"You guys get back. I got this." Gale said as he stood by the door.
"Fine," Ollie released the arms. "Everyone give him cover fire. Try not to get hit by the bullets, rookie."
"Should I use any of the charges or explosives we've got in storage?" Gale asked, glancing back at the entrance door.
"No, don't," Ollie said, pulling out his own deagle. "Who knows what'll happen if that shit hits the giant floating orb."
The door on the opposite side of the chamber burst open, metal screeching as it bent outward. Four massive figures emerged, standing 9 feet tall. Their bodies were a disgusting grotesque display of exposed muscle, tissue, and tendrils that writhed along their torso. Metal plates covered their arms, ending in spinning cylindrical blades where the hands should’ve been. The top half of their heads were encased in a faceless metal helmet, leaving only the lipless mouths exposed. Crude speaker-like grills protruded from where their throats should be as blood dripped at the edges where the metal was grafted.
The grotesque monster at the front spotted them first across the vast Core Chamber. Its mouth stretched wide open, releasing a roar that could only be heard as a combination of an elk and a lion. It carried a wrongness to it as if its vocal cords were shaped in a way to induce only fear and nothing else. Its whole body also carried the same disgusting aesthetic of the eye spiderling he killed at the first level.
"Those are fucking flesh pounds!" Kyle shouted. "Shoot it quick! Clyde! Don't let it get close!"
Clyde fired first, the shockwave round hitting the lead creature square in the centre. The impact should have thrown it backward, but the flesh pound absorbed the hit with a grunt and continued its advance across the chamber.
Ollie opened fire with his deagle. So did Kyle with his pistols. However, their calibre didn’t have enough stopping power against the mass of exposed muscle. A bullet hit the metal covered knee cap, only to bounce off and ricochet in the chamber.
Lily sat down by the wall of the entrance. She wasn't combat ready. She couldn't even hold her own deagle with how weak she was. Rachel's fire couldn't be used either. That would've risked hitting the floating orb and who knows what would've happened if it broke. The worst thing would be if they become stranded in this sector, which was bad.
Analyze.
[Flesh Warrior]
[Error: target is sentient being. Cannot analyze.]
Shit. Gale forgot the restriction. At least it told him its name which wasn't that far off from what Kyle had just said. Its also probably a corrupted entity.
Weber materialized in Gale's hand as the first flesh pound crossed the halfway point of the chamber. He activated Phase Touch, making the edge of the blade shimmer with a faint pale light.
Gale rolled his shoulders, planting his feet firmly. "Cover me."
The flesh warrior moved. Too fast for how massive it was. Each of its strides covered too much space. The spinning blade on its arms whirred louder as it closed in, ignoring the oncoming bullets that hit its flesh.
"Aim for the neck!" Ollie fired another round that punched through the creature's neck.
That did some damage. Black blood sprayed out from the bullet wound, but it closed way too fast. In just a second, the bullet wound couldn't be seen anymore.
Gale sidestepped as the first flesh pound lunged, its spinning blade missing him by inches. He pivoted, bringing Weber around in a clean arc that sliced through the flesh warrior's neck. Sparks flew as the metal part hit the blade, though the slice was too shallow. It had backpedalled a step too fast for his blade to have cleanly cleaved off its head.
The flesh pound staggered but didn't fall. Black fluid leaked from the cut. Its mouth opened and screamed at a deafening volume that shook Gale's bones.
It spun towards Gale. Both blades on both arms spun furiously as it neared him.
Dropping low, Weber cut upwards through the flesh warrior's abdomen. More black fluid sprayed onto his face. Shallow again. It had moved just before he could slice it in half.
Clyde fired another shot that hit the flesh warrior's neck. It had swerved its neck right before the bullet hit, causing only half of the neck to be blown to bits, and its regeneration sped up.
"Fuck. That should've cut it in half."
The second flesh pound reached Gale before he could finish the first. Its blade caught him across the shoulder, tearing through his jacket and drawing blood. Pain lanced down his arm, but he kept moving.
Gale couldn't hold back. Weber lengthened on command through Alter. Phase Touch elongated along with the lengthened edge. He dashed back to the first flesh warrior and sliced it in half by the torso just before it could fully regenerate its neck.
The first flesh warrior split cleanly in two at the waist, but both halves kept moving. The top half dragged itself forward using its blade-arms while black fluid pooled beneath it. The bottom half staggered blindly, bumping into the platform that held the Origin Core.
"The fuck?!" Kyle shouted.
The third and fourth flesh warriors charged across the chamber. Blades spun, whirring loudly in the chamber.
Behind him, Clyde fired another shockwave round. The blast knocked the third flesh warrior off its feet, sending it tumbling across the floor. The shockwave was much stronger this time. Looking back, Gale saw the strain in Clyde's eyes.
No time to glance at anything else though. The first flesh warrior's top half lunged at Gale's legs. He jumped, narrowly avoiding the spinning blades. Weber came down, severing the creature's head from its shoulders. The movement from both halves stopped. Blades continued to spin.
[Tainted Flesh Warrior felled.]
[Description: Born from a sacred womb, these monstrosities are born with an insatiable hunger for violence against those who defy the Proctor. They are a mass of flesh made to fight in the world of the Architect. Created and grafted by the Proctor.]
[Extracting Origin from Prey…]
[Reward: 10 points]
The second flesh warrior charged. Blades spun close to Gale's face. Dainv Combat Mastery took over. He parried the first blade, allowing it to spin him.
Weber passed through its ankles, causing it to stumble and drop. As it dropped, he aimed the edge of the blade to meet where the neck would fall. It jerked back at the last second. Weber sliced off a quarter of its skull, but it still kept moving.
Using its stumps for feet, it rushed forward, tackling Gale with its full weight. They crashed to the floor. Its huge body pinned him down. Blades sparked across the metal floor, closing in on his head.
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Phase Touch activated on his entire body. The flesh warrior fell through him as he rolled away. He materialized his whole body again before pushing to his feet.
The monstrosity scrambled up, letting a deafening roar once again as it hurled itself towards Gale.
Gale took on a baseball batting pose. Weber extended. Flesh warrior neared the striking range.
Swing.
Everything above half of its shoulder was cleanly sliced through, throwing the mass of flesh onto the wall and covering it with black blood.
[Flesh Warrior felled.]
[Extracting Origin from Prey…]
[Reward: 10 points]
"Two down!" Gale shouted.
The third flesh warrior had recovered from Clyde's shockwave blast. It circled Gale warily.
It lunged suddenly, feinting right before dashing to his left flank with its spinning blades. Gale tried to dodge by jumping back. He narrowly avoided the spinning blades, but its shoulders caught him. He was launched back as his back crashed onto the wall, leaving a dent in the metal.
The only thing he could compare this hit to was getting hit by a garbage truck or maybe two garbage trucks.
The flesh warrior used its advantage, charging forward before Gale could fully recover. He rolled sideways as the spinning blades shredded the metal walls behind him.
Vaulting from the wall, Weber swung in a clean arc. Edge met the creature's arm by its base. Its right arm fell off, yet the blades continued spinning.
The flesh warrior didn't react to the loss. It swung with its remaining arm, the blade whistling past Gale's face as he ducked. Then it body-slammed him, driving him to the floor with its weight.
Its face lowered toward his, mouth opening wide to reveal its giant human-like teeth. Black fluid dripped onto his face.
Gale activated Phase Touch again, allowing the flesh warrior to sink into it. The flesh warrior crashed down on nothing. He pushed himself off of the ground and released the phased state. Weber came down in another clean arc, severing its head completely.
[Flesh Warrior felled.]
[Extracting Origin from Prey…]
[Reward: 10 points]
Three down.
A scream from across the chamber yanked his attention to the door. The fourth flesh warrior had bypassed him completely, heading straight for the others. Rachel stood in its path, flames erupting from her palms. Fire engulfed the monster, but it pushed forward through the blaze, its flesh charring but its advance unstoppable.
"Stop it!" Ollie shouted, firing his Desert Eagle repeatedly. The bullets punched through the burning flesh but might as well have been pebbles for all the good they did.
Rachel met the creature head-on as it reached the doorway. Her fist connected with its metal faceplate, the impact crumpling the metal inward. The flesh warrior staggered but slashed out with one blade-arm, cutting deep into Rachel's thigh. Blood sprayed across the doorway as she cried out, stumbling backwards.
Gale was already moving. Weber extended to maximum length of 2x as he charged across the chamber. The flesh warrior pushed past Rachel, forcing its way through the doorway. The others backpedalled into the hallway, Ollie lifting Lily with his telekinesis while Kyle and Clyde fired wildly at the advancing creature.
Rachel attempted another punch, striking the creature's back, but her strength was fading. Blood poured from her thigh wound, creating a slick puddle on the metal floor.
"Bullets aren't working!" Kyle shouted, his pistol clicking empty.
"Get to cover!" Clyde yelled.
The flesh warrior advanced on Lily and Ollie, who had backed into a corner. Ollie fired his Desert Eagle directly into the creature's mouth, but it kept going.
Gale rushed through the doorway. Using the door's frame, he launched himself onto the remaining flesh warrior. In one breath, his body spun and Weber arrived at the monster's neck. Black blood erupted from the stump of its neck, raining down on the metal floor and covering all the broken robots with black blood.
[Flesh Warrior felled.]
[Extracting Origin from Prey…]
[Reward: 10 points]
The headless flesh warrior froze, then slowly crumpled forward. Its arms continued to spin for several seconds before finally going still.
Gale turned to Rachel who leaned against the wall. The slash across her thigh looked deep, but it looked to have already been cauterized. Without hesitation, he materialized a gun syringe from his storage and pressed it against her thigh.
The syringe hissed as it discharged its healing contents. Green light spread through her veins, and the charred flesh fell off. The glow intensified around the wound and the muscle fibres and veins reconnected themselves, allowing colour to come back to Rachel's face.
"Thanks," she stood up and tested her weight on the injured leg. "Is everyone else good?"
Kyle checked himself for injuries, patting down his torso. "Yeah, somehow. Not even a scratch. Fucking flesh pounds, man. Total bullet sponges."
"What the hell does that even mean?" Lily asked, still sitting down by the wall.
"It means bullets don't do shit against them," Kyle said. "Like trying to stop a freight train by spitting on it. If I had a shotgun, I'd probably have done this in a couple of shells."
Clyde sighed and looked to Lily. "Can you at least be helpful and put a cleaning sigil on us? We're covered in this black shit."
"Fine." Lily put an index finger on her lips and whispered inaudibly. A light green sigil appeared above each of their heads. The black blood covered all over them fell right off onto the floor.
Gale felt his fingers suddenly too clean for his liking. This super sterilizing thing wasn't to his taste. But now, he smelled like a minty air freshener.
"Wow," Kyle sniffed his arm. "I smell like a damn air freshener."
Ollie brushed down his now-clean suit. "Why couldn't you do that in the agriculture area when we were all drenched in sweat?"
"That sigil costs a lot. I wasn't going to waste my reserves on it," Lily said. "Now I can because I'm not fighting. Conservation of resources, Ollie. Basic stuff."
"Looks like everyone's alright, judging by the way you're all talking," Gale said, looking towards the dead flesh warrior. "So now do you believe me about that disgusting eye spider thing? Seems like this third player is a lot more disgusting than the robots."
"For someone who licks everything, you're disgusted by this?" Clyde asked.
"Mom told me to never lick dead or rotting animals," Gale said. She even said the nightmare demons would come haunt him at night after licking one. That was probably a euphemism for a disease, though.
Kyle burst out laughing. "That's where you draw the line? You'd lick a stone but not a dead corpse?"
"Stones are yummy though…" Gale said, causing everyone to raise an eyebrow at him.
Ollie knelt beside the fallen flesh warrior, using his telekinesis to rip out the metal speaker grill from its throat. The device floated in front of him, rotating slowly as he examined it.
"Just a normal speaker," he said. "Nothing special about it other than it's spec'd for high decibel output."
"When it roared," Gale said, "the scream actually came from the speakers rather than its vocal cords."
"That's because it doesn't have vocal cords," Ollie dropped the speaker. He pointed to the exposed flesh of the creature's neck. "Look at this. The throat's been completely reconfigured. There's a tube going from what looks like a human larynx straight into this speaker system."
Using his telekinesis, Ollie pried open the flesh on the torso. The others gathered around, and even Lily limped over to see what he was talking about.
"Those are… human organs," Rachel said.
"Yeah, but modified," Ollie said. "The heart's twice the normal size, and these blood vessels are reinforced with some kind of metal tubing."
"So what, we're fighting cyborgs?" Kyle asked.
"Not cyborgs," Ollie said. "This is... biological modification with technological augmentation. They didn't just add tech to humans. They fundamentally changed the human body to accommodate the tech."
Ollie pointed to a partially exposed section of the brain visible through a clear plate in the skull. "See that? That's a human brain with circuitry fused directly into the neural pathways. Not implanted. Fused. Like they grew together."
"So these were humans once?" Rachel asked, her face tight with disgust.
"Yeah," Ollie said. "But they've been transformed so completely they're not even close to human anymore. Most likely, those spinning blades are controlled by its muscle, integrated into a completely redesigned musculature and bone structure if we dig further into it."
"But if these are human… then are they from our world?" Gale asked.
"Rookie, there's many worlds that Aur hasn't uncovered yet. People go missing all the time. It could be one of the explored ones, but chances are they aren't. This might be one of those cases where some unlucky people got transported into this and made into experiments," Ollie said. "And the Tide that the terminal talked about still has some weight on my mind."
"You think it's related?" Gale asked.
"I think the Arcanes aren't telling people shit that they should be telling," Ollie said.