Down With The Gods

Lasers after lasers, the gazillot has been relentless, each blast leaving massive destruction in the city. Fortunately, Wyn and team are still behind the gigantic creature, which has yet to turn around.

“This must be a kaiju. It’s huge and looks like a copyrighted creature from somewhere,” Yu jokes.

But the gazillot doesn’t resemble any copyrighted character. Instead, it’s a colossal crocodile walking on two hind legs. Its long, thick snout lacks nostrils, and its eyes are attached to green tentacles that rotate freely in all directions. Reflective scales in red, green, and brown shield its back, while a moss green shell protects its mostly bare front. Its tail, submerged in the river, ends with a hole at the tip.

Suddenly, portals open, releasing creatures from water, land, and air. In a panic, Christine flees back to the campsite without a word. Everyone turns to Yu.

“What? She doesn’t know how strong we are. It’s natural for her to be scared,” he defends Christine.

“Feel familiar?” Wyn asks, but no one responds. Mira gives Yu a look of disappointment.

While they’d like to make Yu feel as uncomfortable as possible with their silent treatment, enemy flyers put an end to their enjoyment of tormenting him. Whenever things get too hectic, the team gathers around Wyn, who summons a protective cyclone. Amid the chaos, a green dome suddenly covers the rooftop. Moments later, ten nerds emerge from portals.

“Hello, normies. We’re here to collect battle data,” one of them says.

“Don’t look at us like that. You should thank us. You’ll be safe inside this barrier, but if you want to join the fight, just say so,” another adds.

“So, this is like a barrier?” Wyn asks.

“Yes, but a strong enough creature could break through it. You’d better be ready to evac us,” the same nerd replies.

“How well can it hold up against a laser from that crocodile thing?”

“It can’t. We’d be obliterated instantly. That’s why we picked this rooftop – you’re here.”

“…You guys are more of a burden.”

“The elites! They have arrived!” a nerd announces.

Groups of about fifty elites engage the gazillot from the front, luring the creature onto land. At the same time, Crowd flies his team and thirty other elites toward its back.

“He can carry people with cyclones?” Wyn asks.

“Look at the speed!” Anish exclaims.

The rear team waits. Once the gazillot steps on land, they fly in again. Crowd and three others hang back above the river, sending the rest closer to the beast. Wyn watches closely as they float in the air, suspended by cyclones.

When the gazillot is far enough from the river, both elite teams descend. The front team targets its unprotected areas, while the rear team goes straight for the eyes, using the high-rises for cover.

“What are you collecting data for, anyway?” Wyn asks.

“When you scale Heaven, you’ll be fighting deities. Teamwork is key. Imagine going up against a level moderator who’s at least five times stronger than this reptile,” one nerd replies.

“Five times stronger?” Wyn gulps.

The gazillot’s eyes move swiftly, and its eyelids, reinforced with rocks, can nullify most aerial attacks. Closing its eyelids, it rams the elites with them, smashing buildings in the process. Crowd and the support elites are constantly on alert, preventing casualties that would have occurred without their intervention.

At the front, the gazillot summons a massive rock pillar before sweeping its tail forward. Elites perched on buildings are lifted by cyclones and wind gusts, but many from the front team are thrown into structures or struck by debris from the destroyed pillar. A laser follows, but it narrowly misses its intended targets.

One elite manages to reach the gazillot’s feet, only to be impaled by sharp claws in the chest. Stuck to the claws, she is torn apart when the creature steps down, separating her from the chest up. A gust of wind blows her remains into an emergency portal on a nearby intact building.

The battle rages on. The rear team has yet to land a clean hit on the gazillot’s eyes due to the tentacles’ rapid movements. They also can’t stay on its head, as the tentacles cover most of it. Meanwhile, the front team adapts, keeping their distance while firing projectiles at the beast’s vulnerable spots.

A shift in strategy occurs. Ten elites from the front team jet forward, aiming for the creature’s throat, while others continue attacking lower areas with projectiles. Soon, the gazillot's throat is riddled with melee wounds. Agitated, it drops to all fours with a thunderous crash, sending the elites sprawling to the ground. The impact fractures the earth, and the creature charges forward, mouth agape. Two elites are caught inside before its jaws snap shut, while the others follow in pursuit, leaving the injured behind.

“Those two are goners if they don’t kill it fast enough,” a nerd comments.

“We need to get closer,” another nerd insists.

“Can we tend to the injured first?” Anish asks.

“You needn’t worry about them. They’re injured, not dead. The uninjured should stay focused,” an older nerd with thick glasses says. “Look, some are already getting back up.”

“‘Needn’t’...,” Yu mutters.

The nerd deactivates the barrier and opens a portal, instructing everyone to jump in. They emerge on another rooftop a few kilometers from the battle.

“What’s that building? Looks like something I saw on TV,” Mira asks.

“The parliament building.”

“Wish there were politicians inside right now,” Wyn mutters.

The battle shifts to the spacious parliament square. Now grounded, the elites surround the gazillot, poised for an attack. The strategy is to target its eyes. The rear team plans to inch closer via the mostly flat back, while the front team distracts it, waiting for a chance to strike at the throat.

Before the elites can begin their assault, the gazillot’s feet glow, and it summons a sturdy pillar that encircles itself and launches the elites into the air from below. It fires another laser at them, but Crowd stabilizes himself midair and summons descending cyclones with both hands, aimed at the creature’s snout. The cyclones push its snout down just enough to divert the laser from striking the elites' heads, instead hitting the cheek of one and the chest of the other. The two injured elites are immediately sent to safety by a wind user.

However, Crowd doesn’t notice the glowing tail, which suddenly fires a laser beam from its tip at the rear team. The smaller beam obliterates an elite’s shoulder.

Crowd deposits his original team onto the gazillot’s back, then propels himself and a tall, muscular man toward its eye. The gazillot attempts to ram them with a rock-hardened eye but misses as Crowd swiftly shifts vertically. He summons a lightning-infused cyclone, leading with his blade sword. The sword cracks the rock shield over the eye and embeds itself in the damaged area. The gazillot jerks its head upward, reacting to the pain. Taking advantage, Rede leaps onto a tentacle and begins viciously slashing it with his claw knuckles.

The front team wastes no time, bombarding the gazillot’s throat with projectiles. As the battle drags on, the elites grow more adept at countering the creature’s attack patterns. Tiffany joins Rede, pummeling a tentacle with her burning boxing gloves, while Barrack hammers it with the gun attached to his right arm. Crowd supports them by stabilizing the battlefield with cyclones, while the mysterious man drives Crowd’s lodged sword deeper into the gazillot’s eye using his own unique weapons.

In a desperate move, the gazillot flips its back scales horizontally and fires them out like projectiles. Despite the elites' efforts to raise defensive pillars, the large, hardened scales pierce through several of them before they can fully reinforce the defenses. Miraculously, none of the elites are hit in the head. Reacting quickly, the front team rushes to cover the rear, taking over for the injured members. Even with the gazillot now exposed and unprotected, it still takes quite some time to defeat the creature, though the battle’s outcome becomes inevitable.

“Two losses. Not bad,” a nerd comments as she assesses the aftermath.

“Did you hear that? I think I heard some sort of fanfare,” Wyn asks.

“What are you talking about?” the same nerd responds.

“Go get the essence! They’re worth plenty!” a different nerd urges.

Despite Wyn’s desire to try out Crowd’s techniques, the team allows Anish to carry them slowly to the battle site. Each member, including Wyn, collects slightly less than five hundred essence from the fallen gazillot. As Wyn scans the area, he spots Crowd in the distance. On his way to greet him, Wyn notices several elites mourning their fallen comrades.

“You were amazing out there!” Wyn calls out.

“Oh, hey! It’s you,” Crowd replies with a tired smile.

“Are you hurt?”

Wyn finally notices Crowd’s left hand, which appears crushed, something he hadn’t seen earlier due his viewing angle.

“Yeah, I’m sorry, pal. I’ll need to head back for healing.”

“No worries. I’ve already learned so much from you. Get well soon.”

While Wyn talks with Crowd, Mira asks Yu to check on Christine’s whereabouts from the map. Yu finds her crying in her tent at campsite number four. Wyn, meanwhile, is clearly frustrated, his desire to keep exploring nearby areas put to a halt. Mira shares his frustration but isn’t willing to risk tension with Yu over it.

“Just be nice to Cateto,” Anish advises before they arrive at campsite number four.

“Welcome, new faces! Are you with that guy?” Cateto greets, gesturing toward Anish as the familiar face.

Wyn remains unusually quiet, while Yu is clearly holding back laughter. The two children struggle to contain their amusement, while Mira and Anish give them stern looks.

“Don’t even think about it. Be polite,” Mira whispers.

“You have a team now! I am happy for you!” Cateto says, reaching out to hug him.

“Wh…Why are you…Why are you shaved?” Wyn stammers, unable to contain his amusement any longer. Yu finally cracks up, laughing uncontrollably in the corner.

Cateto stands before them completely shaved, except for a patch of hair on his chest. On that patch, a bold, capitalized "C" is painted, leaving his pink skin fully exposed.

“I have a condition that causes me to lose patches of hair constantly, except on my chest; so I shaved,” Cateto explains.

“And the…the patch? Why ‘C’?” Wyn asks, trying not to laugh.

“It was a recommendation from a soul. Something to do with fashion.”

“Fash…ion?” Wyn snorts, despite his best efforts.

“I like it! You look great!” Mira chimes in.

“Yes, you look awesome. Sorry for my reaction. That was uncool of me,” Wyn says, avoiding eye contact with Cateto.

“That’s enough, boys,” Mira says, grabbing Wyn and Yu by the arms and dragging them away from the lobby.

At the campground, Yu calls Christine out of her ice-blue tent. The team sets up their tents nearby, though they still insist on pitching Anish’s tent far from the girls’. They gather in Wyn’s tent for a team meeting.

“Like, first off, I apologize for leaving like that.”

Christine, twenty-six, was born and raised in the United States of Ammunition. As a child, she was practically invisible to her parents, overshadowed by her well-behaved, academically gifted older sister. When she was thirteen, her parents filed for divorce, and her mother lost custody of her sister. Reluctantly, her mother agreed to care for Christine in exchange for child support. From that point on, Christine felt abandoned – going to school alone, her mother absent from school meetings and events, and leaving only money for food on the dining table. She became a loner with no friends.

At eighteen, Christine moved out, supporting herself with grants, loans, and multiple jobs while pursuing an undergraduate degree. Her adult life mirrored her youth – relationships ended abruptly, and she frequently changed jobs due to conflicts with colleagues and bosses. She longed for love, for someone who would truly care for her.

During the pandemic, Christine contracted the virus and spent months in intensive care. No one visited her – not her colleagues, not her exes, not even her family. With her final breaths, she cursed tummy.

Upon arriving on the seventh level, Christine stayed in the dojo, lacking the confidence to survive alone. Before accidentally hitting Yu with a ballywool, she had formed a bond with a soul who became her first friend in a long time.

As she recounts her experiences, she sobs.

“I’m surprised they left you in the city center. You trained for a long time and passed the test, so you must be strong,” Wyn says.

Christine doesn't respond, only crying harder. Yu looks too scared to comfort her, so Mira walks up and hugs her.

“Why weren’t you in a hospital gown when we met you in the dojo?” Wyn asks.

“I, like, don’t knowww…It was like the last thing I wore before going to the hospital, I guess?” Christine sobs harder.

The atmosphere in the tent is heavy with sorrow, and no one speaks while Christine cries. Wyn suddenly remembers something.

“Oh hey, Yu! I’ve got good news!” he says, excitement breaking through the tension as he purchases a guitar from his band.

“YISSS! Thank you!”

“Now sing us something.”

“Go, Yu!” Mira cheers.

“Sing that song in honor of Jack and Rose,” Anish suggests.

“What song is that? I was born in twenty-oh-six, just so you’re aware,” Yu replies.

“Never mind then…” Anish exchanges a glance with Wyn and Mira.

“I only know parts of the chorus. Don’t look at me,” Mira says, glancing at Christine, who shakes her head rapidly.

Yu begins singing. Though the song is in a foreign language, the team appreciates his calming, soothing voice. The mood lightens as everyone sways to the rhythm. Yu shows off some dance moves he learned during his idol trainee days, still insisting how much he hates dancing despite his flawless performance. Mira, skilled from entertaining simps in her previous life, proves to be the best dancer next to Yu. Anish and Christine do their best to follow along, though it’s clear they need practice. Wyn, however, refuses to dance. He watches his team bond, a small smile forming. A warm feeling spreads in his chest, and tears well up in his eyes. He hasn't felt this kind of happiness in years.