One Explosive Situation after Another  

"Holy pretzel!" Jaybird yelled excitedly. "I'd heard him talk about it but… man, words don't do it justice."

He was running behind his master, readying himself for the fight of his life when he was forced to an abrupt stop because of the sight in front of him.

The Abomination was plenty scary already but it wasn't responsible for activating Jaybird's danger sense. That honor belonged to Black Howler.

Jaybird's master had grown in size, his back stretching to accommodate the increase in muscle mass. Dark lion's mane grew out of his hair and seemed to combine with the mane that already draped the neckline of his armor. His arms seemed thicker too with muscles on top of muscles.

A notification window appeared in front of Jaybird, one he could only see because they were in a party together.

[BLACK HOWLER HAS ACTIVATED CLASS ABILITY [BERSERKER]. THE FOLLOWING FEATURES ARE NOW ACTIVE. [SUSTAINED ACTIVATION: 5 JOULES OF SOUL ENERGY PER MINUTE]]

A second notification window replaced the first.

[ABILITIES: HEIGHTENED SENSES, IGNORE PAIN, FRENZIED PAIN, TERRIFYING RAGE, DEATHBLOW.]

"Whoa… bad*ss, sir, bad*ss,"Jaybird whispered in awe.

Then a third notification appeared over the first two.

[WARNING: IN BERSERKER FORM, BLACK HOWLER CAN NO LONGER DISTINGUISH FRIEND FROM FOE. IT IS ADVISED THAT YOU DO NOT AGITATE THE PLAYER AND KEEP YOUR DISTANCE WHILE [BERSERKER] IS ACTIVE.]

As he swiped away the windows covering his field of view, Jaybird's brow furrowed slightly. "O…okay, that's not good. The plan won't work if he tries to bite my head off too…"

Doubt filled his mind, causing him to pause for an extended moment. But as he saw his master leap forward — claymore stretched out and ready to swing — Jaybird's doubt washed away. For how could he be afraid now when Black Howler was showing him exactly what courage looked like?

"I can do this… I can do this…" Jaybird whispered.

---

Black Howler heard none of his apprentice's words. His mind was entirely focused on the task at hand, breaking the enemy before him.

He'd lost to it before, injured to the point where his body reverted back into its human form. The thought of the loss made Black Howler set his teeth on edge. There would be no second defeat, he promised.

His leap sent him forward, close enough now to be in his enemy's striking range.

The Abomination extended its four arms. They stretched forward like deadly whips eager to shed Black Howler's blood.

In response, Black Howler howled and activated [WOLF'S HOWL].

[WARNING… ABOMINATION IS IMMUNE TO DEBILITATING EFFECTS SUCH AS PANIC AND FEAR.], said the notification that had popped up in front of him.

Irritation flashed in his mind as he couldn't care less what the shiny window said. He swiped it away. Just in time too as four elongated hands had just appeared inches from his face.

"Devour!" Black Howler roared at the same time as he swung his Masamune Dark Blade forward.

An aura of darkness wrapped around the Claymore's edge that transformed into the shape of wide-open jaws which snapped shut on all four outstretched hands.

Rip!

The sound of limbs tearing brought a smile to Black Howler's transformed face. The scent of blood spilling made that smile widen considerably.

The Abomination screeched in pain.

To Black Howler's heightened senses, it was like a nail raking across a chalkboard. He too howled in irritation.

Still, his jump continued past the Abominations severed limbs — which he'd noticed through his peripheral were already regrowing new hands — and sent him crashing into the creature's chest.

The Abomination's jaws snapped down on Black Howler's neck, but he raked his claws against the left side of its face and pushed it away.

With one arm, he plunged his claymore's tip into the creature's chest.

The Abomination screamed again.

"Shut… up!" Black Howler countered.

His feet found purchase in the folds of the Abomination's flesh which helped him to climb higher up on the creature to reach its neck.

Black Howler let go of his claymore's hilt for he needed both hands now for this next task.

"Argh!" he roared in pain as pain lanced up his back.

One of the Abomination's regrown limbs had just struck him in the back.

"Not… yet…" he growled.

Black Howler's hands latched onto the Abomination's open maw.

"Argh!" he roared again.

A second limb had struck his back.

Black Howler laughed a guttural laugh. "The more… you hurt me… the stronger… I… get!"

With the passive ability [FRENZIED PAIN] increasing Black Howler's [STR] even more, he pulled apart the Abomination's jaws, stretching it past its limit.

A third limb sliced into his back but Black Howler just gritted his teeth before growling, "Kid… now!"

"Warp Strike!" his self-styled apprentice yelled.

Seconds later, Black Howler saw Jaybird's falchion strike the side of the Abomination's neck. Then the chubby blonde boy materialized with his hand holding onto the falchion's hilt. His other hand carried the stack of boomsticks.

"Get clear, sir!" Jaybird yelled.

A large part of Black Howler's mind — the one controlled by the beast — wanted to gut the little turd for ordering him around, but what remained of his rational mind won out in the end.

Black Howler let go with a grin plastered on his face. "I win…"

His eyes followed the boy's actions. He watched the boy plunge his hand that carried the boomsticks down into the creature's open maw. Then he heard the boy recite a chant, the only chant the boy knew.

"Firebolt!" the boy yelled.

A ball of flame exploded out of the Abomination's mouth. Fire seeped out of the wounds on its skin.

Black Howler's instincts kicked in at that moment. He pushed himself up despite the pain across his back and jumped out of the way just as he heard the boy yell "Warp Strike!" for a second time.

They both cleared the blast zone just in time before the boomsticks inside the Abomination ignited by the spell Jaybird had cast finally exploded the creature into a thousand chunks of rotten meat.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Seconds passed while Black Howler remained on the ground with his ears ringing at the sound of one explosion after another. He kept his eyes shut and his hands over his ears. He didn't even notice that he'd reverted back to his human form.

It must have been minutes later when he opened his eyes again and saw Jaybird getting to his feet a yard or two away.

"W…we did it, sir," Jaybird said, exhaustion appearing on his face. "W…we did it…"

Jaybird turned his gaze on what little remained of the Abomination.

"Um, it's not turning into soul stones, sir," Jaybird noticed.

Black Howler rose to his feet. "Neither did the salamander it slew… something about the abomination's changed the rules somehow…"

"Um, what is an Abomination anyway, sir?" Jaybird asked.

Black Howler walked over to his apprentice. They both gazed down at the largest chunk of rotten flesh that they could see.

For good measure, Black Howler stabbed it with his claymore.

"Look closely, kid," he said. "They say this is what happens to a player's avatar when they fail to evolve…"

"Um, but what happens to the player?" Jaybird asked. "They don't die… do they?"

"This isn't a light novel where you die in real life if you die in the game…" Black Howler guffawed. "My guess is they start over with a new avatar."

Jaybird chuckled apprehensively. "Y…yeah, I guess not…"

"Alright, kid… go get what we came here for so we can get the hell out of this place," he said.

Fatigue was finally settling in on his body, forcing Black Howler to lean on his claymore to keep upright.

"Um, get what exactly, sir?" Jaybird asked.

Black Howler nodded toward the salamander's corpse. "To the victor go the spoils. Now, grab me that salamander's heart."

---

In a private room on the fifteenth floor of Saint Mary's Medical Hospital, a heart-rending cry could be heard by all present. A wife's grieving sobs and a daughter wailing for her father to open his eyes soon followed.

"I'm sorry… we don't know why but his life signs just flattened," the attending doctor said to the widow and her child.

The middle-aged man lying on the bed had a gaunt face with a body that was slowly wasting away. He'd been in a coma for quite a while, about the same time as when an abomination first appeared in the Abyss. And with the creature's death, the body of the man whose soul had been corrupted so abhorrently was finally released from this half-death he was trapped in.

Of course, no one knew of this tragedy. Not even the Game Master and his reaper who were at this very moment quite busy with their Deathly Challenger's Cup. No, the man's death would pass into memory only for those who loved him dearly.

Well, the family and the black-suited, stern-looking redhead observing the family's grief from just outside their hospital room's door.

As she walked away from the room, the redhead pulled out the smartphone from her pocket and placed it next to her ear.

"Yes, there's been another death," she reported to whoever was on the other line. "Yes, sir, I think it's definitely connected to the game."

She paused while she listened to the speaker on the other line.

"Yes, Mr. President," she answered. "I'll make sure no one figures that part out… We definitely don't want the press getting wind of this… We don't need them ruining our plans, after all."