Jay was up shit creek without a paddle.

He was on his own, low on mana, and injured. Every movement that involved his torso flared his slashed side with pain. He couldn’t take a Health Crystal, or any crystal, when all of his focus had to be on the miniboss.

He couldn’t rely on his Skills unless the perfect moment presented itself. He would have to fight relying on only his Attributes, and whatever else he could pull out of his ass like an anime protagonist.

Then again, it was not always wise to think of anime. Some anime shows loved to make bad things happen to force character growth on their leads.

Jay smiled fiercely as he walked away from Mike.

Mary’s eyes followed Jay even though she had a straight shot toward his best friend. It was obvious that she could take advantage of that.

But Jay sensed that Mary was arrogant. The murderous toy proved him right by stalking after the [Freak]. It was a deadly gamble risking his best friend’s life, but it had to be done.

Jay began humming a tune with no lyrics. Something from a cult classic video game shown on videos and memes across the internet. A bit of an oldie now, but it was the perfect beat for his latest dance.

Megolovania.

Mary hummed in return, interweaving her song with his. Her choice of music was erratic, dangerous, and wild, but it was a strange fit that matched Jay’s song of choice. It was almost respectable knowing that his opponent was into music like him.

Then an instance later, they crossed blades without breaking or interrupting their entwined songs. The clash of metal on metal rang sharply in Jay’s ears and reverberated down his arm due to Mary’s greater strength. With his weapon arm knocked aside, Jay pirouetted with the momentum. He narrowly dodged a follow up slash that would’ve split his torso open like a sliced up slab of meat.

Jay ignored the biting pain in his side and threw out his open hand as a feint. Something he saw from a few boxing matches online that he thought was cool. Mary smiled, slapping his feint aside playfully with her free hand. She thrust her knife with full gusto at his belly, the bloody aura leaving a menacing streak behind the attack.

Jay stepped aside the knife thrust. Huge, back-shaking shivers ran up his spine. The [Freak] ducked as if his life depended on it. Mary’s foot hacked across the air where Jay’s neck had been. At the end of her high roundhouse kick, a blade that had sprung from between her toes sheathed back into her foot.

Seeing that gave Jay a smidge of doubt.

Mary’s humming turned up as Jay’s humming grew weaker. Her song overcame his, getting him to follow her flow. A downward slash forced Jay to the right. A forward knee strike landed on Jay’s arms, the block hurting as if there was no point in defending Mary’s blows. Another knife slash had Jay teetering on his heels to keep his head from rolling away. A second slash forced him to jump back, interrupting his musical hums as Mary took over fully.

He didn’t see the punch until it was too late. The blow landed fully flushed, putting Jay into a daze while he was midair. Then he hit the ground, knocking back the sense in him.

He blinked to clear his vision. Mary was crouched over him. The knife point pressed against his neck.

“You’re not bad,” Mary said. “But you don’t have the training to back up your talent.”

She pressed her knife more and drew a dab of blood. “I think I’m going to keep you. Make you my human toy. Train you up a bit so you’ll be a proper badass under me. Even though you’re a crawler, I can tell you’ll be fun. Especially if I get to have your glowy purple eyes for myself.”

“What about my friends?” Jay asked carefully, subduing a shudder of disgust.

“If they surrender, I’ll keep them as human toys, too. You can be part of a whole set. It’ll be fun to pit you against other crawlers that’ll come around. Or when we break out of here and invade your world, you can guide me to all the fun places where a gal can hang out, shop, and murder weakling humans. It’ll be like having my own killer boy harem.”

Jay sighed. He knew he wouldn’t give in to her demands. But he wondered if he was prepared to die or see his party–and his best friend especially–die to rebel against Murderous Mary.

“No thanks, toots,” Jay said softly. “I’m the master, not the toy. And the seat to be my special toy is already taken.”

Mary frowned. Jay smiled in defiance, ready to face the end. Then he felt a certain presence enter his weird gravity sense field. This one bore a heavy weight greater than any other person or monster here, even if she was a Level 1 weakling.

“Ah,” Jay said softly. “My chosen hero has arrived.”

A rock struck Mary’s head, stealing her attention from Jay.

She looked up.

Jay looked past her.

Dozens of feet above the heated battle between [Fighters] and action figures, Creepy Kleo stood on the broken edges of the staircase. She cocked back her arm and slung another rock at Mary’s head.

The murderous frakenstein doll smacked the rock away with her knife. She pressed one foot down on Jay’s chest to keep him pinned and pointed her knife at Kleo.

“What are you doing?” Mary asked.

“It’s a new script,” Kleo said. “I betray the crawlers, realize an important lesson, and come back to help them. I’m still ironing out the kinks.”

“That’s not per the Toyreveler’s designs. None of this follows the master’s designs. You’re being divergent and you know what’ll happen to dungeon monsters that go divergent.”

“What does it matter?” Kleo shouted. “I’m already at the bottom. If I was a crab, I’d be the weakest! Can’t even pull any of you other crabs down. So, I’d rather be divergent if it means I can be significant!”

Mary tilted her head. “I must destroy you. But I’m also impressed by you. I will wear your spine as my new necklace to remember you goodbye.”

“I’m going to remember the look on your face when the fool dunks on you,” Kleo said. “Because this distraction is enough for him.”

Indeed, it was, because Jay was gripping Mary’s ankle and feeling out the difference between his magical power against her magical defense. It was like teasing himself from going all out with his most game-changing Skill. He had to be sure there was a chance, or a Chance, to succeed.

“[Dance Floor Relativity],” Jay said, slamming his power against Mary’s Poise. His magic hit a wall, and for a short time, Jay wondered if the attempt was for naught. A struggle brewed, igniting the air around them with magical sparks as they wrestled for supremacy. The defining moment came down to a difference of mentality where Jay gave it his all while Mary held back to either to reserve some of her energy or because she was underestimating Jay.

Consequently, Jay won the contest by the slimmest of margins, enveloping Mary with a purplish aura. They both lurched aside, falling along the ground in the direction of the [Fighters] and the militia. Even as Mary smashed her foot into Jay’s face to dislodge him, just forcing her into the air and toward his goal was enough for him. Because he knew he wouldn’t be the one to finish Mary.

“Frank, the time is now!” Jay shouted.

Frank was fighting a constant battle of attrition to keep the remaining action figure militia from overwhelming the battle. Hearing Jay’s shout, the super agent fled away from his current objective as if he’d been anticipating this very moment from the start.

He raced at Mary’s tumbling form with [Cavalry Charge] before she broke away from Jay’s power. Closing the gap, he swung his pole weapon from the far back position and all the way forward, priming the attack with all of the speed and power of [Surging Strike].

Mary squealed defenslessly as the weapon’s ax portion cleaved through her shoulder and lodged itself into her chest. The impact knocked Mary to her knees, but it wasn’t enough to keep her down as she slowly stood up.

“That’s all you got?” Mary chuckled, coughing gooey toy blood. She grabbed the staff with one hand. The other hand raised her knife. She started to pull Frank closer regardless of her wound.

She was a true horror of a miniboss. One that needed to be destroyed thoroughly.

“[Weapon Conflagration],” Frank muttered in the face of evil.

His hands sparked with white-red light. The staff ignited brilliantly. The head of the weapon lodged into Mary’s torso erupted with such furious heat, Jay felt its scalding temperature from a dozen feet away. Mary became a plastic bonfire, screeching with torturous pain that Jay wouldn’t necessarily wish on his worse enemies.

Frank screamed at the same time, releasing the fury buried deep inside. Whatever weighed heavily on his shoulders was fuel that made the all-consuming blaze all the more glorious, casting a brilliant light that drew the blackest of shadows. It also drew the frenzied attention of every militia figure that remained. They broke away from Dennis to attack Frank’s back.

The all-state jock didn’t let that go unpunished. He entered the air with [Mountain Leap]. He crashed down with an overhead swing of pummeling force thanks to [Meteor Drop], throwing aside half a dozen action figures. Then he squared up against the ones still standing and used a new Skill he must’ve earned by reaching Level 6.

“[Double Swing].”

A simple name for a devastating Skill that allowed Dennis to swing twice in the time it would take for him to swing once. The added power and speed lopped action figures into pieces, especially when he used it multiple times to defend Frank’s back. It almost seemed like this would be the finish, until Frank’s Skill faded off.

He didn’t have the mana necessary to maintain the fiery Skill’s high-cost consumption. It was a last resort for Frank because of that very reason.

In the aftermath, Mary’s melted, blackened, inhuman form remained standing. Even after all that damage made her close to feeble, she was still a danger. She chopped down with her knife and split Frank’s pole weapon, rendering it no more useful than a sharpened stick on one side.

“Mike, if you’re with me,” Jay called, “Frank needs some support for the finish!”

“[Mana Hype],” Mike groaned, casting the Skill on Jay. It was Mike’s latest power he’d acquired at Level 6, sharing a portion of his mana with a friendly target. Too bad it went to the wrong target due to Mary’s debuff lingering. But Jay didn’t sweat it. He absorbed a Health Crystal and threw himself back into the fight.

He flickered [Moonwalker] on and off, maneuvering around Mary to slash at her melted limbs. She lashed out, still showing her strength and speed and some technique, but she was way too damaged to string anything coherent together. She was more like a desperate beast than anything, which Jay could handle even with a hurt side.

He also had Frank there to help. The super agent kicked and stomped at Mary’s legs when she tried to attack Jay. When she staggered from the low hits and turned toward Frank, Jay lunged in and landed a cut or two. Then he darted out swiftly to stay safe. The first few cuts didn’t seem to do much. Then the next dozen started to make her bleed way more.

After a while, Mary finally collapsed on all fours.

“Strange,” she rasped wearily. “I’m not even angry anymore. I’m more tired than anything.”

By then, the last action figures were disposed of. Mike was up, if still a little shaken. Frank was on his knee, absolutely exhausted. Dennis watched like a silent sentry while Jay waited for Kleo to waddle to his side and face Mary.

Mary glanced at Kleo. “You can’t be divergent and not expect to be punished. Either the crawlers win, and you’ll be destroyed with the rest of us, or the Toyreveler wins, and you’ll be taken apart like a bad toy.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Jay said softly. “I’m taking her out of here.”

“How?” Mary asked.

“Because I say so.” Jay shrugged, trusting his own whimsical nature to find a way.

Mary coughed wetly, shuddering like she was about to die. It turned into a wheezy, maniacal laugh.

“Fools! All of you are divergent fools!” Mary cheered, staring at Kleo with one eye that hadn’t melted shut. “Fine then! Make use of me as part of your foolish tirade. Like a bloody knife, hungry for murder.”

Mary flashed a grisly smile. “Then turn yourselves insane knowing nothing will change, nothing will break, nothing will end the cycle. We are all toys at the whims of the gods! And the gods are cruel, nasty, and hateful.”

Kleo lowered her head.

Jay tilted his head toward Dennis. He hadn’t gotten a hit on Mary.

The big guy frowned, pausing as if to consider the gravity of the duty Jay dropped at his feet. Wordlessly, the jock obliged.

He hefted his colossal sword high. Then he swung down and missed Mary’s neck. The blade crushed the back of her skull instead of providing a proper beheading.

He still got the job done.

Your party has slain Dungeon Miniboss Toy, Murderous Mary, Level 9.

As a series of notifications rolled by, Jay paid heed to Mary’s rapidly melting body. The goop and smoke drained into two loot items dropped by the miniboss. One was a cloak that was both creepy and forgettable.

The other was a knife.