Would you like to learn the mutation Healing Hands?

Erin looked up at Jonah, asking him "Are you sure you don't want this? Self-healing is kinda OP."

Jonah snicked his wrist harpoons out of their sheaths, "And lose these? No deal. Besides, I was never much of a healer in other games."

"Well as the girl who always got pigeonholed into the healer role, I protest. But the advantage is just too big to give up, and my dps comes from this speargun anyway."

She accepted the prompt, and light rushed up her arms from the medkit she had been holding. Her palms burst with chromatic distortions, then faded.

You have unlocked a mutation synergy, Healing Song. All friendly targets affected by your Siren's Call ability gain +1 regeneration.

"On second thought," Erin said, "I think this was for the best. I've got area regeneration now." She cocked an eyebrow at Jonah - "You just have to actually stay in the area effect."

"I'll do my best not to go zooming off. Though I don't exactly have ranged options."

"What you need is an anchor," Erin said. "Then you could pull one to you, instead of meeting in the middle."

"Huh, I wonder if I could anchor myself with one and pull somebody with the other one. Worth a shot. Nothing in here to latch on to though," he said, considering the metal interior of the structure. Then he looked at his propellers, an idea forming.

Regrettably, none of the rest of the items yielded mutations. Jonah had high hopes for that engineer-looking fellow, but no dice.

He pulled up his new greatsword to inspect it. "Radium powered," Erin said, pointing out an orb-shaped metal protrusion. She tapped it, and it irised open to show a glowing green sphere. "That'll last you literal years," she said.

"Well it's pretty cool," he said. "It literally propels me through the water faster. Maybe I can keep up with you now." She smiled at that.

After that, there was nothing for it but to delve back into the dungeon. Jonah pinged out the area but didn't see any more players. They knew the ones they had fought would be respawning, but apparently, the spawn points for open dungeons were further away than instanced dungeons so they'd have some time before having to reengage.

They carved their way through the tunnels, which seemed endless and samey. Jonah could feel a remarkable power increase from the sword, and he demolished the groups with torpedo-like speed. The foes they fought all had different suits and accessories, but their attack pattern was all zombie, and most of them were still wearing helmets, so all they could really do was claw at the pair. Mostly at Jonah, who was an unstoppable wall of steel and radium that none were ever able to get past. When he enabled sonic weapons, the greatsword was truly devestating.

"HEMA Simulator was worth the learning curve," he says, eyeing the meager leavings of the latest pack.

"Are you like, a professional gamer?" she asks, staring at the carnage. She'd only been able to get two in that group - not because she was worried about hitting Jonah (friendly fire was off), but just because he killed the darn things so fast. Overhand blow from the right would flow into a horizontal swing at the left, would catch a zombie in the hand while winding back into a defensive posture, from which he windshield-wiper-bladed the hands off of another zombie. In moments there were no zombies with heads or hands.

"I have a crippling lack of social life," he responded. "Ever since the Pourpoise 2 introduced real VR fisticuffs with Bare Nukles I've been hooked. I can't get enough melee combat."

Jonah sent out a ping. It looked like some of the dungeon had respawned behind them. And there were those signals- "We've got company again. Do we want to try and actually ambush them this time?"

Galrilla was just lining up her shot on the zombie when the spike took her through the abdomen. Not again, she thought. The tugging seemed even more insistent this time, and she saw the merman holding position with DukesUp's propellers as a counterforce. Instead of pulling them both together, it pulled her twice as fast.

She had just enough time to draw her knife to parry the downward attack. The attack just kept coming though, seesawing over her guard and drawing blood on her shoulder, vibrating right before impact to really tear through. She whipped her knife low, hoping to score a quick hit in, but the harpoon in her abdomen got yanked out at that point, throwing her aim off. She scored a light hit.

They clashed again, but Galrilla took wounds each time, as her weapon wasn't well suited to stopping the greatsword. Eventually, she was caught in a loop where the merman's sword was bouncing back and forth from left to right in helicopter-like overhead strikes, each one coming faster and faster. At the last moment, she gave up on defense entirely and just rammed her blade into the other's chest, accepting the blurring strike that took her head off.

Jonah drew out the dagger, wincing. Erin was close and just finished zapping the tank as he got pounded on by zombies. "Can I get a heal for this?" he asked.

Within moments, warmth flowed from her hand into the knife wound, and it zipped itself back up. Erin gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder, then went back to lining up another shot. Her ethereal singing didn't fade throughout.

Blood and blades

We dance with glaives

We light up the night with sparks

And grind them up like sharks

The tank seemed pretty well occupied by the zombies. That was when two metal claws came for Jonah. He blocked one but took a bruising strike to the shoulder. It seemed the engineer had entered the fray. The blows came from all sides - some with grappling arms like the one that had hit him, and some with saws and drills attached. He parried the bladed weapons, but there were too many hits coming through, and he took blow after blow.

That was when the real surprise came - the engineer's actual arms carried a lightning gun, which he fired at point-blank. Did he have that last time? Jonah wondered as his limbs flailed, his tail churning the water. The saw was coming for his face - but before it could reach him, a bolt sprouted from the engineer's face, taking him right in the left eye. Blood filled the water once more, but the engineer wasn't down. Jonah regained control of his limbs just in time to line up his left wrist with the other's throat and fire a bone harpoon. It exploded through, and he instantly started reeling it in, engaging the propeller's on his right-hand blade to swing it one-handed. The blow didn't land square, instead impacting the helmet and knocking it back, snapping it with a sickening crunch that he could hear through the water. All the engineer's limbs went limp at once.

The medic was next, swinging an electrified mace. It was like fighting someone in slow motion, Jonah mused. The mace crept toward him, until he blew it back with a propeller strike, aiming for the wrist. Blood welled up from the blow, but it didn't take the arm. In an instant, Jonah reversed the blow across the medic's body while he was still recovering from the parry. It was clear this character didn't have much health or combat ability, as he carved up the body at will, sonic weaponry inflicting deadly wounds.

All too soon, there was only blood and corpses - the tank never made it out of the zombies. They both leveled up.