"Nice one-liner, dumbass!" Kinae wheezed out, holding on to her consciousness. "What'll you do, punch it really hard?!"

Terra felt sweat run down his temple, staring at the colossus with a determined expression. He bit his lip, thinking of how to handle the beast when it approached. It didn't take long for Celeste to step forward alongside him, keeping her stoic presence.

"I can feel Arcane energy coming from it, but... it lacks a distinguishing Foci." she stated.

"Foci?"

As Terra asked what she meant, Atlas began to crawl out from the massive hole more, pulling himself out and grabbing on to the walls, forcing his lower half out.

"A Foci is where an Arcane channels through. Without it, an Arcane can't manifest."

Her eyes narrowed, watching the giant tower over the arena with a piercing gaze; two tiny lights piercing through the shadow he cast over them.

"There's only two possibilities. Either this thing is being controlled by a Foci from the Afflicted in the audience, or it's a Foci in and of itself, with the user inside."

The team stared back up at it, everyone standing tall and prepared, besides the weakened siblings in the back.

"So... Either we find it's origin point around the entire crowd, or beat it down until it can't move anymore?" Fren asked, raising his healthy arm, ready to fight. "Sounds easy enough, eh?"

Atlas' hand hovered above the crew, before suddenly slamming down with a heavy impact, causing the arena to shake and crack from the pressure. From the dust cloud it made, the Plague Doctors had jumped out, safely avoiding the attack.

"Follow my lead." Celeste instructed calmly, leaping up on to the beast's hand and beginning to run up the dilapidated stone. Right behind her, Terra and Fren charged ahead as well, leaving Netz to watch over the siblings while maintaining range with his chakram, slashing away at the earthen fingers.

It let out a piercing cry, shaking the air enough to make the team stumble slightly during their mad dash, but catch themselves just barely before they could fall. Celeste spoke out to those behind her, with a calm tone.

"Fren, focus the legs. Terra, take the head. I'll work on the chest."

With that order situated, they split up in an instant, going to their respective areas. Fren slid down, injecting his arm with a needle, coated with the red hue of the Plague. As it coursed through his body, his broken arm began to move, despite being in a horrid state still; he injected himself for the stimulant. Clutching on to the thigh of the large creature, his good arm revved up for a heavy strike right to it's knee, but to little avail. It moved, but still stood strong.

"Agh!" Fren groaned out, shaking his hand in pain, "Puto...! What the hell are you?!"

As Atlas began to raise his hand to swat at Fren, the lightning chakram slashed through and around it, causing it to reel back in pain once again.

"Good! Cry for me MORE." Netz demanded with a laugh, grabbing the disc on its way back, "It seems like Alchemy pushes through that vermin's Arcane... That makes this all the more exciting."

Running atop the ledges and pillars that stuck out from the colossus, Terra used the foliage that dangled from it's chin to hoist himself up, gripping on to the fur that escaped it's cracked shell by its shoulders. Getting a proper footing, he leapt forward, throwing out a superman punch right to it's left eye, causing the living construct to let out another cry of pain. Compared to Fren however, Terra seemed unfazed by striking the hard exterior.

"Toh!! Eat that!!" he shouted out, falling down and grabbing a hold of the vines again, dangling to safety from the beast's possible attempt of a counter.

Before it could process being struck in the eye however, Celeste made haste, slingshotting herself right towards it's chest, and landing a barrage of heavy blows. She may not have her Arcane, but she could barely handle the impact of her fist colliding with the monster.

The assault from the Plague Doctors caused Atlas to fall back towards the wall it came from, holding itself up before it could fall over. The team landed back on the arena, looking back up at the colossus before them, standing strong.

"Looks like that hurt it." Terra stated with a narrowing of his eyes. "Though, I can't tell how much damage was done. It's shell is like steel..."

Fren chimed in with a groan, looking at his now harmed hand from striking the creature.

"You could say that again, niño...! G-ghhh..."

Terra's eyes trailed over to Fren, noticing his dwindling strength from the loss of his Arcane. He then glanced over at Celeste, who was also surprisingly gripping her hands with an irritated expression. Whatever could classify as "irritated" through a calm demeanor, at least.

"You..." Joker began, "You aren't in pain from hitting that thing? Even Celeste felt some rebound from those strikes."

Processing what he said, Terra looked down at his own hands for a moment, clenching them and releasing them time and time again, seemingly to stretch them out.

"Eh? Mm... I guess so. I don't even have an Arcane or that bat, so I wasn't expecting to do much." he softly said, looking back up to see the colossus let out a loud roar, shaking the entire frigate from it's sound alone.

Everyone had been deafened. The crowd of Afflicted, Basalis, and the Plague Doctors. Such a thunderous roar could rattle anyone's bones, seemingly. As they all hunched to cover their ears, Celeste looked up to see a supermassive fist coming right towards them.

Her eyes shrunk, suddenly looking back at her squad, and signalling to them to evacuate.

"RUN!" she simply ordered, prompting the Doctors to dash out of the way as fast as they could. However, it was far too fast.

"T-Tch...! Not again!" the skeleton simply growled, trying to evade, but to no avail. The fist only grew closer. Closer. Then, with an earthshattering smash, Netz jumped in the way to block the attack, using the Chakram as an attempt to parry the strike.

"R-RRRGGHH!!!"

Despite his best efforts, it was unsuccessful. A shockwave bursted throughout the area, making Netz tumble back on to the ground, sliding towards the edge of the arena.

He was unconscious.

Just as he fell off of the arena, Celeste slid forward on the ground, grabbing his hand before he fell to his assured demise in the metallic watery depths below.

"That was close..." she simply said to herself, beginning to hoist him up with a grunt escaping her. "We can't take another hit like that... Find the user of the Arcane, now."

With that command, everyone looked around for any bit of evidence he could find. Fren's eyes narrowed, darting side to side as he inspected everyone in the crowd, still in an uproar from such a devastating attack.

"I can't tell!" he shouted out. "They're all too rambunctious! Dammit...!"

It's then that his eyes widened, looking up to see one person in the crowd, seemingly still like a doll. Not a single movement, and with eyes glowing a brilliant emerald hue.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"There! Seven o'clock!!"

Everyone snapped their heads towards the Afflicted, still unmoving. Terra's eyes focused, looking toward the team with haste.

"Quick!" he shouted, "I need a hand getting over there!!"

Joker gently set Kinae down, rushing over and squatting down, looking at Terra with a sigh. "Y'better know what you're doing, newbie."

With one quick leap, Terra stepped on to Joker's hands, before he launched him into the air with a lift of his arms, sending the reckless man flying through the air and toward the bleachers. Needless to say, the onlookers that were occupied by these seats let out a shriek, scattering away from Terra as he landed on to a seat upside down, exhaling in pain.

"Owwwwww..."

Joker facepalmed, before hollering over to Terra with hands on either side of his mouth.

"Hurry! We don't have much time, kid!!" he called out, just narrowly dodging another heavy swing from the massive stone freak. "OOOUUUHH SHIT-!!"

Terra quickly looked up to where the Afflicted was, running through the scared crowd quickly. As he carved his way through the masses, the rest of the Plague Doctors focused on distracting the colossus. It's eyes trailed to follow Terra, reaching out to stop him, but was quickly met with a heavy spinning left kick right to it's side by Fren, who let out a cry of pain from the impact. Bouncing back off of it, Celeste leapt forward, clasping her hand with Fren's, and seemingly switching places in the air, sending her barreling towards Atlas, and Fren back towards the arena once more.

The earthen giant continued to reach out towards Terra as it recovered, but was met with a sudden right punch on it's chin, sending it snapping back from the impact. Celeste, slowing down in the air after hitting the monster, grabbed on to it's hair, planting her boots down into it's scalp as she pulled back, forcing it to stumble back on to the wall. The plan was going smoother than expected.

An irritated growl escaped Basalis as he watched the chaos unfold, standing up and pulling out his signature handgun. A Desert Eagle, painted with a platinum hue, and merged with a saber, designed to shoot from the tip of the blade between slashes and stabs.

"You pests call ME vermin?" he said to himself, staring over at Terra with a sinister scowl, "Roaches... Roaches, all of you. It's a shame you chose to work with such pathetic Plague Doctors, Terra... You could have been the greatest amongst them all." He began to walk towards them, gripping his gunblade tighter with a snarl.

As Terra approached the Afflicted, a group of three other Afflicted intercepted him, readying their Arcanes. One turned into a snake man, the next had needles growing from their arms, and the last began to inflate like a balloon.

"I don't have time for this...!" Terra snarled out, clenching his fists, and stepping off of the back of the seats, running up to the Afflicted. He immediately struck the snake man in the kidney, making them fold down in pain. However, the spike man immediately intervened before Terra could get another strike in, forcing him to jab his fist into the sharp spikes that prodded from their skin.

"A-aagh-!!" he cried out, stepping back and getting back in his stance while looking at his bloodied fist. When he looked back up however, he was met with a belly-bump from the balloon man, causing him to tumble back across the seats.

"Haha! I'm resistant to your fists!" the balloon man said with a smile, slapping his inflated stomach with a grin. "All you'll do is hurt yourself." the calm spike man said, smirking. The snake finally stood back up, still gripping his side in pain. "Sssssssss-shit..." he hissed out, watching Terra finally land in one of the seats towards the bottom of the nosebleeds.

Weak grunting escaped the Plague Doctor recruit, getting back up to his feet and looking at all the wounds he's gotten. Bruises, piercing, cut wounds. Even the pain from bullets grazing him before seemingly weakened him, forcing a deep sigh to escape him. Standing tall once again, he began to approach them once more, cracking his knuckles and neck freely.

Meanwhile, the main group of Plague Doctors continued to hold their own just barely, dodging the attacks from Atlas, while dealing mighty ripostes against such a thick hide. After striking it's arm once more, Celeste landed back on the arena, beginning to sweat.

"We can't keep this up for much longer..." she muttered to herself, exhaling slowly. "Maybe it's time... I used the Alchemy."

"You better... n-not..." a weak voice warned, causing Celeste to turn to the source. Netz, who was just barely conscious, let out a raspy breath. "We both know... what will... happen... i-if you use it. Don't... Don't give that Rat the... s-satisfaction..."

Celeste's eyes lidded, hesitant. Seeing her rival gasping in pain- it was clear his body was broken from the massive strike. With an understanding nod, she turned back to Atlas, slightly grinning out of everyone's vision.

"No Afflicted will get the best of me."

With those words, she suddenly leapt forward once more, continuing her assault by scaling the colossus' body, bloodlust rich in her mystical eyes.

Fren caught his breath, looking to see now both of his arms were broken, dangling loosely from the sockets in his shoulders. A pained groan hissed out of him, but he maintained his wide footing, keeping himself from falling. Looking back at the team, he saw Joker, who was desperately trying to mend their defeated comrades.

"I got y'all..." the skeleton said to himself, staying his usual calm self as he mended Kinae. "Never would've thought I would be the defacto doctor... Ironic as hell..."

It's then that Fren crouched down next to him, looking at him with a desperate glare.

"Please, esqueleto..." he pleaded with a grimace, "Please, do something for my arms... I have to help Celeste, or she'll die out there!"

Joker stared at him for a moment... then suddenly shouted at him.

"THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DO ABOUT BROKEN ARMS?! I AIN'T GOT NO MIRACLE-IN-A-BOTTLE OR SOME SHIT!"

Fren lowered his head, before slowly looking over at Celeste, who was just barely holding on to what advantage she had in the fight.

"Just a little while longer, leader... Just a little while..."

As he continued to bandage Kinae's torso, he bit down and ripped off the gauze he wrapped around her injured torso, looking up at Terra with the same pissed glare.

"YOU BETTER HURRY UP, LIL SHITTER!! YOU'RE TAKING TOO DAMN LONG!!"

Once more, Terra held off the group of Afflicted, this time with more success. He barely dodged a wild jab from the spike man, grabbing a hold of his bicep— a spot without spikes to pierce him. With a warcry, he threw him over his shoulder at the balloon man, making their inflated stomach pop, as if a pimple full of blood. A pained scream escaped him as he fell over, with the spiked man laying over his body, groaning weakly.

"Y-You-! You bastard!!" the pointy Afflicted screamed, trying to pry himself off of his teammate, but was stabbed into him too deep; he could only flail desperately.

The snake, with a rattle of his tongue, lashed out towards Terra, quickly trying to bite him with those venomous fangs. With an irritated click of his tongue against his teeth, Terra stepped back slightly to dodge one last time, prompting the snake to leap out, trying to get one desperate poisonous bite. However... He was met with a left uppercut from the Plague Doctor's knee, launching him up into the air with now broken fangs. As he landed, Terra grabbed hold of his neck, slamming him into the jagged man as well, sticking them all together thanks to his barbs.

"I don't have time to deal with you guys..." he meekly stated, "I have to help those guys out. It's my fault they ended up here, anyway. I'll make sure—"

BANG!

A piercing metallic explosion was heard, as the hammer clicked against the ignition. Terra, frozen in place, looked down to see... scarlet red, flowing down his chest. Right below his collarbone. As the realization settled in, he let out a cry of pain, falling down to his knee while clutching the newfound wound.

The Plague Doctors quickly looked up to the source of the sound, seeing Terra staggered from the shot, and noticing the man behind the trigger.

"I had enough of of this. None of you are true Plague Doctors; none of you are like him. Don't you understand...?" the shooter said, revealing it to be Basalis, pointing his sword at Terra with smoke flowing from the tip of the saber. "You've all fought well, but watching you struggle is boring now. You'd be best giving up now."

Terra growled in a mix of pain and anger, clenching his hand against the ground with irritation. He's been grazed by bullets before, but never had he been directly shot. Numbness began to settle in throughout his torso, as more and more blood flowed out of him. The hole on his back where the bullet escaped from made it all the more clear: the caliber of the weapon was massive.

"New guy!!" Joker called out, looking around for a way to make it over to Basalis. "Dammit...! Hold on, I'm on my way!"

"G-aack—!!" Terra coughed out, blood dripping from his mouth, "N-No! Just... Just help the others!!"

Joker stood there with anger fuming out of his skull, pointing at him while yelling.

"Are you crazy?! You'll die out there, you dipshit!!"

Basalis was quick to aim his blade towards Joker, about to pull the trigger along the top of the hilt. "You're annoying." he simply said.

Just as he went to pull the trigger however, his blade was smacked to the side, forcing the shot to hit the wall with another thunderous crack. Basalis' eyes glared down in anger, but what he saw were eyes fueled beyond his frustration. Amber, piercing... The pupils, shrunken to look as though like a cat's eyes.

A demon of a man returned his glare, with ferocity tenfold. The rookie he once toyed with time and time again, over a simple debt. Sweat ran down his temple, trying to pry his blade away from Terra's grip, to no avail. Blood seeped down the metal, but he didn't dare let go.

"Your fight's with me, Basilis!!" Terra growled out, suddenly pulling the blade to force the Rat closer, slamming his head against his nose at full force. The impact was heavy, causing Basilis' nose to break immediately, making him stagger back while clenching it.

"G-gggaaaahh!!" he screamed, feeling blood rush out of his nose as he held it in place with his free hand. "You... You bastard...! You'll regret that!!"

With a quick crack, Basilis realigned his cartilage, breathing out a stream of red. Without a moment to waste, they charged at one another, fire seemingly burning within Terra's eyes.

Atlas let out a roar, staggering back against the wall from Celeste's assault. Cracks of light peered out through it's shell from where it's been stricken, as if pure green Arcane energy was pouring out like blood. Landing down on the arena once more, Celeste began to pant from exhaustion, putting all of her natural strength to the test. Sweat running down her pale skin only made that more aware to Joker.

With chattering teeth, Joker finally let out a grumble of annoyance, grabbing on to Fren's left arm. "You better not regret this later, you crazy bitch!!" he growled out, suddenly forcing the broken bone back into place.

Needless to say, that swift movement caused Fren to let out a cry of pure pain, biting his cheek to muffle his screams. Without giving him a chance to process any further, Joker quickly did the same to his other arm, cringing from both hearing, and witnessing it.

"You and that kid— you're gonna get yourselves killed for no damn reason! If we're scrapping with these mothafuckers, we need to get our Arcanes back; I ain't much without mine."

Fren grit his teeth together, clenching his fists one after the other. "You're right, amigo. We can't keep this up for long." he stated. Looking up quickly, he locked his sights towards Terra and Basilis, dueling it out along the bleachers as the Afflicted escaped. The Plague Doctors' tenacity alone terrified them, it seemed.

"He's the source. Launch me too, Joker!"

Needless to say, the skeleton's expression was aghast with shock and annoyance, but quickly went to a sigh of understanding.

"None of you better die now... Got my sister to take home, and I ain't backing you suckers up if the time comes."

"Encantador."

As Terra dodged one last swing and bullet from Basilis' blade, they both backed up quickly, sliding across the ground. With a sharp glare, the Rat quickly opened the cylinder cartridge, pulling back on the mechanism to load the next round of bullets from the reserves inside. Seeing him reload, Terra quickly ran across to the side, sliding down and hiding behind a seat just before a bullet shot out towards him, just narrowly grazing his ear. Feeling the warm blood flow down his face, his breath got shaky, trying to stay still in his cover.

"You idiota..." Basilis hissed with a venomous snarl, "You could have left this all behind you... but you made a deal with the devil, didn't you? To sell yourself out to help Plague Doctors?"

Terra remained silent.

"Don't you know what they do to criminals like us? Those with the Plague, coursing through our veins? I can tell you one thing... It surely isn't jail time."

Terra bit his cheek.

"The commander of your entourage here— The White Reaper? Why do you think they call her that? For her hair, eh?"

Terra closed his eyes, trying to keep calm.

Basilis on the other hand, fired once more at the chair he hid behind, prompting Terra to roll behind more cover, growling shakily.

"They call her the White Reaper... because—"

WHAM!!

Before another word could escape Basilis, as well as another bullet, he was suddenly tackled against the wall by a flying Fren, who tumbled on the floor after slamming into the Rat. Rubbing his head, he looked up to see Basilis grunting in pain, his weapon sent sliding away towards the edge of the nosebleeds, then back over to Terra, who was clutching his side. Without a second to waste, he ran over to Terra, crouching down next to him.

"Are you alright, niño?" he asked, lifting Terra's hand to see he'd been grazed by another bullet, this time close to hitting his kidney. "Oioioi, that was close...! Can you stand?"

"Yeah... I'm not done with him yet." Terra grunted out, standing up slowly to see Basilis rising at the same time, the three of them now staring each other down.

Basilis scowled, looking over to see his gunblade was hanging on by a thread, then back over at the tag team in front of him; Terra and Fren both getting into their respective CQC stances.

"Just how annoying can Plague Doctors be nowadays?" he asked, rolling his eyes and shrugging. "No worries... I'll just show you both never to underestimate a Rat."