Hunters swarmed the Volpoda on all sides, like ants on a worm. The sounds of steel on hard exoskeleton and bright flashes of light polluted the air, coupled with yells and curses. It didn’t take too long for them to realize that they needed to attack the joints between the armor plates.

The Volpoda jerked and attacked in kind. Its hundreds of legs lashed out at the Hunters, but with the Hunters working together, it couldn’t move very much. As soon as it did, another Hunter took advantage of it on the other side. Even so, it was a hard fight and the weaker Hunters kept needing to fall back to get healed by the constantly working Healers.

While it was considerably weaker, the small bursts of lightning that covered the Volpoda could still render an unsuspecting Hunter numb and defenseless for a couple seconds if it hit him or her at full strength. Perfectly vulnerable to being stabbed by the sharp end of a leg. At least three Hunters were lost before they figured out how to stay away from the largest lightning arcs.

Kesstel and I didn’t have the opportunity to dodge the lightning. My barrier did help dull the constant jolts, but it only made them manageable, not go away. We were still stuck under the Volpoda. It obviously wanted to attack the Hunters fully, but it seemed reluctant to let Kesstel or me up. It also hadn’t attempted to fly since Kesstel knocked it down and I broke the antennae. But I didn’t have the time to consider why, I was too busy trying not to get squished, stabbed, or electrocuted.

Kesstel wasn’t too much better than me. Sweat dripped down his forehead and his arms trembled as he kept holding the Boss up over us. While I wasn’t holding the Boss up, I could feel the weight of it pressing down on my barrier. It was heavy as hell, especially when it was moving around like it was.

“Come on!” Leader Charlie reached out through gaps between two legs, obviously trying to assist us. She didn’t seem to notice the strong arc of lightning that scrambled like a freaky bug along the bottom of the Volpoda towards her.

I thrust out my hand and sent a small mist block out at her. She was hit directly in the chest and thrown back fifteen feet just as the lightning reached for her. A small yellow line touched her fingers as she went back, but the majority of the attack missed her. A split second later, a leg stabbed down where she used to be. The dry ground cracked from the force. Charlie landed next to a group of Healers, dazed, but okay.

The thick dust in the air permeating my mist made it hard to breathe. I looked at Kesstel while blinking sweat out of my eyes. “I can’t reach the energy crystal. We need to take this plate off or something.”

He nodded then looked at the group of Hunters directed by Blood Sword to our right. They’d been trying for a while to get us out, but nothing they did made the Volpoda move. Even with my sword in it, it obviously thought we were better under it than free.

“Attack the head!” Kesstel yelled out. “Use magic!”

Blood Sword glanced at Kesstel then nodded. I couldn’t hear what he said to the other Hunters, but seconds later, a large group of Mages, with several Melee Hunters to protect them, rushed to join the Redding group at the head. A mass of magic exploded on Volpoda’s head. Colors flared and blended as magic hit other magic, blending into a rainbow wave of power almost as big as the lightning bomb the Boss had set off.

I winced as the shock wave smacked right into us, threatening to blow away my mist barrier. Kesstel shifted until he was between me and the explosion.

The Volpoda shuddered like an earthquake, then it reared back, lifting its head and thirty feet in the air.

I didn’t even take the time to draw a relieved breath. Instantly, I flipped around and braced my feet against the belly of the Boss and gripped the razor sharp edge of the armor plate with my hands. With the same mind, Kesstel mirrored my position at the same time. We didn’t even need to count out loud before we both gripped the edge of the shell and pressed up with our legs as hard as we could. Black blood and clear liquid lightning dripped around my hands and smeared the bottom of my boots, making it hard to hold onto, but I refused to let go.

I grunted as the armor plate resisted us, trying to stop our movements.

“Ha!” Kesstel and I yelled at the same time with a burst of power in our legs.

CRACK!

The whole armor plate broke away from the Boss’s body. The Volpoda jerked and froze, as if in a silent scream. Every single Mega Annelid in the whole city wiggled violently in their holes, as if responding to the Boss’s reaction. It caused the ground to tremor, making the Hunters around us stumble.

My eyes narrowed as I was suddenly free falling. I let go of the armor plate and Kesstel pushed the twenty-by-ten foot shell out of the way with one hand. His other hand swung up, his sword gleaming in the harsh desert light as he slashed through the thick pink meat above him.

My toes touched the ground and I instantly launched back up. My kindjal appeared in my hand, the blade growing ten feet long, as I rocketed up towards where Kesstel just cut. My toes tapped on his shoulder. He fell down and I shot up, using him as a springboard to put more power in my attack.

My Mist Blade sliced right through pink flesh all the way up the hilt. Just as I came to an abrupt stop with enough force to make the off balanced Boss’s long body bend, the tip hit the energy crystal.

The Boss exploded in millions of tiny lights.

[+45,000 EXP]

[You have Leveled Up!]

[You have Leveled Up!]

Suddenly, I was free falling again. This time I didn't bother to control my movements. Instead, I went limp and fell right into Kesstel’s arms. Three Drop Orbs fell down not far away. I waved my hand and drew them with me using Telekinesis.

“Oh my god,” I moaned, breathing hard. All traces of the Volpoda had disappeared, but I could still feel the phantom shocks coursing through my muscles. It was enough to make my head ache as much as my body. “I thought that thing was never going to die.” Now that I could finally breathe, I pressed on Kesstel’s chest and made him set my feet down. He had to be as tired as I was.

“That armor sure was a pain in the ass,” he agreed. After helping me stand, he rested his arm across my shoulder and leaned some of his weight on me. A fair exchange.

The rest of the Hunters were busy cursing with shock that the Boss disappeared right in front of their eyes, lying painfully on the ground being treated, or checking on their teammates. Another group created a ring around the Hunters, keeping the Mega Annelids back. Five bodies were lined up on the side of the busy group, covered in blankets.

I watched the Hunters move around us like worker ants. “I’m glad you were here,” I said softly to Kesstel. Without a doubt, I would have been a lot more hurt without him. Not to mention, I didn’t know if it was because Kesstel’s attitude affected me or if I was just relieved to not be alone anymore, but I wasn’t nearly as nervous with this fight compared to others.

He nodded. “It’s been so long since I fought side by side with another, I forgot how enjoyable it was.”

A battleworn Blood Sword walked up to us, leading a small group of people behind him. “Are you okay?”

He hadn’t even finished his question before Jonovan stepped around Blood Sword and motioned for me to step away from Kesstel. Even as Healer, he hadn’t come out of the day’s fight unscathed. There were multiple rips and blood stains on his blue robes, and his long brown hair was lopsided and tangled. It was the most disheveled I’ve ever seen this mellow man. “Where are you most hurt?” he asked, even though his hands were already glowing gold.

I shook my head. “Nowhere in general, just all around.”

He nodded and proceeded to give me a full doctor check up.

In the meantime, Blood Sword was talking with Kesstel. “As the leading information source of everything that doesn't make sense, what happened? Where did that monster come from? I’ve never seen a monster that strong outside of the Gate.”

“That,” Kesstel said, his voice flat as it usually was when he was talking to anyone but me, “was the Boss of the Las Vegas Portal.”

Quebec’s Logan Fortin lifted his thick eyebrows high on his square forehead. “The Boss that we needed to kill to close the Portal?” Exhaustion thickened his French accent. Just like everyone else, he was covered in black and red blood. There were countless scratches on his black steel armor, and his left arm bracer was completely missing. “How did the Boss get on Earth?”

“I brought it out.” Kesstel shrugged at the other people’s shocked faces. “It was better for it to come out, instead of all the Hunters going in. A Portal isn’t like Earth or the Gates. At least we’d have a home turf battle, instead of being at the mercy of an alien environment.”

Blood Sword scowled. “That was a dangerous gamble. What if it got away? An S-ranked monster could wipe out the human race by itself.”

Kesstel tilted his head to the side, frowning. “A worthwhile gamble. Every Hunter here was willing to lay down their lives to make sure it didn’t get away. I sure as hell wouldn’t let it, especially since I brought it here. I figured it was less of a risk than every Hunter here going into the Portal and risking the chance of getting locked inside it when the Boss died. How would North America fare if half its best people disappeared?” He left that hanging and turned to me. “Are you better?”

“Yes.” I smiled at Kesstel. How much of that did he make up on the spot? It was a pretty convincing argument, especially since the real reason was I — and I alone — couldn't go inside the Portal. As it was, the originally disapproving faces of the people stiffened as the possibilities flashed through their minds. They obviously didn’t know what to think about it all now.

Jonovan stepped away from me and lowered his hand. “All better. Now let me look at you, Kesstel.”

He waved his hand. “That’s not needed.”

My lips pursed, but I didn’t object. Healers could find out a lot about the physical state of the person they were healing. If Jonovan was able to tell that I’d leveled up so high, he’d be able to tell that Kesstel wasn’t from Earth either. I would have bet Kesstel never used a Healer, which was just as well. He was mostly indestructible, and he healed naturally just like me.

Jonovan wasn’t ready to give up. “That’s not right. I can see with my eyes that you have injuries.” He motioned to the tears in Kesstel’s clothing.

Kesstel reached out and brushed his over the cut material on his shoulder, wiping away the black blood on his pale skin. He was perfectly intact underneath, without even a bruise. “None of it’s mine.” He said that, but I knew for sure that some of the blood on his body was his. It was just the same color as the monster’s blood so it was impossible to tell what was what.

Jonovan hummed, but didn’t have room to argue any more.

“What happened to the Boss’s body?” Blood Sword asked. “It turned into a million lights. It is dead, right?” His face pinched in a scowl. “It didn’t teleport somewhere else, or anything?”

“It’s dead,” I assured him, drawing everyone’s eyes to me. “I killed it for sure.”

I wouldn’t be able to get the EXP without that. In the past, I wouldn’t have gotten EXP from it because I fought with other Hunters. If the kindjal absorbed the energy of the crystals, purified it, then fed it back to me as EXP, if I’d killed the Volpoda in the past, Goddess would have simply kept the energy for later. It was a way that forced me to not lean on others and take the easy way out to get stronger. But now that Goddess was with me, that wasn’t an option. Although I could feel a bud of power buried in my soul that she was keeping in reserve for herself, for the most part our powers were shared.

I waved my hand to a clear patch of dirt not far away. The Volpoda’s empty exoskeleton appeared in a pile, the huge pieces thudding disjointedly together. It was so sudden, several tightly strung Hunters actually brandished their weapons at the mountain of monster carcass. Even though I was ready for it, it was creepy to see the empty husk of the Boss’s head lying there on the side, the eyes nothing but gaping black holes.

Tyson, who was closest to the head, actually jumped in shock, his sword popping out. “God! How did, what …?” His face wrinkled in distaste at the huge exoskeleton skull as he tapped it with the tip of his long sword.

It wasn’t just the complete exoskeleton that I got from the Drop Orbs. I also got five gallons of the clear liquid that the Volpoda secreted, and an orb full of crackling lightning. What I was supposed to do with those, I didn’t know. I didn’t mind handing the exoskeleton over, because it was fairly a spoil of war. Even if it was a short time, everyone had a hand in fighting the Volpoda, and some even died for it.

“Where did you get that?” Jonovan muttered in shock.

I glanced at him. “Um … A special ability? … Never mind.”

If that was shocking enough, how was I going to explain the Boss liquid and lightning orb? Especially the lightning orb. Magic stones were common enough, but a glass ball holding a bunch of lightning? Nope. I didn’t even know if I could touch it without getting blasted. In theory, I should be able to, but I wasn’t ready to test that without rubber gloves. I’d wait to handle those without an audience, thank you very much.

After all, Kesstel deserved half the money from them.

To distract Blood Sword, who was getting ready to talk, I activated an item transfer to him. He immediately focused on the Guide screen that popped up in front of him, requesting that he accept the Volpoda carcass.

I smiled slightly and nodded toward the pile of exoskeleton. “You should keep that. You’d know what to do with it more than me.”

“The Portal is gone,” Kesstel added. “So monsters will stop filling up the area. All that’s left are the ones that haven’t been killed yet. A large part of the previous monsters have probably already been eaten by the worms.” He glanced at me, gauging my reaction. “Jyn and I will start working on them. You can join us when you’re ready.”

I frowned at him. “Are you rested enough?”

“Of course.” There was no room to argue with the confidence in those two words. He looked around the ruined city, nothing but piles of rubble, sand, and dancing worms. “There’s nothing to worry about anymore, is there?” he asked Blood Sword. “I can move freely now?”

The Hunter accepted the item exchange and nodded at Kesstel. “It’s not like you can accidentally bury the Portal anymore.”

Kesstel looked at me and jerked his chin in the direction of the closest Mega Annelid. “Shall we?”

Without any restrictions, Kesstel could use his magic to get rid of dozens of monsters in one swing. I was going to have to work out hard to keep up. A smile curled my lips as a challenge lit in my chest. “You bet.”

*****