Turnock blinks rapidly. “Fuck me arse, I must be dreaming.” The dwarf [Bard] takes out a dagger and stabs his arm hard enough to break the skin.

“Turnock!” Brock shouts. “What are you doing!?”

The Dwarf frowns at the blood seeping down his arm. “I’m making sure that I’m not asleep.”

“By stabbing yourself!?” Brock asks incredulously. “Why would you even think you’re asleep?”

The dwarf seems to go cross-eyed at the question.

“Are you shitting me?” He points at the valley below. “A fucking city pops out of the ground, two golems start fighting in the middle of it, a star falls from the sky and destroys a quarter of the city, and now there’s a giant,” he gestures wildly, “spider roaring like a lion at the metal golem.”

As he speaks, the massive spider roars again.

“Why, in Thor's mighty scrotum, would I even think I'm awake right now?”

“TURNCOCK!” someone yells directly in his ear, causing the dwarf to scream in fear.

A grinning Jessa steps out of Turnock’s shadow.

“God damn your shaggy cunt!” Turnock curses the woman as he tries to catch his breath.

Jessa just grins at him. “Just making sure you know you’re awake,” she quips.

The dwarf sneers and is about to curse again, but catches himself. “Shit, Jessa, what the fuck is going on?”

The woman's grin falters. She points in the distance. “That metal golem is Atlantis. We need to defeat it if we want to take the city, though I’m not sure that's possible anymore with both Darius and Calidi out of mana.”

“Out of… They failed?” Brock interrupts, surprised. He frowns. “Are they dead?”

Jessa shakes her head. “Darius is passed out inside the earth elemental’s remains and Franky is protecting Calidi right now.”

“What about the spider?” Turnock points.

Jessa shrugs. “No idea. I think it’s allied with the scythe chick and the huge wolf-man-thing.”

Confused, Brock opens his mouth to ask who she’s talking about, but his words are drowned out by another roar. They turn and watch, mesmerized. Web spurts from the spider’s abdomen, then folds back across it, wrapping the spider in alabaster armor. In the blink of an eye, it spins even more silk and adds a dozen layers.

“Fuck,” Turnock curses. He glances at his stinging arm and his blood trickling out. “Fuck,” he curses again, reaffirming he’s not dreaming.

The golem extends its arms towards the spider, charges mana into its palms, and shoots a steady beam of energy. The spider, anticipating the attack, hops around at a speed that makes the ground quake. Atlantis follows its movement, sweeping the beam across the city, but the spider moves quickly and erratically enough to avoid the beam of light by keeping tabs on the movement of the golem’s arms.

The golem spreads its arms apart, breaking the beam into two. With two beams instead of one, the golem finally scores a direct hit on the web armored spider. Fire races through webbing, creating a massive conflagration. The spider remains silent, as it burns, and then violently bursts, revealing the true form beneath: Naught but air wrapped in an empty shell.

At the same moment, the ground cracks open below the golem. Peter, having tunneled underground, body-slams Atlantis into the air. The golem, to everyone's surprise, flips in the air and sticks the landing. It quickly raises up its arms and creates a barrier as the spider releases a green, smoking mist that melts the rubble of nearby buildings. The great barrier begins to corrode.

But it matters little, the Golem stands strong and ready. Brock, Turnock, and Jessa continue watching as the monsters engage once again with lasers, webs, and acid.

__________________________________________________________________________

On another part of the battlefield, Calidi and Franky stand silently on one of the few unbroken buildings and watch the battle unfold in all its mesmerizing glory from front roof seats. Eventually, the nude woman breaks the silence.

“We should retreat while it's distracted. We can't win as we are now.”

Secretly, Franky agreed. Retreat was the smart thing, the safe thing, the thing that let you try again with two recharged Named and a giant magitek death tank. But Franky had [Analyzed] the spider.

Peter - [Champion of Anansi] Level 531

Named by the [Hero], Quasi Eludo.

Once a cute and fuzzy spiderling, Peter accepted the call of his god, Anasi, and with his god’s blessings, was placed into the service of the [Hero], Quasi. He has since grown and matured in his service to his god and his [Hero]. Today, Peter is the strongest, cutest, and fuzziest weaver. Ever.

He can change the size of his body at will, manipulate his silk with exquisite skill, and excrete poisonous and acidic mists from his fangs.

Quasi. It comes back to him, somehow. His friend named a giant spider after a superhero. And this giant spider, his friend’s pet(?), just saved his life.

“You can go,” Franky tells Calidi. “I’ve still got plenty of mana. I’ll help Peter.”

She blinks. “Peter?”

“The spider,” he explains, “it saved our lives and I think it’s a friend of a friend.”

“That's suicidal,” she states matter of factly but doesn’t move to stop him.

She reaches up to Franky and grabs his head. She leans in and her lips touch his. When she releases the kiss, she smirks at him. “If you survive, find me.”

Wings of flame sprout from her back as she hops into the air and retreats from the battle. Franky watches her fly away, a finger touching his lips in surprise. He shakes his head and turns to the battle at the exact moment as the Golem catches one of Peter's legs. It holds tightly and kicks the spider in the face, ripping the appendage from its body.

Peter roars in pain and jumps backward. He pressure bandages the wound with a burst of webbing while keeping all of its eyes still focused on its enemy..

“Damn,” Franky says. With a thought, he materializes a floating sword and flies into the battle.

As he gets close, he sees two more people join the fight. He casts [Analyze] on them. Franky learns the giant wolf is a werewolf named Garn and the scythe wielding woman is a vampire named Ambrosia.

Huh, he thinks, no sparkles.

Garn barrels into the Golem, slamming into it with enough momentum to make the Golem lose its footing. Ambrosia swings her massive scythe at its crystal eye, but the Golem blocks her with arms and barriers.

Franky pulls from his mana and manifests an oversized mace of light. He grabs the handle and accelerates towards the boss. As he swings, he adds as much weight as he can to the construct before impact. The Golem blocks with an arm and a barrier. The barrier shatters on impact, and the mace smashes into the arm, which crumples, and sends the Golem falling.

Peter roars and pounces on the Golem. The Golem reforms its body into spikes. When Peter lands, the ground shakes with his screams. Acidic blood flows from innumerable wounds across the spider’s body, dripping onto the Golem’s barrier and eating away at it. Atlantis raises a spiked foot and kicks Peter away. Next it reaches up and swats Garn, shattering Garn’s bones and sending him flying after the spider.

Taking advantage of Garn’s and Peter’s distraction, Ambrosia aims for the crystal with her scythe. The Golem raises its arm to block, but Franky interrupts it with his mace.

The scythe descends towards the crystal… and right before impact, the metal bends and the crystal moves down to the Golem’s chest, avoiding the strike.

“No!” Franky screams as the scythe stabs into the empty cavity and strikes only metal. Its arm twists unnaturally and swats Ambrosia away like a fly. A leg twists upward and aims at Franky. The [Hero] spreads his mace into a tower shield of light that absorbs most of the damage but he’s still sent hurtling away through a building before skidding to a stop on the pavement.

The [Hero] groans in pain. He can feel several broken ribs, road rash, and bruises, but he fights through the pain and slowly takes a stand. He looks around and finds himself in a part of the city that has yet to be destroyed. He can’t see Garn or Ambrosia, but he does find Peter standing, though breathing heavily. The weaver has staunched its wounds with webbing, but it weaves unsteadily on its feet from blood loss.

Atlantis, the Golem, stands back up, seemingly undamaged from all the fighting that has happened.

Franky bites his lip hard enough to taste blood. He’s scared of his skill, but he has no choice.

He takes a deep breath and calls out. “[Legacy of the Hero]!”

The world goes dark.

System skill [Legacy of the Hero] has been activated.

Suspending mental faculties of entity: Franky Sascro

______________________________________________________________________

System skill [Legacy of the Hero] has been activated.

Suspending mental faculties of entity: Franky Sascro

Mental faculties suspended. Accessing [Hero] database.

Database Accessed. Searching for complimentary [Hero]

[Hero] found. Creating Artificial Soul

Error: Artificial Soul Creation Banned by Administrator Eleven

Administrator Privileges Circumvented by [Hero] class.

Commencing Soul Creation

Soul Creation Complete…

Removing appendage: Left Arm

Left arm removed successfully. Skill payment processed.

…Activating Artificial Soul: Hercules

_____________________________________________________________

Blinking rapidly, Hercules shakes his head as pain wracks his body. Frowning, he mentally activates [Greater Natural Regeneration]. His body recovers near instantly, bones reconnect, cuts close, bruises disappear, and his pain subsides.

Then he notices he can’t feel his left arm. He looks down and sees only a stump. Frowning, he raises his right arm and realizes it’s not his. In fact, nothing on his body is his. He double checks… nope, nothing. At least it’s a man’s body. He queries the System.

152 seconds remaining until [Legacy of the Hero] ends.

“Ahhh, I see. That skill… so I’m not real.” He sighs and chuckles. “Pity.” He looks around and finds himself in a city, the only part of the city that isn’t destroyed. He jumps to the top of a building for a better view. In the ruined city center, he sees a giant, injured weaver facing a huge metal golem. To Hercules’ surprise, the metal golem is ignoring the weaver and staring straight at him with its baleful crystal eye.

Hercules smiles. “Ahhh, so you are the reason I’m here.”

He stands up straight, pulls his right fist back to his hip, and takes a deep breath. He centers his wait lightly over the balls of his feet, the dust swirls around him, and he rises off the roof as he bends reality to his will.

The golem, sensing a problem, puts up its guard and deploys a shield.

Hercules chuckles. “For a golem, you have decent instincts, though I wouldn't call them good since you aren't running away.” He tilts his neck to the side. It pops and the report shatters the windows of nearby buildings.

63 seconds remaining until [Legacy of the Hero] ends.

“Damn, running out of time. I guess I’ll have to end it in one attack. Wish I could stay and play, but oh well.”

He takes a stance in the air, left leg forward, right leg back. He pulls his right shoulder back and opens his hips. He starts activating skills.

“[Overwhelming Might],[Arms of Adamant],[Consolidate Power],[Titan’s Strength],[Skybreaker Fist],[Dragon’s Wrath]”

Hercules grins and reveals his teeth towards the golem as he activates one last skill, a skill that has ended armies and tyrants the world over. A skill that made even the gods fear him.

“[Stack Skill: Multiplicative Strength]”

The effects of every skill, both passive and active, that affect strength change from being additive to multiplicative.

His muscles bulge with the skill’s activation. The air around him is displaced with such speed and ferocity that the building underneath him crumbles and everything within a half mile is blasted away. The final, undamaged part of the city, turns to rubble.

The Golem guards with both arms and starts building barriers.

“Futile,” Hercules says. He lowers his stance and points his stump at the Golem.

He takes a slow and steady breath in.

“HA!”

He punches…

… and a dozen mountains cease to exist.