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Howling things rise from the deeps to slams against my tinfoil walls as the monster, or monsters, flail and crash about inside the slum-house. Breaking the roof, and shattering walls. Sending struts tumbling down, and down and down. Iron claws ripping through rusted metal, cracking old paint and tearing dead wires. My whole team screaming and shouting and hammering in my ear as something HUGE breaches the wide gap between the balcony and the ceiling in a wave of thrashing wings and claws. Wings upon wings upon wings bending and ripping their way through the screaming metal shield around my concrete tomb. Reaching out in whirling streams that splat against the ground and walls.

Feeling. Groping.

Red eyes in the black. Hungry. Hunting.

As it rips literal sheet-metal in half.

There are no hands or legs or bodies - only more, and more of those oily-wet wings. Hundreds more. With saw-toothed claws along all the edges - reaching and grasping and snapping. It draws in air, with a puff of rage, and expels it through a billion little holes in its skin - conjuring the wail of a vast demonic orchestra. A howl that bites you, deep as bone, and carves the very soul from your body.

But even as my mind goes blank, and my fear transfers to this wretched harmonium of Hell, my hands jerk on reflex. Ripping my SMG up into the firing position. Rocket rounds blowing fat holes in the tin wall as I pump out five, solid, quad-shots in a row. Ignoring the screams from above. The grapples fired at my armour - missing as I dodge the beast.

LMG ‘Red Glory’ SMG :: 200/220

Spare Mags :: 4/4

Sparks roar from my weapon, but the damn thing is right in my face. Flailing huge, glistening, wings. Roaring its tsunami of hate, as it presses me back toward the door - and the other monster. I hit it again, but too fast. The SMG's capacitors whining, begging, pleading, as they fight to charge the railgun boosters of my rocket-powered gun. My finger snapping the trigger faster than it can build. Alternating weak 'pops' of flame, and huge railgun roars of sparks.

Too fast. Way too fast.

I'm risking a jam worse than the Wayman battle. But I can't stop. Not even to blink, as the monster jerks and stutters toward me. Never recoiling, even as I blast out rocket-railgun flames like dragon-breath. Drilling gyrojet bullets through wings and flesh. But it's almost out. It's almost on me. And the next shot weak, and unboosted. Bouncing off. Too slow to penetrate - not at close range.

It won't be enough.

"Shit, mate! Like, we can't see you! We can't shoot it!"

"Demon can't jump down!" Kami screams, after. "It'll bloody tear him apart! It's a bloody meat-grinder!"

"I know!" I scream. "I know!"

"Shit! He's going to try anyway!" She shouts.

"Don't you bloody dare! I need a precision shot! Precision!" I roll again, and spray bullets wide - exploding the few little stalk-eyes. But it just doesn't care. Like they're parasites, or tagalongs. And Zipper can't shoot either. He has the other SMG, and it's a smooth-bore fire-support weapon meant for raiding and lone operatives. The four barrels designed to kick bullets off in random directions. Even worse: we brought zero combat capable drones.

Zero.

Meaning Zipper is dead-out as fire-support. Meaning my only hope is Kami, and her big bad gun.

But it needs setup. Assembly. A clear shot.

And in the wild, flailing, mess down here we ain't giving her any of that.

It's all my fault.....

Another grapple zings down, boring a hole through the monster. I scream. Not just at the flailing thing that's suddenly in my face, but the idea I might be suddenly hauled up into the air - then fall. Which is more than likely, if they hit. The very thought stuttering my fire. Making me flinch. "Stop that! Stop it! I can't!"

"Spook! Stop being an idiot! It's going to bloody eat you!"

"No-" But they're right.

It's no good. I can't kill it. Not here. Not this close.

It's filling the narrow space. Tearing deep gashes in my armour. My gun. My hands. My everything. The wings are freaking everywhere. If it actually gets in here, it'll wrap me up and buzzsaw me clear in half. Which means I gotta kill it, or get out. But I can't grapple up. Can't jump. Can't even climb past the damn thing. And that's not just the fear talking, either - everything above me is a shredding carnage of wings. Its talons dug deep into every crack.

Best option? Might be to bolt through the door. Hit all fours. Flee to the lift. But I gotta keep that in reserve. It's a massive bloody risk in itself. We secured the other monster - we assume. But it wouldn't even be the fifteenth time that didn't work. And I don't like my odds if it made it through that door. Or some hole in the wall. Or whatever else crazy thing it might do.

But this is devolving fast, and I need a plan.

But as I dodge again, the flailing 'wings' slam into me. Knocking me flying across the tiny concrete box. Lidless eyeballs pouring in on fleshy stalks glaring, blindly, at everything around me. Searching for something it can't seem to see.....

My own narrow. Does it hunt by sound? Is it blind?

Either way, it's time to get nasty.

Mentally, I trigger my suit's flashbangs. Hitting the option to drop all four, right off my body.

Or try to.

Everything locks, for a split second, and my vision goes blinding red with errors. Connection failure. Power surge. My implant heating red-hot in my skull. I tumble toward the door, in one last-ditch rush. Firing wildly and slashing out with claws as I roll beneath the morass.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

But the wings are armour, and arms, and teeth, and stomping legs all in one. They rip at my helmet. They slam against my back. And that's it. That's the straw. I need to get out that door, any way I can - but I can't even see the bloody thing now. Or the walls. Or anything except the viciously serrated wings expanding to fill the whole damned space. Dragging around and around in that cloud of jagged, flailing, flapping, limbs. Forcing me to find the hooks in my armour, and smash them with my pistol-butt. Rolling out of of its lethal embrace. Directly towards the exit-

Except it isn't. It's the balcony. I've been turned around.

LMG ‘Red Glory’ SMG :: 168/220

Shit, this is not sustainable. It's bleeding, crashing into walls, attacked from all sides. I may as well be in its belly already. And I'm no nearer to finding a weakness, soft spot, or big glowing shoot-me target.

I gotta weaken it. Scare it off. Something. Anything.

"Flashbangs!" I scream. "Do it!"

"Spook, they'll hit you-"

"Flipping to heat-vision! Do it!"

I try, but the errors spike again - even as flashbangs rain in a roar of light, and noise, and chaos. Turning everything to shadow, and light, and flailing. And falling. And bashing into walls. Sobbing as my sensitive ears are eviscerated - my implant stuttering as combat-filters fail to filter out the noise. I can't even shut it off, because then I'll be blind and deaf once more. So I shut my eyes, and scream as I stumble and panic and tumble toward the door. Tiny bulbs roaring white fury around me as the creature goes utterly berserk.

But, not in the way I thought.

The wing-monster, whatever it is, leaps on the freaking flashers like they're food and plucks them up with Hellish precision. Literally gobbling them down. If I had time, or the ability to even process it, I'd stop to freaking stare. But I've got to go. I've got to. So I rush the door, like I'm stuck on a rubber rope, getting grabbed and slashed from every direction. Gaining deep lashes in my hands and the plates of my suit.

Kami must have seen me, because she fires down on it. The BOOM of thunder rocking my skull as a massive projectile slams past, spewing fire and oily black blood. But the thing doesn’t have a freaking body to hit. It’s all flapping. All grabbing. All screeching and madness and it's almost all the way in here. So I clear a way - bullets bouncing off wall and floor and metal door. No sparks - just SMACKS and KRANGS of heavy impact. Trails of fire. And shiny new dents.

"MATE! We gotta drop Demon!"

“No! It's nearly out! It'll rend ya in two if ya land on it!” I yell as the thing grabs my leg and slams me away from the door. Sharp things raking through my tail, as I slip away. Failing to purchase. But pain bites my knee, my foot, my neck as the front of my helmet meets ground. I slash with claws, but the pain lashes them. It's like sticking my arm in spikes. But I twist away. I launch up. Blood streaming from flesh and armour alike as I finally manage to wrench open the door, tumbling back into the hallway. Banging off walls. Tripping on air. Stumbling. Cursing.

For a second it roils in confusion. Like it doesn't know where I went. But the second I think I'm safe, the freakish monster pours itself in through the door. Ripping free of the metal sheets, and inhaling massively. Gripping the ceiling, the empty doorways, the walls, all at once. Flickers and flashes of dark light seeping from its whirling mass, like distant shots of thunder.

"I'm safe! I'm safe! Kill it!!" I scream, and fire again as I run. And my team unleash an absolute storm of fire upon it. Zipper's floating ammo-count plunging from 440 to zero in a matter of seconds. A maelstrom of flashing rockets that shred the creature a thousand tiny new holes.

Full-auto, quad-barrelled, SMG. 22 calibre. Two entire mags at once.

It isn't enough.

And the instant I realise this is the same, exact, one that the creature decides it's had enough of that. Compacting itself fully inside the hall, and bowling after me like a billing fingers of reaching death. Still barely, freaking, bleeding. As if it's made of thread and sticks, and all we're hitting is air.

Even worse, I'm not alone.

My head snaps around on impulse, and I skitter to a sudden stop. Right ahead of me, a mass of long, greenish-purple, blade-arms are prying their Goddamned way round that red-crossed security door. Not hands. Not paws. Gigantic, bow-like, mantis claws - quick as greased death, and lined with sticky-looking spikes. Hideous poisons staining the door as it fights to rend it open, or twist it clear off its rails.

It's struggling. Snarling. But oddly focused, like it's actually intelligent.

I know I won't get by unharmed.

Not like this.

So I hit the alt-fire [Burst] mode on my SMG, and utterly hose the thing with bullets. From this far back, with actual boost and an actual target, I wreck havoc. Exploding one of the reaching mantis-arms, and sending it into a frenzy. The thing starts fighting the door itself, and I leap to hit the opposite wall. Bouncing off it, quick as I can.

LMG ‘Red Glory’ SMG :: 144/220

Even so, the screeching nightmare insect is pissed, and it almost gets me. I can feel it breaking free. All it needs is to smash whatever bolt or mechanism the door has, and the resistance will banish. Then there'll be two freakish, unknowable, nightmare things after me - and I ain't betting my life on them not being friends.

Not when the screaming wing-creature is a rolling wave of death crashing down the hallway behind me. Stabbing its claws into walls and ceiling and floor. Devouring the adverts as it rolls directly over them. Killing their happy people. Clawing their faces. Gouging their eyes. Devouring the bulbs, and the lights, and everything within. Leaving only dark and dribbling chemicals.

"Light!" I yell at my team. "It's the freakin' light! It wants it!"

"Flashbangs out!" Kami screams, and suddenly the monster has a dozen tiny targets. Each and every one vomiting and endless, strobing, VIOLENCE of light and withering noise. Sending the hammering wings and screaming shapes into an absolute chaos beyond anything I've ever seen. To say it goes mad would be to put it bloody lightly.

It demolishes the hallway.

Blasting it wide open, into the flats above and either side. Ripping up the floor, like some crazed explosion of living flesh. If they'd put a freaking bomb in there, it wouldn't have come close.

I might not be getting out of here, holy shit.

Darkness. I could hide in the dark... an apartment..... but what if it has other senses?

The lift? Shit, no. It'll chase me up the shaft.....

No. This has to end. Now.

Without us wasting any more of our precious, precious ammo.

Grenade selection lights up my implant with errors, but somehow I trigger the auto-throw and my off-hand whips out of my control. I focus on aim as it dives under my cloak and rags - yanking a ball free, and hurling it at the mantis in one smooth motion. The ball bounces off one wall, right as my off-hand snaps back onto the gun.

I dive into the nearest flat, and stick my gun-camera out the door. Waiting. Waiting. Right until the massive, boiling, monster passes that critical point-

I hit the detonator, and my HUD goes dead. My vision blacks. All sound shut off as my implant dies..

No. No, no, no, no......

Restart. Restart.

It fires back up, into Safe Mode - right as the wing monster slams into the mantis. Screeching that siren song of utter mayhem as it rips, and saws, and feasts on tiny snacks of flesh. Like it was trying to do to me. The mantis recoiling, and screaming back. Slashing at the thing. Trying to eat it as well.

I trigger the grenade again, and my system almost blacks. But I hit it again. I hit-

The explosion tears through both monsters, and rips the carpet to confetti. Pulsing a massive shockwave, ridden by half a pound of cube-shaped shrapnel. Mangling the mantis. Pumping it with holes. Scouring the walls, and killing every light the monsters couldn't manage. All of which is very, very, very bad news for a nebulous monster made of freakish black wings. Especially since the blast literally it originated from literally inside it.

As in, I think it ate the damn thing.

The result is absolutely freaking spectacular.

Literal monster salsa.

Silence falls. Ringing, and bright, and filled with nothing but my own breath. And a mad little laugh as I turn myself around, and slam my back into the wall. Sliding all the way down it.

"Guess..... who.... freakin'..... won..... bitches......" I wheeze as the shouting on coms becomes an absolute storm. The whole world ringing with it as my comms stutter in and out. My implant stuttering, quietly, as I stare up at nothing and darkness. Bleeding, very gently on the floor.

"Guess who won....."

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