As he destroyed the last clone sight and sealed the sinister gold coin in an energy sphere, he hideously smirked as blood tricked from his head, covering his face and making it seem even more ferocious.
He panted in exhaustion as one last clone appeared behind him, throwing away a piece of transparent fabric it used to become invisible and attacking Clay with the same poisonous dagger that caused unhealable wounds.
Though Clay turned to destroy the clone with a swing of his sword, he didn't react fast enough as an energy beam came from below, disintegrating the clone.
He took a deep breath to calm himself, his ferocious expression disappearing, only to be replaced by a calm, smiling one.
"There you are, Technophile," Clay said, wiping his eyes to remove the blood hindering his vision. "I trust all is well with the hostages' extraction efforts," he added as he gently flew down.
"As well as it could go," Technophile replied with a sigh. "We've already extracted all hostages willing to cooperate," he added, massaging his forehead in visible frustration.
"What do you mean?" Clay asked with a frown as he landed in front of Technophile. "I had assumed everyone would jump at the chance of getting out of this twisted game," he remarked in a confused tone.
"Most of them did," Technophile replied with a nod. "But humans are complicated creatures, my friend," he added, shaking his head while heaving another sigh.
"I don't claim to understand them...," Technophile remarked, trailing at the end of his sentence. "But I'm sure they have their reasons," he concluded with a shrug of his shoulders.
"We can not save those who do not wish to be saved," Clay remarked with a sigh, shaking his head. "Let's hurry up and get everyone else out of here," he added in an urgent tone.
"I still have a bad feeling," he concluded, vigilantly surveying the surroundings.
"Indeed. You what people say about bad feelings?" Technophile said with a smile. "They come true, more often than not," he added as Clay turned around, showing his back.
Technophile smile turned mocking as Clay turned around, quickly aiming at the latter's back with the rifle he used to disintegrate the last clone and fired.
The shot hit Clay squarely in the middle of his back, disintegrating a patch of his flesh and revealing the white bones beneath it.
Clay grunted in pain, staggering a step forward. "What the hell are you doing?" He exclaimed with an expression distorted by horror and anger as he turned around to confront his friend.
"What needs to be done!" Technophile replied with a smirk, tilting his head to the side as his abdomen exploded with several black tendrils shooting out of it, flying towards Clay.
Though he tried to dodge, the tendrils were too fast to avoid at this close distance, and they quickly reached Clay, tightly binding his hands and legs together.
With a loud roar, Clay used the last of his energy to create a shock wave of red energy, freeing himself from the tendrils binding him as he took off into the air, watching the body of his friend fall to the ground with a complicated expression.
"I honestly didn't think you'd fall for that," said the game master as he materialized himself mid-air. "Oh, how the mighty have fallen," he added in a sarcastic tone, chuckling lightly at the end of his sentence.
"You! What have you done to my friend?" Clay exclaimed in an angry tone, his stare penetrating the game master's mask and right into his eyes.
"If you mean the idiot who tried to hack into my system, then he's already dead," the game master replied with a smile. "That was merely a clone," he added, shrugging his shoulder.
"Then how the hell did the hostages escape?" Clay asked with an even expression, prolonging the conversation as he tried replenishing his energy.
"Well, I set them free, of course," the game master replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "How else do you think they got away?" he asked, tilting his head to the side in mock confusion.
"I did it all to get you here," the game master explained like any self-respecting villain. "I killed the original game master, leaked information about the game, and even released the hostages, just for you," he added in a self-assured tone.
"So the clones, all those legendary weapons, and my friend's clone were all part of your plan, huh?" Clay asked, maintaining his even tone and expression.
"Correct. It was all a trap to make you use up all of the energy you're trying to replenish right now," the game master replied with a shrug. "And you fell for it like an egg from a tall chicken," he added, chuckling at his own joke that fell on deaf ears.
Clay listened to the game master's speech, his expression turning into one of severity as he finally noticed his inability to gather any energy.
"Well, that's enough nonsense, I suppose," the game master remarked with a smile as several clones of himself, carrying poisonous daggers, materialized all around Clay.
"Farewell, oh earth's mightiest hero," the game master remarked as the clones charged towards the exhausted Clay, blunging their daggers into his body.
Clay did not say anything as the clones buried their daggers into his body, closing his eyes in concentration. His heart began beating at an increasingly faster pace, exploding as it reached its fastest speed.
Clay opened his eyes, smirking defiantly as a burst of energy coursed through his body, manifesting in the outside world as a red shock wave that destroyed the clones and pushed the clone master away.
Clay himself used the little remaining energy in his body to launch his unmoving body towards the facility below.
'This should buy me enough time to destroy my body and make sure thing doesn't fall into the wrong hands.' Clay thought to himself as he looked down at the facility, his expression serene and in peace.
...
"Do you two maniacs really think this is the best to be settling scores?" I asked in a neutral tone, keeping to heave a sigh in frustration as I stared at Stink Bomb and Gamma Ball blocking the entrance to the room containing the teleportation device.
"If you have time to be looting up the place, then why shouldn't we have time to settle scores, eh? Hahaha," Stink Bomb replied with a question of his own, giggling like the maniac he is while doing it.
"You must think us right dimwits, eh mate? Hahaha?" Stink Bomb asked again, continuing to giggle as Gamma Ball sent him a scornful side glance, seemingly fighting the urge to facepalm.
"Well, considering that I can fly out of here whenever I wanted...," I replied, trailing at the end of my sentence as I heaved a sigh. "Do you really want me to answer that question?" I asked, my eyes twitching at Stink Bomb's expression of realization.
"So, do you want to stay here and fight me and die in the aftermath of the battle outside?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "Or do you want to get out of here and find some poor bastard to torment in the wasteland?" I asked again, shrugging my shoulders.
"It doesn't matter, mate!" Stink Bomb exclaimed after a second of hesitation. "We need to kill you quickly and get out of here before things get ugly! Hahaha," he added, regaining his confidence.
"What about you, big guy?" I asked as I turned to look at Gamma Ball. "Surely you're not as dumb as this guy?" I asked again, hoping against hope.
Gamma Ball did not reply as he turned to look at Stink Bomb, noting the latter was hell pent on fighting me today, and quickly made his mind, preparing to fight.
"Birds of feather flock together," I remarked, heaving a sigh as I massaged my forehead. "Let's do this, then!" I concluded, shrugging my shoulders as I began channeling energy towards my hands.
I quickly materialized five aura knives, holding them between my fingers. But I didn't have time to do much else as Gamma ball was already lunging towards me with several bombs following behind him, flaying at me in a curve.
I threw three aura knives, hitting three bombs and causing them to explode. Then, dodging quickly, I ducked beneath Gamma Ball's punch as I gripped his forearm, channeling energy into my muscle.
I Spun him in place and threw him towards the last bomb, causing it to explode after impacting Gamma Ball's back. He merely grunted in pain as the force of the explosion stopped his momentum and caused him to fall to the ground, quickly standing up.
"Come and get me bitches!" I exclaimed with a smirk as I released a black smokescreen, turning around and dashing away.
"Come back here and die like a man! Hehehehahah!" Stink Bomb exclaimed with a shrill laugh as he quickly chased behind me, with Gamma Ball following right behind him.
...
"That should keep the two maniacs off my back for a while," I murmured with a shrug as I watched Gamma Ball and Stink Bomb get further and further away, chasing after my clone.
I took a deep breath as I dismissed Snowwhite, which was covering me after I transformed it into a soft fabric that looked identical to the white roof of the hallway.
Letting go of the roof, I dropped to the ground, taking another deep breath as I absorbed a part of the smokescreen back into my body, giving me a clear view of the door that separated me from my prize.
I hummed in a good mood as I hurried towards the door, with a spring in my steps.
"Finally, I can get this thing and get out of here!" I murmured, eagerly smiling as I opened the door, noting a device roughly two times bigger than myself.
The device in question looked like a black, metallic cylinder with blue rings floating around it and several wires coming out of it, going into the room's walls.
I walked up to the device, trying to store it in my inventory, sighing as I failed to do so because of its size. "Well, time to put Intuitive Aptitude and Kaden's experience in technology to work," I remarked as I immediately began trying to dismantle the device.
...
"Just a little more, and it should fit inside in my inventory," I murmured, wiping the sweat off my forehead as I detached a spheric device with colorful light all over it.
'An AI core, eh? Should be handy in the future.' I smiled as I went to work, dismantling the next part.
...
'Just one more.' I sighed as I took out a cube roughly the same size as my torso, which was the teleportation device's energy source.
Suddenly, an explosion rang from far away, and I lost my connection with the clone which the two maniacs were chasing after, causing me to sigh as I increased my pace, trying to detach the last part as quickly as possible.
...
"Finally, done!" I exclaimed with a grin as I stored the last part into my inventory. It was a canister of liquid nitrogen, the teleportation device's cooling device.
However, my grin quickly turned to a frown as I felt an outrageous aura signature flying right towards me from above, causing me to quickly store the rest of the teleportation device in my inventory.
I turned towards the exit, materializing Snowwhite in the shape of two wings as I immediately tried to dash away. But I was too late as the teleportation room's roof exploded right above me.