There wasn’t a moment to spare to discuss tactics. The unholy abomination came scuttling toward us like a tarantula, swinging each of its four arms in indiscernible patterns. Jazz took center stage as our vanguard, and just when it appeared that she would be their first target, the beast veered off in Erina’s direction.

I reached into my [Cat Pack] and summoned one of the potions I’d created so long ago. Ripping the stopper with my teeth, I cleared it in three gulps. Warmth spread through my veins and some of the aching in my side subsided. It wasn’t a permanent fix, but I didn’t have time to get back to Cannoli.

Turning my attention back to Erina, I flexed my fingers around my axe. Metal clanged together, and although Erina was quick, she couldn’t manage to land a blow and evade simultaneously. Blood soared through the air when one of their blades met her shoulder, spraying a good deal of it onto me as they made me their next target.

“Matt, look out!” Erina screamed with her hand against her shoulder.

My breath caught when all my brain could define was the whirlwind of blades hurling toward me. Against my better judgment, I dove at the Defiled, axe in hand, and swung my blade at the spot where the legs were stitched together. Blood sprayed on the way through, and although I tumbled on my way out between its legs, I managed to rise to my feet before it had a chance to make a one-eighty and charge me down.

“The one with the axe,” jeered one head.

“The one with the axe,” whispered the other.

A lump swelled in my throat. I swallowed hard as my fight-or-flight response warred with itself. When I could see how close the Defiled was to Ravyn, Keke, and Cannoli, fight won. Blades spun and rotated with the deafening stomp of the beast’s footsteps. Its charge was slower this time, more deliberate.

I gritted my teeth, unable to follow any of its arms in preparation for what was to come. Erina and Ceres took to my flanks, their weapons extended.

“We’re going to get blended together like this!” I screamed. Blood pumped furiously through my veins as the scenario of the girls getting cut up into pieces along with me invaded my mind’s eye.

“Not on this day,” muttered Ceres. “[Titan of Ice]!” My eyes widened as she screamed out the Skill that I had first associated her with. The icy-blue aura around her polearm disappeared, and a crystalline bubble wrapped around the three of us. Just before the Defiled could strike it, a dozen different scenarios played in my head for how this could go—all of them bad.

The Defiled reared up and struck the barrier with its two front legs. The barrier vibrated and shook, and ice enveloped the Defiled’s front legs, snaring them in place.

“They will not move, Sister,” the left head spoke.

“Why will they not move?” said the other.

One of the four arms struck at the shield again. As the arm moved away to ready another strike, it, too, froze in place. One after another, each arm struck the icy blockade in a vain attempt to shatter our defenses. Each strike formed greater and greater cracks in the barrier, my heart skipping each time one of the Defiled’s many strikes clashed against the crystal-like wall.

My breathing turned rapid, and before I knew it, all that was left was the Defiled’s torso. Save for the back legs, each of its limbs had been snared with frost.

“They think they have us,” said the right head.

“But they do not,” said the left one.

“Remember what I said about this move last time, Matt?” Ceres asked, her lips twisting into a smirk much too wide for such a modest catgirl like her.

“Yeah,” I somehow managed to say, “I remember.”

“This next one will do it,” she whispered.

“We need to run,” I said to Erina.

“And abandon her?” she yelled, gaping at me incredulously.

“Now!” I bellowed.

Erina frowned and furrowed her brow but said no more. The two of us darted away from Ceres, running to Jazz’s side. Ceres readied the point of her polearm toward the center of the beast’s gargantuan mass and waited.

“They left you,” said one.

“You’ll die now,” said the other.

A cavity appeared in the chest of the Defiled, tearing apart what little clothing covered its deformed skin. There wasn’t any time to respond. The point of another enormous blade shot out of its cavity like a damn crossbow. It struck the barrier like damp tissue, piercing through and slashing Ceres’ bicep on its way through. Pieces of her plate armor flew away with the strike as the weapon hurled its way past us and into the forest somewhere.

“Ceres!” I reached out. I wanted to run to her so badly.

“Don’t!” she commanded. The plate covering her left shoulder had been dismantled and torn to pieces. Red ran down her arm like a river of blood. I couldn’t just leave her there, could I? “You’ll only get in the way!”

There was nothing left to discuss. The barrier flickered, then shattered outward, like shards of glass blowing in every direction. Glittering ice speckled the Defiled’s entire body in a shower of tiny blue fragments. Ceres dug her polearm into the ground and fell to one knee, leaning on the shaft of her weapon for support.

“Trickery!” said one of the heads.

“Foul trickery!” the other said.

Ice overtook the abomination within seconds. It backed away in a useless attempt to fight back the effects of the ice—when frost had covered it from head to toe, it fell forward. I’d expected the front legs to snap due to the impact, but they held firm as the giant body collapsed.

Ceres panted as she rose to her feet. “To me, my companions!”

As if she needed to ask. Erina took to her right, and I took her left. Jazz situated herself behind us, daggers held between her fingers. Past the Defiled, out of the corner of my eye, Keke’s bow was readied, a palm of fire rested in Ravyn’s hand.

There wasn’t going to be a better chance to strike it down.

“[Pinpoint Weakness],” Jazz muttered. A moment of pause. “Top arm. Her left shoulder. Can’t miss it.”

Erina and Ceres struggled to maintain proper posture with their weapons. I was sure both of their [Strength] values were higher than mine—if they could use both of their arms. As it was, we couldn’t risk it.

“Let me,” I offered. “Both my arms are still okay.”

“My apologies, my Lord,” Ceres breathed through rapid panting.

I shook my head. “You’ve done enough. It’ll be over soon.” I moved to stand in front of the group and took my axe into both hands. “[Adrenaline Rush].” Blood coursed through my veins like molten lead. My senses perked up, and my muscles tightened. With one wild swing, I threw everything I had into cleaving the arm off. Flesh tore apart with ease, bits and pieces of frozen blood shattering apart and falling to the ground.

“There it is,” Jazz growled. The red-headed crimelord shouldered her way past Ceres and Erina, repositioning one of her daggers into a reverse grip. She wore a dark look as she observed the source of our struggles—an enormous insect-like creature. It fell out of the arm like the nut from an avocado, frozen and helpless.

The world’s largest and creepiest roly-poly.

The insect wouldn’t receive a painless death. Jazz met its shell with the heel of her boot. Bits of the creature crunched and fell apart. A wicked smile twisted her lips. “Burn in Hell.” She stomped it again. Then again, and again. I lost count of how many times she’d brought her foot down. The ice was beginning to melt off of the Defiled, as well as the insect. It squealed and screeched at Jazz. Her smile widened as shet knelt to stab it repeatedly.

We all watched in silence as Jazz took her aggressions out on the insect. As much as I struggled to understand how this thing could’ve been responsible for the deaths of the catgirls prior, all I could assume was that it had somehow taken control of the body in some fashion.

Goosebumps covered my arms at the thought of some wriggling roly-poly crawling and scuttling through flesh and blood.

Jazz was clearly over it. When she rose to her feet, she was decorated in an array of red and green fluids, assumedly the blood from both the host and its parasite. I’d expected her to gag or maybe even cry. She didn’t. Instead she laughed.

“Good fucking riddance,” she growled.

My shoulders slumped. My breathing slowed. It was finally over. I looked past the corpse of the Defiled to see Keke, Cannoli, and Ravyn smiling. Even at this distance, I could tell they were just as out of breath as I was.

I collapsed backward, sitting in the damp, bloodsoaked grass without caring about either. “I’m exhausted.” The searing pain across my abs and side reminded me that they were still there, and still just as bloody. “Damn, I really pushed it.”

Erina laughed. “I think we all did.” She dropped her greatsword in front of her, and she knelt down. “A lot of those skills will take it out of you. I’m glad to see another [Warrior]. Maybe a [Battleguard] in-training?”

The idea struck me. “Is that where those abilities came from?”

Erina nodded. “Maybe when you get strong enough, I’ll teach you some of what I know.”

I smiled. “I think I’d like that.”

“Matt! Let me heal you!” Cannoli cried, jogging toward us.

“Cannoli, wait!” Keke made to follow her.

“Stop!” Ravyn screamed out. “Keke, Cannoli! Come back! Now!” I shot to my feet and looked to where she was—between a few of the trees in the distance. “It’s not dead!” She shivered. “It’s coming—”

It was too late. A part of me couldn’t process what had just happened. A splatter of blood showered my flank within my peripheral vision, coloring my world red. As I turned to my right, I caught one of Erina’s arms flying through the air.

Her scream was deafening. She fell backward, gripping at the spot where her left arm used to be. The soil was quickly soaking with the sanguine liquid pouring out of the socket. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Just moments ago, she was talking to me about [Battleguard]. What the fuck had just happened? Hadn’t we won?

I sat there in shock while Ceres and Jazz tended to Erina’s arm. Ceres shoved the side of her hand into Erina’s mouth to quiet her down. It didn’t help me much. I couldn’t hear much of anything. All I could hear was ringing.

Something possessed me though. I rose to my feet and looked over in the direction where the blade from the Defiled’s core had flown. Out of the bushes lurched one of the catgirls in Marianne’s group that had died on our way to Sorentina. I didn’t know her name, but I recognized her. Or at least, what was left of her.

She was mangled and had a poor time walking. Half of her head had been eaten away in some fashion. An eye was missing. Patches of skin had the remnants of teeth marks scratched in. Her left calf was chewed to clumped gore, and—save for the scraps of clothing hanging off of her limbs—she was completely nude.

Someone—or something had chewed her apart however they liked, leaving the torso completely intact.

“Blood for blood,” the catgirl gurgled.