Civilization

With a clean cut through Zabik's neck, Helioc's knives slice through even the air, as he slowly pushes Zabik's body down with his gentle leap. Landing softly, Helioc splatters the blood from cutting through the muscles on the floor while Zabik's head falls to the ground before his body could even react to the attack. Blinking in surprise as I didn't expect the monster to die so quickly, I catch a glimpse of Helioc who was just watching Zabik's stone-cold body.

"G-Good job, Helioc." - Rebecca

"Don't worry about it. You did great yourself. Let me he-" - Helioc

"REBECCA GET OUT OF THERE! THE THING ISN'T DEAD YET!" - Nina

Hearing Nina's scream, I quickly start to lift my body off the ground, while Helioc instantly switches back to a fighting stance. As I get to my feet and turn away, I start to hear a soft chuckle, edging me to look. Gulping down my saliva, and glancing in that direction, I see Zabik's head, spin around in a circle before magically, lifting itself upright.

"Oh? I didn't think I would get exposed so quickly. You insects, sure think you are smart. No matter, play-time is over." - Zabik

Its towering body bends down, grabbing the head as it places it in the same spot where Helioc cut. Thin muscles start to attach themselves to the head, weaving together and before long, it looked indistinguishable from before. As if the cut never happened in the first place. Letting out small quick breaths, I start to move away, luckily Helioc's teammates had already killed most of the Lickers and other monsters behind us, as I retreat past them.

Without looking back, I make haste as I start to jog slowly, before sprinting quickly toward Nina and the others. I knew I wasn't much help in a fight but I didn't realize how much of a nuisance I would be. Biting my lips, as a tear rolls down my cheek, I shake my head from side to side to get rid of those annoying thoughts but to my dismay, they stayed. Looking ahead, my eyes survey the area, finding Nina and the clothes but once I do, they had faces of concern instead.

"Where do you think you are going, insect?" - Zabik

Like a ghost appearing by my side, Zabik's large claws block any hope of my running to the left or right, while his stale breath runs down my neck. My feet naturally slow, as my body trembles. How is he here? What happened to Helioc? What about the people between him and me?

In mid-step, glancing over my shoulder, I see his sinister grin, as his arms wrap around the front, and the rib cage wraps around my waist. Like a giant teddy bear hugging me, only this teddy was something from your nightmares. A scream escapes my mouth, as the desperate me, materializes the coin.

[Successful Coin Flip! Doubling Random stat… Dexterity has been selected! Dexterity 33 -> Dexterity 66. Will you flip again?]

"YES!" - Rebecca

[Successful Coin Flip! Doubling Random stat… Intelligence has been selected! Intelligence 66 -> Intelligence 132. Will you flip again?]

"YES!" - Rebecca

[Unsuccessful Coin Flip! Reducing all stat gains! Dexterity and Intelligence will be reduced. Dexterity 66 -> Dexterity 33, Intelligence 132 -> Intelligence 66. Cannot flip again for 1 hour]

"GOD DAMMIT!" - Rebecca

"HAHAHA! YES SCREAM! SHOW ME, FEAR! AN INSECT LIKE YOU CAN DO NOTHING BUT FEAR ME! SO, SCREAM! SCREAM! SCR-" - Zabik

"You talk too much. Zeus's Lightning Bolt" - Devel

Slicing through Zabik's left arm, and kicking his body away in the process, Devel grab my arm, pulling me away. His sword is replaced with a blue lightning bolt, and as I catch a glimpse of his eyes, I see a similar blue lightning racing through them. His eyes notice my gaze, as it follows me slowly, before turning back to Zabik.

"Get back to Nina and the others, I have already killed the 2 Zabiks near them. SanShiGo is busy with the other two but they seem fine, so I'm here to help out Helioc." - Devel

"O-okay." - Rebecca

Quickly, I walk away from Devel, approaching Nina and Sabrina, who rush out to grab me. Their warm embrace was nothing like Zabik's close contact and even though my body was still shivering from the experience, I felt it calm down slowly.

"How are you feeling?" - Sabrina

"Uh… Fine. I guess." - Rebecca

"Don't run off on your own again, okay?" - Nina

"Yea… I won't" - Rebecca

"Sigh, don't worry too much Rebecca, this is just a learning experience. You will get better soon." - Sabrina

"I…I don't know if I want to get better… Not after this." - Rebecca

"You will have no choice. You know what the world is coming to, so you will have to become stronger. Not just physically or by stats, but also mentally. Ian or even Devel, won't be there to save you all the time and look… Helioc's team has been decimated, with himself severely injured. He was only able to survive to a skill he had, which allowed him to swap places with something, before traveling through the shadows to us." - Nina

"Helioc is here too?" - Rebecca

Nina and Sabrina, move to the side slightly, to show Helioc, on the ground with Travys creating a simple dressing over his wounds. In his mouth, was a potion, but I'm guessing that wasn't enough to heal his wounds or he was under a special debuff.

"He got inflicted by Bleed from Zabik, and his wounds are causing his HP to drop quickly. Having dealt with Bleed before, Travys quickly got to work, covering up the wound while also making sure Helioc was still taking some potions. David is busy with the front, and Sylvia moved closer as well to lessen the burden." - Sabrina

"Most of us are running low on MP, especially the mages, so we have been using spells very sparingly. At least we can kind of see the end of this horde of monsters, with the majority closer to SanShiGo. It seems he is using some sort of taunting ability to draw the monsters to him. Not that we are complaining." - Nina

"It's done." - Devel

Landing beside us, coated in lightning, Devel changes his sword back to the giant lump of rocks as his gaze lands on me.

"Are you alright?" - Devel

"I'm fine. Been better." - Rebecca

"That's good. How is Helioc?" - Devel

"See for yourself. Travys is tending to his wounds." - Nina

"Got it." - Devel

Leaving us as quickly as he came, Devel walks over to Helioc, kneeling down to look closely. Opening his eyes slightly, Helioc notices Devel's appearance.

"H-H-How is m-m-my team?" - Helioc

"Dead. All 9 of them. Zabik got to them after attacking you. They didn't stand a chance at fighting the monster. Neither did you, but I think that was more of a match-up problem. If you have known that the way to kill him was to destroy his core, which was somewhere in his chest, you would have been able to easily kill the monster. Especially with your third strike, that would have sealed the deal if you have known." - Devel

"D-D-Did you know?" - Helioc

"Only after fighting them and killing them myself. Plus, it wasn't me that figured it out, it was Nina. She has a keen eye for these things. After figuring out its weakness, I killed one of them with ease with the other was eliminated by Sylvia. OH! Has someone told SanShiGo about Zabik's weakness?" - Devel

Turning away from Helioc, Devel looks at Sabrina and glances at Nina. Nodding in response, Nina gazes over toward SanShiGo's side.

"I sent Frank over there to tell SanShiGo already, and looking at the situation over there, it seems like they are almost done as well, as there is only one Zabik left." - Nina

"Great, that's great! Then, I'm going to proceed in cleaning up the place, there are still a lot of monsters rushing at us. Keep Helioc safe, Travys. Make sure he is ready for the next phase of the battle." - Devel

"On it." - Travys

Devel leaps away, jumping into the approaching horde, killing them swiftly but compared to his previous sense of joy, he had a more serious and stoic expression. Letting out a sigh, I notice Sabrina handing me a potion as well. Thanking her, I quickly down the potion to regain the rest of my missing HP. Instead of venturing out, I opted to stay within the group this time, only helping out slightly when we start to get overrun by the monsters.

With the destruction of the Poison Fang, I had to rely on the Goblin Knife which I still had attached to my waist. The only problem was the damage from this knife was a lot less, taking more effort to kill each monster, but that didn't bother me. My head was still filled with all the events that had just happened to me, and my judgment was still slightly delayed. At least there was no punishment when fighting these monsters.

After a while, Frank rejoins our group, notifying us that SanShiGo and the Lotus team, have finished eliminating the last Zabik and are almost finished killing the last of the monsters that are near them. Following the good news, Devel, Sylvia, and Mikki also returned after destroying the monsters near us. Regrouping with SanShiGo's team, we notice that they also took some casualties, losing 3 players.

It was only the start of the final stage and from a total of 50 people that came into it initially, we were already down to 38. Standing in front of the upside Castle as it hangs in front of us, the question that begs our minds is, how do we get in?