~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Skeleton Aberration (Simulation)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What the c.r.a.p is that?" Bonnie gasped.

"I have no idea. Blue?" Leo asked.

"I just know I Wanna fight it," Blue said before charging at the beast.

"Blue, wait!" Hera yelled, trying to stop the woman.

The two-headed skeleton swiped with its weirdly shaped claw towards her. Followed by a second attack with the right hand making a fist.

Blue redirected the swipe and moved closer to the aberration. She was ready to dislocate a few bones when the creature's third arm came cras.h.i.+ng down.

Worried for her friend, Hera rushed towards Blue, hoping she could help her in some way. Having the same thought in mind, Leo dashed with Hera. Together, they struck the third arm, delaying it just enough so that Blue could move out of the way.

Unlike Leo, Hera had to step on the creature's claw to reach the arm aimed at Blue. One of the skulls turned towards Hera, it's empty sockets staring down at the woman.

Following that, one finger of the claw that Hera had just stepped on, bent backward and struck her like a whip square in the chest. Hera fell on the ground, gasping in pain.

Alex rushed towards the fallen recruit and pulled her back, while Leo, Blue, and Mark kept attacking the monster.

Alex pa.s.sed Hera to Bonnie before jumping back in. Carving the creature's right arm with her short swords.

"Hera, try taking a deep breath," Bonnie said, right before an arrow fly past her, aimed at the creature.

The woman was panicking, but she did her best to seem calm for her friend. While the other five kept fighting the aberration.

########################

"Yes! I told you, someone always betrays the group. Now give me the gold," the woman in a purple robe said.

"Seriously Kat? Why do you always make that bet?" the short blond man said.

"It's human nature, we care more about ourselves than about others. It takes a lot of willpower to fight that. I'm just playing the odds. So far I got quite a sum just with this type of bet. You need to be less naïve Cicero," the woman shrugged.

"Fine. It's still a d.i.c.k move, both from you and form the three that ran. I wouldn't want to party up with someone like that," Cicero fixed his blond hair and crossed his arms, staring at the screen.

"And yet, that is exactly the type of thing that some jobs require. Producing results, no matter the consequences," Frostbite chimed in.

She arrived with no one taking notice. They were all too focused on the recruits. However, one look at the controller was enough to understand why she was here.

Janna wore a navy suit and tie, with golden embroidery of a sun rising on the horizon on her chest. Everyone in the room knew what that meant. She wasn't here as an explorer, but as a headhunter for the New Dawn.

"So, did I miss anything else or things have just begun?" Frostbite asked.

"Ye lost them walking around. Anaya pulling that c.r.a.p is the only unexpected thing," Greyson replied without looking at her.

Janna just nodded and stared at the screen. She was used to being treated like this by the more traditional explorers. They failed to see how the backing of an enormous company was a powerful tool.

Looking at the recruits. Blue, Leo, and Alex were fighting well on their own. Even with the trio attacking the same target, each one of them was doing their own thing. More than once, Janna saw the lancer almost hit Blue or Alex. When Blue redirected the attacks aimed at her, the other two had to step away. That would make them lose momentum and never be able to stagger the creature. Still, there was some potential there.

########################

It took a while, but Hera caught her breath once again. She got up, staring at the monstrous undead in front of her. Blue was keeping two of its arms busy while Leo took care of the third. Alex kept attacking it, chipping away at the bones. Mark kept shooting arrows, aiming for its head.

Hera waited for an opening where she wouldn't get in the way of her friends and lunged toward the creature. She planned to attack the joints, and hopefully, make some bones fall off from the skeleton.

Jumping to the side, Hera made a point of being in the opposite direction of Alex. Between her and Leo. That way, if the lancer was going to hit her friend, Hera could do something.

The five kept attacking the creature, not having any luck in dismantling it. But the undead seemed to become more frantic as time went by. Even if the monster still had all its bones, multiple strikes against it were dealing with some damage.

When the creature attacked Blue with both hands at once, Hera saw an opportunity to strike at the creature's neck. The same way she had done with the skeleton she fought.

She dashed towards the creature, ready to jump on its back when Bonnie yelled.

"No! Get away!"

The yelling distracted the group. They looked back towards Bonnie and saw a skeleton holding a large rusty sword approaching her.

The aberration took advantage of the situation. With a swipe it sent Hera, Alex, and Leo flying towards the wooden door.

Forcing herself to get up quickly, Hera saw the aberration in front of her. Bonnie was on the other side of the room, terrified of the newly arrived skeleton. Hera tried to pa.s.s the giant skeleton, but it lashed out, blocking her path.

"Blue, help Bonnie. We take care of the big guy!" Leo yelled.

"Are you sure?" Blue asked, still staring at the aberration.

"YES! Just go!" Leo replied while he blocked the creature's claw.

Hera looked at Leo. She wasn't sure the three of them could fight that creature. And yet, they had no other choice.

It took Hera everything she had just to block or evade the undead's attacks. She wasn't doing any damage to it, but at least it the hits she was taking were manageable.

"Leo, make it raise its claw," Alex yelled.

The man wasn't sure what she wanted to do. But any idea was welcome. There was no way to win a battle of attrition against a creature like that. Leo Jumped attacked the skeleton, but its claw blocked the spear. At the same time, Alex dove under the claw, heading towards the creature's torso.

Hera saw one hand moving towards Alex and jumped in front of it. With all her strength, she redirected the attack away from her friends. But that made her open for the third arm that came swinging down on her.

She was able to move away enough not to be crushed by the attack, but the impact was still strong enough to smack her into the wall. Having hit her head on the stone, Hera took a few moments to get back on her feet. During that time, she could have sworn that the creature had swallowed Alex whole.

Hera shook her head and looked again. Alex had crawled inside the skeleton ribcage and was climbing towards its head.

The undead seemed to be very displeased with the situation. Its third arm was trying to grab Alex. Luckily, the arm was too big to fit inside the ribcage.

Mark stopped shooting arrows at the sword-wielding that Blue was holding off and shot at the aberration. The arrows barely did any damage, but when Mark hit one skull, it was just enough to distract it for Leo's attack.

Hera jumped in, focusing on the creature's claw. It was the only part of it that seemed to be able to harm Alex inside the ribcage. That was just Hera's a.s.sumption, but she didn't want to have any confirmation on the matter.

When Alex reached the base of the creature's neck, she placed her short swords inside both skulls. Pulling them down, trying to use her weight as leverage. When she gave a push, placing her feet near the makes.h.i.+ft clavicle of the creature, Alex felt her swords were about to break.

With a sickening crack, the left skull's neck snapped first. Making one of the creature's head fall to the ground.

The undead roared and thrashed around. Hera and Leo had to jump back not to get hit by its arms. Alex held on to the ribs of the creature, trying not to be caught in the frantic attacks. It took less than ten seconds for the aberration stop and fall into its knees.

Seeing the creature on the ground, Leo charged towards it, hitting the second skull and piercing it with his spear.

Without both heads, the creature crumbled into a pile of loose bones. Alex crawled from under the pile of rubble while Leo stopped to catch his breath.

Hera ran past the remains of the skeleton. Bonnie and Blue were still fighting an undead. However, by the time she got there, the fight was over. The skeleton had lost both its arms and one leg. Blue was holding it in place while Bonnie seemed to get ready to attack.

"Let them be, Blue is helping Bonnie lose some of her fear," Mark said when Hera got close.

"She could have helped us," Hera replied, a bit annoyed with the woman's att.i.tude.

"Before you guys popped one of the heads, Blue only broke the arm it had the sword in. When it was clear, you had thing under control she did that," Mark explained pointing at the helpless skeleton grappled by the recruit.

Hera understood why Blue did that. Bonnie was brilliant, but fighting wasn't her forte.

A few minutes later, Bonnie destroyed the skeleton Blue was holding. Then, the group tried to pull the chain once again. To their surprise, the chain was much lighter than before. Mark noticed that only the entrance and the wooden door seemed to move.

Leo and Blue embedded the skeleton's sword on the floor to use it as a spike then, the group pulled the chain with ease. Wrapping it on the rusted sword.

With both the doors open, they placed the bolder under the wooden door as a safety measure and went inside the room Anaya and her group had disappeared into.

It was a small room, with an old square table in the center, and four chairs around it. But what caught the eyes of the recruits was the gem-encrusted golden chalice in front of one seat.

"This is the one we need, right?" Blue asked.

"It looks like it. And by the dust rings in the table, there were three others here. I'll give you one chance to guess what happened to them," Alex replied, pointing at one mark on the table.

Blue kicked a chair with all her strength.

"That pretentious, nosy, backstabbing, b.i.t.c.h."

"Blue, let it go," Hera said.

"What? Are you telling me to forget what she did? Those three could have helped a lot back there," Blue huffed, staring at Hera.

"I'm not telling you to forget it. But right now we have no way of doing anything about that. We need to focus on finis.h.i.+ng the test, then we can think about confronting her."

Hera hated confrontation, but Anaya had just put her friends in a dangerous situation. That is something she can't forgive.

"Tsk. Fine," Blue said turning her attention back to the chalice, "after last room we all agree on who should take this one right?"

"No arguments here. It's pretty obvious," Alex said.

"I kind of wanted, but I know it shouldn't be me," Mark chimed in.

"It's the one who deserves the most after all," Leo nodded.

"Do you even have to ask?" Hera replied with a smile.

"Yeah Blue. Without you, we couldn't pa.s.s that room. I probably would have failed. Thank you for helping me. You should take it," Bonnie said. She tried her best to seem confident but recent events had shaken her.

The group stared at Bonnie with puzzled expressions.

"What are you talking about?" Leo asked

"Yeah, why would this one go to Blue?" Alex stared at Bonnie.

"Oh. My. G.o.d. This is amazing, miss perfect, can't even read the room," Blue teased the woman.

"What do you mean?" Bonnie asked weakly.

Blue rolled her eyes.

"Just come here take your chalice."

"What?" Bonnie's eyes went wide. That one was hers?

"Bonnie, you helped us study. Without you, we probably would fail the written test. Also, we all know you are not much of a fighter. Take the chalice, and show us what you can do as a researcher," Hera said.

Bonnie looked up and all her friends had approving nods.

"T... Thank you," she replied while walking towards the chalice.

Before picking it up, Bonnie gave Blue a big hug.

"I own you guys a drink after this." She said before picking the chalice, a tear rolling down her face.

"A drink? Oh no, miss brainiac. Any time we need a researcher we are going straight to you. And you better give us the family discount," Blue said just before an egg-shaped light covered Bonnie. A few moments later, the light and the woman had disappeared.