"Roy!" I roared, my voice cutting through the gunfire like a sledgehammer. "Infiltrate the depths of the armory! Find as many grenades as you can!"

  From where Roy was invisible, a muffled, shaky "Got it!" rang out. I noticed the slight ripple in the air darting rapidly toward the shelves. Now it was on me; I had to pull that storm of metal away from Roy.

  With the superhuman explosiveness provided by my mutant muscles, I lunged from my cover. As the monster turned its barrels toward me with a lumbering screech, I was already zig-zagging to close the distance. Bullets shredded the concrete right behind my heels, sparks splashing against my boots.

  "Look over here, you disgusting heap of flesh!"

  Without slowing down, I slashed a deep gash into its torso as I passed. A black, viscous fluid splattered onto my trousers. Despite being a lumbering mass, the monster spun in place with rage. The weapons embedded in its body began to fire uncontrollably in every direction. I didn't stop for a single second; I vaulted over desks, slid behind ammunition crates, and constantly repositioned to lure it toward the wide clearing at the very center of the armory.

  With every cut I landed, the creature grew more infuriated, dragging its heavy frame after me. I was like a matador; but instead of a cape, I had two sharp knives, and instead of a bull, I had a bullet-spewing mutant. The power from the hyper-contraction mode in my muscles prevented me from feeling exhaustion, but the timer in my mind was remorselessly ticking down.

  "Come on, just a bit more!" I shouted, throwing myself behind a massive steel cabinet. As bullets perforated the cabinet like paper, the monster had finally settled exactly where I wanted it—right in the heart of the room.

  Just then, Roy’s voice echoed from the dark section where the shelves were. This time, his voice sounded more confident, more determined:

  "The grenades are ready!"

  "Wait until I give the signal!" I bellowed through the deafening ring of bullets hitting metal desks. "When I signal, pull the pins and throw them directly at me!"

  Roy’s trembling voice echoed through the air: "What? Are you crazy? I’ll blow you up too!"

  "Just do as I say!" I shouted, rolling across the floor to escape a hail of bullets.

  With the superhuman speed of my mutant muscles, I maintained a frantic tempo around the monster. I was like a whirlwind; lunging to the right, jumping over a locker, sliding over pools of blood on the floor, trying to keep all of the monster's barrels active at once. My goal was clear: force this meat turret to fire in every direction until it exhausted its ammunition. As the monster spun like a top with its heavy body, the pistols and rifles embedded in its flesh vomited lead insanely.

  Finally, the moment I was waiting for arrived. The never-ending explosions in the room were suddenly replaced by metallic clicks. Click-click-click... All of the monster's weapons had emptied simultaneously. The creature's muddy tissue began to ripple as it tried to cycle new rounds into the chambers, pulling the weapons inward to reload. This was its most vulnerable moment.

  "Now!"

  I gathered all the energy in my muscles into my legs and launched myself like a spring. I climbed onto the creature's disgusting, slimy torso in a single move. I didn't care that my feet sank into the sticky tissue. I gripped my combat knife with both hands and began to stab frantically at the softest spot I could find right at the top of the creature.

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  SHRED! SHRED! SHRED!

  In seconds, I landed dozens, maybe hundreds of cuts. Black, acidic blood splattered all over my face, but I didn't stop. Tearing through that jelly-like tissue, I opened a deep, dark rift toward the center.

  "NOW!" I shouted toward Roy's direction.

  Three metallic masses suddenly appeared in the air. In the final seconds of his invisibility, Roy had pulled the pins one by one and tossed the grenades toward me in a perfect arc. Time seemed to slow down. I caught the first grenade mid-air and shoved it deep into the raw, oozing wound I had opened. I caught the second, pushing it even deeper... When I placed the third right at the center, the metallic bodies of the grenades vanished within the creature's flesh.

  "TAKE COVER!" I screamed with all my might.

  I threw myself backward off the creature. In those split seconds while I was suspended in the air, I heard a muffled, expanding sound coming from inside the monster's torso.

  BOOM!

  A massive, deafening explosion rocked the armory. For a moment, the room turned white with the intensity of the blast. The monster's massive frame was pulverized into thousands of pieces of black flesh and metal scrap, scattering in every direction. Before I could even land, the immense pressure wave created by the explosion caught me in mid-air. It felt like a truck had slammed into my ribcage; I heard the crackling of my own bones inside me.

  My body was hurled like a bullet, slamming into a heavy metal shelf on the opposite wall before tumbling into a pool of blood on the floor.

  My vision blurred instantly. There was a never-ending ringing in my ears; sounds reached me as if the world were trapped inside a glass jar. My eyelids began to close as if they weighed tons. When I lifted my head slightly, I saw two shadows running toward me through the smoke and dust.

  "ALEX! ALEX, WAKE UP!"

  I could hear Elara’s voice, but it sounded very far away. As Roy’s stunned face and Elara’s terror-filled gaze faded from my field of vision, that familiar, cold system voice echoed in my ear:

  [NOTIFICATION: LEVEL 8 BOSS MUTANT (ARSENAL) NEUTRALIZED...] [EXPERIENCE GAINED: +500 EXP...] [CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE LEVELED UP...]

  When I opened my eyes, the first thing I encountered was the cold, gray concrete of the ceiling. I felt a light but steady weight on my chest; Elara, likely out of sheer exhaustion, had fallen into a deep sleep with her head resting on my chest. Looking around, I saw a massive iron filing cabinet pulled in front of the heavy steel door of the armory. They had completely blocked the entrance. It was good they took precautions before sleeping, I thought, feeling the ache in my bones.

  Roy, who was slumped on one of the ammunition crates right across from me, lifted his head from between his legs and looked at me. His eyes were bloodshot.

  "You're finally awake," Roy said, his voice as raspy as a saw.

  I straightened up slightly, trying not to wake Elara. "I thought you were asleep," I said in a low voice.

  Roy nodded with a bitter smile. "When those monsters are wandering around, you have to sleep with one eye open, man. Fully nodding off is suicide in this world."

  My gaze drifted back to Elara, who was breathing peacefully on my chest. I smirked slightly. "I guess that rule doesn't quite apply to Elara."

  Roy sighed, looking at Elara’s pale face. "Carrying you here after that explosion wasn't enough; she also used her healing skill for hours. She didn't give up until your wounds closed, but eventually, she grew faint. When her mana was completely gone, she collapsed right where she was and fainted. Honestly, I didn't know you’d lose consciousness when your mana was fully depleted either. It turned out to be an expensive lesson."

  I noticed that my skin under my shredded clothes had become smooth, with only slight redness remaining where those deep cuts had been. Elara had truly spent all her energy on me.

  "I guess I owe you both a thank you," I said, the harsh tone in my voice giving way to sincerity this time. "Especially to Elara."

  Roy stood up and stretched his back, his bones popping. "Save the thanks for later. Now we need to focus on the main issue; that monster is dead and the armory is entirely ours. It's time to gear up and get out of here."