The Spider Queen

[Tick... tick… tick…]

[There are: 15 minutes 49 seconds remaining…]

The timer on the floating hologram projection kept decreasing steadily but Sophie was in no mood to pay attention to it.

The clown whose stomach she had just sliced open was laughing eerily and the hundreds of mouths on his body stuck out their long pink tongues.

Sophie jumped away just as the tongues erupted from the clown's mouths and shot towards her direction.

The tongues now resembled long wriggling pinkish snakes that oozed a faint yellowish liquid that had an unpleasant scent.

Sophie had to fight down the urge to vomit as she used her bladed appendages to slice the ones that came too close.

"Help! This feels so fucking gross!" one of the mirror clones shouted in horror as the tongue wrapped around her body.

Sophie reached into her storage bag and pulled out an explosive device.

She tilted her head to the side and narrowly avoided one of the tongues before arming the device and throwing it at the captured clone.

BOOM!

The mirror copies summoned due to the Rsychosis technique were less sturdy than Sophie's original body, so the clone immediately died in the blast.

Chunks of flesh rained down in the arena and loud cheers erupted in the crowd as they saw the bloodshed.

The clown who was also directly struck by the blast fell to the ground with his body burnt and blackened beyond recognition.

The other three that remained seemed to be enraged by their companion's death and savage expressions flashed across their faces.

They mourned the loss of their companion, and their heartfelt cries filled the arena.

"You killed Bob! Why? He was a good boy!"

"He would never hurt a fly! It was only humans that he hated!"

"He's in a better place now… the big tent in the sky…"

The clowns sitting down in the stands began to sob as they heard the words of their depressed brethren in the arena.

Sophie took the opportunity to slip away to the back of the group and she exchanged a look with her mirror copies.

They rushed forward at the clowns who seemed distracted, but Sophie's danger sense immediately flared up.

The clowns' limbs began to stretch until their arms and legs were now more than ten feet in length.

Their faces were completely sunken and now one could barely make out any of their facial features.

The hundreds of mouths scattered across their bodies slowly disappeared and were replaced by rash-like patches of skin.

The clowns opened their mouths and horrific shrieks echoed through the arena. They leapt to face Sophie and her mirror copies head on.

The bony tips of their fingers lengthened, and the long-jagged claws were now more akin to short swords.

Sophie allowed the bloodlust to fully take over and her world slowed down to a crawl.

She could see the clown's movements as if they were in slow motion and her body moved automatically to take them down.

Sophie's bladed appendages sliced off the right hand of the one closest to her before she raised up her foot to kick him in the stomach.

The clown flew several feet in the air and eventually crashed against the invisible barrier where he fell to the ground with a sickening thud.

One of the Sophie's clones screamed in pain as a clown's bony claws penetrated her stomach and ripped out her small intestine.

The clone next to her used this opportunity to deal a fatal blow to the clown as he attacked her sister.

Slash!

The clone's bladed appendage nearly separated the clown's head from his neck and his lifeless body crashed to the floor.

Three down… one to go…

Sophie glanced up at the holographic projection and saw that the timer displayed that only seven minutes remained.

This was going better than she expected so she definitely knew that something was going to happen next…

The surviving clown's body swelled up like a balloon and he began floating gently in the air as if he planned to ascend to the heavens.

Sophie threw needles at his body and their pointed ends sank into his flesh but to no avail.

The hybrid girl reached into her storage bag and pulled out a small vial.

She uncorked the top of the vial and swallowed its contents without a moment of hesitation.

Sophie could feel the toxins inside the vial enter her body and flow around her meridians before entering her venom glands.

The clown giggled happily and one by one the bodies of his dead companions floated up towards him as if they were guided by some mysterious force.

The monstrous abomination stretched out his arms and his companions flew into his body where they melted into his fleshy exterior.

Four had now become one.

Sophie felt her fangs slowly lengthen as the potent venom in her glands were ready to deliver a fatal dose.

The clown in the air laughed hoarsely and then descended to the ground where it stood on tiptoes and struck a feminine pose.

"The show… must go… go… on…" the clown spoke with great effort as his body heaved with every breath that he took.

Sophie's body trembled with excitement.

Maybe it was the effect of using her bloodlust state for too long but there was only one urge in her mind.

Hunt.

Hunt.

HUNT!

Sophie growled inhumanly and her body blurred and then vanished from the spot. She reappeared next to the massive abomination and her fangs gleamed under the light.

Madness danced in her eyes as the hybrid girl opened her mouth wide and took a large bite.

The clown's flesh was rubbery and chewy with a disgusting aftertaste, but Sophie did not plan to eat him.

Her hollow fangs injected an endless stream of deadly venom inside the clown's body.

The clown swung one of his hefty arms at the hybrid girl clinging to his side, but Sophie easily dodged the obvious blow.

One of Sophie mirror copies dashed forward and pulled Sophie out of harm's way just as one of the rashes on the clown's body exploded.

Purplish ooze sprayed in the direction where Sophie had been standing just seconds ago. The clown frowned and prepared to attack again when his body froze.

He collapsed on the ground and began to convulse. Froth and saliva leaked out of the sides of his mouth as his large body trembled.

Sophie's venom was liquefying his organs from the inside and eating away at his muscle and fat tissues.

It was a horrific death that lasted for several long agonising minutes until the clown eventually stopped moving.

[Tick... tick… tick…]

[There are: 0 minutes 0 seconds remaining…]

[Congratulations! You have passed!]