The Boss lifted his giant front pincers, using them as shields against the Kesstel’s magic attack.

As Kesstel’s magic attack charged towards the Scorpionman’s torso, I used the thin mist that I’d spread across the whole area and Warped to right behind the joint, where the stinger attached to the tail. I was already swinging before my body was fully congealed. The ten-foot Mist Blade slashed right where the two pieces of exoskeleton met and sent a spray of black blood as I sliced through the soft flesh.

The Boss jerked in pain and his pincers shifted ever so slightly, but it was enough. Half of Kesstel’s powerful attack exploded on the wide pincers. There wasn’t even a scratch on the hard exoskeleton. The other half hit the Scorpionman’s fleshy torso, causing an explosion that made him stumble back. The light faded, revealing gaping holes in the gray skin. Pools of black blood dropped to the ground.

While it was still reeling back in pain, I Warped to stand in front of Kesstel and lifted my hands. As soon as I appeared, he paused, stopping whatever attack he was about to do. I thickened the Mist around the Boss’s human body until the monster disappeared from normal eyesight. Then I turned the mist into poison mist. Hopefully the Scorpionman was hurt enough for the poison to take effect. I was an S Boss, too, but the Scorpionman was still six levels higher than me. My brows tightened together as I tried to force the poison mist against the bleeding wounds. Unfortunately, I could see how the injuries were already starting to heal and a thin layer of skin was starting to stop the bleeding.

I tsked under my breath and retracted the poison mist except for around the head. “Be careful of the head,” I warned Kesstel. “I don’t know if that mist will hurt you or not.”

“Noted.” He softly brushed his left finger — his right hand was covered in blood — around the shell of my ear and flashed a soft smile before he jumped back in action.

I rolled my eyes at him, but a smile still tugged at my lips.

Still, I couldn’t help but wonder if he was flirting right there, or if being so close to the Scorpionman — who was apparently closely tied to the parasitic planet — was affecting Kesstel and he needed a touch to calm himself down.

The giant pincers where the man connected to the scorpion snapped at me.

I watched the attack come at me. At that moment, I became distinctly aware that I was standing right in front of Garden City. I could feel the lives of people behind me moving around in the wreckage of the collapsed wall, yelling to each other in panic or reassurance. There were even a few brave Hunters talking attack strategies to jump in and fight. If I dodged now, the Boss’s attack would hit Garden City again. Who knew how many more people would die?

A mist block appeared behind me as a brace as I lifted my kindjals. The pincer, five times my size, hit my blades. I gritted my teeth and forced the pincer to stop. My arms shook painfully and my legs ached under the pressure, but I refused to move.

The second pincer closed in. Quickly, I sealed the first pincer in mist then jumped up and swung my kindjals in a quick one-two hit as hard as I could to deflect the attack. The claw was forced up, swiping right over to the buildings just inside the city wall. The structures shook from the pressure, but none of them fell.

At the same time, Kesstel let out another massive magic attack on the tail and back feet. The Boss grunted in pain as the hind legs nearly gave out. I took that opportunity to create another mist wall the same size of the Boss and thrust it at him. The mist wall smashed into the Boss. His weakened legs gave out and he was forced back away from the city a hundred feet before he dug in the claws on his feet. His arms flung out as he roared, breaking my mist wall apart. The Boss looked livid.

I winced at the sting in my mind because of losing my wall, but it wasn’t that important. It had served its purpose, so I didn’t need to hold onto it. I gripped my swords, summoned new floating ones, and jumped back into the battle.

It was like the Scorpionman entered a berserk stage. His movements, which were already fast, grew faster. He snapped with his pincers, slashed and grabbed with his hands, and jabbed with his scorpion tail as we exchanged blows. Blood was flying on both ends. The Boss had a humongous amount of HP, but Kesstel and I worked on whittling it down. Once the Scorpionman’s HP reached fifty percent left, the Poison Fog around it finally kicked in. Unfortunately, that only lasted for five minutes before the Boss’s healing ability took the negative effect away. His healing ability wasn’t intense, but it was enough to make things difficult.

I was losing HP, too, and my MP was dropping like a leaking cup but I was still able to keep the Boss away from Garden City. The battle got so intense that I couldn’t even spare a moment to pay attention to the situation of the collapsed wall behind me or hear what was happening in Eden.

The land in front of the city was riddled with giant pits and battle scars from the fight. All of the foliage had been uprooted or trampled to dust, leaving just a mess of dirt around us. There had been a wide paved road here, the main interstate to and from Garden City, but that had been reduced to rubble.

The Scorpionman roared and swung his hand back at me.

I was just a hair too slow to react. The back of his huge hand smashed into my whole body. All I could do was gasp as I saw stars and all the air was slapped from my body. Every cell in my body instantly screamed in pain. I was shot down to the ground like a fly swatted from the air. The gray haze that covered my eyes faded away just enough for me to see the ground zooming up toward me. I tried to right myself so I wasn’t head first or use mist to catch myself, but I was still too disoriented. Neither my body or magic seemed to obey me.

Just before I hit the ground, Kesstel appeared under me. He wrapped his arms around my limp body and cradled my head, stopping my fall inches from the ground. His chest was puffing with effort, and sweat dripped from his forehead into his tired face. His scratched steel armor was covered in black blood, but I couldn’t tell what was his or the Boss’s.

I gasped for air as Regen began to work its magic on me, taking away the dizziness. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much it could do about the fatigue or my low HP until the battle was over. My heart hadn’t even settled before I felt another large attack coming.

Kesstel dropped me flat to the ground as he turned, his sword up to block the attack. I landed on the dirt just as the stinger on the Boss’s tail collided with Kesstel’s sword. Sparks flew as the stinger was deflected off its original course, but it wasn’t enough to fully defend against the attack.

My eyes widened as the stinger punctured Kesstel’s stomach right through his armor and stabbed through to the other side.

Kesstel yelled and bent over in pain, but stayed where he was. In front of me like a shield.

“Kesstel!” I screamed in shock. I’ve never seen him hurt like this before. This was Kesstel, the strongest being I knew. One of my most precious people, the man I wanted in my life forever. How dare that creature hurt him like that in front of me.

Don’t touch him! The words screamed wildly in my heart as cold fury settled in my mind.

I Warped from where I lay and appeared above the stinger. “Hah!” I yelled and stabbed the ten-foot Mist Blade down into the stinger with all my might. The semi-transparent blade cracked through the exoskeleton and sank down into the fleshy bulb of the appendage. With another crack, the blade broke out of the bottom side. The stinger was pulled from Kesstel’s stomach as I nailed it to the ground with my Mist Blade.

Kesstel groaned and stumbled back, holding the heavily bleeding hole on his torso. His face was pale and his hand shook as black blood stained his armor. He bent over in pain, but still kept his head up, eyes narrowed and ready for another attack.

Everything in my body screamed to go to him. He got hurt protecting me. I needed to make sure he was okay. I could see how injured he was, I just needed to know if he could heal from it. If I needed to find a Healer, to hell with Kesstel being outed as a Boss or not.

Only I couldn’t. The fight wasn’t over yet. I couldn’t take Kesstel and leave. Garden City would be totalled before I found a Healer good enough to help Kesstel.

The Scorpionman screamed, trying to pull its stinger away, but my Mist Blade had it pinned.

Frigid fury burned in me. My thoughts stilled to a deadly silence as my body began to act by pure ruthless instinct. Six solid mist blocks appeared around me, only they were different than any I’d ever made before. They were shaped like spikes, their tips needle sharp before they spread to three feet wide and twenty feet long. I turned to face the Scorpionman, sweeping my hand out at him.

The semi-transparent stakes shot at the Boss like giant bullets. He lifted his pincers up to protect his torso, but the mist spike pierced right through them and into his fleshy human body. The Boss roared in agony. He grabbed at the spikes with his hands to pull them out, but his clawed fingers slipped right through the mist, all the while blood gushed from the holes that couldn’t close.

I jumped high in the air and Floated above the scorpion body, but I wasn’t idle. More mist spikes appeared around me, thirty feet long and sharp. I started raining them on the scorpion body, nailing it to the ground like a bug on display. I deliberately targeted the joints between the exoskeleton. If the first spike didn’t break through, another one immediately followed until a hole was created and Boss’s body was speared through. He tried to dodge at first, but after the second spike, he lost a lot of his mobility. The Scorpionman was stronger than me by six levels, but he was overwhelmed by my furious and vicious assault.

Make it feel the same pain that Kesstel felt. That thought dominated my mind as I sent spike after spike down. My head started to ache because of my excessive use of magic, but that hardly mattered. When I was content that the Boss couldn’t move anymore and his HP was low and red, I Warped behind him right where the glow of the energy crystal was.

I lifted my right hand and one more mist spike appeared above my hand, five feet wide and twenty feet long.

The Scorpionman turned to me, his face tight with pained anger. He reached for me, obviously wanting to crush me in his huge hand.

Before he could touch me, I launched the spike at where the gray human body turned into a scorpion. His pincers were still pinned to his body and his hands weren’t fast enough to stop the attack. The spike pierced the blood slick skin and sank into the Boss’s body five feet before it suddenly stopped. He stiffened in pain. I immediately lunged after the spike and landed on the blunt end with my feet, kicking it with all my might and will.

With a grueling pop, the spike pierced all the way through Boss’s body. The tip came out the other side, and with it, a ten-foot-long oval energy crystal.

*****