So, as I said, here's what I have so far for chapter 19. Keep in mind, you are seeing the raw, scattered and fragmented thing that is my thought process put on paper.
Some interpretation of when what is or if it's the thing or something else I had planned for that part will be needed.
GRAMMATICAL ERROR ARE PRESENT. Since I'm probably gonna redo this part or segments of it, I'm not gonna bother going through and fixing it since it's not complete anyway, but here ya'll go.
Chapter 19, Battle with a New Foe
"What do you have for me?" I said to Leviathan in the mindscape.
"Little, counting what we know." He replied. "It's small, a juvenile at most. Only about two carriages large and possess phasing abilities. Other physical attributes are unknown."
"Does Ren know?"
"Dracos has already informed him."
"And Itsuki and Motoyasu's beast?"
"Speaking with me but quite to them. They have not revealed themselves yet."
"Good, we'll need to keep it that way for now. If you learn anything tell me."
"Will do." He said.
I opened my eyes and was back in reality. I and the other heroes were riding the wolves to the crater. We had left their parties behind in favor for rapid response. Ren was on Deimos while Itsuki and Motoyasu were on Phobos. To his credit, Phobos was quite tempered with Motoyasu on him, unlike Deimos who had looked ready bite Motoyasu's arm off.
As we approached the crater, I turned back to them.
"We're approaching the crater. Target ID: Shifter. Remember. This is an enemy we haven't faced before. It'll be fast and appear where your not looking. Everyone ready?"
"Good here." Ren said.
"All set." Itsuki followed.
Motoyasu didn't respond and I didn't bother asking again.
"Drop us here." I said to the wolves. They stopped and let us dismount. They transformed into Demi-humans before they approached us. The crater was wide and smoke rose from the center. Near the ridge was high point.
"You three, go to the Militia and guide them here. Have them set up on the ridge line over there. Have them open up once we're clear of the crater."
"Yes sir." They responded. I turned back to the other heroes but Luna got my attention.
"Alpha." She said. I turned back. She grabbed the back of my mask and undid the latches before pulling it down. She put her arms around my neck and kissed me on the lips and I returned the affection.
"Be safe." She said handing me the mask.
"Will do." I said before putting my mask back on. I watched as the wolves transformed and ran off. I turned back to the other heroes.
Who were all giving me weird looks. Including Ren.
"What?" I asked.
"You… And her…" Itsuki said, trying to figure out what just happened. "Huh?"
"What can I say?" I asked walking past them. "Demi-humans got a thing for me."
The other heroes shrugged and followed me. As we approached the edge, we looked into the crater. It was deep, with much of the ground still steaming from the impact. The center of the crater was a pillar of smoke.
We looked at each other and nodded. We jumped into the crater and slid down the side, kicking up hot dust and glass behind us. It was quiet when we reached the bottom.
"Move up." I said. I kept my shield up and faced the pillar of smoke. We moved slowly, watching around us to make sure we weren't ambushed.
Even as we got closer, we couldn't see through the smoke.
"Hold back." I said. The others stopped but I continued forward. As I grew closer, my vision began to glitch. Spots would become grey static or shift out of frame before returning back to normal. With a wave of my hand, I sent a gust of air that carried away the smoke.
Within the smoke was a small, round pit. A couple feet deep and clearly not formed by the impact.
'Damn.' I thought. 'You getting anything Leviathan?'
'Vaguely... Wait.'
'What? What are you feeling?' I turned back to the heroes. Ren was looking around the crater with worry and Itsuki and Motoyasu both seemed uneased.
'Duck!' I did so without hesitation. I could feel the wind above my head shift and see the other heroes face my direction.
'Roll!' I rolled forward, another gust of air following me but this time accompanied with the sound of shattering stone. Not wanting to wait for a follow up, I turned around and summoned an Air strike shield, creating an ethereal barrier between me and whatever it was attacking me.
The sound of steel clashing with the construct rang throughout the crater. I could only catch a glimpse of the creature before a ring flash of smoke.
A second red flash came from above us.
"Second Shield!" I called, summoning a second air strike directly above Ren. A blur of black hide, spikes, and teeth impacted the shield, wildly striking against in an attempt to get the Sword Hero. The most I could I make out was a long snout, four legs, and a tail before it jumped away again.
A flash behind me and turned around with my shield raised. A heavy weight hammered against my shield and I slid back against the ground. I pushed back but slipped forward, the weight pushing against me suddenly disappearing. A second flash behind me and I had barely managed to twist my body to put my shield up before being punched into the ground.
With another flash it had left me, the sound of metal clashing against metal sounding near me. Slowly I got up, stumbling for a moment before catching myself. When I looked up, I saw the beast phasing out of reality before appearing somewhere else. The other heroes weren't holding up. It didn't need to prioritize targets, instead handling all three of them simultaneously, seemingly being everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
As I watched the fight however, I noticed something about the beast' teleporting. Something that looked strange about it.
'There.' I though, noticing it. Right as the beast teleported, it flattened, a red distortion that always remained just a little larger than the part of the body entering it.
"It's using portals to jump around." I thought out loud. 'Leviathan, we got anything that can limit it's range?'
'Give me a moment.' He said.
Not wanting to leave the heroes on their own, I charged in aimlessly near Itsuki. Right as flash was set off above him I sent an armored fist forward. I was rewarded with the sound of bones shattering.
The creatures snout had snapped like a twig, it's teeth being knocked out while it's head didn't even have a chance to whip back. With a second punch, I shattered it's ribs inward, knocking the beast away of Itsuki. I flopped onto the ground in a heap of flesh but no blood came from it.
'... That's it?' I though.
'Of course not. You only made it harder to kill.' Leviathan said.
"What?" I said in worry.
I was brought to reality with the sound of movement. Slowly, the beast picked itself up off the ground. The areas that had been shattered had completely reformed but with heavier skin. Armor plates covered its belly and chest but were still clear from it's back.
"It's evolving." Ren said in disbelief.
'Rapid evolution. Its cells exist in more of a colony than a single being.' Leviathan said. 'This is bad. The longer you drag out this fight, the less your chances of winning will be.'
'Good to know. Anything else?'
'Latchings from you Prisma shield, along with the energy shield should keep warp beast from utilizing its portals. The energy shield will act like a solid wall jammer. Anything behind it and the beast can't teleport to it. While it's locked down, find it's core and destroy it.'
'Latchings?'
'Yes. Tendril like constructs. How could you forget? You created… No, that's not right. That was… My apologies. A fragment of my memory came back and blurred. I've sorted now.'
'No problem. Guess familiar situations bring back old memories for you too.' I thought back.
'Indeed.'
"On me, now!" I yelled, summoning my Prisma Shield. The other heroes grouped around me, not sure what I was doing but having no other option. "Find its core! We take that out, and it's an instant kill."
When I was sure the beast was near us, I played my card.
"Shield Latchings!" I called. With a flash of blue light, three tendrils of light shot out of my shield before homing in on the beast.
The latchings did their job and trapped the beast. The beast tried to summon its portals but each attempt was cut off when the portals got to close. It thrashed around, putting a strain on the tendrils and myself. The other heroes gaped at the ability, but we didn't have time for it.
"Hit it!" I said with a strained voice. The other heroes charged out, readying their strongest attacks.
Altogether they unleashed them. Bright golden streaks trailed across the battleground and exploded against the beast.
What I hadn't anticipated was the whiplash. As the attacks hit, the latchings reached their limit and snapped. They broke apart in a flash of blue that ran across its length back to like a trail of gunpowder. It impacted the shield with a second blue burst. While the other heroes where out of its reach, I was caught in the blast directly.
The burst left me disoriented, my vision having the same flashes of static as before. I put my hand on my head and fell on one of my knees, overwhelmed by the headache that followed.
"Carter!" Ren shouted. I looked up and barely made out a black mass running at me.
'Shit!' I brought my shield up and braced myself for the hit.
It never came.
I opened my eyes and there, standing in front of me, was Motoyasu, holding back the warp beat. With push against the beast, he managed to bash it with blunt weight at the bottom of his spear. He thrust the spear forward, jamming it between two of the plates on the stomach.
"Chaos spear!" He yelled. A cloud of white smoke and lightning curled around the head of the spear. It went off with a bang, sending a shockwave back at us and the beast a few meters.
It merely looked back at Motoyasu and growled, unphased by the attack.
"You gotta be kidding me." Motoyasu mumbled.
'We can't stay like this. We're too spread out and running out of options.' I thought. 'Gauss Shield… It has firepower but it's too slow. I'll never be able to track it well enough to hit it.
I dropped the shield in place for my Bio-Plant Shield. "New plan! Ren! Distract it! I got something in the works."
"You better make it quick!" He called back, summoning his default sword. He plunged it into the ground as twelve other swords appeared around him. They pulled themselves out of the ground before launching at the beast.
'We just got to hold it off for a bit longer.' I thought. 'When will reinforcements get here!?'
I pooled magic into my shield and summoned a number of corpse vine seeds. I threw them all around where we were fighting, watching the soil twist while the seeds took root but didn't sprout.
'Good. Now I just have to lure it over here.' I thought while the others engaged in the warp beast. Ren had gone to stab warp beast but it simply twisted its body, avoiding the sword entirerly. It's tail whipped back and swat him away. Motoyasu tried to take advantage of its extended state but it spun across the ground and swiped his legs out from under him. Before Motoyasu had even hit the ground, the beast had grabbed Motoyasu's airborne legs and threw him off to the side.
Like clockwork, it twisted itself over one of Itsukis arrows. It's arms stretched and its claws dug into the ground, picking up a clump of rocks. It's body twisted in the center without its front moving and in one fluent motion, unthrilled itself and hurled the stones at Itsuki at breakneck speeds. Ren had jumped into the air behind it, wielding his Gauss sword. He brought it down on the beast but in a display of biological superiority, it's body disconnected below the sword, avoiding the hot plasma before attaching itself right as the blade passed through.
In an attempt to counter, Ren jumped back and brought his sword up and to send a hot slash of plasma. The beast rolled left from Ren and sent a cloud of dirt right as Ren sent the attack. With slight hit from its tail, Rens slash missed the beast and instead went in Itsuki's direction, who barely managed to dodge the attack.
'We're getting hammered here.' I grimaced. It hadn't been ten minutes and we were already pushing what we could take down.
With a few quick breaths, I summoned my Hardlight Shield and charged the beast. It wasn't expecting me to suddenly join the fight and it teleported away from me before appearing behind me. I twisted my body and used my shield to bash the beast across the face.
It snapped back but didn't break. I followed up with a second, and then a third. With each hit, it moved less, becoming like living stone.
When the fourth hit struck, its face barely budged.
It opened its maw and bit down on arm. It's teeth scraped against the metal of my shield as it twisted with my arm, trying to tear it off.
Not wanting to deal with the pain any longer, I charged the segments of the shield. The pieces came apart quickly, ripping the beast mouth open and breaking its jaw. It jumped back and teleported away. When it appeared again, it's jaw hung loosely from under its mouth, before twitching and snapping closed.
It began to step towards us but its claws became stuck, vines wrapping around them. As the beast struggled, more and more vines sprouted from the ground, bringing it to the ground. As it began to teleport away, I summoned my prisma shield and sent three tendrils of light forward. They wrapped around the head and legs of the beast, and prevented any portal from forming for it to escape.
"Alpha!" I heard. I looked over and saw Luna standing on the ridge of the crater. Next to her was a firing line of Militia soldiers. An array of rifles, machine guns, and even rocket launchers all aimed down at the pinned beast. Accompanying them were all of the heroes parties.
'Right on time.' I thought. "You three, get on the ridge, now!"
They did, realizing what was about to happen. I stepped back, but didn't let the tendrils fade. With a single command, I let loose one of the most powerful concentrated barrages Melromarc had seen in centuries.
"Open fire!" I yelled up to them.
What came next was truly spectacular.
A torrent of rifle fire, machine gun spray, and rockets were let loose upon the downed beast. Bullets cut through the vines and into the warp beast. Rockets blasted away whatever armor it had, temporarily exposing its core to the devastation that rained forth.
It only took a few seconds for me to any sense of clear hearing. The distinct sounds blurred together into heavy ringing. The dust kicked up from covered the entire beast and forced me to close my eyes.
The rifle fire must have carried on for almost a full minute. Not an incredibly long time, but to be subjected to that level of sound for so long was nothing short of excruciating. The only sign that it had ended was when the sharp ringing began to quiet.
When I opened my eyes, all I could see was the massive dust cloud kicked up from the explosions. The constructs from my Prisma Shield had disappeared at some point during the fire, but I doubt it would've made much warp beast struggles within the dust while red flashes appeared through the smoke.
I stumbled toward the warp beast, the constant blasts leaving me temporarily deaf and disoriented. When I swiped away the smoke a revealed the beast to be in a pitiful state. Its entire left side had been shredded apart. It's limbs were near non-existent while half its head was destroyed. Flowing from the breaks in its skin was a bright yellow liquid. The substance had an intense glow and seemed to resonate from the ground.
Its injuries tried to mend themselves closed but only snapped back open or fell apart.
'Leviathan?'
'Severe core damage. Regenerative and evolution abilities are trashed. If its core managed to mend itself it'll live but it fluid loss is anything to go by it'll die long before that. I estimate three minutes until repair itself.'
'Good.' I thought summoning my Gauss Shield. I put my foot on the lower jaw of the beast and opened its mouth with my free hand. I swung the Gauss Shield forward and shoved the barrel into its mouth.
The familiar whir of pulsing energy and lightning sounded from the gun and blue lightning began to jump between the barrels.
I had just walked past the dust cloud when I felt something heavy hit my stomach. Looking down, I could make out distorted images of light gray hair.
I asked "Luna, is that you?" She flinched and covered one of her ears.
'Whoops.'
"Luna, is that you?" I asked in a whispered voice, realizing that I had probably just yelled right into my girlfriend's ear. She nodded and I apologized.
She helped guide me back towards the ridge, still being disoriented. My hearing had returned but only just. The cheers bellowed from the Militia soldiers was almost as deafening as the gunfire.
'Leviathan. You getting anything?'
'Distorted fragments, but nothing more. Get a piece of its core for me.' He said.
"Luna, hold up." I said. We turned around and started making our way to the new crater.
The result had been nothing more than sheer destruction. New