Gunsmoke

by Wanderer D

Chapter 18: Hellbound

Gunsmoke

by Wanderer D

Chapter 18: Hellbound

"So what's the deal with level bosses? Are they really that different? Or just stronger and more lasting?" Lemon Zest asked Twilight while they refilled their glasses.

"Well... sort of," Twilight said. "Level bosses in GGO and all the Seed games, are a bit more complicated than just HP/MP and resistance. Not only can they hit harder and take a punch, but they also will change tactics after enough damage has been done.

"There's no guarantee that they'll only attack the players that are attacking them either. Sometimes if you use healing items on others that makes you a target. Or if you cause the most damage in one shot, you can end up being the focus of its attacks no matter what the others do. Some monsters transform, others summon minions, others suddenly gain attacks, change their weakness, heal... it's really varied."

"So that's why all the planning is required?" Lemon Zest tilted her head.

"Yep, although when it's an unknown monster like this boss, there's not much you can do other than a general plan. Most of the time what ends up happening is that the team that fights it initially tries to do as much as they can but their real objective is to figure out the monster's patterns, so they can return later... what Surgeon wants to do is not easily done."

"So you think he's overestimating their abilities?"

Twilight pursed her lips then blushed when Zest gave her a quick peck. She cleared her throat. "W-well, not necessarily. I think he's very confident in all their skills, but, well, luck and adaptability will play a big part in this."

"I love it when you blush!" Zest laughed then looked at the screen. "Hey, look, they're in!"

Twilight sat down next to her. "Let's see what Team Surgeon is made of."

The room remained dark after the doors closed behind them. The squad quickly moved to the sides, spreading out while Nightmare Moon looked around trying to figure out the best place to hide.

"There!" she muttered, shooting her grappling hook and quickly making her way up to the half-visible ledge on the high corner. It was just in time too, as the roof collapsed, sealing the room, just as the remaining neon lights in the room suddenly burst to life, revealing a huge hangar-like room made of huge crystals embedded with metallic cables of some sort snaking into the walls and roof, and in the far end a huge beast stood... the level boss.

Level Boss: Arachnid King

Eight eyes opened simultaneously, shining with red energy as the gargantuan creature stood up, revealing that from the waist down it was half-spider, with eight mechanical and crystal legs. Its torso was human-like, but heavily armored with pieces of metal and jutting electronics that still crackled with electricity.

The Arachnid King's arms had been replaced by scorpion-like pincers, and its mouth had two tarantula-like fangs, while the rest of the head was covered in armored plates the same as its torso. From the back of its head, two tubes connected to the lower back, right where the two disparate shapes joined.

Four green health bars materialized next to its head as it roared a challenge.

"Que fea cosa," Coyote muttered, readying his weapons.

"This is not going to be easy," Mirage stated. "Especially for us, Surgeon."

Surgeon nodded. "It's designed for close combat... it's probably faster than it looks too, but there's no other way around it." He pressed his radio button. "Moon, don't shoot yet until we've figured its weak point. Let's make that x4 bonus count!"

"Roger."

"Lion, stay back, hit heavy. Thunderbird, you and Coyote take the middle ground. Mirage and I will do the close sides. Collar, keep being backup. Don't aggro it. Start by tossing us a smoke grenade to confuse it."

"Incoming!" Moon shouted on the radio, giving Mirage and Surgeon a bare second to jump to the sides just at the Arachnid King smashed the ground where they stood to pieces.

Collar's smoke grenade landed between the three covering the lower part of the monster's body in smoke and obscuring Mirage and Surgeon from view.

"Keep an eye out for when it changes strategy!" Surgeon shouted from within the smoke.

Arachnid King swung its massive left claw through the area where the smoke was, dispersing it, but Surgeon was already running to its right, well outside its attempted attack.

"Where's Mirage?!" Thunderbird asked.

"Pay attention to the monster!" Coyote shouted, starting to shoot the thing in the eyes. "She's not dead, or we'd have a warning about it!"

"Right!"

Meanwhile, Nightmare Moon was scanning the area. "Where is she?"

"Concentrate on the shot," Mirage's voice whispered on the radio. "I'm here."

Moon smirked and sighed in relief, aiming up, following the monster's movements and its status bar as her eyes studied how the damage it took affected it.

Surgeon dodged under a swipe, but suddenly found himself staring at the face of the monster as it crouched down and opened its mouth pincers.

"Tactic change!" he shouted, rolling to the side just as a splash of acid flew out of Arachnid King's mouth and splashed, sizzling on the wall behind him.

It was then that Mirage was suddenly there, running on top of the arachnid lower body and shooting both guns to the back of the monster. It roared trying to shake her off as her short bursts of plasma got it right where the tubes connected. Although nothing seemed to happen to the tubes themselves, Arachnid King's top health bar halved immediately, and Mirage had to jump to safety when its body suddenly crackled with electricity.

"Moon!"

"Saw them!"

The shot rang through the cavern and both tubes were severed in one massive shot and a bar and a half of HP went down immediately.

Arachnid King screeched, rearing back at the impact, and the Lion, Coyote and Thunderbird immediately started shooting for all they were worth, chipping away more hit points.

It was then that it jumped, clearing the space between them in a second and landing with a massive crash right in front of them. Its crystal legs digging into the ground sent chunks of metal and rock flying and dust rose around them.

"Oh crap!" Thunderbird shouted, backpedaling.

"Ya valio madres!"

"Gaaaaaaah!"

The three moved back, still shooting, but the level boss wasn't going to let them go that easy. With a tremendously fast sweep his pincer smashed into them so hard, the trio was sent flying back, health almost completely depleted.

"Ugh," Lion struggled to get up. "That thing is crazy! It almost took us out with a single hit!"

"Now you know how it feels on the other side of that stupid cannon of yours," Thunderbird chuckled.

Collar desperately ran towards them, throwing two smoke grenades in front of Arachnid King, injecting stimpacks into his companions and slamming a bonus-and-conceal smoke grenade to cover them.

"We can't take another of those, Surgeon! You'd better think of something!" he hollered into the radio.

Arachnid King, however, did not follow its attack. Crossing its pincers in front of its chest and lowering down so its crystal legs formed a wall around its body, it started glowing blue and his depleted health bars slowly started filling up.

"It's healing itself!" Surgeon shouted, emerging from the dust cloud, plasma shotgun firing at the tubes, but the legs took the brunt of the attack.

Nightmare Moon's next shot hit it in the head, making it snap back and stand up, but it had already healed up a whole energy bar. As its pincers lowered, Desert Mirage appeared out of thin air once more. She tried her previous tactic at landing on the creature's back and taking another shot at the tubes, although this time the damage wasn't half as extensive.

"And the weak point is no use!" She shouted, quickly jumping off and into the smoke cloud to avoid being snagged by a giant pincer.

Twilight glanced at her girlfriend and couldn't help but smile.

Fist pumped, Lemon Zest had a huge, almost hungry grin in her face and her eyes were wide and focused as she stared at the battle on the monitors.

It was a times like this, when she was so into whatever was happening that she forgot the world around her that Twilight counted herself so lucky to be able to see her up close. She could stare into those passionate amber eyes forever.

It was that passion about music and sharing that had won her heart over, after all. Lemon Zest was not just about doing a thing. If she couldn't do something with all her passion, she never bothered and it was a way of life that intrigued Twilight and she couldn't deny that she found that incredibly alluring.

It didn't matter if Twilight knew about something Lemon Zest loved. She learned to love it really quickly because of that amazing sense of involvement. And she had finally found something she, Twilight, loved intensely that she could potentially share with Lemon Zest as well.

"Wow, this fight is amazing!" Lemon Zest gasped, throwing popcorn into her mouth, then feeding one to Twilight, who had leaned back with an open mouth. "Look at how they're kicking butt!"

"They're doing really well for such a small team against an opponent like that," Twilight said, chewing her popcorn. "But they'll have to change their strategy if—"

Lemon Zest blinked when Twilight leaned forward, frowning. "If what?"

"What's that?" Twilight asked, pointing at one of the several wavelengths on display in her screen. It was slowly rising, and Twilight's eyes widened in horror. "Oh no!"

Zest had to jump back to avoid being run over by Twilight when her girlfriend jumped to her feet and ran to the device containing the book. "What's going on?!"

"The input is increasing!" Twilight shouted, pressing several buttons and pulling levers and rotating dials. "I can't stop it!"

"But how is that possible?" Lemon Zest asked, taking a seat on the computer and looking at the logs. "There's nothing here that I can see that might do that!"

"I don't know!" Twilight cried out when an arching bolt of red energy stinged her hand as she tried to dial down the output. "This shouldn't be possible!"

She turned to look at Sunset's body, which was starting to glow with power. The sleeping girl was grunting and frowning as magic visibly coursed across the whole bed.

"Should we just unplug it?"

"Not when it's this high! Sunset could suffer real damage if that happens!" Twilight's tone was slightly hysterical. "Her vitals are all over the place!"

"What's going to happen now?" Lemon Zest asked fearfully.

Twilight grimaced. "Sunset is going to receive her full powers in-game." She leveled a look at Lemon Zest. "With no warning."

The smoke dispersed and Team Surgeon had split to the four corners of the room, with Arachnid King in the middle.

"Brace yourselves!" Surgeon shouted. "It's preparing another attack!"

"I'm switching to ammo!" Mirage called on the radio. "I think it won't be immune to armor-piercing bullets!"

Arachnid King shuddered and four dragonfly-like wings erupted from its back. They buzzed to life, too fast to follow and it almost seemed to disappear as it suddenly blurred and wasn't there anymore to the consternation of the ground team.

But Nightmare Moon had a clear view of what was going on from the little nook she had hidden herself in. The monster was moving too fast for her to shoot, and it was going straight for Mirage!

Desert Mirage's eyes widened when the monster materialized just in front of her, pinzer already on a trajectory to squish her onto the wall. She barely managed to drop down, flat on her stomach as the pinzer rushed past her, but she was still caught in the tailwind of the pinzer and was sent rolling, painfully on the floor.

"Gah!"

Mirage gritted her teeth. 'What the hay's going on?! I shouldn't have felt that so strongly!'

"Mirage!"

She looked up as the other pincer came crashing down on her. There was no way to avoid it. Immediately her instincts kicked in and from a familiar warmth within, she commanded a thick crystal wall to form in front of her.

The pincer crashed into it, smashing it to pieces, but slowing down enough for her to jump out from under it and avoid the direct hit. However, bits of crystal dug into her skin making her bite down to not scream in pain.

Already several grenades were falling around her and Arachnid King to give her time to move, but she was angry at this creature. How dare it almost kill her?!

Obscured as she was, she still could see the large shadow of the Arachnid King, so the moment she caught sight of her enemy, her arms shot forth and she summoned ice that froze its eight legs in place just as she conjured lightning from within the cloud. It struck the place where it was and she grinned viciously when she heard its angry roar.

Nopony messes with Sunset Shimmer!'

She could see the renewed health bar drop completely until only two remained. "Ready for another, you cretinous foal?!"

She never saw the pincer as it snatched her from the side.

The world rushed around her; she couldn't breath or struggle. She could almost hear her bones beginning to snap under the pressure. Arachnid King brought her up all the way above the smoke and for a moment she could see all of her friends rushing to her rescue, firing desperately at the huge monster. A particularly powerful shot made her look to its origin, and she caught sight of Nightmare Moon's horrified look.

She forgot all about her power right then.

'I'm going to die.' She shook her head. "Moon!"

And then the air rushed back and Arachnid King threw her against the wall with all its might. Nightmare Moon's shot took it through the head, disintegrating the monster, but not before it had completed its swing and Mirage was rushing to the floor in an uncontrollable tumble.

"Oh no, she's going to get killed!" Twilight cried when they saw Arachnid King grab her. "There's too much synchronicity! Too much magic input! She'll die for real!"

"What can we do?!" Lemon Zest shouted, looking desperately at all the screens. "We can't shut it down just like that!"

"I don't know! There's too much magic what i—" Twilight's eyes widened and she ran towards the diary. She cried out when magical energy crawled up her arms as she snapped the container open.

"Twilight!"

Gritting her teeth, Twilight ignored her girlfriend and took hold of the diary with one hand, careful not to take it out. She could feel the magic. Not just the painfully crawling one on her skin, but the sheer, inviting and beautiful power to do whatever she wanted. The potential was there. At her beck and call. She could become a goddess again. She could—she forced it down, eyes wide and horrified at her thoughts before she remembered her plan.

She turned and focused on Mirage. The monster was throwing her. There was no time to hesitate. No time to think of consequence.

"Get out of the way!" she shouted extending her hand towards the monitors.

Lemon Zest's panicked eyes followed the trajectory and she dove to the side just as a human-sized portal opened in front of the computer. Smoke drifted in with the sounds of shouts, lasers and roars and suddenly a body flew through it really fast and knocked Twilight over.

The diary flew out of the container. The computers sizzled and all wavelengths dropped to zero.

The portal was gone.

Congratulations!

Level Cleared: Team Surgeon

MVP: Nightmare Moon

Desert Mirage

The Surgeon

The Lion

Heavy Collar

Coyote

Thunderbird

"We did it!" Thunderbird shouted. "We goddamned did it!"

"Congratulations, team! We almost lost one of our members, but we got the last shot first!" Collar added.

"Yeah, but where's Mirage?" The Lion asked, looking around.

The others looked around.

"Moon?" Surgeon called, looking up at her from where she hadn't moved. "Where's Mirage do you see her?"

Nightmare Moon slowly shook her head. "I-I gotta go."

She teleported away.

Celestia slowly clapped at the monitor. "Well done, Luna. Well done."

She raised an eyebrow when her sister suddenly gasped and sat upright, almost ripping her Amusphere off as she jumped to her feet, eyes wild.

"That was a pretty intense fight Luna, I—"

"No time," Luna rasped. Pulling her pants on as quickly as she could and then putting on her boots.

"Luna," Celestia rose to her feet warily. "What's wrong?"

"It's Sunset," Luna choked out. "I have to go."

"But Luna, it's just a game!" Celestia shouted after her sister, who was already running out of the front door.

Lemon Zest coughed and stood up, she quickly moved to check the monitors and sighed in relief. "Love, I don't know what you did, but everything's fine now. Sunset's vitals are all normal and the crazy magical input is over."

When she didn't get a reply, she called out. "Twilight?"

A groan answered her and Zest carefully made her way to where she had last seen her girlfriend. When she got there, she could only stare in horror.

"Oh, my head..." Twilight groaned, pushing whatever was on top of her to the side and slowly sitting up. "Zest? Did Sunset's vitals return to normal?"

She looked up and saw her girlfriend gazing with an increasingly frightened look to her face at something next to her.

It was the cough the clued her in. Twilight gulped and looked to the side, where Desert Mirage slowly pushed herself up from the floor and rolled to sit. She coughed and shook her head. "Did we kill it?"

When no reply came she opened her eyes and looked around. "Oh no."

---

---

Comments

[insertfootinmouth]

She looked up and saw her friend gazing with an increasingly frightened look to her face at something next to her.

It was the cough the clued her in. Twilight gulped and looked to the side, where Desert Mirage slowly pushed herself up from the floor and rolled to sit. She coughed and shook her head. "Did we kill it?"

When no reply came she opened her eyes and looked around. "Oh no."

media.giphy.com/media/2dJ5Iait4QrW8/giphy.gif

Bonus points for my favorite Spanish curse.

[Liqwidice]

Oh buck yes!
Sh!t just got real!

[G S tol Kriaal]

33.media.tumblr.com/55e743a6c14ecf989ac7a8f744e58582/tumblr_inline_n6wr5jzuqb1s9nclc.gif

[nobody dreamer]

Ok, that's not good. Really not good. Well, that's what they get for messing around with magic and science. I wonder if the increased magic was just due to circumstances or if something intentionally caused it. So I guess Sunset's real body is now comatose? Though it would be really weird/interesting if both Sunset and Mirage were awake at once (the more Sunset, the better).

[Danger A Dragon]

So, how's this going to work? We've got Sunset's real body hooked up to an Amusphere while her virtual body is now in the real world with her. I kinda thinking that her mind is going to be split somehow due to this development. Really, though. Will all her game stats and gear be in the real world? And, what's going to happen now that there are two bodies for one mind in the same reality?

[Ganondorf8]

Well, that was certainly unexpected, but then that can happen when you apply something foreign into something else that cannot handle it under any circumstances. Luna is definitely going to be very surprised at what she is going to see.

[ShadowPony12]

Prof. Sombra remotely accessed the computers and adjusted the magic input. It makes sense, think about it, he just randomly came in earlier with really no reason then just "tech being put to good use", sounds like a load of bull to me.

[Emerald Shield]

6768348 Makes sense, other world or not, it's still Sombra.

[RoboRed]

Uhh....uhhh....
Did she just swap Desert Mirage's body with Sunset's?

[Hatter]

"Now you know how it feels on the other side of that stupid canon of yours," Thunderbird chuckled.

I think you might mean cannon, as in a gun, as opposed to a rule or principle.

[Wanderer D]

6770556 Fixed, thanks!

[lordelliott]

To quote myself from a moment ago, "HOLY SHIT! " No more words.

[Web of Hope]

Not what I thought was gonna get pulled through... Then again, having a giant spider monster level the school would certainly put an end to SciTwi's good standing.

[pahnazd]

Weeeeeell.... things just got complicated. This is gonna be fun.

[Csquared08]

Well shoot

[ChaosDX1]

Ha! The thing I said might happen happened!

[FinalFan]

Step 1 complete: Two Sunset Shimmers in the same room.
Step 2: data.whicdn.com/images/28238434/large.gif

[djthomp]

Impressive fight, but yeah, bad idea pretty much as expected. Though hey, at least in game monsters didn't get out.

Here's hoping they can send Mirage back through before any consequences consequence.

[the other sans]

The world rushed around her; she couldn't breath or struggle

1. Breathe.

[Skeeter The Lurker]

Holy fuck you just did that.

Oh hell yes I am so onboard for what's next.

~Skeeter The Lurker

[Skeeter The Lurker]

Also, you've based this on SAO and GGO or whatever, right?

If so, I like the inversion of their gimmick. Good touch and unique.

~Skeeter The Lurker