Five against one, and yet in her mind the odds were in her favor. She was used to brawls like this, ones that seemed to deem her clearly outnumbered. Numbers didn't matter. She was strong, determined, fierce and advanced, far too competent to fall to such mindless, primitive creatures.
Ing were vicious. If they were indeed sentient, then it did not show. If they had a language it was in hisses and screeches that to the Hunter were no more intelligible than the calls of a wild animal.
One by one she beat them down, targeting their amorphous eyes with devastating blasts of light. For light did not exist here, and to the Ing it was toxic. They charged, stabbed, spewed into gas and tried to infest her. All failed.
One remained.
The last should have been no different, and as far as form and strength went, he wasn't. Luckier, more intelligent, perhaps, and he did not want to fail as his brothers had.
The Hunter raised her weapon, as ready as she had been when she started the slaughter. Her target turned to liquid and crawled about on the violet soil, nearing closer. She continued to fire, safe in the veil of lighted protection from the hostile world around her.
He entered the light. It burned, but he did not falter. He had his own target in mind. Fast like boiling steam, he coalesced around the crystal. It shattered against the pressure and the veil disappeared. The Hunter was exposed.
The lightless dimension burned. Hot and intense, the flow of toxic air fighting to purge this world of the alien matter that had invaded it. The Hunter's suit burned, the sleek metal surface simmering away into massless vapor. She would survive; but not for long.
A momentary weakness. She would find her way to another crystal, another haven. Soon enough, it would happen, he knew. But right now, she was exposed, and he had the upper hand. He struck at her, blow after blow yielding nothing. But he was relentless.
One final blow gave him the result he wanted. Shattered glass bounced off his claws and disintegrated into the air. A broken visor. He tore the Hunter's helmet off her body, flinging it far.
No suit to protect her. No air to breath. Nothing between her human body and the pestilence that was the outside world.
Within moments she would be dead. But the Ing did not wish this. With no suit to keep him out he could finally take what he wanted. The Hunter was strong, she was deadly, and she was the gravest threat to an Ing victory in this war. What then, would happen, if he took her? His greedy mind raced at the possibilities.
He turned to vapor and threw himself at her exposed face, melting into her flesh and driving himself into her veins. The sound of a woman's scream carried far into the somber, black landscape. The Hunter's features blackened, mutated. Her vivid blue eyes turned to orange and yellow, burning out of her pale face like flames.
The possession came as a great satisfaction, and no sooner had he taken her body that he moved into her armor. Finally, what the Ing always saved for last; the mind. A sick sort of sadism that allowed the host to feel every shattering detail of their bodies being taken.
The Ing tore into her mind. Thoughts, memories, ambitions and emotions, exposed like an open book for him to take and laugh at. He sunk in deep, ready to take over.
But the Hunter did not give up so easily. Hers was a will of iron, and she fought back with every fibre of her being.
It would not end like this. She would not be this putrid thing's puppet.
It laughed at her. He could see her fighting, see her hoping, thinking she could overcome him. It was a laughable notion, and just as quickly as she rose up, he moved to stamp her out. To his surprise, he found that it did not come easily.
She beat him back with sheer willpower, screaming in her head. Her refusal to submit was admirable, but still he pushed back. Like rams locking horns they fought one another, pushing and pushing only to be pushed back.
"I will not be a slave!"
An indomitable will forced the darkling monster into submission. He had failed in his possession, despite having turned her into the black and violet monster she now was. He remained, beaten down and cowering, but present nonetheless.
The Hunter rose to her feet, her own will the sole thing driving her. She had changed, she had felt it. She had felt her body betray her, grow mutatious spines and warp internally into something completely alien. But she was alive, and that was all that mattered.
She looked herself over, seemingly indifferent to the change. It could be remedied later.
Right now, she had a job to finish.