I dodged out of the way just as Gio crashed into a car parked on the side of the road. A blaring alarm started to go off from the damaged vehicle that caused him to reach and grasp at the side of his head. His upper body began to thrash from side to side as he hissed in anger. The alarm was only going off for about 10 seconds when Gio began slamming his large fists down into the vehicle over and over until the offending sound petered out and died. He spun his large body around, searching for where I had escaped to and a wicked looking smile cut across his reptilian features.

“What the actual shit Angie!?! Isn’t this supposed to be the lowest level of these Dens?!”

“If you weren’t listening I’m quite literally just as shocked as you are. SHOCKED I SAY… Okay maybe not that shocked. Axio did say he’s been tinkering with stuff, this is new but not outside the realm of possibilities, plus I did just say that it was an Ambush den and that it’s actually Silver level.”

As Gio began to stalk toward me, a car came to a screeching halt just a foot before crashing directly into him. Almost unsurprisingly, the driver actually hit his horn. Even staring down a giant snake-man, a New York driver wasn’t going to lay off the horn when you got in his way on the street. Once again, the sound seemed to stop Gio and he reached up to claw at the side of his head before glaring death at the offending vehicle. In a lightning quick movement, he struck the front of the car with a powerful strike that caused the hood to crunch inward. The honking from the car hadn’t stopped, which caused Gio to further screech and hiss in anger as the driver finally reacted… and hit the gas.

His car crashed into Gio at a mild speed, barely moving him an inch but surprisingly he did take damage from the crash. Just about 5% of his health disappeared and a flash of rage dashed over Gio’s sharp features. He lifted an arm as high into the air as he could and like lightning, his fist struck. The impact caused the car’s front suspension to give out as the vehicle crashed down into the ground. Smoke began to rise into the air from the engine as the car sputtered and died.

On the edge of my vision, I saw the phone icon light up, causing me to risk a glance toward Jon. He hadn’t moved an inch and his phone was pressed firmly to his ear leaving me little doubt who was calling. There was no way I could actually answer it, so with a thought, I pulled open the phone’s texting window.

Given that Amy had just stepped out the front door of the florist, I wasn’t sure if he was going to fully buy that, but that was actually to my benefit. A text immediately came through, followed by a video and several pictures. I dismissed the files and checked his message as quickly as I could without taking my eyes off of Gio.

Gio was moving toward the car door and I couldn’t wait any longer to act. I waved Jon’s text away and charged, activating Sting Like A Bee as I moved. While Sal had moved with a certain amount of viciousness, he hadn’t seemed to be nearly as impulsive or aggressive as Gio was acting. Then again, the guy had sort of hit him with a car so I couldn’t necessarily say his anger was misplaced.

I got in close to him, darting under his arm and striking him in his ribs as hard as I could. I found myself almost stopping short as his health only dipped by maybe a single percent and his ire turned fully toward me once more. He moved disturbingly quickly as his large, clawed hand came flying directly for me.

Whether it was luck or my own instincts, just before he struck, I activated my jacket’s Fortune’s Shield ability. A light orange, shimmering barrier materialized around my body in a flash of light. Though the shield absorbed some of the attack, it still felt like I was being hit by a spiky truck. As if I was a ragdoll, I was sent flying roughly into a nearby car, the force of my impact collapsing the door inward. My health chunked down by nearly 60% as I struggled to find the will to pull myself out of the almost comical indentation I had made in the vehicle.

“Okay, that might have been worse than the dumpster…” I groaned. My head felt thoroughly dazed and my vision was blurred. It didn’t help that the car’s alarm was going off and the sound assaulted my senses.

“I don’t know, you’re still standing aren’t you?”

“Kinda wish I wasn’t,” I said, shaking the strike away as I materialized an Enhanced Health Injector into my hand. I shoved it into my hip, letting my health return to near full as I stared at the hissing Gio. He seemed to be having trouble deciding whether he wanted to chase me down or go back to the cowering civilian in the car. Each time he looked my way, he seemed to flinch in time with the looping alarm of the car. “I’m pretty sure he’s not the biggest fan of sound.”

“Gee, you think? Lucky for you though; I’m not sure you could take another strike from him had he chosen to finish you off there…” Angie was definitely uncertain and it left me feeling equally unsure as I tried to come up with a plan on the fly. I heard a beep as the alarm behind me stopped and I had to stop myself from looking around for the car’s owner.

“Yeah, well I’m gonna need to just not get hit again, I can’t exactly let him go after the driver either.” I reached down and found a small piece of debris near my feet. I chucked it at Gio and after a moment of his body jerking back and forth, he decided that I was the most pressing concern. With the noises finally died down, he finally seemed to settle ever so slightly, though he still moved with sharp, jerky movements as he slithered his way toward me.

“Come on, not talking sssssso big now are you? I’ll even give you another sssssstrike, that lassssst one kinda tickled,” Gio laughed, slowing his pace as he extended his muscular arms. The leather of his jacket was pulled taut to his body and with a quick glance to my hotbar I found my own cocky smile spread. It might not take him down, but it would slow him down long enough to get the driver out of the area and let me come up with a plan.

“You know how those lackeys of yours collapsed to the ground earlier?” I asked, flexing my hand as I concentrated on the final few seconds Weighed Clothes had left on its cooldown. “Wanna see how it feels?”

Gio opened his mouth to respond when I activated the skill.

Much to my disappointment, it didn’t flatten him to the ground, though he did collapse forward. His fists hit the asphalt, little craters forming as he struggled to hold himself up. He managed to not take a bulk set of damage from my skill, though small slivers of his health bar were ticking down with each second. Each time he tried to lift one of his hands, he nearly collapsed to the ground. While he didn’t receive an actual Pinned debuff, it seemed identical enough. I was just going to have to hope it could hold out long enough that I could take him down for the count.

There was only one thing I had in my B.E.L.T. that I could think of that might be able to even the odds. The problem was that I had no idea how I was going to be able to utilize the Viper Venom I still had in my inventory. If he was anything like Sal, getting it into Gio’s bloodstream was a surefire way to take him down. Though I would probably have to settle for weakening him without Hydramental here to turn a big chunk of it into a frozen dart.

I looked around and found the decapitated Guard’s body only a few feet to the side. I highlighted and quickly looted him. It was a long shot, even I knew that, but it was a long shot that paid off. I hadn’t been sure why the Guard’s hadn’t had them equipped when they were coming for me, but all the same this one did have a gun. He had a few health syringes and a Burner Phone in his inventory as well, but those were the least of my concerns at the moment. I pulled the weapon and one of the vials of venom from my inventory.

While I probably could have gotten fancy with it and tried to create a new ability, I decided to see if I could just do this a quick and easy way instead. I ejected the magazine and poured the vial of venom over the bullets. As the venom leaked through the container, bits of it hit my hand and I received an immediate Poisoned debuff. The magazine shimmered in my HUD which I took as a good sign and I forced it back into the gun. Before I did anything else, I materialized some of the antivenom and poured it over my hands, removing the debuff as I held the gun up. I was about to activate my Lucky Shot ability when I realized I had pretty much just removed it from my hotbar.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Please tell me there’s a way to expand my hotbar… this 8 skill limitation is really frustrating,” I said with a groan.

“If you really think you need that ability to hit a downed opponent...”

“I don’t but I can still be annoyed by it,” I said as I looked over and found Gio still held in place, his head snapping from side to side in the air in anger. His eyes were narrow slits that bore into me as he strained against the weight of his jacket. “Is there a way or not?”

“You focus on the weirdest things at the weirdest times,” Angie sighed and I resisted the urge to interrupt her to point out the irony of her statement. “Yes, there are ways to expand the ability limitation, they just aren’t available to lower levels. Think of it as a power limitation that you’ll eventually have to break through.”

"Good to know, I can at least work with that," I said and aimed the gun at Gio. I pulled the trigger and as if striking metal, the bullet glanced off of his shoulder and went flying into a nearby car, activating the vehicle's alarm. Gio winced and hissed at the sound, though he made no move to cover his… well wherever his ears were. There was something I was missing and I was trying to piece it together when another loud clang preceded an alarm going off. I looked toward the sound and saw Jon smacking the hood of another car with his bag.

“It’s the sound! You need to disorient him before you can hurt him!” he yelled out at me. Unfortunately, near immediately after he struck the third car, the first two stopped blaring. There were surprisingly few people on the streets and my gut twisted as something felt out of place.

“Wait for things over here to go quiet, then start striking them again!” I yelled toward Jon and then rushed toward the center of the street.

Even from the moment we had headed up this road, I had thought it was eerily empty for a street in the middle of the afternoon. While the Den was only supposed to be the building, it was also supposed to just be a Bronze level too. If Axio could control things with this much precision within the Dens, then what was stopping him from remotely controlling the car alarms right in front of the den to control the flow of the fight?

I kept myself just out of range of Gio on the off chance he had a venom spit like Sal had and felt the edges of my area. There were only around 7 cars that I could reach, but it was going to have to be enough. I activated my Mute Button ability and the world around us went quiet. I fired the gun at the cars on the edge of my zone, hitting four of them and seeing the lights beginning to blink. Not wanting to waste the last of my infused bullets, I reached down and grabbed the closest debris and tossed it as hard as I could at the others. Behind me, Gio continued to struggle as the time limit of my Weighted Clothes ability was quickly ticking down. I could see flashing headlights coming from all around me, Jon rushing along and smacking cars as he went. I mentally prepared myself for the barrage, took a deep breath in, and disabled Mute Button.

Even expecting it, the cacophony of alarms managed to make me cringe. But for as much as it might have affected me, my reaction was nothing compared to Gio’s. He immediately reached up to grasp at his head and the moment that he did, the weight crushed him down to the pavement. He took nearly 25% of his health in damage and a yelp of pain was ripped from his throat.

I turned the gun back onto him, firing the last two shots in the magazine. They took him in the shoulder and his health chunked down by nearly 20% more. I wasn’t delivering nearly as much poison into his system as we had when Hydramental and I had taken down Sal, but it did leave him with a Weakened debuff. As the alarms in the street each continued to blare, I highlighted the debuff out of curiosity, stepping back from him as Weighted Clothes also went on cooldown.

“Weakened. You’ve struck this enemy with its personal Kryptonite! His base Stats have ALL been reduced by 75%. All damage immunities and resistances have been nullified. This debuff's duration is determined by the quantity of weakness applied and can be extended. Time Remaining: 1 minute. And before you start wondering if we got permission to use Kryptonite with the trademarks and all that bullshit, think long and hard about how stupid that question really would be.”

“The fuuuck dish you do?” Gio hissed, his words coming out almost slurred. He pushed himself up, wobbling slightly as a small trail of purple tinted blood dripped from his shoulder.

“I shot you, I thought that was kinda obvious?” I called back, pretending to pocket the gun as I pulled it back into my B.E.L.T. The truth was that I hadn’t even considered how it would look to civilians when I just made items materialize out of thin air. But I would just have to add that to the pile of things I still had to address when I wasn’t mid-fight. “Now how about you settle down and wait for the police to arrive to drag your slimy ass to prison.”

This struck a nerve and Gio rushed forward as fast as he could, swinging his massive fist hard. He was noticeably slower, but I still activated Float Like A Butterfly and dodged under the attack, striking him in his side once again. This time, my enhanced blow found purchase and his health dropped by another 15%. He whipped his tail as fast as he could manage in his weakened state, trying to take my legs out from under me but I jumped, barely skipping over it as I circled to his other side.

With my ten seconds up, Float Like A Butterfly went on cooldown just as Gio struck again. I barely got my arms up in time, crossing them in front of me as his fist struck. Unlike his earlier backhand, this one didn’t send me flying, though even with the debuff it still felt like getting smacked with a shovel. I had to grit my teeth as my health dropped by a noticeable chunk.

Before he could attack again, I slid to the side and threw a punch right for his injured shoulder while he was still crouched low enough. I managed to strike him directly in the bullet wounds with the last strike of Sting Like A Bee and a gasp of pain was strangled from Gio’s throat as his health dropped into critical territory. He lunged again, attempting to latch his jaws onto my shoulder but his weakened state and the damage I had done was slowing him down. As I sidestepped the attack, he went crashing into the pavement, the weight of his body creating a small crater in the street.

His health had dropped so low that I was sure I could finish him off with a single strike, but the gnawing feeling in my gut hadn’t let up. I walked around him, dodging a weak attempt at a grab as I put myself into his line of sight. Gio seemed thoroughly winded as his body panted and steamed.

“Who’s Snakebite?” I asked, noticing The Snake Key mission in my tracker on the side shaking ever so slightly.

Gio started to laugh, a disturbing cackle that echoed against the cars and high walls of the buildings. He halfheartedly clawed at me again, not even bothering to try to get closer. His skin was flaking and sizzling as he lay there, and his shallow breaths were coming heavier and heavier.

“What the hell is happening?!” I asked, watching as the last bit of his health started to slowly chisel away.

“Lookssss like power comessss with a price. Sssssssnakebite will rule… thisssss… city,” Gio hissed out a final heavy breath before his body went limp. Only a second later, his entire form began to pop and sizzle before it burned into ashes in the blink of an eye. While this might have explained what had happened with Sal, it wouldn’t explain why there had been a snakeskin that had been left behind in Sal’s place and nothing but ash where Gio had once lain. It left me wondering just how different Sal’s transformation was to the temporary injection Gio had given himself. I couldn’t believe that he would have taken the injection if he knew that was going to be his fate.

As I was quickly getting used to, a stack of notifications appeared as my fight came to an end. I opened them, just to get them out of the way.

"Misfortune Abound! This ability has increased to level 2. This is a Passive ability. Negative effects to enemies now occur with a chance equal to 1.5% for every 1 point of Luck you have minus their current level. This ability has not been augmented."

"Float Like A Butterfly! This ability has increased to level 2. The duration of this skill has increased from 10 seconds to 15 seconds. This ability has not been augmented."

“Phase Points Gained! Kill Non-Sentient Augment (NEW): You have killed a non-sentient Augment, this is slightly less impressive since he wasn’t technically an Elite, but it’s still worth something nonetheless. This is worth points equal to the defeated Augment’s level times 25. Total Value: 150 points. Survivor (NEW): You survived being ambushed with a more difficult challenge than you had planned for. There’s a lot of things that go into quantifying this one and it’s way above my paygrade but good job, you did it. 200 points for each rank higher than the location’s initially advertised rank. Total Value: 200 points. Basebreaker (NEW): You’ve disrupted an enemy base within a territory you have an active claim on. Value equal to Base’s Rank (Bronze equals one, Silver equals two, etc.) times 250. Total Value: 500 points. Crowdpleaser: Complete an Encounter with an Audience of Sentient NPCs. 10 points per NPC. Total Value: 80 points.”

“10th Precinct Assignment: Silver Level Viper Den - Hell’s Kitchen : CLEARED! You have successfully subdued all of the Viper’s Biker Gang members at this Den, police will be by momentarily to collect the remaining living opponent. Hell’s Kitchen Viper Dens Cleared: 1 of 12. Reward: You have received 1000 Credits and a Small Reputation Boost.”

I attempted to loot the ashes but found that there wasn’t even a tangible object left for me to target. I might have been annoyed by it, if I wasn’t really just relieved that I had managed to make my way through the fight without any lasting damage. Although to be fair, I was starting to get really tired of snakes.

I looked over and saw as the driver was just starting to pull himself out of his car. He was covered in some scraps and a little bit of blood, but for the most part he wasn’t any worse for wear. A few seconds later, a pair of police lights came barreling around the corner.

As always, their timing was impeccable.