The Gorgon Bug had ascended, segment after segment of its body shooting out from the coiled mass it had dragged itself into. It seemed to stretch so high that it could touch the clouds, and only after it had become so impossibly tall that they couldn’t hope to strike its head from the ground did it stop. The mane of tendrils that flattened against the bug’s sides during the climb unfurled and twisted into knots, forming a sort of cup in the sky. It was dense enough that they couldn’t see through it, giving some the impression that they were ants staring up at a wildflower in bloom. Some being the operative word- no one had expected the creature to suddenly stretch to the skies, so the vast majority of combatants were either bewildered or mortified. It was hard to know how long the thing was when it had been curled up or sheltered by thick jungle, but as it grew ever higher, the extreme length of the creature became more and more apparent.

Angry lights flew through the sky, appearing seemingly out of nowhere and leaving luminescent trails like falling stars as they flew out of sight, gathering above the Gorgon Bug’s strange tendrils. It was a beautiful sight, discounting the terrifying insectoid monster that seemed to be causing the phenomenon. Gen stood there and gawked, jaw hanging so low that it might have been broken. “There’s no way it actually has a second form,” he said, staring angrily at the defiant insect. The ground crinkled and popped as James walked up behind him. The man patted his shoulder a few times, walking forward until they were side by side. “Humm,” he said, “I don’t think it’s a second form.”

Gen finally stopped looking at the lightshow, redirecting the angry stare to his Rebel counterpart. “What do you mean you ‘don’t think it’s a second form’! Look at it!” He said, gesturing wildly at the enormous bug’s general direction. James’ face was intent and curious and entirely too relaxed, like he trying to solve a crossword puzzle rather than contributing his own opinion to a life-or-death fight. He stared a moment longer, seemingly ignoring Gen’s insistence. Finally, though, he shook his head slowly. “It’s more like a special final attack. You know, big finale, a party wipe.”

Gen’s glare vanished, and indeed, his entire expression went blank. He swung back over to the bug, looking back up at the storm of lights. They still streaked across the sky, and for a moment, he thought nothing had changed. Then he realized quite suddenly that a bright light was soaking into the fringes of the creature’s tendrils, mostly caught by the cup-like shape it had made, but not entirely concealed. It seemed to be getting brighter, too, like it was gathering power. His face contorted and he hollered “Everyone, scatter! Don’t stop running until you have fifty trees between you and this fucking bug!” He couldn’t afford to wait, grabbing James- still admiring the creature’s ‘final attack’- by the shirt, and started dragging him away from the clearing with some force. The man regained his balance and focus, whirling around, and the two of them ran, ignoring any trivial diversions they passed.

The fire was raging on, uncomfortable heat rubbing up against their skin. Their little clearing was starting to get consumed, pervasive onslaught by the flames wearing any natural resistance to combustion thin, so the run wasn’t easy. A smoldering tree tipped over on the narrow path ahead, too high to step over but too low to duck under and entirely too long to bypass. Gen jumped up, which got him high enough to pull his feet mostly onto the trunk’s torched surface. He started to reach out, but as he moved to grab on and pull himself up, he realized that would burn the everliving hell out of his one good hand. Instead, he jabbed his hook into the bark- only to realize he had never switched back to it from the dagger. The dagger sunk into the bark reasonably well, but his weight shifted backwards due to the force exerted, and the smooth blade didn’t catch anything significant. He began to fall, but a strong hand shoved his back forward. James pushed him up, and with enough force to get him most of the way up. Gen leaned forward, finding a new center of balance, and then he started to tip forward over the round log. He wasn’t quite sure how the log-rollers did it, really. He whirled around, catching James’ hand.

James was serious now, and that focus came in handy. As Gen pulled his hand, he leaned forward and jumped, a practiced motion that he had done plenty during the Rebels’ forestry training sessions. He found solid footing atop the trunk, Gen’s weight helping him balance atop it, the two of them forming a sort of “Y” shape. They were stable for a moment, but James weighed a great deal more than Gen, even if he lost most- if not all- of his excess weight, so they began to tip backwards. James leaned forward, hunting down an appropriate angle to balance them both, and Gen began to lower himself to the ground. James followed him over, and the two were over the tree. It had been an involved process, which meant a time-consuming one, even if had only actually cost them something like ten seconds in all. They hurriedly restarted their run, coursing along the (mostly) clear path.

They escaped the flaming segment of jungle, but rather than running off laterally, they unanimously decided to keep following their little trail away, both men simply hauling ass into the distance. Even though they intended to keep running straight away, the path began to curve off, turning at least sixty degrees away from its initial inclination. They kept running, right up until they ran into a group of people. It was the Horned Men, gathered in a wide enough segment of clearing that they could all hunker down. Their eyes turned from staring through the canopy at the Gorgon Bug- which now had a ball the size of a small house hovering above its head, easily visible from the increased angle they had earned from their frantic fleeing- to stare at the two intruders. Both groups shifted uncomfortably, and the shiny-plated officer was none too pleased to see them.

“I hope,” he got out before Gen cut him off.

“You guys probably should have fired at the creature’s segments while you had the chance,” he said, “it’s been up there a good while. Two rounds and we might have even lopped off the head.” If he hadn’t been so panicked, he probably would have considered that. Sadly, though, he wasn’t as familiar with ‘final attacks’ as James was, or he’d have realized that they inevitably took forever to prepare.

The shiny man growled, opening his mouth to retort, only to find he had no real argument to that claim. So, instead, he simply crossed his arms and scowled, like a child throwing a temper tantrum. To be fair, they had broken all his toys and a quarter of his men, so maybe a bit of fuming was in order. Gen ignored it summarily, instead bobbing his head in a curt nod. “We should probably work together. Even without your fancy bubbles, most of my men will probably survive, and guns don’t run out of juice.” Strictly speaking, that wasn’t true, but for all intents and purposes, they had more ammo than their would-be opponents had shields to block them.

James was quite a bit politer, bowing and inclining his head in an almost regal fashion. “I do believe we’ve never been properly introduced. I am James, leader of the Rebellion.” He said, pointing to himself. He pointed over to Gen next, continuing his introduction. “This is Gen, the General of the City of Man, formerly the Walled City. And you, who might you be?”

The horned man’s scowl broke just a little, surprise winning over raw fury. He wasn’t quite sure if he should take offense to threat, to be appeased by the somewhat formal introductions, or a little bit of both. At the same time, he wasn’t one to skip out on the conventions of politeness, despite his generally brusque demeanor and warriorlike appearance. It was something he prided himself on, in fact, an integral aspect of his climb to a leadership role. Shieldbearers tended to be both rude and inconsistent, so to find one that was as eminently talented as he and yet still so polite to his ranked superiors was considered something of a miracle, and he had been fast tracked up to a leadership position at impressive speeds. He just couldn’t help but introduce himself properly to the little menace.

“This one is Krella,” the horned man proclaimed loudly, “�иЙиЇ in service of our Lord.” James looked to Gen, confused, to which the boy pointed to his ears. They hadn’t needed to use mana to aid translation in quite a while- James had almost forgotten it was a thing they could do. “I, uh, could you repeat that last part?” He asked, as politely as he could manage.

“of our Lord?” Krella said, tilting his head just a little to the side.

James shook his head. “The entire bit.” He answered, monotone.

Krella grunted, completely missing the fact that he was actually complying with his enemy’s demands. “Centurion in service of our Lord,” he said.

“It is an honor to meet one of such high ranking among your people,” Gen cut in. “I do wish we had encountered each-other under more fortunate circumstances.”t

Krella looked over to the other Human, the one that had cast them into such dire straits, and yet had been nearly silent the whole encounter. He searched for the right words for the occasion, but no number of niceties seemed to be of help to explaining his current feelings. “You’re a genuine bastard, but I admire your ability. I, too, wish we hadn’t met this way, if only for the men I lost.”

Gen laughed. “I suppose that’s about as high praise as I should expect. We have much to discuss, you know.”

“Sirs? There’s a bit of a problem,” a voice intoned from the distance, respectful and quiet.

Krella furrowed his brows. “Even in the current situation, I cannot see us having anything to talk about.”

James was frantic. He hadn’t ignored the timid soldier, pacing over to his side and following his gaze into the night sky. “We’ve got to get the shields up, now!” He cut in, pointing up at the Gorgon Bug still looming over the horizon. “Fuck me for starting the conversation at all! Just get the shields up!”

Krella looked back and forth between the two humans, frustrated. His initial intention had been to force them out of their range, to exclude them from at least their shields. He turned around, following everyone’s terrified gaze. The Gorgon Bug was still charging its strange ball of light, but the little shooting stars had slowed down nearly to a halt, no longer appearing in the intense quantities they had initially. The mass seemed to be nearly critical, a gigantic spheroid that seemed to dwarf the bug’s head, seemingly tens of meters in diameter. The bright, blue color it had assumed initially was subsumed into a deep red not unlike that of the Gorgon Bug’s crystallizing goo. “Blast it all, throw up the shields!” He shouted, forcing out his own mana at dangerous speeds.

The network of bubbles came up, covering them all in a protective shell. This wasn’t a moment too soon, either- the Gorgon Bug moved for the first time in what felt like hours, although in reality, it had hardly been minutes. It shook, ball tracking with its head as it moved like it was stuck there. The huge insect bent, and an intense shriek rang out, immensely loud even with as much distance they put between them and it. It leaned down suddenly, arcing over the jungle, and it began sweeping its head around, the massive ball of energy tearing itself apart. It went from a stiffly assembled ball to an almost fluid beam of nearly the same diameter, washing over the jungle like judgement from above. From their angle, they couldn’t see what it was doing to the things it hit, but without any doubt, it wasn’t pleasant. The Gorgon Bug swept back, tracing another line- right towards them.

The beam of burgundy light swept over them and their surroundings. The jungle that surrounded them was turned into an impressive crystal display, almost an artistic masterpiece, something that would probably be more believable in CGI or a painting. The invisible barriers that sheltered them shook and quaked as it hit, starting to take on an uncomfortable red sheen, but almost everyone held. Almost everyone- an unfortunate bubble-wielding soldier faltered, and as the bubble disappeared, he and those who took shelter under his protection were all turned into crystalline sculptures, terrified looks frozen onto their faces as they cowered, one stuck forever in a frenzied scramble towards the nearest functioning shield.

“You must be joking,” Krella asked no-one in particular and all the Gods his people could ever hope to worship, looking from one crystallized end of the clearing to the other and back again. He shook himself and gawked, as though he hoped it was simply a dream. “What sort of creature can even do this?”

“Yeah, our entire entourage is probably all sculptures by now,” James said, nudging Gen lightly. The boy had been awestruck, almost stock-still, but the touch brought him back to attention. He whirled around, anger playing across his face.

“I gave the order,” he said, waving his dagger-arm menacingly. “My men aren’t so incompetent as to die to such a puny little attack.”

James shook his head, not bothering to make eye contact. It was a rhetorical gesture, the rebellious sort of acknowledgement you’d expect more from a teenager rather than a one of the few relevant leaders of the human race. “Our men, but you’re probably right, forget I said anything.”

“Both of you are insane!” Krella shouted, his shield actually faltering momentarily as he stared wide-eyed down at them. “The creature killed so many, and you two just chat? No doubt, they are all dead! Soon, we will be too!”

Gen looked over to the agitated commander and simply shrugged. “You underestimate the tenacity of our men,” he said. “We’ve got more important things to deal with. For instance, the huge insect we need to slay.”

The Gorgon Bug began its descent from the incredible height it had climbed to, accelerating as more and more segments of body touched ground. They could hear the distant trees as it shot out of the clearing, but thankfully, its rampage went in a different direction. Krella looked between them and the bug. It was hard to say they were wrong. Sure, he’d be working with the enemy- and one so apparently lackadaisical, sneaky, and dangerous all at once- but it would be a chance. He calmed himself, and the flickering shield stabilized. He pulled himself upright and proud, hoping to regain at least a little of his bearings before the real scary shit started. After all, it would be unbecoming for one such as he to put forth anything but his best behavior, regardless of the company he kept. “If we are to kill this bug, we should move now,” he said, forcing a sort of confidence he really didn’t have at the moment into his voice.

Gen nodded. “There are some things we can do, with or without our troops.” He glanced over to James, hardly missing a beat. “When was the last time you had hand-to-hand with a monster?”

James tapped his head a few times, thinking. “Probably the Spinosaurus,” he said. “Damn, I need to do more crazy shit. I guess now’s the time?”

Gen smiled and patted him on the shoulder. “Now’s the time.” He squared back up with Krella, smile never wavering. “We’re going to go off into the woods. Now, I’d never give you order, but it sure would be nice if you guys could shoot the bug at the same place a bunch.”

Krella grimaced. “Noted.” The little man was trying his patience, but he understood the principle of it. The hard part was building up enough time for his over-taxed, generally exhausted men to get a volley ready, and as far as he could tell, no one was up to the task. If it was a last-ditch effort, it would still be worth a try. He waited, expecting for any real conformation on the other sides’ plans, but the two intruders simply shared a glance and started off walking in the opposite direction. It took him a moment to process the fact they were really leaving.

“Where are you going?” He demanded. They hadn’t even bothered to tell him their plans. In truth, there was no plan- but Krella didn’t have to know that. He’d probably just panic and give up, after all he’d been through. So, Gen just smiled wryly, not bothering to so much as glance back. Their encounter was done, at least for the moment. He instead gave focus to the frozen wonderland they were walking off towards. The Jungle was a very different place with everything made crystalline. Thankfully, thin fronds and branches and grasses remained thin, and when they walked over the now solidified jungle floor and pushed through bushes, the rigid plants snapped and cracked and moved under their weight. If they were barefoot, it may have been irritating or even painful, but with the shoes they had produced, it was more of a matter of careful movements to avoid stepping straight down on something very sharp. They got used to it quickly enough, making good time. Eventually, it became easy enough for Gen’s mind to wander- to wonder if there were any other humans alive, or if they really could kill the huge Bug.

Somewhere quite a way away was the answer to at least the first question. The Conduit had been dragged all the way from the City to the battlefield, against any and all protest she put up. She had been reluctant enough to fight a ‘normal’ army, so the moment the contact high she got from James’ magic wore off, she went from ‘shooting willy-nilly at the huge monster trying to eat her’ to ‘cowering in a nearby tree just close enough to see but just far enough to avoid assault’. It was probably a lucky thing she hadn’t gone much further, too, since she had only just barely heard Gen’s desperate shout from across the clearing. She only had just enough time to climb down and book it, and by the time the crazy crystallizing death-laser hit, she was only just far enough away to be clear of its path. It had fallen within mere inches of feet of her, and between the Gorgon Bug and the killer plant from the tunnels, she was really starting to get tired of close shaves.

The nameless girl had never been a fighter. She hadn’t even been one to hike, really. Her condition and the unwanted attention it brought meant that she was pretty much irrevocably and irreversibly locked up- not in a cell or a mental ward, as if such things were still of any consequence, but within her own home. It was dumb luck she hadn’t gotten lazy and kept herself reasonably in shape, although a bit of extra weight might have been part of the reason she had survived the tunnels for as long as she had. All that taken into consideration, she still wasn’t in good shape. Tromping through the jungle with gun in hand wasn’t nearly as easy as the stories made it seem. Sure, on the march to the encampment, it had been okay, but she was at the back of the ‘bus’. Tons of other people stomped the annoying grass flat, found paths around the prickly bushes and risky plants, and navigated any potential animal encounters.

When she made her mad dash, she had none of those benefits. Sure, she was alive, but her legs were worse for wear. The fabric near her shoes and even her shoes had taken a beating, torn or tattered in little spots that marked each individual mishap. A tear near her knee when she tripped and crawled back to her feet. A rip from thorny undergrowth that had managed to even bite into her leg, drawing a little red line across a shin. It wasn’t generally a good idea to run blindly through the wilderness, especially if you had no experience, which she certainly didn’t, or talent, and she didn’t have that either. They had gotten her out of the city, but man did she miss it.

As soon as she finished checking herself for particularly bad wounds, she finally had time to take a closer look at her surroundings. The Gorgon Bug’s beam had been damnably impressive, almost beautiful, encasing everything it hit in ice. That was to say, in something quite like ice. The Conduit had never lived anywhere with a real winter, but anyone with a half a brain could tell you that ice wasn’t red, so unless part of the magical power was dying things red, it’d have to be something else. She stumbled into the strange wonderland, promptly stepping down onto a number of blades of grass. Which wouldn’t have been a problem if it was still the soft, plushy grass and weeds she had been running through. They really were ‘blades’ now and she could feel the little tips sink through her shoe. They pushed through, pricking her skin, but thankfully shattering as her foot descended, evidently not rigid enough to force themselves the rest of the way through. She recoiled, tipping backwards.

A minute of pulling at little shards of glass-like grass later and she was ready to give it another go. This time she was more careful, sweeping her foot close to the ground and only lowering it gingerly, wary of more cuts. Eventually, she was walking, and then she was in the middle of a crystalline palace. It was amazing, like nothing she’d ever seen. It also gave her time to notice a few important facts. The first was that the Jungle hadn’t been ‘encased’ at all. A hint of their shape and color was still apparent, but when she looked closer, she could see through to the other side, albeit just barely. Any amount of ‘seeing through a tree’ was a bad sign, though. Suddenly, being hit by the beam sounded even less appealing, if that was even possible. She quite liked having flesh and bone and not being transparent, for sure.

The second important fact was that the angry stampede of the Gorgon Bug sounded like it was coming closer. She hurriedly spun around, once and once again, hoping to see it, but wherever it was, it was out of sight. The nameless girl started to relax, even just a bit. Surely the Bug wouldn’t hit an area it had already been obliterated, right? It was kind of hard to navigate, too, so why would it bother? Her hopes were quickly quashed. The sound kept growing closer and closer, and the huge insect barreled around the bend far off in the distance, ramming into a number of trees- and turning towards her. It was moving far faster than before, as though frenzied, and its mane of tentacles had taken new form and purpose. Half of them were bundled around the creature’s insectoid ‘face’, while the other half were arched and spread like the business-end of a bulldozer, a slightly concave scoop that grabbed at the ground.

It wasn’t actually charging towards her, not precisely. It seemed to actually be following the crystalline path it made for itself, and as it charged through the semitransparent jungle, the unfortunate fauna it hit turned to dust and then disappeared entirely, leaving a barren patch of nothing in its wake. Regardless of where it was planning on going though, one thing was quite obvious- she was in its path.

“Are you insane?” A frantic voice shouted from the sideline. It was another survivor, hopefully one of many, and the Conduit recognized his voice immediately- Jim, one of the head honchos of the Rebels. Apparently, he had run off in the same general direction she had, or maybe he was actually hoping for an encounter with the huge Bug and she was stealing his spotlight. She turned, hoping to spot him. He was off in a tree, looking down at her, expression in some odd mixture of agitation and laughter that she wasn’t even sure she could pull off if she tried.

“What are you doing?” He said, emphatic. “Run!” The man even gestured, desperately scooping his hands towards his chest, as though pulling her closer.

In truth, she really didn’t know what she was doing. It was an odd feeling, like she was trapped. A deer in the headlights, ready to get run over. To be fair, a deer would have just had to take a few steps to get free. At some point in her desperate efforts to overcome the environment she had succeeded, and now to run out would be excruciating, and to walk out would be too slow.

“I don’t think I can,” she said. Her voice was soft, uncomfortably so. It felt almost like it wasn’t hers, like she had aged. It was the panic, the way it made her give up, the nameless girl realized. Her panic was condemning her, a self-fulfilling prophecy. Jim grimaced, shutting his eyes tightly and turning away. He couldn’t afford to save her, even if there was time- he would need any mana he had for the last fight. She turned back to the huge insect rampaging towards her, more than ready to turn her to dust. More likely, though, it would just crush her, grinding her under its enormous weight.

She only had a few moments to do anything at all. It was almost upon her, growing larger by the moment. Suddenly, she wished the voices would just tell her what to do, but none came. She was alone. That wasn’t true, though. She wasn’t entirely alone. A singular voice screamed in her head, telling her to do something, anything, to get her stupid ass in gear and survive. That voice could only be her own, the last one remaining after the rest had all been stripped away.

The Conduit obliged. She pulled herself together, desperately thinking and wishing. Not for a way out, no, not at all- she was wishing for a way up. The equations soared through her mind, immaterial figments that could never work in the real world but seemed to just ‘click’ with the thing in her head. A second before the insect would hit her, she began to shake and shimmer. Four-fifths of a second before the insect would hit her, her fingers were disappearing, growing transparent and immaterial before her eyes. Three-fifths of a second before the insect would hit her, her entire body was beginning to join in, nervously trying to decide if it was actually here, or over there, or somewhere else entirely. Two-fifths of a second before the insect would hit her, her eyes had joined in, and suddenly she simply wasn’t in front of it any more, she was above it, suspended above its head. One-fifth of a second before the insect would hit her, she hit the insect quite forcibly. With her head.

The nameless girl bounced and rolled, tumbling along the steam-train of a bug’s back. Thankfully, she hadn’t landed on its dangerous tentacled mane, but instead on the exoskeletal plates behind it. At the same time, exoskeletal plates were no trampoline, and her body’s uncontrolled flailing didn’t do much to stop the pain. She realized suddenly that the rifle she had been toting had come with her in the teleport, and the nameless girl gripped it tighter, holding the stock to her chest and jabbing the barrel out, desperately trying to force the muzzle into the creature’s plate. Sadly, the entire point of an exoskeleton was to keep out such intrusions. It took quite a bit more agonizing rolling before she hit a stroke of luck- the barrel missed the ‘slot’ in the creature’s armor entirely, which wasn’t exactly what she wanted, but instead it hit a hole that had been bored into it by one of the Horned Men’s flaming shots. The barrel sunk in deep and caught, and her tumble became a desperate fight to hold on, the shock of suddenly pulling against something nearly tearing the carbine’s body from her grip. She held on to dear life, barely holding on. Jim had stopped grimacing, and she could see his dumbfounded gawk as she sped off into the distance, which almost made the whole ordeal worth it. If she had a spare hand, she would have waved. Soon, he was a distant blip.

She rode the bug.