The alloy monster roars a screeching shriek that sounds like scratching metal and its red eyes gleam once more. All of us move into position. Barry moves ahead to the left while I stay in between the monster and the rest of the group. Jonathan and Graham both position themselves behind me a good amount of feet in a semi-arc facing the monster around the little girl, who fixes her head down motionlessly and silently.

Our roles are simple: Barry, who's wielding the mace Graham and I received as loot from the dungeon before which has paralyzing capabilities and which we gave to him for use, is tasked with distracting the monster and dealing the initial damage. Graham hypothesized the paralyzation effects that seem to even work on undead that it can maybe work on the metal monster before us. It's a theory with an uncertain percentage of actuality, he mentioned, but even if it doesn't paralyze him, his job as a whole is to keep its attention - to aggro it, in short. Graham and Jonathan, our two mages, are tasked with providing ranged damage from afar, and the hope is that the metallic monster will focus on Barry who's distracting it so the mages can provide damage while keeping safe. Barry, according to Archie and from our general impressions, is incredibly athletic. He can benchpress 300 pounds no problem, but not only that, he is also an incredibly fast sprinter. He's easily the most athletic and fit, and the crux of the operation depends on how much he can provoke the monster without getting himself killed.

Archie himself is also for support. Unfortunately, his puny fire bow, while an effective ranged weapon, is ineffective against cold, hard, metal. In the instance something goes wrong, and most likely it will, his role is to provide a secondary distraction. His other role is to act as a third protector of the defenseless, little girl. He's going to, in both situations, act during emergencies.

The little girl herself will stay motionless. Graham quickly deemed her unable to do anything, and more than anything, high priority - that is, her life being our main focus in protecting. Graham weighed the efficiency of the team vs. our survival including hers, which counts as dead weight. I have no qualms about this. Everybody's life here is to be protected, even if they aren't crucial to the plan. Especially a little girl's.

With that all laid out, where I fit in is equally as crucial. My role is to act as a buffer to the ranged support, who are laying fire to the monster as primary damage. In case the monster fires at the support group, my job is to deflect all incoming metal. Ideally, Graham said, I should aim for the monster and counter the metal blast, but my main role is to protect. I'm also going to provide secondary damage in the case that it does get paralyzed while staying cautiously close to the group so I can fall back if needed.

I'm honestly impressed. To come up with all that within 15 seconds under all the pressure is astonishing. It shows how much of a difference Graham and I are both in maturity and intellectuality. I have a lot to learn. Graham's a great help - in these cases his brain is definitely the most helpful. Even over my ridiculously overpowered items that, in this situation, are falling out.

We all quickly find our places. Barry arcs around the monster. The monster's appendages and head are circling 360 degrees in both counter-clockwise and clockwise, accentuating the fact that it is indeed a monster if we weren't painfully aware already. Everybody holds their breath.

The first move goes to the monster.

After quickly judging our positions and maybe analyzing our strategy somewhat prematurely, it points in a direction and metal flies out at an even greater speed than previously witnessed.

Towards Barry.

Perfect.

Barry sees it coming and reacts timely, rolling out of the way with little difficulty. The metal lump drives into the ground and rolls, dragging along it the stone. It creates a larger crater than the previous attacks, due to the increased speed and larger size. Despite that, Barry's able to evade nicely. The monster's not backing down either. It's upped the ante.

Barry rushes in with almost no hesitation towards the monster. With exaggerated movements, he focuses on getting as close to the monster while drawing its attention as far away from the main group as possible, arcing further and further around it. The monster continues to launch metal lumps in succession, getting faster and faster. The monster itself hasn't moved - probably due to its extreme weight. It's really something. Despite its easily floating appendages and head with the lack of a neck piece, it towers tall and remains locked on the spot. It's almost like a turret, or some sort of automated tower defense, while we are the invaders.

The closer Barry gets the closer the calls with each successive metal lump. Sweat runs down his face as he carefully makes his way. He often backs up and detours to the side, but overall, the net distance stacks and slowly but surely he approaches it. To my right, Archie is also arcing around, keeping closer to the main mage group than I. I move forward in succession with the two.

Finally, Barry gets close enough. A good portion of the monster's metal supply has escaped it, lying on the floor or on the wall. Barry pulls back the mace with both hands, jumps up and stops himself behind the monster's legs.

He pulls back.

And swings.

With an insane amount of force, he powers the mace into the monster's leg. Unlike my blade, it evidently damages it. The leg swings back, and it's launched like a baseball, far, far out to the other wall. Since it's detached from the main body, hovering especially, it easily flies off.

"FIRE!"

Graham raises his voice and yells out, signaling the mage group to release their spells. Behind me, they had been charging up their spells in preparation, timing it accordingly. Right after the monster was hit, they would release, where then I would follow up with a smash.

Two large fireballs, one larger than the other, fly towards the metal monster.

It hits.

Both of them.

The fireballs implode and release ensuing flames. The monster's body tilts back in recoil, almost falling over, its red eyes flickering. Somehow, it regains its balance and returns to its regular stature, leg still missing. I spend no time rushing up.

I pull back...

and...

SMASH!

A resounding pound echoes through the deep, 2-or-3-football field-sized room, an approximation in terms of square area. The torches and the walls shake in response. The whole monster's body is pushed back. Pushed far, far back, still floating in place, as if skidding on invisible air. It tilts back and forth before regaining balance, like a stabilizing spinning top.

The arms and the one head leg are left in place.

Only the torso's pushed back.

I immediately run back just in case. The metal orbiting the monster seems to have stopped after Barry's initial hit. Actually, the entire monster seems to have stalled after Barry's hit.

The head begins to twitch and glitch mechanically. The leg and torso remain detached. We hold our breaths, awaiting the following action. By now, all the foreguard had backed away a good distance, including I, in preparation for the monster's upcoming move. We wait for a short moment.

Then something strange happens.

The monster, still detached and with a small dent in the torso from my attack, starts spinning quickly around in place. Suddenly, the detached head and torso gravitate up and back to their original places quickly, sparing no time. As quickly as our attack was made, the monster returns to its form in double that. In front of us is the monster who's reattached itself. A nearby supply among supplies of metal conveniently draws towards the monster and WSeasily replenishes its previously lost metal supply.

The metal begins spinning along its orbit around the monster again.

We definitely damaged the monster. That momentary lapse of time confirmed that, somehow, the mace paralyzed the monster. It can and it did.

And we're lucky.

We brace ourselves.

The monster, visibly damaged but otherwise moving fine, returns to position and readies itself. Its arms spin around its body in quick, 360-degree rotations, finally landing and pointing at me.

The metal launches.

I was ready.

I pull back yet again and release all my potent energy into one strike, carefully aiming towards the monster.

POUND!

Ringarde makes contact with a now even larger size of metal.

And it flies, far and back, blurring through the air, resounding in a shockwave.

My knuckles crack.

Ouch..!

I pull my hand back in shock. This time I'm only pushed back a few feet, my feet dragging across the ground. My hand which made contact feels extremely bruised as if it's broken.

I wince. I feel around my hand nervously.

Whew.

Luckily, it isn't.

The metal lump flies far and fast, heading directly towards the monster...

Directly towards its head.

PING!

Contact.

The head launches back and it ricochets across the ceiling and walls very quickly. Audible thumps echo through the dungeon as the head bounces each time. It finally rolls back on the ground, towards me.

The eyes - they light up red.

The head flies back and gravitates towards the body again, spinning into place. The eyes shine an even brighter, blinding red light. The monster resets position and begins shifting its arms again.

We all move.

Barry again begins circling the monster, aggro-ing it, keeping its attention focused. From here on we follow this strategy. Barry continues to keep a cautious distance while he approaches the monster, focusing its attention. While that is happening, Graham, who's arm fully heals midway through, and Jonathan would every now and then launch a fire spell towards the robot, when they were sure they would get a hit. Archie keeps a close watch on the little girl, while occasionally supporting Barry in distracting the monster right after some spells, whose damages would sometimes eclipse that of Barry and his attempts to keep its focus. I continue to act as a buffer. We continue this pattern many times. Whenever Barry would strike the monster, the monster would momentarily freeze patternously. That would be the opportune time to strike.

And strike we do.

"Tch!"

Barry frowns deeply and dodges back, closely evading an incoming metal lump. Barry was optimally close to the monster - just a little bit more before he could strike - but he was pushed back again. The monster's metal psychic attacks aren't only hard to predict but hard to evade, and there's very little room for leeway. Barry has done a good job thus far with his attacks, but a portion of it is unfortunately still up to luck. You can say our entire venture thus far is credited to that.

"Don't mind it!" Graham spiritedly yells out.

"I have you covered!"

Archie follows around and nimbly fires a few fire arrows choicely at the monster's head and arms. The monster spins around in an excessive manner and locks onto Archie. Archie skids to a halt and changes directions, avoiding a metal lump. Another attack was to be fired at Archie, but behind the monster, Barry has recovered and runs up in the monster's blind spot. The monster spins effortlessly and stops Barry short with a lump lodged in the ground at his path.

But, by this time the mage group already had another spell set-up, and they waste no time launching another strike. A flurry of fireballs blankets the space above me. My eyes follow overhead, tracing the destructive path of the flames down to its inevitable contact. The fireballs paint the monster in a bright red-orange and the monster recoils. The flames light up the dungeon room with a beautiful bright light that would've given the sun a run for its money if the sun held change.

If there was a sun, that is. I never really came to question the stifling, choking, cold air that the dungeon provides. The dungeon room is like a quiet suburban roadside at night. It's strangely fitting.

I keep my distance and position. The monster launches three successive metal strikes at Barry, the mage group, and Archie. Barry dodges it nicely. The mage group clears away from the path, Graham pulling the still lifeless little girl.

Barry runs forward amidst the downtime and strikes the monster's leg with the mace. It stumbles for a bit, then remains temporarily motionless.

Graham stops and lets down the little girl, shouting, "Fire! No time for delays!"

Jonathan nods and lets out a storm of fireballs, Graham following up with one large fireball. Most of Jonathan's spells hit, few missing, and Graham's follow-up spectacularly strikes.

"Ely!"

"Yes!"

I speed through, between the obvious holes in the ground from dragging metal balls, between the chips and rubble of broken stone, over scrap metal that haven't once refined to enter the monster's sophisticated collection, and metal that have but haven't been noted to be reused, and discarded arrows with burnt tips. I put my hands together and twist and turn.

"Ely! Watch out!"

"Graham!"

As I approach the monster, the monster hastily fires a smaller, reserve metal shot messily with great speed, arcing slightly in the air right towards me. I jump in full trust up in the air and beneath my feet is magically a foothold of earth - 1 square foot in area - formed where just previously there were none. I run up and continue leaping off them as more are formed precisely where I land, completely avoiding the lump as well as providing me an advantageous position in mid-air in a tough-to-reach spot for the monster.

Another foothold is suddenly formed above me in a specific position. I glance at Graham in the corner of my eyes. He sees me and nods. I smile.

Thank you for the earthen footholds, Graham!

Thanking Graham in my mind, I jump on the foothold - or rather, under it. Latching onto the edge to keep my balance, I stare at the monster head-to-head overtop the monster in the air, almost upside down. The monster's red eyes glare. I gather momentum and in that short transition from platform to platform I launch off blazingly fast - right through the air - right through the sparse leftovers of metal orbiting the monster - right towards its head - and right past its head I sling my arm back...

And swing subsequently afterward.

The monsters' head makes contact with my gauntlet. Due to the impressive sheer force of the gauntlet plus the added force due to momentum and the advantageous, accurate positioning, I strike a deadly blow with full force to the floating head of the monster. The metal monster's head flies off and ricochets off the ground, far, far away. With the help of additional footholds from Graham, I smoothly land with little fall damage, my back facing the monster.

"NOT YET!" I yell.

I turn around and quickly sprint full force back towards the monster still in shock. Without giving it time to react, I ready my next attack!

I lean forward and release the most fascinating uppercut whose force would seemingly reach the heavens.

The monster's body twitches greatly, its eyes from a distance dimming its piercing red light for a second, and the entire monster launches up into the air. It arcs in a large curve up and over and down, crashing, the sound of metal clashing. The clunky sound of crushing iron permeates through the room.

I run back.

The monster begins to reform and recollect itself, having trouble recovering from the outright bashing it just recently received. I look to Graham for instructions.

"Let's take this time to rebrief!" Graham takes a bottle from his pouch, which sustained damage, evidence of slight cracks, and drinks the mana potion, one of 3 that he has left remaining. Fortunately, his mana bottles didn't break when he was hit and fell, and it has been the key to Jonathan and his endurance thus far in conjuring spells. "We've been at for about 10, 15 minutes non-stop. So far, we've gone through 9 rounds of spells, preceded by 6 strikes from Barry. Ely and Archie, you two have also been doing an adept job of providing support. How are you all feeling?"

"...I'm fine," Barry says.

"Bloody fine as I'll ever be! Haha! You socked that blasted box of metal back to Mars!" Archie excitingly exclaims, his voice slightly and rather oddly shaky.

"..." The girl, of course, remains motionless.

"I'm just as fine as well!" Mark says. "Hey... Archie... You're not fine at all!"

We all turn towards Archie. Archie's staggering on the ground, his right leg limp and one arm around the other. Blood trickles down his forehead over his right eye which is closed. The front of his hair is partially drenched in blood, tinting it a dark blood red darker than its current shade of brown. He waves his hands and awkwardly smiles with feigned reassurance. We aren't buying his act.

"A-Archie?" I nervously ask.

"Archie!" Graham yells out with concern.

I forgot that an attack was aimed at Archie when the monster launched three lumps successively. I was too focused on following up the spell attacks that I missed the notice. Archie didn't appear fatally wounded, but definitely, he's injured. Painfully injured.

"U-umm, I wasn't able to avoid the last attack, regrettingly. Please forgive me for my inadequacy. I'm fine, really. Just a flesh wound..." Archie waves his hands about rather hastily now.

"You... Tch." Graham clicks his tongue. He turns his head, visibly distressed. "It is what it is. I won't drone on this due to our circumstances, but with all seriousness, Archie, you can't be so foolish."

"... Right. I apologize." Archie dips his head down with remorse.

"Now, answer me truthfully. Are you in any condition to fight?" Graham stares sternly towards Archie.

"No. I'm not."

"Okay. Any other issues we need to bring to mind?"

"Actually," Jonathan speaks up, "I'm running really low on mana. I don't think I can keep this up for long. Like you said, we've been intensively going at it non-stop for 10-15 minutes, meaning we've been firing spells for that long without rest. We're also dangerously low on mana potions. I just ran out of my supply. There's that, plus the fact that we've been here - Archie, Barry, the girl, and I; our party - for another 10 minutes before you and Ely arrived. At this rate, I feel I'm going to collapse sooner rather than later."

"I understand. We can't keep this up forever. I'm down to my last three, two now that I just consumed one. Fortunately, we've drained our opponent's energy with much success. We don't require much more to take the thing down. We're almost there - we just need to hang in there a little bit more. Barry, can you hold out?"

"... More or less," Barry grunts intently, his eyebrows distinctly furrowed.

"Ely, how are things on your end?"

"I'm still okay. I can last a bit longer," I say. "Thank you for the support back there. You saved me."

"You're very welcome." Graham nods. "Short change in plans: I'll pull Archie back to the circle. Ely, you're going to have to double on jobs. Will you be fine?"

"I can handle it," I respond with intent and leaking fire. I grit my teeth.

"I'll leave it to you. No general change in strategy: we'll finish this as we started."

Graham quickly retrieves the injured Archie, who passes out timely on the spot. We don't have any more potions left, not even the regular ones, so, for the time being, Archie and the rest of us are just going to have to wait it out. I fix myself in-between Archie's route and my position while keeping a close eye on the mage group. The monster has just retrieved all its metal back and spins back into action - literally. From the onset, it fires two metal balls - one towards the mage group and another towards Barry. Barry dodges his and I'm close enough to deflect the other ball as the mage group splits (Graham holding onto the little girl), and I am pushed back through the split, but I successfully return the ball.

We continue our little game of dodge and push, with each successful strike leading to a flurry of fireballs from the mage group and a powered strike from me, with, very rarely, a deflected metal ball scraping the monster. We continue, slightly slower but surely steadily wearing the monster down with each process.

_____

The monster itself, now, is evidently scratched and bent. Its once geometrically exact and shiny body is now dented all over with marks and scratches and unorderly intrusions. It's also evident in the monster's actions, being significantly less energized and precise. Some of the monster's attacks miss by a foot. Some don't even follow any systematic trajectory, which is good news for us.

We're almost there.

"Argh!" Jonathan groans and kneels down.

"Jonathan!" I call.

"Kch... I'm about done for. Not much more and I'll collapse. I..."

Jonathan resigns himself and leans back, staring at the ceiling with dread.

"I can't do this. This monster's too tough. I've about had it. Every muscle in my body is screaming and all my organs are pounding within me with extreme pain. My mind's spinning faster than the monster spins to restart this dreadful process... I can't take it anymore. I'm... No, we're all... done for."

"What are you talking about? We're almost there! Everyone, focus! Our opponent is an even more precarious state! Just a little more and we'll seize victory!" Graham yells encouragingly, his voice sharply increasing in volume.

Jonathan looks up at Graham with astonishment.

"We're going to make it through this one," Graham lowers his voice to a more normal, civilized tone. He clenches his fists and teeth and looks to the ground with firstly resolve and then regret. "I will save everyone... I promise. No one will die. Absolutely no-one. You hear?"

Graham... he must've been one most furious about all this. Unlike me, he witnessed the deaths of all his party members thus far. Factor in his losses in his occupation and there you have a lot of emotional stress. I never thought about how Graham felt. I find myself shocked at him acting this way. The Graham I know is always cool, composed, and level-headed. He never lets his emotions distract his rationality - even after losing an arm. But here is frantic about our survival, about me. He must've been holding it all in, all these pent-up sorrows - probably all for my sake. I know I get easily riled up. His comfort has been my greatest strength thus far. If it were me...

I'm a mess. I can't imagine doing something like that.

"Graham..." I mutter.

"Mmm... You're right. We can handle this." Jonathan shakily gets back up, his right arm extended, his weary hands outstretched. "I'm ready when you are. I can do this. I... I can... I'm sorry I acted so embarrassingly. I'll fight 'till I die."

Crash! The sound of clashing metal reverberates. Barry pulls back and steps close enough to us that we can hear his voice. "Don't be a fool. That's a given. It's your turn, wizards."

Graham vigorously releases multiple fireballs, 5 of them, up and out towards the monster, then he staggers and falls down, catching his breath. Every single fireball is pinpoint perfect in terms of accuracy. The monster recoils and lets out the largest roar yet, this time sounding dysfunctional and emitting hints of dastardly pain. The monster remains motionless. Normally, it would twitch and spin, at least somewhat in reaction, but this time it lay still.

Cold and still it lay.

I look at Graham with a look that begets affirmation.

Graham smiles tenaciously and says, "The honor's yours."

I turn and I run. I run towards the monster. I clench my gauntlet with all my internal power. I gather every single fiber of energy possible within me. A surge of emotions run through me. All the contempt I have for this dungeon and what it has done to the people around me and to this world run through me like wildfire. I'm surging with fire - an unstoppable fire that cannot be quenched. Fire brighter and more destructive than any of Graham or Jonathan's fired fireballs combined. I feel invincible. I feel this is it.

"GOOOOOOO!" I yell passionately, with all my heart.

With full confidence I charge towards the monster, avoiding rubble and the like. I pull back, I fire, my gauntlet in a straight path towards the robot monster, just inches away from making contact.

SCREECH!

It doesn't make contact.

I'm blown back. A tornado of air overtakes me and launches me hundreds of feet back. I hover over the ground as I'm launched back, my body flipping back through the air. Finally, I touch the ground and my body rolls forcefully on the ground with much pain. By the time I stopped, I am left covered in bruises and injuries.

I'm left half-dead.

SCREECH!

"W-W-What? What's going on?"

"T-This is..."

"..!"

Huh?

I open my eyes. My vision blurs so I blink a few times so I can get into focus.

My eyes open in surprise.

The monster, with refreshed vigor, has a new and transformed look. Its before grey, shiny gloss changed to a dark and black texture with streaks. The geometry of it has changed too. Instead of the plain cubical designs, now parts of the surface are elevated in different square patterns; some elevations overlapping others, some elevations higher than others - as if it were not a silver metal now but a grey crystal. Defined and minimalistic veins cut in between the outlines of the elevation, glowing with the same piercing red light as the eyes, which, in fact, were still red but now so bright it's frighteningly blinding. The screech sends shivers down my entire body and back up and back down all over, its previously already provoking roars displaced by a halting mechanic screech sounding between scratching chalkboard and a glitched AOL dial-up sound effect. It's the most horrifying sound I've ever heard.

What's especially alarming is that all the metal around us, including the previously dormant metal pieces, lifts up and gravitates towards the monster. All the metal in the room - even the daggers in our pockets - fly towards the monster and attaches itself to its now humongous orbit. Ringarde and the mace do not get attracted, as they are made of different, distinct types of metal, and of course, Archie's bow doesn't fly up due to it being made out of wood.

But what does also fly is Graham's mana potion. The liquid seeps out of the remaining glass and flies towards the monster joining its orbit. I never really thought about it, but it seems the mana solution has metallic properties enough. I'm unsure how strong it may be, but it seems sufficient enough to be pulled into the increasingly threatening orbit, much moreso than before. That was the last mana potion, half filled, that Graham was trying with great efforts to preserve. Now, it's gone.

Surrounding the monster's a complete vortex of absolutely crushing metal, now orbiting in crossing diagonal rings around it forming an x-intersection, rather than just on orbiting ring as was before. With its new demeanor and new look is its new size. The entire structure of the body seems to have grown; its arms and legs and torso grew while its head stayed the same, looking unproportionally and cartoonishly smaller in comparison to its enlarging mass.

It looks entirely new and different. It transformed. Its previous scratches and bruises are shed. It looks fresh and ready to fight as if disregarding all our previous efforts.

It all seems like a lie.

"No way..."

I try pulling myself up. I find myself struggling to even lift an arm. I'm left stuck there, bleeding in all sorts of places that I can't confirm. I check my peripherals. Jonathan is kneeling on one leg beside the little girl, whose hood is uncovered due to the force of the air blast from the transformation. Her face shows incomprehensible horror towards the monster. She remains frozen in place, in shock and terror. Jonathan is frozen in place as well but with astonishment and shock. Graham is standing in front of both of them in a battle stance, protecting them with his back towards them, his front disdainfully towards the monster. Barry was launched to the wall behind the group - both Barry and I were closest to the monster and therefore impacted the most by the sudden transformation's fallout. He's kneeling as well, recovering from the recoil. Archie's still lying on the floor, a few feet away from where he was previously, but still behind the feeble protection of Graham.

SCREECH!

The monster screeches yet again and points both arms at us. The metal coats and slides around its body with greater exactness as much of the metal gathers in huge - huger than any of the previous ones thus far - metal balls. 2 metal balls form at the tips of the hand appendages of the monster, both launch with-

ZIP!

-extreme speed and force. One misses my head by a hair's length. The other...

"Archie!!!" Graham yells helplessly.

... crashes straight into where Archie lay. Where he used to. The metal rolls and grinds at the ground as it travels further through and after Archie's initial position.

He's gone now.

No trace of him left...

... except for dashes of blood.

"Y-Y-You have to be kidding me..." Jonathan wails. Despair overtakes him, and he trembles.

"Fuck it... Fuck it all..." Barry speaks up. Visible distress shows on his face for the first time since we arrived. Throughout his fight thus far with Graham's plan, he kept some hints of determination. It's gone now.

"No way... This can't be happening," I chime in, anger resounding in my voice.

"..." Graham stays motionless.

"N...No... not again..! Someone, please, please help! Not Archie... Please no... Mommy, s-save me..." An unknown voice rings.

We all turn towards the source of the voice. It is the little girl. Tears well up in the corners of her eyes.

"Mommy... wake me up from this nightmare." She starts sobbing, revealing her crushing emotions.

No... This isn't how it's supposed to turn out. Why? Why did it have to transform now? We were so close..! I want to get up and fight with all I've got, but I'm left stuck on the ground, helpless to act. We're all worn and exhausted from battle, even Barry is less reactive as the battle drew out, and, needless to say, he was hit pretty hard from the transformation blasting him to the far wall. Graham is in the best shape out of all of us, but him alone is far from enough to cut it. He's also low on mana, and in generally poor condition. Jonathan's out of it, I'm disabled, Archie's dead, and...

Fuck... Archie's dead. He's really dead.

I didn't do anything. I couldn't do anything. I-

"AHHHH! I CAN NEVER DO ANYTHING!"

A frustrated cry draws my attention forward. It's Graham, hunched over, fists to the ground. He stays there shaking. He pounds his fists on the ground with futility, venting his anger.

He finally gets up and looks at us.

"It seems we're about done for. The best we can do is fight to the bitter end..." Graham admits.

"Graham... No..." I grieve.

He looks at me with unfortunate pity and sadness.

"Our chance of winning... is less than 1 percent."

Graham downs his remaining potions and stays fixed in front of the helpless group. He readies his arms, preparing a spell. He fires a total of 8 fireballs in quick succession. They all hit the monster.

The monster sits practically uninjured and unbothered. Uncaring and unalarmed.

"Tch..." Graham clicks his tongue.

I need to help Graham. I need to move! Move body, move!

The monster fires, this time 5 smaller but quicker metal balls, all aimed at Graham and us who sit helplessly behind him. He acts quickly and forcefully grabs Jonathan and the little girl, rolling out of harm's way and throwing them out of the distance of the metal balls. Thankfully, we're still far enough away from the monster to allow us time to react amply. Graham and the rest escape with close-calls. One of Graham's hands, unfortunately, the one from the arm that had recently healed, is hit and not blasted off, but easily crushed, lurching him slightly backward.

"Ahh..!" Graham groans.

Another metal ball lurches towards me. I use every ounce of my remaining strength to turn over on my back, avoiding the metal ball again at hair's length. The monster seems to still be trying to adjust to its new form, so it's not at peak accuracy yet - but it's getting closer and closer. I need to get back into the battle sooner rather than later, as by the same token I'll die. The metal screeches as it skids with resistance across the cold, stone ground.

3 metal balls are directed towards Graham and one towards me. The last one flies towards Barry, who's recovered from the initial shock and nimbly jumps away.

He almost evades it. It is much quicker than he thought, and it lodges into and crushes his feet.

"AGH!" Barry yelps.

Graham in front of me pants heavily as he releases the two bodies he carried. Jonathan passes out and lays unconscious, just like Archie beforehand. The little girl rolls into a fetal position desparingly. Graham looks at the two with sorrow. I join him.

The metal monster roars yet again and spins his arms at a blinding speed, stopping to point at us yet again - or specifically, at Graham. Graham hastily picks up the two bodies with both his good hand and his crushed hand with visible pain and he twists and turns in the air to carefully avoid the metal. Another metal ball launches towards Barry, who makes his way to Graham, and he jumps out of harm's way rather haphazardly.

Graham notices Barry and calls out to him relief. "Barry! Quick! Hold and watch over the little girl."

"O-Okay," Barry responds with uncertainty.

He picks up the little girl unreliably and both Graham and Barry focus their attention on the beast.

"The gameplan now's to just avoid the monster as best we can. We can no longer damage it. I don't assume you can get close enough to paralyze it without getting blasted yourself. I don't know if it can get paralyzed anymore," Graham says.

Barry shakes his head in cautious affirmation.

"Ely, I'm sorry. For now, hold on and stay in there. Try to act as inconspicuous as you can to avoid incurring the monster's attention. We'll do our best to protect the others."

I try to speak but my voice chokes in my throat.

"I'll take your lack of a response as an affirmation."

The monster continues to roar and fire metal after metal after metal after metal after metal. Graham and Barry struggle to keep themselves out of harm's way, let alone the people they are trying to protect. Often they would have to incur some damage to protect their concerned parties. By the end of it all, both Graham and Barry have multiple broken bones. Graham especially as his stature isn't as strong and sturdy as Barry's.

Like any other, the monster continues to spin and point toward the two, launching metal. It seems to have ignored me, focusing on the two active "threats". You can say that's a good thing, but really, it's just prolonging my death. The monster knows that it can take care of me with extreme ease. I'm sure it hasn't just conveniently forgotten about me. The monster knows I know it can destroy me. It fills me with a suffocating feeling, the pits of my stomach filling with despair.

My head is spinning and spiraling and spinning. I'm feeling I'm about to lose consciousness at any second. The pain... The pain of it all...

I choke on air. What am I doing?!? What can I do??!?

Absolutely nothing.

Everything is falling apart. Graham and Barry's performance decline the more injured and exhausted they become. Their actions become more and more sluggish as the monster's improved and adjusted to its new form. Then, suddenly...

"Ah! F-"

A metal ball stops Barry short of dodging and a follow-up, irregularly shaped metal apparatus spins through the air, leaving Barry in an awkward and precarious situation. He makes every effort to dodge it, completely focusing on avoiding death. Due to the way he's dodging it, he would leave the little girl vulnerable, in the way of the attack. He makes a quick and devastating decision.

He drops the girl.

She drops to the floor and lies there helplessly, in confusion and in despair. Barry dropping her and jumping back allows both of them to avoid the initial metal ball, which splits through the middle between the two of them, but another subsequent metal ball is heading now in the little girl's way, who's separate from Barry. She's in no position to retreat and avoid. Barry, realizing this, tries to run back and retrieve her, but due to his positioning relative to the girl and the metal ball, running in to retrieve her would mean riskily running straight into the path of the metal ball, with the high probability of an unseemly and very bloody juncture.

"Fuck! Fuck it all!"

He makes another quick decision.

He flees. He leaves the little girl.

He leaves the little girl to die.

Chills run through me as I stare at this hopeless scene with now wide eyes. I wish I am imagining this due to my extreme pain convoluting my worldview, but I know it not the case. Graham, after hardly avoiding his share of metal doom, flicks his head and sees this precise scene. Everything seems to run in slow motion. He opens his mouth but before sound could escape his larynx the metal ball heaves and jerks straight towards the little girl at a blinding, quickening pace. The last remaining ball from the last wave spins and spins in her direction - a straight trajectory to doom and death.

The girl opens her eyes wide and freezes. Likewise, no voice escapes her mouth. She doesn't move, she doesn't scream - she just freezes.

Barry runs away and doesn't turn his head back. He stares forward in heated regret.

"NOOOOOOO!" I scream, my voice the first to escape and to escape finally.

Then another surprise awaits us.

The ball, right before reaching the little girl, literally inches away from contact, curves and turns, changing trajectory erratically. As if it were remote controlled it changes paths unnaturally. As if compelled by the monster's forces and power it changes directions.

What am I saying, it is the monster's power.

It curves at an almost 135-degree angle from where it originally was going. It curves with an abnormal and unnatural form. It moves as if it were locked on to something, like a heat-seeking missile. It suddenly speeds up.

It's locked onto Barry. Barry, not looking back, is too late when he realizes that the metal ball's heading towards him. He finally glances back only to meet the force of a freight train collapsing into his body, powering through his chest and arms and legs with an explosion of blood, an audible peng as the metal clashes with his feeble bones and flesh. His head, detached from his body long gone and far away with the metal, drops to the floor - his face wearing late horror.

Barry dies. His death spectacular and gruesome.

And I feel fucking sick.

"YOU BASTARD!" I scream helplessly.

"Ah... ah... why..." Graham's at a loss for words.

Both of us stare at this scene with utter despair. The metal monster's eyes shimmer and it roars yet again, ignoring our sympathies, spinning and collecting all the metal left in its deposit into one huge, mega, metal snowball that keeps growing larger and larger and larger and larger as it attracts more and more metal. Metal bits and pieces fly and fly and fly all around us. It's the final attack. It moves with exaggerated slowness in comparison to the previous quick attacks, but it's much more forceful and much more terrifying, as if it is savoring the moment.

This is instant death.

"This... is it..." Graham resigns. "It... was nice knowing you, Ely. I suppose it's too late to bid farewell to my loved ones. To go out this way is rather pitiful... To think my last words are 'Honey! Make sure the mayonnaise jar is sealed!' is not the way I wanted to go, or imagined to go."

Graham gives a short and stifling laugh before returning to his cold and despondent demeanor.

First Archie and now Barry... I know he abandoned the girl for his own survival, but... still...

It's just us and the monster. The ball comes spinning and spinning to where it's just hovering, then it becomes so big that it's practically rolling.

Just rolling and rolling away. We are incapable of stopping it.

This is messed up...

I can't do this...

Someone... please...

"Someone..." my voice dies.

"SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!!! I CAN'T..! THIS..!"

Another voice covers mine which had faded away, comparatively laughable to this new voice of entry.

It's the little girl again.

Tears flow down on her face, now ragged with all craze and madness. I lie there and view this scene in the corner of my eye. Graham turns around and stares at her sympathetically.

Then another strange thing occurs. One strange thing after the next.

The girl starts to glow. Her right arm starts to chill and cold. Air so cold surrounding her arm you could probably see your breath. Air so cold your breath could freeze. Hers did. Ice continually forms and grows, covering her arm with dazzling crystalline structure. Her eyes start to blank out, with fewer and fewer signs of a soul inside. Her mouth agape, her left arm clutching her right, and her tears running and freezing immediately after, she shouts with all her might.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"

Her voice screeches uncomfortably and alarmingly high and even more terrifying than any of the transformed monster's roars ever did, who's sitting still ahead of us. A huge ice spire jaggedly and recklessly shoots out her right hand, encompassing the entire metal ball incoming, and it drives into the crude sphere. Graham and I stare in shock. Jonathan's motionless on the ground.

After a few moments, a huge crackling sound pierces. Then, the sphere collapses. It explodes.

The ice spire stops the metal ball of death and destruction and despair. It saved us.

Or so I initially thought, but metal shards and "shrapnel" fly out in all directions. Since the ball was never actually a ball, but an amalgamation of metal pieces and parts, it easily falls apart. This is bad, as any one of the numerous shards are enough to instantly kill any one of us.

I shut my eyes and brace for impact. Except... there is no impact. I open and widen my eyes in astonishment. In front of Graham and I are huge, thick, ice shields protecting us from the few shards that headed our way. They are thick and reinforced with countless layers of ice. Every time a metal shard hit the ice shields and made noticable and worrying impact, they instantly reinforce.

I look back at the girl. Her eyes are all white now, blood vessels popping out of her face and her right arm tightening extremely. She doesn't seem to be in any control.

Who is this girl?

How..?

Suddenly, she runs. She runs past Graham and me, through her shields - straight for the metal monster. She effortlessly avoids damage from shards as ice barriers form instantaneously, protecting her with precision. She skids and stops short of the monster.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhh..!"

Her voice pierces then dies down quickly. She clamps her hand together with a loud clap! The ground begans to shake and the torches flicker.

The monster makes some noises of what I would assume to be distress, and begins spinning together messily, hastily trying to regather its metal. Something's wrong and it knows it.

It tries desperately to act but it is too late. We would soon see why it is too late for the monster. We would soon realize what is wrong.

Ice soars and spikes towards the ceiling, piercing through the metal monster, drilling holes into all parts of its body. It lets out a painful mechanic cry, akin to a certain handheld monster-catching monster cries, and it is stops in place. It tries to spin, it tries to move - all to no avail.

Ice forms on the metal monster's new, black surface, growing like a sheet of ice, invading the cracks and seeps in the monster's transformed body.

I see now.

At the same time, the ice protecting Graham and I melts and vanishes like the wind. As quickly as it appeared, it disappears. We are given a clearer view of the action. While on the surface not much appears to be happening, the monster itself suddenly becomes more erroneous, its movements decaying in precision, its functions wearing down.

Then, just like the metal ball, crack! The metal monster freezes. Complete silence takes over the room.

1 second.

2 seconds.

3 seconds.

4 seconds.

5-

Shatter!

The monster shatters completely. Like water freezing on rocks and expanding causing erosion seen in cracks on rocks, the robot's cracks are utilized and taken advantage of. The monster cracks in a similar manner and completely shatters, not exploding into shards, but simply into larger cracks, then large pieces, before finally falling over and lying on the ground immobile as a collection of metal distinguishable from the surrounding supply.

These particular moments moved slowly and reluctantly, gradually enough so as to allow one to catch all the details - enough to where I surely did. A gap in time that permeates such that you for example suddenly recall it when you're older, when you reminisce one bedtime, when you look back into the past. It's one of those untouchable times where everything comes to a halt. Everything falls apart and crumbles helplessly until what's left is a heap of frozen nothingness, with even that being swept up by the wind, disappearing without a trace and into a complete blank - a contradiction in the precise order that this nothingness allowed one to perceive, and that one being me, and possibly Graham too. First the monster falls. The click of a treasure box resounds and the sound of shifting stone and mechanism follows. The treasure chest lifting up through the ground, on a similar but less showy podium than the boss room treasure chest, follows after that.

Then the girl falls. She lies cold and flat on the ground with a very audible thump. Her eyes still white, her right arm twitching, her strength evidently completely gone. I notice Graham collapse behind me, his arms to his side as if he doesn't know what to do with them. He doesn't. He just kind of slumps down and falls. He grips his heart with his right hand and slumps over.

The smell of cold, hard stone is suffocating. The subtle hue of the torches is unchanging. The stone on the ground and walls are unchanging. The only addition is the new metallic smell.

If I were to trace the thoughts in my head back to these moments, and that's if I had enough strength to properly think, that's what I'd recall, more or less. I mentioned that this is one of those moments where everything is absorbed. One of those special moments where nostalgia kicks in like a train and all love and loss is reminded for good or for bad. It's something akin to a "before death experience" where you see the light. Some sort of light.

My eyelids slowly close and in the darkness, I see a light. My premonitions of darkness when my eyes close vs. the blinding light I'm possibly fancying illusions of is clashing. My head pounds at these conflicting hallucinations. It's as if it were black and I'm imagining bright white. It's as if it were white and I'm imagining black where it should be, but it isn't, or it maybe isn't.

It's strange. When one goes to bed and dreams normal dreams we are stuck here fighting a deadly fight none of us deserve. Every time we sleep we dream, we dream of a grandiose and incomprehensible dungeon. We dream of a dangerous and mysterious dungeon. This dream dungeon of ours is a nightmare. Every time we sleep we dream and everytime we dream it's this nightmare of a dungeon. How unfair is that? I laugh in my mind at how futile everything's come to be, and how futile it is for my increasingly mushy brain to think these things - which they are. I can't do anything. Who have I saved?

None of this matters, because eventually the strength and blood in my head seemingly drain and I become less and less responsive and aware. It's becoming harder and harder to... think.

All my pitiful remaining strength continues to drain and drain... and drain... and... drain... and...

I lose consciousness.

My last thoughts are that, trivially, this is one bad dream.