The Spider Queen

"Get it together…" Sophie muttered as she kept low to the ground.

An endless barrage of flaming spears passed over her head as she crawled on her belly like a worm.

Not an elegant picture to be sure but Sophie was more concerned with staying alive.

She let out a painful groan as new memories entered her mind after more of the clones died.

This was bad.

There were only four mirror copies left and each survivor was desperately trying to evade the flaming spears.

Plan after plan flashed across Sophie's mind as she quickly tried to think of possible countermeasures.

The situation had taken an unexpected turn and it had caught her by surprise.

Just how many more abilities was the captain hiding?

Sophie did not expect the captain to give up his defense so easily to launch an all-out attack and this miscalculation had cost her dearly.

The hybrid girl snarled in rage and a crimson red colour began to grow from the corners of her golden eyes.

Sophie fought down the familiar feeling of bloodlust by driving her fingernails into the soft flesh of her palms.

The sharp burst of pain brought back some clarity to her mind.

Now was not the time to lose control.

She was not reconciled to giving up so easily.

Captain Dawn may be capable of unleashing what seemed to be an endless sea of flaming spears but every ability had a price.

The ring of fire surrounding his body had disappeared.

Now was the perfect time to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Sophie rubbed her temples and sent out several messages to her clones through the mental network.

[Keep low and try to distract the target using only long-range weapons]

[Prioritise your own safety and ensure that there are no more deaths]

[There is a problem with the Rsychosis technique and for some reason I can't make more copies]

She received acknowledgement from her mirror copies and then reached for her storage bag to pull out the nano-fibre whip.

This was a stupid idea.

No… this was incredibly stupid idea.

Sophie laughed madly as she felt the adrenaline running through her veins.

Maybe there was a part of her that was thrilled to be in life-and-death situations. Dancing on the edge of death produced a rush that was hard to match.

Cloud Treading Dragon!

Sophie's figure blurred and then vanished from the spot. She rushed directly towards the floating ball of flames through the barrage of fiery spears.

Danger! Danger!

The hairs on Sophie's arms stood up as her danger sense went haywire.

She saw the orb turn towards her direction and more spears materialised out of thin air.

Every fibre of her being screamed to run but Sophie maintained the same high speed as she rushed towards her opponent.

The world slowed down to a crawl as Sophie's figure ducked and weaved through the fiery maze of death.

Sometimes a spear would pass mere inches away from her body but the hybrid girl relied on her reflexes to move instinctively in a way that would avoid all attacks.

The orb clearly became flustered as more spears were launched in Sophie's direction while the spears targeting her clones lessened.

Bang!

A plasma shot struck the back of the orb as one of Sophie's mirror images managed to get a shot off successfully.

Screech!

An inhuman roar echoed through the desert as the orb recoiled in pain. Sophie could sense that the blow had damaged its internal structure.

The creature quickly regenerated but it was this brief moment of distraction that allowed Sophie to cross the remaining distance and close in.

Asura Whip Art- Form Two

Hail of Frost!

The temperature plummeted as Sophie swung her whip forward with all the strength that she could muster.

Crack!

The sharpened edge of the whip easily penetrated the outer surface of the orb and entered into its inner body.

Illusory snowflakes appeared along the length of the whip and Sophie could see frost begin to form along the outer edges of the area where the whip penetrated the captain's body.

Danger! Danger!

Sophie immediately pulled out her weapon and activated her movement technique to teleport away.

It was not a moment too soon.

An enormous fiery explosion occurred as Captain Dawn had decided to self implode to take out his wretched foe.

It was a terrifying move.

The flaming cloud that was produced stretched over ten miles into the air and everything in the affected area was now completely destroyed.

Sophie had moved almost instantly but it still wasn't enough to avoid the effect that the high temperatures produced by the blast had on her skin.

Every part of her body was now covered in second and third degree burns that stung horribly as they were now exposed to the air.

The bodysuit that she had worn was heat resistant but was not capable of handling such an extreme shift in temperature.

The desert sand glistened and gleamed as the incredible heat had turned most of the surrounding sand into glass.

Sophie did feel surprised to realise that she could not sense the deaths of any of the remaining clones.

She closed her eyes and sent out a message through the mental link in order to get an idea of what was the current situation.

[How is everyone? Can you still fight or do you need some time for our regenerative ability to kick in?]

It didn't take long to get several unhappy replies from her copies that caused Sophie to involuntarily let out a chuckle.

[My arm was completely burned off!]

[Arm? My face has basically melted! And thank God I can't see what the rest of my body looks like because all I feel is pain]

[You guys still have limbs?!]

A cloud of dust filled the air that made it a bit difficult to see the captain's body through the haze.

Sophie and her clones waited several minutes for the dust cloud to settle while the taking this time to heal.

It wasn't long before the burnt and charred flesh on Sophie's body fell away to reveal a pinkish layer of newly grown skin.

"Hmmm…" Sophie muttered as she could now finally catch a glimpse of what the captain looked like from a distance.

The enormous floating ball of fire had shrunken in size by more than half of its original length and those dark purplish-black flames flickered weakly under the sunlight.

This was it.

This was the perfect opportunity.

One final card to play.

Sophie's golden eyes gradually turned scarlet as she indulged in the wanton feeling of bloodlust rising up in her chest.

Maintain control… maintain control… maintain control…

The addicting sensation to kill and ravage began to occupy Sophie's mind as her fangs slowly lengthened.

She gripped the nano-fibre whip tightly with her right arm and subconsciously began to circulate qi towards her weapon.

Sophie closed her eyes and sent out a final message to her clones.

[Sacrifice yourselves in an all-out charge]

[Don't forget to detonate those bombs right next to that monster's core]

[I will end this]