Showdown! (Part - 3)
*With Arachnid and Ghost Spider*
Ghost Spider and Arachnid swung upwards avoiding the three streams of fire aiming for them, and started going towards a corner to lure the Cerberus in.
"You know, when Enigma mentioned those wolves came from hell, I was kind of expecting to see a Cerberus as a boss here, but didn't think I would really see it." Arachnid complained leaving the web and rolling down avoiding another stream of fire.
"I swear both yours's and Spidey's mouths are cursed." Ghost complained throwing an ice spear which hit the knee in it's front paw, disbalancing it, giving enough time for Arachnid to throw bombs filled with holy power, which disoriented the three heads and it crashed into the ground. Taking the opportunity, Arachnid leaped into the air, then shot two webline's on either side of the right head of the dog. Pulling hard to accelerate, he gathered a venom blast at his right foot and kicked right on the dog's head, cracking the skull, and the charge created a minor shockwave, destroying the head from the inside.
He quickly removed the embedded leg and jumped away, as the two other heads felt the pain of the skull cracking as well. Arachnid took distance and noticed his leg stained in blackish blood. He had a disgusted look on his face for a second, but overcame it and enabled a venom blast again, removing the stains.
Meanwhile Ghost Spider had the same idea but her choice of attack was an ice spear. She stuck to the roof and jumped towards the left head. Flipping midair, she stabilized herself and created a spear of ice, thrusting it into it's head. But, she didn't stop there. Using the spear as a medium, she discharged her powers into his head freezing it despite it's fiery nature. The insides froze completely as the dog was still feeling the pain of his crushed head, and the other started cracking as well. Ghost jumped away as the head broke and crumbled down. Cerberus howled at the pain of shock and frostbite, and could barely ignite itself.
Arc and Ghost relaxed a little and started making their way to it, when it suddenly ignited all over and got covered in a fiery smoke.
"Oh, what now?" Ghost asked in annoyance of her form changing opponent.
"Look, the gargoyle became a wyvern after taking damage. Maybe it's like the second stage of boss battles." He said nonchalantly, but his stance was ready to attack at any moment.
"It does seem like a boss battle." Ghost said, still looking at the ignited Cerberus.
The fire went out showing the 3 headed dog had now transformed into a wolf. It had black fur with smoke coming out of many patches and a fiery glow appearing on some parts time to time. On it's head, it now had an eye in the middle glowing red just like the other two.
"... okay." Arachnid said looking at the wolf which was now growling at them.
It's eyes turned fiery and unlike before rather than shooting the fire from it's mouth, the fire started dancing around him like an armor.
"You know, I prefer dodging flames more than this." Ghost said eyeing the fiery wolf.
" Me too GS, me too." Arc said looking at the now transformed wolf.
The wolf leapt with a open jaw trying to gobble them both, which they sidestepped easily. Ghost touched the ground creating a layer of frost over it while Arachnid went to the ceiling and started shooting repulsor blasts at the wolf's eyes.
*Graowlhu* The wolf cried because of the pain in it's eyes and the flames started receding.
"Weapons still do damage. Guess we can take advantage of his enhanced senses to disorient him." Arc said looking at the wolf trying to open it's eyes again.
"Keep the pressure, I'll try to pin it down. Queen, can the suit handle the flames?"
[Positive. The fire won't be a problem thanks to your suit and powers combined.] Queen spoke through the comms.
Arc activated the spider-legs to swing around while throwing around some flash grenades filled with holy element while shooting repulsors. The flashbangs threw it's sight and hearing in disarray. Arachnid also threw a few stink bombs, which Enigma had made before to use for crowd control, to disorient it's sense of smell as well, though he wasn't sure. But it worked perfectly as the fire started disappearing because of the wolf's lack of concentration, making Ghost Spider freeze the ground below it making it fall.
Without wasting any time, she made an ice spear, and covered the spider-legs as well. She stabbed all three of it's eyes, while using the other two spider-legs to stick over him. The pain jolted the wolf, who lost control and flames appeared all over it. The suit produced a shield made of holy light while GS covered herself with her ice as well. Gritting her teeth, she pushed her power to extreme and started freezing the wolf despite the fire around.
Arachnid stuck to the ceiling covered with his bio-electricity, extremely worried seeing his friend surrounded by fire. The only reason he didn't pull her out already was her vitals displayed on his HUD. After half a minute, he noticed the fire receding revealing Ghost Spider covered in a lightly glowing ice armor due to pushing herself and a frozen wolf, who still was trying to melt the ice covering it somehow even after the ice reached it's core.
He collected as much energy in his in his fist as he could and leapt at the wolf right where Queen displayed the core. He accelerated from the ceiling and punched the wolf with full strength, sending his bio-electric shockwaves through it's body breaking it's frozen body shattering it all the way to the core, breaking it as well. The shockwave blew the broken crystal out of the beast shattering it.
The mist produced by the ice shards and rampaging electricity settled down showing an exhausted Ghost Spider on her knees, out of her ice armor, over the wolf's head and Arachnid holding his injured right arm standing in between the front and hind legs of the wolf, in front of a completely blown off middle section.
" *pant**pant*… Well, no third stage for you Cerberus-wolf... thing." Arachnid said looking at the blown off crystal shards. His healing factor healed his arm, leaving a mild pain, so he made his way to ghost.
"You doin' good?" He asked her.
"Yea, mostly healed. Just out of juice." She replied, slowly standing up.
"Don't worry, Enigma's probably gonna give us ice-cream after the whole ordeal." He said checking out his now healed arm, knowing how much Ghost loved eating cold stuff. She chuckled and went with him collecting the shards of core they could find.
*with Katana and Electra*
Katana and Electra stood in front of the Slenderman, who stood still and kept looking at them with it's hollow eyes.
"... This isn't creepy at all." Electra said adjusting her dagger more defensively.
"You don't say" Katana quipped back sarcastically.
The Slenderman tilted it's head slowly and disappeared, only to appear between both of them and swung it's sharp claws at both of them. It's long fingernails effortlessly passed through both of them. But the slenderman came to a sudden halt feeling something wrong, only to find no body where it swung it's claws. It felt danger and blinked away again to some distance and two kunai passed the place it was standing previously, which exploded into fire mixed with some holy element.
Even after standing at distance from the previous position, it was affected by the fire as it covered it's face with it's hands. After the flash, there were some burn marks present on it's hands just from the light alone.
The fire extinguished showing two figures standing on opposite sides to the position of the flames. They were of course Katana and Electra. Though the Slenderman was faster than what a normal human's eye could even perceive, it was visible in their eyes. Electra was already the fastest after enhancement, and katana was always focused on training her chi in speed before strength, hence she was fast enough to avoid as well. What it had cut were afterimages left by their sudden acceleration, which was followed by an explosive kunai from each.
"High speed, paper thin defense." Katana said observing the burns as it uncovered it's face.
"Yes, but it's reach is problematic. We can't use projectiles either." Electra added. She looked towards Katana, who looked back . They reestablished their gaze on the slenderman, as if they had come to an agreement just from a glimpse.
The Slenderman was going to attack again, but Katana took the initiative and rushed ahead. she swung her chi-infused short sword, which got surprisingly blocked by it's nails, but it backed down just as Electra was about to stab it with her short swords. What followed was a high speed clash of swords against claws.
The Slenderman couldn't move to the offensive because it could sense the blades could easily injure it. They spent a few minutes clashing with each other, with both of them overwhelming it.
Katana rushed in a stabbing motion, but it suddenly switched to an aggressive stance, barely avoiding the blade, while swinging his claw. Katana twisted mid-motion and blocked it's caws, but her direction changed and she wasn't able to completely balance herself, making he roll to stabilize herself.
Electra attacked with both daggers, which he managed to parry, but just as she stepped back to reevaluate, it sent a kick towards her, much to her surprise as she managed to block it but got sent backwards due to the force. Electra landed on her back, but flipped backwards to get on her feet.
The Slenderman rushed towards her, but jumped upwards sensing danger, right as a sword beam passed the same path it was running, which was sent by Katana. Electra also side-stepped as the sword beam was coming towards her as well. The slenderman landed on the same position she was on previously.
All three of them came to a halt as Electra and Katana were observing it and it was just standing there tilting it's head.
Suddenly Slenderman sensed danger and stepped back, only to slam into a barrier, which was shaped like a cube surrounding him from all sides. Katana and Electra used the opportunity to throw kunai at him, which passed through the barrier and exploded in flames, which was contained in it. The barrier was present there because Electra placed it there when she calculated it was gonna land where she was standing.
The flames and barrier cleared out showing a purple colored ball between the ashes, which was much smaller than the gargoyle and Cerberus cores. Katana made her way towards it and lifted her sword, but she suddenly felt danger and jumped back just as the ashes formed a spike right where she was standing.
The core glowed and the ashes surround it and lifted it away from both of them. The small tornado of ashes stopped and revealed a wraith like figure made of ashes, with a core in between.
"Uggh, I'm getting tired of this sh*t" Electra grunted seeing the wraith.
As they readied themselves to fight once again, Electra and Katana noticed something behind the wraith and side-stepped to opposite sides. the wraith also sensed something behind him but it was too late as the huge figure smashed behind him, into the ground. The wraith's core got crushed between the figure and ground because of the force, while the figure was able to get on it's legs after the rough bounce despite it's huge figure. Katan and Electra looked at the figure and realized it was-
*Stay tuned for more...*