Chapter 25: Aliens and Predators
When Barry Hammerson had discovered that he couldn't hear his teammates anymore, he'd started trying to use his sense of smell to keep track of them. Unfortunately, after passing through two or three more rooms, he discovered that something was wrong with that too. There was a strange scent filling the area that he was in. He couldn't place it, and it wasn't exactly unpleasant, but it was very strong, and he couldn't smell anything else through it.
For a moment, he thought about backtracking; trying to get back out of those strong-smelling rooms and meet up with his teammates again, but he had a feeling that even if it was going to be that easy, they'd probably think of him as a coward for rushing right back to them before he'd discovered anything important or valuable.
The hallways and rooms that Barry had been exploring were much smaller than the ones the group had entered by; no more than a couple dozen feet long in any direction, and most of them seemed virtually featureless; just metal on the walls and a few small interface panels built into them, but there didn't seem to be any doors branching off in new directions, or anything too important going on in any of the rooms that Barry had passed through. However, he finally came to a room with two doors in it, going in different directions. One went straight ahead, and another branched off to the left, finally giving him a choice about where to go next, and it only took him a moment to decide on the left door. Soon, his hands had cut cleanly through the metal, and with one good kick, the door collapsed with a clang, and Barry stepped into the much larger room beyond.
The room looked like some type of manufacturing floor. The walls sparkled with flashes of light, as they were reflected off the large amount of metal in that room, in a variety of shapes. Straight metal plates were passing through that room on some kind of conveyer, as well as some that were curved, and even a few tube-shaped cables and casings. In fact, the whole place looked like a distribution center for robot parts, and that was all that Barry needed to know. That room, he decided, needed to be torn down, one piece at a time.
Unfortunately, there was something else going on in that room, which Barry hadn't noticed at first, and he still didn't notice it until it was almost on top of him; some kind of thin, metal object, headed right for his chest.
Immediately, Barry collapsed to the floor, summoning all the speed he could muster to avoid the strange weapon, then sliding along the floor to try to get out of range, but in mid-air, the disc rotated and headed back towards him again, as if it were homing in on him, and soon, he realized that he had to get up and out of there if he wanted to live.
Barry had only been in a few battles recently, but his lycanthropy had given him a highly-elevated instinct when it came to sensing and responding to attacks, so pretty soon, he rolled over on the floor and leapt back to his feet, just managing the dodge the flying weapon again, and run through the nearest door, back down the adjoining hallway on all fours, with the speed of a full-grown panther. However, when he looked back, thankfully, it seemed that the weapon had stopped following him. He still couldn't tell just where a dangerous weapon like that had come from, or how it had followed him so well at first, but just as he was getting back up to his feet, a flash of blue light tore through the air towards him from just a bit further down the hallway, and he was struck full in the chest with it, being knocked back through the hallway and to the ground in a shower of plasma.
At first, Barry was a little stunned by the suddenness of that attack, but he knew that it hadn't hurt him too badly. He could feel a sort of unpleasant heat traveling through his torso, but it wasn't strong enough to have injured him, and certainly not the scalding sensation that he'd felt when he'd needed to wade through open lava not too long before.
Quickly, Barry started climbing to his feet again, and that was when he felt something very sharp driving through his chest.
For a moment, Barry could barely believe it. Ever since he'd first discovered that he was a monster, it had seemed as if he wasn't in any danger at all anymore; at least not from physical enemies. However, something was finally penetrating his skin, after all that time, and it was invisible to the naked eye, and sharper and more painful than anything that he'd ever felt. In fact, he almost felt as if his very life was being drained away through that invisible, sharp point, even as it twisted around inside of him.
Barry was stunned by his sudden weakness against his unseen enemy. In fact, he was so stunned, that for a moment, he couldn't think of any way to react, but soon, he realized that if he didn't do something quickly, he was about to die, and as hard as his life had always been up to that point, he knew that he wasn't ready to face judgment yet. There was still too much that he needed to do; too much that he needed to make right.
Quickly, Barry reached forward and seized the object that was still inside of him, pulling it back out of his chest with all his might, then yanking it up towards the ceiling. In a fraction of a second, the creature that had been holding the weapon released it, seeming to recognize Barry's supernatural physical strength, but just then, the weapon became visible in his hands, and he found himself with more questions racing through his mind as he looked at it.
The weapon was a pole of some kind; thin and lightweight, but very strong. It was just slightly longer than a cane, but with a sharp point on the end, and when Barry looked a bit more closely at that point, he realized why it had hurt him so badly. There was a light coating over the blade of that weapon; a reflective, metallic coating that was obviously silver. He hadn't seen much silver in his life, but he already knew that much about his own weaknesses. A weapon that small never would have been able to hurt him so badly unless it could take advantage of his weakness.
However, even as Barry glanced at the stick in his hands, he saw the glint of metal in front of him, and realized, in horror, that the flying, metal weapon had reappeared, and it was most likely going to be covered in silver too.
For a moment, Barry wasn't sure what to do, but at last, he reacted with the staff, swinging it into the path of the flying weapon; which, it turned out, was shaped like a small disc, and soon, he'd just managed to knock the disc out of the way, running back towards the robot part room. However, he hadn't gone more than a few yards, when something very sharp dug into his leg, and he found himself falling over on the floor. In seconds, the strange spear had vanished from his hands, and that was when Barry realized the truth. Although his physical strength may have been superior to his enemy's, his foe just had too many advantages over him. His invisibility, his technology, and especially his sheer skill in combat were all devastating problems, and as strong as Barry may have been on Earth, that alien hunter was practically walking through him. With every second came a new threat to his life, and it was all that he could do to continue surviving for just a few more seconds. He was losing ground fast, and he still had no reliable way to attack his enemy, or to anticipate where the next attack would come from.
Barry was feeling absolutely helpless by that point, even as he struggled to get back up and dodge the flying disc one more time. He knew that the hunter was still somewhere nearby, and could probably finish him off at any moment, and it made him feel worse than he ever had before. Whether he liked to admit it or not, he'd never given up on the people he knew back on Earth, and he'd never believed that Adam Frankenstein could die as easily as Dracula seemed to think he had. Barry was sure that there were still people in the universe who knew him and cared about him, and in that moment, he realized, he would have given almost anything to just be able to unleash his full powers again; just one more time, like he had against the avenger of Thoth.
Still, what he really wanted wasn't just to unleash the power. What he really wanted was to be able to truly be in control of it, and that was when something else occurred to him; something that, for some reason, Barry had never thought of before. Quickly managing to duck out of the way of the flying disc one last time, he moved into the robot part room and looked around. There, he saw something that finally gave him just a bit of hope.
Apparently, Barry had been traveling upward through the space ship as he'd run, because the light that had been reflecting off the metal in that room wasn't coming from any of the nearby machines. Almost the whole ceiling of that room consisted of some kind of thick, transparent substance, and beyond it was the vacuum of space. However, there, just a short distance from the massive, alien ship's window, he could see the source of the light; an enormous chunk of rock out in space. He couldn't even tell how big the rock chunk was, but they were close enough to it, that the sight of it filled almost the whole ceiling window, and although the young werewolf had never been big on astronomy, he knew what it must have been; a moon of Mars.
Quickly, Barry spun back around towards the room's entrance, as he felt the moonlight washing over him; causing the natural energy within him to weaken, and bringing out the primal enchantment that he'd been infected by for the last several months. It wasn't nearly as strong as it had been during the attack of the avenger of Thoth, but he could feel it acting on his mind already; wearing away at his self-control. Bestial thoughts were intruding into his head again; instinct and bloodthirsty cunning taking the place of intelligent thought. However, as much as he wanted the power of his true form to use in fighting that enemy, he wasn't willing to give in to it either. He refused to let his werewolf side win, just because he was in danger, and the wicked, savage thoughts creeping through him were met with active resistance.
Barry could still feel his body changing around him; his nails turning into claws, and his face being warped into the head of a wolf. Fur was growing all over his body too, but just that once, he could feel, the savage beast within himself was weakening; having difficulty overwhelming his intelligent thoughts. Werewolf or not, Barry Hammerson was still human, and, he discovered, having realized what the problem was, and committed himself to solving it, he still had the legacy of humanity; his own free will.
The flying disc appeared again in the doorway, spinning towards the werewolf through the air, but his transformation was nearly complete, and while the wicked thoughts of lycanthropy hadn't overwhelmed him that time, he could still feel the sharp instincts of the ferocious beast within him, longing to react to the attacks of his enemy. For the moment, he decided, he was going to let them do just that.
With one quick motion, Barry snapped out with his jaws, seizing the flying disc between his teeth, then whipped his claws around, and sliced it into four separate pieces, tossing them to the ground in one motion. He still couldn't quite see his enemy, but he could tell that he'd surprised the invisible hunter, because with his recently-sharpened senses, he could hear the alien's light footfalls on the ground, moving back just a little.
That was just what Barry needed. Up to that point, the enemy had been disguising its scent as well as its appearance, and it moved very quietly, but not, he realized with a smile, completely without noise. Since his transformation into his more powerful form, the young werewolf's sense of hearing had sharpened noticeably, until he could hear the sounds of those light, careful footsteps on the metal beneath them both. Soon, he'd gotten back onto all fours, and started charging across the room towards his opponent, picturing the enemy in his mind, and using his sharp hearing almost like a sonar. The shape of his enemy was a bit surprising, at first, but he didn't hesitate, pouncing on the alien and lashing out with his claws.
The enemy reacted quickly to Barry's attack, slashing against him with some weapon of its own, and unfortunately, he still couldn't quite hear the sound of that weapon traveling through the air, so he was struck across the chest by it. Worse yet, it seemed that that weapon was also laced with silver, because Barry could feel the wound burning on his chest, draining his strength, even once he'd backed away. It was a difficult situation, because he knew that he'd wounded the enemy somehow, and yet, they were in something of a standoff. He'd proven that he could defend himself from his enemy's long-ranged weapons, which neutralized one of the big advantages that the invisible alien had over him. However, his short-ranged weapons were just as lethal, and the alien was very adept at using them. Worse yet, the werewolf still couldn't anticipate where those attacks were coming from, even when he was standing right next to his enemy. It was only at that point, that he started to do the one thing that his purely-werewolf form never could have done; he came up with a plan.
Quickly, Barry rushed across the room towards the place where the conveyer belt was located, though the alien didn't seem to be making any movements in response. However, whether that was meant to keep it from being heard, or just because it didn't see what the werewolf was planning was impossible to say. Then, in only another moment, Barry Hammerson had reached up towards the giant conveyer, seizing one of the metal plates that was passing by on it; as big as a wagon wheel, and lifting it over his head. It seemed to be only then that the alien realized the danger, because he could already hear the hunter's footsteps as it started running to one side of the room, apparently trying to hide. Still, ironically, that only made it easier for Barry to tell where he was, and in just a moment, he'd thrown the metal plate with all his might like an enormous discus, and seized another one from the conveyer a moment later, even as the sound of metal tearing through metal drowned out every other noise in the room.
Thanks to the sheer size of the weapon that Barry had just thrown at his invisible enemy, and the speed with which he'd thrown it, it crashed right through several walls and machine parts during its flight. Scaffolds, power cables and access terminals all collapsed into heaps of metal under the force of the huge plate that he'd just thrown at his enemy, but the werewolf could tell that the invisible alien had survived, and was using the racket as cover, because in all of that noise; the outline of his enemy's body was easy to sense, and at that point, the alien hunter was approaching from his right, as if trying to get in one good jab against him with that silver-laced spear again.
In that moment, Barry had just a little bit of time to plan out his next move. Soon, he realized, he'd have another skirmish with his opponent on his hands, and if he lashed out with his claws, then he'd probably do a lot of damage, but his enemy would also have time to react, and he was sure that getting gutted with silver too often wasn't good for his health. On the other hand, he had another means of attacking, which probably wouldn't do as much damage, but would leave his enemy with less of a chance to respond.
As the hunter approached, Barry whipped his head back and forth, as if struggling to determine his enemy's new location, but then, just when the alien was nearly within striking distance, he swung his second metal plate around like an enormous club, knocking the alien hunter clean off his feet. To his credit, he managed to keep his hands on his spear when he was flung into the air, because the young werewolf didn't see it appearing on the floor, which almost definitely would have happened if he'd let it go. However, when he did finally land on the ground again, it seemed that something very important had been damaged during Barry's last attack, because for the first time, the creature's near-total invisibility faltered, and he could see the shape of its body, just starting to materialize in front of him.
The creature's body shape was surprisingly humanoid. It had two arms and two legs, just like a human, though most of the other features of its body were very different. Its forehead was large and flat; looking exoskeletal and armored, as if to protect its vital points, and beneath that forehead were a pair of sunken-in eyes, and beneath those, a series of mandibles, covering a mouth with lots of sharp teeth. Long, thick strands of some black substance resembling a cross between tentacles and hair surrounded the armor on top of its head. Of course, from its appearance alone, there was no doubt that it was an alien being, but it certainly didn't seem like the kind of alien that had landed in Washington during the fifties.
In fact, Barry was fairly certain that he'd seen that alien somewhere before; some internet rumor mill claiming to have photographs from a nineteen-eighties encounter with extra-terrestrials that had been dubbed "predators" by the team that had first encountered them. Still, from everything he'd read about them, they didn't seem like the type to send giant death machines to destroy the Earth. He couldn't prove it, exactly, but he suspected that the being in front of him wasn't a real predator at all.
In just another moment, though, Barry got his proof, because the alien being had begun to melt before his very eyes, gradually turning colorless and malformed, as it became a pile of some kind of gray dust, proving that it had just been a construct of some kind, using the same kind of colorless material that the first alien ship had been made from.
For a few moments, Barry thought about trying to gather up some of that dust; to figure out how the ship around them had replicated another kind of alien warrior with it, but in that moment, he realized something that nearly overjoyed him. After all the time that he'd spent around Adam; all the time he'd spent thinking about ethics, and about the people he cared about, and all the effort he'd put into learning new methods of self-control over the last few weeks, he'd not only learned to control his fully-transformed state, but had actually begun to regain the personality he'd had when he was younger; the curious, young man with a love for computers and animals, who'd been so eager to learn about the world. For a while, he'd lost that eagerness in the flood of bloodthirsty, carnal emotions that his lycanthropy had brought on him, but in spite of his former meekness, Barry Hammerson had reasserted himself, and the struggle had made him a bolder and more decisive man in the process; to say nothing of being far more powerful.
He couldn't stop smiling at that thought, as he gripped the conveyer belt in both hands, and pulled with all his might, watched in brutal delight as the whole machine came crashing down. He was both a werewolf and a human, and for the first time, he realized, he was beginning to feel the joy of both forms in his heart; something that no one of human descent had ever accomplished before.
The Gill-man had been repeatedly buying himself more and more time by tearing pieces out of the walls and throwing them at the alien, but it kept getting closer and closer to him, regardless. Eventually, he'd needed to use one small piece of metal to swat the alien's face away from him, though he was forced to discard it just a moment later, before the alien's acid could erode the metal away completely. No enemy had pushed the Gill-man so completely to the brink of death, and yet, he could see one major advantage that he had over that alien beast, aside from his sheer, brute strength. Its acidic body fluids had their down sides as well as their advantages.
In another moment, the Gill-man seized one more metal plate off the nearest wall. His arm had already regenerated down to the elbow, but he still couldn't use it to grab anything, and that meant that he needed some other means of defending himself against his enemy. Soon, he'd struck it in the face with another metal plate; more of the strong acid starting to melt the metal, but that was when a new plan occurred to him.
Quickly, he tipped the melting metal plate over in his hands, spilling the strong acid onto the floor as he circled the alien creature to the left. Then, ducking out of the way of another swipe of its tail, he stomped hard on the ground, and grinned in satisfaction as various sections of the floor began to give way; including the one right under the alien. In one quick jolt, the beast was falling towards the floor below, and the Gill-man backed up just a little bit more, leaning against the nearest complete wall. It probably wouldn't take that jet black creature long to track him down again, but at the very least, he'd bought himself some breathing space, and a chance to do just a little more regenerating and preparing for the moment when he'd need to fight that thing again.
Thirty seconds passed, and the Gill-man's arm had regenerated all the way down to the wrist. Another twenty seconds, and he had usable fingers. Out of combat, he found, he wasn't using up as much of his energy, and could regenerate quite a bit faster. He still wasn't quite back up to full speed, but for the moment, it was enough. The Gill-man could tell that he had a major advantage over the alien, which was his ability to bend and twist the surrounding metal. He hadn't been able to make much use of it at first, but having access to the use of both arms changed quite a bit about that.
Just as the tips of the Gill-man's fingers and claws finished regenerating, he made another move, seizing large sections of the surrounding metal right off the walls, and bending it; squashing it with his fingers like clay, until it had been forced into a new shape; a long, sharp shape. He did the same thing a couple more times with all the speed he was able to muster, then twisted the ends of the metal around a length of cable that he found in one corner of the room; which shut off all the shimmering lights nearby when he pulled it out of its housing. However, it was just thick enough to tie his new weapons to his body; functioning as two separate belts; one on his waist, and the other across his shoulders. Once he was done with that, he'd managed to sculpt three weapons for himself; two makeshift long swords, and a large, javelin-like weapon. After he was done with that, though, he didn't have long to wait before his enemy made another appearance.
The alien creature came charging through the door towards him; its pounding feet making a tremendous racket as it moved, and the Gill-man had to think fast as the thing started to engage him from a distance with its tail again. He'd seen that its saliva was strongly acidic, and he knew that that was a bad sign, because it meant that most weapons might not be able to go all the way through it, unless they were wielded with enormous speed and force. It was possible, in fact, that nearly all of its bodily fluids were acidic in nature, and if that was the case, then wounding the creature might easily serve to make it a more efficient killing machine. He knew that he needed to prepare for that possibility, but there was no other way around the problem.
The creature's tail had swung around before half a second had passed, but that time, the Gill-man actually jumped over it, drawing both of his new swords in a flash, and slicing off the end of that tail from almost directly above, vaulting himself to the side with his second sword. Sure enough, it looked as if the acid not only filled the creature's whole body, but was highly pressurized within it, because it shot out in a quick jet from the end of its tail, hitting the opposite wall, and spilling all over the floor; making an enormous gash where the acid melted the metal, all across the room. However, such high blood pressure, the Gill-man reasoned, might have other unfortunate advantages. It might mean that it would take the alien creature much longer to bleed to death.
Sure enough, it seemed that the creature was barely suffering at all from its wound, and was even trying to use it as a weapon, swinging the deadly acid back and forth across the remainder of the room's supports. However, the stream of acid was starting to die down, because while it was still pouring out of the creature's tail, it was no longer shooting all the way across the room, and like a fire hose that's lost its force, the Gill-man saw weakness in that.
His first sword had already begun to melt, so he put away his other sword, made another leap over the alien's tail, and charged toward its body with all deliberate speed, finally seizing it by the arms, and lifting it into the air. The thing tried to spit at him for a moment, but he managed to duck out of the way and ram its head back with his shoulder, then slam the alien against the wall. Soon, he'd driven his remaining sword through the creature's left arm and into the flat, metal surface behind it. The sword and wall both began melting immediately, but it gave the him the chance he needed to use his javelin, positioning it right over the beast's chest, and although the alien being tried its best to resist with its one remaining hand, the Gill-man was simply too strong. Soon, the javelin had gone through the alien creature's body, and the half-fish moved further away from it, feeling a little relieved, but not much.
The alien creature had convulsed quite a bit in response to the javelin in its chest, but that was only its death throes, and the only real danger to the Gill-man by that point was the remaining acid. Still, he'd dodged it while the creature had been alive, and when it died, that job didn't become any harder.
Soon, the alien had stopped moving completely, although it didn't take long for the acid spilling from its body to eat through the floor again, causing it to once again plummet into the room below, and from there, into the room below that. The Gill-man was very hungry, and extremely tired, but somehow, he knew that something very bad was about to happen in that room, so he quickly yanked open the next door, and stepped through into the room beyond. As it turned out, however, he was just barely in time.
The moment that the Gill-man had entered the room beyond the acid-melted one he'd just been fighting in, there was a tremendous blast, and he found himself being shoved back with the force of a wind tunnel. Quickly, straining against the wind, he jabbed his claws into the nearest wall, and started climbing towards the door to the next room; the sudden blast of wind still pulling him almost directly sideways, until at last, the door behind him sealed shut, and the wind blast stopped. However, he still wasn't safe, because that was when the he noticed that he couldn't breathe, and realized that somehow, all the air had just been blown out of the room.
The Gill-man wasn't sure how it had happened. He didn't know, and he didn't really care to know. All that mattered, for the first time, was getting back to a breathable atmosphere. After all, even his gills didn't give him the power to breathe in space. Trying to hold his breath as best he could, he continued towards the next door. However the air had vanished, he was in an enclosed room, and if he could just reach the next enclosed area, there would probably be some air in there. It had been a long time since he'd been so tired, hungry and dehydrated all at once, but he knew what he had to do next, and inch by inch, he forced himself closer to the door, bracing his arms against it, and pushing with all his remaining strength.
At last, the Gill-man was nearly knocked backwards to the floor, when the door opened, and the air rushed in. He was still tired, hungry and dehydrated, of course, but at least he could breathe again, and after taking just a few moments to steady himself, he got back upright and continued his journey through the hallways of the enormous spacecraft.
Klaatu frowned as he looked over the reports he was receiving on-screen. Of all the functions of the war factory, only seventy-five percent of them were still active, and two of the nanomachine warriors had already fallen. Worse yet, it seemed that not one of Earth's warriors had actually died, and some of them were already heading for even more sensitive and important areas of the interstellar ship. Two, in particular, were headed towards the library, and another for the communications hall. The damage they could do to the ship in those areas was minimal, of course, but if they were really clever, they might be able to contact any number of people from them; any number of alien forces, who might be easily upset by a careless word spoken by a foolish Earthling.
The battle wasn't going well for the war factory, and as much as he hated to be forced into that kind of situation, he knew that he didn't have any choice but to actually try to communicate with some of Earth's warriors; if only to buy Gort and the war factory a bit of time. The evils of planet Earth, he was discovering, were stronger than he'd anticipated.
Lord Dracula was already smiling to himself as he stepped into the large room at the end of the last hallway. His strength hadn't quite been enough to open the sealed doors all the way, but an application of just the right amount of heat and pressure had made tiny cracks in each of those doors; cracks just large enough for him to squeeze through when he shrunk himself down to his smallest size. He'd completely lost track of his teammates almost as soon as he'd started exploring the alien ship, but in a way, he didn't really care. He'd been hoping to plan things out a bit more concretely than that, but beggars couldn't be choosers, after all, and the next room did look very useful to him.
The room was a tremendous hall; a good hundred feet high, and as many wide, with interface consoles arranged throughout the entire thing, and enormous view screens scattered through the room. Obviously, it had been intended for multiple-way communication of some kind, although what really caught Dracula's attention, for the moment, was the man standing in the middle of the room with a smile on his face. He was a very strange-looking man, because he was dressed in some kind of military uniform, and yet, it was impossible to ignore the almost predatory look in his eyes.
"Welcome to the communications hall." the man said with a trusting smile, "Can I help you with something?"
For a moment, Lord Dracula just paused in genuine surprise, but at last, he decided that there was no point in postponing the inevitable.
"You're not a real human being." Dracula said at last in open derision, "I'm certain, because your blood has no scent. In fact, I would wager that it's not even real blood at all."
For a moment, the man in the uniform just looked aggravated, but at least, he seemed to realize that he couldn't take the vampire by surprise, and in that moment, something began to happen to him, which actually did surprise Dracula, even after all he'd seen.
The uniform began to warp around the man, and the man's body started warping as well, changing into a new shape as it moved. In seconds, the whole uniform had melded into a vast, fleshy mass, which started to sprout arms and long, spidery legs as it moved. Soon, it had become a tremendous, fast-moving, insectoid creature with a mouth and face like a human being, and as soon as he saw it, Dracula smiled.
"I see." the vampire said confidently, "You were that thing that attacked those poor fools in Antarctica a while back, or maybe you weren't. Maybe you're another of its species. Maybe you're nothing more than a replica of it, but in any case, I wonder what you plan to do to me. After all, I am not a living creature. I've read the reports and the rumors; you multiply and grow stronger by assimilating life-forms. If that's true, then you cannot hurt me in the slightest. At least not in your current form."
However, in another moment, the monstrous beast lunged forward, stretching its mouth to the size of a car, and Dracula just smiled confidently as he was carried up into its mouth, surrounded by its razor-sharp teeth, and found himself descending into it, as its body surrounded him from all sides...
The thing had suspected that Dracula was just another life-form; perhaps a bit different from other forms of life, but still basically alive. It had suspected that vampirism was just some kind of disease, or something that could be naturally explained and overcome with just the right approach, but the more its cells transformed around the vampire lord; doing its best to assimilate him into its own structure, the more it found that there was an enormous force, resisting it from within. Something was protecting Dracula from being absorbed by it, and as far as it could tell, the vampire lord hadn't even made any attempt to counter-attack or escape yet.
However, that changed just a moment later, as the thing felt a blinding pain starting to branch out from within its center, changing into a burning sensation as it spread outward. It was unbearable and excruciating, and at the last second, the thing realized its mistake, just before its entire body burst into flames.
Every last piece of the shape shifting alien was consumed in the inferno that followed. Its whole body collapsed into blazing embers on the deck of that communications hall, and as the flickering flames of that simple victory danced across the room, their light was reflected in the eyes of the one responsible, who stood in mid-air, held aloft by mere heat pressure, as he turned back towards the center of the room, his long coat sweeping around behind him as he went. Lord Dracula had not expected to be so badly underestimated by his enemies.