“Wait,” Honey said as the bus parked and people began filling out. “Where are the Black Vipers?”

The Bear God Army were charging out towards the black vans and trailers those assassins had been using earlier, but there wasn’t anyone around. Something was wrong. Initially, Honey thought it was some kind of trick or trap as she lingered behind, noting that far off in the distance, atop the concert building, someone was standing.

Bear God was the only other person who noticed, sitting next to her.

“Up there, I can see it, is the guitar player, playing guitar. With him, from what I can tell, is someone else, with horns. This is the bad guy?”

“That would be the bad guy,” Honey said. The red shirts were swarming the black cars. “Did he already kill all the Black Vipers? Or at the very least force them to run away? Or are they hiding away, ready to attack? Ricky, go around and tell everyone the plan hasn’t changed, and that they need to go up the concert hall on Bear’s orders.”

“Hey, little lady, with all due respect, and I mean it, the name’s Bear God.”

“I’m calling you Bear.”

She shot that statement back with so much speed Bear God didn’t even have time to retort, so he just simmered. That was a sight Ricky had never seen, and he obeyed Honey’s commands as though she were someone to which he should feel reverent.

As Ricky disappeared into the crowd of people to let them know what Honey had decided, Bear God gripped his newly altered tires. On the drive over, Dominic had suggested a slight modification to them.

“I’m going!” Bear God said, turning towards the concert building. “This man, Cerberry, or whatever you call him, intrigues me. It will be a good test, of my abilities!”

“Good luck with that,” Honey replied. “But don’t act too crazy. Remember the plan.”

“I’ll remember! Probably!”

The haunting sound of a violin began playing from the roof.

As the leader started charging towards the building, his followers quickly took after him and began their own run. The front of the building was open, with windows displaying the inside area which wasn’t suitable for climbing, so the group rounded the building. From the side, you could with some difficulty scale the backside at a 30 degree angle. For most average people, this would be difficult, especially due to how smooth the building was. But the Bear God Army was filled with laborers and workers with bodies that could push themselves into overdrive, and they began to rise up on the concrete dome like red ants ascending a hill.

They didn’t even need to get halfway before a monstrous force met them.

There was a blast of fire from the top of the roof, and a shadow blurred before appearing in front of a member of the army. A naked man with horns. Their enemy. Cerberus.

Cerberus grabbed this individual by the throat and threw him like a weapon, smashing and going limp as it knocked down other climbers like dominoes.

“Ha! It seems funny to me,” Cerberus said to the few climbers nearby. “That you all came up at once. Did you think I’d just go toe to toe with your boss instead of just slaughtering all the weaker ones first?”

That was exactly what he was doing. Cerberus completely skipped Bear God and turned his back to the revolutionary, and continued slaughtering his way through the Bear God Army. There was no possible way he could be defeated by them. Someone swung a bat covered in spikes that shattered on Cerberus’s skin; any cuts healed themselves up in seconds. The demonic punches could shear straight through people’s bodies, leaving bloody gaping holes as he knocked them back. And as the soldiers began retreating, the beast didn’t let up. An individual man was running away, and Cerberus grabbed him and slammed the man face down onto the concrete roof. Very quickly, Cerberus rubbed, scraping away his victim’s face, until he there was only skull as he rolled down.

A speeding tire hit Cerberus in the back like a truck, and it almost made him trip forward.

Bear God had thrown it, and attached to the tire was a metallic rope. The other end connected to some spool on his back, almost like a crane. The cord wasn’t elastic, but Bear God could pull his tire back without needing to worry about it bouncing, and he held both tires up high above his head.

“YOU!!!!!”

“Huh? Are you talking to me?” Cerberus asked, feigning boredom. He wiped the blood of the Bear God Army member’s from his face. “Do I know you?”

Bear God didn’t respond with anything intelligible, only dashing forward and slurring profanities in russian. He let a tire fly out to his side, then grabbed the rope and swung it like a pendulum at Cerberus, an arc to pulverize him from the side.

But it wasn’t difficult to dodge, and Cerberus hopped upwards, flipping in the air. A hole appeared in his wrist, right below his palm, and it exploded out fire, propelling him at Bear God. He extended his other arm out and blasted flame, but a tire appeared in the way to block it. Cerberus landed on the tire hard, but Bear God didn’t give any ground away, and thrusted his arm out, flinging Cerberus into the sky.

Now that he couldn’t dodge easily, Bear God threw each tire, one after another. The first one came into contact with Cerberus, but it wasn’t a hit. The beast had just grabbed it in air, then held on tight enough to stall at the end of the flight path allowed by the cord. The other tire stopped centimeters from striking Cerberus’s face.

As Bear God began pulling the tires back, Cerberus took this moment to strike. With a maneuver that even the most trained acrobat couldn’t pull off, he crawled over to the front of the tire and kicked off, which gave him a bit of momentum. The russian didn’t have time to react as Cerberus grabbed onto the ropes and began using them to speed up his movement, climbing down them at Bear God. By the time Bear God gave the ropes slack, it was too late, and Cerberus was upon him, jabbing out punches of flame.

For some reason, however, those punches never seemed to exactly hit their mark.

Because of his perfect intuition regarding directions and angles, Bear God could practically predict how every strike came in. It was how he could dominate in most battles; an unparalleled ability to foresee his enemies movements. So despite the overwhelming advantage Cerberus had with each strike, they never seemed to do much damage. Each fist either landed in the softened palm of Bear God, or glanced off him in a way that nullified all of the force. And while the fire did burn at Bear God’s clothes and flesh, with the speed the punches and movements were coming in, they quickly were snuffed out. In only a few seconds, before the tires had even started to fall from their furthest point, the two men had traded dozens of blows, ultimately coming out practically the same as before. Sensing the stalemate, Cerberus kicked off before blasting a smokescreen down on the concrete.

“Damn...fucking bastard…”

There was always a new path open for Cerberus, should he choose to take it. And because there was nothing below him, he did. The bones in his fingers changed, growing sharper and protruding out like claws. It would be too dangerous to emit flames from his hands, now, so he diverted those to his back, and skeletal structures emerged from his back, wrapped up in muscle and viscera.

“Hey, Mr. Russian, I can’t tell. Are you trying to kill Loren Dames, or save him?”

“Mmm-”

It was only a ruse, calling out the question to Bear God. The smokescreen prevented them from seeing each other, though Cerberus could easily guess where the man was located. But from prior experience, he knew Bear God would be loud, and the combination of his booming voice and the screams of his fleeing comrades would be a distraction as flames erupted from the propulsion vents on his back. Like a bullet, Cerberus dashed forward, stabbing out a hand and slicing through Bear God’s face, cleaving it in half.

Well, very close to, at least.

Fortunately for him, Bear God had incredible ears, and noticed what was happening at the last second to pull his body away. While it was fast enough to save his life, Cerberus’s bladed fingers still tore out the russian man’s eye and carved a line up across his bald head. Bear God hollered out in pain and turned, yanking his tires back to keep as weapons.

Half of his vision was gone, and that meant his depth perception was a complete mess. Suddenly, having two weapons only good at range was a massive disadvantage, especially against a fighter like Cerberus, who could make sprinting drive-by attacks from a distance. That single strike was enough to tilt the scales, and that much was obvious to both me. Cerberus couldn’t help but let his glee show on his face, the edges of his mouth riding high.

“Haha! You fell for it, dumbass,” Cerberus said. He cracked his knuckles. “Oh, by the way, the poison in my fingers is nonlethal, unfortunately. It will put you unconscious soon enough, though, and I’ll make sure to kill you when you’re sleeping, so you can’t resist. That sounds like a fitting death.”

The engagement between the two so far hadn’t even lasted a minute, but the toll was incredibly severe. As his heart beated faster, the poison would be pushed further through Bear God’s bloodstream, and he probably only had a few minutes before it overtook him completely.

One tire was thrown, coming to a stop directly beside Cerberus’s head. He hadn’t even needed to move.

“Woah woah, come on old man. You can’t tell me you’ve become so pathetic that you can’t even throw straight, right? That all of your strength, that horrified my slaves, falters with the loss of just a single eye? That’s embarrassing.”

It was a little unfortunate that the fight was going to be over so soon, but on the other hand, it was nice to think he might get to throw such a massively confident person into despair. Ah, there were so many beauties to life that Cerberus could only curse his fate. Energy began charging in his back, flowing up into the fake wings on his back.

Once again, he blasted off, but this time, it wasn’t directly at Bear God.

It was a feint, and the russian fell for it.

Bear God wouldn’t be able to react quick enough to block one of Cerberus’s attacks at this speed with the tire, so he needed to act preemptively. And that’s what he did: pulling up his tire at the last second to use like a shield. But Cerberus did not charge forward. Instead, he blasted to the space directly above Bear God’s head, then stomped down, using his head like a springboard. Bear God grabbed the rope on his launched tire and swung it up, trying to clip Cerberus, but it was futile. With the flight granted by the jets on his back, Ceberus could easily reposition himself, and at a key moment in between strikes, he landed and stabbed his fingers into Bear God’s wrist. The strike penetrated, and Bear God’s fingers stopped moving.

“Ah, that’s too bad you useless fucker,” Cerberus said, face to face with his enemy. Bear God coughed out blood that splattered on Cerberus’s face. “Fucking nasty motherfucker. Well, I guess I can’t expect much else out of russian nutcases.”

Before Bear God could swing his hand to grab Cerberus, the villain spat flames onto Bear God in revenge, then kicked him in the crotch and hopped backwards. The large man used his damage hand to try and batter the flames while dropping to one knee, grabbing his gonads. He was slowly being torn apart, and the longer this went, the more damage he could take.

But there was a chance.

Earlier, Honey had explained that Cerberus wasn’t perfect.

Even if he had a body created to succeed in every situation, he was still just a single person, and there were limitations to what he could do. His poison was nonlethal. He could fly around and blast flames, but that was created from an internal reservoir, and it didn’t refresh quickly. Bear God had fought in wars, against demons and daemons who were stronger than this, and had won. He wasn’t going to just let some runt like this take him down.

Something happened that gave him hope. It was a risk, but he didn’t care. Life was meant for taking risks.

Using his good hand, Bear God threw the tire once again.

It stalled right next to Cerberus’s head again, though slightly closer than last time. The beast was forced to tilt his head just slightly.

“Well, you’re getting better at the very least,” Cerberus said. He sighed. “But it doesn’t matter. You should be well aware you can’t even touch me. Now, let’s finish th-”

The tires were quite large. Over a meter in length. That was what made them such lethal weapons, and was how they could be so threatening coming at you. Like being charged at by a live bear.

It also had another advantage.

In the world of hunting, amateur hunters make similar mistakes. You can spend days tracking your sport, slowly wearing it out. And then, in those pivotal moments, when your quarry notices you, and like the rabid animal it is and charges in to get the kill, it just takes a single bullet. With a still breath, you aim and shoot, killing it. Your job is complete.

That is the mistake that leads so many to their death. Because as soon as your breath lightens, and you close your eyes to wipe the sweat from your brow, you become the perfect target for something else.

The massive tire created a massive blindspot. And from underneath that blindspot came a spear with a half-man catcher spiked edge that stuck itself into Cerberus’s side. A second later, a scythe blade extended from underneath that slit into his stomach, tearing through organs that would normally be important.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Bear God had hardly noticed her at first. The old assassin lady from the night before, creeping alongside the edge of the semi-circle. Because there wasn’t much cover, she couldn’t approach, and as soon as Cerberus saw her, he would be on the defensive. By blocking off his view, even for a second or two, she could take advantage of it and attack.

It was a risk. It couldn’t be denied. If she just ran off to kill the guitar player, there’d be nothing Bear God could do to stop her. But there was something about the way she kept herself hidden.

Like a predator, stalking its prey.

After stabbing into Cerberus, Evelyn slashed the blade out, spraying out her enemy’s internal organs and blood down on the concrete like paint. She took a few steps back, holding up her weapon in a fighting stance as Bear God slowly pulled his own back. Cerberus put a hand on his wound and pulled it back to see blood, his own, covering his hand.

He smiled.

“Oh, now that I wasn’t expecting,” Cerberus said. “No, just kidding. That was a half-truth. I knew you’d come to get revenge, but I never imagined you’d do it together. I guess that’s my hubris, imagining two people working together. For someone as perfect as myself, things like teamwork and comradery just seem like tools of the weak. Anyone who can’t rely on themselves and only themselves is just scum. I would’ve thought two mildly competent people would get it, but I guess not. But this will just make it more interesting.”

Again, Cerberus put his hands on the wounded abdomen, then pulled them away.

The wound was healed, the only sign it had ever been there was the blood on his hands. His regenerative ability was perfected to an absurd degree.

He held out his hand and gestured, beckoning over the two combatants, as if inviting them to fight to the death. No, that’s exactly what it was.

“Hey, old lady!”

“Don’t call me that,” Evelyn said, glaring over at the now one-eyed russian giant. She herself wasn’t much better, her entire head wrapped in bandages and bleeding from holes poked in it. “What the fuck do you want?”

“Right now, just a question, if I may ask, but are you trying, to kill that man?”

He nodded towards Cerberus.

“If I am?”

“Then, as crazy as it might sound, and it is crazy, I have a suggestion. He’s tough, but if we fight together, like comrades, we can defeat, if not easily, him, without trouble.”

“You need to learn how to speak properly, you dumb fucking baboon,” Evelyn said. She twirled her spear, then readied it. “Cover me with those tire throwing skills. If you hit me with them, I swear that I’ll gouge out your other eye and force you to watch me slice your throat.”

“Ha! Sounds good!”

The agreement settled, the duo of incredible bestial fighters began their battle against the ultimate monster.

***

--Roughly one minute ago--

“Holy shit, holy shit,” Dominic said, watching as people were being slaughtered by the beast called Cerberus. Then, as they began running, Dominic could only watch

It was all part of the plan.

Bear God and his men were going to fight against Cerberus, doing their best to hassle him and divide his attention, since even though he was incredibly strong, he could only focus on so many things at a single time. But boxing him into focusing so much on killing people, he wouldn’t pay as much attention to Loren Dames, and Dominic would have an opportunity to go rescue him.

Of course, they hadn’t expected Cerberus to cage the man on top of the concert building. How was he even supposed to get there?

For a few moments, Dominic just stood, frozen in place, trying to come up with a solution. In his mind, he pictured Hanson, the man who killed his brothers, leaping around an abandoned factory building and dropping from the sky. If Dominic could do that, it’d be easy. But it was only because he couldn’t that his job was to rescue Loren. All of the other members of the army were athletic enough to fight wherever, but Dominic could hardly run for a minute straight without getting winded.

In the current situation he didn’t have much time to act. Cerberus was almost intentionally going out of his way to kill the lesser members of the group, avoiding Bear God until the last second. Then, the two began clashing, and Dominic realized how little time he actually had. He scrambled to the building where Bear God Army members were patching up their wounds and only staring as Bear God continued his duel.

There wasn’t much cover to make use of, because the concrete semi-circle that was the back of the concert hall had a minimalistic style. The best it had was a small indent, but that was barely enough to hide a hamster in. Of course, there would be one way to sneak up the wall.

He could hang off the edge and climb that way.

Utterly ridiculous. There needed to be some other way of getting to the roof.

“Hey! Dominic!”

In his confusion, Dominic turned to the call of his name.

Two people were approaching him who he was not expecting to be there. One was the beaten and tattooed man Wolf, and supporting him along was Ms. Lenz, looking confused and worried. A few of the other Bear God Army members came to grab Wolf and help him along as he made his way to meet Dominic. On top of the dome, the sound of eruptions from Cerberus’s ignitions blasted off, sparking light in the night sky.

“What’s going on?” Wolf asked. “Are they fighting up there?”

“Don’t! You c-can’t help them right now,” Dominic said. “I need to go!”

Was it because he suddenly realized how much of a coward he was being after meeting a real hero? For some reason, once he saw Wolf, Dominic couldn’t bear to stand around any longer. Bear God was being blasted by flame. But before he got far, Wolf was next to him.

“Seriously, man,” Wolf said. They didn’t stop as they got to the concrete dome. “What’s going on? Is there a plan? I want to help...no, I need to help. You’re right, I can’t go and fight right now, but what are you doing then?”

“I’ve got to get to the top. You see that cage?”

“Yeah...is that...him?”

“That’s the mission,” Dominic said. “No matter what happens, I need to get up there.” As he spoke, he jumped up onto the concrete and crouched down, barely balancing himself along the edge. So long as he stayed far enough from the battle, he probably wouldn’t be seen. That was the best thing to do.

“S-STOP!!”

Both men froze, and other Bear God Army members jumped at the screech. Everyone was surprised to see the one person who’d never raised their voice before speak.

“...uh, j-just wait a second, please…” Ms. Lenz said, dropping her head as everyone stared at her. “You need to get to the t-top, where Mr. Dames is...right?”

“Yeah, no matter what.”

“Then you shouldn’t...go up like that…”

“Huh?”

“...well...um, not many p-people know about it,” Ms. Lenz began. “But there’s a-actually a roof access...from the inside. Um...if there aren’t any people...I could take you?”

***

The sounds of violin continued, carried through the wind even louder than the sounds of explosions, whirring cuts, and the tense snapping of ropes.

Evelyn and Bear God had completely different fighting styles, and neither were the type who fought with other people as allies. Even though they had subordinates and followers, they were more like hindrances than anything else. And normally, that would cause them to be unable to work together, and it’d make their teamwork worse than usual.

Cerberus flipped in the air, held himself immobile in the air for a second, and then blasted himself down to crush Evelyn. But at the last second a tire hit the man, negating the force that launched him downwards, and from underneath the tire she stabbed, using it like a shield. The blades were accurate, and it slashed through Cerberus’s throat.

That was only a flesh wound and healed quickly.

He landed and shot his foot out in a kick, and his knee distended, causing the bones to separate and his foot to jab far further than normal. At the end were bladed toes coated in poison.

The attack only grazed Evelyn, clipping her face as she dodged inside of Cerberus’s range, then temporarily dropped her spear. From a hidden compartment at her wrist, she produced a blade and tried stabbing it into Cerberus’s face, however, he caught it with his palm. He also caught her hand with it and squeezed, crunching the bones. But he could only smile at the damage for a second as Evelyn didn’t miss a beat.

The spear was already in her other hand and was transforming back into a scythe, and in a fluid motion, she chopped off her own hand and slammed the pole into his unguarded balls. It barely phased Cerberus, but a tire came flying in, gently brushing against Evelyn’s hair, and Cerberus wasn’t balanced enough to block it fully.

The attack knocked him back, and the knife in his hand exploded, splintering fragments of bone everywhere. It had been a suicide attack with a detonating blade.

“You’re really fucking crazy,” Cerberus said, regenerating his hand as he watched Evelyn wrap her own now dismembered stump with what was left of her tuxedo. “That was a terrible trade, you fucking retard. But I guess I shouldn’t expect much from such weak fighters, huh?”

Even though he was talking a big game, this wasn’t as easy as he could’ve expected. Most people fought with the intention of surviving.

His two current enemies could care less about that. They just wanted blood.

Cerberus was having more fun than he ever had before.

“Bring it o-”

He would have continued, but the scythe ripped by his face, slicing his nose off. She’d gotten close in those few seconds, and he wasn’t in a position to punish her. That was because Cerberus needed to dodge the tire that slammed down from the heavens like a wrecking ball. Even though Bear God had lost a hand, he still had two tires, and all he needed to do was throw them with a single hand and use his other arm to reel the projectiles back. The poison did seem to be taking an effect, however, as the attacks from the large man were slowing down.

But the woman hadn’t. Rather, it seemed like she had sped up, even with the loss of her own hand.

Stabs came quick and and relentless, and Cerberus couldn’t grasp just exactly how her weapon worked. Just when he thought he had it down, she clicked a button and changed its form, slashing with it like a glaive.

Fuck it.

He took the slash directly to the shoulder, then wrapped his arm around the haft, gripping it tightly. Now she couldn’t pull it out.

Before he could reach out and grab her, Evelyn let go of the weapon and distanced herself, pulling out a machine pistol, firing the entire magazine at Cerberus. It was such a small caliber that it barely did more than cause scratches and bruises, but Cerberus was forced to guard his eyes and ducked his head. If his brain took damage, it was all over.

Before the rain of bullets had ended, a tire smashed Cerberus’s leg, breaking it backwards at the knee. He stumbled forward, just in time to see the woman leap up, another knife in her hand. Just from a glance, Cerberus could tell it was a grenade from the handle shape. As he was falling, Cerberus emitted a blast of flames to jettison himself a few meters forward, dodging her stab, but she was already after him, readjusting herself after landing. He flipped himself over and let the stick end of the glaive press against the concrete dome like a pole vault and burst himself up, barely escaping her second attack.

While in the air, a tire arced over him. It wasn’t thrown directly at him, no, it was thrown to the side, but Bear God was dragging it across the sky, and the rope hit Cerberus on the side, the momentum of the tire pulling the rest of it around, wrapping itself around Cerberus. With the glaive still sticking through his chest and back, and the rope tied around him, Cerberus had his wings closed, preventing him from blasting.

Ah, this could be a tricky situation.

Of course, while it wasn’t easy, Cerberus knew he couldn’t lose.

It was impossible to lose to these two, no matter what they did.

Bear God pulled with all of his strength, and as though the effect of gravity on him had tripled, Cerberus was dragged down to earth, slamming hard enough into the concrete dome to crater it. But he was quick to react as Evelyn was upon him, stabbing down with the dagger. His foot caught the blade this time, and he kicked her off. There was no timer on the detonation, but Cerberus could already estimate the time based off of the last exploding knife.

He rolled backwards, then twirled on top of the edge of the spear, kicking his leg out towards Bear God. At the same time that he kicked, he used his other bladed toes to slice his foot off, and the end result was the stabbed foot flying like a missile at Bear God. The man held up a tire to block the attack, but it didn’t matter.

Cerberus could learn during a fight. He was going to steal their techniques and use them against his enemies. He hadn’t fully severed the appendage. Instead, he had only cut most of it off, keeping a thin strand of flesh attached, and he jerked his leg down in such a way that the trajectory of his exploding foot dropped. It exploded before landing and Bear God collapsed, most of his right leg destroyed by the minor explosion.

But that didn’t give the man any pause. He flung his remaining tire at Cerberus, who had no option at this point but to headbutt it, catching the rubber on his two horns. The impact still rattled his brain, but the tire was caught, and now had two holes in it. Fortunately for Cerberus, the tire had been losing air all night and wasn’t going to pop.

Unfortunately for him, Evelyn was standing underneath him with another small gun in her palm. It was a derringer.

The blast was like that from a shotgun, and the pellets hit Cerberus in the face, temporarily blinding him.

For a second, he actually panicked.

Luckily, nothing had touched his brain, and the pellets had been vaporized within his skin before he even opened his eyes a second later. The damage from the shotgun hit had vanished in the literal blink of an eye, as though it had never happened. Cerberus smiled as he saw frustration creep on the lowly assassin’s face. He vomited flames down upon her, igniting her hair and bandages as she flung herself away, crashing down to the ground and rolling around in pain to put out the fire.

Sensing no attacks, Cerberus stood and looked at the two with satisfaction. Even though they were but lowly mortals, they had put up a good fight, and they had nearly killed him. That last attack was completely unpredictable, and as Cerberus gazed at Evelyn’s crumpled body, he saw that the derringer had actually come from her bloody stump of an arm. Oh, that made sense, it was a prosthetic. That was why she could cut it off without even thinking about it.

Other than that, though, she was completely done for. The burning had stopped, but her head was a crispy mess. Blood was splattered under her from her arm and the other minor damage she had taken. She was violently twitching, but that was it.

Bear God wasn’t much better. The poison had got to the better of him, as a green line had formed along the slash through his eye. He was glaring with his good eye at Cerberus, but wore a wide smile. His leg was a blackened stump below the knee, only a sharp bone sticking out. The man couldn’t open or close fingers on either hand.

There was no fighting spirit in either of them. They were defeated.

He had won. Victory was his.

“Hahaha,” Cerberus said. He ripped free from the rope and tore the glaive from his chest. “Impressive, very impressive, at the end. If the two of you were at full capacity from the start, perhaps this would have gone differently. Of course, I’m also not at my best, so you can’t say this wasn’t a fair fight. Ultimately, I’ll admit it. Even if you were both pathetic, at least you aren’t the worst. So I’ll just remember the two of you as pathetic plus one.”

He took a step forward to finish them and stopped.

“Good morning, Hesperides.”

He’d just lost vision in one eye.

Why?

He couldn’t tell anything wrong within his body. There was no pain.

So why?

There wasn’t anybody in front of him…

No, that was wrong.

He heard someone say something.

He just hadn’t seen them.

Her.

Honey was standing in front of him, close enough to touch his body, and she had just driven into his skull.

She pulled her stiletto knife out of his brain. It had been a clean stab, directly through the underside of his jaw and through the back of his throat. The length of the blade made it perfect to pierce the center of his brain, and as she had removed it, the way she jiggled it tore apart important pieces.

There was nothing he could do. His body wouldn’t react, and he realized it was all over. Cerberus was going to go back to sleep, and it was going to be for a long time.

He collapsed underneath her, and did his best to contort his face into an expression of rage as she knelt down to talk to him. On one hand, her face looked smug and cruel, but on the other hand, there was a strange sense of gentleness to her expression.

“Hey, no offense, okay? I’m just doing this for money. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have minded anything you did, so sleep well, Cerberus. Hopefully we can meet on better terms next time, yeah?”

As his eyes began to blur and his mind started slipping away, he heard her final words.

“Night, night, don’t let the bedbugs bite.”