Risen World

Chapter 52: Making Their Last Stand Final

Joshua and his group were in a tough spot now as he pulled himself out of a broken wall that he had been smashed up against. They were so close to killing the absurd creature, but now that it had survived Laura's final attack the group was stuck in a bad situation. After surviving the blow the boss immediately swiped in Laura's direction trying to keep her from attacking again, but Joshua had made it in time to take most of the blow himself. Now his arms were heavily bruised from taking the hit and he was going to have to feel like crap while trying to figure out a way to kill this headless monster.

When he turned to check on Laura she seemed to be alright, but she was heavily winded from the casting of the flame spear spell. He helped pull her up and they both rushed out of the building to see what was happening and saw Natalie and Madalyn running their way. "What the hell is it doing?" Madalyn asked a little frantically.

Joshua turned towards the boss and saw its mouth open wide once again as it pointed towards the sky. It started to pull in not only the purple haze in the surroundings but of the entire town. Joshua turned to look at the surroundings and watched as all of the haze in the entire town seemed to be rushing towards the creature and surrounding it in a dense cloud before funneling into its open mouth. "You guys need to go hide now. After it finishes doing this it will probably go into its enraged state again. I'll keep its attention until it calms down then will have to figure out a new way to kill it. Luckily we know where we have to hit it next time." Joshua explained.

"Are you going to be able to hold it off?" Laura asked.

"It might be better if we all confuse it by moving around in separate directions." Natalie said. It was clear to Joshua that they didn't like the idea of him trying to hold it off on his own.

"I'll be alright. This will give a chance for Laura to recover for our next assault and for Natalie to get in a good position to start sniping it with those poisoned nails. We're going to have to whittle it down again until we get another big chance." Joshua said before taking his eyes off of the monster and looking back towards them. "Trust me I'll live. Might take a couple of bruises here and there but I won't go down easy."

The others nodded before rushing off and heading towards some of the remaining buildings further away. Now that the purple haze was so thin that it was barely more than a tint of color in the air they would be able to attack the boss from a distance while Joshua handled the up close confrontation. He turned his attention back towards the monster that was now finishing up its meal and frowned at the results of its latest action. The boss that formerly looked as if it was on deaths door with its arms torn apart and its head and neck completely burned off looked as good as new. It stood back up to its full height as its mouth closed once again. All of the burns were gone, its arms were now completely regrown along with its head, and even the acid had been removed and healed.

Now the fully healthy boss turned its attention away from inspecting its body and looked down toward Joshua as its eyes started glowing a darker purple. It roared once again before its mouth closed tightly and its entire body began to swell in size like before. Last time he barely made it by the skin of his teeth when the thing only had one arm, but now he would have to concentrate to avoid the upcoming onslaught. When the creature had finally stopped growing and a faint purple steam started to fall off its body in waves it immediately teleported. Joshua jumped out of the way as it smashed its foot into the ground causing everything in the area to jump a couple feet into the air from the impact. The moment Joshua landed on his feet he quickly started to lunge to the side as the next foot landed in his previous position.

Joshua quickly picked himself up before dashing down a small alley, he made sure he wasn't rushing towards the girls, but didn't want to drag the thing out of their range at the same time. He was counting down in his head as he leaped out of the way as a fist tore the buildings next to him apart sending brick down on top of the alley he had just made it out of. Turning into the new street Joshua hopped on top of a car and leaped into the air as another fist came crashing down on the street sending almost everything in the vicinity flying in different directions. Joshua used his dagger to cling on to the bosses arm thinking he had a better chance surviving if he was away from all the destruction down below.

He quickly rushed up its arm as the countdown in his head was getting closer and closer to being finished. It didn't take long for the boss to notice as it tried to smash it with its other hand, but Joshua climbed out of the way just in time. Before it could remove its clawed hand and figure out it hadn't killed him, Joshua leaped off its arm and stabbed into its other hand as the creature moved it away. The countdown in his mind had reached ten and Joshua could see the large amount of purple steam burning off the creature quickly signaling it was almost out of time. Joshua's body tensed as he took notice of what the creature planned to do in its final moments of its enraged state and paled before sending a signal through the mental link to the others.

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'You guys need to take cover now! Make sure you're in a safe place.' He said and got questioning responses in return. 'It's about to try to take out the whole area so listen and get to safety.' The boss lifted up both of its arms and closed its hands into each other before all of its muscles tensed up. Joshua climbed further up its arm to get as far away from the impact as possible, then he held on for his life as the creature brutally swung both of its arms down into the ground in one forceful attack. When its hands impacted the ground it sounded like a huge bomb going off as it sent a terrifying shock-wave throughout the area. All of the buildings that were on their last legs collapsed from the earthquake like attack and a large crater was formed on impact.

Joshua was knocked off from its arm from the sheer recoil of the attack that traveled up the boss's body. He fell hard on to a flipped over car below and gritted his teeth so as not to shout out and alert the monster to his location. All the dust in the air from the attack was keeping it from getting a clear view of him, but if it heard his voice it would have stepped on him before he could even move. 'Are you alright Josh? That attack nearly knocked over our building and were a few blocks away.' Natalie said through the mental link.

Joshua pulled himself off the car and stretched out his aching back before responding. 'I'll live, but now is the time for us to attack. With Its enraged state ending it will slow down once again, but we need to keep it slow an immobile so try to get as many of those poison nails into it as possible.' Joshua explained as he pulled the sledge hammer from off his back. 'Aim for its lower legs or its forearms. That way I can smash the nails in further so they won't be able to be pulled out.'

'Alright, but what do you want the others to do?' Natalie replied.

'Laura you need to keep resting so that you will be able to go for the finishing strike. Madalyn you should try to hit the boss with some acid from time to time since its done the most long term damage thus far, but makes sure to keep on the move so it can't zone in on you guys.' Joshua finished explaining just as the dust cloud was almost gone. He hid behind a nearby car so that he would get the next attack in by surprise. It didn't take long for a large nail to come soaring from the distance and lodge itself about halfway into the creature's leg. Although it felt the attack it came off as nothing more than a mosquito bite to it because of its size. Joshua took the moment of its surprise to rush out and jump onto its foot before smashing the nail with the sledge hammer so it would go all the way into its skin. This time around the creature roared out in pain at the annoying prickling sensation from the attack.

Joshua quickly moved out of the way and avoided one of the creatures slow moving attacks as its fist slammed into the street. The blow was nowhere near as dangerous as it was when it was enraged, it barely lifted the cars off the ground at all in comparison. That's when another nail came sailing in and hit the creatures arm low enough for Joshua to hammer it in. Before it could turn and look to find where the attacks were coming from a ball of acid flew in from its side and landed on the upper portion of its leg. Joshua could hear the sizzling acid as the creature roared in pain. Before it could lift its arm off the street Joshua hammered the other nail in and moved out of the way of the dripping acid.

For a while they continued this strategy until Natalie was almost out of nails. Occasionally Madalyn would hit it with an acid attack causing it great irritation and allowing Natalie and Joshua to keep weaving in their attacks. By the time Natalie was almost empty the boss could hardly move with all the poison now flooding through its system. In its anger it tried to enter into its enraged state once again but even though it grew in size and the acid scars started to heal, the nails remained behind and were forced even deeper into its bulging skin. In the past any poison in its system would be healed as it regenerated, but now that the poison had a source to come from on the inside the regeneration only caused the poison to spread faster. Thus the giant fell back to its knees as its limbs froze up.

'Good job girls, now we just need to damage it enough for Laura's attack to go all the way through. Any ideas?' Joshua asked through the mental link.

'I've got a good one.' Madalyn replied. Joshua could even hear what sounded almost like a crazed joy in her voice. 'I spent all this time working on this baby and now it's finally time to see what it can do.'

'Alright get over here with me and will figure out a way to make this bastard take the hit.' Joshua replied before jumping out of the way of a pathetic attempt of a punch that the boss threw even though it was on its knees. Joshua simply avoided its attempts until Madalyn arrived in the area. While the boss looked at them enraged Madalyn just smirked and conjured some acid before spraying its face with it. The boss growled out in pain before awkwardly twisting its body up so that Madalyn could no longer reach anything but its legs. That's when its mouth opened wide and shot out a large cloud of purple haze in front of them. Joshua could hear the shrieks of the creatures on the inside of it, but before they could gather their bearings Madalyn already tossed a canister of poison gas into them and then looked over to Joshua. He pulled out his bow and an arrow before lighting the wooden arrows tip on fire and sending it into the now green and purple mixed cloud causing it to catch aflame.

For the next minute or so all they could hear was the screams of the minions inside of it and would occasionally see some crawl out before falling over and dying not to soon after. When it settled down the giant boss looked over the scene in anger before slowly standing up on its shaky legs and opening its mouth wide again. It teleported away from the crowded street towards a more open space then aimed towards the sky. This time around it used its suction force to drag in everything in its surroundings while making it difficult for them to aim into its mouth sense it was pointing upwards and out of their line of sight.

'Looks like we're going to have to get close and personal.' Madalyn said with a smile. 'Just keep me from flying into its mouth and I'll handle the rest.' Joshua nodded in reply and watched as Madalyn took the large bag off her back and pulled out its contents. She was extremely careful while doing so, and soon had a large metallic green container in her hands. Joshua couldn't see what was inside it, but Madalyn decided to explain it to him. 'It's basically a large acidic bomb that I put together. All I have to do is twist the top and valves on the inside will open and allow the gas to flow into a smaller container at the center. There's a specific acid that I've got in there that reacts violently to the gas I used. After ten seconds they should mix and cause a large explosion. I've even made sure to put several poisoned nails inside to do as much damage as possible.'

Joshua started to get goosebumps from the creepy feeling Madalyn was giving off, but shook it off before wrapping his arm around her waist. 'Hold on tight then.' Joshua said before walking closer to the vortex and using the axe he held in his off hand to smash through the top of a car that was starting to float. He got on top and held on as it started to lift into the sky alongside all the other wreckage around. Instead floating directly into the mouth like before they were twisted around into a tornado like formation that formed high in the air above the boss. Joshua kept them straight and waited for Madalyn to make her move as they started swirling down towards the giant mouth that seemed to widen up even more at their approach. When Madalyn finally decided to make her move she laughed before twisting the top of the metal container and tossing it dead center of the vortex. Joshua watched for a moment as it quickly fell towards its mouth, but instead of risking their lives he pulled on the axe to help twist the hurdling car so that the bottom was facing the mouth instead of the top they were standing on.

That's when he heard a loud hissing sound over the vortex for a split moment before a large explosion followed. He could hear the sound of a couple nails hitting the base of the car they were hiding behind along with the hissing sound of the acid as it splashed onto several things in the surroundings. The boss shrieked in pain before closing its mouth causing everything to fall out of the sky. Prepared for this Joshua shoved himself off the car while ripping the axe free with one arm and holding on to Madalyn. They were falling through the air for only a moment before Joshua smashed the axe into the side of a nearby building to slow down their fall. The jolt almost caused him to yell out in pain from the shock that nearly tore off his arm before the axe broke off after a few seconds of stopping their momentum. Joshua turned around so he would hit the top of the car below instead of Madalyn and rolled off the impact as soon as possible.

They both stood up with Joshua stretching out his arm to test it before taking a few quick breaths and shoving it back in place. It would still hurt a lot using it, but he could still move it around and push through the pain. 'Well looks like my little beauty of a bomb did its job.' Madalyn said while pulling Joshua's attention on to the now fallen over boss that had large parts of its body being burned away by the traces of acid all over it. It was sinking so deep into its body that you could see the bones in its shoulders and arms.

'Laura, Madalyn, come over here. We're going for the final shot." Joshua said as he looked around for a building to climb up on so that they could get a better shot at its core. There was only one such building left in the area so he and Madalyn rushed over. By the time they got there they could see Laura and Natalie close by and waived them over. They all rushed to the roof of the barely standing two story shop and when they got up top they watched as the monster started to make a last ditch effort to protect itself. It shot several clouds of purple haze that visibly weakened it, but created several groups of creatures in the surroundings that started go into a frenzy before moving towards the building they were on top of. 'Madalyn, Natalie try to hold them off as long as you can.' Joshua said before handing Natalie his lighter and bow so she could shoot the creatures down from distance.'

Laura started to take out her last spear so she could create another stronger flaming spear attack, but Joshua grabbed it and signaled her not to. 'What are you doing?' She asked in surprise.

'Don't use the spear in the first attack, just use the spell on its own so we have a good shot at its core.' Joshua explained getting a nod of understanding from her in return. Laura spent the next minute conjuring her flame spear and started to spin it until it started creating a large current around it. The boss went into a blocking position like before, but this time Laura merely smirked before sending the spell flying towards its head and down its neck. She fell to one knee at the exertion, but the results were what Joshua had expected as the spell burnt a path all the way to the core like before. It didn't crack it this time, but now they could go for the kill. Joshua heard another explosion come from behind him and turned to see Madalyn and Natalie burning the creatures below that were trying to climb up the building.

'I don't think I have enough energy to do that again.' Laura said tiredly through the mental link, but Joshua just smiled in reply.

'You don't have to, just use the same ability you did back at the factory to blow off the arm on the sub-boss. Use it on this spear and I'll do the rest.' Joshua explained.

'You might burn your hands off doing that.' Laura said calmly, but Joshua could still see a hint of hesitation in her eyes.

'Don't worry about me, this is our only chance and I'm not going to back out now.' He simply replied before picking up the spear from the ground where she left it and handed it to her. She stared at him for a few seconds before nodding and casting the easier flame spell, but putting all of its explosive power into the spear causing it to radiate waves of heat. Joshua tore off his jacket and ripped it before wrapping both his hands with it.

When Laura finished casting the spell she held the spear out for him. "Don't go dying on us." She said out loud. Joshua nodded before grabbing the spear and grunting at the heat that was already starting to burn through his jacket. The moment he took the spear Laura fell over and passed out from exhaustion.

Joshua turned away and quickly started to run for the edge of the building while pushing through the pain. When he reached the edge he leaped off the building and was able to jump above the fallen over boss monster's mangled body that was slowly trying to reform with the small amount of haze in the surroundings for it to heal off of. He flew through the air before positioning the spear above the core and smashing it into it with all his strength on impact. The core cracked in several place but didn't shatter so Joshua kept pushing it deeper and deeper inside as the spear was already starting to sear into his hands and burn off his skin.

Just as he felt the core was going to break the pressure of fire in the spear exploded sending Joshua flying down to the street below. He hit his head hard and everything went fuzzy for a moment. He struggled to stand back up as the pain in his hands grabbed his attention for a moment. He looked down to see his right hand was burned black, but he could barely lift his left arm at all. Soon his vision on his left side went red as blood from a cut on his head streamed down his face. Even with all the issues Joshua still struggled to stand as he slowly made his way towards the boss. He could hear Madalyn and Natalie still trying to fend the creatures off from the building he had jumped off of and there struggles only made him will himself forward even more. When He reached the side of the boss he used his one good arm to pull his way up onto the boss's chest and stumbled his way towards the damaged core.

When he finally stood in front of the core he could see a piece of the spear still buried in the cracked portion of the core. The fire was starting to dim as the core seemed to be eating away the flames on its own. Joshua reached for the sledge hammer on his back with the one good arm he had left and positioned it in front of the core. The weapon that use to feel so easy to swing around now felt as if it weighed a ton as Joshua body strained to lift it up over his head. He could feel several parts of his body starting to ache as he stumbled a bit at the effort, but then the thought of all the people he was doing this for steadied his shaking arm. Adrenaline flowed through his body giving him the last bit of strength he needed to slam the hammer into broken spear and press it all the way through the core.

In the next moment he watched as the core shattered into pieces then everything around him turned white.