Hitman With A Badass System

Chapter 1374  Michael and Gaya Reunited III

"Heads down! Backs to the wall!" the blonde woman ordered, her voice sharp and urgent.

The men scrambled for cover, pulling their helmets down, their bodies pressed against the crumbling brickwork. They scanned the rooftops, their weapons trained on the shadows, their senses on high alert.

Meanwhile, the slimes continued to advance, their numbers multiplying with an unnatural speed. For every slime they blasted apart, two more seemed to ooze out of the shadows, their gelatinous forms rippling and pulsating, their colors shifting and swirling like a psychedelic nightmare.

"What the hell…?" the burly man muttered, his eyes widening in alarm. "They're… they're multiplying! I've never seen them do that before!"

They'd never seen anything like it. These slimes… they were multiplying at an alarming rate, as if they were on some kind of goddamn steroids. No matter how many they blasted apart, vaporized, dissolved… more kept appearing. It was like fighting a goddamn tide.But they did not know this was because they were not fighting a mortal but a Goddess.

Gaya might not have unlocked her godhood in this realm, but she was still a goddess. And she had a certain… influence over the creatures of this world including the slimes.

Watching from her hiding spot, Gaya smirked but she knew these hunters… they were good. Too good. Their reaction to the rookie's death, the way they'd adapted their tactics, their seamless coordination… it was impressive. Thus, she needed something… stronger.

She leaped from rooftop to rooftop, her movements fluid, silent, her black armor blending into the shadows. The rooftops of the Distillery District were a treacherous landscape, a maze of crumbling chimneys, broken tiles, and precariously balanced beams. But Gaya, agile and sure-footed, navigated them with ease.

She ducked behind a chimney, her heart pounding, as a bolt of lightning crackled past her head. Close.

Finally, she reached her destination. A crumbling building, its roof partially collapsed, its walls covered in a thick layer of grime.

She slipped inside, her boots crunching on broken glass and debris. In the center of the floor, a rough hole, barely wide enough for a person to fit through, had been dug into the earth. Thick, sticky webs, shimmering with a faint, iridescent sheen, covered the opening. And from the depths… a low, scratching sound echoed.

Gaya, taking a deep breath, peered into the darkness.

"Hey, you creepy little bastards," she called out, her voice a low whisper. "Time to… earn your keep."

She whistled, a sharp, piercing sound that echoed through the empty building. The only response was a pregnant silence, broken only by the distant sounds of battle, the crackle of spells, the thud of bodies hitting the pavement.

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And then… the ground beneath her feet trembled.

Gaya took a step back, her hand instinctively reaching for the God Slayer crossbow strapped to her back.

From the depths of the hole, a torrent of… movement erupted. Hundreds of tiny spiders, their bodies covered in a thick, black fur, their eight red eyes gleaming with a malevolent hunger, surged upwards, their legs a blur as they swarmed towards her, their hissing a chilling chorus that made her skin crawl. There were few things that could creep out Gaya who was the Dark Queen, the foul mouthed naga queen and the wife of the Dark Lord. But spiders… hose creepy, crawly, eight-legged freaks… they were one of the few things in this world that truly… creeped her out.

But they were damn useful in a fight.

She sent them out, a silent, deadly wave of furry fury, towards the unsuspecting hunters.

Back on the battlefield, the hunters were starting to feel… confident. The slimes, though numerous, were proving to be… well, slimes. Easy to dispatch, slow, and not particularly bright.

"This is almost… too easy," the burly man chuckled, vaporizing a cluster of green slimes with a blast of fire.

"Don't get cocky," the blonde woman warned, her gaze still scanning the rooftops. "Something's not right. Where's the… challenge?"

But even as she spoke, a new sound, a faint rustling, reached her ears. She felt a tremor beneath her feet, a subtle vibration that sent a shiver down her spine.

"What the…"

The scout, who was monitoring their surroundings using a small, handheld mirror that displayed a thermal image of the area, let out a gasp.

"Holy shit!" he shouted, pointing towards the mirror. "Spiders! Hundreds of them!"

On the mirror's surface, a swarm of tiny, red dots, representing heat signatures, was converging on their position, emerging from the shadows of the surrounding buildings.

He looked up, his eyes widening in horror, as a wave of black, furry bodies, their eyes glowing with a malevolent red light, surged towards them, their legs clicking against the cobblestones like a thousand tiny drums. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Incoming!" he screamed, scrambling back, his crossbow firing wildly.

"That bitch!" the blonde woman cursed, knowing, with a sickening certainty, who was behind this new attack.

"Spiders? Seriously? What the fuck is wrong with that woman?" the burly man groaned, igniting his sword with a blast of fire.

But before the scout could react, to fully process the threat, another wave of spiders erupted from the ground beneath his feet, their mandibles snapping, their legs swarming over him, dragging him down into the darkness.

His scream, cut short by the swarm, echoed through the Distillery District, a chilling reminder that this… this was no ordinary hunt.

And just like that, out of six, two of them were down.

"Shit! Where the hell did they come from?!" the burly man roared, blasting a cluster of spiders with a wave of fire. "We're surrounded! They're everywhere!"

"We can't use any big spells," the blonde woman said, her voice tight with frustration. "We're in Seshat's domain, remember? One wrong move, and those goddamn angels will be on us like flies on shit. We'll be spending the rest of our lives rotting in her dungeons."

They knew the risks. They'd been warned. But the lure of a Phoenix… a creature of legend, a prize that could set them up for life… it had been too tempting to resist.

"Focus fire on the spiders!" the blonde woman ordered, her gaze darting around, trying to track the movements of their unseen enemy. "Burn those creepy bastards to a crisp! And you," she added, glancing at the remaining hunter, "keep those slimes off our backs!"

"Maybe we should… retreat?" the smoker suggested, his voice a shaky whisper.

"Don't you dare chicken out on me now!" the blonde woman snapped. "We haven't found the Phoenix yet. And I have a feeling… that bitch is holding it. She's using these… creatures to distract us."

She raised her voice, her gaze scanning the rooftops, her anger echoing through the derelict buildings.

"Show yourself, you coward! I know you're out there! You're gonna pay for this!"

The spiders, undeterred by the hunters' attacks, continued their advance. They swarmed over the ground, their furry legs clicking against the cobblestones, their red eyes gleaming with a malevolent hunger.

Fireballs exploded amidst the spider horde, sending charred bodies flying, but for every one that fell, a dozen more took its place. On the other hand, the slimes, pulsating and rippling, squeezed through gaps in the defenses, adding another layer of difficulty to the hunters' already precarious situation.

"Our priority is to find out what happened to the others!" one of the hunters shouted from his position on a rooftop, where he was unleashing a torrent of fire spells onto the advancing spiders.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" the blonde woman roared back, her voice laced with a mixture of anger and disbelief. She stood in the center of a swirling, green energy shield, conjured swords, sharp and deadly, darting out from the shield's surface to slice through the approaching spiders.

"The investigation is over, dumbass! We know what happened to them. That bitch killed them! Just like she's trying to kill us!"

She glared at the hunter on the rooftop, her eyes blazing with a furious intensity.

"If we retreat now, all of this… all of this will be for nothing. We'll have failed. And those bastards… they'll just keep killing. But if we capture the Phoenix…" She glanced at the heavy chest, now safely tucked away inside the ruined building, its metal surface gleaming with a faint, blue light.

"If we get our hands on that bird… Seraphene will pay us enough to… retire. To live like kings. The rest of our lives."

But as she was painting a picture of their future riches, disaster struck.

The hunter on the rooftop, his focus wavering for a moment, lost control of his fire spell. The steady stream of flames, meant to incinerate the approaching spiders, veered wildly, engulfing him in a searing inferno.

"Shit!" the smoker shouted, The smoker, battling the slimes and spiders on the ground below, barely had time to react. A metallic shield, activated by a rune etched into his armor, snapped into place before him, protecting him from the worst of the blast. But the heat, the searing intensity of the flames, still singed his skin, leaving a trail of painful burns across his arm.

"Well, well, well," the blonde woman chuckled, her voice laced with a sardonic amusement. "Looks like the smoker got… smoked. Guess that's what happens when you play with fire."

"Shut the fuck up!" the smoker growled, glaring at her. But before he could retort, the haywire flames shot upwards, creating a fiery pillar that reached towards the sky.

And through that pillar of fire, a figure descended..

The Phoenix

A red-haired youngster, his eyes blazing with an otherworldly intensity, his wings, made of pure fire, trailing smoke and sparks as he swooped down, grabbing the hunter who cast the fire stream spell by the neck and lifting him high into the air.

"What the hell?!" the tattooed woman shouted, throwing an ice ball at the ascending Phoenix.

"He's got Marcus! Put him down!" the blonde woman yelled, scrambling for the chest that held their Phoenix Snare.

But she had no idea that the Phoenix took everything literally.

Watching the scene unfold from her hiding spot, Gaya couldn't help but shake her head in amusement.

"Oh, this is gonna be good," she murmured, a mischievous grin spreading across her lips.

Up in the sky, the Phoenix, obeying the blonde woman's command, released his grip.

"No!" the tattooed woman screamed, watching in horror as the hunter, his body engulfed in flames, plummeted towards the ground. He scrambled, desperately trying to cast a defensive spell, but it was too late.

Gaya, acting on instinct, grabbed an acid slime from the swarm that had been momentarily forgotten amidst the chaos and hurled it towards the falling hunter. She'd spent enough time with these little bastards to know their… quirks. And her aim, honed by years of combat experience, was impeccable.

The slime, a wobbly, green projectile, struck the hunter's face, splattering across his helmet, obscuring his vision. The acid, though not strong enough to melt his armor, was enough to… distract him, to delay his spellcasting, to disrupt his concentration.

And it was all the time Gaya needed.

The hunter, his fall uninterrupted, his defenses down, landed… badly.

A sharp, wooden stake, protruding from a pile of debris, impaled him through the chest, the impact driving the air from his lungs, silencing his scream. He twitched once, twice, and then… lay still.