The Senior Acolyte instantly raised its two spike launchers and began peppering the humans on either side.

“Look out!”

Xander had to duck on instinct as 100 to 150 millimeter-long spikes shot out of the alien monster’s arms. They whistled across the air like singing swallows harboring death. They were almost as fast as bullets and easily sliced through any material the projectile came across.

The metal frames of shelves were shredded and the contents of canned goods, milk, and other goods spilled out after being obliterated by the high-velocity spike.

Xander looked down at one that had sunk deep into the floor with a loud crunch. The tile cracked as more than half of the spike was embedded in it. Xander peered onto the pale brown bone-like texture of the spike. It was shaped like an elongated leaf with a thick center that kept it rigid. Upon closer inspection, it had tiny needle-like barbs that would make it extremely difficult and painful to extract.

“God damn!” Xander cursed before turning to his companions, “do not get hit by those spikes! Sacrifice your shield or whatever, just don’t get hit!”

“Oh, really!? I’d never have thought—argh! Oh, come on!”

Anna grunted in frustration as she had to force her shield to shut off before it could break. As much as the flashbang of light the shield emitted when it exploded was useful, they currently needed better coordination and timing to pull it off.

Anything less would blind one of them and leave them open to be shot at.

Unfortunately, not everyone was able to switch it off at the right time.

A loud bang and crackle echoed the building. Xander jerked his head away at a bright flash of light coming from one of the junior’s shields. Most of the others managed to look away just in time, while the rest were partially flashed.

Amidst the curses of indignation, Xander groaned as the Senior Acolyte was barely affected—having raised its arms to block the flash of light from blinding it.

The user of the destroyed shield wasn’t so lucky.

“Giatay! Akong mata! (Damn! My eyes!)”

Xander was about to shout at the young man to get down. Blinded as the junior was, he was completely unaware that the alien cultist set its many eyes on him. It raised one of its spike-launching limbs and aimed it on the hapless younger man.

“Get down! Get—”

Xander was thankfully interrupted when Ben simply tackled the young man onto the messy floor.

The teams of humans had to constantly move around to find better cover amongst the fallen shelves. Most of their gauntlets were reaching their limits. One by one, they had to either shut it off or look away once it blew.

“We can’t take much more!”

“Argh! My shoulder! My fucking shoulder!”

“Damnit! Warn us when it's going to—shit!”

At this point, the humans of each team were becoming increasingly worried about the situation.

The humans did not take this lightly and fired back with everything they had. Xander even saw Isaac get handed a short-barreled shotgun from his subordinate and unleashed a hail of 12-gauge at the acolyte.

Though not every pellet struck true, it still annoyed the acolyte, eliciting a baleful roar.

“Annoying gnats!”

Xander winced as a spike wrecked a nearby shelf and the metal fragments pelted his face.

Although his underarmor protected his eyes, he still couldn’t stop himself from flinching. He was beginning to feel vexed that the monster was still alive despite being perforated by the combined arms of four teams.

“This putang ina (son of a whore, won’t die!” Xander clearly heard Walter’s deep contempt-filled voice curse on the other side.

“Keep shooting! Don’t let up!” Isaac retorted, pumping more shells toward the monster.

The exchange continued as both sides incurred more wounds. But it was beginning to be clear that the humans had the advantage.

There were about 20 meters between the humans and the monster in the center. Despite the Senior Acolyte having enough strength to outmatch any of the humans on their lonesome, it couldn’t do more than keep moving around the center while sending out spike after spike.

With more than a dozen armed Tier Is suppressing the acolyte on both sides, the alien realized it would soon die from a thousand cuts.

The hail of bullets penetrated its flesh, but due to its nature, the Senior Acolyte’s body had few organs it considered vital. Most would simply sink into unimportant sections of its anatomy while a rare lucky hit blew off one of its many appendages.

In truth, given enough biomass, it could regenerate new limbs at the cost of stability.

But with the amount of gunfire coming toward it, even its combat-formed resilience was starting to falter. The monster zipped around the center in an attempt to dodge the humans’ bullets, but its large frame worked against it.

It had even attempted to climb atop whatever shelves were left standing, but its sheer weight instantly toppled over.

Xander saw its frantic movements and widened his eyes in realization. With a savage grin, he pointed his hammer at the beast.

“It’s panicking! Just a bit more and it’s dead!”

“AARGH!” The alien abomination let out a loud bellow like a mixture of a truck’s horn and a lion’s roar.

Everyone winced and clutched their ears once more at the debilitating sound attack. At such a close distance, Xander couldn’t help gritting his teeth.

After a moment when the acolyte’s shout ended, Xander shook his head and looked up.

“Gah!”

Xander dodged to the side just as the monster could grab him with its multitude of grasping claws.

Before he could recover, the Senior Acolyte raised its shooting arm and aimed it toward Xander at point-blank range. Xander barely had enough time to raise his blaring red energy shield to protect his face.

Out of consideration, Xander shouted toward anyone who could hear him, “FLASH!”

Seemingly in slow motion, Xander saw the spike eject from the end of the acolyte’s misshapen limb. It crossed the short distance and impacted his shield. Xander saw the spike break apart but continue to push against the barrier.

Crackling psionic lighting flared across his gauntlet and a piercing sound could be heard before Xander closed his eyes.

Through his translucent eyelids, Xander could see and hear his energy shield break and explode dazzlingly. The force made him stumble but Xander quickly recovered and took out his hammer.

But when he swung his weapon in front of him with the added momentum boost—he realized his hammer struck nothing but air. When he opened his eyes, he realized that the monster had backed away much farther due to its tall spider-like legs.

“The fuck—” was all Xander could say before he was slammed onto the tiled floor. The impact cracked the ground and forced the air out of his lungs. Xander had failed to dodge the thick limb the acolyte shot its spikes from and had used it as a meaty club to strike the human.

Xander felt his back bruise and skeleton rattle as he groaned out in pain. However, realizing his precarious position, Xander grasped his hammer once more and swung above him with fury.

“Get off!”

His hammer managed to bat away a clawed hand while the second swing forced the cultist monster back. In the background, the rest of the extermination force took the chance and began firing at the Senior Acolyte who was now preoccupied with Xander.

Anna gripped her alien handgun tighter and fired faster than she had ever fired before. The moment it was empty, Anna rapidly replaced the magazine and continued to fire until her trigger finger began to hurt.

All the while, she threw all sorts of profanities to get the beast’s attention.

“Hoy! Yawa ka! Gagong pakshet! (You devil! Stupid fucking shit!) Look at me, you bastard!”

Ben on the other hand gestured toward the Conscripts without firearms, “throw your weapons at it instead of staring! Anything helps, pick up a can of beans if you have to!”

Hearing the athletic man’s words, Renz motioned for his buddies to follow him.

Spears, axes, and canned goods flew across the air amongst the gunfire and pelted the Senior Acolyte and finally managed to get it away from Xander.

At this moment, the topical region of the beast was heavily damaged and its structural integrity was starting to deteriorate from all the damage.

Xander stood up from the ground and stuck his last stim on his thigh. Riding from the energy, Xander sprinted toward the monster with his hammer.

However, its long legs and incredible speed made it impossible for Xander to catch up, and he was soon forced back when it returned to suppressing them with spikes. It slowly began to crawl back to the rear of the supermarket

“Come on! You coward!” Xander snarled as he returned to his companions.

Anna ran up to him and looked him over, “you ok?”

“For the most part, I think I’m done for the day after this.”

“You and me both,” Anna snorted.

Isaac walked up to the two, continuing to pump shell after shell at the fleeing monster, “we can’t let it escape, it broke our encirclement and is heading to the back.”

“What happened to the rear team?”

Isaac grimaced, a glint of distress flew across his face momentarily, “no idea, I can’t reach any of them on my radio.”

“Shit!” Xander groaned. That meant there was nothing to stop it if they failed to kill it here. Xander looked at the thing that was simultaneously shooting and moving backward.

Xander paused for a moment as he saw it stumbled on a fallen shelf and its overall sluggishness. The young man took out his revolver and began reloading it once more as he turned to Anna and Isaac.

“It’s starting to feel its wounds, we need to kill it here!”

“Right then. Come on people, we’re almost done with this chore!” Isaac rallied everyone and chased after the alien cultist, “it’s practically done for!”

The humans of the extermination force redoubled their efforts. Now that the Senior Acolyte moved much slower than before, and shot fewer projectiles in return, the shooters among the Tier Is had a much easier time landing more shots.

The keener among the extermination team saw this and cheered. Their desire to end the foul monster lit a fire in their hearts.

“Yeah! You like that, you ugly shit! Haha!” William cackled as he raised a Conscript’s spear from an injured comrade, “here!”

The man’s smug look turned into a grimace as the spear he threw missed entirely. As much as he wanted to look like an Olympic javelin thrower, it was more akin to a drunk throwing a bottle.

“Ah, whatever,” Walter groaned in annoyance as he returned to firing his slugger handgun.

Isaac, moved beside him with a teasing smirk, “let’s stick with our area of expertise.”

The middle-aged man glared at the Marco security guard, “oh yeah? What’s yours then, expert?”

Isaac shrugged before pointing his gauntlet toward the Senior Acolyte who had become increasingly aggressive. It wanted to charge another weak human and pummel it to the ground, but it couldn’t come close without getting shot more.

“Stay where you are!” Isaac loudly called out to the monster as he used his lasso attachment for the first time. The glowing thick thread shot out from under his palm and successfully entangled itself on one of the Senior Acolyte’s legs to its upper body.

The alien cultist cursed in an alien tongue as it became unbalanced and fell to the ground.

“It’s down!”

The humans swarmed toward the downed acolyte as it tried to tear at the lasso entangling its leg. However, even with its savage scythe-like legs or its claws, it only managed to leave tiny scratches.

“Caught you now, yawa ka!” Walter laughed as he approached the monster to its side and fired his gun point-blank.

Everyone else stayed at a respectable distance and fired at the one thing the acolyte tried to protect most of all.

Throughout the fight, chunks of its purple flesh would be ripped out from the kinetic force of the bullets striking it. It cared not for its limbs or torso, but would rather sacrifice it to protect its face.

But now, sprawled on the supermarket floor next to spilled bottles of detergent and soap, the Tier Is perforated its amorphous head with everything they had.

They continued to fire until their ammo ran empty, and the supermarket went quiet apart from the clicking of empty guns and exhausted panting.

Everyone waited for a moment as they gazed at the unmoving corpse of the Senior Acolyte not trusting it was truly dead. Their hearts raced and their skins were wet with sweat.

“Is it…”

“Dead?”

Xander waited for the confirmation as he stared at the disgusting fluid pooling underneath the massive body.

Finally, a ding resounded in their heads as a golden vapor emerged from the alien corpse.

“Ay, salamat sa Dios. (Oh, thank God.)”

The humans all let out relieved breaths, and a few began chuckling. Xander was just glad the ordeal was over with as the Ichor split into multiple streams. As it was unclear who dealt the final blow, the golden thread seemed to split relatively even amongst the humans.

Xander however, saw the thread entering Anna’s chest was minutely larger than the rest. The young man smirked and winked at his partner who smiled back at him.

After glancing at the corpse a final time and Xander checked his surroundings. The huge hole was quite obvious as was the smoking truck, everything else was just utter ruin as if an earthquake had occurred below the supermarket.

As for the extermination force, Xander noticed a few missing while the rest were sporting a variety of wounds.

Xander sighed at the destruction and casualties before looking at his completed mission. As he opened his green window, Xander was momentarily confused.

• Missions • Priority Extermination Mission Update: Robins Supermarket

The cultists, alien beasts, and the Senior Acolyte has been eliminated. However, Teams E and F failed to report on their whereabouts. Proceed to the storage area at the back of the supermarket and assess their conditions.

Threat level: Substantial

Rewards: 20 Nexus Merits, 400 Lumina Shards (Rewards may vary)

Objectives

- Stand by until all teams are present (Completed) - Eliminate all cultists (Completed) - Eliminate the Senior Acolyte (Completed) - Search for Team E and F Superlunary Matter: 3 mL of 'Ichor' absorbed.

“Ah shit, something has happened to them,” Xander groaned. The rear teams’ presence could have significantly helped them in taking the Senior Acolyte down faster. Nevertheless, no plan was perfect.

“We should get going then,” Xander heard Isaac’s voice and turned to see him and Walter move toward him, “I checked my [Map] and I there’s some sort of glitchy fuzz we haven’t noticed before.”

Xander raised his eyebrow at that and looked at his. As Isaac said, the back of the supermarket was fuzzy.

“What in the hell?” the malfunctioning image was new and something Xander hadn’t seen when he checked his [Map] before and during the course of the battle, “What is this?”

Isaac sighed as he straightened his glasses, “no idea why that is, but it could be the Senior Acolyte was doing something to keep us from seeing this spot.”

Xander grimaced as he thought about the repercussions, “that meant the rear teams strolled into a trap!”

Everyone hearing this either cursed or gasped in surprise.

“What are we standing around like fools for? Let’s go!” Walter spoke as he motioned for his sole companion to follow him.

Isaac gestured for his people to proceed, leaving Xander. The young man faced his team as well as Renz and the juniors.

“Right, we need to find Kathy, Nathan, and their guys. Something’s happened to them.”

Everyone mumbled into tired affirmation as they readied themselves for a possible fight.

Anna and Ben walked up beside Xander. The young man looked toward his two companions and noted they seemed tired but not debilitatingly so. He heard Anna groan under her breath causing him to raise an eyebrow toward her.

Anna sighed and checked her slugger, “just hope we don’t face another acolyte or something. I burned through all my ammo.”

Ben looked over his own gear and shook his head, “same here, my pulser is dead, and I have a single magazine left for my slugger.”

Hearing this, Xander checked his pockets and frowned as he felt no cartridges left. He opened his revolver and saw two bullets remaining, “we need to restock before heading home, I feel naked.”

His companions nodded their heads as they proceeded toward the back of the supermarket.

The four teams eventually reached a pair of heavy metal doors. A large “employees-only” was written above the door frame and a padlock kept the doors locked.

Isaac turned toward Xander and tilted his head toward the lock.

Xander nodded and moved forward with his hammer. He was still peeved he had wasted a momentum boost when he missed his swing. He had two left as he had used another one during his brawl with the voidlings.

Of course, he wasn’t going to use an empowered attack for a simple padlock. He had sufficient strength to bust it open.

“Excuse me,” Xander raised his hammer into the air, pausing for a moment before smiling, “open sesame!”

Xander brought his hammer down and broke the lock without effort. The young man smirked as he turned around to see Anna facepalming herself while everyone else didn’t care.

Xander shrugged as he pushed the doors open with his hammer and motioned for everyone to enter.

When they set foot inside the dark expansive area, Xander was momentarily confused by the squelching sound made by his footsteps. The young man looked down and could barely see some strange fleshy substance.

However, Xander had no time to kneel and inspect what he had stepped on, he and everyone had to clutch their noses as a horrid smell permeated the area. Xander retched as he had unluckily inhaled what could only be described as rotten eggs and milk.

“That smell! Urgh!”

“I’m gonna be si—urk…”

“Get your flashlights people,” Isaac spoke in the dark.

Xander looked for his pocket light and switched it on. Multiple flashlights chased the dark away as they shined it in different directions. What they saw sent a chill through their spines.

Xander, Anna, and Ben could only gape at the sight revealed by their flashlights. A layer of purplish substance crept up the tall metal shelving and cardboard boxes filled with random goods. More than four dozen pustule-like growths whose sizes ranged from a household cat up to a human’s waist.

The area felt alive in an uncanny and vile way. The fleshy substance below his feat seemed to writhe as if breathing.

“Holy hell.”