

I tried to dodge like I would in the game, pushing my muscles to their limit as I leaped to the side as swiftly as I could manage. Scythe blades fell a moment later, the blades coming within centimeters of hitting me as they smashed into the tile floor. The scythes dug deep into the ground, and I continued running towards the next pillar as the Arachnomantis had to stop and pull its arms free.

Ejecting my empty mag, I held out my left hand. Selene came in a blur of motion, slapping a new one into my palm that I quickly loaded. At least, I tried to, but my frantic sprinting made it hard to get the ammunition properly slotted into the magazine well. By the time I managed to fumble it in, the Arachnomantis was back in range of me. This time it twisted its upper body and pulled back an arm, preparing to execute a cone shaped sweep.

I stuck my foot out, stopping my forward momentum as I juked back towards the monster. The attack was a frontal 120 degree arc, and I sprinted at the Arachnomantis at a slight diagonal, aiming to avoid the strike by escaping on the far edge of the attack.

There was a woosh of air as the blade sliced behind me, stopping just before it would have hit my backpack, and my heart skipped a beat even as I passed into touching distance of the Arachnomantis’s legs. I went skidding to a stop, pointing my gun directly at one of its joints and fired from an arm’s length away. Black blood exploded from the unarmored portion as I emptied half my mag in a roar of thunder.

The Arachnomantis let out an alien, hissing scream, stumbling as its leg went limp. Changing targets, I shot the rest of my bullets into another leg. My Umbra clicked empty, and I ejected the mag even as I resumed my dash away from the Anathema.

It recovered by leaning heavily to one side, pulling in the legs facing me close to its body. I was already running parallel to it, and I hurried in an all out sprint to avoid the coming attack. I cleared the space just as it slashed out with its legs, blades arcing out along the entirety of its flank. I kept moving, a ninth magazine appearing in my hand that I quickly loaded. I heard the Arachnomantis skittering as it turned to continue chasing me, and I looked over my shoulder. It was moving slower now, three of its legs almost completely limp while a fourth trembled with every step.

I let out a short, relieved breath as I realized it was barely keeping up with me running at full speed. As long as I managed my distance-

The Arachnomantis suddenly stopped, hunching backwards and raising both arms above its head, blades pointed at the ground. I felt the bottom of my stomach drop, and I quickly changed courses in a full right-angle turn. The Arachnomantis was preparing to unleash an attack every Rebellion player feared, a straight line charge of the Arachnomantis furiously stabbing its arm scythes downward in a storm of frenzied blows. Getting caught in it would be like being hit by a bus with a blender attached to its front.

The Arachnomantis charged, and it was suddenly quick, like the leg wounds I inflicted didn’t even matter. Even as I changed my course, the distance was closed impossibly fast, and a scythe blade stabbed into the ground less than an arm’s length away. As the Arachnomantis pulled its scythe out, the upward arc of the blade raising caught me on my right bicep, and I felt the sharp edge dig into my arm as I was suddenly thrown into a spin.

I let out a cry of surprise as my world twisted, landing on the ground with a violent jolt. The fall took the breath out of me in a harsh, painful gasp. The sudden impact and pain was too much, and I felt my gun slip from my grasp and go clattering away. I barely had time to mentally register that while the Anathema had thrown me away and to the side, I was still in the path of its rampaging legs as it blurred nearer.

I forced myself into a disoriented, awkward roll, barely avoiding the needle-point strikes as the Arachnomantis rushed past me. Sucking in a gasping breath, I pushed myself to my feet, searching in the darkness for my Umbra. My right arm ached from where I’d been hit, but when I tried to search for a wound, I found nothing but some frayed threading on my hoodie’s sleeve. My bicep throbbed, but I otherwise seemed unhurt.

The Arachnomantis recovered from its charge, turning to face me. I started backpedaling, abandoning my search for my gun as I kept my eyes on the Anathema.

“Selene! I can’t-”

I cut off my thought as the Arachnomantis caught up to me, aiming a powerful but slow stab at me. I stepped to the side, twisting my body as I avoided the lunging strike. It recovered, pulling in an arm as it aimed a quick, flicking attack I recognized as its Decapitating Slash.

Trusting my instincts, I ducked, and the scythe wooshed above my head. I popped back up even as the Arachnomantis was mid-motion on its next attack.

It was strange how telegraphed the strikes seemed, my experience in Rebellion guiding me to know how to dodge every strike. Still, even with that knowledge, it took everything in me to focus on recognizing the preparatory movements and then dodge, only escaping each strike by the narrowest of margins thanks to the Arachnomantis’s superior speed and reach.

Double Impalement. I jumped to one side as two blades tried to stab me, sucking in a breath as they almost slashed open my stomach.

Cross Strike. I twisted to the side to dodge the vertical slash, then ducked underneath the follow-up horizontal attack from its other arm.

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Ankle Sweep. A jump brought me clear over the blade, but I landed awkwardly, stumbling as I recovered.

Ten Scythe Rain. It brought down each arm in quick, alternating stabs at the ground, forcing me to side skip back and forth in the brief moment that one scythe withdrew and the next came in.

X-ecution. The relatively long windup on the next attack gave me time to duck forward, dodging underneath the two diagonal arcs at the bottom of the “X” shape they made.

Deadly Embrace. With me now crouched closer, the Arachnomantis flowed into a grabbing hug with both scythes. Chaining the attack from X-ecution, it had almost no windup, and horror flashed through me as I realized I had no escape route from the two blades closing in behind me.

Desperate, I dove forward underneath the spider body of the Arachnomantis. I landed in a painful slide along my stomach’s magazine holsters and found myself under the Anathema, surrounded by a cage of blade legs on either side with its huge, arachnid body hovering above me. I scrambled forward, pushing myself across the floor even as the Arachnomantis raised its body high into the air, getting ready to slam down on top of me. With its wounded legs, the motion took long enough for me to crawl out just before it slammed itself into the ground. The force of the bodyslam cracked the tiled floor beneath it, and I suppressed the surge of terror the sound sparked.

I pushed myself to my feet and began running as the Arachnomantis stood, damaged legs trying to help as they pushed uselessly at the ground. It gave me time to make some distance between us as I went for another pillar.

I gasped for air, sweat dripping down my brow as I ran. The flurry of attacks had only been seconds long, but my lungs were burning from the effort of evading the blistering pace they came at me with. Combined with all the running and dodging I’d already done, I knew I was tiring too quickly.

[Mai, open your right hand!] Selene suddenly shouted into my mind.

I followed her instructions, and a second later she was hopping next to me, tails extending to push my Umbra into my waiting palm. The second my fingers closed around it, I felt some of the terror in me retreat, the sharpened spike of anxiety each breath was bringing suddenly becoming blunted. I spun around, now backpedaling as I reacquired the Arachnomantis in my reticle.

The Anathema had just finished getting back to its feet and was halfway through its turn to face me. I fired, the familiar, slightly subdued roar of my Umbra echoing through the room. Bullets tore into the Arachnomantis’s legs and side, causing it to screech in pain. I managed to empty my gun before it finished its turn and came after me.

Releasing the mag, I instantly found a new one in my left hand that I proceeded to slot in as I backpedaled past a pillar.

[This is your tenth magazine,] Selene informed me. [I have two more that fell from your sweatshirt pockets. Then you will be down to the six in your holsters.]

I gave a mute nod in response, slightly surprised I hadn’t noticed the magazines falling out. Gripping my Umbra tighter, I watched as the Arachnomantis came at me. It had slowed down again, and over half of its legs looked to be barely functioning, the damaged ones only gingerly touching the ground with each step. At its current speed, I was fairly certain I could outpace it if I was running, but only barely.

I moved my reticle, doing my best to also use the Umbra’s sights as I targeted the Arachnomantis’s main body. I’d dealt enough damage to the legs, and now it was time to start focusing on killing it. My reticle shrunk noticeably when I took the time to properly aim with the pistol’s sights, the circle shrinking to fit the Anathema’s torso.

I fired, positioning myself a few meters behind the pillar to keep it between the Anathema and myself. My shots struck the Arachnomantis in a quick but steady rhythm, bullets punching into its chitinous armor. It let out another chittering scream, scythe blades raising in front of its body in a makeshift shield. One of my shots pinged off a blade in a flash of sparks, ricocheting into the ground in a puff of dust and tile fragments.

Emptying the rest of my bullets into its unguarded legs, I let Selene slap my eleventh magazine into my left hand and reloaded. The Arachnomantis took the opportunity to continue closing the distance, reaching the pillar with a final lunge. It tried to circle around, but its wounded legs seemed to be hampering its horizontal movement, allowing me to keep circling the other direction and keep the pillar between us.

Now that the Anathema was chasing me around the pillar at a short range, I returned to shooting at its torso. Its scythes weren’t wide enough to hide its entire body when it held them in a guard position, though it did require careful aiming to hit the exposed portions. An idea flickered through my mind as I looked into the Anathema’s eight eyes, and I quickly flicked my gun up, shooting a single shot towards its head.

Being a relatively small and constantly moving target, I wasn’t surprised when I missed. The Arachnomantis, however, reacted by raising both scythes to block me from a headshot, leaving its body completely open.

Triumph surged through me, and I let loose a rapid barrage that emptied my mag. A lot of the shots outright missed due to our constant circling, but I saw some strike the torso in misty sprays of black ichor. The Arachnomantis shuddered, changing to guard its torso once again.

Selene handed me my twelfth magazine, the last she had, and I slammed it in. Taking another wild shot at the Arachnomantis’s head, it once again flinched, but didn’t change guards. Another two shots, one actually striking its skull and whipping its head to the side, and the monster finally switched to covering its head.

Which only earned it another twelve bullets targeted at its torso.

Releasing my empty magazine, I moved my hand to the holsters around my waist. Earlier, I’d practiced using them in front of Ji-woo and Sergeant O’Malley while they coached me. They’d had me go through the motions at least a hundred times, and I found myself pulling a magazine free and pushing it into my Umbra with little issue. It did, however, slow down my steps a little, and the Arachnomantis took the moment to surge around the pillar.

Instead of facing it head on, I spun, sprinting away at full speed towards a pillar at the far end of the room. Only when I reached it did I wheel around, reacquiring the Anathema in my sights as I once again placed a pillar between us. It went skidding to a stop in order to avoid ramming into the pillar, and I jumped on the opportunity to get more bullets into its briefly stationary form.

As we began circling one another again, I found my boots sticking to the floor in some places. It was a slight thing, only occurring around a certain portion of the pillar, and one of my steps seemed to hit a bullet casing, sending the copper colored object pinging across the ground. Something set off warning bells in my head, but I kept my eyes on the Anathema, forcing myself not to glance down.

I continued shooting, but when I’d circled to the other side of the pillar, I let my eyes flick down to where I’d felt the slightly sticky sensation. My eyes widened when I saw what I’d been standing in, stomach clenching as a wave of nausea rolled through me. A large puddle of scarlet liquid gleamed, bootprints etched into the blood. Dozens of copper bullet casings sprinkled the pool, shining in the carmine light.

I snapped my attention back to the Anathema, reloading my gun as I tried to redirect my thoughts. My attention had only been split for a second, but in that moment, the Arachnomantis had gained some ground on me, forcing me to pick up my pace. My throat felt tight as I found myself circling back into the blood, and I noticed my targeting reticle had gained a noticeable quiver to it.

Forcing myself to continue firing, I tried to ignore the nausea in the pit of my stomach. Selene had warned me about the blood, and I’d even seen it when I threw open the door. I’d managed to subconsciously overlook it until now, but standing in it, knowing it belonged to the team who’d come before me…

My attention was suddenly back on the Arachnomantis as it skipped a step back, retracting both scythes before it suddenly surged forward, stabbing at me from either side of the pillar as it executed its Twin Piercing Lunge attack.

Both blades sprang towards me, and I strangled down a gasp of surprise as they pulled up short only a hand’s length away from my face. I took a hasty step backwards on reflex, trying to put more distance between us even though it physically couldn’t get closer with the pillar in the way. The stickiness of the floor pulled at my boot, and I overreacted to the slight sensation, pulling my boot away with too much force.

My backwards step landed with most of my weight on it, and sharp, cylindrical objects pushed against the sole of my boot as I stepped on multiple bullet casings at the same time. My weight came down on the awkward footing, and my ankle twisted painfully as the casings slid underneath my foot, taking my balance from me.

And then I suddenly found myself in an uncontrolled, backwards fall.

I landed on my backpack, cushioning my fall marginally even as the few objects stored within stabbed against into painfully. I scrambled up into a sitting position, planting my left hand on the ground to help push myself up. It landed directly in the puddle of cool, sticky liquid I was now sitting in, and I pulled my hand away in horror, trying to get my bearings even as I felt the blood soaking into the back of my jeans.

The Arachnomantis had just finished stepping around the pillar, now only a few meters away with nothing between us. It closed the distance in a flurry of clicking steps, and I felt my heart stop even as I aimed my gun in a futile gesture.

There was no way I was going to be able to effectively dodge from my sitting position. Even as my reticle flicked towards the Anathema, I knew it was useless. Short of a lucky shot, nothing was going to stop the monster. The Arachnomantis raised a scythe blade, aiming to impale me on the floor, and I let out a choked scream as I saw the blade descend.

In that moment, a blur of motion flew past me as Selene launched herself directly at the Arachnomantis’s head. Her body flashed with purple light, becoming visible to the Anathema just as she landed on its face and kicked off it with all the force she could muster.

The kick didn’t even budge the Anathema, but seeing the flash of light combined with an unknown object hurtling towards its eyes seemed to make it flinch, and the scythe’s downward trajectory shifted. The blade slammed into the ground next to me, barely missing my torso, and the Arachnomantis let out a hiss of frustrated rage as it turned to face Selene.

I wasted no time, pushing myself backwards and away from the Anathema as I tried to regain my feet. That seemed to draw its attention, however, the Arachnomantis’s head whipping back to face me. It took a step forward to chase, but Selene was suddenly in motion again. Hurtling towards the Anathema as she bounced from a leg to an arm and then finally to its face, her tails shooting out in a contemptuous flick on each of the Arachnomantis’s eight eyes.

It hissed in fury, stepping backwards and swinging wildly at Selene’s falling form. She managed to twist in mid air, narrowly dodging before she landed. She went back on the move immediately, hopping back and forth in front of the Arachnomantis in a blur of motion as the Anathema continued trying to stab her.

I took the opportunity Selene had given me, pushing myself to my feet. Pain shot through my right ankle as I stood, and I let out a gasp as the sharp sensation made my eyes water. I must have twisted my ankle worse than I originally thought, but I forced myself to ignore the jagged edge of agony as I got to my feet. Trying to hurry as much as I could, I started limp-running to get the pillar back between myself and the Arachnomantis.

I clenched my teeth through the pain each step brought, raising my gun as I tried to retarget the Anathema. Selene was hopping around in front of it, even using its stabbing arms and legs to bounce off and flip through the air in wild, flashy maneuvers as her fox tails fanned out behind her like streamers. Huffing for air as pain and exertion clawed into my lungs, I aimed, trying to steady and shrink my targeting reticle while Selene distracted the monster.

The Arachnomantis hissed in an alien roar, a deep, basso tone entering its voice in a familiar sound that made my muscles clench. My eyes widened even as the Anathema pulled its arms back, scythes poised in a distinct pose as it reared up, and its front two legs raised off the floor to bring their blades to bear as well.

“Selene get b-”

Before I could finish, the Arachnomantis launched its Four-fold Scythe Storm attack.

In Rebellion it was an attack easy to predict and dodge away from due to the distinctive audio cue. The attack was a barrage of strikes that would do massive damage to anyone caught in it, almost guaranteeing death to any player who got caught. Thankfully, it was a fairly easy move to avoid if you knew about it ahead of time.

Selene, however, didn’t manage to escape in time.

The Arachnomantis slashed at Selene in a flurry of arcing stikes, each attack surging forward at a speed I could barely follow. Selene hopped from side to side, dodging two low stabs and then taking to the air in a twirling flip as two blades tried to pincer her. Landing in a flourish of her tails, she barely hopped over a low cut, actually landing on top of the blade briefly and using it to jump higher as another slice followed up. The Arachnomantis’s arms came arching down at her airborne form in diagonals, and Selene twisted her tails together in a violent twirl that sent her spinning from their path at the cost of her momentum.

For the shortest of moments, she hung in the air as if suspended by invisible wires, her scarlet eyes meeting my own in that frozen second.

Then one of the Arachnomantis’s blades shot past and cut her clean in half.

I screamed as her two halves were flung away from each other, purple light glowing from each piece and spraying out in fading motes of light. I opened fire in a roar of thunder as horror washed over me. Selene’s body parts hit the floor and bounced away violently before shattering into violet shards like broken glass. The jagged pieces of light flickered for the briefest moment in the air before winking out of existence.

My heart pounded in my ears, and I felt my breath catch in my throat as I continued shooting the Anathema until my Umbra clicked empty.

It’s fine, she’s okay. She can’t die, remember? This was even a contingency, Selene distracting the Anathema if I was in trouble. Everything’s fine!

I told myself those things as I fumbled a new mag into my gun, but something about the words felt hollow. Seeing her cut clean in half, her body parts bouncing like discarded pieces of garbage before vanishing… A tear fell down my cheek, and I screamed as I fished reloading and resumed shooting the Anathema. It raised both scythes to block as it reoriented on me, letting out a triumphant hiss.

[Rude!] Selene’s voice came to me, and I gasped. [It’s been getting led around by the nose this whole time, and it’s gloating about such a small victory? Unacceptable! I demand satisfaction! Mai, would you do the honors? Even if you did have the mana to remanifest me, I refuse to dirty my fur further with this insect’s blood!]

I blinked in stunned surprise, her words freezing me for a half-second. Then, a strained laugh bubbled inside of me, and I hurried to resume my circling maneuver even as I continued firing. The edge of fear in my gut disappeared at Selene’s joking tone, and I could suddenly breathe again as I returned my focus to the fight. The Arachnomantis and I resumed our dance as it chased me around the pillar, gunshots flashing in the dark room with a thunderous echo.

Even as I ran, I realized my ankle wasn’t going to hold up. Each step I took sent a barbed trail of agony through my leg, and my limping run began to slow with every movement. As I finished emptying my magazine, one of my shots caused a spray of ichor to erupt from the Arachnomantis’s stomach, but even then, it was beginning to gain ground on me.

I forced myself to think, desperately searching for an answer even as I reloaded. I was down to my last three magazines, and between the pain and exertion, I was near my limit. My muscles ached, and I needed to find a way to finish the Arachnomantis, or at least slow it down even further. My breaths had become ragged, gasping things, turning to mist in the cold air of the room…

My eyes widened, then flicked to the aqua colored pipes lining the pillars. They had a metal mesh frame boxing them in, and a myriad of symbols covered the pipes, warning me of the same things Selene had while we’d been planning.

One of the reasons the mana generator had to have its own custom-designed room was that producing so much mana also generated a lot of heat. In order to keep the generator from overheating, the room was built especially large with pillars that had cooling pipes along their length. An incredibly cold, Zenith-manufactured gas ran through them, and through heat transfer, the pipes would keep the room cool without directly releasing the gas into the room. The mesh frame around the pillars was there as a safety measure, keeping anybody from accidentally touching the pipes.

Selene had warned me to watch my shots, that hitting one of the pipes would cause the pressurized gas to leak into the room. While the gas wasn’t toxic, direct exposure to the gas as it escaped the pipe would almost certainly freeze whatever it touched. If one of my bullets punctured the pipe and I happened to be too close…

The Arachnomantis screeched, gaining more ground on me as it raised a scythe for another attack. As I saw the serrated blade raise like a guillotine, I made my decision. I flicked my gun to point at the pipes and fired, praying my plan would work.

The first shot sparked against the mesh and pipe, putting a dent in the metal.

The second and third shots both missed as I stepped on my wounded ankle.

But the fourth shot…

The fourth shot hit the pipe and punched a hole clean through.

Teal gas sprayed out in an explosive stream directly in the Arachnomantis’s path, its forward momentum carrying it straight into the gas. The Anathema let out a chittering shriek as its full body spasmed, and I stumbled away as quickly as I could manage. Continuing to aim at the pipes, I emptied the rest of my magazine as I cleared the immediate danger zone.

More gas streams joined the first, completely engulfing the Anathema. It tried to escape, but only ended up falling to the ground as the legs facing the pipe froze in an instant and cracked. The Arachnomantis used its arm and legs on its opposite side, dragging itself forward, in a slow, awkward scurry away from the blasting streams of gas. Even with its desperate movements, it moved at an agonizingly slow pace.

I slotted in my second to last magazine, gasping for breath as I watched the monster. I could barely see it in the misting cloud, so I took a few more steps away while I waited for it to pull itself out. I could feel the air cooling noticeably while I waited, the sensation almost pleasant against my sweat soaked brow.

After almost a full minute, the Arachnomantis managed to escape the streams of gas. Frost and ice covered the entirety of one side, its legs broken clean off. It shivered uncontrollably, and even its hissing voice seemed raspy. The Anathema looked around, head moving in jerky snaps from side to side until it found me. Then it began dragging itself forward, seemingly undeterred in its pursuit.

With only one side working and half of its remaining legs wounded, it could only move forward with the help of its unfrozen arm. It dragged itself in slow, lurching movements that barely resulted in any progress even as its legs pushed awkwardly on the ground. I slowly raised my gun, not bothering to move from my position as I put my sights on the Arachnomantis’s head.

I fired a shot, the bullet smashing into its face. It recoiled slightly from the impact, but pressed on. Taking a second to resteady myself, I adjusted my aim and fired again.

And again.

And again.

Some of my shots missed, either because of the erratic dragging movements the Arachnomantis was using, or just because of my terrible, shaky aim. I didn’t let it bother me, simply taking time to adjust before firing again.

On my ninth shot, I hit it right in the eye.

The back of the Arachnomantis’s head exploded in a spray of black gore, its entire body flinching as every muscle tensed at the same time. For a moment it remained frozen in that position, but then it slowly slackened, arm and legs going limp as its torso fell backwards onto its own abdomen.

[Defeated (Newborn Arachnomantis - Level 21)]

[Bonus experience awarded for defeating an enemy more than fifteen levels above your own!]

[Reward: 50 Points]

[New Point Total: 133 Points]

[Congratulations! You’ve leveled up multiple times! Showing level ups…]

[You are now level 5!]

[You are now level 6!]

[You are now level 7!]

[You are now level 8!]

[Stat Points Available: 40]

Relief and exhaustion washed over me, my muscles turning to jelly as I slowly lowered myself to the ground, drinking in deep breaths of air as I tried to catch my breath. Something warm flickered in my stomach, and it took me a moment to realize what it was.

I did it.

I won.

I beat the Arachnomantis, an Anathema seventeen levels higher than me, and now Lily and all the other people in the shelter were going to be safe.

They were safe.

A giddy laugh bubbled from me, and I didn’t bother to contain it as relieved, happy tears streamed down my face.