Chapter 49: Making Their Last Stand Part 5

Joshua rushed up a flight of stairs to one of the few roofs in the area that was still intact. When he reached his destination and was able to get a good look at his surroundings he sucked in a sharp breath at the devastation the boss had caused with its latest ability. Just about every building that was in the path of the vortex the monsters mouth had created was torn apart almost down to the foundation. Cars were sent soaring through the air into buildings while street lights were ripped from the ground. The boss monster itself was laid out on top of several buildings it had crushed during its fall. After the smoke surrounding it had cleared Joshua was finally able to see how much damage his attack had done and he was pleased with the results.

There were several burn marks all over its torso in particular. Its mouth was left wide open allowing him to see how several of its teeth had been completely blown apart while its tongues were limply hanging out. It was hard to even tell that its tongues were actually its tongues at this point because of their burnt black state with several parts of them falling off. There was a constant tinge of green to the inside of its mouth in spots where the acid had landed causing those areas to continuously hiss. All in all he was happy at the results, but now he only had two canisters of poison left and nothing else that could damage the creature any further.

It wouldn't take very long for it to heal from most of the injuries. Joshua could already see several burns starting to fade away, but wherever the acid had made contact had continued to be severely damaged. That would give him the time to hold the thing off a bit longer before the girls would be able to come and help put it down for good. If he could just hit it one more time with some sort of big attack then he might just be able to have a severely damaged boss to serve up to them when they arrived. With this thought in mind Joshua started surveying the area for anything he could use to fulfill his plans, because of the thinning of the haze it wasn't too hard for him to get a clear view.

After a while he was able to see something useful far off in the distance. It was a sixteen wheeler that seemed to have been abandoned in town after the purple haze arrived. He didn't know what the tank it was carrying had inside it, but if he was able to blow up the sixteen wheeler as the boss monster tried to vacuum its surroundings up then it should do enough damage to keep the monster on the ropes long enough for the girls to finally arrive. Joshua tried to plot a path to get to the large truck but with so many buildings being destroyed in the surroundings he would have to make his way through a clear open area which was quite dangerous with an enraged boss chasing after him. For a moment he wanted to start moving ahead of time, but if he left the boss behind it might just start rampaging in the wrong direction which could cause all types of problems, especially since he no longer had a way to damage it on his own to keep the wounds from closing up.

Joshua took in a deep breath as he stood on the edge of the roof and watched over the wailing boss that was still flailing around in pain. He waited patiently for it to finally stop before it slowly picked itself up once again and roared into the sky. Its purple eyes glowed brightly in anger as it turned to stare directly at Joshua. Its slightly irritated and haughty attitude that it had carried itself with this entire time completely disappeared as its muscles in its legs tensed up and bulged to extreme proportions, while its one useful arm grew almost to twice its size with veins straining against its skin. The mouth on its belly closed tightly shut as the process happened as if it was going into some form of protective mode as it healed itself, but the rest of its body looked like an enraged Greek god was glaring down directly at Joshua.

The entire atmosphere changed as the slightly annoying killing intent that Joshua had been feeling this entire time seemed to triple in its oppressiveness as it flooded the surroundings. It made Joshua tense up for a moment which was all the boss gave him before it flashed in front of the barely standing building Joshua was on top of and instead of smashing its enlarged arm through the top like usual it kicked through the building sending pieces of rubble flying everywhere. Joshua barely avoided the impact by leaping off the edge of the roof to the ground below. He rolled once before getting up and running out of the way of the creatures angered stomp that nearly turned him into a pancake. The force of the stomp lifted him up off the ground from the impact along with several other cars and objects strode across the ground.

Joshua immediately got his bearings before running in the direction of the large truck instead of weaving around the area in hopes of avoiding the monster behind him. If it was still moving slowly and lumbering after him like before then he would have no problems with his old strategy, but at the moment the six story tall giant was easily catching up to him as it smashed through anything in its way in its rage. When a large shadow started to loom over Joshua's surroundings he put all his effort into sprinting as fast as he could before lunging at the last second when the monsters bulging fist slammed right behind him so hard that it punctured straight through the ground and created a small crater. The following shock wave sent Joshua flying as the ground beneath him erupted out into a rippling pattern for almost the entire block.

Pain shot through his back as he smashed into a faraway car and had to quickly pick himself up before things got any worse. When he looked back towards the mess the monster had created he could see it glaring directly at him as it tugged its arm that was elbow deep into the ground out. Purple steam seemed to be emitting from its body as it roared angrily and started to move towards him. Joshua got back on the move once again as he rushed through the street towards his objective while hearing the loud thuds of the giant's feet moving after him from behind. He had to constantly jump over several large breaks or cracks in the ground while avoiding tripping over the mess the monster had made.

By the time Joshua was nearing the end of the street that was destroyed by the last attack he could see the large shadow starting loom over him, but this time around he knew what to expect and quickly pulled the wrapped cloth off his back that contained what Madalyn had made for him. He unraveled the top while running and a green spear tip poked out in front of him as he rushed towards a crack that was just ahead of him. When he reached it he stopped and turned around while slamming the base of the spear into the crack. When he looked up he could see the creature preparing to throw another destructive punch at the exact spot he was standing. He waited to the last second before lunging out of the way of the blow. The shock wave once again knocked him and many other things across the street, but this time instead of being met with the quiet rage of the monster when he stood back up he watched as it screamed in pain before quickly pulling its arm out of the ground. The spear had pierced deep into its hand causing its current reaction.

Joshua was happy he was able to get a large amount of poison directly into its system because at the rate things were going he would be chased down before he reached the truck. What surprised him was the fact that the purple steam coming off the creature seemed to increase for a moment before its bulging muscles started to shrink back down to its usual size. It was a good thing that was the case because at the rate it was moving Joshua wouldn't have been able to make it before it caught up to him. Its large mouth opened up, but this time around it was almost fully healed with several teeth being replaced and only small signs of acid burn being left to showcase Joshua previous attack. Even its arm had started growing back at a faster rate as it was almost half way done forming back up.

'It looks like that enraged state not only made it stronger, but also increased its healing.' Joshua thought as he started rushing towards the truck with all his effort. He was correct in his assessment and he realized this would be a huge problem if they didn't put it down fast enough. 'It seems to only be able to stay in that state for one minute before it goes back to normal.'

Joshua had made it over to his target by the time the boss had stopped screaming. Now that he had made it all he had to do was wait for the boss to use its vortex like ability and he wasn't surprised when the monsters giant mouth opened up wide and started sucking up everything in front of it. The boss was smart and had noticed that Joshua hadn't used a single poison grenade sense the bag had exploded in front of it. It assumed he was out of stock and the fact that its prey had to use a close range weapon to inflict any pain on it made things even more clear that is assumptions were on the mark. So instead of continuing to race after Joshua and risking him using another close range weapon to hurt it this time it kept it distance and waited for the vortex to pull Joshua into its open maw.

Realizing that the boss was probably thinking along those lines all Joshua had to do was wait for this moment. When the powerful suction started to pull buildings apart and cars towards it Joshua pulled out his axe and smashed it deep into a crack in the concrete. His body started to be pulled up off the ground but he held firm and waited for the large truck in front of him to start to twist and turn as it was lifted up off the ground and slowly started to head in the direction of the creature's mouth. The speed of the truck only grew as it got closer and Joshua waited for the perfect moment to take his shot. He had already placed one of his last poison grenades inside the front of the truck through the cracked opened window. He could see some of the gas starting to leak out of it, but it wasn't enough to cause suspicion to the boss monster who continued to stare at Joshua waiting for his resistance to end. When the truck had gotten close enough to the monsters mouth Joshua let go of the axe and let his body be sucked towards the monster as well. He quickly pulled out an arrow and lit its tip while soaring towards the now excited monster, then fired off the arrow towards the window of the large truck before grabbing a hold of a light pole that was still resisting being torn out of the ground. His shot wasn't accurate, but he didn't have to be pinpoint with his aim because the moment the arrow passed near the trail of green gas it ignited into an inferno. The gas kept catching fire as it trailed its way all the way towards the truck that was about to be eaten when it erupted into another large explosion as the truck and several others cars that were near its mouth caught fire and knocked the large monster off its feet.

The contents of the tankard spilled everywhere and most of it covered the boss's mouth. Whatever the stuff was it was clearly causing the boss pain as it let out horrifying wails as it fell onto its knees and spit up purple blood along with the hissing liquid. 'Joshua!' He heard someone shout through the mental link as he turned to see the three girls come rushing around the corner to see the scene before them.

'Damn you sure figure out some strange ways to get the job done.' Madalyn stated as she marveled at the badly beaten boss in front of them.

'No time to talk, Laura you need to go for the kill now while it's weakened. This thing has an ability that allows it to regenerate at an insane rate so go for the kill now.' Joshua quickly explained to them. Laura nodded before pulling one of the spears off her back and starting to use it to strengthen her spell. It took her about ten seconds to finish forming the spell because of the increase in strength and the use of the spear making it easier to do. The boss monster was starting to move when it noticed Laura launching the fast moving attack towards it. Instead of panicking and trying to dodge the boss quickly took a defensive stance with its mangled body. It leaned forward putting its burnt head in front of its chest, then it raised both of its wrecked arms in position to block the incoming spear.

When the fire spear finally hit, it drilled straight through its arms tearing off its only remaining hand while burning a large portion of its arms away. It continued to drill through the head and neck before finally stopping when it slammed deep into its chest. The powerful blow shoved the giant creature's body back several feet down the street before it came to a halt. It took a moment for the smoke to clear so they could see if they had finally killed it and when they finally got a good look the scene before them was that of a headless body with a huge gash all the way down its throat and into its core. The core was a giant pulsating gem that now had a few cracks on it from where the spear was pierced into it.

Sadly the gem continued to pulse signaling the boss was still alive and the spear started to crumble away after the flames completely died out. Joshua sighed knowing that they still had to find a way to finish this thing off.