‘Elite enemy? Already?’ thought Uruvi. Her axe was at the ready. “I am not sure if you have fought these kinds of monsters already, but they are an absolute menace.”

  Rana looked down at his screen and then back at the monster. “They are fast and hit hard, huh? Plus, it is an elite.”

  The health bar atop it, accompanied by the number 7.

  “Rana, you are also Level 6, right?” she asked.

  “Yup. It’s only one level higher. Shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”

  ‘Arya, is an elite boss always one level higher than the contestant?’ she asked.

  “Negative. Enemy level is not determined by contestant level.”

  ‘Guess we are lucky then…’

  The Pisachi inched forward, which sent a shiver up Uruvi’s spine. It let out a low growl that began to grow more and more irritating with every passing second.

  Rana shut his ears with his hand, struggling to adapt to the noise. “What is that?”

  Uruvi, however, was able to tolerate the sound. “Rana, watch out! It is summoning other Pisacha!”

  They looked around and saw multiple Pisacha of different levels approaching them. Rana quickly summoned a special-looking arrow and shot it at the Pisachi. The scream stopped, but the other monsters continued to swarm them.

  “Quick! We have only fifteen seconds to deal with them!” said Rana.

  She saw that most of them were just Level 3 and 4 with a few Level 5 Pisacha sprinkled in. “Fifteen seconds, shouldn’t be a problem!”

  Three Pisacha leapt at her, with their claws at the ready. However, in one swing of her axe, she beheaded all three of them. There was a sharp grin on her face as their bodies fell to the ground, proud of pulling off a triple kill without the Domino spell.

  A flurry of arrows rained down on the monsters, impaling a few and sending the rest back onto the ground.

  Uruvi rushed forward, leaping over the stalled vehicles and bringing down her axe on any Pisacha that crossed her path. Rana backed her up, aiming for the monsters that were out of her warpath. As each second passed, the number of dead Pisacha increased.

  Her eyes locked onto the Pisachi at the center of the chaos. Four level 5 Pisacha surrounded her. “Rana! Can you stun the other Pisacha?” she shouted.

  “No! I can only use one at a time!”

  “Tch! Fine!” She lunged at the first of the four guardians, who let out an ear-piercing scream upon seeing her. She grit through the pain and engaged the monster. She weaved her way through the enemy’s swings, dodging its sharp claws. She bided her time and waited for the others to approach them.

  Four seconds remaining, and one of the Pisacha was still out of reach. It appeared to be least interested in attacking. ‘Can’t wait!’

  Her body was drenched in a red aura as she rolled forward, ducking beneath the arc of the attacks. She rushed forward and went past the fourth Pisacha, who looked stunned by her move. In one quick motion, she spun around and kicked it towards its brothers, who were charging at her. Golden hue surrounded her as she shouted, “Domino!” before striking the fourth Pisacha in the belly. The hit propagated through the four Pisacha. Their health bars fell below fifty, but they weren’t dead yet.

  “Get back!” Rana shouted as an arrow struck one of the Pisacha and exploded.

  She blocked the shockwave with the blade of her axe. Seeing the four Pisacha fall to the ground, she turned towards the Pisachi. She knew she could not use Charge for another ten seconds, but she was out of options.

  She struck it in the belly, lifting it into the air, before spinning around and bringing the axe down onto its neck. The head detached from the body and fell onto the ground beside its lifeless body.

  “Yeah!” She shouted, standing beside the monster’s corpse. She was breathless but extremely satisfied. After taking a moment to breathe, she said, “that was way too easy. Especially for Level 7.” She looked around her at the countless corpses of the monsters lying on the ground. Seconds passed, and nothing happened.

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  “They should be turning to dust, right?” Rana asked, who looked very confused.

  “Yeah...” She looked at her screen and saw that the XP bar had not moved. “What’s going…”

  Before she could even finish the sentence, the headless corpse of the Pisachi stood up before her. Fear flooded her body as she leapt back, nearly tripping over the Pisacha that was lying on the ground. She held her axe up, ready to attack once again.

  White tendrils shot out of the Pisachi’s body, with each tendril striking the corpses of the Pisacha around them. One of the tendrils struck the Pisacha that lay before her. She immediately replied by cutting the tendril, which let off a screech before retreating, while the Pisacha’s body turned to dust.

  The tendrils began to absorb the bodies they struck, as the Pisachi began to grow in size. Uruvi made a run for it, as she watched the monster grow and grow, appearing to touch the sky. ‘Are you fucking with me? How the hell are we supposed to kill that?’

  The Pisachi began to resemble the decaying corpse of a young woman; the dead skin formed a long gown. Underneath it, the white tendrils whipped around, striking down anything in their path. It extended its arms into the air before letting out a blood-curdling scream.

  “Uruvi! Get ready for phase 2!” Shouted Rana.

  Uruvi’s body froze as one of the tendrils lashed at her, sending her flying into the side of the car. She survived the hit but saw that she lost a good fifteen percent of her health. She gritted through the pain as she pushed herself off the broken door when another tendril came for her. She quickly leapt out of its way as it crushed the car with one strike.

  She saw a stream of arrows hit the Pisachi in the face, but it barely flinched. It replied by spinning around, whipping its tendrils around in a deadly circle. They cut through anything they touched. She ducked onto the ground, facing the sky, and avoiding the path traced by them.

  The Pisachi finally stopped spinning, letting her get back up on her feet. Another white tendril shot at her, but she dodged it with ease. The tendril stabbed the torn-up car, getting stuck in it. Seizing the moment, she sliced through the tendril. The Pisachi let out a cry as the tendril turned to dust. She immediately shifted to the enemy’s health bar, which she saw drop by about ten percent.

  A grin appeared on her face. “Rana! Cut its octopus legs!”

  Almost immediately, Rana shot an arrow that cut through one of the monster’s tendrils. Uruvi charged forward, drenched in a red aura. Leaping over a line of vehicles, she ducked and rolled away from the tendrils as they came at her. Using the window of recovery, she sliced through them, one by one.

  More arrows shot through the air, a few missed, while the others struck their target. It looked like it took more than one to take down a tendril.

  As the numbers reduced, the monster got more aggressive. It brought its massive hands down onto them, but they dodged the slow-moving arms with ease. Only one tendril was left, and the enemy’s health bar was in the red.

  Uruvi felt the exhaustion from the Adrenaline kick in. She had already cast Rejuvenating Glow multiple times, but they didn’t seem to refresh her stamina. Seeing the last tendril appear before her, she came to a stop and held her breath as it came down on her. Suddenly, an arrow struck the tendril, and it stopped moving, falling onto her as a lifeless limb.

  “Do it, Uruvi!” Rana shouted.

  She jumped out of its path, letting it fall onto the roof of the vehicle, before bringing the axe down onto it, cleaving it. The Pisachi let out its final cry as it began to sway back and forth. Its health bar dropped to zero as it came crashing down onto the ground in a giant cloud of dust.

  “Now that’s more like it!” She shouted. “And please don’t get up again,” she whispered.

  Her XP bar shot through, filling up the bar once before flooding it again. She watched in awe as her Level changed from 6 to 8.

  “New Level attained. 10 Attribute points, 2 skill points, 2 spell points gained.”

  She began to jump up and down in joy as Rana appeared beside her. “You too got a two-level boost?” he asked.

  “Yes! I am guessing you as well?”

  He quietly nodded. They turned towards the corpse of the Pisachi, which was slowly turning to dust. “You were right. That is one mean creature,” said Rana.

  “Even I didn’t expect that thing to lash out the way it did,” she replied.

  Suddenly, a loud blaring sound went off, almost making her squeal. “Danger! Danger! High-level enemy approaching!” said Arya.

  The ground beneath them shook as the sound of loud footsteps filled the air. A giant shadow appeared on the ground around them as the corpse of the Pisachi was lifted into the air. They saw a massive creature, almost three stories tall, standing above them. It resembled a Pisacha, but with a massive belly and thick limbs.

  “Warning! Warning! High-level enemy, Rakt-Pisacha detected! Advised to flee!” said Arya.

  She saw its health bar glow red and the number 120 on top of it. “Are you kidding me? 120! How many humans did that thing feed off!”

  “Run… Run! Run!” Rana shouted.

  The two immediately dashed away from it. The Pisacha crunched on the corpse as it turned to dust in its mouth. Feeling unsatisfied, it let out a loud roar that shook the two humans’ hearts.

  The monster seemed to have spotted them. She could feel the footsteps of it as its shadow fell over them once again. “Arya! Do something!” She shouted.

  “Requesting assistance… Please wait!”

  “Are you serious? We are going to die!”

  It wasn’t fast, but with each step, it covered enough distance to close the gap. The vehicles were crushed under its foot with each step, leaving behind a carnage of twisted metal.

  She took a peek behind and saw that it was no more than a few feet away. ‘We are going to die! We are going to die!’

  “Warning! New creature approaching!” said Arya.

  “What?” The footsteps came to a sudden stop. She turned around to see a giant ball of smoke in the sky, travelling towards them. The Pisacha was looking at the approaching creature.

  They came to stop and watched as a humanlike figure appeared out of the ball of smoke and punched the Pisacha right across its jaw.

  “Warning. An Asura is approaching,” said Arya.

  Asura, someone she anticipated meeting sooner or later, had finally arrived. It filled her with excitement and fear.