Running while firing a pistol never got any easier; or maybe he just lacked the practice, or maybe it was impossible for his feeble human brain to both move and shoot. That was his excuse and he was sticking with it; the alternative view, that he couldn’t hit a creature the size of an actual barn was not a thought he was willing to entertain. He came to a sharp stop and discharged his weapon again and again at the massive creature that bore superficial resemblance to a coconut crab but was much bigger with a tank-like exterior that rested on eight massive scarlet trunk-like legs with a fifth pair of limbs in the shape of massive hand-like appendages where normally pincers would be that covered where it’s face would be.

The creature stood at about six metres tall dwarfing even the largest elephant and was covered in red bulky armour that concealed a pale blue skin. Despite its size it was surprisingly agile with its legs causing it to skitter back and forth with an erratic alacrity allowing it to avoid the spears of the mushroom men. Warden drew a bead before he squeezed the trigger three times causing small explosions that chipped at the red exterior and rocked the creature slightly but were ultimately ignored in the same manner that a strong gust of wind is ignored.

“Class one,” Surge coolly remarked from his position next to him causing Warden to stare at him in disbelief. “A decently strong class once but this still far from the standards of class two.” His disbelief turned towards Wendy who blushed and looked away as if embarrassed by her performance.

“Look the Fun Guys are handling it,” Wendy said pointing towards the coalition of diminutive mask-wearing mushrooms. Despite being far smaller than the crab creature they were darting in around the creature with spears. Was he imagining it or were their movements a lot faster than those of a human. No they were definitely faster. He focused on the Trusted Captain and felt a familiar squeeze of pain before words appeared in his mind.

Target Identified

Name: Trusted Captain

Species: Persona Hyphum

Threat Class: 0

Strength: Very High

Speed: High

Durability: Average

Power: Very High

Current Benefits: Deity Blessing

Current Curses: None

‘So they did have a proper species name,’ he mused before he focused on the situation in front of him. The Captain at least was quite a bit stronger and faster than him although his durability was surprisingly low considering what his eyes were telling him. Indeed even as he watched a fungus-man got too close and one of those limbs come down splattering him in half only for the being to squirm its way out as the flesh reformed. The first thought that came to his mind was that maybe only the masks were the vulnerable parts of their body and the way they moved seemed to support that as they continuously bobbed and weaved their heads protecting their face-wear to the detriment of all else. A trio more of blasts rocked the creature leaving marring its armour but not penetrating to the soft skin presumably underneath or doing anything more than adding to the infuriation that the creature was undoubtedly feeling.

As if a switch was flipped, the creature straightening out its jointed legs and rose up before instantly lashing out with every second leg stabbing through the various mushrooms with an elegant brutality. Arm, chest and stomach splattered open only for the mushrooms to slowly reform but the forth leg stabbed through the mask and the masked fungus immediately broke apart collapsing into a lifeless group of lumpy vegetation. Instantly the beast turned towards the fungus lowering itself as if to gaze upon the corpse refuse before it reared up to a great height balancing on its last four pillar like limbs.

“Attack, Wendy,” Warden commanded, no precognition necessary for him to work out what the next outcome was and his secretary obeyed instantly charging towards the creature that was triple her height alone. Long legs lashed out like a horde of battering rams angling towards the masks of the creatures and they achieved partial success instantly shattering two of the masks and crashing into the clumpy body of the third one.

The forth red-armoured leg was stopped a few feet from a shuddering orange mask as it encountered an obstacle in the form of the forearms of Coldreach’s best secretary. With a heave of exertion she pushed causing the entire crustacean to stagger a few steps back as it momentarily lost balance. Without a second of hesitation Wendy leveraged that moment and leapt___

A flash of light and an audible explosion attacked his senses and it was through squinted eyes that he saw the smoking figure of his secretary fly backwards. A pang of fear at her fate befell him for a moment before his cold rationality took over. Her body was relatively intact, she could regenerate and Surge could heal her if necessary. The creature was already slowly returning the fifth pair of limbs from its attack position and he quickly noticed once more a recurring flash of blue indicating a vulnerable spot. Swiftly he raised his pistol squeezing the trigger and trying to compensate for the recoil to send out another trio of shots.

The creature wailed in agony as the second shot hit the target and scarlet blood scattered into the air before it went berserk. Blinded and trying desperately to protect its face it flailed around trampling indiscriminately causing the ground to crack and beneath the sheer unbridled aggression of the creature. The mushroom men retreated from the flailing limbs taking small advantages swinging or stabbing at the dangerous implements with surprising grace.

It wasn’t all one-sided however as two more masks were shattered by the erratic motions causing the humanoid fungus to collapse on the spot. The creature lurched forward erratically falling back on backup senses as it lumbered towards the bulk of the mushroom forces that engaged while falling backwards. He narrowed his eyes trying to get another shot before an eruption of earth blinded him and he covered his eyes with the top of his forearm only managing to open them after the dirt had once more fallen to gravity’s embrace.

Waving his hand and trying to disperse the remaining dust before his allergies kicked in, he opened his eyes to a visibly different scene. The crab creature lay on its back with legs flat against the ground as if it had been forcibly pushed down. A much smaller shape floated above that he barely managed to glimpse. A half-second passed as he realised that the shape wasn’t floating but falling and that the shape was his secretary and by that time the descent had already been completed.

A loud cracking sound assaulted his ears although he couldn’t tell whether it was Wendy, the crab or the ground. On closer reflection it was probably a combination of the last two as Wendy immediately laid into the creature tearing through that carapace like she was tearing the wrapper off a chocolate bar. The class one creature shook in agony and the mushroom men immediately reversed the momentum charging towards the twitching limbs like a horde of ants swarming a beetle.

In moments the creature was held down assailed by the scores of creatures that hacked at its legs crippling it while Wendy dug into its flesh causing gouts of blood and viscera to escape from the holes in its armour. The creature shook trying to get itself up even as its body was mutilated by his bodyguard and the masked people hacked at their legs cleaving through that armour with speed and strength greater than any human he had ever met but maybe they were simply empowered by a deity.

His sense of danger flared as the beast went still and a warning had barely reached his lips before the beast exploded; the massive red-tank like armour turning into a bomb that sent out a hail of shrapnel tearing into everything within range. A limbless creature of blue slime tore out of the impromptu grave and made towards the water in a slithering, squirming motion. He raised his gun aiming only to watch as the entire slimy mass was immediately pressed to the ground by a burnt, very angry looking Wendy. A single blink was enough for him to miss the action but he didn’t miss the sight of her tearing into the nape of the creature and bringing up a mouth dripping with blood and flesh before she hurriedly wiped it looking embarrassed.

Well it wasn’t as if he hadn’t eaten crab in the past either. Although he was slightly surprised that she was so quick to ingest blood again after the last time. He holstered his gun walking towards the corpse before a commotion drew his eye.

“You just let him die,” an orange-masked Persona Hyphum accused another orange masker. “You must be a rebel.”

“It happened too fast,” the second orange-masked fungus said. “I tried to get to___” his words didn’t finish as the sabre wielded by the Trusted Captain slashed his mask in half causing the body to dissolve.

“Tha___” the other orange-masker said before his mask was also easily cut in two. In one swift motion the Trusted Captain stowed his weapon and turned to face the crowd who faced him in trepidation.

“Listen up,” the sole blue-masked Persona Hyphum said. “I will have no wild accusations jeopardising the mission. Rebels have always been among the minority so if I hear an allegation I will in response simply make two cuts. Is that understood?” He didn’t wait for any response but instead turned towards one of the green-masked aliens. “Reckless Scientist, bring out the backup masks,” he commanded.

“Backup masks,” Warden mused as he stepped closer watching closely with a disdain that faded into interest as two new orange masks appeared and were subsequently dropped onto the paired piles of lifeless fungus. In a procedure that was equally fascinating and disturbing the lifeless fungus reconstituted itself into the form of two new orange-masked aliens. The Trusted Captain gave them a commanding nod before he made a gesture that caused all the others to run and grab a mask to place on the other discarded piles of fungus. While this was going on he simply stood and stared at the blood lake.

“Good senses,” Surge said quietly from his place by Warden’s side. He hadn’t participated in this fight at all, instead quietly watching the carnage. From Warden’s observances he didn’t feel like he quite enjoyed fighting despite every indication was that he was the best at it.

“There’s something off though,” Warden mused to himself before he shrugged himself into non-caring. Something felt off about their ‘rebels’, and belatedly he got the feeling that the whole idea was treated too casually, as if they were also just part of the theatre. It aggravated him to the point of indifference and he found himself not caring to participate in this sordid game of war. He was only here to get the Corpse Tar and get out.

Just now the water burst open as four more of the crab creatures burst out of the water striding with firm purpose towards the shore. As they reached a certain point the waters receded to reveal a whole swarm of the original shrimp creatures. Shouts of alarm came from the Persona Hyphum before they once more formed ranks and Wendy bounded over to him as if looking for instructions and he had to look away at the soaked bloody rags that her dress had once more become.

“Assist them in clearing a path," Warden commanded while he reflexively checked his gun which was still pretty full after the short fight earlier. “Feel like fighting yourself?” he asked Surge. “I don’t think I’m going to get in that much more practice today. It’s sort of like firing at moving targets at the firing range now.”

“If you’re sure then I will lend my assistance then,” Surge said moving forward without any surplus enthusiasm. Well it wasn’t like he paid him to fight, or even paid him at all. That was something that he had to consider in future, wasn’t it? Well first he had to get his own money and pay off his own debts. The trembling in the ground disrupted the motion of his thoughts and he refocused on the battle in front of him as the shrimps hit the land like ravening beasts he put the closest one in his sights and squeezed the trigger.

xxx

A burst of red and one of those massive crab legs separated causing the massive creature to topple over to the side. That single moment of weakness caused the last remaining creature’s death as it was drowned by fungal mass and stabbed to death by primitive but effective weapons.

The dirt beach lay carpeted by bits of flesh, blood, fungus and broken masks; a morbid testament to the slaughter that had just occurred a few seconds ago. Both the creatures from the sea and the stars had taken massive casualties but the Persona Hyphum seemed to be more than willing and able to replace their casualties by simply placing masks onto the broken lumpy grey substance that constituted their corpses.

“Is that it?” Warden asked hopefully, receiving a shake of the head from Surge. The Necromancer had fought well; even though little effort was employed the Necromancer had the largest number of kills by far as every summoned bone killed one of the oceanic attackers outright regardless of armour or size. By contrast Wendy had been almost too fast for him to see some of the time and he could only track herby the aftermath of her carnage as she took hits that would have killed anybody else outright and retaliated with blows that tore her enemies apart.

“There’s nothing coming up at the moment,” Surge said quietly as he sidled up to him. “Are you still doing okay, Mate?” he asked. “Do you want to hang back?”

“My arm hurts from the recoil,” Warden admitted waving his arm before switching it to his left. “How many left do you think there are.”

“Of us or them?” Surge asked. “We’ve taken out a good percentage of the life in the lake but nowhere near all of it. They are beginning to run low on backup masks though from what I can tell. Makes you wonder how they are going to get to the corpse. How far out do you think it is?”

“Probably about four-five kilometres to the flesh,” Warden admitted. “I suppose if they were going to just fly overboard and drop down there they would have already done it. Wendy what are you doing?”

His secretary had been frantically licking the blood off of her hands and she froze before she looked up at him with red eyes. There was a brief moment where it looked like she couldn’t quite see him before she went pale and for the first time he noticed that her skin had taken on a slightly ruddier hue. Trying to look back into his memory banks he honestly couldn’t tell when the change originally occurred.

“Sorry, Sir,” Wendy said bowing her head. “The…” she paused as if she couldn’t quite find an excuse.

“Don’t worry about it,” Warden said taking pity on his secretary. “I’m glad to see you haven’t developed hemophobia from your vampirism. You did well back there. I made the right choice appointing you my bodyguard.”

“It looks like whatever they are going to do to get across they are doing now,” Surge remarked as Wendy stood up and the trio turned to the shore to see one of the green masked aliens throw something into the bloody ocean. They watched in silence as the red blood bubbled before an enormous rectangular organism looking like something between a combination of a lily pad and a mushroom popped up before settling on the surface of the lake.

“It looks like it will work out perfectly, Trusted Captain,” the green-masked alien said. “There’s more than enough to make it across.” He held a box full of seeds as if indicating the surplus.

“Alright then, we’re going across,” the sole blue-masked fungal organism said. He gave a look towards the three visitors from Coldreach. “Are you coming to?” he asked before turning back without even waiting for an answer.

“We’ll be right behind you,” Warden replied immediately. “Why does it feel like we’re walking into a trap,” he whispered quietly as he started following him.

“You’ve got good instincts,” Wendy said giving him the one compliment that he really didn’t want to hear right now.