Hop to it
Large and imposing, the monster leaped through the air at the team, a pink tongue darted out of its mouth faster than Tom could dodge and wrapped around his leg. Landing heavily the creature turned toward Tom and he got his first good look at the beast. He cast Identify on it quickly.
Metalitoad
Metalitoads are cyborg creatures whose skin is a combination of forged metal armor and amphibious skin. Anything that fits in its mouth will be swallowed without question to be digested. Their stomach acid is strong enough to dissolve mithril.
HP
1025/1025
MP
10/10
SP
400/400
Attacks
Tongue, claw, acid spit
Its skin seemed to have a dull shine to it as it combined in places with rough slimy-looking folds of flesh. Eyes that appeared to open and close in mechanical circles as they let off a soft red light looked at Tom with unbridled hunger. A whirring noise began as the tongue began to draw him closer to its mouth.
"Master!" Jerky yelled as he flew over the others to Tom's aid.
Slashing down with his spear at the tongue, he sliced clean through it with a single strike. Whipping back from the sudden lack of tension, the severed tongue struck the Metalitoad in the face as it growled low in anger and pain.
"Get back you fucking shitstain!" Jerky cried as he cast a fireball at it.
The spell shot out of his hand, the projectile the size of a beachball set ablaze. Striking the Metalitoad in the side of the head as it was still reeling from being hit with its own appendage, the creature croaked loudly and let out a shriek of pain as its head wrenched to the side. Not letting up, Jerky rushed forward letting out a bellow of rage as he stabbed the beast in the side with his spear.
Unfortunately, it hit a piece of the armored skin and skidded off to the side before slicing part of its flesh, making the wound much shallower than it could have been.
"Don't just stand there you fucking asshats! Attack!" Derek finally ordered after being shaken from his stupor.
The others joined in the fight and began firing at the monster and equipped weapons as they rushed in.
"What the fuck am I thinking?" Tom chastised himself as he summoned Bron to join them.
When Bron had risen from his summoning circle, Tom had a thought and summoned his Usiku as well,
"You can see in the dark, can't you?" He said to the big cat as it nuzzled his face after being summoned. "Yes, it's good to see you, but we have a bit of a situation here."
The Usiku looked over at the Metalitoad and growled.
"That's right, Shadow. Now, kill." Tom said as he equipped his own sword and rushed forward, the large black cat moving with him.
Jerky fought like a man possessed. His spear strikes wild and relentless as he left gashes in the Metalitoad's skin and scrapes across its armor. A moment later, the spear ignited with fire as Jerky let out a yell that surprised even the members of the strike teams. Jumping into the air and spreading his wings, He turned the spear downward as he folded his wings in and fell from the air over the creature.
Striking the monster on the top of its head between its eyes, the flaming spear jammed into its skull. The monster stiffened as the strike hit and the fire flared even brighter as Jerky poured mana into the spear. Sizzling and popping sounds came from its skin as the flames licked at the flesh around the spear searing it instantly from the intensity of the heat.
Ramming into the side of the creature at the same moment the flames began to intensify, Tom stabbed his greatsword into the side of the creature while Shadow began to claw at its hind end and Bron sliced its front leg off with his greataxe. Unable to keep itself upright without a front leg and a spear in its brain, the creature toppled over in death, smoke coming off of its skin as the team moved back to avoid being stuck under its body.
Sighing deeply, the team began to relax just as something flew from the back of the room toward the party. Barely missing Derek, a wad of spit struck the wall and began to sizzle as it ate through the whiteboard hung there and then the wall behind it, leaving a hole the size of a human head.
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"Shit! There's more!" Derek called out to the others as he turned to look at the back of the room.
Three more of the Metalitoads hopped out of the shadows and began to move toward them.
"Spread out! And don't let them spit on you!" Derek yelled.
"Kinky," James said as he moved to stand behind the dead monster and took aim.
Bullets flew at the creatures as they recoiled from the attacks and turned their bodies to use their metallic parts for protection.
"ENOUGH!" Jerky yelled as he threw his arms out and was engulfed in flames.
"Did he just go Super Saiyan?" James asked as he watched the familiar with awe.
Storing his spear in his inventory he rushed the first of the toads, spreading his wings to fly at them. Punching and kicking the creature, Jerky beat the absolute hell out of the first of the monsters as it began to try to escape his fury. The others saw his ferocity and began to spit acid at him.
Dodging quickly to put the Metalitoad he was fighting between himself and the others, Jerky continued to pound on the beast as it appeared to be powerless to stop him, the blows disorienting it. The acidic spit landed on the creature and began to eat away at its skin. Soon, it slumped to the ground in death. The others had not been idle and were now attacking the remaining monsters in their distraction.
With the brutality of the attacks and the distraction Jerky had managed to create, the final two died quickly, being overwhelmed by the number of attackers. Jerky lowered himself back to the floor and the fire engulfing him went out. The teams rushed to him to congratulate him on his skills.
"That was amazing Jerky!" Tom said to him as he got closer.
"Awe, that was nothing really. I was just upset that one of them hurt you." Jerky blushed at the praise.
"You are going to be an awesome asset to the team," Derek said. "Not that you weren't before, but you've gotten so much stronger. Great job in that fight."
Moving to loot the bodies, the team found that they could dismantle a lot of the parts on the Metalitoads so they took them to see if Roland or anyone else at the guild could use them. The acid spit didn't seem to be able to eat away at this metal, so they figured it must be either strong or acid resistant.
Once they finished, they noticed an exit at the back of the room that led out toward a set of cubicles. Here, they found more of the Metalitoads and some small draconic-looking creatures that the System identified as Kobolds. The team began to have a bit of trouble with this fight because they had to worry about the acid as well as small creatures running around the cubicle walls using guerrilla-style warfare that allowed them to stab their small spears at the fighters and run away again in the dark room.
"Jerky, can you light up the room like you did before?" Tom called.
"Sure," Jerky replied and flew up into the middle of the room and burst into flames again.
The room lit up from his flames as he dove down and picked up a kobold in each hand and began to use them as weapons against their friends. Shrieking at the flaming monster now attacking them with the bodies of their comrades, the Kobolds fled in terror while the rest of the team dispatched the Metalitoads in the room.
When they had finished with the last of the monsters, Derek called for a halt as some of the others were looking to chase after the escaped kobolds.
"Don't! They know this building better than we do and there could be traps. Kobolds are tricky little bastards." Derek said to them.
Carefully moving through the doorway at the far end of the office space, they entered the assembly line for the jets. They stared in awe at how large the area was with all of the machines used to help put the planes together. Several of the F-35s were sitting in various states of assembly and tools had been tossed around as though there was a hurry to get out of the building. Several bodies lay decaying or missing pieces around the machinery.
"Guess we have to go to the end of the line to see if any are finished being put together?" Tom asked.
"Maybe they'll have those for sale stickers on them, so we know they were ready to head out the door, like cars," James offered as he chuckled at the joke.
Continuing, they walked past many different stations where various parts of the fighter jets were added on as they continued toward the end of the line. Robots that were used to weld or lift parts into position sat abandoned, a few still holding a piece that was meant to be added on in the next stage of the process. When they finally reached the end of the line, they saw there was one F-35 that appeared to be in finished condition. As they approached it, Derek found a ladder used to get into the cockpit and pulled it over next to the machine.
"WOOOOOO! That is a beauty!" A man said from the back of the group.
"Eric, do you know how to get inside?" Derek asked the man as he walked forward.
"Not exactly, but we should be able to figure it out easy enough," Eric said as he continued to eye the aircraft.
Derek motioned for him to climb the ladder and he stored his weapon to begin the ascent. He inspected the hatch over the cockpit and looked back at the team.
"Sorry everyone, this one's no good. The seat isn't installed, and the computer system still appears to need a few more parts. There's no way we are going to know how to do that without someone who worked on this. It's far too proprietary for us to just guess." Eric relayed to them without even needing to open the hatch.
"Damn. I guess that leaves us without a fighter jet." Tom swore as he hung his head.
"Not necessarily. We can still hit up the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base. They should have some jets there we can take." Eric offered.
"Oh yeah! I forgot that was there. It's really close." Derek replied.
"Then, let's get out of here before we run into any more monsters and get our asses over there. We need to get a move on this process." Tom said as he turned to head back.
When they reached the cubicle room again, Tom and the others froze as hundreds of pairs of eyes were shining back at them, each one seeming angry.
"What was that you were saying about getting out before we found more monsters?" James asked Tom as they stared into a room filled with Kobolds.