"Kyaa!" Cynthia screamed as she slid out of the pipe face first. The unexpected explosion caught her off guard, and she had no time to stabilize herself before she hit the ground. Debris from the wall rained down on her, chipping away at her already low health from fall damage.
"Ugh… what the hell just happened?" Cynthia coughed repeatedly from the dust in the air. She tried to look around, but her legs were stuck. Her legs were covered in rubble from the destroyed wall, and she couldn't move.
"I- My legs!" She looked horrified as her legs were broken under the stones. She saw the blood pooling around her.Her HP bar flashed with red as it was in the single digits now. She tried to move the stones, but they were too heavy and numerous.
"[Calm down Cynthia, you're okay! Well, not dead at least. You need to ignore that right now, as I can heal you later. Ready your gun and aim at the Queen's eye and use the 'Sharpshooter' skill! I'll buff you so you can get the kill!]" While the explosion to their side surprised some, they chose to ignore it in favor of trying to kill the boss. Its HP was rapidly dwindling, already getting below 1000HP.
Cynthia was in a panic. Her legs were almost certainly useless right now, but with Dags saying that he could heal her she calmed down a little. With tears in her eyes, Cynthia laid on her back and readied her weapon, although unsteady, her [Sharpshooter] skill compensated for it. Suddenly, she felt an influx of energy surging through her and into her weapon. It felt cool and soothing, but she had no idea what it was. When it finally reached its peak Dags yelled.
"[Fire!]"
*Bang!*
Time seemed to slow as her gun let out a ferocious roar. A raging fireball exited the end of her gun along with the supersonic .408 round surged toward its target. The bullet homed in on the eyeball of the [Giant Rat Queen] who was in the middle of a screech, on its last death throes. The bullet sliced through the eye of the giant beast. As the bullet dumped its energy, it created a cavitation, exploding the eyeball into a terrible mess. Even so, the large round continued on into the Queen's brain. The brain was instantly torn to pieces wherever the bullet passed through. Finally, it exited out the other side, spraying gray matter and chunks of bone everywhere. The Queen stopped in the middle of its screech, frozen. Then it slumped to the ground, no longer a threat to anyone.
Cynthia's gun slumped onto her chest, looking worse for wear as a multitude of notifications popped up.
[Congratulations on killing the 'Giant Rat Queen'!]
[Contribution Rank: 2nd Place (7.2% total damage)]
[2nd Place Unique Reward: "Queen's Hatred" - Rare (blue) ranked pistol blueprint, 1x Rat Queen's Fang, and title: 'Rat's Bane']
[Gained: 10,000 XP]
[Level up x5: Lv. 5 -> 10]
[Gained 30 Free ATP!]
[Subclasses unlocked! Please check your status screen for advancement.]
"[Looks like you did it… Congratulations, Cynthia! I'm low on energy, so I can't heal you just yet. If you wait a few minutes I'll have enough to fully restore you.]" With that one shot, it had taken her from level 5 to 10! She could get her subclass now which gives stat bonuses, new skills, or unlocks other actions depending on what it is. The rare ranked pistol blueprint was quite interesting too. It would definitely come in handy as a better self defense weapon than her current starter pistol.
"Ugh…" It seemed Cynthia was in no mood to talk as she was still stuck under the rubble. She closed her eyes and just laid there on the ground, feeling miserable despite her achievement.
"Misty!" Suddenly a tall beastwoman came screaming over to her, not even recognizing that she was using the nickname she already gave her in her head.
"Misty, are you ok!? Oh my god your legs! Medic! Need a medic over here! Someone help me get all this rubble off of her!" The beastwoman, Masterless Sword, started shouting for a medic and other help seeing Cynthia's state. She scrambled to lift the rocks off and clear away the stones while she herself was looking pretty hurt.
"I'm so, so, so, so sorry! I saw a grenade come my way and I dodged out of the way, but it exploded behind me and collapsed the wall below you. I also got hit by the explosion and got winded for a minute. I should've tried to throw it at the boss instead of dodging… This is all my fault." She spoke her apology and explanation so fast that it was hard to tell what she was saying, and she was out of breath from the combination of that along with carrying the heavy stone pieces.
"I-It's ok Masty. It's not your fault." She opened her eyes and gave a weak smile as she came up with a nickname for the beastwoman on the spot to put her at ease.
"M-Masty?!" The tall woman's eyes went wide. She turned around for a moment as she held in a scream with her hand. Just as she was about to say more, help finally came over and began removing the rubble from Cynthia's body. A couple medics came over as well and began using their skills and special items on Cynthia to stabilize her. Even though the medics could heal her health, at this stage they couldn't fix broken bones. One had to go to a hospital in the city and pay for that to be healed over the course of a couple hours.
While the doctors were working their magic, Dags finally had barely enough energy to use [Refresh User] on her. He went ahead and used the skill, making Cynthia's health go back to full instantly and healed her broken legs. Cynthia sighed at the sensation of her body repairing itself, feeling much better than before. After a minute of moving rubble, Cynthia was finally free and got up like nothing was wrong. She dusted herself off and looked at her torn and bloodied clothes. She sighed heavily, knowing that would be another expense. After that, she turned to everyone and thanked them with a bow.
"T-Thank you for the help, everyone. I'm ok now." She still didn't like the attention, and spoke with a quiet voice while looking embarrassed.
"You did good, little newbie Elf! You saved my bacon back there!" An Orcish man that helped said. Although he was an Orc, known for their strength, he seemed to be a medic. It was an odd combination to Cynthia.
"Yeah I was a goner when I got surrounded! Thanks girly!" Another guy said.
Similar comments rained down on her and she turned as red as a tomato from the praises. There just had to be one who had to ruin the good mood though.
"Tch, she didn't do much. Just a leech on the boss' XP." TopKami grumbled. He had no idea that he was one of the people saved by her.
Several people gave him the stink eye. Certainly, she didn't kill the most [Giant Rats] but she did provide timely support to those that needed it.
Just then Darius stepped up to TopKami. He looked down on him with a menacing stare.
"What is it? Here to give me my reward?" TopKami said with a sneer, oblivious to Darius' anger.
Without saying anything, Darius grasped TopKami's entire face with his hand, nearly crushing his head. TopKami screamed in pain as everyone else winced. They knew the guy had fucked up bad if you made the guild master mad.
"You dare talk about rewards!? I saw what you did back there, you ungrateful lowlife! How dare you betray your teammates and ask for a reward? You will be punished instead!" With that, he walked towards Cynthia and Masterless Sword, dragging TopKami with him in his grip.
"Apologize, or suffer the consequences." Darius told the squirming man.
"I haven't done anything wrong! Let me go you cretin!" His struggle only became more frenzied. It didn't look like he wanted to admit his wrongdoings.
"So, you have chosen death? Fine then, I don't tolerate traitors." The guild master then slammed TopKami's head into the ground, killing him instantly.
"Damn… the guild master is really brutal." Darius gained a lot of respect in Dags' eyes. The man had zero tolerance for snakes and acted on it swiftly and efficiently. He hoped that Cynthia never had to cross the man, or she'd likely end up as a bloody pulp as well.
Upon death, TopKami received several notifications.
[Relationship with Resolute guild master, Darius Redfield, has become 'Hostile'!]
[You have been kicked and banned from The Resolute Mercenary guild!]
[You are banned from all mercenary guilds across the country!]
[Death Penalty: -12,000XP]
[Level Dropped: 14-> 13]
"FUUUUUUU-" Upon seeing that, his heart rate elevated so high that the game emergency logged him out for safety reasons.
With TopKami's body disappearing into pixels, the equipment he left behind dropped to the ground. It was an Uncommon (green) rank pair of gloves.
"I'm extremely sorry about that Misses. You'll never see him in the guild again. I won't have venomous traitors hanging out in my guild. I'll make sure to make it up to you both for this mishap when we get back." The guild master spoke to both Cynthia and Masterless Sword in an apologetic tone.
"No, No, thank you guild master Redfield! Was he the one that threw that grenade at me and Misty?" Masterless Sword woke up from her shocked state and replied promptly.
"Mhm, he was. I keep tabs on everyone regardless of the situation. You almost need eyes in the back of your head in this business. He threw that grenade when he thought no one was paying attention to him due to the boss." He crossed his arms and nodded. As a mercenary himself, he was no stranger to those who tried to get a leg up on others by stabbing them in the back. That, or those that carried a grudge and wanted to get some kind of petty revenge.
"Anyway, let's all head back to the Resolute. I'll distribute rewards there. I'm sure no one wants to stay in this shit hole. I've already radioed a team on standby to come dismantle the Queen's corpse and to clean up all the others."
Everyone nodded heavily in agreement, wanting to get out of this dirty, smelly place. With that, they all made the long walk back.