User:Arrow Quivershaft/Cerberus

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3P story universe

Cerberus

Author: Arrow Quivershaft


It was a rough descent, but with some solid teamwork between me, Timmy, and Blossom, we got down. Not without a few scratches and such, but we made it in one piece. All of the injuries were minor. After patching everyone up, taking a short rest, and getting our packs again, we started our approach to the castle itself.

The bowl was surprisingly barren as we walked through it. I got the idea that it was a blast crater, but the bowl was just...empty. No animals, no burrows, no plants. It was like the idea of life itself hated this place. Even the twisted plants and animals of the underworld refused to live here. We followed the riverbank towards the castle. As we approached it, we saw that only one bank was allowed into the castle, the rest of the entrance eaten up by by the river. And on the bank we could traverse, there was a single cerberus.

It wasn’t what I’d expected. It had a rather wide, squat body, kinda like a pit bull. But it was rather less canine than I’d expected. The three heads were there, but it had a mishmash of fur, spines and scales. It looked like it was napping. Good. Maybe we could sneak past it, because it was about the size of a rhino, based on what I could see as we approached.

"What the hell is that?" Alex said as he spotted it.

"A cerberus." I said. The rumor about being eaten by one came back to my mind. Hopefully I wouldn’t find out firsthand.

"Doggie nappin' is probably a good thing." Timmy said.

"Lets go around it..." Alex suggested.

"Probably the best choice, yeah." I agreed.

"It is best to let sleeping dogs lie..." Blossom added.

I nodded, as we started that way. Getting a look into the corridor past the cerberus, it became obvious that Dawn and Alex would be grounded from here on out. One of the cerberus’s heads lifted slowly and started to regard us as we approached. Fuck, it hadn’t been asleep at all. It sighed, then hauled itself to its feet, speaking in Greek to rouse the other two heads that were sleeping.

"Aw fuck." Alex hissed. It seemed to be a sentiment shared by all of us as we approached. I gripped my crossbow a bit tighter as we closed in, but kept it down.

"Who's a good doggie, yes you are, yeees you are." Timmy said, seemingly seriously.

"I doubts that patronizing it will help." Alex told him.

"I do not think this is an ordinary dog." Blossom said with a shake of her head.

"Ah... Yeah... What's Plan A, fellas?" Dawn asked.

"I'd vote running like hell.” Alex responded to Dawn.

"Plan A is hope it doesn't mind us. B is fight, we need to go through." I said.

"Ah, yes ..." Alex said unenthusiastically.

Dawn took up the rear of our group as we approached. I was in front with Alex and Timmy and Blossom were behind me. The cerberus just waited for us, eyeing us with all of it’s heads.

As we approached, Alex tentatively waved a wing. "Euh, hello. Good ... evening."

Blossom approached closer, passing between me and Alex. When she was a few feet away from him, she bowed. "Greetings." she said to him.

The three heads ducked once in a slight response to the bow, and then came back up. The center looked at Blossom, then at the rest of us. “"Yeah, you know how this works. Blah blah blah, guardian of underdark. What do you want?" Well, he at least was direct...

"To pick up a f-" Alex said, before he was cut off by Blossom.

"I want to see Hades." Blossom said. Oh gods, was she going to try and be the diplomat again? I winced.

"Yyyyyyeah... Go home." the center head said to us.

Blossom shook her head. "We can't, we know of your problem, and have come to help." she stated.

I eyed her. So did Alex. She seemed to have some sort of plan, which I could...at least give her more credit for. I didn’t want a fight, so I let her talk for the moment. Still, I wish she’d keep her damn mouth shut, she’s not that gifted a speaker.

"I don't have a problem. Seriously, go home." The left head said.

"Can't do that, look lets be specific." Timmy said. Oh gods. "There's a dude we wanna get back to the surface, kinda important fellow."

"Not you, specifically Hades does, with one soul that can't be decided." Blossom said, nodding.

"Blossom, please." Alex hissed. At someone agreed with me.

"That isn't my problem or yours." the left and right head said in unison.

"It's not a problem, so whatever we want the kid anyway." Timmy said.

Blossom glared back at Alex, but said nothing. She turned back to the cerberus and said, "Yes, we want to take him away from here."

"Look... I'm not trying to be a dink, I'm trying to save you from your own best intentions. You go in here, you get your ass handed to you. I'm here for /your/ protection." The Cerberus said. I was at least grateful for his patience.

"We appreciate that, but I’m not leaving without my friend." Blossom said, crossing her arms.

"Thanks for the thought but we're pretty determined.” Timmy said. “Kid has a life to live, friends back home...yadda yadda."

"He's not quite dead you see." Alex chimed in.

"Ain't my job to decide who dies. It /is/ my job to keep brass-balled questing parties topside." the right head commented with an eyeroll.

"We're here to correct an error, not take some soul or decide who is dead." Alex said.

"Just go away, alright? Nobody has ever raised the dead. Ever. You're wasting your time." the left head commented.

"He ain't dead dead, body is still comatose." Timmy added.

Great. So I had three people talking to the monster, and none of them were me. I looked at Dawn helplessly. She shrugged back at me, but there was no good way for me to get into the conversation this late.

"That's great... Seriously, go away." the three heads said in unison.

"Ain't going away." Timmy said.

"What if we told you we know where he goes?" Blossom said inquisitively.

"Holy shit, this is why I hate this job." the center head exclaimed.

"Yer tellin' me right, get paid to do this. It'd make it easier if you let us do our job too." Timmy said.

"Yeah? And how are you going to make it worth my while?" the left head said incredulously.

"What would you want?" Blossom asked, sincerely.

"What've you got?" the thing asked

There was an in for me. "Food, money." I said.

"Don't need money, have plenty of food. Fuck off." It growled at me.

"Name something you want then." Blossom said, tail swishing impatiently.

"I want you to go back /home/." the monster snarled.

"We will do that, but with Nick as well." Blossom stated.

"Yeah. Great. Go." the thing said with a sigh.

"We need to pass you to get Nick." I said, trying to be the voice of reason.

"Holy shit you people are dense." the right head said, a paw reaching up to effectively facepalm. Great. So there was no way through.

"Not without our condition bein' met...trust us we want nothin' more then to go home too." Timmy said,

Blossom walked up, right to the front of the cerberus, glaring up at it. One of the heads glared back, another watching the group, and the third still facepalmed. I was worried. If it decided to attack her, there was nothing I could do with her that close.

"Just go. I know you love your guy, but you won't get him back. Just /go/." the cerberus said forcefully.

"I love him too much to leave him here." Blossom retorted.

"So did the last folks, and the group before, and the group before...You /really/ want to fuck with the core forces of life and death, eh?"

"I am different, I would die for him gladly even trade myself for him." Blossom growled back. "Yes!"

"This castle-thing needs a fucking door. A great big locking fucking door." the right head, said, the paw finally coming back down. A part of me couldn’t help but agree, despite how much of a problem it would’ve been for us.

"Then you would have no job." Blossom stated, like that made any difference.

"See this? This is what I get for trying to be decent. I could do the snarling and attacking and everything, and instead I /try/ to send you back, and this is what happens." the center head said.

"I really do appreciate you talking with us, I really do, who wouldn't love the chance to talk with someone as interesting as you." Blossom said patronizingly. Now she was trying to butter him up...way too late for that.

"Look, I'll take it up with my supervisor, just go somewhere else for awhile." the left head said, entirely unconvincingly.

"I imagine that will take a long time..." Blossom commented. Good. She was learning. On the plus side, the thing hadn’t tried to murder us yet.

"It might. So go." the center head said.

"Can I go with you?" Blossom asked.

"No." the heads said in unison again.

"Why not? I am sure it would be safe if I was with someone as strong as you." she said, trying to butter him further.

The cerberus didn’t fall for it. "No."

Blossom shrugged and turned around, walking away "Well, if you couldn't do it..." Man, she was getting better. That said, the cerberus sat back down, clearly not interested.

I motioned to the others, and we turned around and left to regroup and try and come up with a better plan.

We regrouped a ways from the castle to talk. I looked to Dawn as had become my instinct lately, wondering if she had anything. She wingshrugged at me.

"Well, that went well." Alex commented.

Blossom shook her head. "That was annoying."

"Well, we wait, I guess..." I said, glancing away. I doubted he’d go ask, but I wasn’t itching to pick a fight with a cerberus.

"I don't think he is going to ask..." Blossom surmised. Maybe she’d been faking her naivety before.

"You really wanna fight him?" I asked her, seriously.

"No, i was trying to talk with him but /someone/ wouldn't let me..." she eyed Timmy. Timmy just shrugged a bit.

"Well, it's a very bored guard thing to do ... and it got us away from him..." Alex said. So they were on the same train of thought that I was.

"So what do you want to do about it?" Dawn asked.

"Well, we can wait, or we can fight. Neither is an option I'm particularly eager to take." I said, putting out the options.

"So we find a "back door'?" Alex asked.

"We did a loop, Alex, there's none that I can see. That thing is built like a frigging sub pen." Dawn pointed out.

"I could always try talking with him again; see if i can get him to agree?” Blossom said hopefully.

"Yep, that's true Dawn.” Alex said. Then he turned to the fox. “Blossom, your talking skills leave much to be desired." Finally someone had said it.

"What’s that mean?" Blossom asked, naively.

"You're not one of the most gifted of talkers." Alex stated.

"Well, I don't see you making any suggestions." Blossom said, crossing her arms.

“I-” Alex said, but I cut him off. We couldn’t afford any fighting.

"Whoa, no fighting.” I said. “That's gonna cause problems."

Alex ruffled a bit, but nodded. "Yeah..."

"We can either force our way past, or wait, or try something else." I reiterated. If the group fractured, we were all fucked, and worse, I wasn’t doing my job. I glanced to the river curiously, but figured there probably wasn’t anything good to come from swimming in it. It was flowing far too fast for much in the way of swimming anyways, and we had dozens of pounds of gear.

"What if we got Cerberus' heads to fight each other?" Blossom asked.

I looked over at her, quirking my brow. "Interesting idea."

"Do you think it will work?" Blossom asked.

Alex chuckled. "It's so deranged it just might." He said with a smile.

I mulled it over before saying, "Do we have anything to lose? We should plan it out, first. We don't have anything he wants..."

"Well we know we don’t have anything that head wants." Blossom said. She didn’t get it, again.

"A little long-range firepower would do it." Dawn said.

I looked at Dawn. "Got a question on that angle, actually...The water has certain magical effects down here, right? Wonder if there's any chance you know the effects of this river's water?"

Dawn shook her head. "Not to my knowledge, it doesn't."

"There goes that, I guess." I said. "Long range firepower is in short supply, though." I and Blossom were the only two with crossbows.

Blossom muttered something, then looked over to the cerberus. She stood up and started walking over towards him again. "Hmm. Maybe he wants to play a game?"

I looked over at her as she moved, followed her, for her safety.

"I don't like where this is going..." Dawn said, echoing my mental state...but she came along anyways. Alex scrambled up and followed along with us as well.

The left head eyed Blossom as she approached and spoke to the other two. "Look sharp."

Blossom got right up in the thing’s face again, looking at it. "Hello, did you happen to ask yet?"

"Yes, I managed to summon my boss and have a long retarded conversation with him in the 30 seconds you were gone." the left head droned sarcastically.

"Well thats good, so is he willing to see us then?" Blossom said, clearly missing the sarcasm. I looked at the beast edgily.

The left head sighed audibly. The right head looked down at Blossom. "Okay, here's how it works. 10 seconds to get out of our faces, or I hold you in the river there until the bubbles stop."

“I don't think that would work..." Blossom said.

I moved forward and grabbed her by the shoulder. "Blossom, come on. Now."

Blossom looked back at me, but started a step back. "Why?"

"Because we're not getting anywhere. Come on." I said, trying to pull her away.

Blossom shrugged and walked back with me. "Why? He wants to go blow bubbles in the river. What’s the harm in that?"

"Um...no. That's not what he suggested. Come on." I led her away.

"He said he wanted to hold me in the river until the bubbles stopped, but i don’t see how thats possible cause then he'd have to kill all the fish." Blossom protested.

I sighed mentally. "He threatened to hold you under the water until you drowned." I explained to her.

Blossom paused, then nodded. "Oh...well, why didn’t he just say that then..that other head isn't very nice." she growled a bit as we walked away.

After we got a fair distance away, we reconvened to discuss. We were out of earshot of the beast, which Dawn made sure of before suggesting the next course of action.

"Just kill it." Dawn said, a hint of exasperation in her voice.

I looked to Dawn. "That makes a ruckus...and I'm not sure of our chances. You really think we should?" I really was hoping there was a better solution, despite the pretty obvious chances that there wasn’t.

"Well, someone seems to have neglected to bring the hippie-grade tranquilizers,” Dawn noted. “So... yeah."

"I can't use poisons, and you know that." I reminded her.

"No, I have those..." Blossom said. She rummaged in her robe for a bit before pulling out a small pouch. I looked over at her with surprise. SHE had the solution?

"When did you pick /those/ up?" Dawn asked with as much surprise as I had.

"When we were after Nkosi." Alex said.

Blossom nodded. "I made them."

"How do they work?" I asked, tentatively.

"Well, we can either get him to eat them,” Blossom said. “Or...if we could put them on him like in his blood."

"We're amazingly short on IVs if you didn't notice." Alex noted.

I sighed a bit. This talk of poisoning the thing was making me uneasy. "There's always the old fashioned way."

"I always have a crossbow." Blossom said. That’s right, she had gotten a crossbow from RI and she’d kept it the whole time she was in the grove. I was glad she had it suddenly, since if she did the poisoning, my hands were clean.

"Hmm?" Alex asked.

Blossom pulled her crossbow out. “See?”

Alex nodded. "Ah. And our backup plan would be?"

"Run like hell?" I said dryly.

Alex smirked. "Can do."

"I am not sure how much we need to hit him with though...or..if it will affect him." Blossom stated with uncertainty. "He's a lot bigger than Nkosi."

"I have no knowledge of poisons." I said as Timmy looked to me.

Alex took the hint. "But we don't have to be too careful with the stuff. He doesn't have to survive it."

Blossom turned to look at Alex a bit crossly. "I don't want to kill him..."

"Me neither, but if it's him or Nick, I choose Nick." Alex said.

"I nominate Tim and Lex to cover her if it goes sour." Dawn noted. I looked over at her curiously, since she’d excluded me, but looked back to the group just in time to catch Alex nodding.

Blossom nodded as well. "Alright. I'll need a minute to poison the thing." She set the crossbow aside, opening her potion vial and dipping one of the bolts into it. I noted that the container for the poison seemed to be all-natural. Kinda ironic. After a few moments she pulled the bolt out. “Alright, I think that will be enough.” She recapped the vial and started loading the crossbow. The bolt was dripping a green, viscous liquid. “So, how do I get close?”

"Why don't /both/ of you shoot this thing?" Dawn said, looking at me with a pointed glance.

"I don't want to kill him." Blossom reiterated.

"Because I can't use poison." I reminded her.

"One bolt probably won't kill it." Alex said. "But we have to keep him entertained until he falls asleep."

"If he runs around, it will spread faster." Blossom reminded us.

"That's true." I agreed with Blossom.

"Well fuck, give the cross to Tim." Dawn said in response to me. "Hell, coat Lex's wings in the stuff."

"Umm...." Alex didn’t seem entirely happy with that suggestion.

"No, i said I don’t want him to die!” Blossom exclaimed. “He might be mean but doesn't deserve to die!"

"Dawn, I can't give someone it either. That falls under being an accessory." I explained, feeling kinda sheepish.

"What?" Dawn said. "Nathan, honey... Pragmatism. What happens when this thing kills half your friends because it didn't get taken down fast enough?"

Alex smirked a bit at that. I weighed my options. Dawn had a legit point, but...it wasn’t honorable...then again, neither was getting everyone killed...

"I have enough for five Nkosis.” Blossom said. “If you accidentally get some of this in your mouth it might kill you."

"Is that in your code?” Dawn said. “Come on, hon. Spirit of the law rather than the letter."

While I was standing there, I took the crossbow out in one hand to consider. While I was lost in my own thoughts, Alex jumped over and grabbed at it with a talon. He grabbed it and pulled it away easily because of my surprise.

“Hey!” I shouted. I didn’t know what he was doing, it wasn’t like he could use it. But I didn’t want him to break it with his feathers. It’s designed to take a few hits, but not the kind of abuse a stormwing could deliver. That said, I didn’t make any moves against him, because...well, stormwing. More blades than I wanted to take a go against in any situation.

Alex turned away from me, shielding his body from me with a wing. "Bloody thieving stormwings..." he said, as he hopped over towards Blossom.

Blossom looked at him. "How do you expect to fire it? You might cut it." she said to Alex as he hopped over.

"Well, there are other people with hands here.” Alex said, pointedly. Now I got it. I wasn’t comfortable with being sidestepped this way, but again, I didn’t have a lot of choice.

"Well...I’ll coat another arrow, but only fire if it doesn't seem to work okay?" Blossom said tentatively, looking across over all of us.

"Your chances of hitting him a second time while he's angry are slim." Alex pointed out. He had a point.

Blossom sighed and sat down, taking a bolt out of the magazine and coating that one in poison too. After she was done, she looked to me and Tim. "Okay, who's taking the other one?"

"Well, either Nate butches up, or Tim takes it." Dawn said. Tim shrugged at that.

Blossom looked at me, almost pleadingly. It was obvious she didn’t want Timmy to take it.

I sighed. After a moment, I said, "Fine." and tried to take my crossbow back from Lex. He hesitated for a moment, but ultimately let me have it back.

Blossom gave me the bolt hesitantly, but nodded. “Only if it doesn’t seem to work,” she reiterated to me. I nodded, loading the bolt into my crossbow like it was diseased. Which I guess it was, in a sense, given it was covered in poison from the tip to halfway up the shaft.

"Alright..ready." Blossom said. I looked to her and readied myself as well, mind racing. Was I going to get smited or punished for using poison? I really hoped I wasn’t getting myself in deeper, here.

Blossom turned to us. "Okay, how do I get close enough?" she asked.

Alex leaned over towards me. "Sorry about that, dude." he whispered. I nodded to him, then turned back to the meeting.

"Team effort.” Dawn said. “Looks like we're all going in. I'm no good in close quarters fighting, so I'm going tophat to make sure it doesn't summon anything at us." She paused. "I'll stay low and get in if things turn bad, but I'd /really/ rather not.” I nodded my affirmation to Dawn.

Alex nodded to that as well. "I think it's best if I also take to the skies."

"Think one of you can carry me?" Blossom asked Dawn. Alex looks to Dawn, sizing her up. "Just in case?" Blossom added after a moment.

"Not effectively...” Dawn said, shaking her head.

"It wouldn't have to be too far...just out of reach?" Blossom pressed.

"You're not going to be able to shoot effectively like that." Dawn pointed out.

"This is after I shoot,” Blossom said. “I don’t think I can run faster than him...”

"And anywhere I could get you, poochey can get faster. That's a no-go." Dawn continued.

"Then I guess I'll have to think of something..." Blossom said. She nodded nervously. "Okay, everyone ready?"

Dawn nodded and took flight without another word.

"We'll just have to keep him busy." Alex said encouragingly to Blossom, then he followed Dawn.

Blossom loaded her crossbow, and prepped it, chambering the poisoned bolt. Then she started walking straight towards the Cerberus, the weapon pointed down at the moment. She was mumbling what sounded like a prayer...I doubted Selene would intervene, but I was grateful for the thought. I followed along, my own crossbow held loosely in one hand and hauberk worn over my standard armor.

As we got closer, Blossom started scanning the area, seeing if there was any place she could run to, or possibly hide if need be. Unfortunately, the blast crater was barren of anything of that style...probably intentionally. “Selene, give me strength,” she said as she finished her prayer.

I was vaguely aware of Alex circling above us, gaining height and keeping a good eye on the creature. Dawn was near him; Tim was back aways from me and Blossom, because he didn’t have a ranged weapon. I accompanied Blossom up towards the Cerberus, heart racing, hoping this wasn’t gonna be the end of the party, so to speak.

The cerberus watched us approach. After a few moments, the right head said, "Oh yeah, /that/ ain't suspiscious." It spoke to the other two heads and it roused itself, pulling itself up to its feet.

Blossom narrowed her eyes as she approached and called to him as she got closer, lifting the crossbow towards the meat of the creature’s body. "Let us in and we won't hurt you." she told him.

Alex was circling above. I was sweating bullets.

It didn’t take us long to get a response, the cerberus charging straight at Blossom and Tim. Tim drew a huge-ass bastard sword and stood his ground. Blossom didn’t wait a second, either, and shot her crossbow at the beast’s chest and center of mass. Best target as he closed. Then she turned tail to run, having no other options if it charged. The bolt connected and embedded itself in the chest, but it didn’t have any immediately visible effect on the monster.

I took a step back out of the charge for now, prepping my own crossbow. Then I had to duck suddenly, as Alex, the flying razor factory, descended from over me, zipping over the heads of the others, and moving to try and slash the monster with razor wingfeathers.

Meanwhile, the cerberus was bearing down on Tim. Lex got ploughed into, despite the pointiness. In the middle of this game of chicken, Alex pulled up. Unfortunately, the scales on the Cerberus were easily enough to take the abuse of the gliding blow. Then the thick lizard-like tail of the cerberus came up and smacked Lex in the less armored human torso, knocking him out of the sky like he’d met a baseball bat. He hit the ground hard and lied there in a crumpled heap. FUCK.

I aimed for a clean shot, but couldn’t get one quite yet. Tim was too close. I held my fire.

Blossom was running. She wasn’t even looking back. She looked around, but kept running, trying to stay ahead of the cerb. She looked at the river and angled there, but seemed hesitant at best.

Tim ducked and rolled, avoiding the cerberus, then coming up to slash at the monster’s sides with his sword as it barrelled past. There was a NASTY gash cut by his sword, but the thing shrugged it off.

Blossom kept running; she nearly tripped twice, and then she reached the river, looking back to see where the monster was. Dawn looped above me, I saw her shadow on the ground, but there wasn’t anything she could do at the moment. Alex was motionless, probably knocked out.

The monster disengaged from Tim and moved to chase Blossom. Easiest to take out, and she was backed against the river. I looked to see if the monster had slowed at all...but for all the action, we’d only been in combat for maybe 10 seconds. It just hadn’t been long enough.

I kept my aim there, hesitating. I should probably be pulling the trigger, but it was...hard. I knew the thing was poisoned and I wasn’t sure if I could get away with it.

Blossom looked back at the charging cerb, then took a deep breath and jumped into the water. “Blossom!” I shouted, noticing the current was pulling her downstream towards the mouth of the castle.

The monster stopped upon seeing that and turned back. Apparently it didn’t want to go in the water either. Alex groaned loudly, and started to move. The monster beared back on Tim, who took his ready stance again. Downstream from Blossom, the water started roiling unnaturally.

Blossom was swimming her hardest, but the current was stronger than she was. She tried to swim to shore, but the current was just too strong for her, so she settled for just keeping her head above water. Downstream from her, large tentacles started to pierce the surface of the water. Something was hungry. Alex rolled over on his back, and started to stand back up.

That wasn’t my primary concern at this point. The cerberus charged Tim now. Tim went low and forward to evade the three pairs of jaws, and then dragged his sword along the thing’s underside. But this cost him; he got stepped on by by a wickedly clawed rear paw. He groaned loudly. Alex rolled back to his feet, broken feathers shaking off him like glitter. That said, he was clearly still woozy.

The reality of the situation hit me like a punch to the gut. We didn’t HAVE any other options except the one in my hand...and my line of fire was finally clear. I lined up the shot, took a deep breath about what I was going to do, and started firing. The poisoned bolt flew true, hitting the monster in the neck. The beast turned and started bearing down on me. I managed to cycle two more bolts into it, both in the faces, before the thing got too close for comfort. It was starting to slow visibly, but it was still moving fast enough that I had to roll out of the way.

I managed to avoid getting run over like Tim had, and jumped back to my feet. I took stock of the situation as the cerberus turned around. Alex was still getting back to his feet. Blossom was struggling to get to shore...I saw Dawn taking a dive at her, yelling “Blossom! Hands up!” Blossom put her hands up and her head down as Dawn grabbed her and started dragging her to shore, flapping like hell in the process.

"Little piece of shit..." The cerberus said as it started coming at me, snapping me back to my own situation. It came more slowly this time, with three sets of snapping jaws. It was going too slow for it to easily overshoot this time, which left me one option. I turned around and started booking it in the other direction.

Tim got himself painfully to his feet in my peripheral as I was moving. Blossom was on the shoreline, coughing and spitting, and Dawn was panting. Fuck. If that poison didn’t work soon someone was gonna get screwed up by the monster.

Suddenly, I heard a curse and a wingflap, then a shouted, “Fight a monster, you coward!” I turned around to see that Alex had jumped back into the fight, slashing at the cerberus like a blender. The monster backed up at that, not wanting anything to do with the wall of blades. I took the opportunity, pulled my crossbow up, and shot it twice more, emptying my magazine. Both bolts struck, lodging in the thick skin.

Alex backed up after his initial attack to realign his blades for another attack. I dropped the crossbow and drew my sword, having nothing else to use and no time to reload. I suddenly found myself wishing for a rifle.

The cerberus moved forward to attack Alex, then faltered, missing a step. Alex and I both flinched backwards...and then the cerberus staggered further, shaking a bit. It shuddered, one leg collapsing.

"Oh... Oh FUCK you..." it said, staggering and then with a loud WHUMP, the cerberus collapsed, quickly falling unconscious.

Preceded by:
Enter the Underworld
Three Pantheons Succeeded by:
Descending Into Darkness