The two creatures came galloping up, screaming at the tops of their lungs. They both had their Wolverine-style claws out and ready to engage.
“Hail! The battle is met!” one of them cried just as Katia, who’d been cosplaying as an oddly-placed wall pillar, swung down with all of her might onto the creature’s back, pinning him to the ground like he’d been caught in a mousetrap. She held the powerful creature still the best she could. The mob cried out and scrabbled at the ground with his claws, showering rock.
Li Na bounced off the wall as a glowing chained ratcheted out of her arm on her dress. She flipped in the air, lassoing the chain around the creature’s neck. He glowed blue, called Li-Na a wench, and closed his eyes.
The neighborhood boss fell into unconsciousness. He’d remain that way for a full minute, though she could do it again another four times she said until she had to rest.
Holy shit, she’s something else I thought. How did Li Jun hit the top ten and not her?
And then I saw how Li Jun had earned his spot on the list.
I dropped a smoke curtain as Donut pumped a magic missile into the second mantaur. Katia remained atop the first, but her crossbow appeared and started pumping bolts into him. The creature howled as he stood to his full height. “Kill with power! Die! Die!” he shouted. His clawed hands glinted in the tunnel’s light.
He charged directly in my general location despite the smoke curtain.
Li Jun, standing to my right, had cast a buff onto his hands that caused them to glow red. He slid forward, sliding along the track, and he slammed a fist into the creature’s leg, ducking under a savage swipe that surely would’ve decapitated him. The leg shattered, causing the monster to cry out and tumble forward. Li Jun backflipped as the monster fell, again narrowly dodging a swipe of the claw.
Before I could react, Li Jun bounced off my shoulders and leaped forward. He sailed over the still-falling monster, landing behind him. The creature swiped forward. Mongo, who’d been to my left, dodged and savagely tore at his upper left while a mounted Donut pumped magic missiles point-blank into its head.
“Don’t kill him!” I said, stepping forward. “Get ready!”
“A warrior’s death is a good death,” he croaked just as Mongo tore through his arm, completely severing off the metallic claw. The dinosaur roared, louder than I’d ever heard. Donut was also screaming. She shot one more missile into the creature’s face. Despite all this, that large creature’s health was only about 3/4’s gone.
“Jesus, stop,” I yelled. “Remember what we’re doing here.”
I punched the dazed and dying mantaur in the arm. The one not mangled by Mongo. I felt it break, like a heavy branch snapping.
1.5
I jabbed down with my foot, landing atop the back of the metal blades coming from the top of the creature’s hand. More bone splintered under my heel, bursting suddenly from the skin. The thing groaned in pain. I leaned forward and punched again. And again. I punched until the notification over the creature’s head finally started to blink.
“I feel the power,” he croaked. “He comes. Oh god, my purpose is fulfilled. He is risen!”
A ten-second timer appeared over his head.
“Come on!” I yelled, jumping forward. Me, Li Jun, and Li Na reached down to pick him up. He was heavy as shit, even with our combined strength.
“Grull comes,” he cried. He reached down with his two lower arms and clamped onto the track, making it so we couldn’t push him closer to the portal.
Eight seconds.
“Zhang,” I yelled. We’d anticipated this.
Zhang eased the cart forward as Mongo and Donut scrambled past us, getting out of the way. If we couldn’t bring him to the portal, we’d bring the portal to him. This was dangerous, though, as we had to let go before he got sucked in.
Five seconds.
“Countdown!” I cried. “Three, two, one, drop him!”
We all jumped back just as the creature’s head hit the portal. The timer was at one second.
He got sucked away.
And at that moment as he disappeared, I realized with horror he’d let go of the track with his lower hand, and he had that same hand wrapped tightly around my foot.
My invulnerability, I thought, as I was also pulled into the portal. I couldn’t feel his hand because my foot is numb. How fucking ironic.
33
Entering Trainyard E.
The idea, had it worked properly, would’ve played out something like this:
We summon Grull, and using the portal to the trainyard, we throw him at the mimic.
Zhang immediately switches the train portal back to the abyss. It takes ten seconds for this to happen.
During this time, the war god Grull hopefully kills the mimic.
Before trainyard Grull does too much additional damage or figures out where we are relative to his position, I pound the second, unconscious mantaur silly in order to initiate the summoning sequence once again. Another ten seconds.
We throw this second mantaur into the portal, just like we did with the first, but this time we send him to the abyss. We do it when he has about one or two seconds left on his summoning. That way when he transforms, he’s already on the other side, but it’s before he splats against the pile of the crap at the bottom of the pit.
The god, now hundreds of miles away in the abyss, possibly—hopefully—takes his rage out on the multitudes of Krakaren monsters and ghouls and the province boss all piled atop one another.
With the mimic gone, we get on with the plan, which may or may not be necessary anymore based on what happens at the pit.
For a strategy I’d made up on the fly, I thought it was pretty clever. I suspected most people would have thought that, too.
Had it worked.
Instead, I suspected most of the viewers were instead thinking to themselves: Yep. That idiot was crazy. He jumped right into that portal. Not a surprise he got killed in such a gruesome manner. It was only a matter of time.
All of this ran through my head as I tumbled into the trainyard, spinning painfully next to the glowing mantaur.
A massive pair of red eyes gleefully focused on me. The mimic. Its mouth yawned. Teeth appeared.
The world froze.
Music started to pulse. This was heavy metal. A deep, pulsing, bass-driven chugga-chugga-chugga.
Ahh, fuck, I thought.
A framed graphic of my face splattered into the air. The words Death Challenge! Stamped onto my face, with blood running from the words.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have ourselves a treat for you today. It’s the death of a celebrated crawler, Crawler Carl, brought to you live! Who will be the lucky monster to kill him? Who will it be?
On the right, we have one of this floor’s most infamous monsters! A lost soul, some say. The current crawler-killer champion of the floor, with over 23,000 deaths attributed so far. The apex predator of her world, the voracious, the insatiable, the grand impersonator supreme! It’s a city boss! It’s a level 90 Mimic Rex!
The mimic’s portrait slammed into place as the real mimic howled, its train-sized tongue whipping out of it and arcing toward me.
The world froze again.
But will she get to Carl fast enough? On the left, we have nothing short of a god, and while we’re all familiar with Grull, this is the Dungeon Crawler World debut of Grull’s sponsor. Coming to you for the first time ever, once thought dead, thought abandoned by his family, shunned by society, but ready for his comeback. It’s the host of Death Watch Extreme, it’s Prince Maestro of the Skull Empire!