The spider’s insides squelched as it surveyed them. Its eyes, numerous, moved from girl to girl to girl as it tried to find the biggest threat to its existence. That was, by all means, Kana. She was the one with a literal grenade launcher in her hands, and a Railgun which she could pull out whenever she wished. While that should have put her at most risk, she also had two advantages that the Fluorescent Angels did not.

  She grabbed Jina by her arm and started to run away, but only temporarily. She wasn’t withdrawing; just trying to check a theory. Jina ran after her, sword hitting and crashing against the ground with every step. The Angels did not care about them and were busy trying to stare down the enemy. That was exactly what Kana needed to know.

  She stopped and armed herself for fighting once more.

  “Don’t stay near the Angels.” She looked at Jina, “We’ve got blood all over our bodies, so it is not registering us as humans immediately. And then, they’ve got those horrible neon dresses attracting its attention too. It’s a double fix they put themselves in.”

  “But you want the points, don’t you, Kana-chan?” Jina smiled, “Because I’ll be going in to get some either way.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Go do what you do best and steal the credit after they do all the work.”

  “Oh, don’t be so obtuse! When did I ever do that? I was just trying to help you because we’re beesstttt friends, right? Rightttt??”

  Kana ignored her with a groan and turned back to face the monster. The Fluorescent Angels had started to shoot already, which was keeping it occupied. Once she started to look for a weak spot, Jina rushed in with her sword too. For now, its legs were focused on attacking the three girls who were attracting most of its attention. So, Kana started blasting.

  First, the slimiest parts she could find. It had an outer shell on its top and bottom, but its humongous size had caused the belly to pop out in the middle. She shot once. The grenade barely missed and bounced off the upper shell. Rolling down, it landed right next to the blue shield and exploded, spreading dust and rocks everywhere. Kana barely made out the screams of the Fluorescent Angels due to the growling of the monster.

  She walked forward and sighed in a monotonous voice, “Sorry, sorry. My bad.”, and then shot once more. This time, with a better angle, the explosion swallowed the insides of the monster and left a sizable dent in its flesh. Screeching, its legs started to attack the Fluorescent Angels with more haste. At the same time, one of its eyes landed on Kana, and a back leg moved to attack her.

  Perfect, she thought as she ran out of the way. It pierced the ground and sent shockwaves as she jumped and avoided the cracks forming on the ground. For good measure, though, she turned and shot it once more. The effect was negligible because of its thin size.

  At the same time, however, she had caused it to divide its attention across two locations already. That gave enough open space to the third party. Looking towards the main body as she ran, a tiny Jina made her way to one of the legs and swung her blade. It swung right through the leg, and it shrieked once more. The goth bitch laughed in happiness as more blood covered her, and the leg collapsed.

  Kana shot once more, hitting the same spot on the belly she had before. Jina kept on slicing the enemy’s leg until it started to weigh down and lean closer to her. What a fucking idiot. Before she could continue running, she looked in the direction of her partner and took her time to aim the proper shot. The back leg withdrew from its original position and came down on her once more.

  “Shit, shit, shit…” She wasn’t sure if she had it right, but it was what it was. Letting go of all grip and control, she pressed the trigger.

  The grenade flew through the air and sent her flying. Her back scratched against the ground and tore the dress, but at least she avoided the leg that landed where she had been. The explosion, meanwhile, found its edge centimeters away from Jina, who screamed and ran away in frustration.

  As she did, the body of the spider collapsed on that side and landed down. She would have been crushed if Kana hadn’t made her move. Pushing herself back up, she started running at once. The wounds on her back were fresh, and the dust contamination tingled for now, but she knew it would get worse if this did not end quickly. Who knew what kind of toxic stuff was found in these rocks?

  The cloud of dust on the Fluorescent Angels cleared, and the blue shield vanished. Neptune jumped out of the way and took out her assault rifle, running towards Kana. At the same time, Atlas moved to Jina to help her out with the Melee class. The final remaining member, Saturn, stayed where she was and created the shield once more, keeping the spider’s attention with her Gatling gun.

  “Oi, Kana Minami!” Neptune shouted, dodging one of the legs and rolling to reach her. She crashed down on the ground and cried in pain.

  Kana noticed that the girl already had a wound on her forehead and helped her stand up.

  “Where’s the goddamn grenade wounds?”

  As soon as she pointed them out, Neptune took a deep breath to gather herself. Then, pointing her Howa Type 20 at the singed skin, she started shooting like a madman. Kana laughed with her and started blasting once more, throwing more grenades in that direction to help her break through the thick block of fat that was protecting it.

  In the distance, Atlas had grabbed Jina and was pulling her along to move towards Kana. As she did, she explained to her new companion.

  “You can’t keep slicing the same side. Look at Neptune and your friend. Do you see them?”

  “She’s not my fucking friend!” Kana shouted as the rage and adrenaline of the explosions started to surge through her body. She could do anything right now. With Neptune by her side, also bursting through the skin, Kana felt more powerful than she ever had.

  “Kana-chan!?” Jina cried, “You didn’t like the toast and eggs?!”

  “Shut up!” Atlas screamed, and they dodged another attack from the monster’s leg.

  Because all three of the locations now had someone with that bright neon dress at them, the spider was starting to see all of them as enemies. This was definitely an issue, but it also moved slowly because of its speed. It was just a matter of time and perfect dodging. Kana and Neptune jumped back as another leg landed down.

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  Atlas threw Jina forward, towards a leg that was on the exact opposite side of the one she had cut. Jina used the force and momentum to slice through once more on the way forward. Atlas followed up with another slice that made it fall down on that side, too. Unlike Jina, though, she immediately turned and used her legs to build up friction and come to a stop.

  “If you keep slicing the same side, the wound your friend will become inaccessible. The Spider will turn as it falls, making all her work useless.”

  “Right. I’ll keep it in mind, Atlas-chan!”

  “Ugh. Just call me Atlas if you really want to.” She readied the axe and cut through the part of the belly that had fallen down and was now in reach.

  As the wound got deeper, Kana was sure that they were coming to a close. The speed at which it had been attacking Saturn at the very front was also slowing down. Her idea to keep its attention on her as the Vanguard was perfect. The Fluorescent Girls were showing exactly why they had been in this competition for so long. Not only were their classes complementary to each other, but their teamwork was too.

  And then there was Jina Ohara, who was now running to go and cut a different leg. Kana sighed with disappointment as she shot another grenade. She had been counting and counting every time she did damage to the beast with her explosions. It had been twenty-four already. Thinking about all those points made her greedy already.

  She hadn’t been focused on them at all, but who knew? Maybe they would actually manage to crack the top five with this, and she would get access to Rank 3. Unfortunately, that would also include Jina, but well…she could reap the benefits too. Right now, they had clearly made allies with the Fluorescent Angels. That was what was important.

  Once she got home, she would have to do more research on this group. Atlas had done enough damage and moved to a different leg, too. Neptune and Kana were still breaking through and were almost at the center. Saturn, on the other hand, finally gave up on the shield and fell down with exhaustion as Atlas jumped closer and cut through one of the three legs that had been bothering her.

  As the spider slowly collapsed, Kana finally realized what this competition was. The number of bullets and grenades they had been pouring into killing one of these things was insanely high. It was only working because the resource they had infinitely regenerated once it hit the enemy, coming back and entering their chests again. For the military to spend so many real resources would be a blow the economy would never recover from.

  Not to mention that if the military started using the special weapons instead, the reaction from the world would be a bit too much to handle. Nobody was going to let them keep such a big advantage all to themselves.

  Jina cut through the final leg and rolled out of the way as the spider collapsed on the ground. Kana and Neptune took deep breaths and sat down on the floor as the beast shrieked and screamed at its defeat. Atlas and Saturn started approaching their location from the right, while Jina slowly made her way to them from the left.

  “It’ll take…so many more bullets to get its heart.”

  “What?” Kana looked at Neptune.

  She looked straight at the hole they had made with the bullets and explosions. The heart of the spider had been exposed. It was weird how it was right in the middle of its body, but then again, giant spiders were a bit more fantastical than that. Neptune was right, though. Actually, killing it would be a massive ordeal. That is why Saturn already had her Gatling gun out as she came forward.

  The Angel would have used it, too, if they didn’t have Kana. She stood up and put her grenade launcher back in the inventory. Using the screen, she equipped her second weapon.

  Weapon Selected

  Railgun

  Level 1

  “Well, isn’t that something. Good…job…”

  Kana smiled, pressed the button, and aimed the shot at the heart as the energy built. Jina excitedly came and stood beside her to look at the results, while the Fluorescent Angels sat beside each other with tired expressions. The weapon grew in weight as the blue energy came together and held. Then, with a single press, Kana unleashed it all.

  It traveled and blasted through the heart in a second. It burst into blood and goop, and the spider collapsed on the ground without a sound or movement. Kana sighed and sat down too. Jina, using her sword as a crutch, did the same.

  Monster Kill +5000

  Railgun Kill +100

  “What the fuck!?” Kana screamed in anger as the points popped, “5000? Only 5000? What about the explosions? What the fuck!?”

  Neptune laughed and fell on the ground to rest, “They don’t count, Minami-san. Only the weapon you used for the final attack counts for the Class-Specific points. As for the 5000, well….there were five of us, so they got divided.”

  “You mean one of these is worth twenty-five thousand if you kill it alone?” Jina asked.

  Atlas nodded, “Yeah. But…never mind.”

  “What?” Kana looked at her.

  “She said never mind.” Saturn got defensive, “You girls fought, so we’re happy with you despite the whole Sakai bullshit. Just bask in the glory, why don’t you?”

  Kana wondered if she was going to say something about the twenty-five thousand points. She didn’t appreciate how she had been shut up, but it was fine. She controlled her anger this time around. Calm was the way forward. Calm, calm, calm…

  The ground began to rumble again.

  “Oh, no.” She looked at the ground as more cracks formed where the spider had fallen. They erupted much faster than before, and the ground swallowed the body whole.

  The five girls stood up with tired limbs and bodies as they prepared to face another one. But then, it got worse. One leg appeared, and another, and another. All the way until there were eight. Then, a ninth. A tenth. So, and so, until twenty-four total legs were holding the ground.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Atlas cried and moaned in pain, standing up not like someone who was afraid for her life, but just tired of the prospect of more work.

  As expected, three whole spiders came out of the collapsed ground. As massive and as threatening as the previous one, they shrieked and screamed for revenge.

  Kana stood up with Jina as they prepared for another long confrontation. But that never came. Because before it came three shrill sounds from the far-left end of the battlefield. Just three, quick slices of air in succession. A glint from their origin confirmed that it had been someone of the Sniper class.

  She and Jina did not even have time to process before the spiders fell down, dead. Their hearts had been hit with perfect precision. Within seconds, the sniper had done what would have taken them more than an hour.

  Atlas groaned as the glint disappeared, “Yuko Suzuki.”

  “Huh?” Jina looked at her with excitement. That was a name not easy to forget. Every idol in the business knew all three of them. Knew everything about all three of them.

  Ruby Passion. This was just one of them.

  The bitch gathered 75,000 points in ten seconds.

  Anyway, so I just made stuff up, and gave it a monstrous vibe. Having a fictional setting sure does help with making decisions about what creatures look like. Just you wait for the cockroach with rollerblades for legs...(for legal reasons, that might not actually happen)

  And speaking of monsters - that is Ruby Passion!