Determined, Jose moved forward and put his hand through the liquid-like substance and was pulled through. The substance was cool and slimy against his skin, and his vision was blurred as if he’d dived into a pool.

  When he emerged on the other side, his body was dry, but he had little time to notice it as he received a message.

  [Warning! You have entered an Aberrant Domain.

  Quest: Defeat the Domains sentinel]

  Jose swiped away the message and stared at the most terrifying creature he’d ever seen.

  Before him stood a living cactus, its torso was a large, sturdy barrel cactus, on top sat a large ball cactus as the head. The top of the head was covered in a writhing mess of cacti that resembled a brain; for eyes, it had night blooms topped with small ball cacti.

  Its arms and legs were sturdy spiral cacti. One arm ended in a hand holding a large rapier-like spine, and the other ended in a hollowed-out opening. Large, deadly-looking spines protruded from its shoulders and back like armor designed to impale. The creature opened its mouth to let out a horrible, grating scream. A coral-like structure could be seen in its mouth, tapering into lines of coral cacti as teeth.

  The monstrosity was at least eight feet tall and took slow, lumbering steps as if unworried of any harm befalling it. Indeed, it should be unworried, no one in their right mind would try to stand toe to toe with such a creature. Even if none of its spines were poisonous, they seemed sturdy enough to cut into the flesh like sharpened daggers.

  Jose turned to find the entrance gone. “Shit!” He yelled in frustration. A cold sweat ran down his back as he realized he was stuck with the monster before him; it was kill or be killed, and he wasn’t ready to die.

  The monster dashed forward as he turned back to it, reaching him in an instant, its rapier leading the way. Jose crossed his knives out in front of him just in time to block the attack. But the creature was powerful and sent him tumbling backward for several feet.

  Jose felt the cold hand of death reaching for him as he came to a stop on his heels, and the monster raised its hollowed-out arm. A thick, heavy spine shot forward from the opening like a metal spike from a cannon and barely missed him as he ducked low to the ground.

  He shuddered as he heard the spine carve a path through the sand dunes behind him. It was at least several inches thick and solid enough to have run him through like a slug from a railgun. He doubted his knives would have been sturdy enough to stop it had he even tried.

  Jose took a deep breath to reign in his shaking nerves and prepared for the daunting battle before him. The monster began slowly walking toward Jose again, and he tensed, carefully watching its every move.

  “What the fuck am I supposed to do against that shit?” Jose questioned as he thought of a way to stop the monster in its tracks. ‘Maybe the Strike and Bolt combo will slow it down at least?’ He thought as he primed his hands with Strike and clapped using Bolt as the monster dashed for him again.

  A wave of red and black lightning sped forward, tripping up the monster and stopping it in its tracks. Before Jose could move again, the monster fired another spine from its left arm. They were too close together, and he would not be able to evade it in time. He tried bringing his knives out to block, but just as he’d feared, they were shattered by the powerful spine.

  Luckily, the spine lost a lot of momentum as it broke through his knives, and he’d managed to turn it aside, though the dull end struck his ribs. The damage it caused was only slightly less devastating, though, as he heard and felt ribs crack while he was sent flying yet again.

  The fight wasn’t going well for him, he knew; it’d barely started, and already he had sore ribs and tons of minor scrapes and scratches. This wasn’t a monster he wanted to fight up close and personal, given its natural armor. ‘Maybe it’s time to test how much of my ether I can spend in one go,’ he thought.

  The monster was once again lumbering slowly toward him as he came to a stop and stood. “A game of chicken it is then?” Jose whispered as he fired off several Bolts. He struck the monster on the chest and arms, leaving scorch marks, but it tanked the damage and kept moving as if it barely noticed.

  Jose clicked his tongue and overcharged the next two bolts. He let loose, aiming for the cannon arm. If he could at least get rid of that, the fight would be much easier. The lightning struck just above the wrist, burning and scouring a large hole in the middle of it.

  Screaming in anger and pain, the monster charged forward, stabbing at Jose with its rapier. He dodged to the side, thinking the monster would repeat its previous pattern, but it was enraged and began swiping wildly, side to side.

  Bringing his arms up, he blocked a swipe from the monster's rapier. It cut right through his bracers and left a large gash across the back of both arms. Jose hopped back, hoping to gain space, but the monster pursued him relentlessly.

  Gritting his teeth against the pain of his broken ribs and bleeding arms, Jose fired an overcharged Bolt at the monster's chest. It deftly brought up its rapier and caught the lightning on its blade, parrying, sending it out wide.

  It tilted forward on its knees and fired a handful of spines from its back at Jose. He evaded some, but one caught him on the leg, nailing him to the ground. Jose screamed in pain and aggravation; he needed to do something quick before the monster bowled him over and turned him into paste.

  Jose used Null-Bind, and the black lighting binds appeared before him, zipping at the monster. The arrows struck its shoulders, digging through as if they were made of metal. Jose flexed his will as they did, and they expanded, sticking to the monster's back like grappling hooks. The braided shafts extended to the ground, making contact with it and holding the monster fast.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The monster tugged and pulled but could not break the hold. Jose took this chance to pull at the spine that had nailed him to the ground. It was unwilling to budge or break, as solid as if it had been made of iron. Every attempt and minor movement brought with it an agonizing sting.

  “Fuck! Fuck!” Pain and frustration bubbled over as he fought against the pain and pulled on the stubborn spine that held him fast. He thought of pulsing Volt-Gen but dismissed the idea just as fast. Even if he were able to heal, he would still be stuck and would only hurt himself again trying to pull free of the damned thing.

  Before him, the monster struggled against his skill; it was clearly having an effect as the skin surrounding the entry wounds had begun losing its color, and the monster seemed to have less and less fight in him. The monster seemed to realize its own predicament and came to its knees.

  It trembled and squirmed, keeping its balance as new spines grew from its back. “Oh shit! Fuck! Fucking come on you stupid spine move!” Jose yelled, realizing that he was about to be run through with another volley of spines.

  Jose pulled and struggled against the spine holding him in place, but to no avail. The monster loosed its projectiles, and Jose reacted on impulse. He fired several Bolts at the coming projectiles, blasting several from the air and turning others aside. One got through, however, and it ran him through the gut.

  The spike burst out of his back, opening a large hole through his gut. Blood spurt out of the back and waterfalled out of the front. He felt no pain, only astonishment at what just happened. He couldn’t believe that he would die here so soon after surviving a brush with death.

  He hadn’t even begun exploring this new life. His youth and vitality had been returned to him, the chance to start anew had been afforded to him, and the ability to do great things in this new world had been served up on a platter. But here he was, about to die before he could really take advantage of any of it.

  ‘NO!’ He thought, ‘Not now. Not like this. Not after I finally feel like I’m living life instead of just moving through it.’ He pulsed Vol-Gen and concentrated on closing the large wound. The skill wasted no time going to work mending the organs, muscles, and tissue.

  Excruciating waves of pain began wracking his body. Maybe the shock of what had happened had spared him the pain at first, but now that everything was knitting itself back together, he felt every little bit of it. Every fiber stung like wasps made of lava as they grew and snapped back together. His bones rattled and groaned as if they were struck back into place by a blacksmith.

  It was like fire ants had gotten into his body and were relentlessly biting away at every little nook and cranny they could find. He was sweating profusely from the flood of pain, adrenaline, and endorphins. Barely conscious as he swayed back and forth, cemented in a half kneeling pose held up by the spine stuck to his leg, dizzy from the pain and blood loss

  The monster had been heaving deep breaths as it watched him, maybe thinking that he was done for. As it saw him healing, it bent forward and prepared another volley. On its hands and knees as it was, holding itself up as the binds tried to pull it to the ground, it was unable to fire its cannon arm. And he was too far from it for the rapier to reach him, even if it could bring it to bear. Its face scrunched up in anger and pain as the new spines slowly rose from its back.

  Incredulous and indignant at what he was witnessing, Jose grabbed the spine on his leg and began pulling at it again. He screamed in pain as he healed and heaved, but every touch of the spine grated against his leg bones. ‘It’s futile,’ he thought, the damned spine simply wouldn’t budge, even with his enhanced strength from his levels, it was lodged in the ground too tightly.

  The monster fired its next volley, and Jose desperately attempted to scorch every projectile from the air before they reached him. But reach him, they did. Another spine went through his left shoulder, and one struck higher up on the same leg, further sticking him in place.

  Jose screamed in frustration and agony. What else could he do in such a scenario? His left arm dangled at his side now, completely useless until he could heal the shoulder. His breaths came in ragged spurts as blood leaked out of the wounds and the spines grated against his leg bones upon the slightest of movements.

  He pulsed Vol-Gen again and again, desperately trying to heal as much damage as possible, as quickly as possible. The skill responded, draining half his remaining ether in an instant.

  The monster emitted a low growl as it prepared yet another volley. It was clear to Jose that each volley was taking a lot out of the monster, so the question was. Would he outlast the monster, or would it take him down before using up all of its energy?

  He refused. Did the world believe that after all of his struggles in life, after all of his pain and anguish, after all of the loneliness and isolation, after surviving an apocalypse, after surviving a tower full of Tainted, after nearly dying… That, after all of that. He would what? Lay down and die? Let a stupid cactus monster, of all things, kill him? No! He refused.

  He grabbed one of the spines on his leg, and with a monumental effort of will and stubbornness, he pooled his last bits of strength and pulled. But this time, he delved into himself and attempted to flood his body with what little ether remained.

  Jose slammed every vortex open and pulled on his ether. His dynamo spun with a new fervor, and his nucleus flooded with red lightning as it built up to a crescendo and cascaded forward like a raging river. The ether flooded his body with power and strength beyond imagining. But with it came a blinding rage.

  Jose let out a thundering scream as he wrenched the first spine from the ground and his leg. Mindlessly, he used his left arm to pull the next spine, tearing what muscles had been stitched back together. White lightning flooded forward, healing his wounds and providing him with energy.

  Black lightning grew out of his fingers, forming talons as he stalked forward toward the monster. The monster fired yet another volley as it screamed and railed against its binds. Jose deftly evaded every spine flung at him and reached the monster in a heartbeat.

  He swiped down across the monster's shoulder, shattering one of the binds and tearing large gashes across the monster's back and shoulder. With one bind broken, the other dissipated, and the monster lunged at Jose.

  The many spines on the monster's body scratched and tore at Jose’s skin. But he remained unmovable. He kneed the monster in the abdomen with such force that he lifted it from the ground. He delivered several such strikes and then tossed the monster to the side like a ragdoll.

  He was on it before it could recover, swiping at the same shoulder again. His claws atomized the skin as they rend it from the monster's body. Its arm came free, sailing away from the monster even as it stood to retaliate.

  The monster struck Jose in the face with its remaining arm, scraping off skin and revealing bone. Jose stumbled to the side and screamed in the monster's face as he stepped back in. A thunderous scream was released from his throat. The thunder struck the monster face first, peeling back the skin, cracking bones, or what passed as bones for the creature, and crushing in its skull.

  The monster fell at his feet, dead, as Jose stood breathing heavily. The red lightning had sparked an uncontrollable rage, but the black and white lightning had somehow balanced it out, allowing him access to strength and vitality beyond his comprehension without losing himself entirely.