The Evil-Spirit Incarnation Crawler was nearly four times the size of an ordinary Crawler.
The five smaller creatures still under Alaric Thomas’s control looked almost like children beside it, and one mistake would leave them with the same fate as the subordinate already killed.
Watching the difference in strength reminded Alaric of a pack of lesser bio-weapons trying to overwhelm a full-sized Tyrant from Resident Evil.
Juno was equally ruthless once the battle began.
While Alaric’s Crawlers swarmed the Evil-Spirit Incarnation from several directions, she rushed forward, slid beneath its reach, and drove the heavy combat spike Alaric had given her toward its side.
The weapon penetrated its flesh, but only slightly before meeting resistance so strong that she couldn’t push it any deeper.
The monster immediately stomped down.
Juno rolled away and scrambled clear just before its foot struck the stone.
Beth and Rebecca continued firing from farther back whenever they saw an opening, while One-Eye charged forward with the machete raised.
The massive cannibal hit the Evil-Spirit Incarnation head-on and was immediately thrown backward even faster than he had attacked.
Juno and the others still had no idea where Alaric’s two hideously deformed allies had come from.
At this point, however, anything attacking the same monster counted as a friend.
Nobody had enough time or energy left to question it.
The Evil-Spirit Incarnation suddenly reached behind itself and caught another contained Crawler.
The smaller creature clawed and struggled wildly, but the difference in strength was overwhelming.
With one violent motion, the larger monster slammed it against the ground and left the body broken beyond recovery.
Another Ghost Card subordinate was gone.
Only four Crawlers remained.
Alaric clenched his teeth while continuing to fire whenever he had a clear shot.
The Evil-Spirit Incarnation could afford to make mistake after mistake because its body absorbed punishment that would kill almost anything else.
Alaric’s side, however, only needed to fail once for someone to die.
Their attacks weren’t penetrating deeply enough.
If the creature’s exterior couldn’t be broken, then Alaric needed another way to attack something softer inside it.
He still had one grenade left from the equipment he had brought underground, but getting it close enough to matter without wasting the opportunity was another problem.
The Evil-Spirit Incarnation was violent, but it wasn’t completely mindless.
It possessed some intelligence.
Not much, but enough.
A loud impact interrupted Alaric’s thoughts.
Another contained Crawler died.
The Evil-Spirit Incarnation caught it near the head and tore into it before throwing the remains aside.
Alaric’s expression darkened as he realized that hesitating much longer might result in him meeting God, Satan, or whatever supernatural force controlled this nightmare personally.
“Juno, move!” Alaric shouted.
“We need somewhere tighter!” He immediately turned and ran toward one of the narrow passages.
Beth and Rebecca followed, while One-Eye and Saw-Tooth obeyed his command and withdrew with them.
Juno wanted to live badly enough that she didn’t question the order and rushed after Alaric.
Before entering the tunnel, she looked back.
The Evil-Spirit Incarnation was crouched over the dead Crawler and tearing into its body like someone eating a snack.
Then its blood-red eyes lifted and locked directly onto Juno.
A moment later, the creature climbed onto the wall and began racing after her with horrifying speed.
Juno ran faster.
By the time she caught up with Alaric and the others, she was breathing hard and barely maintaining her footing.
The group forced themselves into one of the narrowest sections of the cave, hoping the creature’s enormous size would slow it down.
Juno remained at the rear and repeatedly looked over her shoulder, terrified that a hand would suddenly emerge from the darkness and grab her ankle.
That thought alone made her shiver.
Unfortunately, horror seemed particularly fond of turning people’s worst thoughts into reality.
A human head suddenly appeared from the darkness behind her.
Juno nearly screamed.
Then she recognized the face.
“Sarah?” For one second, relief broke through her fear.
Then another head appeared behind Sarah’s.
The Evil-Spirit Incarnation’s jaws were clamped around her.
Juno’s face collapsed as she finally understood what she was seeing.
She screamed Beth’s name and scrambled upward through the passage while the monster dragged Sarah’s body back into the dark.
Whatever strength remained in Juno now came entirely from the desperate instinct to survive.
Alaric, who had deliberately kept his pace controlled farther ahead, immediately accelerated when he heard her scream.
The bait had worked.
It was a crude plan, but it was the only way he could think of to lure something that strong into terrain where its size became a disadvantage.
Alaric climbed into the wider chamber above and pulled Beth and Rebecca after him, then ordered both women to move farther back.
Ten seconds later, Juno appeared.
She looked nothing like the confident expedition leader who had first entered the mountain.
Blood and dirt covered her face while pure desperation filled her eyes.
Alaric grabbed her arm and hauled her up as she scrambled onto the ledge.
The Evil-Spirit Incarnation appeared almost immediately behind her.
Less than three seconds separated them.
Before the creature could climb completely out of the narrow passage, One-Eye obeyed Alaric’s command and jumped directly into the opening.
His large body jammed between the stone walls and blocked the creature’s path.
For the first time, the narrow terrain actually worked in their favor.
The consequence was horrifying.
The Evil-Spirit Incarnation immediately sank its teeth into One-Eye’s shoulder.
A large chunk of flesh was torn away.
Even after everything they had witnessed underground, the sight made Beth turn pale.
The creature fed with such animalistic brutality that even the cannibal looked almost ordinary by comparison.
One-Eye didn’t cry out like a normal person, but his body was already beginning to fail.
He wouldn’t hold the passage for long.
Once the Evil-Spirit Incarnation finished tearing through him, everyone above would be next.
Alaric raised the rifle and fired into the opening, but the shots accomplished almost nothing against the transformed creature’s armored exterior.
He finally lowered the weapon and reached for the last grenade he had been saving.
This was the only remaining attack he believed might cause enough internal damage.
The problem was getting it where it needed to go.
The Evil-Spirit Incarnation had already focused most of its aggression on Alaric after everything he had done earlier.
He doubted it would casually open its mouth and let him throw something inside from a safe distance.
There would probably be only one opportunity.
“Alaric, give me the grenade!” Juno shouted.
He looked toward her.
Juno picked up a loose rock and hurled it at the monster out of frustration.
The stone bounced harmlessly from skin that had already resisted bullets.
Her expression twisted with helpless anger when she realized how useless the attack was.
Beth frantically searched through the small pack she still carried and found a red flare.
Saw-Tooth had already exhausted his useful arrows during the fighting, while Alaric’s remaining Fusion-enhanced physical strength still wasn’t enough to overcome the Evil-Spirit Incarnation directly.
Everything they possessed was being pushed to its limit.
Nearly all eight of Alaric’s original subordinates had either died or been badly damaged.
One-Eye was now close to death as well.
The Evil-Spirit Incarnation had already eaten through much of his upper body.
His head hung at an unnatural angle, and although the cannibal was somehow still alive, he clearly wouldn’t remain that way for long.
Watching another Ghost Card asset being destroyed made Alaric’s chest tighten with irritation.
He still didn’t want to gamble on an explosion against the creature’s exterior.
Damaging its body and actually killing it were two completely different things.
Beth sat farther back and activated the flare.
Red light filled the chamber while she stared numbly at the monster, looking like someone who had already accepted that she might die.
Juno continued throwing whatever stones she could reach because there was nothing else left for her to do.
She wanted revenge for Holly.
She wanted revenge for Sam.
She wanted revenge for Sarah.
More than anything, Juno wanted to escape the cave she had brought everyone into.
For several seconds, her exhausted mind seemed to drift.
Then she heard someone shouting her name.
“Juno!” Beth and Rebecca’s voices snapped her back to reality.
Too late.
The Evil-Spirit Incarnation had already reached through the narrow opening and caught her right ankle.
Juno hit the ground and was immediately dragged backward.
Only then did she notice that almost half of One-Eye’s body was gone and the monster had forced its way past him.
Alaric stared in disbelief.
Even now, Juno had managed to lose focus at the worst possible moment.
If there was ever a perfect example of how people died in horror movies, this was it.
He wanted to help her, but he genuinely didn’t know how.
The grenade remained in his hand.
Part of Alaric wanted to throw it and attempt a rescue.
The more rational part told him to abandon Juno and run.
“Alaric!” Juno screamed.
She was being dragged across the ground toward the creature, but instead of begging him to pull her back, she stretched one hand toward him.
“Give me the grenade!” Alaric hesitated.
Then he understood.
He threw it to her.
The moment Juno caught it, Alaric turned and ran without looking back.
Beth and Rebecca realized what was about to happen and immediately followed him farther down the tunnel.
None of them stopped.
Juno remained behind.
The Evil-Spirit Incarnation dragged her closer.
She prepared the grenade in her hand while staring at the enormous creature.
Once she was close enough, the stench of blood and rotting flesh pouring from its mouth became overwhelming.
Its teeth were covered with pieces of flesh from the people and creatures it had already killed.
Juno’s expression became strangely calm.
There was regret in her eyes.
There was grief.
But there was no longer any fear.
“Come on, you ugly son of a bitch.” Juno raised her free hand and gave the creature one final middle finger.
The Evil-Spirit Incarnation opened its jaws.
Juno moved first.
Using the last of her strength, she shoved the hand holding the grenade directly into the creature’s open mouth.
The monster bit down.
Juno disappeared beneath it.
Useless teammate?
At the final moment, Juno proved exactly what a god-tier teammate looked like.