Their glossy bodies glistened in the dim light, and she could feel her heart racing as the realization sank in: they were dangerously close.
Ava hadn’t felt much when she observed these creatures through the scope of her rifle while they were in the street below, but now that they were so close to her, she could see how repulsive and terrifying they were.
Their obsidian-like bodies were textured like that of the morphus. Each spider had ten multi-jointed legs instead of eight and two blue eyes reminiscent of those of their creator. The most prominent features were the two large fangs that each spider possessed.
Seeing those large abominations up close filled every fiber of her being with a chilling sense of terror. Her face twisted in horror and disgust as Ava lurched back from the window, instinctively tightening her grip on her weapon, preparing herself for the fight for her life.
She raised her rifle, aiming at one of the spiders that crawled across the wall with unsettling speed and agility. Her powerful weapon bood, spitting out fire. The bullet hit the spider in the middle of its body, transforming the creature into nothing more than a black sar on the wall.
She watched the rest of the creatures scurry across the floor, walls, and ceiling toward her. Taking a quick step back deeper into the room, she swung her rifle up, aiming at one of the spiders on the ceiling and squeezing the trigger once more. The rifle kicked against her shoulder as it fired a bullet. It missed its target, though, punching a large hole in the ceiling and sending dust and bits of plaster flying in every direction.
Ava imdiately fired off another shot but missed again. Her rifle was huge and cumberso, not designed for close-quarter combat. It was extrely powerful, but in her current situation, it was of no use to her at all. She let go of the weapon, allowing it to drop to the floor with a clatter and pulled her machine pistol from its holster on her hip.
Constantly retreating, she unleashed burst after burst of gunfire at the repulsive spiders advancing toward her. She noticed so bullets drilling into their tough exoskeletons, inflicting minimal damage. Her sidearm wasn’t nearly as powerful as her rifle. She realized there was no way she could kill all those spiders on her own. Her only option was to turn around and run for her life.
Just as Ava thought this, she spotted one of the spiders on the floor spreading its fangs, revealing a circular mouth filled with sharp, pointed teeth. In the next instant, a wet glob flew out of its mouth toward her. She barely managed to dodge the projectile. Unfortunately, several more arachnids had the sa idea at the sa ti, launching greenish globs at her from multiple directions.
One of the globs hit her square in the face, splattering across her visor and mask. The acid instantly began to eat at her leather suit. Panic surged through her as she dropped her pistol and yanked at her mask. With a swift motion, she tore it off along with the visor, dropping them to the floor. She acted so quickly that she managed to remove the mask before the acid could eat through it and reach her skin.
However, the spiders continued to launch acid projectiles at her. One of them splattered against her shoulder, quickly burning through the enhanced leather of her power suit. Another zipped by, narrowly missing her now-exposed face.
That’s when she decided she had had enough. She no longer cared about their mission. All she now wanted was to get as far away from this place as possible. She wheeled around and ran.
She had just reached the door leading out of the room when a spider dropped from the ceiling onto her head. Another one caught up with her, sinking its fangs into her ankle, biting through her armor and flesh. Screaming in horror and pain, she collapsed face-first in the doorway. The rest of the spiders were on top of her in no ti.
The creatures dug their fangs into her body, shredding her power suit and tearing chunks of flesh out of her body. She thrashed around on the floor and scread for help, but there was no one around to save her.
In the street below, Tessa faced her own problems. She had been ambushed by the morphus monts ago, suddenly materializing from the darkness and eliciting a scream of pure horror from her. Luckily, her active ability was still engaged, rendering her body immaterial and therefore immune to attacks.
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After the mutant realized it could not harm her, it crouched down, placing its palms on the ground and fixing her with its emotionless solid-blue gaze. She knew it was waiting for her ability to wear off before attacking again. Tessa was terrified. A part of her was telling her to run while she was invincible. However, she knew the morphus could easily catch up with her.
So she stayed where she was, pointing her combat shotgun at the crouching mutant, ready to open fire as soon as her ability wore off. Suddenly, the mutant pivoted its head to the left. It was eerily quiet now that Ava’s screams had just faded, but the creature had clearly heard sothing else in the distance. Perhaps one of her teammates was stealthily moving through the darkness, hunting for their target.
Tessa hoped the morphus would focus on one of her teammates instead of her. She felt guilty for that thought, but only briefly. Her own life held far more value to her than those of her teammates, who were practically strangers. She understood they had no chance against the morphus. Its senses were incredibly sharp, allowing it to hunt them down even in this supernatural darkness.
Her ability suddenly wore off. She imdiately fired a shot at the mutant. However, even though the morphus wasn’t looking in her direction, it must have sohow sensed the impending danger because a fraction of a second before she pulled the trigger, it leaped to its feet and darted aside, successfully avoiding the blast. She tracked the creature with her weapon, firing off one quick shot after another but missing every ti.
Suddenly, the morphus turned and dashed away from her, disappearing into the pitch-black mist. She kept her weapon trained on the spot where the mutant had just disappeared, expecting it to return at any mont. But it didn’t. She suspected it was probably circling around her, preparing to jump from behind.
That’s when her nerves snapped. She couldn’t take it anymore. She turned and burst into spirit form in the opposite direction from where the mutant had vanished. She ran for several seconds before feeling sothing incredibly strong shove her from behind. She lost her balance and sprawled onto the asphalt.
Before she could get up, sothing slamd on her body, pinning her down. She knew it was the morphus. The mutant was very quiet, barely producing any sound, and she hadn’t realized it had been chasing her until it crashed into her. Her shotgun slipped from her grasp, leaving her utterly defenseless.
All she could do was scream for help, and she did so, even though she knew nobody would co to her aid. Just as she began to cry out, the morphus tore into her with its claws, and her desperate cries turned into agonized howls. Continuing to pin her down, the morphus relentlessly tore her body apart.
Ethan could hear Tessa’s screams, but he wasn’t sure where exactly they were coming from. Since his mini-gun had been destroyed, he now held his heavy-caliber pistol tightly in his hands. He aid it in the direction he believed Tessa’s cries were coming from and opened fire, not caring about hitting his teammate anymore. It no longer mattered.
He popped off a few shots into the darkness before everything went quiet. Tessa’s screams had ceased, and it was all quiet now. Ethan had no idea if he had hit the morphus or not. He looked around, but all he could see was darkness. He could see only two feet ahead, and anything beyond was lost to total blackness.
He had a feeling all his teammates were dead by now. Both Ava and Tessa no longer scread. As for Lila, she had stopped responding to his calls a little while ago. He had to assu she was dead too, even though he wasn’t sure when exactly she had been killed.
Without warning, the darkness surrounding him began to quickly dissipate. In just a few seconds, it completely vanished, as if it had never existed. He looked around and saw Tessa’s body lying nearby, or, more accurately, what was left of it. There was no sign of Lila anywhere, either alive or dead.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps behind him. He imdiately spun around, raising his pistol and already applying pressure on the trigger. His weapon was about to fire when Ethan realized the figure before him wasn’t the enemy. The person ca to a halt just a few steps away.
Ethan imdiately recognized who was in front of him. Each mber of his team had a distinct design for their power suit, so he easily identified the deep red leather with gold lining, which created an illusion of flas licking around the arms and legs of the suit.
Only now the suit was heavily damaged, torn in many places, ragged holes gaping in its chest and arms. Its legs were dotted with nurous puncture marks as well. All the ragged holes in the suit exposed various puncture wounds, gashes, bruises, and acid burns on the person’s body.
Half of the mask was ripped away, and the visor was completely gone, exposing the person’s eyes, which stared at him accusingly.
Ethan couldn’t believe who he was seeing.
“Julian?” he gasped. “You’re alive?!”
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