Lily knew things were going to be bad when she couldn't see any weak points on the monster at all. Her Identify Weakness ability had been allowing her to steadily gain an understanding of what John referred to as blues, greens, yellows, and so on. While he saw their souls directly, she gained knowledge from understanding where she could shoot them to do the most damage.

On the monsters John called blues, it was like their weak points were more there than the rest of them, drawing her attention to them like they possessed some special kind of gravity that only affected vision. It was nigh impossible to miss those, she'd found.

The effect was similar for greens, but initially without the gravity drawing her vision to the right spot. She had to actively look for it, and once she'd found the right spot, the gravity effect would appear, and stayed.

Only one 'yellow' had come under her Identify Weakness' scrutiny so far. She'd had to find the weak point herself by scanning all over the monster's body, and if she lost sight of it, she had to find it all over again. That didn't sound too problematic on a surface level, since it wasn't as if the weak point moved, but when dealing with that kind of precision, it could be problematic.

It hadn't mattered, anyway. She'd found that the weak points she saw were meant only for her crossbow bolts. The others saw none of the same benefit of hitting the spot if she pointed it out to them.

And besides, John had figured out his own solution before she could tell him anyway. Whatever his arrows were, they were far more effective than any of the bolts she'd unlocked so far. That would change. Or so she hoped. With the sheer variety of bolts available in her menu, she would become quite the versatile distance fighter if she could stay alive long enough to adopt a decent range of them.

It just sucked that getting there meant staring down the sights of a projectile weapon, something she'd once sworn she'd never do again. Had promised, on her grandma's grave, that she'd not touch a rifle or bow as long as she lived. Technically, she'd never specified crossbows in that oath, she supposed.

But it didn't matter. Every time she squeezed the trigger, a little bit more of her soul died. Every time she saw a pop-up text in the corner of her vision letting her know how accurate she'd been, she imagined it read out in her father's voice, and her grandpa's, and her brother's, all at once. A horrible fucking chorus of the worst people she'd ever met. Sadistic bastards, every one of them.

It was hard to imagine that hunting had once been one of her favourite things. A family bonding activity.

Then the piece of shit she'd once called her father had shot a person, and they'd all laughed about it.

The system gave her more points the more 'accurate' her shot was. Accuracy, in this case, essentially just meant hitting the spot she'd intended to with a projectile. With a mental command, an overlay appeared on reality, a target made out of concentric circles like a target at a firing range. The closer her shot got to the self-assigned bullseye, the more points she was awarded.

There were no words to describe how much she hated it. Worse, she had to keep that misery to herself. She knew, objectively, that her system sounded soft in comparison to what some of the others had got. No one would understand.

And so she had summoned her crossbow and aimed down the sights the moment they reached the core room, seeing the thing overhead before anyone else, only to discover that the silhouette looming in the shadows had no weak points for her to find. Her breath caught in her throat. Her heart paused in grim anticipation.

She tried to tell herself this was just happening because the monster was swathed in darkness. If she couldn't properly see it, then how was she supposed to identify its weak points? It was only logical.

But this had never happened for any of the other monsters she'd encountered since unlocking Identify Weakness, and plenty of them had been hidden or obscured, in their own ways. Some had been even darker than this, and she'd only noticed them at all because their weak points drew her attention even though she couldn't actually see them with her naked eye.

None of the others had noticed it yet. Even without all the Skills and Spells and Superhuman abilities in play, she had a keen eye for things moving around in the darkness. It was easily the size of one of the double-decker buses they'd fought through to find their way here, but moved with the deadly grace of a tiger, contemptuously spitting in the face of the square-cube law—but that was hardly anything new—but she couldn't blame the others for first noticing the giant eyes of blue, green, and yellow that seemed to be drinking streams of white light like they were sucking on an invisible straw.

Maybe she might have felt less useless if she'd actually had the chance to call out a warning to the others. Instead, she was just as caught off guard when a crack of thunder tore through the room, setting her ears to ringing. The monster dropped from the darkness, the light of the three great eyes illuminating it in countless shades of blue, green, and yellow. The great eyes turned to watch it with their hourglass irises.

John spat a curse. Jade gasped. Chester whimpered. Doug sighed. Alissa gave a quiet prayer. The crow cawed on John's shoulder and flapped its wings as if in defiance, the dove gave an alarmed hoot atop Lily's helmet, and the parrots echoed some impressively vulgar phrases they must have picked up from their old owners, earning a soft laugh from Doug.

It was enormous. A tangle of chrome and tendon, its body shaped like a bus that had been put through the world's biggest blender and moulded into the vague approximation of a king crab. Where its front grille should have been, there was a jaw made of reinforced bumpers, all curled inward like the petals of a carnivorous flower, gnashing in anticipation. Its legs—six of them, none symmetrical—ended in wheels that turned slowly, grinding on nothing. Red lights glared out from windows where eyes should have been. Shards of glass cascaded off its body in an endless stream, and a sound like hissing static echoed through the room.

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Lily scanned the monster's form as fast as she could, but still saw no weakness. Just looking at it, she didn't think she'd find one no matter how long she looked, because she rather suspected the difference in power between them was just too great for any part of its body to be considered 'weak' against the damage she could output.

She wasn't at all surprised when John said, "It's a red."

Neither was she shocked when she glanced over her shoulder to find the corridor they'd just entered through had vanished, the wall smooth like there'd never been an exit at all.

It was then that she realised the walls of this place were covered in thick, goopy motor oil, and the stench was suddenly strong enough to make her eyes water and sting her throat. The floor, meanwhile, was a massive flat expanse like the floor of the buses they'd been fighting through throughout the night, lacking any chairs or adornment of any description. It was hard to gauge the size of the place, when the only sources of light were the three giant eyes, but it looked to be about big enough to fit a stadium from wall to wall, but it was impossible to tell how high it went, as the walls bled away into darkness.

And in the centre of the cavernous room, the crab monster loomed, watching them, waiting. It could have been a statue. Except staring into its hellfire red eyes made her feel like static electricity was washing over her skin. Goosebumps prickled her arms. A shiver thrummed down her spine.

"I assume we're fighting it?" she whispered.

The dove trilled a quiet note, and the crow beat its mighty wings before rising into the air. The weight atop Lily's helmet eased as the dove joined it. The parrots remained on Doug's shoulders though, bobbing up and down with agitation.

"Doesn't look like we have much of a choice," Doug said. There was no smile on his face, for once. He was staring up at the three eyes. "We want to destroy those big balls up there, and I don't think the crab's going to stand aside and let us do that."

"I'm not sure about this," Jade asked. "That thing's the highest tier of monster. Might be better to retreat."

"No," John said immediately. One word, but it contained a story in itself, full of righteous anger. His eyes were locked on the monster, and Lily had no doubt he was running through his impressive repertoire of abilities.

She wasn't entirely sure how to feel about the guy. He acted really unhinged at times, throwing around cheesy jokes like some action hero who was determined not to take all this completely seriously.

But if there was one thing she was sure about, when it came to John, it was that he really hated the monsters.

That was one thing they had in common, in Lily's estimation. They all did. Hell, if one could find any human being left alive who didn't despise these bastards with every fibre of their being, she'd be shocked.

There was something more to John's hatred, though, and it manifested in the aforementioned jokes. It was like he looked down on them. The contemptuous ease with which he killed most monsters wasn't enough for him; he had to humiliate them.

It made her wonder about his system. Did it reward him for bullying the monsters, or something? That didn't sound like a particularly arduous task to be saddled with, but she wasn't exactly in a position to judge. She was sure the others would look at her own system similarly, after all.

"The exits are gone anyway," Lily added, because she wasn't sure the others had noticed yet.

Chester let out a yelp and spun on the spot, staring wide-eyed at the oily black walls behind them. The others were quick to follow, muttering their own curses. All except for John, who was still staring down the monster. He clenched his hands into fists at his side, and his lips thinned. After a moment, he reached into a pocket and brought out those ridiculous sunglasses he sometimes deigned to wear.

"Like I'd ever run from trash like this," John said with a sneer.

Lily let out a soft sigh. There it was again, that irreverent attitude in the face of mortal danger, like he refused to let these monstrous murderers inflict any fear on him.

She found herself fighting a smile. In a way, it was oddly reassuring. Feeling infected by his confidence, she decided to follow his example.

"It's just a big crab," she said. "Nothing to be scared about."

She felt it was a little unfair that everyone looked at her like she'd just made the most outrageous statement of all time. It was a ridiculous thing to say, to be fair. She supposed they were somewhat used to it from John at this point, but not from her.

John snorted. "I'm not the biggest fan of seafood, but I'll happily cook this crab."

In response, Lily gave a mental command, and the bolt loaded into her crossbow gained a red glow. It would catch fire once it struck. "Crab cakes are real good. You'll love 'em."

"I'll leave the preparations to you guys," John said, rolling his shoulders and stepping forward. "Just let me catch it for you first."

He dashed forward in his superspeed, darting straight for the monster. His arms blurred, launching a storm of fireballs at the giant crab monster with the speed of cannon balls. The crab laboriously lifted one of its great claws to block them, but plenty got through, exploding on impact and scorching its metal shell. Its mandibled jaw opened wide, and that thunderous roar tore through the room once more.

Lily hefted her crossbow and took aim, deciding to target its eyes, in lieu of an actual weak point. Taking out its vision could only help John, surely?

But she didn't even get to fire before disaster struck.

There was no warning. The moment John passed some unknown threshold, all three of the eyes abruptly turned to him, and the crab monster attacked. It hadn't looked like he was anywhere near the range of its claws. Not even close.

But even with John's super speed ability, the high-level monster was faster. She didn't even really understand what had happened until after it had already happened, and her brain could catch up with the images that had blurred around before her.

The boss monster crossed dozens of metres so fast it might as well have teleported, and its claw was suddenly outstretched to its side, like it had gone from one posture to another with no movement between. A bone-shuddering crack echoed through the cavernous room.

John was no longer where he'd been standing when the crab monster moved. Only Lily's keen eyesight let her see his form sailing through the air, having been slapped aside with contemptuous ease.

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