Something huge slammed into the town hall doors, which shook them in their brackets. They held against the first attack but started to splinter after another heavy impact.

“What did you see?” Xiphos asked.

“It’s big,” Stiletto said, the colour drained from his face. “Looks like that old movie – An American Werewolf in London, you know? Some kind of feral wolf or something!”

Another slam. The doors splintered further. The thing beyond the walls huffed an exhalation of frustration, followed by a low growl of fury which sounded like an idling engine.

“It had a human face,” Khopesh added. “I think it’s one of these nemorti things. Wolves don’t have thumbs, right?”

“That’s a negative,” Xiphos said. “Hatchet, Naginata, I want you to go in the back and see if we’ve got an exit strategy. If you find any glaring holes in our defences, I want you to plug them. These things don’t seem to be able to reason or plan, so we use that to our advantage.”

“You got it,” I said, then started for the doors at the back of the hall.

Naginata fell into step on my left, Kaiser followed on my right. I kept up my momentum as we reached the door at the back of the hall and shouldered it open. Kaiser slipped in to look for threats, and his growl told me he’d found one.

The nemorti’s red eyes glowed in the dark room beyond. I flicked my on torch just in time to see the blotchy zombie lunge at Kaiser.

I activated my class ability – Man’s Best Friend – and felt a surge of anima pass out of me and into Kaiser.

An icon appeared floating in the upper reaches of my view. It showed a stylised icon of Kaiser snarling in side profile and gave a summary of the effects. His damage and armour values had been doubled.

Kaiser leapt at the nemorti and sunk his fangs into the monster’s throat. White skin turned crimson as Kaiser savaged it to ribbons. We gained a little bit of experience, which bumped us up to Level 2.

I was still in shock at just how powerful that ability made Kaiser. It turned him into a god-damned killing machine. After the nemorti died, Kaiser trotted back over to my side, proud as punch at what he’d done.

“Good job mate,” I said and ruffled the back of his neck.

Maybe I wasn’t the only one who had been looking forward to another chance to go on a mission.

It was only then that I took notice of the room we were in. It was a preparation room for those about to go on stage in the town hall. A set of stairs led up to a blue curtain, which separated the front of the stage from the back.

“Through here!” Naginata said. Her torch beam illuminated another door toward the back of this room.

A number of closets and chests of drawers sat around the room, and I wanted to search all of them for supplies. If we had the opportunity to come back, I’d want to give this place a once over.

Naginata followed into the next room with her weapon held in front of her. It was a gorgeous weapon, with a long black handle and a gleaming blade affixed to the end. It was gently curved, like you’d see in the weapons a samurai would use. It was like a halberd, but of Japanese origin. It allowed Naginata to put distance between her and any foes that approached. As far as nope-zones went, it was pretty generous.

The next room was a long hallway with other rooms branching off to the left. Some doors stood ajar, but others were closed. The light that shone through from those rooms was limited, so we would have to rely on our torches.

“I have an idea,” I said. “Hold up a second.”

Naginata slowed and kept her focus on the hallway in front of us. I took the lid off a bin that sat just inside the doorway of this room, then hurled it like a frisbee down the hallway. The metal bin lid clattered to the ground with an almighty crash, which drew the attention of three nemorti who were waiting in those rooms.

Xiphos was right. These things weren't smart enough to realise that they were being baited. They just reacted to environmental stimuli. Naginata advanced, skewering one of the nemorti through the back. She withdrew her weapon before slicing it back down in a savage overhead swing which cut off one of the monster’s arms. It turned towards us with a roar, but Naginata didn’t hesitate.

She severed its head from its neck and it went down like a sack of shit.

Both the head and the arm showed significant signs of infections. Red lights shone on the white blotchy skin, but the fallen flesh didn’t stir.

“You must separate the infected areas from the rest of the body,” Naginata said as though stating a simple fact like the sky is blue or our universe is a fucked up simulation.

It made sense. If some agent was driving these nemorti, and it was housed in their infected spots, then removing those clusters would sever the connections.

My Man’s Best Friend skill refreshed and flashed in the top of my view, showing me that it was ready for use again.

Two more nemorti lumbered towards us with their arms outstretched. One had a cluster of red lights around its neck and chest. The other one’s lights were clustered around one side of its face and shone through a tear in its pants leg. Right near the nutsack.

“You take Rudolph the redneck and I’ll take old shiny balls,” I said.

Naginata grinned, nodded, then advanced.

I lifted Gravedigger and aimed right for shiny’s head. I pulled the trigger and Gravedigger boomed, turning the nemorti’s head to mush. I pumped the shotgun and lowered it, then pulled the trigger again. The nemorti’s crotch blew apart, severing a leg. The headless, crotchless thing fell back, netting me some further experience.

Naginata made short work of the other, keeping it at bay at the end of her weapon while expertly slicing and dicing through the patchy white areas of infection.

“Xiphos, can you hear us?” I asked.

“Loud and clear,” her voice came back through my earpiece.

“Naginata figured out that we need to sever the infected areas to put these things down for good,” I explained. “Otherwise, they can keep on coming at us.”

“Roger that,” Xiphos replied. “The door won’t hold up to much more of this. Have you found us an exit yet?”

“Not yet,” I admitted. “We encountered some resistance. You could head back behind the stage, where you might remain unseen. Otherwise, you could follow us.”

“Into a dead end?” Khopesh asked.

Is that why they’d sent us? The inexperienced soldier and his babysitter?

“Hopefully not,” I added, with what I thought was an amused lilt to my voice.

“This way!” Naginata called from the end of the hallway.

She’d moved past the nemorti already while I’d just stayed in place.

Multitask, JD! I thought to myself. I couldn’t prove my ex-wife right.

Kaiser and I followed, then turned into the next room. This was a fairly well-stocked supply room with lots of cleaning products, tools and other stuff filling the shelves. Naginata rushed through the room to the door at the back, but I stopped and slowed. I had an idea.

It’s just a pity that the packaging on all these cleaning products were in Romanian! What I wouldn’t give to be able to read the labels on everything here. Level 11 couldn’t come quickly enough.

“What are you doing?” Naginata asked as I looked through the shelves.

“Improvising. These things are animals, and if there’s one thing that kills everything, it’s fire. I’m just trying to find-” The moment I said it was the moment I spied the rusty old can sitting next to a beat-up old generator. “Aha!”

I unscrewed the lid and took a tentative sniff of the fumes. Petrol. I screwed the lid back on and slipped the can of petrol into my inventory for later.

“You continue to surprise,” Naginata said.

“Up here for thinking,” I said, pointing to my head, then pointed at my feet. “Down there for dancing.”

“Surprising, but still very strange,” she replied.

Kaiser barked once. Yes.

“All right, all right, no ganging up. Let’s get out of here,” I said.

Naginata shouldered the door open at the back of the room. A cold wind blew through the room, and a flurry of snow blasted into the door. The cold bit as we rushed outside.

“We have an escape route!” I said into my headset.

“We’ve got bigger problems,” Xiphos said. “And I do mean huge. That wolf-thing – Rho is calling it a prykolic – is right outside and it’s pretty much smashed through the door. We’ll try to take it down, but maybe if you two can come around the behind you can take it by surprise. You think you can handle that?”

Naginata nodded.

“We’re on it. We’ll do a pincer manoeuvre and try to take it by surprise,” I said.

“Get to it. We don't have any time to waste,” Xiphos said.

Naginata and I broke apart, each heading around one side of the hall back to the front. The roar of the prykolic tore through the mountain air, half animal cry, half human scream of fury. It unnerved me like nothing I’d heard before.

Between the hall and the neighbouring buildings I caught a glimpse of other nemorti milling about in the town square. Unlike the ones we’d encountered so far, these ones weren’t on the warpath. They almost looked like they were waiting for something. They stood twitching on the spot, watching the front of the hall.

Did this wolf-like prykolic somehow control these nemorti? Or did they know that this monster would tear them apart just the same?

I tried to remain concealed as much as I could as I approached the front. At least a dozen nemorti, maybe more, stood at the ready. Way too many for Kaiser, Naginata and I to hold at bay ourselves.

A sudden cracking sound of the door finally giving way was followed by a roar of victory.

Then, gunfire.

I turned the corner just in time to see the horse-size hindquarters of the massive prykolic rush into the hall.

The nemorti saw me shortly after and rushed into action. Naginata, Kaiser and I bounded for the stairs, following the huge wolf monster into the open hall.

“We’re coming in the front,” I said through my earpiece. “Please don’t shoot us.”

“Take up firing positions in the rear corners of the hall when you enter!” Xiphos said.

“Naginata’s coming in first. I have to take care of something,” I said.

I stopped on top of the stairs and took the can of petrol out of my inventory. I threw it at the base of the stairs, then holstered Gravedigger and drew Ironbark. I waited a few moments for the nemorti to gather around, aiming Ironbark right at the can of petrol.

When enough were in close proximity and I still had a clear shot, I pulled the trigger.

An almighty boom rang out as the can exploded. Bits of blotchy nemorti skin flew in all directions. A glut of experience points came my way as severed arms, legs and heads came raining down.

The nemorti that weren’t blown apart were splashed with burning fuel, which clung to their clothes and skin as they flailed about in panic. It sizzled in the snow as the nemorti fled in all directions.

Pivoting back to the hall, my eyes couldn’t come to grips with the monstrous scale of the prykolic in front of me. The tattered remnants of clothes stuck tight around its ankles and waist. The rest of the pants dangled from the waistband and cuffs, as though the creature had burst out of them.

It swiped a massive clawed hand at Khopesh, who lashed out at the fingers with his strange curved sword. It bit into the monster’s hand, which it drew back immediately before leaping towards Khopesh. The monster’s other hand closed around Khopesh, and I expected to see the monster tear him apart.

Then I noticed the shifting sand that slithered all over Khopesh’s body. The same sand that rendered him immune to damage for a short time. He’d activated his class skill just in time!

The wolf creature’s red eyes flashed in frustration as it tried to squeeze the life out of Khopesh.

“Free Khopesh, now!” Xiphos roared.

I activated my class skill, boosting Kaiser’s attack and armour bonuses.

“Go for the legs, Kaiser!” I shouted.

Reducing this thing’s ability to get around would be key in defeating it. While Kaiser attacked, I reloaded Gravedigger. Doing it shell by shell was an onerous task. I hoped that I’d be able to get a speed loader or something on this mission.

Stiletto disappeared from view as he activated his class skill. A little icon called All For One appeared in my view as Xiphos activated her class skill, which made all of us more deadly and harder to kill.

Khopesh tried to get away from the prykolic, but its grip was too strong. Naginata showed up right next to Khopesh and started hacking away at the monster’s wrist with her weapon. She must have activated her class ability too, because she was able to counter or deflect every attack the wolf monster made at her over the course of a few seconds.

Suddenly Naginata’s blade sliced through the wolf monster’s wrist. Both Khopesh and the disembodied hand fell to the ground as the monster howled in pain.

Kaiser tore at the tendons and gristle at one of the prykolic’s ankles while Stiletto popped out of his stealth field and expertly skewered the wolf monster’s other leg right through the ankle joint. A sickening crunch followed as the monster tried to put its weight on its back leg.

I almost felt bad for the thing as the tide of battle shifted. Gravedigger boomed, shredding patches of flesh along the creature’s sides. Xiphos and Khopesh focused on dealing damage where it hurt, landing blow after blow with their edged weapons on the monster’s head and neck. Naginata kept the beast’s one good hand at bay, parrying and blocking it from attacking where she could.

Stiletto delivered the killing blow. He’d climbed up on the thing’s back while it was distracted, then slipped his two wicked daggers into the back of the prykolic’s neck, severing its spine.

The creature fell, and we got a bevy of experience points.

High Danger enemy slain

150 Experience Points gained

The notification did that weird glitchy thing again, then changed the experience value to 188.

This was enough to tick me over into Level 3, which gave me another skill point to assign.

A few more nemorti shuffled into the hall, but with our focused fire there was very little they could actually do to threaten us. Some were blackened and charred, and they went down easily.

“Do you think that those things might turn into that thing with enough time?” Stiletto asked.

“It had the same eyes,” Khopesh said as he spat on the corpse. “Blazing with the fires of hell.”

A chime sounded, which was followed by a notification.

Mission Complete: Investigate the village

Objective Outcome: Villagers have been converted into biological weapons by an unknown agent, resulting in dehumanisation and mutations.

Secondary Objective Outcome: NA. Recovery from this infection deemed to be non-viable. Extermination is the only outcome.

Reward: 250 experience points

The experience points were added to my total, which propelled me a good way into Level 3, towards Level 4.

I didn’t like the wording used in the mission outcomes. Recovery from infection is non-viable? Did that mean it wasn’t possible, or that EDGE Command has deemed extermination as the most preferred outcome? Almost like saving the villagers was too much work.

“It looks like we’ve secured this position for now,” Xiphos said. “Let’s take a breather and strategize our next move. It’s time to eat, drink, and figure out how we’re going to reach the EDGE Force facility to get Hatchet and Khopesh checked out.”

Khopesh stopped in his tracks. “That thing didn’t actually touch me. My Desert Shield, it-”

“-Saved your life,” Xiphos finished. “But you still came into contact with that prykolic. In fact, I mean for every single one of us to go through a bioscan. We don’t know what the vector of infection is. It might already inside all of us.”

That was a sobering thought, and one I did not want to dwell on.

“Is there anything EDGE Force can do if we are infected?” I asked. I feared the answer even as I asked the question.

Xiphos shrugged. “No way to know until we figure out how those things tick. If we capture one, then we can take it with us. Scan it, scan ourselves, then compare the two.”

That was a solid plan. There might just be a little hope after all.