I managed to retain consciousness. A feat that I wasnt sure served as a testant to my willpower or a symbol of my misery. Since it was probably both, I shoved that trauma into the small box I ntally labeled deaths. A collection of experiences I doubt anyone could match, not more than once, at least.
The true driving force behind my ability to stay awake after being eaten alive?
That abysmal feeling of overwhelming pain and mindblowing nothingness assaulted as a phantom sensation. A shiver across my skin. A shake in my bones and flesh. I
I mastered myself.
I wanted to watch the thing die. That was all. Yet the desire burned inside of like a fire worse than the one I had set to the rootmother. An all-consuming fla that ate away at even the mories of my deaths.
Anger. No, hatred. Rage. A singular target I could bla for all this hell, if only for now. If only for as long as it would last before being brought to ash. That was enough.
My original self stood there, staring for nearly an hour. The survivors below found themselves, their friends, their acquaintances, and organized themselves. Argunts, discussions, disbelief, and horrible recollection.
Still, I stared. The high-pitched keening of the rootmother a faint music to my ears. I almost wished I could hear it again, that I was infected once more, just so I could hear its cries. Did that make sick? Or just as twisted?
The fire raged, an inferno to rival my own, flas licking upward out of the windows. Each fickle part of the fire, a torrent of heat, towering like elental skyscrapers themselves. Hunting. Searching for fuel.
For the Field Boss.
It started at its roots, its tendrils which stretched all over the clearing. They curled up, drying and crackling in the heat. When the first lick of fla touched the rootmothers main body, it was as if soone had opened a portal to hell, just to hear the sounds.
The skyscraper collapsed, falling away from the swamp tree. With it, the Field Boss toppled over, curling up in the heat. A plu of fire, debris, and ash erupted as the impact shook the clearing. Every part of it wriggling, writhing, and dying. When the flas died down, everyone was watching it, wondering who had set the fire.
Wondering who had killed the thing and saved them all.
I sent a clone in to make sure it was dead.
Hey! Careful, that things dangerous. Soone jumped to his feet, calling after .
Another voice called to him and he pointed at but my clone was already lost in the smoke, coughing, going through the ashes. I stepped forward, a figure amongst black snowfall
[Notice]: You have defeated the Field Boss [Rootmother Hivemind]! You have gained the Title: [Hivemind Dominator]
[Notice]: You are the first in the world to slay a Field Boss! You have gained the Title: [First Slayer]
[Notice]: You are the first in the world to slay a Field Boss alone! You have gained the Title: [Solo Slayer]
[Notice] Due to the attainnt of multiple Titles through a single monuntal feat, their effects will be modified and consolidated. You have gained the Title: [Trailblazing Vanquisher of the Hivemind]
[Notice]: You have leveled up multiple tis: Level 23.
[Notice]: You have gained the Class Skill: [Solos Sanctuary].
The notices ca to with a gentle suddenness. An easy imdiacy. Enough for my ntal gaze to flick toward them but not be distracted. I read skimd through the notices, too tired to care for anything but confirmation, even as my ntal perusal paused on so of them. Only one thing mattered at this mont.
I had done it. I had killed it.
I dropped to my knees, plopping down in a cloud of ash. Coughing, crying. I did it.
[Notice]: Congratulations! You have achieved a feat worthy of recognition on the global scale! Would you like your na broadcasted?
[Notice]: Congratulations! You have achieved a feat worthy of recognition on the local scale! Would you like your na broadcasted?
Recognition? None of this was motivated by the need for glory. It was the need for a counterblow against the apocalypse. That sothing could be done. I shrugged off the notices faintly understanding their significance, and all too tired to really care.
Emotions flooded and I navigated my way out of the smoke, finding people staring. Not at , but at sothing more. A couple of strangers found , fussing over . And then I saw the sa thing they did, ssages waiting for to notice in that sa unobtrusive manner.
Only different. Grander, sohow.
[World Notice]: Soone has achieved a feat worthy of global recognition! He is the first in the world to slay a Field Boss as well as the first to do so alone!
[Area Notice]: Soone has achieved a feat worthy of local recognition! The Field Boss [Rootmother Hivemind] has been defeated!
Most of the people were focused on getting their bearings but there were was enough talk in the air, even as I was ferried over to a number of people need dical treatnt. There was a multitude of neck injuries.
Hey, you guys are seeing this right? A man groaned, looking towards the cloud of ashes. This Field Boss, thats that was that, wasnt it?
Soone killed it. A woman said blankly, staring.
Alone. Another injured person said. Who was it? I heard there was soone saving us, at the end. Did he set the fire?
But how the hell did they do it? I cant
The first cheer broke the silence of the aftermath with such loneso volu as to raise heads and turn stiff necks.
It turned mine too and I found a woman there, a pair of blue eyes, brunette hair. She was just another face among the crowd, tears streaming down her face, pain written across her features. I couldve found the sa on anyone else.
But she was the one I had saved, in the last monts of my clones life. Id rember. It was the first ti Id sacrificed myself for anyone.
And she was yelling. An unintelligible yell, a cry of emotion that was unbecoming of her. Before all this, she wouldve gotten hundreds of stares. Now? The cry filled the chest with emotion.
And hundreds of people began to cheer.
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