The first one to speak out, was a young man, in a black coat and with an over-sized rifle.

“Yeah, fuck this. I'm out. You guys have fun killing each-other for those extra points”

Turning around he marched right up the the ramp while waving backwards. Leaving only ten humans standing in the clearing.

One of the remaining females spoke out. “Look, I don't intend to do anything to hurt any of you. And I hope the same goes for all of you. Lets just get through this and then head back. Infighting will just reduce all of our chances of surviving.”

Murmurs of agreement came from the gathered people. Although the tension was still high, it didn't seem like anything would go down at the moment. Spreading out a bit into groups. Jacob stood with Lisa and was going to bring up what their plan should be, when he heard a cheery. “Hey look, a squirrel. It's looking so friendly, walking towards me. Who's a cute litt-OH GOD GET IT OFF ME! GET IT OFF ME!”

Head snapping in the direction of the screaming, Jacob could see one of the women grabbing a squirrel who was frantically clawing and biting at her face. Throwing it to the ground, she swiftly stomped on the ravenous rodent. Ending its life with a squelching sound. She brought her hand up to her bloody face and looking as her fingers came away red.

“Shit. Are you okay?”

“What the hell was that?”

“Was that squirrel rabid?”

People spoke over eachother as whatever they'd expected was not a murder-squirrel attacking them. They were buzzing about as Lisa spoke.

“Uhm... Guys. I think we've got company.”

Pointing towards the trees. Jacob followed her finger with his eyes and went very still as he saw dozens of squirrels in the trees close to them. And more and more creeping along the forest floor every moment. First almost inaudible and then with increasing intensity, a chittering started. As dozens upon dozens of enraged rodents stared them down.

Jacob stood frozen, whispering a low “Fuck”. As he saw his death looming from a thousand tiny bites. When he was snapped out of it by an eruption of wooden splinters and mangled squirrel. Someone had opened fire into the horde of tiny killers and was quickly followed by the rest who had guns. A deafening roar of gunfire echoed through the clearing as the squirrels started moving. Sprinting towards the gathered humans, the bullets proved ineffectual against such small and mobile targets. Soon the gunfire died down as magazines ran dry and the swarm was upon them.

Jacob no longer had the attention to spare for the rest of them, as several squirrels dashed towards him. Leaping impossibly far one of them fell down stunned, as it smashed headfirst into a pane of solidified air.

Taking a step forwards Jacob crushed the offending assailant, as with the air-shield tethered to his arm, he prepared to use his baseball-bat. Swinging his weapon he let his instincts take over, as he felt kinetic energy being channeled through the bat and erupting at the point of contact. Sending a squirrel far into the trees with a low boom.

As he did this however, another squirrel had managed to latch on to his leg and was currently trying to futilely gnaw through his multiple layers of pants. Moving his shielded hand down towards it, he exerted a mental effort and his attacker was enveloped in solidified air. Another direction of will and kinetic energy rushed down to propel it away at a high velocity. Smashing into another squirrel, leaving them both broken and still. Sure, it wasn't the squirrel he'd aimed at, but he'd take every small victory at the moment.

Not currently being beset by any of the maddened beasts, he had a moment to look around and see how the rest were doing. The first thing he noticed, was how the person in the black armor had bloodsplatters all over it. Why became clear, as the person simply threw themselves onto a group of rodents and then quickly rolling to the side and getting up again. Leaving crushed bodies in the wake.

The second thing he noticed, was the smoldering squirrels in a semi-circle around a man with what looked like a mix between a leaf-blower and a stripped down toaster in his hands.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

It soon became clear what the purpose of the object was, as the man swept the it from side to side, as he walked forwards, causing grass to combust and rodents to quickly find themselves charred in the super-heated air the weapon spewed out.

Soon, the only thing that could be heard was the panting from the gathered people. About half of them sported scratches to one degree or another. And the man with the super-heated air weapon, looked like he had a bad sunburn on what skin was exposed on his hands and face..

Jacob turned to Lisa and asked her. “Are you okay?”

She seemed unhurt. Most likely due to the fact that she had been standing in the rear. Giving a small smile she replied. “Yeah. Though, could you take out the first aid kit? I'm sure everyone here would appreciate some tending to.”

“Ah, yeah.”

Opening up his bag again, he brought out Lisa's first-aid kit. With a little shout at everyone, asking if they needed some disinfectants or bandaids, he handed the kit over to Lisa, who actually knew what to do with it.

Tension was high as people scanned the area, looking for more crazed critters. Keeping up a perimeter as Lisa patched them up one by one. The situation was only broken up once as Ben opened up fire into the woods. Only stopping as his magazine ran dry. Earning him a slap at the back of his helmet from Sofia, who scolded him for wasting ammo. Leading to people checking various pockets and bags, seeing how much ammunition they had remaining. Asides from those without guns, as well as the man with the heat-based weapon. Who during the wait, had told the curious group that it was called a steamer. Prompting some giggles and some much needed lifting of tension.

After half an hour at high attention, people were growing weary when nothing happened. Letting down their guards and starting to chat. Jacob had wandered a bit with Lisa. Towards the ship sitting in the middle of the clearing.

“So, do you think we'll be fine?”

“Well, if all we encounter is rabid squirrels? Probably?”

“And the bonus objective? You think anyone will try to thin our numbers?”

“Before today? I'd say no. But after what we saw down on the street? I don't know...”

Glancing at the gathered people with concern, she continued.

“They don't seem like bad people really. But I'm concerned about the one in the black armor. Have you noticed how they never speak? Hell, I don't even know what gender they are, much less their name. For all we know it's not even a human.”

Jacob was about to say that was ridiculous. Then he considered everything that had happened today.

“I guess you're right. I'll try to keep an eye on them.”

An additional half-hour passed without much happening. This was apprently deemed insufficent, as Loki appeared in the air above them. “Booooo~. Boring. You're all just standing there. Not even doing anything entertaining, at least that other group got stung by aphrodisiacal bees and got busy, You wouldn't believe the amount of blood there is when a fox bites off a ball-sack.”

With a wheeze the snake doubled over from laughing. Slapping his tail as it went on for several long moments.

“Hoooh boy. Anyways. Unless you all plan on getting naked, I'm going to drop a little beacon here if you sit around. Then it'll get real fun when we see what comes knocking.”

The serpent gave a huge inhuman grin.

“You all better decide. Tic-toc. Tic-t-.”

The Gibborims teasing was interrupted by the roar of automated firing. Bullets flying at the floating snake-man, tearing through him and making green blood fountain out. Body falling down and impacting the ground with a thud. Tearing his eyes away from the grisly sight, Jacob saw one of the men hold his rifle with a shocked expression.

“I- I did it? I did it! I got the fucker!”

Jacob was stunned. That actually worked? They could really kill those alien bastards? Soon, however, something seemed very wrong with the situation, as the rifle started undulating in the mans hands. His cheering stopped, as vertically-slitted eyes appeared on the barrel. Followed by the gun stretching out, reaching up and then wrapping itself around the mans neck. Wrapping tighter and tighter as the man struggled to pry his weapon away. Gasping, his eyes bulged when the muzzle contorted into a smile. Suddenly snapping straight, the gun landed on a headless corpse as they fell to the ground.

Giving off a hiss, it quickly slithered off into the woods.

“Only four more for the grand bonus!”

His eyes tearing away from the bloody spectacle, Jacob saw the Gibborim back in the air where it had been before.

“Now, if in ten minutes, more than three of you are within fifty meters of each other, for more than a minute, the beacon will go off. Have fun!”

With that the snake disappeared in a cloud of glitter and confetti.

A retching sound was heard, as one of the women emptied her stomach on the ground. Jacobs face instinctively wrinkled in disgust. The vomiting seemed to have underscored the events that had just transpired and everyone shifted uneasily.

The first one to move was Sofia.

“Fuck this. I'm not going to just stand around here, waiting to get swarmed by who knows what. I'm going to go look for that unique specimen. Ben, Oscar?”

With that she started walking into the woods, quickly followed by her two friends.

Without a word, Black-armor started walking too, waving backwards as they walked along the trees. Before heading in at a different angle from the trio.

“We should probably get moving too.” Jacob said to Lisa, grabbing her wrist and tugging to get her moving. With frayed nerves they moved into the woods.