—West District, Dotun City; Lanima Region
"Did you just use another Reign?" Stacia asked Alex, surprised by what Alex had just done.
"I did, it's a long story, should we deal with this thing first?" Alex said, answering her question and asking her after.
"I guess that's reasonable, it will be a bother to ask about it while fighting this thing," Stacia thought as she faces the giant spider.
"Do you know how to fight a giant spider? Or even a normal spider?" Stacia asked him, subconsciously teasing Alex.
"Did she just mock me subconsciously? I'll take it since it's been 3 years since we haven't seen each other," Alex thought, asking himself after noticing it—even though Stacia didn't know.
"Of course, I can, I haven't seen a spider this big before, as well as the other giant things that I saw on the way here," Alex said, answering her question.
"We can, we need to break its legs first before we can even think of reaching its head," Stacia said.
"What Reign do you have? Can you kill it with your Reign?" Alex asked her.
"Is that a rhetorical question?" Stacia thought, asking herself.
"I only have a defensive-type Reign and because I'm a Unique Reign user, it can protect me from almost everything, I'm technically invincible, with it, I just whack giant monsters to their death. Judging from what happened 3 years ago, how many Reigns do you have?" Stacia said, answering his question and then asking him again.
"She's referring to the time I saved everyone from that explosion," Alex thought.
"I have more than one for sure. But I only need Earth Control and Arm Blades to exterminate this thing, or does this have some special powers as well?" Alex answered and asked Stacia.
"It's still unreal for us to talk about this, having more than one Reign," Stacia thought.
"It's special than other giant spiders we've fought before, remember, Alex, we've been doing this for 3 years while you're gone, we don't have any problems fighting these things before, this is the first time we struggled, at least, my team did," Stacia said, answering his question.
"I don't know why but I feel relieved to talk to him again, we're in a weird situation right now, though I would want him to appear 3 years later than not at all," Stacia thought with relief.
It seems like a humoring scenario, two had fear of spiders yet here they are, fighting a giant spider.
"That's good to hear, then how about we exterminate it now, I'll use my Earth Control to break its balance, can I rely on you with distraction? You did say you're technically invincible, or did I hear that wrong?" Alex said, asked Stacia.
"Are you turning on your Director's command?" Stacia asked, rhetorically as she activates her Thiwang Shield.
"Does the S-12 building even exist? Plus it has been 3 years, if the building is still up, I would've been fired for being absent for 3 years. I will be fired in just a day since I just became the Director," Alex said, asking after answering Stacia's rhetoric question.
As Alex activate his Earth Control on his left body and Arm Blades on his right body, they charged at the giant spider with just the 2 of them, an even lower number than what the previous Reigner told Alex earlier, where you need 12 or more to fight giant monsters, 10 is the lowest number for weaker or standard giant monsters.
With Earth Control on his left body, Alex moves the earth underneath the legs of the giant spider, tumbling it. Stacia smashes one of its legs by kicking it.
*Slam*
"She became a warrior in just 3 years, her form is good too, I wonder how much she had to experience in 3 years without me knowing," Alex thought after noticing how Stacia fights.
He activated his Arm blades and started cutting the other legs, the ones that are attacking him, at least because even though Alex is trying to break its balance, it can still stand with just 4 legs.
*slash*
"This thing is not budging! It's already a bad idea to fight it with just the two of us. But Alex is pretty confident, so I'll trust him, for now, but if we fail to kill it, I can't trust him after just returning for 3 years," Stacia thought, convincing herself because both it is Alex and she has a few experiences on the betrayal that starts like this.
The Reigners she was with before, at least, the ones that stood out in her mind, they've all done the same thing to her, one time, while fighting a giant monster, once the situation gets worse with other more giant monsters entering the scene, they all left her because they couldn't handle fighting the giant monsters.
But once they all left her, it became easier for Stacia to fight the giant monsters because those Reigners are more of a burden than help when they're around, they tried to set her up, making the fight hard for her but Stacia was able to exterminate the giant monsters on her own.
It's one of the reasons why and how she was able to join the most powerful Reign group in Dotun City. Because she was able to do this all on her own, the leader of Masters of Reigns saw this occur, so he invited her to the group as one of the higher-ups after witnessing her capabilities with her Reign.
Just as they break 4 of its legs, the giant spider became more hostile than earlier, it began attacking with its fangs. Alex and Stacia stepped back when they noticed it became faster.
"The less leg it has the faster it got? What happened?!" Alex asked, surprised at the giant spider's change of movement.
"This is definitely new! We need to either outsmart it or be faster than it!" Stacia said.
"Some sort of power-up when it's at a disadvantage?" Stacia thought, asking herself while dodging the giant spider's attacks.
"It's like the second phase of a boss!" Alex thought, blocking its legs with his right Scope body.
When his Scope body came into contact with the giant spider's legs, Alex immediately grabbed it with his left hand, activating his Arm Blades on his right arm, and then slashed it, leaving the giant spider with 3 legs.
*SCREECH*
The giant spider then charged at Alex with its fangs stretched out, when Alex saw this…
"It's coming down at me quickly, I'm not dodging this, its head is coming to me so might as well take advantage of this and kill it up close quickly. After losing its balance, it decided to fall over me, this thing is annoying!" Alex thought, he readied himself to catch the giant spider.
Alex held it by its fangs since it was the easiest to grab onto, suspending it in the air.
"Urgh!" Alex struggles to lift the giant spider's head up with his strength.
"This thing is heavy!!!" Alex thought, even though he has the strength of 3 Super Soldiers.
He still thinks he's struggling because he's still adjusting to his new strength.
"Alex!" Stacia shouts as she gets to his side to help him.
When Stacia went to his side to lift the giant spider up, it started spewing something at them.
"Oh, dear," Alex thought.
Alex knows that Stacia can survive this with her Reign but he hasn't probably felt something like this before, he noticed that it spewed poison.
"No! Alex!" Stacia shouts as she lifts the spider up.
*sizzle*
"THAT BURNS!" Alex shouted, feeling the pain of the giant spider's poison.
"Alex! No, Get out of here!" Stacia shouted, telling him.
"I'm fine… Stacia, can you survive… any explosion?" Alex asked her, refusing to leave.
"I can, Alex, but you can't, not even this too!" Stacia shouts with worry, answering his question.
"Good… help me lift this thing," Alex said.
"Isn't he injured from that? He took those poison head-on, I'm lucky I can survive this. Wait, what does he mean by "explosion?" Don't tell me…" Stacia thought, asking herself as she tries to lift up the giant spider's head more.
Alex lifted his right Scope arm, aiming at the giant spider's face, and then shoots out Expanding Orb Reign at it.
*BOOM*
"What!?" Stacia was shocked that Alex has more Reigns on his sleeve.
The giant spider was blasted back, removing the weight of the giant spider's head that they carried, when the Expanding Orb dissipates in smoke, Alex jumped up with his Arm Blades activated and Earth Control activated on his left body.
He pulled the giant spider to him using the Earth Control and when he got close, Alex slashed its head, killing it.
"Whoa!" Stacia thought, stunned after watching this unfold and because Alex was unscathed even after tanking the giant spider's poison.
"That's done," Alex thought as the giant spider's corpse dropped down to the ground.
*bang*
Alex landed on the giant spider after killing it. Stacia went over to him afterward.
Alex went over to her as well after seeing her getting near. "So how do you guys clean up these things?" He asked Stacia as he slides down at the body of the dead giant spider.
"Um, we have a cleanup team that gathers their bodies since most of their bodies can be helpful with many things, even their meat was enhanced to the point that they're edible now," Stacia said.
"That's… something else, I will not eat those unless necessary, I have morals but this is too much," Alex thought, mortified to hear what Stacia just said.
"Also! How did you survive that poison!? I thought you're done for!" Stacia shouts, asking Alex as she was worried.
"Oh, that!? I can heal faster than normal, the ones that saved me 3 years ago were the ones that gave me that ability by injecting me a few serums," Alex said, answering Stacia's question and mediating her worries.
"But that's too fast!? He's far more inhuman than any of us because not only does he have more Reigns but he can also heal faster, which is not even a Reign that needs to be activated," Stacia thought, looking at Alex and the giant spider's corpse.
"Ms. Thiwang! Are you alright?!"
"Who is this man?"
"He also used more than one kind of Reign, is he a Unique Reign User?"
Stacia's team headed to their side, asking them.
"This is…" Stacia was about to say "my friend" to her team but she stopped since she didn't know if they were still friends after 3 years.
"Are we still friends after not seeing each other for 3 years?" Stacia thought, asking herself.
"I'm her old friend, Alex, it's been 3 years since I've met her, and then this Cosmic Surge thing happened so…" Alex said, introducing himself to Stacia's team.
"Hello… we're Ms. Thiwang's group, responsible for exterminating giant monsters like this,"
"But it seems like it was hard for us now,"
"He's tall and big,"
"Right, I didn't realize how tall and big Alex has become, how?" Stacia thought, asking herself.
They all have the same thoughts, surprised as to how big and tall Alex is.
"Are you alright?" Stacia asked her team.
"We're feeling better, Ms. Thiwang, there's nothing we could do for the others,"
"That's such a shame," Stacia thought, sad about the dead Reigners.
"If I was early but I just saw this thing a bit later," Alex said.
"It is fine, it's on us for not watching ourselves and not noticing that it's different from other giant monsters," Stacia said.
"If I didn't hesitate at the beginning, I might've made it in time too," Alex thought.
"Can I ask about your Reign, Alex, why and how do you have more than one type of Reign? All Reign users only have one type of Reign, even most unique Reign users have one type of Reign, there are only a couple that has two or three types of Reign," Stacia asked him.
"It's unprecedented for you guys to see someone using more than one Reign, huh? We can talk about it, but I don't think this is a good place to talk about this, do you have somewhere we can talk privately?" Alex said, asking Stacia and her group.
"He's right, Alex has a very unique ability to have more than one Reign, I don't know how many he has and I don't know what more he can do, but we cannot definitely miss the opportunity to recruit him and be on his good side," Stacia thought.
"We can go to our headquarters, it's the most guarded place in Dotun City so far," Stacia said, suggesting Alex as she started walking.
Her team follows as they carry the other injured Reigners.
"Where is your headquarters? Is it near here?" Alex asked as he follows Stacia and her team.
"It's a few minutes of walk but it's not too far," Stacia said, answering Alex's question.
"This is a once in a thousand or even in the first generation of Unique Reign users, a Reign user that has more than one type of Reign, who knows how many Reigns he still has hidden? A Reigner with Reigns,"