Ah, the rush. Did you know that the Antithesis will lay traps? Ones strong enough to threaten even me? There you are, gliding along thinking you have it all handled, when Bam, they pull out a new variant that smacks you about like a ragdoll. You scramble for control, try to fight it, but you can’t: it’s a hard counter to all your abilities.
So you do the only smart thing: you double down. Fight harder, not smarter. And it still bitch-slaps you until the only thing you can do is run. And then you’re scrambling for your life, trying to get away, only it won’t let you. Then, on the last sliver of your strength, you see an opening, and you rush it, slipping through the tiniest of cracks and surviving by the thinnest margins. And you are through, out safe and into free air. The adrenaline pounds through your veins in that addictive way, encouraged by enough endorphins to make an elephant dance. That’s the best feeling.
Oh, by the way, you should run now.
Tamor to a mixed crowd of bystanders and news bloggers after emerging from a hive.
“What the hell is a cuttlefish, Macy?” Nate asked with a bit of bite to his voice.
“A cephalopod that is much more dangerous than the octopus but less intelligent. Combining the octopus and the cuttlefish together for both climbing capabilities and minor amounts of strategy? That’s a deadly combination.” I stood up, sensing where the tentacles of this thing were.
I knew one thing for certain. It had more than eight and knew how to use all of them to their fullest as bodies were plucked one by one and flung into the water.
Shit. This was bad. I called the Sonar Resonator to me and turned it on, clearing out the bodies nearby. However, the sound seemed to attract the attention of the big model as it began to “run” in our direction, at least as much as a being with tentacles for limbs could run. In a fit of panic to avoid bringing the problems closer to Nate, I grabbed the Resonator and booked it, boosting off to the side. The rain of ink began to subside as I reached a more open space, allowing me a full view of what I had been sensing with my extra senses.
A massive green and black hulking conglomeration of tentacles, beaks, and what seemed to be extra ink vents on its limbs. This was a marvel of biology and also something deeply terrifying as a person who had studied the apex predators of the ocean.
From what I am able to gather from its composition, I would hazard that this is a variant Twenty-Four. A model that is relatively new that was developed within the Mediterranean that has been adopted within many hives. Going through research right now, several sightings of something similar were seen in the Middle East, where it has learned to thrive in high salinity environments like the Dead Sea. That it has made it this far is a testament to its lethality and effectiveness.
This was a Twenty-Four?! No wonder this was taking out everyone. I was barely able to deal with a Twenty-Nine in my own element.
I called the Requiem Piercer to my hand and gripped it tightly.
This was the test. This was the last roadblock in my way to getting Nate out of the combat area. I couldn’t lose now. Not when I was this close.
No time to plan. Every moment spent planning was a body lost, a person dead. If I could help it, I’d make it through this with the most people surviving.
“Come on, big guy, let’s rumble,” I mumbled under my breath and rushed forward, feeling a small boom of air form around me as I pressed off fast with the Bloodchaser.
I launched the Feeding Frenzy tip at a tentacle that was about to slam into me, causing it to recoil and begin to spasm. The Twenty-Four was apparently smart enough to not fall for my tricks as it grabbed onto the limb and ripped it out of its body and prepared to use it to slam down into me. I jumped forward, sliding across the ground as I pulled the tip of my harpoon back and barely dodged the bus-sized tentacle being slammed down at me by another tentacle.
“RIGHT!” A voice shouted from off to the side.
Nate.
I boosted to the right as I pulled myself to my feet as the tentacle came down for another slam to my left. Nearly crushed. I couldn’t take a hit in this fight. I wasn’t enhanced. But I did have tools, and I was going to make use of them.
For instance, I knew the reason why this Antithesis was an ambush unit: it was made from creatures that, while strong in various ways, had very little in the way of physical defensiveness. It’s why I could get the Feeding Frenzy in as easily as I did compared to the Twenty-Nine. In other words, it was squishy and relied on its intelligence and arsenal to get the job done.
In other words…a perfect mirror of what I had now.
I grinned and boosted in. Several smaller, beaked tendrils snaked out and snapped at me. A few even got in some nicks here and there, ones that I knew were probably laced with the Antithesis’ venom. However, the tendrils recoiled as soon as they bit in, getting shredded by the microblades on my wetsuit. Using the momentum from the failed strike, I raced closer, arriving at the main part of the body.
One advantage of getting up close with a tentacled creature is that they struggled violently with their close range. It seemed that their strength was lessened significantly when twisting back toward itself. Maybe because it could feel through some of its tentacles, it developed a slight weakness there? Whatever the reason, it was something I could exploit. I boosted upwards as much as the Bloodchaser would allow me, about one meter off the ground, before stabbing into the side of the creature with the Requiem Piercer at the peak of where I could get. The Twenty-Four writhed in pain, slapping around me and jostling my harpoon, though not dislodging it. I barely pulled myself up onto my harpoon with a bit of thrust from my propulsion system.
I had a horrific idea as I looked for weak points from my position down low on the body. Just needed to make it up further. I pulled my knife out from its sheath and took a deep breath to prepare myself, though my breathing was shaken by the pained movements of the Antithesis. More tentacles came to strike at me, the smaller beaked ones again. I felt like I was in one of those old pirate movies where the people fought on the mast of a ship with how I was balancing. Luckily, my tail was there for just that, as it swayed and swished to keep me upright on the shaft of the Requiem Piercer.
Two of the small tentacles burst forward to bite into me. I dodged one but was bitten by another, which recoiled from the SIREN. Not before I could cut off the beak from the tendril with my knife, however! Haha!
Now, where was I? Ah, yes.
A giant tentacle curled inward, my eyes widening as it struck into me.
“Gah!!” I screamed as I felt my body resist crumbling and falling from my perch. But I withstood, just barely, and turned and stabbed my knife into the creature with one hand and called the Requiem Piercer into my other hand and stabbed that in as well. I was free climbing now, and in severe pain doing it. I had a plan, and it was going to work. Just needed to make it to the eye. Just…needed to make it.
The tentacle reeled up again for a finishing blow.
“PROTECT THE SAMURAI! DISTRACT THE FUCKER!” A voice called through the comms, followed by a hail of bullets that struck into the Twenty-Four, enraging it. It was no longer focused on me, which I was willing to capitalize on.
Climbing faster, sometimes using the Bloodchaser to give me extra height before I would need to create a new handhold, I used all my remaining strength to assist the mechanical marvel on my back with the effort to climb this colossus.
My arms shook, and my head began to dip into moments of faded vision, but thankfully, Kyos assisted me in keeping the electricity of the Feeding Frenzy to a minimum in order to not fully recapture its attention. Best that way to avoid as much danger for the most time possible.
Hearing screams of fear from the comms shook my head from the pained fugue that made me reach a flow state as I was climbing. I needed to finish this, and fast. My own fear drowned in adrenaline, and I finished the last few leaps up before I finally reached below its eye, which left me in its periphery. I knew if the Antithesis could make sounds, it would be screaming bloody murder by now, especially with the jostling that now was trying to throw me from the side of its head. The thrusters and tail were all that left me able to hold on to my prey.
My injuries were healing, and the Twenty-Four wasn't, and I was about to capitalize on that fact and bring something even bigger that would take it down with all its accrued damage. Plunging my knife in, I began to cleave into the cornea, leaving me a big enough gash that I could stick my hand in through the vitreous fluid that began to pour out in globs. I kept stabbing further and further in with my knife, using every last ounce of my strength to push it as far in as I could until I couldn’t anymore. Satisfied, I finally released the knife.
Farewell, my friend. You did your job perfectly.
Creative, Macy, very creative.
“Thanks,” I thought back to Kyos as I teleported the Anemone right into the creature’s head.
The electricity flared from the pod as my muscles gave out, and I was sent tumbling down the ruined body of the creature, crashing against limbs as the air burst with ink, guts, and electricity. The head of the Twenty-Four was fully telefragged by the size of the Anemone and then subsequently crushed and incinerated by the modules’ size and defenses.
The moment I hit the ground, the world went black.
I rushed out from behind the PMC’s lines as Macy began to fall from the frying alien. I wasn’t going to make it to her in time, but I could at least get help for her.
“Help me! I need to get her to her pod! It should be able to help her rest and heal!” I screamed out over my shoulder before continuing to book it towards the falling body of Macy.
A brutal slam of her body across the ground nearly stopped my heart then and there.
Hope.
But Pathos and I were on the same page. In my heart of hearts, I knew she was alive. Barely for sure, but alive nonetheless. I almost slid across the ground on my knees as I dropped to check on her, placing a hand gently on her neck on the spot she taught me about a couple of years ago.
A pulse. Thank fuck, a pulse!
The sound of boots on the ground behind me sounded like the cavalry arriving, bringing a stretcher with them. The PMC leader, or at least who I thought was them, walked forward and placed out his hand to shake.
“Well now, you’re quick on your feet. Thanks for the call to shoot the bastard. Your friend probably wouldn’t have been able to survive without it.” The man spoke with a weary gladness.
I accepted the handshake, taking a deep breath and sighing with my exhale. “She did most of the work. I’m just a ride-along with a bit of extra help,” I sheepishly chuckled. “I need a nap.”
“We all do. Come on. Our people will get your friend to safety.”
I thought for a moment and then received a ping from an unknown user. As I looked at the ping, the PMC members were loading Macy onto the stretcher.
[Nate, can you bring her to her pod? I will be able to provide her better facilities there.]
A laugh left my mouth. It was Macy’s AI, asking me for help.
Well, I was more than happy to give it.
“Actually, can you get her in that machine she teleported in?” I asked, pointing over at the Anemone. “She’ll be better supported there.”
[Also, you might suggest using the Anemone as a point to build a base behind. It is very good for point defense, so it should give the PMC a significant foothold to work around.]
That…wasn’t a bad idea.
“Also, I’d use the pod that she’s going in to help you hold this position. If you saw the electricity coming from it,” as I spoke, the pod sparked and began to incinerate the corpse around it, “like that, you’ll know that it will be a good use for helping get people evac’d.”
The leader considered it for only a moment.
“You have a point. Everyone, the Samurai will be our new point defense leader. Keep the pod safe, and it will keep us safe. You understand me?!”
“Yessir!” The survivors who were mobilizing all called out in response.
As the PMC leader began to lead me off, I looked to the pod one more time as it opened up and was loaded with Macy. I couldn’t help but match her usual grin.
“See you later, Mako.”