One of the Sanguine Sisters clanged into a descending claw, deflecting the strike wide and away from me. It flew backward and managed to get a grip on the stairs as it fell downward. Rolling backward, I threw out a wall of slashes as the next monster descended on me. Dark blood sprayed around us as I made a fighting retreat. Dance of the Rose Hurricane activated and the swirling blood solidified in a cloud around me, rolling around my snapping Blood Cloak as I danced between my foes.

  Lydia announced my Blooded Buff had activated and I exhaled sharply as I activated Surging Blood. The entire world around me slowed, the creature drifting toward me with its strange lamprey mouth writhing in slow motion. Rather than retreat I charged forward and sliced upward cutting its protruding mouth free and driving both blades into its chest before kicking it backward.

  When time resumed it flew backward like a ragdoll, colliding with its comrades and tumbling further into the darkness. The two remaining creatures descended toward me and spun slashing at me with all eight of their massive claws. My blades weaved before me and deflected several attacks, but I still had to weather many of the strikes that slipped through. My health dropped by fifteen percent and I retreated back up the stairs taking a few rapid swipes as I went leaving the monsters bleeding messes as they pursued me.

  Beyond them their two comrades disentangled themselves and let out a screech and a pained gurgle as they rushed to join their allies. As I reached the top of the stairs I heard the thundering footsteps of my zombie hulk ally rushing toward me. Rolling aside, I let the massive brawler take my place, driving his fist into the beast’s maw with a satisfying crunch.

  The giant zombie cackled as he added a kick to the mix, “This motherfucker out here hoggin’ all the xp.”

  Scoffing at that, I jumped upward vaulting off his shoulder with my cloak trailing behind me. I sailed down the stairs at the two enemies bounding to join their allies. Behind me I heard Sakurai roar out a taunt and gain the attention of all the monsters. Moments later a slipstream line of screeching black force crows blasted through the bodies of the creatures around me.

  Landing next to the two monsters, I tore into them at blistering speed. A pair of massive claws latched onto me and dragged me toward the hemorrhaging maw of the beast. The entire structure shuddered as somewhere far beneath us the facility seemed to come to life. With a savage growl I drove one of the sisters upward through the monster’s neck and twisted it.

  It finally released me shuddering and tumbling to the stairs with a wet slump. Falling to my knees, I rolled forward to face off with the remaining monster. Below us lights flickered on with a hum and the structure began to shake. When I came up to swipe at my foe it was gone. Its form vanished into the darkness as it bounded down the stairs in great leaps before vanishing into the darkness.

  As I started chase after them KKG’s massive fist landed on my shoulder, “Don’t run off. Something is up.”

  We turned to see Sakurai and Nomura standing over the two foes they had bested. The ghoul mage had a concerned look on his face and the two were whispering hurriedly.

  I kicked at one of the strange Breeder corpses as I ascended to meet them. They were much denser than the hordes we had fought on the first three levels.

  As I approached, Nomura was saying, “I have no idea…”

  “What’s wrong?”

  He looked up and grumbled, “I got an in game message. Catacomb says I broke the terms of service somehow. They are deciding whether I should be banned.”

  Giving him an incredulous look I scoffed, “Nah, fuck that.”

  "What are you doing?," Sukurai asked with concern as she turned to me.

  Smirking at them I waved a dismissive hand, “Just being myself.”

  Speaking out into the dive room I said, “Lydia, dial Jaime Speers at Catacomb.”

  “You don’t have to…,” the skeletal warrior stammered.

  Giving them a confident look I winked, silencing their protests as I heard the phone in my ear, switching it to speaker with a flick of my finger. The rep answered on the second ring, “Malcolm, what can I do for you sir?”

  My lips curled into my best ‘salesman’ smile despite the fact the man couldn’t see me as I said, “Jaime, I hope I’m not catching you at a bad time?”

  He reassured me, “Oh no, just going over some reports.”

  Nodding I continued with a shrug as I paced the platform like I was in an office call. It was like I was back in those not too long ago days when I’d spent half my days on calls like this.

  “I just wanted to give you a call because someone in my group got some disconcerting news from the company and I was wondering if you could confirm it.”

  “What’s that Mal?”

  Quickly running down the warning message Nomura had received I even had the man himself confirm it.

  The young man stammered, “Yeah… Hi Mr. Speers! I just got this message and I’m worried I did something wrong.”

  Speers immediately dove in to check the logs. After several moments he gave a resigned sigh, “Seems one of our partners has asked that your associate be removed from the test.”

  “Well, surely you can do something about this decision? I’ve been with Nomura since he logged in. I can personally confirm he didn’t make a ToS violation.”

  There was a long pause before Speers answered with an accommodating smile in his tone, “I’ll call their rep. She’s a fan of yours so your request will carry weight. I’ll see what I can do.”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Who could be that big a fan of mine at this point?

  r5ttttttt4“Thank you Jaime. We really appreciate you doing what you can.”

  We said our farewells and hung up. Both Sakurai and Nomura bowed to me and I chuckled, “I appreciate the bows guys, but I’m glad to help the only two people who probably don’t think I’m a psycho at this point.”

  KKG chuckled, “Sounds like at least one corporate chick thinks you’re worth backing.”

  Rubbing the back of my neck, I smiled broadly, “Yeah, corporate working women aren’t my demo to be honest. I definitely appreciate it but it’s surprising…”

  The stairs shook again and I peered down to see that an orange gold light was radiating from the deeper levels. I cursed, “Shit, do you guys think we’re on a time limit?”

  KKG shrugged and started down the stairs with a grin, “Well regardless, let's get this show on the road before they throw Nomura out of the game.”

  With that the four of us sprinted down the stairs to the next level. We were met by another pack of screeching mutants which Sakurai quickly corralled with a massive taunting stomp. We killed them as we moved across the platform and toward the next set of stairs. Our passage was a trail of blood and viscera, these monsters long since losing any threat they posed. I saw no sign of the final injured Malformed Breeder.

  As we rushed to reach the next level more and more of the facility seemed to come to life. The only sound that reached our ears, despite the screeches and grinding claws of the mutants, was the roar of engines in the depths coming to life. At the center of the platforms as we descended the levels a new spire of dark metal tubing and blazing orange bulbs started to fill the space, growing larger with each level.

  When we started making our way down to the sixth level I realized that we had killed so many of the monsters on the higher level that blood had started to fall downward like a misting rain. I led the way down the last set of stairs before the massive machine that the spire at the center of the levels had become... I slid in the muck as my lip curled and I hissed, “This fucking game man!”

  There, before the spire several of the Mutilated Breeders, including the one we had fought earlier, were tearing into each other with their claws and sharpened bones. It wasn’t a slaughter, or a feast but an attempt at a violent combination. As if five bodies were built separately to eventually be thrust together into an amalgam of torn flesh and popping bone. I analyzed the creature and Lydia provided a description:

  “Screaming Experiment Level 36, Elite

  Tier F

  Weakness: Fire

  Resistance: Cold

  HP: 6455/6455

  MP: Unknown

  Special Ability

  Snapping Tendril: A tendril of flesh with a potential range of five meters shoots out of the Experiment. This strike can knock back or throw down opponents!”

  The creatures were screeching a high pitched caterwaul as they thrust themselves together. I looked over my shoulder to give my comrades a concerned look and shrugged, “Probably a bad idea to let them finish.”

  Without pause I turned and rushed the pile of torn flesh and crunching bone, my Blood Cloak snapping and writhing through the air behind me. I was about to activate Surging Blood when a spear of bone thrust out of the mass and drove through my stomach, hoisting me from the ground and driving me three meters back. KKG passed me and jumped, landing on the bone spear and snapping it violently.

  Managing a growl of appreciation, “Thanks,” I pulled the blood stained shank out of my stomach. The massive zombie brawler rolled past several more spears that flung out to catch him and eventually jumped into the mass with a downward kick blasting himself with muck.

  Just as Sakurai reached me I spun up to my feet and charged along with her. She gave me a sidelong look with that inscrutable skeletal glare and I just chuckled, “Look, I can’t be a complete badass all the time.”

  As she charged straight in, using her shield to protect herself I ran in the opposite direction of KKG, circling the creature and trying to get close. As I got near the monster’s body it shuddered and a massive knobby shoulder thrust out of the viscera with an arm attached flailing outward at me. Rolling across the gore strewn floor I came up without losing speed.

  Nomura began the fight by summoning his menacing giant four eyed bird. It started to fly around the arena and immediately swooped in, leaving gouges in the flesh and tearing away a strip of meat that it somehow managed to consume as it circled around for another attack.

  Before he could react the gigantic arm swung out and batted KKG backward across the room. A combination of the terrible force and the slick metal floors caused him to slide for nearly twenty meters before coming to a stop. Hoping that the attack would provide a distraction, I charged in. Nomura finished intoning a spell and a circular wall of screeching black force crows rose up around the creature causing it to scream in protest and retract several bleeding tendrils.

  Reaching the monster I activated Surging Blood, feeling my reserves bottom out as time slowed to a crawl. Running the length of the pile of bloody flesh I dragged one of the Sister’s through its mass, proccing Slice again and again. A surge of rotten black blood fountained outward behind me in a slow moving wave. Time resumed and the beast shook and warbled in pain as attacks came in from every angle.

  Another arm burst from the bloody fountain I had created, swiping out to try and hit me. Flipping backward over the fast moving limb I skated through the gathering muck as I darted back in to strike the creature again. On KKG’s side the tendril that had batted the brawler snapped with a splintering splorch and a scything blade of bone tore out of the end of the flesh appendage. It swiped at the giant brawler and connected with his chest, throwing him backward and to the grating again. The massive curved bone blade rose into the air and then drove down into the zombie brawler’s stomach and chest, nearly cutting him in half.

  KKG shuddered on the blade and spit through his black and gold teeth, “Can you believe that shit bro?”

  Nomura changed from casting attack spells to throwing his heal onto our comrade, but it was too late. KKG struggled with the blade, smearing his giant hands through the blood on its length before falling still on the grating. Sakurai activated a stomping taunt and drew a brief amount of attention from the beast. Its myriad eyes snapped to the armored warrior and it tore the blade out of KKG’s remains with a smooth ‘schick’.

  Another lance of bone snapped out toward me, but I was ready, dodging aside and dancing toward the monster rolling around its attacks to get close. The monster’s still forming body struck out at me with malformed limbs as I waded in, slashing into its roiling body and quickly becoming coated in thick stinking blood.

  Lydia announced my Blooded Buff again and I closed my mouth tight as I activated Surging Blood and then clicked my Blazing Boots together. Bursting forward and leaving a trail of fire in my wake, I started to cut my way inside the monster with preternatural speed. The flesh burst away from me in curtains but slowed in mid air as I drove further inside the still forming lower body of the beast. The fire around my feet started to spread into its insides in slow motion. As Surging Blood expired I was ejected from its body by another wave of rotten blood and a gout of dark fire.

  The monster seemed to be struggling, several mouths on its bulk opening and chittering out pitifully. Its hundreds of malformed eyes searched the room for a target and settled on our mage and healer. A slender tentacle tore itself free of the mass with a barbed black claw at its tip toward the helpless caster. The tentacle impacted his shoulder and dragged him across the platform toward the creature. Sakurai managed to rush in and hacked the tentacle apart but I could see that the mage was enraged.

  Calling over my shoulder, I rushed to continue my hit and run attacks, “Nomura don’t lose your…”