As Tasìa watched the sky in a near-hypnotic daze, she wrenched her head back down, and forced herself to keep actively engaged in her defensive measures.

Absolutely no time for distractions.

Since her fingers could fly at great speed, she loaded up a bandolier with thirty-two 12 gauge shotgun shells and passed the bandolier over to Annebél.

Tasìa eyed the falling spindles that unraveled like threads floating down from the sky talons. Due to the surrounding darkness, she could only spot one when it touched the ground, and quickly the thread pulled at the ribbon above it as it sewed together a beast. When formed, the beast turned in their direction and shimmered a pulse of light before it blended into the field and she could no longer see it.

"Shit, lémures," Annebél said in recognition. "Is that where they come from? The sky?"

It was the same beast that she had encountered in El Hoyo. She gathered from Annebél's reaction that they were quite common in the rock quarry.

Tasìa counted. There were at least thirty streamers still making their way down. Back at El Hoyo, she had dispatched the one she had encountered rather efficiently but that was just one.

Annebél already jumped out of the Jeep, prepared to fight them. The shotgun she welded only held four shells in a fixed magazine and one in the chamber. She also carried the .38 carbine on her shoulder.

Tasìa would have to adapt their tactics to that limitation in their defensive capacity. Annebél seemed to get the geist of what they needed to do. She had her back up against the Jeep.

"I'll be there beside you in a second," Tasìa called out.

Tasìa already loaded the Magellani .22 revolver, but that would be her backup weapon. She still possessed four boxes of .357 rounds for the Ruger Vaquero revolver in the Jeep's side storage. She had not reloaded the moon clips that she kept in her fanny pack.

Not being time efficient, Tasìa.

Annebél's .38 carbine popped off a round from behind her.

These aberrations were not as tough as the phase beasts. Back at the El Hoya, Tasìa executed one she had encountered using her .32 repeater pistol.

Tasìa shook her head.

It's just so many of them.

Annebél popped off another round before Tasìa could join her side. Three .357 moon clips loaded up on her belt with the revolver loaded with an additional six chambered in the cylinder.

She would try to take out twenty-four of the beast before switching up the weapon. Annebél had a shotgun resting on the engine hood behind her.

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Tasìa was curious as to what slowed up the creatures. A massive attack could have already overwhelmed the duo. The lémures grouped together in teams of three and then blended in with the textural tones of the wind-swept field.

Did their greater proximity to one another strengthen the camouflage of their chameleon skin? Did some synergy of these tactical groupings create a higher density and color separation and coarseness in the chameleon textural tone?

Tasìa reflected with a terse smile fixed upon her face. Did these near-scientific curiosities of hers that always occurred during battles help keep her alive with a better field survey going in to them, or were they just distractions that ate at her focus?

She chuckled. Just doing the best that I fucking can, chica.

She got back to work.

"Damn! They are so hard to follow but I've stopped two of the bastards," Annebél yelled between clenched teeth.

Tasìa heard a ruffling sound to her right. Movement could only be discerned at the corners of the eyes. She looked away to the other side of the field without pausing at the alarming sight, and she looked back in its direction again.

She could barely make out the chameleon skinned creature but it was a good enough focus to center her aim on it.

She shot it just beneath the jawline, and into its larynx.

With a huffing scowl, it roared and shook its head, furiously, before it slumped down, unmoving.

One shot one kill was the ideal that could possibly keep them alive but to pull it off in this circumstance was another question, entirely.

Shortly after, two more lémures followed along the strewn wheat path of the one she had just killed. Due to their chameleon skin, Tasìa only had a firm fix on the chitinous growth that appeared like a dense set of antlers that had grown engraved around their ears, and along their heads and faces.

When she shot, the chitinous materials shattered like mere masks; fortunately, the dense material had little to no stopping power. The rounds drilled into the skulls of the beasts. Misted brain matter and skull fragments discharged out from the back of their skulls.

Annebél nailed two more of the beast that crept up a mere twelve yards away from them but it had cost her the expenditure of three rounds.

Tasìa could tell by the way the brawler glanced at the shotgun between kills that she was considering switching up her weapon.

She hoped that Annebél was timing it just right. To come out alive, they would need to be as efficient as possible with the weapons that they had in their possession.

As she sought for more targets to shoot, the violent sway of movement through the field caused Tasìa's eyes a great deal of confusion. She could make out the swirl pattern that formed counter to the sway of the grain. The beasts hidden within the movement made jaggéd and jutted patterns as they approached.

Tasìa discerned a few of the beasts' self-evident traits as she studied the movement patterns that drew nearer.

Though the lémures were not as tough as the phase beast, they were definitely much smarter than the near-brainless cats who were only as smart as the transceived impulses that sent them from point A to point B.

Also, the lamurés were not concerned with their individual standing. If they had to sacrifice themselves so the next one behind them could advance a few yards, they did so without hesitation.

They also seemed to understand that both time and sheer numbers were working to their advantage.

After killing another three of them coming towards her as a flanx, Tasìa assessed the two desperadas only had seconds left before they would be swarmed.

She took a moment to climb up on the Jeep's rooftop. The beasts in the field encircled them and had the advantage of approaching at their leisure.

Their voices sounded in a pitch canary soft. The cascade wailed up, aimed at them.

Tasìa shook her head at the sight, and she shook her head with a grimace on her lips.

If she and Annebél were going to survive this, she needed to disrupt the pattern of the tactics being used against them with a countermeasure.