Ank

“VUUUSH!”, from four of the dozens of eyes that covered the fleshy boulder, red laser beams, even stronger than the ones the previous boss shot, came forward and dug deep trenches into the surface of the very tiny fake planet, even vitrifying the sand on its surface.

“Get back!”, I shouted to the three other adventurers, as I jumped away from the deadly attacks.

“What is happening?! Why haven’t we been sent back yet!”, Tapa cried, the fear clear in her voice.

“It’s okay, we just have to defeat one more enemy”, I looked back and tried to sound confidant. But I saw Jao’s expression, the frustration of not being able to do a thing, and the visible comprehension that Hunah and I were far from our 100%. I understood all of that. But I had to say anyway: “Now, get back. It’s an order from your leader, right?”, I smiled.

As the trio run away from the flying monster, I conjured myself a copper spear, pointed to my still alive [Jaguar Headed Serpent] (the other two summons dying to keep one of the enemies distracted), and made it a (boss), raising it to [Level: 112].

As Hunah fell back; my twin sister have been distracting the newest monster for just a few seconds, but already displayed dozens of new cauterized wounds from the mortal lasers; I jumped forward, pulling my spear back, prepared to deal a critical hit straight into one of the enemy’s eyes. However, precisely because the creature had almost no blind spot in its front half, it quickly spotted me, and shot a red beam straight through my belly: blood didn’t come out, but smoke, and someone could even see behind me through the hole.

As I lost momentum and fell to the ground, Hunah attacked again, slicing all over the bright red flesh under the rocky parts that moved, and distracting the enemy enough so I jumped away from it.

“Ank!”, Tapa screamed, terror clear in her voice as that wound was clearly worse than anything I suffered during that small [Dungeon] adventure.

“Wait to heal me only after this is over”, I replied, seeing my twin sister being quickly forced to retread again; the monster seemed to have no weak spots, the fleshy exposed part with so many eyes that could kill us just by staring at their targets, and it's outer surface being of solid rock, impenetrable.

As I grabbed onto my summon and let it pull me away from a new volley or red light, I looked around and trying to figure out how could we possibly defeat that thing.

“The portal is still open”, I screamed to my twin sister, pointing the big oval and two-dimensional red energy thing from where the monster had come from.

Hunah immediately got it, but as she tried to push the enemy back, she failed once again; the multiple lasers stopping any of us from doing much.

“Make a distraction”, I ordered my summon, as I jumped from it.

The snake-like creature with a Felidae head and fur growing down its spine growled and quickly slithered towards the monster, making it show me just a little of its back. Which I went after, reaching for the back of the floating rocky/meaty thing, as Hunah prepared herself to destroy the red and glowing circle beneath us, the obvious source of whatever was powering the portal.

Then, when I was already too close to go back, the dark gray stone from the back of the monster shook, cracked, and revealed that it was also covering more laser-shooting eyes and drooling mouths.

The eyes were already glowing; the son of a bitch must have let them prepared beforehand.

“ANK!”, Hunah cried, voice displaying emotion as we, twins, did rarely times; she was too far to reach me, but she tried anyway.

Shit.

I pulled my hand back, and prepared my hit anyways: with luck, my spear wouldn’t vanish before impacting the monster and push it back as I died. This way, at least, Hunah and the others would survive and, hey, I’d be happy if I managed to bring down a [God] with me.

Just as I was being blinded by the increasingly more intense light just about to pierce me, as the world slowed down under the perception that I was about to die, I felt something on my shoulders: it pushed me away from the incoming attack.

As I fell to the side, I saw the smiling face of Jao.

“My little b-”, he couldn’t finish his phrase, as half a dozen red and thin lines crossed his body all over, chopping all of him a fuming pile of meaty cubes, which fall all over me, bloodless, the wounds cauterized.

“Ja-”, before I could even properly process what had just happened, I was interrupted:

“GRAAAAAAH!”, Nif let out a war cry I didn’t hear in any fight before, his goofy eight-eyed face suddenly distorted by hatred and pain as he dashed after the killer of his friend, our friend, preparing to shot an arrow at the monster.

As the [Voider] turned around, finishing splitting my summon in three separate parts, it still had half of its “front” eyes energized, and silenced Nif before he could even get the satisfaction of hurting the floating [God], putting a hole through my companion’s head, and two others into his chest. As if his body hadn’t realized immediately that he had died, Nif stepped forwards a couple more times, before falling, face first, onto the sandy surface of the fake planet.

“NOOOOO!”, Tapa came running next, letting herself fall on her knees between her friends. “[R- R- REFRESH!]”, she tried to heal them, uselessly, as tears fell down her cheeks nonstop.

The [God] was already preparing itself for another hit, but by them I was already back to my senses and, gritting my teeth, I reached the enemy, this time for real, digging both my hands, and even my head, into the squeezy and disgusting surface of the deity: as I pushed the immensely heavy monster, one step at the time, sparks flew from the pressure I put against the shield that protected the actual [Health Points] of the monster, and the enemy’s hundreds of teeth bit into me all over, piercing and destroying my copper armor easily, and I screamed in pain, physical and emotional, as the [God]’s saliva was acid, and memories from the journey I had with my deceased companions up to that point came back all one after another.

I screamed, forcing the monster out of the portal, but by the time the enemy had gathered all the necessary energy inside its multiple eyeballs to shot more of its deadly lasers, I had only forced half of the creature back wherever it had come from.

Hunah shouted, and took her chances, hitting the ground anyway, as both of us could only hope that it would work, and the portal wouldn’t break and let the enemy intact: as she hit the ground with all her mighty, cracks crossed the entire glowing red magical circle beneath us, the fake planet trembled, and sand and rock flew upwards, as if a star had fallen to the ground; Hunah’s hand and arm were just as damaged as the arena beneath her feet, the skin splitting open all over her arm, and blood gushing out of it.

And the portal broke, vanishing.

But disappearing alongside half of the [God]’s body too: the hit had dealt so much damage, it zeroed the shield and [Health Points] of the enemy in a single second, perfectly cutting the horrendous flying fleshy boulder in half, when the red light vanished from its eyes, and a ton of broken lose entrails fell off the body, at the same time the heavy enemy stopped floating and fell dead, immobile, onto the ground.