The rush to the left-wing of the supermarket was perilous as the eight Conscripts ducked behind cover. Xander raised his energy shield—already in yellow—as he blocked another volley of bullets whizzing toward him.

With Xander’s sharper Mind from infusing it to 15, he made a casual observation on the defending cultists.

So far, the Senior Acolyte has yet to make an appearance. Whether it was planning to ambush them when they were all exhausted or was about to join the shootout, Xander didn’t know.

Bastard is observing us for now.

The young man guessed that it was assessing the overall strength of the assault. Compared to the first time—where Walter, Nathan, and their group were woefully outnumbered and outgunned—the alien cultist seemed content to wait for an opportunity to strike.

Xander put that thought aside, determined to search the entire building inch by inch to root the monster out. Right now, he had to analyze the current situation. The young man smirked before he called out to his fellow Conscripts.

“It’s working! Their attention is split!”

“I’d rather they stop firing at all,” Xander heard Anna huff out.

That was unlikely as the cultists seemed dead set on cleansing the building of those they see as heretics. Still, one could dream. Instead, Xander saw at least five shooters focusing on them compared to the dozen when the frontal assault teams were clumped up together.

Amidst the hail of bullets, Xander could hear the crazed cackles of the cultists. A mixture of insane prayers and jeering curses added to the chaotic atmosphere.

Xander steeled his mind. It had gotten easier to resist the mental influence of the cult’s damned signal. Now, it barely registered more than a tiny itch in the back of his mind.

The group moved past a discount idle shelf with an assortment of goods.

It's gonna take more than that to—

Xander was interrupted from that thought as a bottle of shampoo was obliterated before him and splashed all over his face.

"Fuck!"

"Xand!?" Anna shouted out in concern.

Xander gestured an okay sign to her as he wiped the viscous fluid from his face.

"It's just shampoo," Xander grunted in irritation before realizing that his Second Skin Underarmor made it much easier to remove the lavender-scented shampoo.

"That's convenient."

Xander wished normal human clothing came with such a function, he and Anna would have saved thousands of pesos from laundry services if that function was available.

Of course, smart clothes existed in first-world countries but that was a luxury a Filipino like him couldn't afford.

Of course, that was all irrelevant at the moment as they were currently in a firefight in the middle of the supermarket.

"Over here!"

The group stopped for a moment and huddled by the corner of the building where small tables were set up.

This part of Robins Supermarket housed a diverse range of food stalls that were now empty of the usual enticing aromas.

Being far from the center, the eight Conscripts had a brief reprieve from the shootout to get their bearings.

Xander wanted to keep the momentum going however and used the moment to reorganize both teams.

"Alright, let's take a breather. Get your stuff together. Then we move out."

Ben moved forward and distributed a few items to everyone.

"Here's some energy cells for your gauntlets and a few stims. I don't have enough for everyone, though."

The two teams eyed the goodies laid before them before looking at each other.

Anna wasted no time and grabbed an energy cell and injected a vigor stim on her thigh. She raised an eyebrow to everyone else but particularly at Renz.

"What? He's my brother, and our teammate," Anna spoke sternly before rising reenergized in both body and her gauntlet, "we get first dibs."

Xander followed through and grabbed a cell and vigor stim, leaving only a few. Though he felt a tiny bit sympathetic toward the college juniors, he was not a bit guilty of using the resources coming from his team.

The rush of power and stamina that came with the more concentrated stim flowed through his veins, "holy hell that felt good."

Xander let out a breath and made a faux apologetic expression as he faced Renz who was deciding on who gets the rest with his buddies.

"Sorry, but we need to get a move on. We already spent a few minutes here."

Anna nodded, she raised her shield, now back to a safe verdant emerald color. She hopped on the spot as she was rearing to move, "a few minutes more than necessary, come on."

Renz gulped as he nervously rubbed his neck, "oh no, it's fine, you've been more than generous already. You gotta stick with your people first, I understand."

Xander was glad at his response, he stood straight as he stepped forward.

"Good. Let's go."

Team D looked better than they were previously. Though the college juniors still fidgeted about, they had impressively kept their facial expressions cool.

Xander, Anna, and Ben on the other hand were more than ready. The first two seemed a bit too eager, much to the latter's disapproval.

The group reformed. Team D with their shields in front with Team C providing the damage.

Under the guidance of their seniors, the college juniors maintained their grit as they moved inside the supermarket proper.

It didn't take long for the bullets to come firing back at them as they dove into an aisle of cereal. Multi-grain, chocolate and fruity sugary goodness exploded as both sides engaged each other.

Anna fired through the three-meter tall shelving toward the general direction of the cultist shooters.

"Argh! These fucks are annoying!" Anna cursed, exasperated.

"Keep shooting!"

Occasionally they heard the pained or surprised wails of a madman being struck. With each voice bellowing out in pain, the rain of fire from the opposite side lessened.

"Keep it going!"

The group made faster progress much to their delight. However, confusion set in as the gunfire abruptly ended. What followed was rageful shrieking and clicking drawing closer to their position.

"Oh fuck."

Voidlings.

Xander could only liken the sound to a pack of rabid dogs running through tiles, something that had happened once when a pack of askals (mixed-breed dogs/street dogs) ran down a sidewalk.

Everyone huddled together as they anxiously awaited the coming tide of voidlings.

“Sh-shit!” Renz exclaimed as his eyes darted everywhere, “where are they coming from!?”

Xander’s mind went into overdrive as a multitude of thoughts raced through his mind.

The group was currently in the middle of an aisle. Xander looked and saw the voidlings could come from either opening or over the shelves. Xander clenched his jaw, and a mild flash of panic rushed through him.

The young man gritted his teeth as he raised his shield.

“Circle! Renz, shield us,” Xander spoke as he pulled the members of Team D to form a shield circle with him, Anna, and Ben in the center, “Watch above!”

Not a moment later, Anna exclaimed as a voidling leaped on the group from the shelf above.

“Yawa! (Devil!)” the young woman cursed as she quickly aimed her slugger at bore a hole on the soft underside of the falling alien monster.

The alien metal slug easily penetrated the beast and turned its inside to mush before exiting out of its shell like a confetti of purple flesh and blood.

Which, unfortunately, fell on some of the humans—much to their disgust.

“Dios ko, (my God) the smell—urgh.”

“Ew, fuck it’s all over me, ew!”

Before they could have the moment to retch, the rest of the pack had arrived.

“Shields!” Xander shouted in an attempt to rally his companions. Four came from the opening to one side, three from another. Finally, another group of four leaped between the two shelves they stood between.

“Shoot! Shoot!” Anna frantically spoke as she used all her marksmanship and gun handling skills to hit her mark. Ben and Xander were not as good as the young woman but held their own.

The problem wasn’t the distance as the voidlings were well within their range.

The problem was that they were too evasive as they kept moving about quickly.

“They’re too fast!”

“Shit!”

Despite they’re cursing, there was something incredibly frightening about almost a dozen dog-sized tumors with spider legs moving as fast as cockroaches running across a bathroom floor.

“Ah! Get away from—argh!”

“Hold still!”

The group tried to hold firm, but the pack fell upon them mercilessly. With their numbers, they coordinated their movements to strike at different angles. More than once, the humans’ legs were nicked as they blocked an attack from on high.

Xander grimaced, his heart racing as he, Anna, and Ben did all they could to reduce the pack’s numbers.

This is bad.

Fighting unarmed cultists was easy. Xander never found them particularly threatening even when one was trying to wrench his energy shield from him.

Cultists with guns or Thralls were much more dangerous. Xander always felt the hand of death brushing his shoulder every time a bullet is blocked or whizzed past his head.

The acolytes were incredibly alien and vile. Xander felt only a compulsion to remove them from the earth. Their existence was dreadful but when there was just one of them, it felt manageable.

But there was some instinctual and primal fear when outnumbered by fast predators.

A hunting group of ancient humans could still feel calm when faced with a bear or a mammoth. Sure the power of these mighty animals vastly outmatches a single human, but a group of humans could use their intelligence to fell them.

However, being outnumbered by a pack of wolves was much more dangerous. Numbers had always been a major factor in a fight.

Xander grimaced as he prepared to get some injuries.

“Look out!” Anna shouted as a voidling jumped on a shelf and immediately descended upon Xander.

Xander holstered his now empty revolver and quickly pulled out his hammer. He thrust it into the air like a spear. Without a blade, it wouldn’t do much to pierce flesh.

Xander wasn’t planning to do that. He narrowed his eyes as his hammer detected his will and activated its new function. The young man’s battle hammer glowed brightly as the momentum boost engaged.

Xander’s arm was pulled and the human was slightly out of balance from the abrupt acceleration. However, that did little to change the outcome.

“Eat this!”

Like an artillery shell, the force from the hammer smashed the descending voidling in the face. It absolutely crushed the monster’s skeleton, and the concussive damage burst blood vessels and shattered bones.

The voidling was thrown back high into the air and crashed onto a shelf before unceremoniously landing on the tiled floor.

The group of humans was briefly amazed by the display. Xander smiled as he took the chance to regain the initiative.

“Give it to ‘em!”

His order was simple, but he poured enough emotion to get it across. His compatriots tightened their grips on whatever weapon they had as one by one they began to shout their hearts out. It had a good effect as the warcry overpowered their feelings of terror.

When faced with a more numerous hostile force, you had to leverage what you do have.

For the eight Conscripts, it was morale, positioning, and superior equipment.

Xander had no time to discuss this in full before coming forward and joining Team D in the defense.

“Stay low, hide your bodies with your shield! Put your backs to the shelf! Outlast these things!” Xander loudly spoke through the voidlings’ skittering and malice-filled shrieks.

Anna reloaded her slugger before resuming her precise shooting, “come on, you fucks!”

The fight proceeded more evenly this time. The college juniors did their best even as they shook in their shoes. They were an ample buffer between Team C and the alien beasts—although more than once, a scythe-like leg managed to pierce or slash at an exposed part.

Xander was a vital contributor to the defense. The tall young man was in his element, as he swung his hammer in a downward arc, smashing a voidling’s shell into pieces.

His 16 Body and 15 Mind were proving their worth. He was no superhuman, but he was more comfortable in a fight than ever before.

He wasn’t invulnerable, unfortunately, as whatever swipe he didn’t dodge or block with his shield sliced his skin. His Second Skin Underarmor helped him resist most of the attacks, thankfully.

“Keep it up!” Xander heard Ben’s voice behind him through the sound of gunfire and the crackle of energy shields.

Xander was like a miner striking stone, knowing gold was underneath. Single strikes were enough to take a voidling out of the fight, much to Xander’s satisfaction.

A swing batted one beast like an oversized baseball.

Another crushed a beast’s left side.

Yet another tore its legs out of their sockets.

The hum of his alien weapon made a pleasant sound compared to the squelch whenever the head penetrated alien flesh.

It was over after a few minutes.

The aisle was littered with purple viscera and fluids. Boxes of cereal were spread across the floor with their contents spilled out.

The group of eight heaved their chests as they took stock of each other. Everyone had some wounds on their arms or legs. Renz had his cheek slashed which was being bandaged by his friend. Overall, no one was grievously wounded.

Xander extracted his hammer from the voidling’s corpse. He felt tired, but not exhausted. After a few breaths, he calmed his racing heart.

“Right then, let’s—”

The bullets from the cultists interrupted Xander and the group of Conscripts. One student from Team C was unlucky enough to get shot in the chest. The young man stumbled until his back hit the wall before collapsing.

“Keith!”

“Fuck!”

“Shields!”

Voices spoke over each other, either in surprise or anguish. Xander kept repeating for everyone to bring the shields up, which they slowly did. A few others got grazed by bullets before they engaged their protection.

At this point, the verdant green shields were either yellow or orange. Seeing this, Xander spoke up in a hurry.

“We can’t stay here! We need to move to the center, now!”

His words, however, failed to register on Renz and his buddies as they tried to stop the bleeding from the one named Keith.

“Hold on! You’ll be fine!” Renz shakily spoke while he kept a piece of cloth on the wound.

Xander went over to the leader of Team C and shook him, only to be rebuffed. Xander grew irate as he spoke.

“Renz! We can’t stay here!”

Anna laid low to the ground next to her brother with their shields up as she spoke, “What are we doing here!?”

Renz and his friends were utterly focused on their wounded comrade, Xander grabbed a hold of Team C’s leader and forced the younger man to face him.

“Renz we—”

“Fuck off!”

Renz attempted to shove the tall senior off, but only managed to nudge him a bit. Despite that, Xander let go.

“We’re outta here! We need to get Keith to a hospital,” Renz hurriedly spoke.

“This is a priority mission! You can’t abandon—”

“The hell we can’t! This was a mistake, ” Renz nodded to one of his friends as they prepared to lift Keith from the ground, while the others had their shields up, “Come on, let’s—”

Before he could finish, Renz and his buddies seized up as if they were tazed. It was only a brief moment, but the painful sensation left the four juniors panting as they held their heads.

“Argh, fuck! My head!” Renz spoke as his eyes became unfocused, “No! My friend needs to—argh! Please, we—tangina! (whore!) Fine, fine!”

Xander, Anna, and Ben looked on as Team C seemed to be battling their ONIM’s in their heads. The three never experienced what the juniors were having now, but they had read about it online from other Tier Is.

The Omninexus didn’t mind if humans left missions they volunteered for, but Priority Missions were another thing entirely. Anyone attempting desertion had a shock sent from their implants before the alien superintelligence would send a compulsion signal to force the human back into action.

That piece of information did not sit well with everyone as they realized that they have something in their brains that could harm them at any time.

Xander didn’t mind all that much, and at the moment, he hoped Renz and his buddies would get their senses back together.

As much as he was disheartened by the junior named Keith’s fatal wound, he didn’t really know the younger man. What he did care about was getting their shield wall back up and getting on with the mission.

“Renz, Renz!” Xander called out to the leader of Team C.

The junior in question raised a palm as he regained his senses. Renz had a deep scowl and wet tears as he pulled away from his friend—the light from the wounded Keith slowly fading away.

“Let’s go,” Renz mumbled in a low emotional voice. The rest of Team C looked distraught but pulled themselves together.

Xander looked over the college students before nodding his head.

Morale was low from the loss, but the now seven Conscripts forced themselves to move on.

They passed through more aisles as they closed in on the center. Xander looked at Team C increasing their pace, and he vaguely sensed the anger seeping through them. He thought for a moment before capitalizing on their emotions.

“Hurry! These assholes need to get what’s coming!”

The juniors responded positively as they roared out in rage. The group was heading closer until they could see the wrinkles on a cultist laying atop a shelf. Xander, Anna, and Ben continued to fire their guns at the cultists, their shots becoming more accurate from closing the distance.

“Got you!” Anna exclaimed as she bore a hole through the last shooter in the forehead.

Finally, free from the suppression of gunfire, the group crossed the rest of the supermarket with ease. However, as they reached the center, an ungodly screech roared across the building. The humans had to grit their teeth and cover their ears.

“What the hell is that!?”

“What else could it be!?”

Xander shook his head from the dizzying bellow before motioning for his comrades to continue moving. The guttural roars continued at a much lesser volume and accompanying it was gunshots and shouting.

“Come on! That must be the others, we need to help!”

They turned a corner past an aisle and corpses of fallen cultists. What they saw was mayhem.

“Xand!” Anna shouted, pulling Xander away from a bone spike flying through the air from hitting him.

Xander was wide-eyed for a moment before shaking his head. He gritted his teeth as he followed the trajectory of the projectile toward the source—past the numerous toppled and shattered shelves, and all the products sprawled across the floor.

“Fuck, look at that thing.”

The Senior Acolyte looked horrendous. Different from the one he faced at Chalice, this one was summoned with a complete form. It walked on four legs and looked similar to a centaur. It looked nothing like a half-human, half-horse majestical creature, however.

Its skinless form looked irritable to the eyes. Down below, instead of equine legs, it walked on scythe-like blades similar to the voidlings but much more menacing.

Its upper torso looked familiar to the acolytes he faced before. From its gut was a collection of spindly limbs ending in sharp claws clutching the air. Its head was the same amorphous sponge-like blob as the past two acolytes Xander faced.

The most glaring feature of this amalgamation of flesh was its two bulbous appendages where its arms were supposed to be. At their tips looked similar to a bee’s stinger, and already, a new bone spike protruded out from it, ready to fire.

“Over there!” Xander heard Ben shout and looked at where he was pointing.

Hiding behind toppled shelves were Teams A and B. Xander saw Isaac and Walter with fresh wounds as they fired their weapons at the alien cultist. Xander called out to them while waving his glowing hammer to get their attention.

“Isaac!”

The bespectacled security guard looked in his direction and sighed in relief. He dodged another spike coming toward him before adopting a stern expression and shouting Xander’s way.

“Let’s finish this!”

Xander nodded before turning to his companions.

“You heard the man! Take cover! Renz, you and your team just focus on protecting us.”

The junior leader looked at Xander’s serious expression and nodded without a word.

The final battle started in earnest as the Senior Acolyte realized to its distress that it was now facing two fronts.

The alien cultist shrieked in rage and annoyance.

“I will not deign you fools with this one’s wisened words, as they shall fall deaf ears. Come hither! An eternal peace awaits!”