The Alpha Strigoi's hand missed Adrien's head by a fraction of a millimetre as he ducked. Another swipe immediately followed, while Adrien leapt into the air, once again narrowly escaping the lethal claws.
The fight was exhausting. A single mistake meant death, yet an unrelenting wave of pure euphoria exploded within him.
Sensing a sudden opening, Adrien bounded backwards. It was bait, a trap laid out by the monster, but the creature had underestimated its prey. Adrien lined up his sights and pulled the trigger.
The heavy .30-06 round slammed into the creature's forehead, making it stumble as the fractures in its skull deepened. The fierce recoil of the rifle pushed Adrien through the air, widening the gap between them before his feet hit the ground.
A bone-rattling roar erupted from the beast, shaking the very foundations of the cavern. The sound struck terror into the hearts of nearby players and lesser Strigoi alike.
Driven by rage, the monster lunged. At that exact microsecond, another armour-piercing bullet crashed into its forehead. The impact stunned the beast, leaving its skull on the verge of splitting wide open.
By the time its vision cleared, Adrien had vanished.
"Oi, idiot."
The voice echoed from behind, and the creature spun, leaping backwards in reflex. The moment its eyes locked onto Adrien, a final bullet tore through its forehead. Its skull split apart. The Alpha collapsed onto its back like a puppet with its strings cut.
Wasting no time, Adrien slotted a fresh stripper clip into his rifle, jamming five more armour-piercing rounds into the magazine to bring his count back to ten.
"Heh… hehe… HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
A maniacal laughter rattled from the fallen Alpha Strigoi, as a putrid, dark energy pulsed from its corpse. Bones twisted, snapped, and reshaped themselves as the creature rose like a grotesque caricature straight out of a horror movie. What remained of its horned skull had fallen apart, replaced by a shifting, black mass that bled into long, unkempt hair. From the depths of that dark void, only a pair of pale blue eyes glared out.
The creature exploded into motion, its speed completely eclipsing its previous form. Adrien threw himself sideways, the passage of a razor-sharp claw cutting the air a millimetre from his chest. The strike slammed into the floor, violently tearing chunks out of the stone earth.A piercing, unnatural wail rent the air.
"YeeaahHHHHHH!"
Mid-evasion, Adrien felt a sudden, sickening weight drop over his limbs. His muscles seized and cramped, dragging against his will as a supernatural paralysis tried to lock him in place.
'Clever, trying to restrict my movement?'
Fighting the heavy inertia, Adrien snapped his rifle downward and fired. The bullet shattered the creature's kneecap. The Alpha faltered with a sharp hiss, its momentum breaking. Capitalising on the opening, Adrien scrambled backwards, using the precious split second to raise his rifle, track the monster's face, and pull the trigger.
The bullet struck, but the flesh of the creature's head rippled like liquid, letting the round pass cleanly through without leaving a scratch.
'Interesting, since headshots are out, it is time to see what else bleeds.'
~Bang~
His next shot struck centre mass, forcing the beast to stagger. A thick, skeletal chestplate was rapidly calcifying over its torso, but through a narrow fracture in the bone, Adrien caught a glimpse of something else: a faint, pulsing blue light.
'A weakness?'
Without a breath of hesitation, Adrien fired again. The armour-piercing round pierced the gap, tearing into the glowing mass. Thick, black ichor erupted from the wound, accompanied by a deafening roar of genuine agony.
Driven mad by the pain, the Alpha leapt high into the cavern's shadows and came crashing down like a meteor. The impact cratered the stone, sending a shockwave of debris outward. Adrien was already moving, rolling clear of the impact zone. He came up on one knee, rifle already nested in his shoulder, and fired another round directly into the bleeding chest wound, as more dark ichor splattered across the stone.
"RaaaAAWWWRRR!"
Battered and bleeding, the creature bounded into the darkness, its silhouette vanishing behind a dense forest of thick stalactites and stalagmites. The dim, ethereal blue bioluminescence of the mushrooms cast long, deceptive shadows across the stone, a perfect hunting ground.
Adrien didn't hesitate, and taking a page from the creatures, he melted directly into the darkness, trying to mask his presence, his senses strained to the absolute limit, waiting for the shadows to move.
Vera was in deep trouble. Unlike Adrien, she had opted for a pump-action shotgun. It was a devastating choice that tore through normal Strigoi with ease, until the RNG gods cursed her, and her weapon jammed mid-fight.
Forced to adapt, she racked and abandoned the useless shotgun. She drew her backup hatchet and pistol, dual-wielding them in a desperate bid for survival. The pistol's damage output was frustratingly low, but its real drawback was the violent vertical recoil that threatened to rip the gun from her grip with every shot.
Nearby, a Strigoi leapt through the air and pinned another player to the stone floor. Being the closest, Vera rushed forward and buried her hatchet into the monster's flesh, hacking it apart in two brutal swings. It was a clean kill, but too late. The player beneath it was already gone.
Vera gritted her teeth, a toxic mix of anger and frustration burning in her chest. The casualties were mounting fast. They had entered the cavern twenty strong; now, less than ten remained. Twelve bleeding, battered survivors. To make matters worse, the dungeon rules were merciless; even if the dead revived at their spawn point, they were locked out of rejoining the battle.
The pressure was suffocating. Yet, she knew her struggle was nothing compared to Adrien's. He had deliberately lured the Alpha away to give them breathing room. When a blood-curdling screech echoed from the depths of the cavern, she winced.
'Damn it. I hate this.'
Another scream tore through the cavern, immediately followed by a blinding flash of light. Vera snapped her head toward the source. She gasped. The boss was completely engulfed in roaring flames, thrashing in agony.
'Fire? Ah, right. Adrien must have brought Molotovs.'
Coated in liquid fire, the Alpha roared, blindly swinging its massive claws and shattering towering stalagmites into dust. As it flailed, another glass bottle sailed through the dark, smashing directly against its hide. A second, massive fireball erupted, washing the cavern in a hellish orange glow.
Terrified and burning, the beast leapt away from Adrien, scrambling up the rock wall as fast as its limbs could carry it, desperate to escape the heat and extinguish the flames, but Adrien had anticipated its every move.
His rifle roared, the heavy round slamming directly into the creature's exposed, pulsing blue innards. The Alpha faltered, crashing back to the cavern floor. Before it could recover, a German potato-masher grenade skittered across the stone, settling right beneath its torso.
The Alpha struggled to rise, but Adrien moved with lethal agility. He cycled the bolt, chambered a fresh round, and fired instantly. The bullet struck home, pinning the monster in place for one crucial second, just as the grenade detonated. The blast tore through the creature's leg, shattering the bone and leaving it crippled on the bloody stone.
The creature screamed in agony, its shrieks piercing the cavern, and then, its tone shifted into a desperate command. Instantly, the remaining Strigoi broke off their attacks on the survivors, turning in unison to charge blindly toward Adrien's position.
Adrien growled, tracking at least seven beasts sprinting his way.
'At least the others thinned the horde before this.'
He snapped off a rapid snapshot, then threw a final grenade at the crippled boss's feet before melting back into the shadows. A thunderous explosion rocked the cavern, tearing the Alpha Strigoi apart for good. The remaining pack bindly sprinted headlong into the darkness, hot on Adrien's heels.
Back across the cavern, the sudden release of pressure brought overwhelming relief. Yet, as the adrenaline faded, the last vestiges of strength left the survivors; several players, including MeiMei, collapsed straight onto the stone floor, gasping for air.
Vera took deep, ragged gulps of oxygen, trying to shake off her exhaustion, as she grabbed her discarded shotgun, violently slammed the slide back to dislodge the jammed cartridge, and chambered a fresh shell. She spun to sprint into the dark after Adrien.
"Stop!" FireStarter yelled, lunging forward to grab her shoulder.
"Are you insane? If you charge in blind, you'll get slaughtered! We have to reform the group, or we'll get picked apart one by one. I know he's your friend, but think logically!"
"You bastards! I will kill you all and drink your blood!"
A crazed scream cut through the argument. One of their own players had turned, swinging his weapon wildly at the remaining survivors. During the chaos of the main fight, the protective wrapping over his face had slipped, forcing him to inhale the cavern's hallucinogenic spores.
"Of all the times for this to happen!" FireStarter cursed, gripping his spear tightly as he stepped forward to parry the berserk player's strike.
Suddenly, a chaotic chorus of feral roars and frantic gunfire echoed from the deep, distant shadows. Vera's ears perked up; she recognised the sharp, distinct report of the weapon. It was Adrien's sidearm, a pistol of the same make as her own.
Then, total silence fell over the cavern.
Every player froze, listening to the heavy quiet until the sound of rapid footsteps approached. A silhouette burst from the gloom, sprinting directly toward the surviving group. From its hunched, predatory posture, it was clearly a Strigoi.
'Damn it. They killed him.' Vera cursed internally, her heart sinking as she levelled her shotgun to blow the monster away.
Before she could pull the trigger, a shadow dropped like a stone, slamming hard into the creature's back, driving it face-first into the dirt. The monster slid across the bloody stone under the sheer momentum of the impact. Before anyone could draw a breath, the figure, soaked from head to toe in putrid, steaming black ichor, brought a blade down, cleanly decapitating the beast in one fluid motion.