As I made my way to Tóxica, I could feel the wave of silence that began to wash over the street. Every minute that passed had one less gun firing, one less person crying for salvation, one less person that could walk out of here alive.

  Tóxica continued to let out a roar every minute or so, a call that helped me track her location. It was far easier to travel on the sides of the wreckage, avoiding the worst of the flaming catacombs that Belaqua Street had become.

  But as I closed in on her location, I ran into a sight that froze me into place. Up ahead was Polymeniac, standing in front of The Tower of Agony. And he wasn’t alone. He was talking with Agony, the biggest threat on the battlefield.

  I knew that he had to be somewhere, but this was the first sighting of him that any of us had made. Doing my best to fade into the background, I hid behind a pile of smoldering debris. If I was spotted, then my only option would be to run, because there was no way in hell I could fight both of them at once.

  Still, despite the threat he posed, there was one benefit from running into Agony. I moved out of cover, aimed my hand at him, and activated [Borrow].

  [Infernal Grasp][Borrowed]: You can summon hellfire from your palm.

  Using [Borrow] a second time left me exhausted, another portion of energy clawed away from me. But Agony’s powers were more than worth it, especially considering the description of the power I just [Borrowed].

  After what could’ve been seconds or minutes, Agony finally left. He went back inside their main base, leaving Polymeniac outside. It felt odd. Even if he thought they were winning, why wouldn’t he join the fight?

  But another roar snapped me out of thought, reminding me that Tóxica still needed my help. I couldn’t help but be impressed that she was going, especially against Quarry. When we had planned out the battle, my guess was that he’d beat her within a matter of minutes. It had to be at least half an hour already, yet she still had the strength to call out to me.

  Polymeniac stood in my path, grumbling to himself as he equipped his sprouted arms with more guns than I could count. If I wanted to reach Tóxica, then I needed to find some way past him.

  Looking around, I spotted a few alleyways that were within sprinting distance. The second I saw him turn away, I rushed towards the nearest one. The passage was narrow, a side door for the shops on the street, filled with loose bags of garbage.

  As I ran through, I noticed that the floor was slick with blood. Severed body parts were thrown across the alley, left behind by whatever toy had been here before me. With a few rapid breaths, I pushed ahead, escaping to the other side.

  This street it led me to was tame in comparison to Belaqua street. While some destruction was visible, debris from the explosion having crashed into the surroundings, it was mostly intact. Of course, even here, there were still bodies on the ground. Henchmen that couldn’t escape in time.

  I continued running, ignoring the energy drained from the latest use of [Borrow], desperate to cover enough ground in time. Tóxica’s roars called out to me, getting louder with each step I took. Once I had traveled far enough, certain that she was nearby, I headed back to Belaqua street through the nearest alley.

  But, as I took my first step into the street, I heard the sound of crashing come from behind me. I spun around, shotgun in one hand and crowbar in the other. And there was Polymeniac, currently aiming an arsenal worth of weapons in my direction.

  “Where the fuck did you come from?” I asked.

  “I saw you running around, so I decided to follow. Considering your dino bitch kept screaming, I made a guess on where you’d end up.” His guns tracked my movements, not losing aim even as I slowly stepped back.

  “Subtlety really isn’t Tóxica’s strong suit. So, why isn’t your boss here?”

  “Because he doesn’t need to be.”

  I looked around, desperate to find some way out of this. If I tried to take him in a gunfight, I’d be nothing but bullet holes in a matter of seconds. Even if I managed to [Take] some of his guns, he had more than enough to do me in.

  “Is this really how you want to do it? After all this fighting, all this death you just shoot me down? Why don’t we make this interesting, you and me, no weapons.”

  “No thanks. I’m not a dumbass, Taker. Why would I throw down my guns and fight when I can end things now?”

  “Who said anything about fighting?” I winked at him.

  Polymeniac’s face dropped. “..Wha-”

  I fired my shotgun at his eyes and ran. All I needed was a moment of confusion to try and get away. It wasn’t an honorable strategy or whatever, but I don’t care about being honorable when it comes to survival.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  But the shotgun shell was nothing more than a distraction. Polymeniac started firing at me before I managed to take three steps. Bullets flew over my head, barely missing me. I aimed the shotgun behind me, firing blind shots in his direction.

  The second I saw a decent piece of cover, I threw myself behind it. Bullets bounced off the steel frame, as it barely held out against Polymeniac’s barrage. While I went through my pockets, pulling out enough firepower to fight back, I saw Tóxica up ahead.

  She was still fighting against Quarry, her legs clinging onto his back while her arms attempted to claw out his eyes. Torn scales littered the ground, patches of bloody skin visible across her body.

  Blood poured out of her mouth whenever she opened it, her snout missing most of its fangs. Even the claws on her hands were fractured and broken. But, the worst looking injury was what remained of her tail.

  Part of it had been ripped off in her fight against Quarry. Only a small stub was left behind, ending in a jagged display of torn flesh. Despite her injuries, Tóxica continued her relentless assault on Quarry.

  While I had underestimated her ability to handle an endurance fight, I hadn’t underestimated just how durable Quarry was. Even with the explosion, the building collapsing, and the endless assault he faced, he was still unharmed.

  His stone skin was slick with Tóxica’s blood, yet there were no signs of damage to his [Stone Exterior]. Her claws could do nothing but rake against him, struggling to find any openings to take advantage of. And while she struggled, he continued to fight her without pause.

  A gunshot snapped me back to my own fight, Polyemniac’s latest shot nearly taking my head off. I shifted deeper into cover, tossing a grenade in his direction at the same time. Once it went off, I looked back to see his condition.

  The explosion barely bothered him, his Super Resistance eating up the damage. Polymeniac ran at me, free arms helping him reload his guns. If I just kept running, trying to escape a fight, then I would run into Tóxica, putting her at risk.

  I tightened my grip on the [Super Stopper] enhanced crowbar, keeping my other hand free. I pushed myself against the cover, crouching while doing my best to track his footsteps as he moved in closer.

  The second Polymeniac’s foot entered my line of sight, I shot up and spun around, swinging the crowbar every bit of force that I could muster. It bashed him in the nose, causing Polymeniac to stumble back, thrown off from the collision.

  Another arm sprouted from his chest, the hand holding onto his aching face. His other arms attempted to aim at me, through the best of his shaky vision. He took too long. I rushed in, closing the distance before he could pull a single trigger, smashing the crowbar into one of his arms. At the same time, I kept my left hand empty, doing my best to figure out what I needed to do.

  Every ability required something to activate it, some way to bring your powers to life. I tried clenching my hand into a fist, throwing up my fingers in any combination possible, and I even imagined it covered in flames. Nothing was working.

  I continued to beat on him using the crowbar, not giving Polymeniac a single second to collect himself. But, after the sixth strike on his body, one of his arms managed to grab hold of my crowbar.

  Before I could let go, another arm grabbed my wrist, holding me in place no matter how hard I pulled. Fists began to rain down on me, pummeling every inch of my body. I reflexively cried out, doing my best to break free.

  I could feel my nose shatter into pieces, my ribs snapping in half, and my fighting spirit being beat out of me. It was at that moment that I wanted nothing more than to take him down, to kill him by any means necessary.

  I felt my desperation and anger twist into each other, coursing through my body as a poison that burned against my veins. It pooled into my arm, craving nothing more than to destroy anything that came in contact with it. That was when I felt fire burst out of the palm of my hand, overwhelming every sense that I had.

  There was nothing but pain in my mind as I frantically flailed my hand in Polymeniac’s direction. His attacks came to a sudden stop, and Polymeniac desperately tried to back away. Unrelenting, I mindlessly rushed towards him, blindly swinging at any part of him that moved.

  Whatever flesh I touched was reduced to nothing but smoldering gore, his arms falling like leaves off a dying tree. Polymeniac collapsed against a pile of rubble, nothing but the burning ruins of the street at his back.

  “What the fuck?” he cried out, his [Regeneration] desperately fighting against the burns that cut through his arms and chest.

  I couldn’t help but laugh alongside my howls of pain, my entire body burning up from the inside. “You should’ve known better than to try and fight me! It’s over for you, asshole!”

  I shoved my arm forward, planning to melt a hole through his skull. But, there was nothing. My shoulder was bare, a chunk of burnt flesh where my arm should’ve been. The pain had drowned it out as it happened, but I had burned away my own arm.

  Polymeniac, still alive, noticed my missing arm. He formed a set of legs underneath him, using them to push himself onto his feet. “You know what they say, Taker. It’s not over until it’s over.”

  I took a step back, feeling lightheaded. My other arm pulsed in pain, as if it was demanding to be used. But if I risked it and failed, then I would be fully unarmed. Polymeniac approached me, looking larger than life, as if the world began to sparkle behind him.

  No, wait. It wasn’t him. There was just something glittering behind him. The slime from earlier had begun to leak from the debris behind him, collecting itself onto the sidewalk. It had been searching for me, and my screaming finally led it right to my location.

  “You’re right, Poly. But, now it’s over.” I lunged at him, knocking the both of us onto the ground.

  Arms beat down on my back, surprised at the sudden attack. Despite the sharp pain of each blow, I refused to let go of my desperate grapple. We continued to struggle, a desperate conflict which left me weaker with each attack, until the slime finally made its way to us.

  As I felt the slime start to touch me, a viscous substance that singed against my skin, I knew it was time to back off. No matter how hard I pulled, however, I couldn’t untangle myself from the mess of limbs that Polymeniac had become.

  Without having the strength to break free, I relied on the only other option I had. I pulled my right arm inwards, digging around my suit pocket. With a shaky hand, I grabbed the second grenade that Reload had given me.

  When I pulled it out, I made sure that Polymeniac could see it. Now, I wasn’t dumb enough to actually kill us both with it. With just one hand, I doubted that I could even pull the pin out. But, I didn’t need to, because his fear was what I needed to win.

  Polymeniac threw me and the grenade off of him, desperate to gain some distance, causing me to crash into a jutting piece of concrete. Yet, the pain was nothing compared to the satisfaction of seeing the slime envelop him, suffocating him in its mass as he pointlessly struggled against it.