As Tyrone looked up and the raging bus sized Cluster Queen in front of them, he felt like running the other way. There was something really disheartening about seeing the system not even pretending that they could fight the abomination off, instead just outright telling them to run. He’d played a few games where this type of thing had happened and usually a quick time event would pop up and he’d have to mash buttons to get to the next scene. But there wasn’t any button mashing, sometimes the best option you had in life was to run away.

But to where? The back exit was covered in thick webs, that’d take them at least half an hour to get through, and in front of them a wall of enemies. For a brief moment Tyrone glanced out the windows and considered leaping out and hoping the old “aim for the bushes” trope in movies played out in real life. But they were a couple hundred feet from the ground and all that was below them was hard asphalt, he’d have to be lucky now to instantly die upon impact and the way his luck stat was looking didn’t bode well.

The Cluster Queen screeched again, opening her massive maw wide. As Tyrone winced at the sound, from the corner of his eyes he could see all of the others fall to their knees as intense pressure emitted from the dungeon boss. A prompt popped into his sight.

Cluster Queen has initiated Menacing Aura!

You have been struck with Menacing Aura.

You have successfully resisted Menacing Aura due to your high mental resistance!

Caught off guard, Tyrone barely reacted in time to leap out of the way as a greening strand of web gushed from the queen’s mouth towards him. But she wasn’t actually aiming for him and soon screams filled the air as the greenish web covered Nathan. The webbing covered him from head to toe and drooped down like slime, then a sizzle like bacon of a hot pan could be heard as Nathan screamed, his skin bubbling and blood oozing.

“I-it’s acidic!” Deborah cried.

Her words didn’t register in Tyrone's mind, all he could think to do was help Nathan. He stepped forward to help, but Botnik swooped down to block his way. A toxic symbol blaring on its face screen as it told him there was nothing he could do for Nathan. Nothing any of them could do but watch in horror

His screams of pain were horrendous, the webbing had landed on the left side of his face and drooped all the way down to his leg. In a frantic pain filled panic he tried to peel the webbing away but that only spread it to his right side and pulled away his own skin. His face was a bloody mess as it melted, turning his screams into a gurgling wail. Before Tyrone could push Botnik aside, Nathan abruptly yanked away. They all turned in horror as the front two arms of the queen, which had human-like hands, pulled on the strand of web.

Nathans’ scream echoed down the hall as he was hauled through the air, making a sickeningly wet thumb as he landed right in front of the queen. Her front two arms moved with speed as they tore into him, ripping him limb from limb. The hatchlings squeaked with excitement as their mother tossed bloody appendages and organs to them.

Even though it was far too late, Tyrone launched his spear at the bulbous queen. The toss would have made an Olympian javelin thrower pat his back with pride. The spear arched perfectly down the long hallway, but it didn’t matter how perfect the throw was as the queen easily deflected it. Then the air was filled with sickening crunching sounds as the spiders dug into poor Nathan.

Deborah screamed but was cut off as she bent over and vomited partly digested candy bars and chips. Tears streaming from her eyes as she gagged and coughed. Looking at the barricade, Tyrone saw that the others were in similar states.

“We got to get the fuck out of here...” he said in a voice barely above a whisper.

He grabbed Deborah and tossed her over his shoulder. Looking at Jenny who was still staring at the spot Nathan was before being yanked into the now feasting horde of spiderlings. “Jenny? Come on, we have to go.”

She turned her head in his direction and nodded slowly, a haunted expression etched on her face. She was in shock, but she followed close behind as they retreated to the barricade. In a shambling rush he leapt onto a desk that was stacked on the top of the barricade, and then with a snarl Tyrone slapped Sam across the face to snap him out of his stupor.

“Wha…” Sam rubbed at his cheek absentmindedly.

“We got to get the fuck out of here, now! That thing is at level hundred and twenty, either we go or end up like Nathan. Ivan, can you…” Tyrone turned to were Ivan stood but his voice trailed off as he realized that the man was gone. “Oh, hell nah. Hey!”

Whipping his head around he saw Ivan, Ericka, and three others he hadn’t spoken with yet making a beeline for the rear exit of the East Wing that led down to the parking lot. Tyrone’s face twisted in rage as he watched them run down the skyway, completely leaving them behind.

“T-the door is stuck!” Ivan whined. “They jammed it with their webbing…”

“We’re trapped?” Ericka wailed. “Nonsense! Open this door right this instant, Ivan! You’re the one with the fighting class! Use your damn sword!”

Before Tyrone could shout at them, his attention was pulled away as Jenny tugged on his sleeve. When he turned to her all she did was point down the hallway, following her finger the pit in his stomach dropped. The spiderlings were marching their way again, and apparently the queen had called in for reinforcements because now there seemed to be thousands of them.

“I’m out of ammo.” Meghann dropped her gun, tears streaming down her face as she watched the weapon clatter to the floor. “We’re dead, aren’t we?”

Sam poured out some water from his waterskin, a tendril took form for a moment before splashing down into regular water. “My mana is depleted… I-I can’t, that is, the only spells I have are healing and water whip.”

He looked at Tyrone, his eyes pleading with him to come up with some sort of solution. Tyrone had nothing for him, there wasn’t anything that he could do. “There’s still a chance…” Even he could smell the utter bullshit he just spewed out. There was no chance, this was it. This was their end,

“We can jump from the window!” Deborah struggled from Tyrone's grip, flopping down on the floor, she picked up a chair and threw it at the nearby window. The glass crackled but didn’t shatter completely. “It’s only a hundred and sixty feet, we can survive that! Right?”

“Jumping down to the asphalt below?” Tyrone said regrettably. “We’d break our legs or worse, then the spiders could just spin a web down to us.”

“This is your fault!” Ivan stormed over to them, his finger pointing in Tyrone’s direction. “If you hadn’t killed those things to save Jenny, then we’d be fine! You made that big one angry!”

“He’s right! Why couldn’t you have left well enough alone?” Ericka snapped. “I knew something was up with you, there’s always something up with you people…”

“What!?” Tyrone glared at them both. “Are you two out of your damned minds? You wanted me to leave Jenny to die? She’s your coworker for fucks sake!”

“Uh, guys?” Sam spoke up, trying to get our attention.

“I barely know the bitch!” Ivan screamed at him, jabbing a boney finger into his chest. “If it’d save me, I’d throw that annoying cunt over to the spiders in a heartbeat! But no, you just had to play hero and save that motormouth. And for what huh!?”

“Keep jabbing me and I’ll fold your ass like an omelet.” Tyrone said evenly, his voice tight with anger.

“Uh, hey Tyrone…” Sam tried to cut in. “Your robot is…”

You wouldn’t dare!” Ivan spat, his right hand gripping his sword’s handle. “Raise a hand and I’ll chop it off, you ungrateful ni-OOF!”

Tyrone’s fist lashed out with such speed even he was surprised as Ivan’s head snapped back from the impact, a string of spit following him as he flew back. Tyrone shook his hand, trying to forget the sickening crunchy sound Ivan’s nose made. His hand throbbed slightly, but damn did that feel good.

He had a feeling of exactly what Ivan was about to say, and he’d bet his bottom dollar it wasn’t going to be nincompoop.

Ericka lost her shit then, flailing about screaming for the police and hollering for them to stop fighting. But there wasn’t a fight, not really. All it took was one hit. Ivan wasn’t unconscious but stayed on the ground, cradling his bleeding nose and glaring piping hot rage in Tyrone’s direction. Tyrone had no doubt that Ivan was shouting the hard R in his head. For a brief moment Tyrone thought to keep wailing on the man, just to vent his anger before they were all torn apart by ravaging spiders.

“Tyrone!” Sam waved his hand in front of Tyrone’s face, cutting off his trail of thought. “Your robot thing is going haywire!”

Tyrone turned to see Botnik flipping about, it was literally bouncing around in the air like the ball in a pinball machine. When he tried to hail it on their shared message line, Botnik just kept sending the same error message repeatedly.

Botnik: ERROR! SCANNER TEMPORARILY OVERLOADED! ERROR!

“Whoa, Botnik!” Tyrone grunted as he managed to snatch the glitching drone and hold it steady. “Come on, tell me what’s wrong! Besides the obvious”

“My sensors are picking up something big!” Botnik zipped out of his hands, hoovering just a few centimeters from touching his nose. Their usually happy emoticon face was now displaying a prominent frowny face. “It’s right on top of us! Overloading my sensors! I literally wasn't built to handle this! Beginning back up query for sensor update. Searching...”

Tyrone looked past the drone and eyed the approaching spiderlings, they were taking their time, they knew we had nowhere to run. The cluster queen hadn’t moved since snatching Nathan and was contently watching her offspring march towards their prey.

“The spiderlings and their queen. Yea, I can see that…” Tyrone began but was cut off as Botnik emitted a buzzer sound.

“Not that thing! This is something much bigger and far more powerful! Sensor update found, initiating update. Oh darn...”

Whatever Botnik said next drowned out as the ceiling exploded, knocking all of them down the skyway. Tyrone caught Botnik just before it crashed into his face, hugging him close as they were hurled backwards due to sheer force. Someone grunted in pain as they came to a stop, turning he found that they’d collided with Sam who had acted as a cushion between them and the wall.

“Please get off, you’re heavy.” He whimpered to which Tyrone grinned awkwardly back at him and then got back on his feet. Turning I could see that the others had landed nearby, most looked battered, but they were alive.

“It’s here.” Botnik muffled into Tyrone’s chest.

He released Botnik, and then looked towards the epicenter of the sudden explosion. Just barely though the dust, he could see that someone was standing where the barricade once was. Tyrone sucked in a breath as the dust finally settled and he could make out who or what was standing so nonchalantly in the middle of such destruction.

It was feminine, but a completely otherworldly being. This person radiated strength, power, and beauty. They had long flowing white hair that danced in the air as if being blown by a gust of wind, it was mesmerizing. They were tall, at least seven feet, and had a perfectly curvaceous slender build. The kimono-like dress they wore hugged their curves so perfectly, it was as if it were just a second skin. The light blue fabric blending in with their pale unblemished skin. Their makeup reminded Tyrone of a geisha, full lips a frosty light blue matching wondrously with her piercing silver eyes. And then there were the horns jutting from their forehead, they looked like curved icicles.

Tyrone’s heart thudded so hard in his chest, he wasn’t sure if he was falling in love or scared beyond reason. Probably both.

“My new home has an infestation?” Their voice was airy, assertive, and tantalizing. “How annoying.”

They raised a hand in the direction of the spiderlings, which had been scattered about and were just now getting to their feet. The cluster queen bellowed an earsplitting shriek, but the otherworldly being didn’t even flinch. They just raised a single arm and opened their hand to release a tremendous blizzard of icy wind.

Just like that, the spiderlings that were mere minutes from slaughtering them all were now just ice sculptures. Tyrone blinked at the impeccably frozen cluster queen, his mind reeling as he looked back to the figure. The cluster queen was level one hundred and twenty, just how powerful could this person be to kill it instantly with a single spell and not even look tired from the effort of doing so?

You: Scan that person!

Botnik: I really don’t think that’s a good idea, chief.

Tyrone rolled his eyes in frustration. He had to know who this being was, though deep down he was already putting together who it could be.

You: Just do it!

Name: Xue-Xin. Titles: Of Highest Grace, Snow Heart. Level: Unknown Class: Unknown

“Oh, she’s early.” Tyrone gulped.

Xue-Xin snapped her eyes in their direction, her elegant face twisting in disgust as if she was just now noticing them. She strode forwards, and as she did so Tyrone’s eyes couldn’t help but lock on the sway of her hips, and the way the ground frosted over wherever she stepped.

“More pest?” She hissed. “And one of your dares to analyze me without permission? You there, are you the owner of the drone?”

Her eyes drilled into Tyrone, he felt like a mouse staring up at an owl. No, he felt like an ant staring up at an incoming boot. His throat was suddenly dry, all his bravado evaporating in an instant. Licking his lips, he tried to speak but only managed to stutter like a car with a dead battery.

He felt like how he did when he tried to ask his high school crush to Prom, she’d rejected him hard. He was a serious late bloomer, he looked like a toxic combination of fat albert and Urkel. It was that feeling all over again, times a few hundred.

Noticing Tyrone’s eyes bounced up and down, a smile took shape on her lips. His heart was doing somersaults at this point, but he still wasn’t sure what emotion he was feeling. She was staring at him like a lioness to a gazelle. Tyrone knew that his fight or flight response should have kicked in and he was wondering why his mental defenses hadn’t notified him like before. Could it be that he was this down bad for a dragon in human form? This had to be his anime addiction's fault.

“Hmm, you are an interesting one…” Her silky-smooth voice was cut off as Ivan thrusted himself in front of me.

“Oh, thank you so much, mysterious stranger!” Ivan opened his arms wide in welcome to Xue-Xin, cutting her off as he elbowed Tyrone aside. The fool seemed to be completely oblivious to who she might be and how uncaring she was to their predicament. Tyrone tried to whisper to him on who the woman was, but he hissed at him to shut up. Eager to the first to thank Xue-Xin and perhaps worm his way into her good graces. “As leader of this group, I think we-ACK!”

In a blur of motion Xue-Xin was standing in front of Ivan, one of her small hands gripped around his throat with such force that his windpipe was nearly crushed, and his eyes bulged out like one of those stress dolls. Her once graceful face was now an artwork of anger and utter disgust.

A powerful wave of energy emitted out of her and instinctually Tyrone knew it was an aura attack like what the cluster queen did. Sam, who was standing beside him grunted as the aura caused his legs to buckle and he was forced into a kneel. Jenny, who was behind him, was fully prostrated on the ground, a small whimpering sound coming from her as the aura overwhelmed her senses. Tyrone stared in shock as the others all either kneeled down or laid face down on the ground as the aura washed over them.

“First you dare interrupt me while I was speaking to another, and then you address me as a stranger in my own land!?” Her grip tightened and Ivan whined as he began to flail. But no matter how hard he hit her arm, her grip was relentless. “I should have you flayed for such insolence.”

“Hey now,” Tyrone said as he gently rested a hand on her arm. “I’m all for beating the crap out of Ivan, but he made an honest mistake. Could you please maybe not flay him alive?”

Xue-Xin turned to him, her glacial eyes locking on Tyrone as her angry expression melted into shock. She tilted her head at him in confusion, despite the situation the action made her look kind of cute and innocent.

“How are you standing?”

“Uh… I’m built different?” Tyrone looked around and saw that everyone else was either kneeling or completely collapsing on the floor. Taking a glance at the battle log, he saw exactly why he was the only one standing. “Ah fuck...”

Xue-Xin has initiated Rulers Presence! You have been struck with Rulers Presence!

You have successfully resisted Rulers Presence due to your high mental resistance!

“Very interesting,” Xue-Xin smiled at him, but not the kind of smile a person would want a beautiful woman to smile at them. This was a predator’s smile, and he was the prey. “Move, insect.” With a movement akin to swatting a fly, she tossed Ivan aside.

Tyrone watched in bemusement as Ivan soared through the air, he would’ve laughed at how Ivan squealed like a pig as he soared through the air, but the result froze the laughter in his throat. Once Ivan smashed into the wall, they could all hear the loud crack of his neck and other bones snap and break, his blank eyes staring sightlessly up at the ceiling. Everyone began to panic but could little more than whimper as the paralyzing aura kept them in place.

“Oh, so you’re a Spear bearer? That explains it. Haven’t seen that class in centuries, the system must have interesting plans set for you.” Xue-Xin leered at Tyrone, a small lift to the edge of her lips as she studied him. “Ah, what’s this? You’ve been marked by…” She leaned in close to him and sniffed, her face flipped into confusion. “I don’t know who that is, but they gave you an interesting ability, have you used it yet? It’s the first time I've ever seen it on a humanoid. Hmm, I think I’ll make you mine. I sense great potential in you. Join me, stand by my side, and swear your life to me. I can ensure that…”

“You killed him. Why?” Tyrone blinked, completely at a loss.

“Now you’re interrupting me. You earthlings are a rude breed. Bow.” She snapped her slender fingers in front of his face. “Do it, now.”

“Why?”

She blinked in bewilderment, as if she’d never been questioned before. Which she probably hadn’t. “Because I told you to. Or are you referring to why did I killed that other one? He didn’t interest me, you do. Simple. I get what I want, always have, always will. Now, bow.”

“No.”

“No?”

“Hell no.” Tyrone’s spear materialized into his hand in all its dark sparkling glory.

Suddenly the pressure she’d been emitting redirected and was aimed directly at him. Tyrone’s eyes widened as he felt the aura press down, it felt like it turned into a hammer, and he was the nail. There was something within him that refused to bow to this woman, and he cursed at the part of himself as blood leaked from his nose and his legged wobbled.

Botnik: Abort mission, abort! Xue-Xin is an elder dragon! It’s best to submit or she’ll crush you! Submit!

You: Fuck that! I have the resistance; I can take it!

But this is what you do right? When someone demands that you bow, it’s your god given right to stare them in the eye and tell them to go fuck themselves. Plus, she killed Ivan! This bastard! No matter how beautiful he thought she was, her long legs, wide hips, and plump lips. It didn’t matter. She was acting as a tyrant and if there was one thing his mom had taught him, it was that you never bow down to a tyrant. Not ever.

Jaw clenched he stared defiantly back at her expecting to see anger, but to his surprise she was smiling widely, and her smile only widened as the pressure increased. Slowly, she reached over and gripped the wrist that was holding his spear and squeezed. Tyrone screamed in pain as she crushed the bones in his wrist, his weapon fizzling out of existence.

Xue-Xin have initiated Malevolent Draconic Aura!

You have been struck by the Malevolent Draconic Aura!

Botnik: Just because you have a high mental resistance doesn’t mean that you can physically withstand a dragon’s aura! If you keep this up, she’ll end up breaking your mind! A mental break will flatline your mental resistance down to zero! And likely lock you into a comatose state!

You: But I can j-

You have succumbed to Malevolent Draconic Aura!

“Aaaarrgh!” A scream tore from Tyrone’s lips as he was slammed down onto his knees. When he tried to steady himself, he instinctively used both arms completely forgetting that his wrist was broken causing him to bellow in pain.

To the surprise of everyone, including Xue-Xin. Botnik floated to his rescue then, or at least he tried. The little drone didn’t come with any real weaponry, but he’d been programmed to help its companion no matter what, even in the face of a dragon. So, it used all if had which wound down to flashing its brightest beam of light in her face and emitting a high frequency alarm to assault her ears.

“I suggest you cease this folly!” Botnik blared. “According to Section two dash five hundred and sixty-nine, dragons are not permitted to destroy natural life on their own home worlds! By accordance of the Paradox Council!”

Xue-Xin hissed in rage as she winced from the light flashing in her eyes, the aura’s intensity stuttered, and Tyrone gulped down a breath.

“You are annoying me, gnat! That law only pertains to laneway realms, not a Key Point world!” With a snarl she swatted Botnik aside, the sheer force of the blow caused Botnik to slam into the ground then ricochet off the wall.

You: Botnik!

There was no reply.

“You bitch! You better not have broken-GAH!”

Xue-Xin didn’t relent in her pursuit. Tyrone’s mind slipped as she increased her power twice over, the sudden jump in intensity made him crumple further. From the corner of his eye, he could see that Botnik was still not responding to his message. He tried to send another message, but he could no longer focus on the words. He could hardly focus on anything besides staying alive.

“I want you lower!” Xue-Xin prodded. “You earthlings need to learn your place, which is on the ground, at my feet. Now lay flat.”

Driven by pure spite at this point, Tyrone still struggled to stand. Sweat began to bead on his brow, eyes clenched tight, jaw was clenched shut, even his ass cheeks were clenched. He was bent so low he was doing the most intense push-up of his life. This had to be it. Xue-Xin was going to crush him to death and not even have to lift a single finger.

“Sorry ma, guess I really done fucked up this time.” Tyrone whispered as he felt his mind begin to crumble and darkness began to envelope him.