I wonder what we look like from Ron’s apartment.

It’s a gorgeous, sunshiny day. Clear skies. The scent of barbequed flesh in the air.

There’s a chunk of land floating in the ether. Chicago is gone, the skyscrapers likely sloughing off a circle of disintegrating edges as we speak. My apartment is gone. Whatever my life used to be is gone. Earth’s core and several thousands of miles of sediment sit somewhere below us, scooped clean of the humans that once inhabited it.

On this crumbling chunk of land, there stands a new luxury apartment complex. And on the terrace of this new luxury apartment complex bellows a writhing, furious fish pinioned by wings the size of a 70-million-year-old pterosaur. A middle-aged bassist in a graphic Hot Topics-style t-shirt lies still, guarded by a gun-toting teenager dressed in a mini skirt, a fluffy white vest, and studded boots.

Nearby, a young accountant in flannel hobbles to his feet, a fire axe in one hand, the other arm dangling uselessly from a dislocated elbow. And on top of a bizarre white disc dances a 26-year-old recluse with a machete, her muscle shirt reading “Nice Snatch.”

If I survive this, I’m going to ask someone to draw it. Maybe hang it on my wall as a poster. If I can get a wall. And if posters still exist.

00:48

00:47

I duck under a flailing wing and slash another shaving off the matriarch.

Unless Elias can lop off her head with an off-hand strike, this strategy is not sustainable.

But I have an idea. I just have no clue how we’ll do it.

Earlier, it struck me as odd that we had to use Elias’ status ailment to lure the monsters onto the road. They’re obviously attracted to the plant’s odor. That’s why they’re here. That’s why we did it. But then why weren’t they in the garage? In the beam of Elias’ light, I spotted exactly one opportunist gnawing on a flower. One. And it was tangled in vines, like a mouse in a trap.

The vines won’t penetrate the light. And unlike normal earth bats that we all know and love, the monsters won’t go into the dark. While they can’t help but follow that musty scent, they instinctively know not to get near the vines.

The plant doesn’t just entangle humans. It attacks monsters too.

That means we don’t have to kill the matriarch. The vines can do it for us. The wall bordering the West Tower is choked with them. Vines spill out of from the doorway, squirming in the shade, itching to kill.

As I see it, there are two ways of doing this. Either we push the matriarch toward the wall, or we lure the vines into the light. The best possibility is if we can manage to get one of the thorns to draw blood. With that ‘Hunted’ status ailment on the matriarch, the vicious jungle monstrosity will do the work for us.

Now to formulate a plan with the others while dodging a very angry flying piranha.

Elias shuffles toward the portal. “Helen.” His voice is weak, my name caught beneath wheezing breathes. He might have a broken rib. Maybe a collapsed lung. His glasses are askew, one of the lenses cracked. It’s a miracle they’re staying on at all. “Helen. We need to use the vines.”

That son of a bitch. “Yeah, I was thinking that too. How?”

The matriarch changes up her attack. Beating her wings in long, wide strides, she starts to rise.

“I can lure them again.”

“You have nowhere to run.”

She dives, her stumped legs thrust forward. She forgot she doesn’t have claws. I use the opportunity. Just as her talons would have raked open my head, I stick the machete up into her belly.

It’s a solid hit. Deep. But I should have gone for a few fast superficial cuts instead. Her flesh closes in like a suction cup, embedding the blade in a position I can’t reverse.

The machete tears from my grip as she jolts upward. I try to grab onto it, but she flies to the far side of the portal, taking the machete with her.

Title(s) Earned:

Bad Hook: Lose your weapon to a fish.

Reward: (1) Bait Voucher

Awesome. Thanks.

“Do you have an alternative?” asks Elias.

“Yeah, maybe.” The matriarch revs her wings for another go. “Can you handle the portal?”

“My health is below half. It’s not recovering.”

That ‘resolve’ stat again. Elias is at 2. Probably not enough to stitch ribs back together in under a minute. Maybe we shouldn’t have put so many points in his strength. Lesson learned.

“Okay, then we’re ditching the portal. Go back with Luci and Ron.”

“Alright…” he says.

“And I need your axe.”

He hands it to me, though he looks skeptical. “Do you want-”

“It’s fine.” The monster descends. “Go!”

He staggers away. As the matriarch plunges toward me, I pivot to the side and swing the axe up into the monster’s face. The blade carves a chunk off her jaw. Again, not enough for her to care.

A description for Elias’ tank class pops up. I dismiss it as I sprint across the portal toward the West Tower. I swerve beneath a flailing wing when I hear the pop of Luci’s gun.

Luci stands at the opposite end of the terrace, feet grounded, gun pointed at the sky. A flying piranha drops to the floor as another two rain down in a dual assault. It seems the brood is here. I was hoping we’d have more time.

Elias readies himself beside her, crowbar in hand. He’s not the stalwart figure he was a minute ago. His arm sags, his shoulders heavy. He has another few swings in him at most.

Behind them, Ron rubs his eyes. He’s awake. Barely.

They won’t make it. Not unless I can get the matriarch out of the picture.

And just like that, I feel my pulse rise again as I watch another three people fight against their inevitable, all-too-early ends. Anxiety tugs at my heart.

I shouldn’t be doing this.

The monster hovers over the portal, readying another attack.

With a deep breath, I force myself to move.

I step off of the portal, wincing as the countdown resets. In front of me is a strip of sunlight, maybe six feet deep. Then there’s a three-foot ribbon of shade containing what I can best describe as the birth of nightmares.

My skin crawls at a glance. Along the wall, countless vines slither over one another like a snarl of snakes, their thorns shredding each others’ yellow blooms, crushing tattered petals and putrid pollen. And something else. It takes me a moment to understand. Blood. Red streaks smearing from one vine to the next.

As the plant moves, I catch glimpses of skin. Human skin. Fingers. Legs. Hair. All buried beneath the tangled vines.

I can see it. Feel it. The horror of thorned coils pulling me into the dark, constricting around me like a boa, piercing my skin, crushing my bones, smothering me in vines painted with their other victims’ blood.

Why did I volunteer for this again?

Wind ripples at my back. Shit.

I spin around as the matriarch dives from above. Her jaw gapes, ready to split my head right from my neck. It’s so much worse from this angle. I can see her tongue. I didn’t know fish had tongues.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

I dodge, but it’s clumsy. Thankfully, with my dexterity, it’s enough. I hit the ground as her jaw snaps above me.

She rears up. Although her body is too far for the vines to reach, her wings arch over her like a canopy. The tips dip into shadow, right into the plant’s lair. This just might work.

The plant takes notice. Dozens of vines pierce through the twisted mass and spear the air. They’re fast. But the matriarch matches their speed. Her wings heave upward, and the vines stop short against the sunlight. With no prey left to hunt, they drop back into the writhing tangle.

As the matriarch reorients, I scramble away from the plant and hop to my feet.

On the other end of the terrace, a plume of fire explodes over the edge of the building. Someone must have thrown a molotov. They’re getting desperate.

I try luring the matriarch two more times. With each try, she grows wiser. She nips at me from the sunlight, her wings pinned back, away from the vines.

What’s worse is I’m getting slower. When I realize the hefty axe is draining my stamina, I drop it and focus solely on dodging. It’s what I should have done in the first place. Now it might be too late.

The countdown flashes into view.

00:59

Elias is back on the west end of the portal. Ron too. They don’t think I can do this. Which is fair since I don’t think I can do this either.

I scoop up the axe and lunge onto the dais, waving my arms to bait the matriarch. She swoops. I evade. Yet as she rises again, her red eye swivels. She has another target in mind.

“Helen,” says Elias, readying his weapon. A crowbar against a 25-foot-wide monster. It looks ridiculous. “We need to switch positions. I can aggravate the vines.”

“No way. You still have nowhere to run once they target you. That hasn’t changed.”

Above the portal, one of the smaller flying piranhas attempts to join the battle. He flies into formation with the matriarch. Like a little baby bird tailing its mother. It lasts about half a second. With a beat of her wings, the matriarch whacks him like a tennis ball. A blur smears through the air. Somewhere above us, a window shatters.

Enraged, the behemoth spins and screeches helplessly at the air where her brood used to be.

“The matriarch isn’t getting close enough to the vines,” says Elias. “She knows where they are. I’ll lure one of them out into the light. We can push her into it before she notices it’s there. You just need to distract her.”

“Sure, but you have nowhere to run.”

I hand him the axe. He wordlessly exchanges it for the crowbar. Now I have the dumb crowbar. Great.

“Then what’s your plan?”

Luci plucks another bat out of the air. Three bullets down. One left.

00:44

00:43

00:42

The matriarch readies another attack. Beside us, Ron clutches his bass guitar. He seems recovered, for the most part. At least enough to get in another few hits. His weapon, not so much. The neck is broken, so Ron’s clinging to just a few inches of wood, the rest dangling by the strings.

By this point, I feel like my heart’s about to explode from my chest like the chestburster from Alien. I want to tell Elias I have a better plan. I should have a better plan. I just need to think, but with every second that passes, I’m growing more and more sluggish - in body and mind. All that comes to my head is that one debilitating thought.

I shouldn’t be doing this.

“Okay. We’ll keep the portal going,” I say. “Just don’t… don’t get caught.”

He nods, promising nothing. “The moment I attract a vine, I’ll shout. Do everything you can to push her back.”

“I will.” I say it with confidence. I think I have a way, but god only knows if it’ll work.

His eyes flick toward Luci. “And if I don’t make it-”

I don’t bother with platitudes. “I’ll keep her safe. Go.”

Axe in hand, he heads toward the other end of the dais.

I should stop him. We can come up with another arrangement. We can hit the monster ‘til we bleed. We can set the bitch on fire and go through the portal, third degree burns and all. We can-

“I gotcha!” sings Ron.

I hit the deck as the matriarch plunges. The guitar smacks her across the jaw. Her head twists, though her body steams forward, bowling over Ron like a rampaging bull.

He’ll be fine. I think. He’s got the fortitude. But the monster doesn’t let up. She bats her wings in short bursts, hovering just above him, as her jaw peels open. I don’t care what the man’s fortitude is; She's going to eat him whole.

No, no, no.

Fear lances through my muscles, freezing them in place. The world slows, and I see it all: Elias walking to his doom, Luci one bullet shy of the end, Ron inches from the finish line. And all the while, the matriarch’s marbled red eye stares.

I will myself to move. It’s less of an attack. More of an anxious lurch. But my stats carry me. I lunge and jam the crowbar right into her eye.

She wrenches back, shrieking in fury. I duck beneath her thrashing wings and come up on her other side.

Elias shouts. “Now!”

This is it. Maybe I can’t shove the monster all the way into the plant’s mass, but I can make her trip up a few steps. There’s a weapon that I’ve been dying to use.

I can do this. I have to.

00:31

00:30

00:29

My fingers fumble for the lighter as I nearly backhand the bug spray from my waistband. By some miracle, I grab both. I aim the can, flick the wheel, press down on the pump, and spray.

From my trembling hands spits a stream of fire. Blind and singed in flame, the matriarch reels, her wings flapping carelessly. In frantic flutters, she flits across the portal, back towards Elias.

It’s working. I can’t believe it’s working. I step in, over Ron, keeping the fire-laden aerosol on a steady broil.

Elias is nowhere to be seen, but there’s now a vine curled across the end of the portal. The monster is hovering just above it. Her wings graze the thorns. It’s not enough. She’s so close.

Then her body sinks, just the tiniest little bit, and a thorn pricks her belly - right next to where I left the machete.

It’s instantaneous. The moment it has her blood, a vine whips around her leg. Another flies over the top of her body and lassos her around the middle. She bucks, wrestling against them, wings pounding against the portal. The plant drags her towards it - slowly, too slowly.

Overhead, another hapless bat runs afoul of her wings. Luci’s gun cracks as a second flops out of the sky.

00:25

00:24

I ditch the fire and kick the matriarch in the mouth. Ron smacks her with the guitar before a wing pummels him flat. Thrashing and shrieking, the monster gnashes her teeth, but there’s no one left for her to fight. In her weakened state, the vines tug her closer and closer to the shadows. The eastern half of the portal is clear. She's trapped.

We did it. Holy shit, we did it.

A pair of notifications appear, noting our victory. I swipe them away for later. We're not out of the woods yet.

More enemies swarm from the streets. I yank the crowbar from the monster’s eye and get ready to fight. Ron - the big unstoppable brute that he is - clambers to his feet.

Now to clean up the mobs.

Luci hops onto the platform, armed with a baseball bat and a molotov. “Tío Elias, come on!”

I spin around. He’s there, facing away, sitting on the floor only a couple of feet from the portal. But he isn’t moving toward us. He’s hunched over, whacking at something with his axe. When he looks over his shoulder, his expression is knotted with pain. God, he looks like he’s about to cry.

Oh no.

There’s a vine, just a single vine, looped around his ankle and winding up his calf. It isn’t pulling him - its focus centered on a much bigger fish - but it isn’t letting go either.

His voice breaks. “I can’t do it. It won’t break.”

No. No.

00:21

00:20

I thrust my arm in front of his niece. “Luci, stay there.”

“I don’t-”

“Stay there!”

Holding my breath, I leap from the portal. I reach Elias’ side and swipe the axe from his weakened grip.

“It won’t work,” he says. “They’re like steel.”

“Yeah and you have a broken rib.”

The vine is wrapped tight, cutting the circulation from his leg like a tourniquet. His entire calf is turning blue, blood seeping beneath each thorn. That part, we can worry about later. For now, I just need to snip the end tethering him to this hellhole.

With an overhead swing, I smash the axe down onto the vine.

The blade doesn’t even leave a scratch. He’s right. It’s like trying to cut steel. The shit is this plant made from?

“It’s no use. They made it impossible,” he says. “Make sure Luci teleports.”

00:15

00:14

I glance back at Luci. Ron is fending off the bats for now, but we won’t make it another sixty seconds. If we go now… Elias is right. Everyone can make it. Everyone but him.

“Elias-”

“Please. Make sure she teleports. I’ll keep working on this. I’ll… get myself free.”

“You suck at lying.”

00:12

00:11

My heart thunders. I can feel it in my chest, in my ears, in my goddamned feet.

I shouldn’t be doing this. What happened to focusing on myself? On my own survival? Why do I even care?

I watch Luci. Just an hour ago, Elias asked if Luci would be okay. Will she be? If I leave Elias behind, will Luci break? Will it be my fault?

I can't do this. I can't be responsible. Not again.

I swallow the choke rising in my throat.

My eyes meet Elias’.

“I am so sorry,” I say, as I heft the axe and bring it down as hard as I can, right in the muscle above his knee.

Elias screams. Then he passes out.

It takes two quick hacks before the leg finally splits from his entangled calf. Probably not what they had in mind with the ¡A Degüello! class bonus, but… Actually fuck that. It’s probably exactly what they had in mind.

The rest is a blur. A bloodbound blur. So, so much blood. Luci cries. I probably cry too. My head swims as I yell for Ron. For the first time, the guy works fast. He virtually teleports to my side. A trail of glistening blood in our wake, we lug Elias’ unconscious body to the portal where Luci has ditched the baseball bat and is holding a beautiful long flame against a beautiful white cloth.

00:02

00:01

Her eyes red with tears, she silently tosses the final molotov.

Fire engulfs the matriarch as a light rises around us.