I managed to retain consciousness. A feat that I wasn’t sure served as a testament to my willpower or a symbol of my misery. Since it was probably both, I shoved that trauma into the small box I mentally labeled ‘deaths’. A collection of experiences I doubt anyone could match, not more than once, at least.

The true driving force behind my ability to stay awake after… being eaten alive?

That abysmal feeling of overwhelming pain and mindblowing nothingness assaulted me as a phantom sensation. A shiver across my skin. A shake in my bones and flesh. I—

I mastered myself.

I wanted to watch the thing die. That was all. Yet the desire burned inside of me like a fire worse than the one I had set to the rootmother. An all-consuming flame that ate away at even the memories of my deaths.

Anger. No, hatred. Rage. A singular target I could blame for all this hell, if only for now. If only for as long as it would last before being brought to ash. That was enough.

My original self stood there, staring for nearly an hour. The survivors below found themselves, their friends, their acquaintances, and organized themselves. Arguments, discussions, disbelief, and horrible recollection.

Still, I stared. The high-pitched keening of the rootmother a faint music to my ears. I almost wished I could hear it again, that I was infected once more, just so I could hear its cries. Did that make me sick? Or just as twisted?

The fire raged, an inferno to rival my own, flames licking upward out of the windows. Each fickle part of the fire, a torrent of heat, towering like elemental skyscrapers themselves. Hunting. Searching for fuel.

For the Field Boss.

It started at its roots, its tendrils which stretched all over the clearing. They curled up, drying and crackling in the heat. When the first lick of flame touched the rootmother’s main body, it was as if someone had opened a portal to hell, just to hear the sounds.

The skyscraper collapsed, falling away from the swamp tree. With it, the Field Boss toppled over, curling up in the heat. A plume of fire, debris, and ash erupted as the impact shook the clearing. Every part of it wriggling, writhing, and dying. When the flames died down, everyone was watching it, wondering who had set the fire.

Wondering who had killed the thing and saved them all.

I sent a clone in to make sure it was dead.

“Hey! Careful, that thing’s dangerous.” Someone jumped to his feet, calling after me.

Another voice called to him and he pointed at me but my clone was already lost in the smoke, coughing, going through the ashes. I stepped forward, a figure amongst black snowfall—

[Notice]: You have defeated the Field Boss [Rootmother Hivemind]! You have gained the Title: [Hivemind Dominator]

[Notice]: You are the first in the world to slay a Field Boss! You have gained the Title: [First Slayer]

[Notice]: You are the first in the world to slay a Field Boss alone! You have gained the Title: [Solo Slayer]

[Notice] Due to the attainment of multiple Titles through a single monumental feat, their effects will be modified and consolidated. You have gained the Title: [Trailblazing Vanquisher of the Hivemind]

[Notice]: You have leveled up multiple times: Level 23.

[Notice]: You have gained the Class Skill: [Solo’s Sanctuary].

The notices came to me with a gentle suddenness. An easy immediacy. Enough for my mental gaze to flick toward them but not be distracted. I read skimmed through the notices, too tired to care for anything but confirmation, even as my mental perusal paused on some of them. Only one thing mattered at this moment.

I had done it. I had killed it.

I dropped to my knees, plopping down in a cloud of ash. Coughing, crying. “I did it.”

[Notice]: Congratulations! You have achieved a feat worthy of recognition on the global scale! Would you like your name broadcasted?

[Notice]: Congratulations! You have achieved a feat worthy of recognition on the local scale! Would you like your name broadcasted?

Recognition? None of this was motivated by the need for glory. It was the need for a counterblow against the apocalypse. That something could be done. I shrugged off the notices faintly understanding their significance, and all too tired to really care.

Emotions flooded me and I navigated my way out of the smoke, finding people staring. Not at me, but at something more. A couple of strangers found me, fussing over me. And then I saw the same thing they did, messages waiting for me to notice in that same unobtrusive manner.

Only different. Grander, somehow.

[World Notice]: Someone has achieved a feat worthy of global recognition! He is the first in the world to slay a Field Boss as well as the first to do so alone!

[Area Notice]: Someone has achieved a feat worthy of local recognition! The Field Boss [Rootmother Hivemind] has been defeated!

Most of the people were focused on getting their bearings but there were was enough talk in the air, even as I was ferried over to a number of people need medical treatment. There was a multitude of neck injuries.

“Hey, you guys are seeing this right?” A man groaned, looking towards the cloud of ashes. “This Field Boss, that’s… that was that, wasn’t it?”

“Someone killed it.” A woman said blankly, staring.

“Alone.” Another injured person said. “Who was it? I heard there was someone saving us, at the end. Did he set the fire?”

“But… how the hell did they do it? I can’t—”

The first cheer broke the silence of the aftermath with such lonesome volume as to raise heads and turn stiff necks.

It turned mine too and I found a woman there, a pair of blue eyes, brunette hair. She was just another face among the crowd, tears streaming down her face, pain written across her features. I could’ve found the same on anyone else.

But she was the one I had saved, in the last moments of my clone’s life. I’d remember. It was the first time I’d sacrificed myself for anyone.

And she was yelling. An unintelligible yell, a cry of emotion that was unbecoming of her. Before all this, she would’ve gotten hundreds of stares. Now? The cry filled the chest with emotion.

And hundreds of people began to cheer.