She could see that the Failures in the direction from which she came weren’t moving directly towards her, but rather towards one particularly developed specimen, standing atop the lower half of a leg and two fully-formed, although stubby arms. It had three noseless faces between its limbs, and atop its mass there gaped a mouth spanning nearly its entire circumference, from which there issued not a screech, but a low, rumbling gurgle.

She observed with some curiosity as a limbless Failure reached the Tripod, pressing itself up against it as its skin began to melt at the point of contact, and within seconds its entire mass was absorbed into the Tripod’s. Liquid visibly sloshed about in the Tripod’s skin-sack, its skin tightening as its limbs became visibly more muscular and its stub leg ripped itself free, extending out into a fully-formed, twitching limb.

With lightning speed, the Tripod leapt up and began sprinting at her, stomping on Failure after Failure and pulling them into its mass as it went. From three limbs to five, to nine, to eleven, a wrecking ball of flesh and mouths barreling down the chamber and collecting a carapace of glass shards as it went.

She took a deep breath, silver Fog pouring from her nostrils with the breath out. The corners of her mouth quirked upward and she was filled with anticipatory exhilaration.

“Just one good gash and it’ll go pop,” she thought. “Just one straight hit and I’ll get crushed.”

Another deep breath in, another deep breath out, wisps of silver Fog snaking around her head. Legs planted wide with the left in front, glass shank in hand, a grin plastered across her face. The Colossal Failure’s mass swiftly approached and she leaned to the side, pivoting on her left foot as she stepped forward. It sank into the Failure’s mass, its edge gliding through the meatbag’s surface as its many limbs grasped and kicked at her and a discordant chorus of screams shuddered from its many biting maws. A flood of guts and blood poured from the hole she had made, the monstrosity’s own mass acting to force its innards out, which boiled and turned to green liquid before they could even touch her.

The deluge of emerald substance flooding forth covered her utterly, green Fog spraying out of the monster’s skin-sack as it deflated and further melted away. The sensation of warmth and life suffused her body once more, the remainder of her skin gaining colour and exposing the metallic, serpentine markings that snaked all across her body. Even still, the chamber’s floor flooded with what Green she didn’t take in, a thin layer of green Fog settling atop it.

Still she heard slithering and screeching, with a few more of the Failures having come alive, pathetically dragging themselves through the Green, so weak they were melting alive. The desire to exterminate them was quickly quenched by the sound of straining metal and grinding stone as the ground shook beneath her feet and the light-crystals flickered.