“What the fuck!” I screamed, the wolf’s head barreled towards me and I quickly made an attempt to draw the solar knife that apparently wasn’t on me.

“Ha ha! Got you”, Janus cheered. He proudly jumped around carrying the decapitated wolf head above his own.

What was happening? Ugh, his head hurt like a bitch. Wasn’t Janus supposed to be dead? Wasn’t he supposed to be dead? They weren’t even in the wreckage of the plan anymore, instead, they were hiding in some cave.

“What happened?” I groaned holding my head, the throbbing headache seeming to not go away. I probably cracked his skull when the boulder hit is head but his ichor should have fixed that. I suppose this is just the after-effect of having your brain thrown around like a pebble.

“What happened was you got your assed kicked. Woke up with you next to me so I dragged your sorry ass out of there and got us in this bitchin cave. Not bad huh.”

“What about the Seraphim, the one that knocked us out.” I got myself up from the cave floor noticing my weapons had been put to the side. Janus must have retrieved them after I got knocked out.

“Oh, the big dead one? That was there when I woke up. I just assumed Red killed it.”

“She probably did,” Then left us. “That bitch is too strong, assuming we get back to Martyrdom we are screwed.”

“She left us.”

“Yeah obviously, our betrayal wasn’t exactly subtle. I’m shocked she didn’t do it earlier.”

Still. It hurt, he knew she didn’t love him but. He was her pet, wasn’t he? And she just left him. Like Wasp, did. Why did it hurt? He must still be concussed that’s all.

“What’s the plan now boss?”

“Plan?” I scoffed. “There is no plan, we are dead no matter what we do. Stay in the forest, we die. We go back to Marytyrdom, and guess what? We die. My plan? Is to find a deep enough puddle to drown myself so I don’t get tortured to death, that’s my fucking plan! I suggest you do the same.”

“So what? Red wins?”

“Win?! There are no winners to this! As I keep saying, I’m not trying to win, just survive. Which apparently I failed at too.” I paced around the cave Janus as usual following my every footstep. The boy could be really annoyed with that if he wanted to.

“What about your vengeance! Wasp, Solaris and now Red. We finally got a threesome!”

“Enough with the jokes. We lost Janus, you wanted to be the underdog so badly you missed the fact that I was just a bad bet.”

“Are we seriously doing the self-pity again? You know I’m just going to convince you to go to your badass self again.” Janus put his hands on his hips, acting like I was just some schoolgirl too scared to ask out my crush.

“Not this time Janus… not this time.”

The forest had gotten dark, was it really so late? The Seraphim would be more ravenous, as creatures made of humanity’s fear they thrived in the dark. Not stronger, nor smarter, they just become more lethal. Hungrier.

They knew we were here. It was too silent. It was ironic that it was their silence that gave them away. They loved to be loud, and keep you awake. Let them know they are just outside your door waiting to kill you. It was when it was dead silent did you knew they were serious, that the Seraphim’s hunt had begun.

“Leave Janus. When they attack I want you to run, I’ll do my best to buy you time.”

Janus didn’t follow me this time, rather he stood deeper into the cave staring at me. With his helmet on I couldn’t read his expression. Was it one of respect or hatred? I suppose it didn’t matter, Janus was a moron but he wasn’t suicidal. Once I get killed off he will run.

“Wasp would be fucking humiliated with you.” The boy hissed.

“Excuse me?”

“What? You don’t like me mentioning your bitch?”

“Wasp isn’t my bitch.” I growled, he didn’t back off though choosing to rather take one more step forward.

“Really? Is that why you let her walk all over you? I don’t think you really want to die, I think you just don’t want your little girlfriend to see you come back as a pathetic little weakling that not even Red wanted.” Janus pulled off his helmet, his arrogant smile lacked its teasing nature.

“Do you ever wonder how many times a week Solaris fucks her? What do you think they do together in their room? I bet Solaris bends her over in front of everyone, he seems like the type to enjoy people-watching.” Janus continued. The smaller boy threw his weapons to the side letting his guns and solar knives drop to the floor.

“If you are trying to piss me off it’s working.” I ripped my own helmet off. Letting him see the fury in my eyes. A warning to shut up.

“So? We both know when the going gets tough Canis goes soft. Maybe that’s why Wasp picked Solaris over you.”

“You wanna get your ass kicked again? I’m freshly healed and you can’t beat me even at your best.”

“I bet Solaris fucks better than you.”

It was petty but I didn’t care, the satisfying crunch of his nose against my knuckles was worth it. His head shot back but this wasn’t over. My hand darted out to grab his chest plate and with a swift movement, my elbow found his nose causing a geyser of blood to erupt.

“Is this what you fucking wanted?!” I screamed at him pushing him against the cave wall. “You feel like you did something?”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

I didn’t get a response only blood spat into my face earning Janus another punch and sending the boy to the floor. The boy was pained and exhausted while I was healed and furious. If this was anyone else they might have admitted defeat, save their strength to fight the Seraphim and curse me under their breath. Not Janus though, he was a vile little rat.

The boy leapt at my legs wrapping himself around them using his weight to trip me. Like an agile rodent he crawled up my prone body and repeatedly punched at my face all of which were blocked by my fore arms. After a few seconds of his failed attempts Janus instead grabbed my wrists and with his momentum and weight pushed them to the side.

I was larger then him though, I would soon win the struggle and he would be back again at my merc-

“Fuck!” I swore. Janus’ teeth bared down on my ear. He really was an animal as one bite wasn’t enough, with my blood staining his teeth red he bore down again and again till I eventually broke free from his grasp and punched him once again in the face knocking him off me once more.

If me punching him in the face did anything he didn’t show it. The boy looked me dead in the eyes, reaching into his mouth and ripping out a tooth I had knocked loose with a smile on his face… he was enjoying this. This was his idea of fun.

“You ready for round two asshole?”

“You taste like shit.”

We both stood up from the ground, taking a moment to observe the other. He may not have my ichor but his nose had clotted to stop him from blooding, one of the benefits of being a Slayer. The damage was still there though.

I myself wasn’t doing too hot either though, I was now missing a good chunk of my ear. I had underestimated just how viscous Janus could be.

Although it seemed our fight had drawn the attention of bystanders. Without a second thought I ran towards where my pistol was rolling against the floor. It had one in the chamber, good. Every second mattered because Janus was still unprepared.

“Get down idiot!” I roared before squeezing hard on the trigger. Unsurprisingly after getting a gun pointed at him, Janus jumped to the floor avoiding the bullet that flew over his head.

A bloody waterfall rained over Janus as the body of the Seraphim fell to the floor dead. The Seraphim must have been created from a fear of insects as it looked like a human-sized bipedal ant. Wordlessly I threw Janus his helmet as he threw me my own.

Like a swarm, they ran into the cave trying to overrun us with sheer numbers but fueled off my already pumping adrenaline both Janus and I leapt into combat. The cave was too small for guns and they were too numerous so what was a fight de-evolved into nothing more than a blood bath as solar blades wildly swung. My knife and sword carved through the insects while Janus’ dual knives stabbed.

This cave was nothing more than a cage so I led forward dancing through the Seraphim cutting limbs and beheading ants as I wildly swung. Janus as always followed in my shadow and where I missed one with my longer reach he darted in between my blows like a vaper finishing off any that still stood.

If we kept going like this we could actually survive.

Janus however had a different idea as he quickly reversed the grip on one of his knives and tried stabbing me in the shoulder. If it wasn’t for the adrenaline pumping through my body I wouldn't have had time to react.

“We aren’t done yet. You hurt me, you kept trying to get rid of me. I thought we were fucking friends.” Janus stabbed one of the ants between its eyes. “You didn’t up for me when I volunteered, you tell me almost every day to leave and then you have the audacity to tell me what to do. Either be a fucking leader or don’t!”

Janus dived through the ants completely ignoring them and tried stabbing at me, our weapons collided causing waves of heat and light to erupt. This wasn’t like us punching each other, we could actually lose limbs with these. It didn’t both Janus as he swung at me, parry, dodge, clash. Even surrounded by Seraphim Janus continued to fight with me.

I kicked him in the knee knocking him down so I could behead the ant that tried biting his neck off. It was bad enough we had to deal with a swarm of Seraphim but Janus as well would be too much.

I turned to face Janus but I was met by a knee to my face knocking me back into a wave of the Seraphim. Their mandibles and raptorial legs came down on me, thankfully these Seraphim seemed to be quite weak as they struggled to get through the thicker part of the Slayer armour but as my joints were the armour was weaker I could start to feel them begin to sink in.

I could barely breathe as they all wailed on me from above pinning down my arms and legs as they bit into my body. I was only saved by a pair of solar daggers that carved up my attackers.

“Janus, you saved me?”

“Ha, you wish bitch. Your ass is mine.” And just like that Janus jumped on top of me and stalked to deliver punch after punch to my helmet.

I was only saved by one of the Seraphim tackling Janus to the ground giving me a moment to collect myself. I was in a cave, with one less ear, surrounded by human-sized ant Seraphim with my one teammate trying to kill me.

“Pfft, ha!” I laughed. My eyes sting from the tears forming in my eyes and before I knew it more and more laughter came out. I couldn’t help myself. My life was such a fucking mess. I was even too busy laughing my ass off that I couldn’t even stop another ant lunging at me tackling me to the ground next to Janus.

I held up my forearms and the crushing mandibles of the monster started to tear through the armour. Both Janus and I looked at each other as we were both getting torn to shreds and we both just laughed at how bullshit in our lives were.

I get it now. What Janus talked about. The fact that no matter what we do, we may as well have fun. Even if we survived this stupid second event we would still probably die back at Martyrdom.

I ignored the attacks of the monster to pry open my armour like I was just a can of food and instead held out my hand to Janus who held out his own in kind. He didn’t mind he didn’t have a strong healing factor like me the crazy bastard was just insane letting the Seraphim attack him.

When our knuckles touched in a fist bump, I smiled under my mask. I was happy, not because any part of this was joyful but rather because my mental capacity had finally reached its limit. I had dipped my toe in what was the ocean of insanity Janus seemed to casually swim in. The joy of my life going awfully overwhelmed me and I gladly ignored the pain of the mandibles crushing my other forearm so I could hammer my one free one into the Seraphim’s face.

Again and again, I hammered its face till eventually, my eyes found my gun that had been lost in the skirmish. With two loud bangs both Janus and I were free, in awful conditions but our laughter filled the cave.

I soon lost track of time after that, my mind so numbed to everything that my short-term memory was completely gone. Janus and I had just entered a murder trace, laughing as we got bitten clawed and tackled. But it didn’t matter, we were having fun and at the end of the day fun is all that matters.

By the end of the battle Janus had collapsed, I wasn’t sure when but he was still alive from his hoarse voice still inansly giggling. I myself didn’t fall but I suspected that was from my ichor trying it’s best to keep me going, but even then I couldn’t help but fall onto the many many many ant bodies that littered the cave floor. I couldn’t even see the floor with the amount of corpses that covered the ground.

Ha! Serves those ants right.

“Hey, Janus?”

“Yeah, asshole?”

“When we get back to Martyrdom, whose Einherjar position should we take?”

“Oh… I kind of hate Helix now. Those mines ruined everything!”

“Ha! True, maybe I should take down Titan. He’s such a pretentious douchebag.”

“Fuck me I know, ‘together we are strong’. Like shut up bro, no one cares.”

Together Janus and I laughed at his terrible impersonation of Titan,

“Janus. You still awake?”

“Yeah,”

“I’m glad I have you. Out of all my weapons you are my favourite.”

Janus wasn’t like me, that was something I would have to accept. He was my friend but the kindiest thing I could call him was my weapon, it gave him a purpose. Something to distract his mind from the fact he would die. I get that now.

“Thank you.”