The silence after the last otter fell was heavy, like the deep calm before a storm. Just as Joel began to catch his breath, a low, guttural growl echoed from the darkness outside. The ground trembled, sending ripples through puddles of blood and broken wood scattered around them. Darren’s wide eyes darted to Joel, his face drained of colour.
Then, with a deafening crash, the remains of the barricade were torn apart, splintering in all directions. A colossal otter, more than twice the size of the Joel, forced her way through the wreckage, her eyes sparkling with fierce, unnatural intelligence. Thick fur matted with mud and debris bristled as she locked onto them, lips peeled back in a snarl that revealed fangs dripping with electricity. The air crackled with energy around her, each arc sizzling as it hit the floor.
"Get back!" Joel yelled.
Mother Otter was here.
The room pulsed with her rage as she took one thundering step forward, her paws leaving deep imprints in the cement. Joel’s armour hummed, responding instinctively to the surge of energy, but he could feel the chill of fear settling into his bones. This was no mere animal. This was something out of their worst nightmares.
The mother otter's scream filled the room, a furious, guttural roar that reverberated through their bones.
"Where are my babies?" Her voice was like the scrape of metal on stone, thick with grief and fury, echoing with something terrifyingly human.
Kevin’s face went pale as he staggered backward, eyes wide. “Those...those fuckers were babies?” he stammered, his voice barely a whisper.
Joel shot him a quick, grim look, tension mounting as Mother Otter prowled closer, her gaze sweeping over each of them. They were cornered, and the full fury of a mother scorned was now aimed squarely at them.
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Local System Notification:
Alert: Conflict Zone Detected. Resolution Required.
Parties Identified:
* Hostile Group A: Rig Workers
* Remainder: Four
* Hostile Group B: Otter Colony
* Remainder: Two
Action Required: Neutralize or Negotiate.
----------------------------------------
Joel’s HUD flashed with the notification, stark and undeniable. He clenched his fists, feeling the pulse of his core against his chest as Mother Otter’s glare settled on them with blazing intensity.
“Not again, not again. Get out of my head.” Kevin's face was twisted with grief, rage radiating off him as he summoned a fireman’s axe from his heart card, its handle blazing with fierce, uncontrolled flames. He looked back just once, his eyes dark and desperate. With a wild shout, he charged at the mother otter, the fiery axe raised high above his head, the flames roaring up like a wild, living thing.
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The massive otter turned her head, eyes gleaming with an unsettling intelligence as she snarled, "Return my children." Her voice rumbled low, dangerous, the kind that raised hackles even on a human. With a swipe of her massive paw, she sent a blast of air and raw power toward him, but Kevin dodged, rolling to the side and coming up swinging.
The flames arced in the darkness as his axe came down, landing a glancing blow against her thick, muscled flank. The otter mother shrieked in pain and surprise, the smell of singed fur filling the air. She snarled, and with a sudden, lightning-fast movement, whipped her head around and lashed at him with her fangs, barely missing his shoulder.
Kevin staggered back, nearly losing his footing as her claws slashed toward him. He swung again, the flames intensifying, catching her across the snout. She reared back, fury building in her eyes, and with a guttural roar, charged him head-on, her massive frame bearing down.
"Get back!" he yelled, planting his feet and swinging with all he had, meeting her momentum with fire and steel. But she was relentless, her powerful jaws snapping inches from his face, her own savagery now fully unleashed. With a grunt, he twisted out of the way, narrowly avoiding her as she struck the ground, sending debris flying.
His heart hammered, and he gripped the axe tighter. "You monster, you murdered Alex!" he shouted, almost more to himself than to her. "You're not taking any more! You have stolen everything."
Joel didn’t know if he was talking about the otter monsters, or this system, but he felt Kevin’s pain. It was a reflection of his own. He rushed in, to try and help Kevin. He hoped the man knew he wasn’t alone.
The mother otter’s gaze drifted over the room, landing on each of her fallen young with growing horror. Her breath hitched, eyes widening as the finality of their deaths washed over her. An agonizing, guttural cry escaped her throat, a sound that echoed through the walls like thunder, heavy with grief and fury.
Kevin froze, gripping his axe tightly as the massive creature turned her furious eyes on him. She bared her teeth, voice low and venomous. “Humans... you have stolen everything from me,” she hissed, her voice quivering with raw emotion. “For this, I will end all of you—every last one. You will feel the pain you’ve dealt my children, and I will rid these waters of your kind forever!”
Kevin’s grip tightened, and he took a step back, but the mother otter lunged, swift as lightning; swift as lightning, her movements a blur of muscle and wrath. As she struck, tendrils of electricity trailed from her fur, crackling and snapping in the air like tiny whips. Each surge danced along her body, illuminating her in jagged bursts, making her look less like a creature of flesh and more like a force of raw, untamed nature. The air sizzled with her fury, a harsh static hum filling the space around her as arcs of blue-white lightning shot from her claws, ready to rip apart anything in her path.
Her massive jaws snapped down on Kevin, and in an instant, his scream was silenced. His headless body crumpled to the floor, the flaming axe clattering beside him, its fire snuffed out. Then the axe faded out of existence, and Kevin’s chest began to glow light blue.
Joel’s chest tightened as he watched Kevin’s body crumple to the ground. He didn’t know if it was fury for the otters or the twisted game they’d all been thrown into, but he felt Kevin’s pain reverberating in his own bones. That brutal loss hit too close, piercing right through his resolve, and something in him snapped.
Without a second thought, Joel bolted forward, his mechanical core roaring to life as he willed every ounce of strength into his legs. He didn’t care if this system was pitting them against monsters or nature itself—he wasn’t about to let Kevin die alone, not like this. Armour pulsing, he dove forward, reaching out toward Kevin’s fallen form, desperate to reach him, even if it was already too late.
Across the room, Darren and Craig were still struggling against the last of her young, adrenaline and desperation guiding their movements. Craig’s chains whipped around the young otter’s neck, holding it down long enough for Darren to plunge his knife deep into its side. The creature fell limp, collapsing at their feet.
As the last of her children perished, the mother otter’s eyes darkened, her sorrow giving way to an even colder, fiercer resolve. She took a step forward, towering over the humans. “Prepare yourselves,” she growled. “Tonight, your kind ends.”