The monstrous, metallic hand surged past Horus' skull with enough force to smash it to pieces.
He skidded sideways, cursing under his breath. He couldn't get close to the monster. Too many arms. Way too many.
The dungeon boss was an Adapt-tier Firespitter. Far out of the league of one unawakened boy. Its eleven hands allowed its truck-sized body to move like a living nightmare. The countless holes in its body, from which fire shot out, made it even more terrifying.
The creature raised multiple hands to crush him. Gunfire erupted, stunning it and giving him precious seconds to escape.
The shooter, Wally, looked grim. His ginger hair was spotted with blood, his armour was dented, and his clothes underneath were torn.
John, the third member of their small group, raised his gun and let out some shots. With enough bullets, you could kill a Common-tier monster.
But not an Adept.
The Firespitter let out an unnatural roar that hummed in Horus' chest. It had no head or face; all the holes in its body just let out a guttural sound.
They all dove aside without a word to each other. Five jets of white-hot flames shot from the Firespitter's body, searing molten lines in the rough earth.
Horus rolled to a stop and immediately jumped back in, ignoring the pain lancing through him. He was the only one that should fight close range with this thing..
The crescent sword in his hand flashed, severing fingers from the monster's arms.
Five seconds before another fire attack. He made do, dancing between the arms of the monster, slowly but controlled.
A single hit was death for an unawakened. He ran up an arm. Two seconds till the monster fired.
He needed to use [Twilight swordsmanship]. It wouldn't be the first time he used it while unawakened, but the first time was pure inspiration.
Now it was a necessity.
His sword was an Epic-tier weapon, made the day he was born. It could cut through this monster; he was the weak link.
His sword flashed once with blue light. Do it!
The slash cut deeply into the monster's arm, but not through it.
His eyes dimmed. "No—"
He narrowly dodged the monster's backhand. Its skin felt like hot metal, scraping into his back, boiling his blood, sending him flying into the ground.
Even through all the pain, he didn't lose his focus. But his body couldn't move in time.
The cooldown had ended. A lance of pure fire shot towards Horus. His short life flashed in the blinding light.
But then someone slammed into his shoulder and pushed him out of the way.
He stumbled, turning back to find a gasping John. John never hesitated, Horus always admired that.
"Hey?" He said weakly.
"Hey." John smiled; his black hair was matted to his skin by blood. "I told you I'd pay you back."
Horus reached out to hold him, but John fell backwards, revealing the charred hole in his belly. His boiling blood sizzled over the dungeon floor, and his eyes stared into the distance. Lost.
Horus wanted just to pause, to pause this moment in time.
Lost. Lost. He repeated it to himself, turning back to the battle.
Wally was distracting the boss. He moved toward John's corpse, and Horus weakly tried to stand. Behind them was the shaft leading to another tunnel in the dungeon.
If it weren't for that map, we wouldn't be in this situation.
"Let's go down," Horus suggested, regaining his strength.
Wally didn't look back, the muzzle flare of his gun revealed his solemn expression. "You go. I'll stay back to distract it."
It was logical. A good idea.
But there was no way in Hel that he was going to abandon his friend. "We'll both die here."
Something in him was comforted by the thought. Something he found rather shameful.
"Your life is a bit too important to end here," Wally joked with a small smile. "Look out for my sister if you can, and I hope one day you can find something you want."
Horus glared. "No, you—"
Wally turned and fired at his feet. Horus quickly backed up to the edge of the hole. With a spartan kick, Wally pushed him down the hole.
His mind didn't have time to feel indignation. Horus quickly pulled out a knife and tried to slow down his fall. His left shoulder made a loud pop as the bone dislocated.
"Arrrgh!" He groaned. The knife pulled free, and he fell to the ground. Thankfully, he was close, so when he hit the ground, he didn't die.
Hot agony shot through him, but he was still alive.
Cradling his arm, he sat up and was about to roar Wally's name when a powerful explosion went off.
It was their last explosives, Wally had been holding onto them for some reason. Now Horus understood.
His body felt so hollow, he just stared up at the tunnel. This couldn't be real. He had to be dreaming.
A simple sample gathering exercise. That was why they had come down here, led by a map that Horus now strongly suspected was fake. Now both his friends are dead.
Someone had sent them down here to die.
The tunnel trembled.
"No," He murmured to himself, refusing to believe it.
Then hands reached into the tunnel, and the massive, metallic body of the Firespitter crawled into the tunnel.
It didn't even have the dignity to die for Wally's sacrifice.
Horus got up, setting his dislocated arm in place before slamming into a wall. Stars filled his vision, a thrumming in his ears drowned out all other sound.
He stumbled through the dark tunnel, ignoring his pain. The ground trembled behind him as the Firespitter dropped into the tunnel.
Fight.
The word was ingrained into his being from childhood. But he already failed to kill this thing when his friends' lives were at stake. Fighting for his life was never as motivating
In the end, he wasn't the person everyone told him he was.
He turned and faced the Firespitter with a regal expression that clashed with his battered, bloodied appearance.
The monster let out an eerie roar.
"Die," Horus spat.
He shot forward just as ten lances of fire shot from the monster's body. There was barely a margin for escape. But his high perception and instincts threaded the needle.
Heat assaulted him, but he made it past the fire, and now the beast bore down on him, all eleven hands raised to crush him.
In a split second, his eyes caught all the necessary info. His sword was still embedded in the monster's arm, and there was a melted hole in its body. Wally's suicide bomb.
It opened a clear path to the Firespitter's core.
He swung past the arms with a hair's breadth. The ground shattered under the beast's heavy blows. Horus slid under a sweeping arm and then grabbed his sword.
Instead of pulling it out, he allowed the monster's momentum to swing him and the sword upward.
The sword pulled free, and he swung his body mid-air and kicked off the roof of the tunnel, shooting at the side of the beast.
With a snarl, he buried the sword halfway into its core. Firespitters weren't truly alive, so destroying the core was enough to—
The creature lurched weakly, half a step from death. One of its hands grabbed Horus' head firmly, making his bones scream in horror.
His burning metal skin melted his face, and for once, Horus screamed. A hoarse, painful sound.
One of the holes in the palm grasping his face began to glow. His eyes widened. It's going to melt his head at point-blank range.
Something urged him to give up.
But he pushed forward, driving the sword deeper. The heat and glow of the hole grew; his vision turned white as the heat destroyed his eyes.
Then his sword pierced through the core.
The light faded instantly, and the monster crumpled, flinging Horus aside. He hit the floor numbly, barely conscious.
He was blind and consumed by intense pain. His instincts pushed him to get up, but he finally had enough.
Fading into black, Horus had a strange dream of an army saluting him and seven people standing behind him.
A soft voice urged, "Make your own decisions."