The lead rider dropped their hand and the cannon-shrimps locked their legs into a crouched position, stabilizing themselves on the ground. A deep pressure built in the surroundings, I could feel the erg being pulled inward towards the creatures and I activated my Erg Sight to observe the process. The cannon-shrimps’ torsos swirled with energy, drawing in the ambient erg around them, their segmented bodies lighting up in even more brilliant colors down their lengths as they charged up.

Then the energy surged forward from their bore-limbs, forming a massive sphere of attuned erg that flung across the distance, heading towards the cafeteria walls with starling speed. While I couldn’t make out individual details at this distance, I was able to see the people clustered by the front of the cafeteria scatter away from the attack, but they weren’t fast enough. The attack’s propulsion unfolded in slow motion, as I realized that there was nothing I could do, that these people would die.

Unless. I glanced briefly over towards Brian and saw that he was ahead of me. Glowing, translucent barriers, suffused with erg, appeared in front of the cannon-shrimps’ projectiles, and that immense force splashed off to seemingly no effect.

“Demo attunement,” I said. “Highly effective against objects that aren’t under the influence of a person.” I reached up and pulled down a visor that was set in the roof above the driver’s seat. “It functions by disrupting the erg inside of the object, but for whatever reason, the system can’t manipulate erg that belongs to a person, whatever that means.”

“They’ve spotted us,” Brian said.

“Yeah. Well, let’s give everyone a good show.” I slipped the visor on and called back to Seren. “Stay safe back there, things are about to get hot.”

“Oh, it’s always hot when you’re involved.” Seren quipped, but they also took cover in a reinforced niche. “Both of you be careful too.”

Brian stepped out of the RV, punching his fists together. “Don’t worry about me. If these things can punch through my defenses, you’ll have plenty of other things to worry about.”

I activated the visor with a surge of erg, pulling up the targeting array of the autorifles, all five of them working on an unified targeting function. I could switch to automated targeting, but manual targeting allowed for the autorifles to benefit from my skills and my ability to charge them further with increased erg input, benefits that were not applicable with automated targeting.

I briefly glanced at my skill list, spotting one skill in particular.

[Ranged Weaponry - 39]

The skill had risen very slowly, despite it being used significantly in both construction and battle; I suspected this had to do with it being an already evolved skill, and the threats that I had faced not being significant enough to trigger a faster rate of improvement. The system wanted us to face increasingly high threats, to push ourselves into higher and higher levels of danger in the pursuit of that advancement, which would only push us further and further onwards.

It wanted us to be in these perpetual cycles of struggle and tribulation, but I just couldn’t figure out why.

Brian had strapped on his gauntlets and bracers, more armor than weapon (though he was impressively apt at using his defense as an offense). His recent choice of a second path had given him some more attack options, but he was still lacking when it came to mobility. That was fine, in most battles he was the anvil. Here, though, he would be the shield, the front line for the enemy to crash onto. Didn’t make it any less funny when he jogged around the front of the RV to meet the enemy, full of power but leisurely with his speed.

My attention was then caught up in said enemy. The large size of the mounts meant that they had very wide turning radii. One, the rider who had spoken before, pulled off to the side, keeping attention on both the cafeteria and us, as the other five turned fully and began to clatter over the commons towards the RV. The four cannon-shrimps turned as well, and through the erg sight I could see them preparing for another attack.

The leader called out, aiming their voice so that it bounced off of the walls of the buildings that surrounded the commons, giving it an ominous echo. “You seek to subvert our most holy of tasks! You low ones, you crawling creatures of the dirt, you fallen demon-children, you seek to undo our work and this shall not stand!”

I deployed the autorifles immediately. These ones weren’t stored in my inventory, but rather in containers built into the roof of the RV, allowing for others to make use of them in a pinch through the visor. The new generation was slimmer, but thrummed with their potential. They were built entirely from tier 2 ore, and the power of that enhanced ore resulted in a halo of erg around the autorifles, visible even to the naked eye.

I set my targets on the cannon-shrimps and let loose, the chambers turning with each precisely calibrated shot. I was glad that the aiming system wasn’t manual, that it simply followed after my targeting designations and determined the exact line of fire from those details, performing the calculus of the exact right position and disposition necessary. Two bullets caught one cannon-shrimp and it ripped in half, the excited erg in its torso rendering its body more volatile than it might otherwise be.

The other three resisted their own injuries, and managed to let loose another burst of demo-fire before follow-up bullets from my auto-rifles finished them off. Their attacks, however, splashed just as weakly off of the side of the RV as they had off of Brian’s barricades. I’m not entirely sure why, but something about my path made it so that the vehicles I made were considered my equipment, and thus were resilient against demo attuned attacks.

I suspected that the cannon-shrimps had other attunements available, but were following some sort of undetectable instruction or programming to determine which attunement that they would use. The amount of power that those things could bring to bear would be truly terrifying if they used a more impactful element. Fortunately, this group of them would not be a major threat, though judging from the numbers we were expecting, this was only a fraction of what these new monsters had available.

Even as the cannon-shrimps were firing, the lobsters and their riders were charging with an increased speed and steadiness, having formed into a V once again, facing the RV. Brian arrived just in time and stepped into the first approaching lobster, bypassing its pincers and building up his momentum. His arm and hand became covered in a barrier aura, the erg around his limb becoming brighter and more rigid. He swung forward and with a perfectly time punched slammed the lobster in the side of its head.

The personal barriers that Brian used were ideal for this function. On the inside, they were soft and pliable, forming a cushion for his body, while on the outside they were as firm as stone. In effect, it was like he was wearing a boxing glove for himself and a pair of brass knuckles for his foe. Except, it was even more than that, because these particular barriers were also reflective in nature, meaning that Newton’s third was reversed thanks to the strange properties of the erg, and the full impact of the sudden break in momentum from both sides was applied twice to his opponent. And considering the speed and mass of the lobster, well.

The lobster flung to the side, lifting off of the ground and spinning twice in mid-air, dislodging its rider in the process, before they slammed into the ground in a disordered heap. The other riders brought their lobsters to trot, slowing their approach as they lumbered massive swords from their backs. Each of the four remaining carried greatswords, all the greater for their own personal size, shaped similar to a crab claw, with the sharpened edge on the inside of the curve.

I targeted all five of the autorifles onto one of the riders. The bullets cracked out and slammed into the armored torsos of the rider. I probably could have aimed for head shots, but judging from how heavily armored their heads were, that might not have been any more effective. The body shots were also more reliable, and I turned some of the stored energy from the batteries into the autorifles, increasing their rate of fire to faster than they could maintain if I wanted greater precision.

Each impact sent coral chips flying off from the breastplate of the rider, and would have knocked them backwards if it wasn’t for their tight grip on their reins. At least all the rider could do was focus on remaining mounted. The other three, meanwhile, closed in slowly on Brian who fell into a defensive position, holding his barrier enhanced arms up to protect his face. The lobsters tightened a circle around him, keeping him pinned in, while their riders descended, circling him as well and preparing to strike.

The armor of the rider I was targeting began to regenerate, the coral filling in the gaps that I had blasted away, but though it was hard to read their expression, I could sense a growing concern from the rider. After a moment’s consideration, I switched from neutral bullets to magma bullets, which smashed in with slightly less direct force but with a lingering, molten heat that kept the armor from regenerating. In a panic, the rider began to tear away the lingering magma from the bullets, but the loosening of their grip sent them knocked off of their mount. Another spray of bullets and they were out of the fight, at least for now.

Meanwhile, one of the others had circled around behind Brian and went in for a wide swing at his back. He glanced over at the moment and just before the impact increased the power of the barrier behind him, catching the descent of the blade and holding it still, even as he stepped backwards and launched an elbow into the rider’s stomach, sending them clattering backwards against their mount.

I turned the autorifle fire onto the other two in the lobster circle, pouring down shot after shot at them until they finally broke ranks and took shelter behind their lobsters. Seeing the rest of their fighters incapacitated, the leader of the group unsheathed their own blade, somewhat narrower sword, but covered in thousands of rough scales like shark skin.

“So, ye ones have proven your worth to die at my hands!” Through my erg sight, I could see the energy pulsing around the leader of the riders, swirling and churning before flaring into a dark blue aura, significantly more powerful than the previous aura of this kind that I had seen, Chad’s.

I sucked in a breath, preparing for a protracted battle as I sensed that power and its enormity compared to what Brian and I had access to. The leader let out a shout and brought their mount to a charge, blade held forward as a lance as they made their way straight towards Brian, the lobsters and their riders scattering to leave him exposed.

Then five shots rang through the air, blasting through the leader’s torso, exploding the coral and causing five gouts of gore to spray out. A sixth shot fired, punching straight through the leader’s forehead, despite all of that armor, caving it around the force of the impact.

I looked up to the source of the shots, seeing a man in tattered clothes standing on top of the library, a snub-nosed revolver in hand.