When the glowing message faded—Tutorial Phase Complete. Congratulations, Survivors—I expected some kind of break. You know, a little breather, maybe even a health potion or two. That's how it worked in the game, right? Beat the first wave, regroup, get stronger, and move on.
Instead, the silence that followed was heavy, suffocating.
I leaned back against a jagged rock, my slingshot dangling uselessly from my hand. Around me, the others looked just as wrecked. The girl with the chipped dagger was nursing a nasty gash on her arm, while Rusty Sword Guy—who I learned was named Kyle—sat cradling his twisted ankle. Two others, a lanky guy with a frying pan and a woman clutching a cracked bow, stood watch, their eyes darting nervously.
No one spoke.
I thought back to the original tutorial from the game, trying to piece together what was supposed to happen next. In the app, this was where you'd get a reward screen: a few resources, maybe a new piece of gear. But this wasn't the game. This was… real.
And then, because the universe apparently hates me, the sky turned darker.
…..
A low hum filled the air, vibrating through the ground and into my bones. The others stiffened, and Kyle groaned.
"Tell me that's not what I think it is," he muttered.
"Depends," I said, forcing a weak laugh. "Do you think it's going to kill us? Because if so, then yeah, probably."
The frying pan guy—Danny—pointed toward the horizon. "Uh, guys? Look at that."
We turned as one, and my stomach dropped.
The ground in the distance was splitting open, a massive fissure spreading like a jagged scar. From the darkness below, something began to rise—something huge.
[Boss Encounter: Corrupted Abyssal Guardian]
"Oh, come on!" I shouted at no one in particular.
The thing emerging from the fissure was a twisted nightmare of metal and flesh. Its upper body was humanoid, with long, gangly arms ending in razor-sharp claws, but its lower half was more like a centipede, hundreds of segmented legs clicking and scraping as it pulled itself fully into view. Glowing red veins pulsed across its body, and its face—if you could call it a face—was an eyeless, gaping maw dripping with black ichor.
It let out a guttural, bone-rattling roar, and I immediately regretted every life decision that had led me to this point.
"Run?" Kyle suggested weakly.
"Run," I agreed.
We bolted again, scattering like rats as the Abyssal Guardian surged forward with horrifying speed.
Its segmented body slammed into the ground, shaking the earth and sending jagged rocks flying. I narrowly avoided being skewered by a shard the size of a spear, diving behind a boulder for cover.
"This isn't fair!" I shouted, fumbling with my slingshot. "You can't throw a boss fight at us when we're still level zero!"
The others didn't answer. They were too busy trying not to die.
The Guardian's claws raked through the air, narrowly missing Danny, who let out a high-pitched yelp and threw his frying pan at the beast. It bounced harmlessly off its armor, drawing a low, rumbling growl.
"Yeah, that'll do it," I muttered, loading another pebble into my slingshot.
I peeked out from behind my boulder and took aim at one of the glowing veins on its body. If this was anything like the game, those were weak points, right?
I released the shot, and the pebble hit dead center.
The Guardian paused, its body jerking slightly, and for one brief, glorious moment, I thought I'd done something useful.
Then it turned its head toward me.
"Oh no."
It lunged.
I sprinted as fast as my legs could carry me, zigzagging between rocks and debris as the Guardian barreled after me. The ground shook with every step it took, and its claws slashed through the air, close enough to feel the wind from the blows.
"This is insane!" I gasped, vaulting over a fallen tree. "How is this a tutorial?!"
Up ahead, I saw Kyle and the dagger girl—Maya, I think—scrambling up a narrow ridge. Maya reached the top and turned, extending a hand toward me.
"Hurry!" she shouted.
I didn't have to be told twice.
I reached the base of the ridge and jumped, grabbing onto the ledge. Maya pulled me up just as the Guardian slammed into the rock wall below.
The impact nearly sent us toppling back down, but we managed to scramble away, collapsing onto the ground in a heap.
"Nice shot back there," Maya said breathlessly, her voice laced with sarcasm.
"Thanks," I panted. "I'll be sure to put 'annoyed a boss monster' on my résumé."
Kyle groaned, clutching his ankle. "What now? That thing's not going to stop until we're all dead."
I didn't have an answer. My mind was racing, trying to remember the mechanics of this fight from the game. There had to be a trick, some kind of gimmick we could exploit.
The Guardian let out another roar, its claws scrabbling against the ridge as it tried to pull itself up.
And then I saw it: a faint glow coming from the fissure it had emerged from. A glowing crystal, pulsating with the same red light as the veins on the Guardian's body.
The objective marker appeared in my vision, confirming my hunch:
[Destroy The Abyss Core To Weaken The Guardian.]
"Of course," I muttered. "There's always a stupid gimmick."
I pointed toward the fissure. "The glowing thing! We have to destroy it!"
Maya stared at me like I'd lost my mind. "You want us to go toward the giant monster?"
"Unless you've got a better idea?" I shot back.
She didn't.
....
The plan—if you could call it a plan—was simple.
Kyle and Maya would act as bait, drawing the Guardian's attention, while I snuck down into the fissure to destroy the core. Danny and the bow lady (whose name I still didn't know) would provide cover from above.
It was a terrible plan.
But it was the only plan we had.
As Kyle and Maya began hurling insults and rocks at the Guardian, I crept toward the fissure, my slingshot clutched tightly in my hands.
The glow of the core grew brighter as I approached, casting eerie shadows on the jagged walls. It was a massive, pulsating crystal embedded in the ground, its surface covered in veins of red light.
I loaded a pebble into my slingshot, took aim, and fired.
The crystal cracked slightly, and the Guardian let out a deafening roar, its body convulsing.
"That's it!" I shouted, reloading. "We're actually doing this!"
But then the crystal began to glow brighter, and the ground beneath me started to shake.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," I muttered.
Because, of course, it wasn't going to be that easy.