Free Web Novel"MATT!!!"
In that same instant, Matt woke up inside the mental world.
He didn't ask.
He didn't hesitate.
He didn't waste time trying to understand why Noxx had screamed like that.
He just took control.
The shift was abrupt.
Noxx was pushed inward and Matt opened his eyes in the real world with the body already dropping a few centimeters downward.
The first thing he saw was the metal skull pinned to the ceiling.
The second was the open mouth.
The third was the dark glimmer pooling inside it.
Matt felt the body tense up.
'Oh, right.'
He didn't sound surprised.
He sounded tired.
Very tired.
But his hands moved fast.
Matt holstered the guns at his waist using the hardened blood straps they'd been using for days. Then he gripped the bow-lance with both hands and beat his wings hard.
Fwoosh!
The body dropped sharply just before a dark beam shot out from the boss's mouth.
BZZZMM!
The beam passed over him and struck the wall.
BOOM!
The stone exploded into pieces. Fragments fell downward, swallowed by the darkness below.
Matt didn't look at the bottom.
Not yet.
He kept his distance.
The metal skeleton was still pinned to the ceiling, its eight arms spread flat against the stone. Its fingers were driven into the surface like claws, and several plates across its body trembled as it tried to pull free.
It wasn't moving well. Its head, however, was another story. It turned toward Matt with a dry crack.
Crrrk!
The mouth opened again.
Matt shifted to the right.
Fwoosh!
Another beam fired.
BZZZMM!
It passed close to his leg.
Too close.
The dark heat grazed his skin, leaving a deeply unpleasant sensation.
Matt tightened his grip on the bow-lance.
Noxx spoke inside his mind, still shaken.
"Are you really going to fight that…?"
Matt didn't answer right away.
He flew backward, keeping his gaze fixed on the boss.
The skeleton moved its arms again.
One of them tried to peel away from the ceiling.
The stone groaned.
CRRRAK!
But the arm didn't fully break loose.
Another tried to snap near him.
The metal hand opened and closed like a jaw.
CLACK!
Matt watched.
One second.
Two.
Three.
The boss tried to move more.
It couldn't.
Not fully.
It was stuck.
Noxx spoke again.
"Matt."
"Wait."
Matt moved in slightly, without entering range of the arms.
The boss snapped its head toward him immediately.
The mouth opened.
Matt dropped downward.
BZZZMM!
The beam missed.
Matt studied the arms.
The metal hands snapped at the air near him, but didn't reach.
CLACK! CLACK!
The boss couldn't reposition.
It could only attack from where it was.
Matt swallowed.
The cave was playing games with them.
Again.
Matt felt the weight of exhaustion in the body. His muscles were at their limit, his wings ached, his blood reserves were low, and the bow-lance was cracked.
The guns were worse.
They'd gone through too many rooms with no food, no usable blood, and no real rest chamber.
Stone enemies didn't feed them.
Blood-fueled repairs had worn the body down.
And the ego weapons still hadn't awakened.
No matter how many monsters they killed. No matter how many rooms they cleared. No matter how much damage they took.
Nothing.
Matt clenched his teeth.
"If we keep pushing forward, we're going to die from attrition before we find the way out."
Noxx didn't answer.
She already knew.
Matt looked down into the darkness beneath his feet.
He couldn't see the bottom.
Then he looked at the boss.
Matt breathed slowly.
"Noxx."
"Yeah?"
"We're fighting now."
Silence.
Then Noxx responded, firm, but with tension underneath.
"The space here is tighter than before."
"Yeah."
"We can't maintain distance."
"That doesn't matter right now."
Noxx took a moment to understand.
Then her presence went rigid.
"You're going to use the split?"
"Yeah."
"Are you sure?"
"No."
The answer was honest.
Matt shifted the bow-lance to spear mode and gripped it hard.
"But it's all or nothing."
Noxx went quiet.
Matt continued:
"If we don't do it now, we're never getting out of here."
"Understood…"
Matt looked up. The boss was starting to pull free more. The stone around its arms was cracking bit by bit.
CRK! CRK! CRK!
They had seconds.
Not minutes.
Matt grabbed the guns from his waist and tossed them upward.
"Catch them."
Then he activated the technique.
The pain came immediately.
"Ghk…!"
The magic drove itself into his mind.
Noxx's consciousness was forced outward.
Red light flooded the body.
Vmmm!
The air shook and the room lit up.
The boss opened its mouth again.
Matt gritted his teeth.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
'Here we go…'
The split detonated.
VMM!
Two bodies appeared in the air.
Matt and Noxx were thrown in opposite directions for an instant.
Noxx opened her eyes, disoriented, but didn't panic. She just reacted — her wings tore out from her back.
Rassh!
Then she launched herself upward.
Fwoosh!
The guns were still spinning in the air. Noxx extended both hands and caught them.
"Got them."
Matt tried to draw his wings.
Nothing.
His back didn't respond.
He opened his eyes.
'Damn it.'
He tried again.
Nothing.
The power distribution had gone wrong.
Matt started to fall and Noxx saw it.
Her first instinct was to shoot the boss — she had both guns in hand.
The skeleton's head was exposed.
The mouth was open.
The opening was right there.
But Matt was falling.
Noxx clenched her teeth, holstered the guns in one sharp motion, and threw herself toward him.
Fwoosh!
Matt looked at her.
"Don't—"
Noxx reached him and caught him under the arms.
"I've got you."
"Shoot the boss."
"No."
"Noxx."
"No."
The answer came out firm.
Matt locked his jaw but didn't argue — because at that exact moment, the ceiling broke.
CRRRAAASH!
The metal skeleton tore free.
The stone shattered around its eight arms, and the massive body began to fall straight down on top of them.
Noxx's eyes went wide. The boss descended with all its arms spread open. The hands reached for them as it fell.
CLACK! CLACK! CLACK!
Noxx beat her wings with everything she had.
FWOOSH!
She carried Matt in her arms and threw them sideways.
One hand passed centimeters from her back.
Another tried to close around their legs.
Noxx twisted her body.
Whoosh!
A third hand grazed her left wing.
"Ugh!"
The pain shot up her back, but she didn't stop.
Matt was looking down.
The boss kept falling. Its arms tried to grab the walls. Some of them scraped at the stone.
SKRRRKK!
But they couldn't stop its descent.
The metal mass disappeared into the darkness.
Noxx waited to hear the impact.
Nothing.
Only silence.
A silence that lasted far too long.
Noxx swallowed.
"How high up are we…?"
Matt looked down.
He couldn't see the bottom.
"Too high."
Noxx was breathing hard.
Carrying him while flying was not easy. Her arms trembled. Her wings too. But she didn't let go.
Matt looked at her.
"We need to reset the split."
Noxx understood.
"Merge and separate again."
"Yeah."
Noxx nodded.
She didn't ask if it would hurt.
She already knew.
Matt extended a hand toward her.
"Focus."
Noxx closed her eyes.
The chain appeared faster this time.
Vmmm!
Red light poured from their backs.
CLANK!
The two bodies were pulled together.
The fusion hurt.
A lot.
But it didn't last long.
VMM!
The single body appeared in the air for an instant.
Matt held the main consciousness.
He didn't let the body fall too far.
He activated the technique again almost immediately.
"Again."
Noxx didn't protest.
The second split hit like a punch to the inside of the skull.
VMM!
Two bodies appeared again.
Noxx opened her eyes with a broken breath.
Matt too.
This time, when he tried to draw his wings, his back responded.
Rassh!
The black wings came out — smaller than usual, but they came out.
Matt steadied himself in the air with a wince.
"Good."
Noxx breathed hard.
"Can you fly?"
"Enough."
Down below, something finally hit.
DOOOOOOM!
The cave shook.
A wave of air surged up from the darkness like heavy pressure.
Noxx shielded her face with one arm.
Matt looked down.
"There it is."
For a few seconds, nothing moved.
Then came a scraping sound. Metal against stone.
SKRRK! SKRRK! SKRRK!
Noxx looked down.
The color drained from her face.
The skeleton was climbing back up.
Not flying.
Not jumping.
Climbing.
Its eight arms drove themselves into the cave walls as its shattered body rose at an unsettling speed. It moved like something that didn't feel pain, using hands, fingers, and broken pieces to crawl its way back up toward them.
Matt gripped the bow-lance.
"Noxx."
She raised the guns.
"Yeah."
"Focus on the head."
Noxx nodded.
"Ignore the hands."
She looked at the eight arms closing in.
She didn't like the order.
But she nodded again.
"Understood."
The boss opened its mouth as it climbed. Matt moved right, Noxx moved left.
"Now."
Noxx fired first. The fast gun unleashed short bursts of mana.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The rounds struck the skeleton's head.
CLANG! CLANG! CRACK!
The metal skull shook.
A crack appeared near its right eye.
The boss swung two arms toward Noxx.
She pulled back.
Fwoosh!
She didn't stop firing.
BANG! BANG!
Matt drove forward with the bow-lance in spear mode.
One of the arms tried to grab him.
Matt charged mana into the tip.
The spear vibrated hard.
VMMM!
"Out of the way."
He drove the spear into the metal hand.
THUUUD!
The impact exploded with a red shockwave.
CRASH!
The hand shattered into pieces.
Matt twisted his body to dodge another arm.
The integrated cannon on one of the boss's arms swung toward him.
Noxx's eyes went wide.
"Matt!"
A beam fired.
BZZZMM!
Matt folded one wing and dropped a few meters.
The beam passed over him.
Then he spread his wings again and shifted the bow-lance to bow mode.
Clack!
The string formed.
Matt didn't use pure mana.
He used blood.
A red line ran from his hand and merged with the arrow.
Noxx noticed.
It would weaken him.
But she said nothing.
Matt fired.
Fwip!
The blood arrow struck the boss's head.
CRACK!
Another crack.
Noxx raised the heavy gun.
The weapon vibrated in her hand.
Vmmm!
"Yeah, I know."
She used her own blood as ammunition.
The gun drew a red line from her palm.
Noxx clenched her teeth.
It hurt — but the shot loaded. She aimed at the crack Matt had opened.
She fired.
BOOM!
The round hit dead center.
CRAAACK!
Part of the skull broke away.
The boss let out a mechanical sound.
Not a scream.
Something worse.
A broken noise grinding out of its head.
GGRRRRKKK!
The arms started moving with more violence.
Three hands crossed in front of its face to shield the head.
Matt moved in to break one.
Noxx held her distance, shooting through the gaps.
The boss couldn't cover itself from both of them.
That was the advantage.
Matt was better at dodging.
Noxx had the better angle.
For a few seconds, it worked.
The head took more damage.
BANG! BANG!
Fwip!
CRACK!
Another piece broke off.
The glow inside the mouth became irregular.
Noxx felt something shift.
The boss was losing control.
And then it made a decision.
It let go of the wall.
Noxx's eyes went wide.
"What?"
The entire skeleton dropped again.
This time it didn't try to hold on.
It let itself fall.
Matt didn't hesitate.
He dove after it.
Fwoosh!
Noxx felt a bad feeling crawl up her spine immediately. Above, near where the boss had been pinned, she spotted a gap in the ceiling.
A dark hole — not large, but there.
"Matt, wait—"
Matt was already descending at full speed.
Noxx gripped the guns tighter.
"Matt!"
He didn't stop.
The fall was long.
Way too long.
The boss hit the ground first.
DOOOOM!
The cave shook.
Mechanical shrapnel scattered in every direction.
Matt arrived right after, killing his speed with his wings at the last second and landing close to the shattered body.
Thud!
The skeleton was in pieces.
Arms broken.
The head — though damaged — was still there.
Matt ran toward it.
Then the walls opened. Arms reached out from them.
Stone and metal arms, long and thin, with sharp fingers, stretching toward the broken pieces of the skeleton.
Matt's eyes went wide.
'Oh.'
They were trying to repair it.
Before they reached the head, Matt shifted the bow-lance to spear mode.
Clack!
He cut the first one.
Slash!
Then the second.
Slash!
Third.
CRACK!
He planted himself directly in front of the boss's destroyed head.
"No."
More arms came out of the walls.
Then the floor.
Then the cracks beneath his feet.
Noxx descended from above, firing.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
She took out several coming at Matt's blind spots.
"Matt, on your left!"
Matt turned without looking.
Slash!
The arm dropped.
Another shot up from behind.
Noxx split it with the heavy gun.
BOOM!
The floor cracked.
The guns vibrated in her hands, faster and faster.
Vmmm! Vmmm!
Noxx gritted her teeth.
'Not now…'
Matt drove the spear near the head and pushed.
The metal screeched.
SKRRRK!
It wasn't going in far enough.
The skull had a protected core.
Noxx could see it from above.
The arms were multiplying, surrounding Matt.
Through the walls.
Through the floor.
From behind.
From above.
"Matt, get up here!"
He didn't answer.
"Matt!"
Matt clenched his teeth and pushed harder.
The bow-lance shook violently.
VMMMM!
There were cracks in the weapon.
Too many.
The tip trembled.
The bow-mode string was damaged.
The body of the weapon was at its limit.
Matt felt it.
And he got angry.
Not at Noxx.
Not at the boss.
At the weapon.
"Wake up."
The bow-lance vibrated.
Nothing more.
An arm grabbed Matt's leg.
He cut it.
Slash!
Another tried to take him by the shoulder.
Noxx fired.
BANG!
The arm broke.
Matt drove the spear harder.
THUD!
The tip sank in a few more centimeters.
But it wasn't enough.
The arms kept closing in.
Noxx descended lower.
"It's dangerous!"
Matt didn't hear her.
Or didn't want to.
The boss's head had begun repairing itself slowly.
Metal shards were moving toward it.
The arms were dragging them in.
Matt shouted:
"If you don't wake up right now, we're both going to die in this hole!"
The bow-lance vibrated. Different this time.
Noxx felt it too.
The guns vibrated in response.
VMMMM!
"Matt…"
The arms caught one of Matt's wings.
Then his left arm.
Then his waist.
Matt clenched his teeth.
"Let go…"
The arms pulled in different directions.
Noxx's eyes flew open.
They were trying to tear him apart.
"Matt!"
She fired until her hands ached.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
She destroyed several arms, but more kept coming.
Too many.
Her blood reserves were dropping.
The guns were cracked.
The body was exhausted.
Noxx felt her eyes go wet. She let out a short, humorless laugh.
"This is ridiculous…"
She kept firing.
Matt drove the spear one last time.
The tip reached the core inside the head.
It didn't break through.
The weapon groaned.
CRK!
Noxx felt her heart stop.
The bow-lance was about to shatter.
.
..
..
Then the light appeared.
A golden, blinding light — pouring out from Matt's weapon.
It didn't start as an explosion.
It started as a glow that filled every crack in the bow-lance and spread across the entire spear.
The arms holding Matt paused for an instant.
Noxx's eyes went wide.
"What…?"
A voice spoke.
Not Matt's.
Not Noxx's.
A new voice.
"Master!"
Matt went completely still.
"What?"
"Master, please bind your soul with me now!"
Matt's jaw tightened.
"Don't call me Master."
"There's no time, Master, please!"
The arms started moving again.
Noxx kept firing to hold them off.
BANG! BANG!
The weapon's voice continued:
"I can speak with you now, but I cannot hold on much longer. Please, bind me."
Matt breathed hard.
The sensation was strange.
The weapon wasn't just talking.
It was pulling at his consciousness.
A pressure similar to fusing with Noxx, but less violent. Like something trying to open a door inside his mind and step through.
Matt hated how familiar it felt.
But he had no choice.
"Fine."
The golden light intensified.
"Bind yourself."
The response was immediate.
VMMMM!
Noxx had to shield her eyes with one arm.
"Ah!"
The light filled the room.
Matt felt something enter his consciousness.
Not like Iris.
This was different.
It was a bond.
A direct line between him and the weapon.
The formation of the bond hurt — but it didn't break him.
The bow-lance rebuilt itself in his hands.
The cracks disappeared.
No.
They didn't disappear.
They integrated.
The body of the weapon turned more silver, with red cracks that no longer looked like damage — they looked like part of the design. The spear tips glowed gold. The bow-mode string turned gold too — thin and taut and firm.
The weapon vibrated with joy.
"Soul bond complete!"
Matt opened his eyes.
The arms tried to tear him apart again.
Matt spun the spear.
FWOOSH!
A golden trail followed the motion.
The cut didn't only reach what the tip touched.
It extended further.
Much further.
SLAAAAASH!
Every arm surrounding Matt was severed at the same time.
Noxx was speechless.
Matt was too, for a moment.
The new voice spoke fast:
"Perfect! You understood it immediately!"
Matt set his jaw.
"Shut up."
"Yes, Master!"
"Don't call me Master."
Matt advanced.
The arms tried to push out of the walls again.
Matt spun the spear at an absurd speed.
Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
Golden trails cut through everything around him.
SLASH! CRASH! CRACK!
Arms severed.
Fingers destroyed.
The boss tried to shield its head with the last arms it had left.
Noxx fired to break them open.
BANG! BANG!
Matt leapt forward.
The bow-lance shifted form mid-movement.
Spear mode.
Longer.
Sturdier.
Golden tip loaded with red mana.
The weapon's voice screamed with excitement:
"Now!"
Matt drove the spear straight into the head.
THUUUUUD!
The core cracked.
Gold and red light detonated inside the skull.
BOOOOOOM!
The boss's head was pulverized.
The arms emerging from the walls stopped.
Then fell limp.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Mechanical shards were still raining down as the sound of Matt and Noxx breathing filled the room.
But the boss wasn't moving anymore.
Matt stood for a few seconds. Then his legs gave out.
"Ugh…"
He nearly fell.
He drove the spear into the ground and leaned on it.
The weapon spoke with excitement:
"That was incredible, Master! You understood my ability and used it perfectly on the first try. The range extension, the mana integration, the spear rotation — all of it was—!"
Matt breathed hard.
"Shut up."
"Yes!"
The voice went quiet.
For two whole seconds.
"But that really was amazing though."
Matt closed his eyes.
"I'm going to throw you down to the bottom of this cave."
"No, Master!"
"Don't call me Master."
Noxx descended slowly.
Her wings trembled.
She had the guns in her hands — both vibrating at a steady, constant rate.
They hadn't awakened.
They hadn't spoken.
They hadn't repaired themselves.
They only vibrated.
Like they were close to something, but not close enough.
Noxx looked at Matt's bow-lance.
Silver.
Red.
Gold. freewebnovel.cσ๓
Complete.
Alive.
Then she looked at her guns.
She lowered her gaze slightly.
She had helped.
She knew that.
She had taken out arms.
She had covered Matt's blind spots.
She had maintained distance.
She had used her own blood.
But in the end…
The weapon that awakened was Matt's.
Not hers.
The bow-lance spoke again:
"Master, why is there another girl that looks just like you?"
Noxx went rigid.
Matt looked at the weapon.
"I told you to shut up."
"I'm sorry. But it's an important question. Is it a skill? A body split? An imperfect duplication technique? Why do they have the same body? Why does one of them use guns? Why does—?"
"Silence."
"Yes, Master."
Matt gripped the spear harder.
"Don't call me Master."
"Yes."
A pause.
"So… Mistress?"
Matt closed his eyes.
"Worse."
Noxx, despite her exhaustion, almost smiled.
Almost.
But the bitter feeling was still there.
Matt breathed deeply.
Then he looked at Noxx.
"Time."
Noxx blinked.
"What?"
"How long did we take?"
Noxx reacted immediately — she had definitely been tracking the time since the second split, because Matt had given her that order during training.
"Eight minutes…"
Matt held her gaze.
Noxx swallowed.
"And thirty-three seconds."
