A telekinetic, already holding a metal net at the edge of the bushes, followed it up with an array of blades, hacking at the undergrowth in an effort to improve our lines of sight. Supernatural missiles shot by me in every color of the rainbow, as well as more mundane projectiles: everything from accelerated screws to a deluge of arrows shot by a six-armed archer holding two bows.

Byron’s Zone of Silence ability gave the onslaught a surreal quality. There was no sound as the arrows whipped by, just a slight breeze. Just barely in sight along the wall, I could see the Japanese man who’d insisted on standing apart from the group. He had fallen, and was holding his head in his hands. The screaming must have started.

A greenish cloud was briefly visible before being consumed by flame just as the first of our enemies burst through, shaggy brown fur now alight. A bright red arrow appeared above its head, courtesy of the illusionist helping our ranged damage coordinate. A blinding spotlight blasted it in the face, making it hesitate briefly.

I started to move toward it, then stopped, noticing that several other melee were moving as well.

Shit. We should have set an order. Or had the illusionist direct us.

There was no time for regret: the rest of the monsters burst from the bushes, close on the heels of the first one.

I used my spear like a staff to slam a knee joint of the nearest monster hard enough to make it stumble. I didn’t stop, continuing past and turning, keeping both it and its closest neighbor in my sight. Byron had hit both with Spotlights, but he’d kept the beams narrow: as long as I didn’t look directly at the bunker, I wasn’t hampered.

The monster I'd hit kept going forward, but its neighbor turned toward me, letting Byron’s light hit the side of its head rather than its eyes.

Hm. Maybe I should have stayed in front of it. Looks like I've found my dance partner.

It attacked and I dodged, but I didn’t anticipate how fast the limb would accelerate as it unfolded, the blade at the end snapping like the tip of a whip. Fortunately, I'd brought my arm up as I stepped aside. The blade sank deep into my arm, lodging in the bone, but didn't reach my head or face.

Huh.

My augmented bones could block a hit from these body-bisecting behemoths.

I wasn’t the only one surprised. My attacker tried to tug its blade back, dragging me a few feet along the ground before I recovered enough to brace myself. I pulled the blunt side of the blade against my torso and used one hand to grip the back of the blade and wrapped my other further up the monster’s arm.

I’ve got it in grapple. Can I break the joints?

I made an effort, but the monster’s arms were ridiculously flexible and I couldn’t find an angle that caused enough resistance.

Mistake. Should just smash.

The realization came a little too late, as I saw the monster’s other blade-arm flying toward me. This time, I knew how fast it would accelerate and dodged easily, even though I had to let go of its other blade.

Nice. Fast enough. Strong enough. Other monsters?

The monster I’d hit in the leg was at the bunker, red arrow now flashing above its head and fur smoking, filling the area with a noxious scent. The other monsters… were also more than ten feet from me and seemed to be attacking other people.

Good enough. Focus on my target.

My left arm was bleeding freely, but the pain hadn’t registered yet, held off by the adrenaline of combat. I dodged one more strike from my opponent, then another, then darted in as soon as it had missed to slam the haft of my spear down on one of its kneecaps. The joints on the bladearms would be more valuable to take out, but also harder to hit.

We repeated our dance another time, and I hit another knee, noticeably slowing the monster’s manuevers and allowing me to get behind it and get a strike with my speartip into the gap in its bony armor under its armpit. I must have damaged an important muscle, because its left bladearm moved sluggishly after that, slowly enough that I wasn’t sure it would injure me even if it hit me.

With the monster half-crippled, it was much easier to work around its attacks. It took only seconds to hobble its other bladearm as well.

It’s not dead, but it’s a much smaller worry. How’s the rest of the fight going?

I took a few steps back and surveyed the battlefield.

Not great.

The monster that had gotten by me to the bunker was dead, a smoldering wreck, and the monster that I had been fighting was crippled. It was lurching toward the bunker slowly, but wouldn’t reach it for at least another ten seconds.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

That was about the end of the good news.

One of the monsters had charged the old Japanese man and was now turning back toward our group - not a great sign.

The other three monsters were fighting with our other six melee in a massive clump, which clearly wasn’t going well. If our people could have fought them two-on-one, it might have been alright, but with everyone in the same area, it was impossible for my allies to keep an eye on all the weapons around them.

The monsters they faced had taken some injuries, but the severed limbs on the ground around them showed that the battle hadn’t been one-sided.

Clearly that’s where I was needed, and I sprinted over.

But wait… whose limbs were those?

Before I could reach the group, I got my answer as a scythearm cut straight through an American woman’s torso, shattering the Force Shield that attempted to stop it. Blood fountained from the cut for perhaps a half-second, then a robotic lower body bloomed from the injury, pushing her flesh-and-blood legs aside.

Belatedly, I noticed the metallic shine on the arms and legs of other fighters.

That must be the patch-up ability.

Then I was on them, dodging blades and trying to hit weak points. I was fast enough to evade the monsters, but I didn’t want them behind me, where I couldn’t see them strike. I stayed on the outskirts of the fight, trying to use Byron’s blinding beams to mask my movement.

The other speedster was in the middle, keeping the attention of two monsters. She was dodging, amazingly, but not landing any hits. One of the monsters was moving more slowly due to a smashed foreleg, probably caused by a hammer blow from my fellow wall-smasher, who now sported a shiny silver arm on his right shoulder. Another blade severed his left foot as I watched, and moments later a metallic prosthesis burst from his ankle.

This isn’t fast enough, I decided. That ability is keeping us in the fight, but it can’t be unlimited. Eventually, injuries are going to start taking people down. On top of that, the one that charged the Japanese guy is almost back. Time to be a little crazy.

I dropped my spear and leapt onto the back of the nearest monster, drawing my dagger from my belt and wrapping my arm around to stab it through a bulbous yellow eye. Goo burst over my hand, but something hard behind the eye socket blocked my blow from getting too deep. Then I had to throw myself to the side, rolling to the ground. The monster’s blade sank into its own head rather than my back.

It didn’t penetrate far - much like my own skeleton, the thing’s carapace seemed too tough to trivially slice - but it ground into its armored plating and left a gouge in its fur-covered skin.

The monster screamed, and I belatedly realized I was hearing sounds again, that my roll had taken me outside of Byron’s Zone of Silence. Healing Touch cleared up my disorientation and scabbed over the still-dripping wound I’d taken on my arm earlier, but I hadn’t been the only one hurt. I darted through the group like a world-class tag champion, healing anyone who looked disoriented.

An arrow appeared over the head of my injured target and ranged abilities began pouring in.

A glance to the side showed that the two who’d attacked the bunker were mangled and still, while the last monster had almost made it back to us after taking out the brave Japanese man. I ran in front of it, scooping up a dropped sword off the ground as I went.

My first swing with the unfamiliar weapon was off-target, not hitting a joint, but it succeeded in getting the monster’s attention.

I was starting to learn their attack patterns. They could attack from any angle, but almost always struck horizontally, parallel to the ground. They almost never attacked with both arms at once, instead using the second arm’s attack to keep me from taking advantage after their first blade missed. Still, if they missed twice, there was a brief window before they could strike again, while they were getting their arms back into position. That was my chance to attack.

I hit the second blade-arm several times, but my first two swings were off-target, hitting the flat surfaces of tough bony plates and doing negligible damage. My third strike was better, hitting the monster’s wrist right before its blade, but my blow was awkward. It didn’t land with full power, the blade sinking only slightly into the softer tissue.

Had I done any meaningful damage?

At first, I thought I hadn’t; the monster flung its arm toward me with no loss of speed. But the angle of the blade sagged a little, and when it pulled the arm back for another blow, its motions seemed a little slower.

Just then, the monster’s fur burst into flames. A ball of ice shattered on its chestplate and the glitter of electrical sparks flashed around its torso. The monster staggered as more attacks continued landing. I stepped away, risking a glance behind me.

Mine was the last foe standing.

A chunk of rock flew in front of me, carried by telekinetic power, and came to rest against one of the monster’s many elbows, where it was shaped into a kind of restraint that would make it tough for the monster to unbend its arm.

It can’t strike from that side now! This is my chance!

I darted in amidst its crablike legs, using its own torso to cover me from its other limb, and grabbed a handful of its shaggy fur to anchor me as it moved. I aimed my sword at a gap between two of the bony plates and slammed it home with all my strength.

It sank up to its hilt in the monster’s torso, and I yanked it to the side before I pulled it free.

The monster didn’t die.

Its eyes were hollow oozing pits. Its fur was scorched, and it bore a multitude of wounds - most notably the gushing hole I’d gouged in its torso - but it was still standing. It swung its free arm back, unable to see but still full of hatred.

Dodging would be trivial, but the blade would hit one of my new allies, a woman who’d just gotten her hatchet embedded in one of the monster’s many thighs. I stepped forward, lifting my forearm to block the blow on my superdense skeleton, gritting my teeth as the blade sank into the bone and stopped.

The monster pulled its arm free for another strike, but its movement was weak and slow. I grabbed the monster’s arm just above the blade and yanked it forward with all my strength, jumping clear as the towering monster tilted forward.

It crashed to the ground and was still.