I drank the FullRestore mana potion, unleashing a wall of grey matter, crashing against the monster's legs with nuclear orange energy, throwing myself and Sip to the ground before the shockwave stripped the dust from the packed earth.

  Sip grit his teeth, hiding behind me as the roar of scalding heat scorched the ground. Though the actual mana of my attack couldn’t directly deal damage to me or my teammates, the by-products of the blast like heat and pressure weren’t under the same restrictions.

  {Notice}

  [You have been afflicted with Burns IV]

  [You have sustained [Major] [Inner ear] damage]

  [Disabled hearing has been refreshed [3:00:00]]

  The nightmare staggered, attempting to catch itself with its arms. Additional matter pooled from the rest of its body, solidifying into legs.

  The monster got up and kept walking.

  We were helpless.

  A coin bonked against the Nightmare's toes.

  Sip was shouting and jumping, pulling coins from his inventory. Though it was probably just incoherent screaming, I’d like to think he said something rather inspiring.

  The nightmare utterly ignored him, taking another step forward, kicking up such a cloud of debris that we were knocked back.

  Another step after that, and the Nightmare was already halfway to the bunker.

  Sip sank to his knees, letting the coins slip from his trembling hands.

  Money.

  I grabbed one of the coins, poking Sip on the shoulder. I made a face equivalent to “where’d you get this?”

  He blinked, making a gesture equivalent to “Why on earth would you be asking that?”

  I clutched his shoulders, staring intently.

  Sip pulled up the ability screen.

  {Digital Merchant II}

  [Copper]

  [Exchange goods based on an online market]

  [Additional cost : +12%]

  Goods purchased.

  This could work.

  I repeatedly tapped the last part of the screen.

  He raised an eyebrow, so I pretended to drink a potion.

  Judging from the way his eyes shot open, he understood.

  The nightmare took another step.

  Looser rocks fell as the mountain cracked, sealing the gate. Portions of the earth below bulged then buckled, falling into the remains of Centride tunnels with a roar that shuddered in the air.

  Now or never.

  Sip scrambled with interfaces, pulling out tiny potions.

  I popped the cork and downed it.

  [(+1) simple ManaBooster : [5:00]]

  I threw the bottles back at Sip. He jolted, asking questions I couldn’t hear.

  I spread my arms as wide as I could, before giving up and scribbling the % symbol in the ground.

  Sip stomped on the symbol, shaking his head. Instead, he threw more of the little potions at me.

  Ah. There were no percentage-based mana potions. At least not ones we could afford. Full restore would be special in that regard.

  I ripped the corks from the bottles, downing them all at one.

  The nightmare’s foot rose up and up, above the mountain peaks.

  {ManaBooster : Total Increased Mana production rate : +10200%}

  I flung my hands into the sky and braced for impact.

  The force of the green orb blasted my feet into the rock beneath me, compressing softer materials in an instant. My body screamed in protest, going numb as the shockwave tossed me backward.

  But it was better than what the Nightmare got.

  The green orb detonated on its stomach, separating its limbs from its body, reducing the titanic monster to a smear of black over the ashen desert.

  I staggered to my feet.

  Sip collapsed, dropping piles of remaining potions in front of me. Apparently, using those screens took a hefty amount of effort.

  “Don’t stop,” I muttered, more to myself than him with our hearing as shredded as it was. “It’s getting back up.”

  White strands rose from the black puddle, forcing the pieces of the monster back into alignment.

  This wasn’t the same monster we’d previously fought. This monster was already dead. But because there was a parasite controlling the corpse, its body wouldn’t disintegrate. No matter how many times we killed it, the monster would just put itself back together.

  This would never end.

  Not until we killed the core. Cores have similar bodies to an undead monster. You can’t break their body to kill them. You have to find their weak spot.

  In this case, the core had to be in the monster. The core was the weak spot. I just had to find her. Even as the nightmare reformed, I’d downed another dozen potions, mana churning in my stomach. My hands trembled, forcing the fields to remain open.

  I had aimed too low last time, inflicting much of the blast on myself. So I switched to red electrical power, unleashing the beam of pure energy with a screech of mana, so powerful I heard it ripple through my bones and muscle.

  The nightmare ballooned like a wart and exploded, dripping flaming pieces of flesh all over the city. Concrete bones, blackened by fire, snapped apart.

  Though I couldn’t kill it, each blast flung the bits of the nightmare further from the refuge.

  But the nightmare just kept forming. Even as pieces fell from the sky, they formed thin black wires, pulling themselves to one another.

  {{Unknown affliction : Inherent effect} Congregate : Nightmare (+1b) Hp}

  Sip looked up to me. There was a line of blood trickling down his ear, and his skin was seared red, much like his bleary eyes. And yet, that was the first time I’d seen him so genuinely happy.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  He nodded to me

  That ability had a cost on his body, much like mine. If I had to guess, he took on the physical weight of moving the goods he bought.

  My arms shook.

  I took the potion from the pile by his feet.

  We would fight this to the death.

  Or this death, anyway.

  I smiled. “Keep ‘em coming.”

  The nightmare hollowed, dropping down as it shifted form, rearranging bones, losing the extra head. Making modifications so the blast wouldn’t scatter it so far.

  I fired the next blast.

  And the next.

  And the next.

  Over and over.

  Between each blast, the corpse inches closer toward the refuge.

  The hair burned from my arms as I gathered the mana for each projectile. Though the adrenaline in my body kept me going, I could feel the channels in my arms heating under the strain of moving so much energy, so fast, so many times.

  I’d long lost the focus to control the orbs energy type, unleashing gray, purple, and red orbs. At times, the purple orbs would split, pelting the shattered corpse, splitting the body into smaller and smaller puddles, then droplets so fine as to form a black mist.

  But the mist condensed almost immediately, dropping as solid black blobs, developing central bones.

  This wasn’t working.

  There was no Core, or crystal. There was no weak spot.

  Then again, there was no other option.

  I fired the next blast.

  And the next.

  And the ones after that.

  And the ones after those.

  The Nightmare never bothered to dodge anything I threw at it, nor did it split apart. The monster took them all, unable to die regardless of the damage I dealt. Even when True damage crushed the monster’s total stats, it simply gained more.

  Sip crawled along the ground, scrambling to collect the Qualms he’d thrown.

  And then, just like that, we were out of funds.

  Barely an hour and a half of stalling.

  I moved the hundred or so remaining mana potions into my inventory, choking down bile before I swallowed another dozen minor booster potions.

  The nightmare snapped together, rising higher and higher on its hind legs.

  I tried to fire and nothing happened.

  So much adrenaline coursed through my body that I hadn’t even registered the screen in front of my face.

  {NOTICE}

  [Strain LXI : Mana Channels Severed]

  [Time until Mana network restoration [30] days]

  I tried harder. Nothing happened, so I tried harder beyond that, concentrating every speck of mana I could muster.

  The nightmare ignored me, stepping mindlessly toward the bunker.

  I stopped, grabbed the screen, and grit my teeth.

  Nothing.

  Then all the mana in my system left at once, not in any sort of ability but as a straight line of black energy, piercing from one side of the monster’s head to the other.

  The monster twitched.

  {Nightmare Corpse : (-860k) 0.9b Hp}

  The tiny hole closed itself, and the monster continued walking.

  I reached for another potion, but my inventory was empty.

  “Sip?” I asked. “I need more.”

  Sip lay face-first on the ground, unable to move, if he was even still alive. I hadn’t even realized how bad the burns on his body had gotten. He must have had less durability than I ever realized.

  My vision flashed red.

  The adrenaline had started wearing off, followed by a hum of burning agony, coursing through my entire body.

  I didn’t want to look at the screen.

  {NOTICE}

  [Strain C : Mana Channels Permanently Severed]

  [Mana network can no longer be naturally restored]

  The Nightmare took another casual step.

  And then it stopped, foot shaking.

  A ball of scalding white energy stood beneath the monster’s foot, pushing against its force.

  “SHARON!” I shouted, staggering forward.

  In his current state, the fairy lasted three seconds.

  Then the foot came crashing back down, punching through the earth to a cavern system below, through the rock like butter, smashing into the granite basin where lava had pooled, spewing molten rock into the air.

  {Sharon : (-1b) -1b Hp}

  I fell to the ground, gritting my teeth.

  The Nightmare took another step and the bunker crunched. Just the shockwave blew apart the film of rock ontop of it, exposing bare metal.

  “NO!” I screamed.

  A flicker of mental willpower pushed through the monster’s defenses, brushed against its form. But as soon as I felt the connection, it snapped like thread.

  “This can’t be the end,” I whispered. “I won’t let it be.”

  My vision blurred dangerously.

  The nightmare paused, taking a step back. It reached down the bunker, peeling the ceiling off and crumpling it in the palm of its hand, like a used kleenex. The nightmare tossed it over one shoulder, peering into the metal building. Flickering mental energy snapped at the Nightmare’s face, burning skin.

  It reared up and punched the bunker.

  The sheer power of the enchantment chilled the air as it exploded, forming crystals of ice down the metal sides, locking the monster’s fist in place.

  I took another step forward.

  Little rainbow clouds drifted up to me, dropping a tiny object at my feet.

  Sharon’s screen popped up.

  [I bought you some time. You’re welcome.]

  His abstract form shimmered, vanishing into the fairy heart.

  Fairies are immortal, as long as their heart remains somewhere safe. He would be okay.

  With no pots around, I tried tucking it into my inventory by freezing his screen. The game clearly didn’t like that, judging by the sparkling and clapping sounds, I managed to force it.

  Sharon was okay.

  I let out a breath of relief.

  The refugees were okay.

  I took another step forward.

  This wasn’t over yet.

  I could still fix this—

  The nightmare tore the bunker apart with its bare hands, shredding its flesh in the process as the enchantment protested. Crowds flooded from the wreckage, attempting and failing to scatter in the dash for safety. Plumes of fear swelled in the air, sinking into the nightmare’s body.

  No.

  I forced myself to watch.

  There had to be something I could do.

  Hang on.

  I started counting.

  There should’ve been far more people in there. I remembered thousands, but I could only see a couple dozen.

  {Nightmare Corpse}

  [High Osmium]

  [(+100m) 1.1b Hp (+10m) 1b Str]

  The monster loomed over, swiping half-heartedly at the masses. It missed by a mile, though the change in air pressure was still enough to send people flying. These people were caught by additional webs, mushrooms, or floating chess pieces.

  An armored figure dropped beside me with a thud.

  Catania flicked up her visor, probably scolding us. I laughed back, gesturing toward my ears.

  She glared at Sip before dropping her visor again, as if to say “We don’t have time for this.”

  She grabbed me and Sip, rushing us to a spot in the middle of the desert where ghostly blue chess pieces were leading students and civilians to a makeshift infirmary. Tents had been built by stretching out a web, fixed to whatever small brush my party found growing in the area.

  Toya. Catania. Ardenidi and Soise. They’d clearly been busy.

  It wasn’t over.

  It still wasn’t over.

  Even as we arrived, players scattered.

  Catania spun on contact with the sand, dropping us in an unceremonious heap.

  Sip cracked an eye open.

  The nightmare was sprinting toward us on all fours, dripping black saliva.

  I pushed myself up, swaying like a leaf in a hailstorm as my body shook under its own weight.

  This wasn’t over.

  This wasn’t over just yet.

  I took another step forward.

  // {Notice} //

  Hi! Hope you enjoyed my fantasy story. But as much fun as a fantasy is, there’s things in the real world beyond what writing can fix. That’s where you come in.

  Want to fight human trafficking? Whether you’ve got money or time there are two organizations I wholly recommend.

  Race Day — Thirty

  Donate - Venture

  https://www.freeinternational.org