As soon as the flare revealed the terrifying form of the Brood Mother, Bazel knew every moment would count. He immediately used [Drain Strength] on the beast and pressed the switch to load his gun.

"Get ready!" Samara held her shield up in front of her face.

All three heads of the Brood Mother attacked simultaneously. Two of them converged on Samara while the third one went around her and attacked Bazel.

Bazel barely had time to react before he was staring into the pink maw of the mouth, and the long curved fangs dripping with venom. He swung the Xanadu around and pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened.

In his fright, he hadn't realized that it wasn't loaded yet. The mouth of the creature opened even wider, as if it had a second hinge on its jaw. The fangs swiveled out – aimed right at him.

Bazel knew he wouldn't be able to retreat fast enough to escape being pierced by the fangs. All he could do was stand there and wait for it to come. The head shot forward and turned sideways to grip its prey.

CHA-CHUNK!

Bazel pulled the trigger.

KA-BOOM!

Blood and chunks of flesh flew across the room. What was left of the head flopped to the floor with a wet smack.

"Are you okay!?" Samara shouted as she used her shield to bat away the two remaining heads.

"Yeah!"

Bazel pressed the switch to load the Xanadu and turned back to face the remaining heads. They were attacking one at a time now, giving Samara the opportunity to block them in turn.

A sharp pain made itself known in Bazel's shoulder. He turned his head to look and gasped at what he saw.

A piece of fang was stuck in him, going in the back and sticking out the front.

He wanted to pull it out, but his hands were full and the fight needed all of his attention. He didn't know if he had been poisoned, but he didn't feel anything except the pain of being skewered.

Samara batted away the head attacking her and countered with a strike from her mace. The head she hit recoiled in pain and the other one struck down at Samara. She managed to fend off the coordinated attacks, but she wouldn't be able to keep it up forever.

"I'm going to do it!" Bazel said, "keep them busy!"

"Okay!" Samara said as she blocked the incoming head.

Bazel ran to the side of the room where a statue stood next to the wall. It depicted a woman holding a horn, but Bazel couldn't guess as to who she was. Part of her legs were missing as if a lumberjack had tried to chop her down in the past. He wedged himself between the statue and the wall, then used the wall to brace himself while he pushed the statue.

He didn't know if he was strong enough to push the thing over, it was supposed to be Samara's job. However, it became clear that she wouldn't be able to fend off both heads and knock over the statue, so Bazel made the call.

Leaning against the statue with his good shoulder and pushing against the wall with his feet, he strained to make it budge. At first, nothing happened.

Then he heard a cracking noise.

The whole statue creaked and Bazel knew it would fall if he could just put a bit more oomph into it. He bent his knees slightly, then kicked back out at the wall with everything he had.

The statue moved.

He felt it give way, only an inch or so, but he was doing it. He strained even more, beads of sweat forming on his face as he pushed.

Almost. There!

Just then, the boost to his strength ran out. He looked around the statue at the monster and used it again. Red light swirled out of the Brood Mother and flew into Bazel. He felt bigger and more powerful.

With his strength renewed, he pushed at the statue again as hard as he could.

It finally toppled over – a couple tons of gold fell into the center of the room with a crash. A cloud of dust and debris was kicked up as it hit the ground and the whole room vibrated from the force of the impact.

Bazel turned and heaved a sigh of relief when he saw the plan had worked. Stuck under the statue were both of the remaining heads of the Brood Mother. Both heads snapped and hissed at Samara, who still stood before them, but they couldn't reach her.

Samara used the advantage and started to pummel the closest head with her mace. Wet crunching sounds echoed through the structure as she mercilessly beat the Brood Mother. It didn't take long for that head to perish as well.

Bazel hefted his gun and grit his teeth to bear the pain of the fang still stuck in his shoulder. He would take out the last head himself.

The light produced by the flare flickered a couple times and went out, plunging the room into darkness.

Paris shot another flare into the room. As it traveled a parabola into the area, it cast moving shadows against the walls, and one of those shadows belonged to the headless neck – a neck that was now rising into the air.

Bazel paused and watched as the headless neck moved. Blood spurted out of the stump, then something white began to grow out of it.

Bone?

The bone grew until it was in the shape of a skull. Tendons and muscles grew out of the bloody neck and attached to the bone. Skin began to form over the whole thing and then the head was back.

The whole process took seconds.

"That's not fair!" Bazel whined.

"Shoot it!" Samara shouted.

Bazel pointed his gun and pulled the trigger. The now familiar blast of the Xanadu echoed through the room accompanied by smoke and fire from the barrel. The newly formed head whipped back as fresh blood sprayed off of it.

The rest of the Brood Mother pulled back to extricate its other two heads from under the statue. The whole body of the beast undulated and flailed about, finally managing to remove itself from the debris.

The center head was still out of commission – that being the one Samara had smashed with her mace. The right head was bleeding, but still in the fight, and the left head hardly had any damage at all.

The injured head attacked again. Samara intercepted it with her shield as Bazel waited for his gun to reload.

"What do we do?" Bazel jogged up behind Samara.

"I'm not… sure!" She grunted the last word as she blocked another attack from the left head, "Maybe kill both at the same time?"

"Okay," Bazel heard the sound of his gun loading, "I'll take the left one!"

"Got it!"

Bazel ran to the side, away from Samara's protection and got the attention of the left head. He skidded to a stop and swiveled to point the gun at it. The head opened its mouth and shot forward at Bazel.

KA-BOOM!

The head – mere feet away from Bazel – blew apart in a gory mess. Blood, flesh and bits of bone splattered against a nearby wall.

Bazel turned to see Samara finishing off the last head. She pinned it against a pillar while beating it with her mace. It wouldn't last much longer under her assault.

But she didn't kill it quickly enough.

The center head started to reform. The collapsed section of its skull popped back out and covered itself with flesh and skin. Just as Samara delivered the final blow to the head she was attacking, the center head reared up.

Samara turned and saw it, "Seriously!?"

Samara took up a position in front of the last remaining head, Bazel got behind her. The mouth opened and the neck of the creature convulsed as if it were about to regurgitate something.

A swirling green ball formed in its mouth.

The ball shot out of the monster's mouth and hit Samara's shield. What at first looked like a swirling ball of energy gained substance and turned into a liquid. While most of the liquid was deflected by the shield, some of it got on Bazel's arms.

His skin started to turn black.

Everywhere the liquid touched him, black spots emerged. It looked like some sort of disease.

Bazel could already feel the effects of it too. It felt as if his blood were boiling inside his body – a painful sensation only rivaled by the large fang still stuck in his shoulder.

"We have to take it out before it does that again!" Samara warned.

Bazel didn't know how long it had been since he used [Drain Strength], but he did it once more just to be safe. The Xanadu was already loaded, and all he needed was one good shot.

Point-blank range would be preferable.

Yet, the head didn't try to come at them, and kept its distance. It opened its mouth and began convulsing once more, preparing to shoot another ball of poison.

Bazel saw something that might help and decided to try it. He aimed his gun – not at the monster – but the pillar next to it, and fired a shot.

KA-BOOM!

The whole roof of the building shook, and collapsed inward. The broken pillar that Bazel fired at snapped and brought down the rest. Brick shingles and old wooden beams rained down from above, crashing into the Brood Mother.

Bazel and Samara moved back and got as close to the wall as possible. Samara held her shield above her head to keep both of them from being hit by falling debris. Bits of brick and wood made ringing sounds as they collided with the brass disc.

The Brood Mother got the worst of it. She was buried under a pile of rubble and collapsed to the ground. The only part of the monster still visible was its last remaining head.

A quick [Analyze] showed exactly what Bazel hoped he would see.

《 Poisonous Brood Mother, level 9

Health: Low

Effects: Stunned

High Stats: Agility, Sense, Intelligence

Attack types: Piercing, Poison, Aether

Resistances: Poison 》

The monster was gravely injured and momentarily stunned from the collapsing roof. There wouldn't be a better time to finish it off.

Samara must have come to the same conclusion, because as soon as it was safe to move, she rushed forward and started beating the head poking out from under the debris.

Bazel heard the sound of his gun load and called out, "Ready!"

Samara jumped back and Bazel fired at the head from only a few feet away. It – like the others – made a bloody explosion.

《 Congratulations! You defeated a Poisonous Brood Mother, level 9.

1,499 Experience Points awarded! 》

The effect of the [Drain Strength] disappeared, and with it went Bazel's ability to stay standing. He dropped to the ground and took a few deep breaths.

His whole right arm was in so much pain he could barely move it, and his shoulder was equally sore from having the fang stuck in it. He didn't know why he had been able to hold his gun up to that point.

On top of the pain of his injury, he also felt a strange burning sensation through his whole body. His vision was blurring and he couldn't even speak.

Samara took a bag from her inventory, opened it and pulled out a few glass tubes. Two of them had green liquid inside while the third had golden liquid. She took one of the green ones, pushed a button that ejected a needle and jabbed it into her leg. She took the other green tube and repeated the process, only putting it in Bazel's leg instead.

"This is antidote," she said, "it will stop the poison."

She then walked around behind Bazel and put a hand on his back while gripping the fang with her other hand.

"I'm going to pull this out on three. One–"

"Gah!"

Bazel cried out in pain as the object was pulled out of him. Blood poured out of the open wound and it all made him feel faint.

Samara pulled some gauze out of her bag and wadded it up on the bleeding areas. She took the tube of golden liquid and ejected the needle, then stabbed it into Bazel's stomach. He didn't even have the strength to complain.

"Lie back," Samara guided him to a supine position, "The ambrosia will heal up the wound in a bit."

Paris walked over and crouched down beside Bazel, "You did pretty well considering you took that injury so early in the fight."

"Thanks." He croaked.

"Probably the adrenaline rush that kept you going." Paris tapped her chin as the thought of something, "It might be a good idea to get you some armor. You're a bit squishy."

"Squishy?" He wasn't familiar with the term.

"Easily hurt," She said, "and trust me, there's lots of things in here that can hurt you worse than this."

"I dunno," Bazel gave a half smile, "This hurts pretty bad."

"You'll be fine!" Paris slapped his good arm, "Even if Samara didn't have antidote and ambrosia on her, I always carry medical supplies with me."

"Speaking of," Samara sat on the ground beside Bazel, "That's the second ambrosia I've wasted on you. You owe me big time."

"I'll buy you a pizza."

Samara tried to frown at him, but she couldn't keep a straight face. She chuckled while shaking her head.

"Deal."