NOVEL NEXT Chapter 81 - Boss Fight
The dome warped inward as something massive crawled across it.
"Above!"
Five Reapers dropped, landing on the central platform with bone-jarring thuds. A tension cable snapped and the entire structure tipped.
"MOVE!"
Danny intercepted one with his Warhammer, sending it screaming into the lower tiers. But Ryan took a direct hit, a Thornmolt tackling him clean off the edge.
"RYAN!"
He bounced off a support beam and crashed onto a second-tier walkway in an explosion of crystalline glass and debris.
Emily was already moving. "Cover me!" She vaulted down, plasma blade flaring to life, cutting through two more Thornmolts as she fell.
"Joey! Don't—"
Too late. A Reaper blindsided him mid-sprint, slamming him into a support pylon like a freight train. The whole gangway collapsed.
"Ryan's down!" Luca yelled into the comms, his voice cutting through the chaos.
"I see him!" Emily snapped back, already sprinting after their fallen teammate. She vaulted over a railing and dropped clean to the next level, her plasma blade carving through a floral containment tank. It exploded in a cloud of glowing gas and spores.
His team was scattered again.
No. Not this time.
"Joey, stay back!"
But the medic was already moving, his face set with determination. "I've got him!" Joey called, sprinting across the broken platform with his medkit bouncing against his back.
That's when the Reaper hit him.
From a shadowed corner, it lunged like a missile. Its claws slammed into his side, flinging him like a ragdoll into a vertical support pylon. The structure groaned, cracked, and then collapsed, bringing the whole gangway down in a grinding mess of metal and roots. Joey disappeared under it all.
"JOEY'S DOWN!" Danny shouted, already bolting toward the wreckage.
"Danny, stay on him! Lock down the left!" Luca yelled, his mind racing through tactical options. "Chris, with me, right flank. Burn anything that moves. Emily's got Ryan."
He hesitated on Zoe's name. She was their ace, but her primary scout suit was gone, melted away in the last fight. Calling her in now felt like throwing her to the wolves. But they were getting overrun.
Fuck it. "Zoe, I need you in here. Now. No more sidelines."
Her voice came back instantly, steady as steel. "Copy. On my way."
His own voice was getting hoarse. His side burned like hell, his chest was bleeding openly again through the bandages. The wreckage of the walkway groaned, and a tremor rippled through the platform as something underneath shoved upward.
Servo-motors inside Joey's suit whined, overclocking as the entire collapsed structure lifted. He forced himself to his feet, staggering upright with one arm hanging limp, half his chestplate caved in like crumpled paper.
"Okay," he grunted, spitting blood. "Now I'm pissed."
A Thornmolt lunged for him, all claws and fury. Joey didn't even flinch, just raised his plasma blaster and turned its face into a spray of green ichor.
"You okay?!" Luca shouted over the din.
"Yeah, just a cracked visor and I think I pulled my everything." Joey rolled his shoulders, wincing. "But yeah."
The platform rocked again under clawed impacts from below. Luca had Chris beside him, his plasma rifle chewing through whatever got too close, but that was it. Just them. Emily was somewhere in the lower tiers with Ryan. Joey was limping and half-crushed. Danny was barely holding the left flank. And Luca? His tomahawk was useless at this range, his armor was shit, and his sniper rifle was too damn long for close quarters.
"Left!" Chris shouted, already pivoting with practiced ease.
Dropping to one knee, Luca lined up a blaster shot and burned through a Thornmolt's midsection as it tried to flank them. Its upper half kept running on momentum until Chris finished the job with a burst to the head.
Another Reaper surged from the vines, fast and low like a hunting cat. Luca let his rifle swing up, flicked over to [Target Lock Assist], and let the ability stabilize the chaos. His pulse steadied as the creature lit up in his scope like a Christmas tree. He squeezed the trigger. The plasma round hit it square in the throat, flipping it backward into the burning remains of a containment tank.
Three down. Far too many to go.
Movement caught his eye. High above, near the fractured skylight. Zoe. She was perched on a collapsed strut like a ghost in her new suit, cloaked until the moment she moved. Only the glint of her scope gave her away in the haze.
She fired.
A Reaper mid-leap exploded, cut clean in half by a charged plasma bolt that painted the walls with alien blood. Another took a shot to the spine and dropped like a sack of rocks. She didn't move from her perch, scanning for the next target.
"Nice of you to join us," Luca said, a weight lifted off his shoulders.
Chris grunted, not taking his eyes off the advancing enemy. "Not gonna lie, that's hot."
Another wave of movement in the vines. Luca raised his rifle again. "Let's keep them off our people."
Chris's final plasma burst detonated a full gravity node near the ceiling. The floating walkway spun violently before it collapsed, crashing straight down through two more tiers with a thunderous roar.
The metal skeleton shrieked as it buckled, the screeching steel echoing through the collapsing facility.
Luca watched as thousands of years of alien engineering fall like scaffolding. The vertical garden spiral tilted several degrees, its power systems failing in a cascade of sparking conduits and dying lights. Then the entire structure crashed down into the rotting biome core, shaking the ground beneath their feet.
And finally, there was silence.
Only heavy breathing, sizzling vines, and broken gear remained amidst a hell of a lot of wreckage.
From the second tier, Ryan appeared with his arm slung over Emily's shoulders. He looked like hell, his armor half-gone, one glove missing, blood on his lip. Emily had burn marks across one shoulder plate and a dead Reaper claw still stuck to her boot like some grotesque trophy.
Ryan exhaled, a ragged sound in the quiet. "Next time," he muttered, wincing as he shifted his weight, "can we do less structural damage?"
Danny looked like he was about to cry again. Honestly? Fair.
"Let's get the flowers," Luca said, wiping a mixture of blood and sap off his helmet visor. "Before the rest of the ceiling decides to bury us."
He paused, waiting. No XP notifications. No credit chimes. No loot boxes materializing from thin air. Just... quiet. His stomach dropped like a stone.
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Chris caught it too, his head turning as he scanned the wreckage. "Uh... where's the reward?"
"I know," Luca said, breathing hard.
The ground shook.
From the twisted wreckage, the Thornmolt Matriarch emerged. Ten feet tall, chitin pulsing with bioluminescent light. An energy shield rippled around it like liquid mercury.
"Oh, that's new."
Green acid melted through alien alloy like butter, hissing and smoking where it hit.
"Nobody touch that!" Joey shouted, already backing away from a spreading puddle.
"Focus fire on the shield!" Emily yelled, already running to the side for a better angle.
They fanned out, weapons blazing as plasma bolts hammered against the barrier. The shield shimmered, absorbing everything and pulsing brighter with each hit like it was feeding on the damage.
"Is this even working?" Ryan shouted, ducking a second acid spit that splashed where his head had been.
"Yeah," Chris growled, slamming a focused arc shot directly into its core. "It's charging faster than we can break it."
"No, it's flickering," Emily corrected, her voice sharp with concentration. "Keep going!"
Above them, a shattered catwalk hung barely intact, leading directly over the boss. Luca's eyes flicked up, calculating the angle.
"Cover me!" he shouted, sprinting for the edge.
The bottom tier had turned into a fucking nightmare. From ruptured doors and cracked ceiling vents poured a cascade of Thornmolts, scrabbling over broken railings and shattered trees like ants from a kicked hill. Joey already had two on him, wrestling one into a wall with servo-assisted force while kicking the other into a pit of bubbling acid. Danny swung his warhammer like a wrecking ball, splattering bugs across the arena in sprays of green ichor.
Another Reaper dropped from above. Chris caught it mid-fall, a shot to the head that painted the wall behind it. Then he turned his plasma rifle back toward the boss. "Powersurge engaged! Now!"
Emily activated hers too, her armor humming with energy. "All damage on the shield!"
A focused volley tore into the Matriarch, and with a loud crack like breaking glass, the shield shattered into glittering fragments. The Matriarch screeched, but it wasn't dead yet. From every gap in the walls and vents, a black tide of Thornmolts, Reapers, and juveniles poured into the chamber like a living flood.
"Here they come!" Chris shouted, his rifle already tracking new targets. "The whole swarm!"
Zoe's voice snapped over comms, sharp and steady from her perch. "I can't cover everyone. Prioritize your flank."
They were surrounded. Pinned and cut off.
Ryan was bleeding from three different places, his face pale but determined. "We need a break in the line!"
That's when Danny ran into the horde, his Taunt aura flaring like a beacon. Every bug, every Reaper, turned toward him. The entire swarm pivoted, screeched, and converged on him like he was the only thing that mattered.
"COME ON, YOU UGLY SHITS!" he roared, his warhammer swinging in massive arcs that sent limbs and ichor flying in all directions. "YOU WANT SOMETHING TO EAT?! I'M RIGHT HERE!"
Joey tossed his shredded shield aside with a metallic clang. "Danny!" he shouted, charging forward with his medical instincts overridden by protective fury. "You're not doing this alone!"
He met his brother at the front. They stood side-by-side, a wall of hammer and fists crashing against the tide of alien bodies like a dam against a flood.
Luca turned to Chris and Ryan, his voice cutting through the chaos. "Now. End this."
He leapt, dropping from the broken beam with his tomahawk ready. The Matriarch turned toward him, but it was too slow. Chris fired one last burst into the soft gap between its armor plates, and Luca's tomahawk came down hard. It slammed into the back of the creature's skull, cleaving through alien tissue and into the twisted gore underneath with a wet crunch.
The Matriarch screeched, its spine arching as acid sprayed in a final death burst. It buckled, collapsed, and then lay still. The rest of the Thornmolts shrieked and quickly retreated into the shadows like roaches when the lights come on.
Ryan stood panting, sweat dripping down his face. "Is it dead?"
Soaked in green blood and his own sweat, Luca slid off the boss's corpse and landed hard beside it. His legs nearly buckled, but he stayed upright.
It was. Fucking. Dead.
[+592,103 XP]
[+219,375 credits]
[Level up! Level 65, +5 attribute points]
[Skill level up! Ranged Weapons Mastery Level 11 -> Level 12]
[Ability upgrade! Target Lock Assist Level 2 --> Level 3]
[Skill level up! Precision Shots Mastery Level 11 -> Level 12]
[Ability upgrade! Steady Aim Level 2 --> Level 3]
[Skill level up! Tomahawk Throwing Mastery Level 11 -> Level 12]
[Ability upgrade! Trajectory Focus Level 2 --> Level 3]
[Skill level up! Critical Strikes Mastery Level 11 -> Level 12]
A cascade of notifications filled his interface as XP, credits, and skill-ups scrolled past. More rewards than they had ever seen from a single fight, the numbers climbing higher than he'd thought possible.
Covered in acidic blood, his hands trembling slightly from the final impact, Luca just stood there. He should have been celebrating, pumping his fist, maybe even doing a victory dance. But he couldn't stop staring at the massive corpse sprawled beneath him.
Then he turned and caught Emily watching him from across the wreckage. She didn't say a word, but her glare said it all. Arms crossed, jaw set, eyes narrowed. She was not happy.
The shredded remains of his scout suit barely clung to his frame like tattered rags. His chestplate had peeled off entirely, the sleeves were gone, and his HUD glitched with every slight movement while one shin guard hung by a single, useless thread. The suit was done for. No chance of repair, no hope of salvage.
He gave her a small, helpless shrug.
Emily pulled off her helmet, steam hissing as the seals released with a soft pop. Her golden hair tumbled free, sweat-damp but somehow still managing to catch the light. Green Reaper goo streaked her white armor like war paint, but she wore it like a badge of honor.
Letting the helmet drop against her thigh, she arched an eyebrow at him. "Flowers?"
Luca laughed breathlessly, the sound echoing off the broken walls.
Around them, the team unclenched as adrenaline faded into exhaustion. Loot boxes materialized from Reaper remains with soft chimes, clicking open to reveal their contents.
"Oh hell no," Chris muttered, nudging a dripping carapace with the toe of his boot. "Did one just spit out a helmet?"
[Item Acquired: Centauri Phantom Mk-64 Recon Helm]
[Item Acquired: Centauri Phantom Mk-64 Precision Gauntlets]
[Item Acquired: Centauri Guardian Mk-64 Grav-Stabilizers]
[Item Acquired: Centauri Juggernaut Mk-64 Grav-Lock Boots]
[Item Acquired: Centauri PS-64 Coronal Scythe]
[Item Acquired: Power Cells] x7
[Item Acquired: Nutrient Bars] x12
[Item Acquired: Energy Drinks] x12
[Schematic Acquired: Rotor-Stator EM Assembly]
[Schematic Acquired: UltraCeram]
[Schematic Acquired: Polymorph Acid]
"Calling it!" Ryan grabbed the Coronal Scythe like a holy relic, swinging it around with obvious delight. "Finally! Something that doesn't care if I can't aim."
"It's a plasma shotgun," Chris said, shaking his head. "It absolutely cares."
Joey dug through a Thornmolt corpse, his nose wrinkling. "Why does it smell like rotten wires?"
"Because you're inside a bug," Zoe called from above, hanging upside-down in her Level 48 scout suit like some kind of acrobat.
Chris held up the Grav-Stabilizers reverently, turning them over in his hands. "These babies are mine."
[Mission Completed!]
Harvest the rare medicinal herbs while fending off territorial beasts.
[Mission Reward Triggered]
Modifications Available: Select one: Weapon Mod / Armor Mod / Tool Mod
[+475,000 unallocated XP]
[+350,000 credits]
Emily crouched beside Luca in the rafters, her fingers brushing against the dried blood on his chest. "You really should be more prudent, Captain," she whispered. "We kinda like having you in one piece."
The exit portal pulsed golden beside the Peregrine, casting shifting light across the wreckage. But nobody moved.
Ryan sprawled on a strut with his new scythe, grinning despite his trashed armor and the blood on his lip. Danny wanted to loot the ruins for tech, his eyes bright with possibility. Emily sat half-armored on the ramp, exhausted but somehow still perfect. Joey and Chris leaned against the vehicle, both limping but in good spirits.
Zoe perched on a collapsed tower, one boot dangling like she didn't have a care in the world.
"Zoe!" Danny called, waving his arms. "Tech terminal up here! Might still work!"
"Could be loot!" Ryan added, struggling to sit up. "I'll boost you!"
She looked down at them, squinting her eyes as if trying to decide whether they were adorable or disposable. "You just want me to climb something again, don't you?"
Danny feigned offense, pressing a hand to his chest. "Would we do that?"
She giggled, the sound echoing off the broken walls. "You absolutely would."
Luca watched them for a moment, already planning their next move. Danny's excitement was infectious, Ryan was bouncing back faster than expected, and Zoe... well, she was in her element.
"Don't break anything important," he called out, heading toward the Peregrine.
The water was too hot, or maybe not hot enough.
He didn't know, and barely felt it anyway.
Steam fogged the cramped shower cubicle, stinging his cracked knuckles as it washed blood and alien ichor from his skin. The mixture circled the drain in pink and green streaks like melted paint, disappearing into the ship's recycling system.
Everything hurt. His chest was still wrapped tight in that nano-bandage, his ribs were bruised to hell, and his left shoulder was a patch of red, raw skin from the acid spray. He probably needed stitches. Or a med pod. Or a new body entirely.
Instead, he had a bar of soap and five minutes before he collapsed.
Stumbling out, he pulled on a pair of briefs without a second thought. The bed was right there, calling to him like salvation.
He made it three steps before collapsing face-first into the mattress. The world spun lazily around him.
His body gave up. He never even pulled the sheet up.