"Aurora, we can't get to you! Are you alright?!" Yazmin's voice screamed over the comms.
The hand was still gripping her throat, the creature's strength even being able to overcome the defense of the suit which should have protected her ability to breath. Darkness was beginning to creep in on the edges of her vision, and she knew that she only had a few seconds remaining before she passed out from the lack of blood circulation to her brain.
Trying to move the rifle, she was unable to for some reason.
"Your rifle is being held by tentacles coming off of the creature's head, disabling your ability to fire upon it," Vera told her.
"Thanks for the heads up," Aurora groaned in her mind, not being able to voice her sarcastic response. Lifting up her hand, she made the sign gesture for "knife."
"Releasing emergency hand to hand weapon," Vera answered.
Reaching behind her, she felt the handle of the combat blade as it emerged from its compartment. Quickly gripping the handle, she yanked out the weapon and with all her strength Aurora severed the arm that held her. Making sure not to let go of her rifle, she fell to the ground. Once her feet hit the ground, Aurora rolled backward to give herself some distance from the creature.
Raising the barrel of the gun, using the back of her other hand that was still gripping the knife as support, she fired an energy blast. The ceiling was torn as the concentrated energy ripped through the ceiling tiles and ruptured a pipe. Water sprayed down all over the place. Heat from the discharge also activated the sprinkling system, drenching the entire store.
Where there should be guts splattered all over the ceiling, there was only the downpour of water. A line of black ooze dripped down and on the ground was the arm of the creature. Surprisingly, the hand of the monster was opening and closing as if it was still trying to find its target.
"Where the fuck did you go?" She yelled. Her voice was broadcasted all around her, from not disabling the external speakers when she was talking to the girl.
"Aurora! What's happening!" Yazmin yelled.
"Princess, you need to talk to us!" Opal cried out.
Outside, blasts and screams could be heard as the Knights were fighting more of those things. She hoped that the screams were not from any of the Knights getting killed.
"I would like to remind you that there are two of those things," Vera said.
"Fuck! Where the hell are both of them?!"
Vera was quiet as she tried to go through the system, trying to find any signs. "Due to the water, I'm unable to track down either target. I think they may have some form of camouflage abilities, like octopuses, lizards, and amphibians."
"Are you FUCKING kidding me!?" Aurora yelled as she kept turning around, making sure that they didn't get the jump on her.
"I think we should head to where the others are," Vera said.
"Yazmin! How's the situation out there?" Aurora asked into the comm.
"Finally!" Opal yelled in frustration. "We're getting our asses handed to us, those things have taken out nearly half of the Knights and still tearing through us!"
"Yeah, Aurora. I think we need to retreat." Yazmin agreed, before yelling, "Get the fuck back! You piece of shit!"
"I'm going to make my way over to you," Aurora answered.
"BEHIND YOU!" Vera screamed.
Before Aurora could process what Vera had said, Aurora was already turning around and lifting up her rifle. A blast of energy fired out of her weapon without her aiming her gun as soon as she turned around. Sounds of crackling and a mist of black ooze was followed by the thudding of the monster's body onto the shelf. Crashing of cans and other items rang throughout the store in addition to the sound of metal being warped by the pressure of the creature.
"Thanks, Vera," Aurora said through panting breaths. Her heart was racing from the sudden event. It seemed like everything was just happening all at once, the responsibility to command her forces and maintain situational awareness, so she doesn't get killed.
"You need to get out of here, Fifth Blade," Vera said in a stern voice. "Those creatures are too fast, and I nearly didn't catch it in time for your reflexes to react."
Not bothering to argue, Aurora made a mad dash, not towards the entrance but the window next to it. Jumping in the air, she felt the brief resistance of the glass before it shattered around her. She didn't want to risk the automatic doors not being wide enough for her quick movements. Rolling onto the ground, she quickly got to her feet dirt and pieces of glass cascading off of her suit.
"DUCK!" Yazmin yelled.
Dropping to the ground, Aurora heard the roaring of one of the creatures her people were fighting against. Turning her head to the right, she saw one of the monsters be flung back. Rolling to her side and quickly getting up, she assessed the situation. There were bodies all over the place, many of them belonging to Knights.
"Jill, Alex, on me!" She yelled into the comm. It felt like going from the fryer and into the fire, swarms of monsters were heading towards them. Aiming quickly, she fired several blasts to three of the closest monsters. "What the fuck?!" Aurora said as she looked to see one of the monsters continuing to run towards her without a head.
A bolt of energy went past her and into the chest of the creature.
"Aurora, you need to call for a retreat!" Yazmin yelled at her. "Those things keep on coming! We're getting slaughtered!" She ran to stand next to Aurora. Firing several more rounds into the creature that was blasted in the chest.
"What are you doing?!" Aurora asked in confusion. Yazmin was just wasting ammunition on those creatures.
Opal and Macy rushed over to her, and Opal said, "Princess, those things don't go down even after having a fully charged blast go through it."
"Yeah, that's how we lost so many of our Knights in the first couple of seconds. A Knight would take down one of the creatures and turn to fight off the next one, just to be killed by the previous monster." Yazmin added, as she rapidly fired into another monster rushing towards them.
That's when Aurora noticed that the Knights were unloading rounds into the creatures, instead of following their training. In her mind, the image of the arm still trying to strangle her appeared in her mind.
"Fifth Blade!" Jill's voice rang out. Aurora saw Jill and Alex heading towards her quickly, with Jill carrying the little girl.
"Fifth Blade, those things aren't reacting the way they should!" Alex said, there was a hint of panic in her voice. "They should go down with just a round of my weapon, but they don't!"
Understanding that she needed to get a hold of the situation, Aurora ordered, "We're evacuating! Jill, I want you to organize your Knights into a retreat formation. You guys will be in charge of making sure those things stay off of our backs."
"Yes, Fifth Blade!" Jill answered and saluted. Alex also saluted, looking like she appreciated the familiarity of receiving and carrying out orders.
"Vera, get me to Lexi," Aurora said. After getting confirmation on the connection, she said, "Lexi, we're being swarmed by monsters! I've ordered a retreat! Requesting permission to rendezvous!"
"Permission granted. Before you get here, you need to make sure you clear any hostiles from following you." Lexi said. "I'll have some Knights meet you halfway and help if necessary."
"Commence retreat! Aurora yelled out to the group. "Vera, take over from here," she said to the AI.
"Understood."
Without Aurora moving her legs, the suit began running on its own in reverse. Aurora saw the ground going past her, and watch the other Knights start to run backward. There were only four Knight, including Jill and Alex. Two of the Knights and Alex were in the very rear of the formation, blasting their weapons at the creatures that were trying to follow after them. Jill was still holding the girl but was using her free arm to fire her blaster.
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Aurora was really grateful for their AIs being able to take control and free the wearer of concentrating on movement when they needed to continue applying pressure to the enemy. Yazmin and Opal were next to her, also firing at the monsters trying to past the Knights from the sides. Macy was tasked with making sure that no surprises appeared in front of them.
Pulling out the empty battery pack from her weapon, Aurora shook her head. "This is crazy. I shouldn't have had to change my cartridge until much later. At the rate I used this battery pack, I might run out of cartridges in the next couple of days. She opened up one of the storage packs on her hip and pulled out another power cartridge. Slamming it into the rifle, she saw her HUD flash an affirmative and charged her gun.
"We need to figure out a more effective way to take down these things, or we're going to be in trouble soon," Aurora said. Looking through the sighting system, she increased the zoom and aimed at one of the creatures. Her target was where she estimated was where the leg attached to the hip.
Pulling the trigger, she soon saw the creature trip and tumble. She silently cheered at stopping one with the minimum amount of force. Her celebration was short-lived, however, when it got back up and began using its arms in conjunction with the one leg.
"You got to be kidding me!" Aurora cursed. Just as she was about to unload another round of energy blasts at the creature, she stopped herself. Bringing the rifle back up, she zoomed in towards the same monster and this time aimed for one of its arms. Aiming at the thing's shoulder, Aurora fired a blast at the thing.
The creature's arm flew off, and it crashed to one side. Aurora saw that it tried to get back up, but with
both appendages severed from its body on one side, the thing was forced to just flail around or crawl.
Getting excited about her success, Aurora quickly sent out a message to everyone. "Aim for the leg and arm on one side!"
"Roger!" Aurora heard back from everyone.
The results were quickly seen when the number of monsters chasing after them began to dwindle slowly. There were only eight of them at this point, with only seven focusing on the monsters charging towards them.
Aurora looked at the things and guessed that there were nearly twenty still trying to attack them. The plus side was their ability to continue to fight as they were retreating and her idea of fighting the creatures. If these two factors weren't present, Aurora could only assume they would have been long overrun. Flashes of images from the events in the Pit where she was crying and feeling herself be torn apart by the creatures went through her mind.
"That's not going to happen," she calmly told herself in assurance.
Continuing to take down the monsters, Aurora looked over at the amount of power left in the battery. The indicator still showed that there was plenty of juice, but what worried her was seeing it decrease by such an amount.
Without warning, the group of monsters ran off to one side, into the area with the garages and buildings. Aurora lost sight of them as they ducked behind a garage.
"What are they doing?" Opal asked.
"I don't know, but we need to focus on meeting up with Lexi. She's going to send some additional Knights to meet up with us for support." Aurora said. She was feeling nervous about the monsters breaking away from their attack. The question was whether they were scared off or were coming up with a new tactic to deal with the superior firepower.
"Vera, I'll be taking over," Aurora said.
"Understood. Commencing transfer in 3... 2... 1...," The suit jumped back while spinning to face the front.
Regaining control of the suit, Aurora started running as soon as her foot hit the ground. The benefit to that transfer method was the time in the air was the same amount of time needed to allow the wearer to gain control, not letting any time be wasted while still maintaining the retreat.
Looking ahead, the HUD displayed the route towards where Lexi and the others located. Based on their current speed, it would take a half hour to reach them, meaning they were on the other side of the base or inside of the city. It didn't make sense why Lexi would be inside of the city unless she found survivors and didn't meet any difficulties. Meeting survivors would make her comment about not bringing any of those creatures back with them make sense, though the problem was whether those things were still around.
Getting Vera to open up a channel to Lexi, she said, "Lexi, those monsters have broken away from us. I'm still on a heading towards your location, but I'm worried about those creatures."
Silence greeted her, making Aurora double check that the connection was made.
"Just meet up with the Knights I sent to you, and continue on your current path. We'll talk more when you arrive." Lexi said. She sounded just as bothered as Aurora was about the situation.
Compared to when they entered the base, Aurora and the rest of the group were moving at their maximum speed. The suit helped them so that they were able to run faster continually than someone sprinting. She could feel the rifle in her hand, as she grasped it tightly. Around her neck, she could still feel the monster's hand around it, which was likely why it hurt to talk.
"Aurora, what are we going to do?" Yazmin asked without warning.
"Yeah, Princess. We aren't trained to handle those creatures." Opal agreed. "Look at what happened with getting attacked by that small number of monsters? We'd end up using up all of our power packs for our weapon, just taking them apart. Those damn monsters are extremely durable."
"Let's see what Lexi thinks about this," Aurora said.
The group continued heading towards the where Lexi and the others were located when she noticed movement between two of the structures on their right. "I think we have more company," Aurora stated.
She glanced up at the top of the structures in time to notice the creatures were on the roofs. They jumped from the top of the garages and storage buildings and arc towards Aurora and the others.
"Defensive formations!" She quickly yelled out to the others. Aiming her weapon, she blasted one of them just below its hip and blew off the things leg. Instantly swinging the barrel over, Aurora fired another blast and ultimately crippled the monster. It struck the ground, tumbling with its arms waving about. Before waiting to see if it was still coming at them, she fired several more times at the other creatures, trying to clear out as many of them as possible before they landed.
One of the monsters landed near a crippled creature and lifted its body and held it in front of it.
"Is that thing using its buddy as a shield?!" Opal yelled out, disbelieving the sight of the brutal tactic. She blasted the wounded monster but wasn't able to destroy the shield in time before it reached her.
The monster threw the shredded body at Opal, hitting her and making her try to regain her footing. While she was off-balance, the beast launched itself at Opal and knocked her to the ground. Mounting her, it raised one of its hands and had all of its claws pointed to make it into a spear-like point.
"Get the fuck off of me!" Opal yelled, punching its chest but not doing any significant damage to it. With the creature on top of her, she couldn't reach for any of her knives, though they wouldn't have been effective against the monster.
The monster made a bunch of clicking noises, and some kind of sound that made it seem like it was laughing as it plunged its hand towards Opal's helmet.