I began my fight on the defensive. In a sense, I had brought a knife to a gunfight. Until my own acidic gun finished building, I could do very little to physically dislodge the spider from his high ground position.

Pýlicles was a man of overabundant caution. He had the physicality to stand toe to toe with me and maintain the advantage, but chose not to. Instead, he kept firing large natural nets near my position to try to flush me out. He wanted me safely tucked away in a cocoon of web before he would dare have the gall to crawl down from his perch. Such a way of fighting without risk irritated me.

But, as the coward I was forced to be, I remained hidden amongst his followers. All the while, I tore asunder life and limb from these doe-eyed villagers. Blood coated my form and made me look like a crossover between Jurassic Park and Carrie.

“Come on, Pýlicles, be the hero you believe you are!” I shouted to taunt the spider. “It is too late to save your paradise, so you might as well get your revenge!”

My goading proved to be ineffective and he remained steadfast to his advantageous position. I could only feel bitter. What a waste of strength. What was the point of accumulating all of that power if you are too afraid to use it?

Transformation: Reptilian (Stage 3) Completed

image [https://i.imgur.com/3xYtmzb.jpeg]

Acid Spit - Active (Rank E)

Typically used for self defense, some reptiles have the ability to spit venom from specialized glands. Use a more potent version of that concoction to melt your enemies.

Inflicts the Poison status for 5 seconds.

I smiled at the notification; finally, I could fight in earnest. I stepped out from my cover to have proper line of sight on the spider. I opened my mouth wide and activated my new skill. Two streams of green liquid sprayed from my new glands. A burning sensation like eating a novelty hot sauce filled my mouth.

Pýlicles, surprised by the unknown skill, was slow in his reaction. He managed to step away from the direct impact of the ability, but was not able to avoid the splash when the spray hit rock. His legs and abdomen dripped with green liquid and his immense health bar ticked down slightly as a purple droplet timer appeared for around five seconds.

Seeing that he was no longer in an invulnerable position, Pýlicles began to scuttle to a different stronghold on the cave wall. He surrendered the ability to try to hit me in exchange for removing my optimal angle of attack.

I obliged his silent statement. I ran out into the open area of the garden and exposed myself to the webbed onslaught. Though, I would not stand by helplessly like I had to in the past.

Web splotches and acid spray covered the walls and floor of the garden. Most times, they hit each other, destroying them both in mid-air. Since I did not have to land the attack to still hurt Pýlicles, the spider was taking damage equivalent to the health that I was losing by using these abilities. But, I still had not enticed him down from his position; he could see my health bar as easily as I could see his. He saw that this was hurting me in equal measure. Not to mention, his lackeys were probably going to revive soon.

Our health bars had already gone down by a third and my mouth felt like it had partaken in a spicy chili eating contest. I found that my body was steaming. Without my sweat glands, I had a difficult time cooling down quickly.

There must be a way to force that fucking spider down.

It did not take much looking to get the perfect idea. I dodged out of the way of another web, I ran back into the ever-thinning melee. I charged into the closest enemy demon I could find and used [Sanguine Bite] over and over again. The thick metallic taste coated my tongue and washed out the flavor of the acid.

As I moved back into the garden, I was forced to jump out of the way of a massive body that leapt down from the wall. The cave rumbled under the force of the eight girder-like legs that smashed into the ground. He wielded a long spear that I had not noticed. But, I did see the rope-like web bindings that were used to fasten the weapon to one of his forelegs like a sheath.

“You are one that must have been evil in life!” Pýlicles shouted as he stabbed forwards with his spear. “A rare male maenad, you must be; only those that have known the madness of Dionysus could possess the ability to feast upon the flesh of you fellow man without hesitation.”

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I ducked beneath the spear and lunged for Pýlicles’ legs with my claws outstretched. The spider hopped backwards and stabbed down again while his two forelegs slammed down to either side of me. I rolled and spat again, hitting the spider body directly.

The carapace bubbled and steamed as chunks of dead flesh sloughed off the body to form a small pile on the floor. Pýlicles howled in pain, his health now nearly perfectly halved.

He pressed his attack, slamming recklessly with his spear and legs. It was impossible to dodge all of it and attack at the same time. A leg hit me like a cinder block. It felt like my scales dented and pressed into my body, making it more difficult to breathe. But, at the same time, I bit into the leg, siphoning as much health back as I could, lessening the pain from the impact site. It still hurt far more than I recovered.

My lizard brain screeched of unjustified danger as it flooded my brain with adrenaline and a powerful instinct to flee. It warned of a distinct possibility of death that an animal could not justify. If I were the lizard, I would scurry away to lick my wounds and fight another day.

Unfortunately for the lizard, I would not relinquish control a second time. This chemical, this rush that it awarded me was something I was hopelessly addicted to. Like when someone brought a shiv to a fistfight or when you were outnumbered with only a terrible fate awaiting you if you could not hold out until your boys arrived to smash some skulls. It was a drug that removed the unnecessary and kept what remained in beautiful clarity.

I continued to press onwards. Pýlicles no longer prioritized defense. Every attack would be met with attack. Every brutal strike to flesh would result in mutual obliteration. I was the shark that dragged the elephant into the sea.

My claws dug into a foreleg. I lined up the blow with the bite wounds I previously left. The already weakened area gave way as a rush of blood flooded from the severed appendage.

I pressed onto the exposed side of Pýlicles’ body, his back legs my new target. I gritted my teeth to accept the sharp kisses of the spear tip that depleted my health down to below a quarter. Now that we had gone so far, I had to commit to my actions. I bit and tore and spat on the legs I came across, rending them faster than my health could deplete. The threshold for my death was constantly out of Pýlicles’ range and he had quickly lost the mobility to escape.

With the fourth leg on the same side severed, Pýlicles tumbled helpless onto one side. He screamed in curses that I had never heard before. I spun around and clambered onto his abdomen and ripped another large chunk away.

Pýlicles could not spin his body around to face me. He could only twist his shoulders to look at the death that rapidly approached him; claws and teeth at the ready to finish him off. A range of emotions swept through his eyes. Fear, helplessness, rage, and frustration.

“Monster!” Pýlicles screamed with piercing accusation.

I thrusted my claws to pierce his neck. I felt my fingers tug impassively as the blades tore large weeping holes through Pýlicles’ throat, fully depleting his health.

“You were never human,” he spat before his torso fell limp atop his bestial body.

Pýlicles may have a point. The fight, the kill felt too rewarding to me to be a human emotion. A person wasn’t supposed to feel that way about the taking of another’s life. Or, perhaps, they were never exposed to the feelings before. I was given an opportunity that many were not when I extinguished my first life. Just as a person who never drinks will never know the feeling of intoxication, the one who never kills will not know the sensation of a life or death struggle.

“Pýlicles is dead!” I heard the disloyal villagers shouting from their positions nearer the hovels mixed in with the shouts of anguish from those that still believed in their leader.

I hopped off the back of the spider and disbanded the party of villagers. The fate of the denizens of Tainaronopolis were no longer my concern. Whether or not this was the change they needed to advance or the selfishness that would bring about greater tragedy, it did not matter to me. My results were achieved and it was time to leave this horrible place.

“Ishmael!” Poppet called out to me. Sometime during the fighting, she had returned from her grisly work of scattering entrails to watch the end of my duel with Pýlicles. “It worked! We got so much of it back!”

Another round of appreciation came my way and left me with a peculiar feeling. I had been thanked for killing before, usually in the stiff way that is seen amongst the business world. Even those that hired me for more personal hits were only enthusiastic while the adrenaline was high. It was when the regret kicked in later that things became dangerous. It was one of those regretful folks that added another nail to the coffin that brought me here.

I raised my hand in farewell and looked towards the Portal. The arch began to whir and a message popped up.

image [https://i.imgur.com/EiwqpRk.jpeg]

Quest Update

The Most Disgraceful Coward in the Bowels

The quest offeror has modified the Portal to allow multiple Level 5 Players not in a Party to advance at once.

I chuckled. The appreciation of the villagers would go away quickly. I didn’t consider it as a betrayal. I never agreed to leave Pýlicles’ corpse behind for the rest to continuously siphon stats from. Though, I don't think that they’d see it that way.

“Sorry, Poppet,” I said in a voice that was not loud enough to carry into the celebration. “You always have to prioritize yourself first.”

I did hope that the bat succeeded in this new environment. Her driven attitude would take her far. But, I wasn’t sure she’d greet me as a former comrade the next time we met.

As both Pýlicles and I were bathed in the red light of the crystal, shouts of confusion cropped up from the celebrating demons. They began to run towards the corpse of the spider and used their ranged skills on me. Unfortunately for them, there was no way that they could interfere. The golden skull icon of invincibility appeared on my health bar.

“See you all on the other side,” I said with a smug smile and a wave. “Good luck.”