Chap 148: Spinless
The deafening alarm reverberated through the walls, and Tee knew it was time for the mission. The dangerous, deadly kind involving the Harbingers. She fled her room.
The beeping had stopped, but the relentless red flashing from every light source felt like a thousand knives stabbing into their senses, dragging Miko, Zod, and Saeda back into memories they wished had stayed buried. Their last Harbinger mission surged up in vivid, sickening clarity as though they had been hurled back in time to the moment the red cloud consumed parts of their bodies.
Saeda’s memories were the sharpest. She took a quick gulp from the cup in her hand, but when she opened her eyes she was met with a swirling nightmare of crimson and black—almost a living reminder of the agony she endured when the red cloud devoured her leg below the knee. With a sharp gasp, she slammed the cup down so hard it shattered. No. She couldn’t face another hell like that.
Meanwhile, Miko inhaled sharply as she remembered the eerie scream in her head when the red cloud burned away her lashes and a speck of her nose. She clenched her jaw, bracing herself for phantom pain. Nothing came, and she gently lowered the tray she’d been carrying onto the table.
A sudden jolt shot through her fingers, freezing her in place. Her breaths turned heavy as dread clawed at her chest. What was that horrible feeling? Déjà vu—like she was starting to hate her own reality and wishing she could blink past the mission entirely.
Zod wasn’t spared either. The bloody gash where Kie’s neck had ended flashed in his mind with every pulse of red light. The nightmare clung to him, tightening its grip as he braced himself against the counter, gasping. He knew the danger ahead was going to be intense. Too intense.
No… Why couldn’t it be a low-level mission—just a Leak or even a Xenosapian? His desperate thoughts spiraled until the Commander’s voice chimed through a hologram, snapping him back to reality. The stern tone jolted all of them into focus. They wasted no time fleeing to the changing room. The fate of the world hung in the balance.
Kie, meanwhile, was almost eager. He wanted—no, needed—to see that Legion freak again. His Ultramana powers were improving. They had already taken down one Harbinger. It was long past time for another.
Tee wasn’t sure what to feel. Would she have to see that creepy sorcerer up close again? And why—why did she know him from before Primus? Flashbacks of the destruction at the park struck her with a painful jolt. She blinked long and hard, steadying herself as she stood in formation with her teammates, everyone back-to-back.
The Commander glanced at his Lieutenant and in an instant, the ground beneath them turned red as they teleported.
Pitch-black darkness swallowed them whole, a suffocatingly familiar void.
In the modern world, there was always some ambient light. But there… there, darkness felt like a physical thing. So thick she could slice it with a knife. Yet the steady, controlled breathing of her teammates and her sixth sense confirming nearby shapes grounded her. She wasn’t alone in this abyss.
Then, suddenly a faint green glow flickered to life, and every one of them summoned their sword.
The light grew, revealing their surroundings. A tunnel stretching endlessly into darkness in both directions.
Saeda broke the silence. “How do we find the Harbingers?”
She dismissed one sword and swept her hand through the air, searching. When nothing tugged at her senses, she let her arm fall limp with disappointment. Pulling off her glove, she pressed her palm to the ground—still nothing. Her teammates were too close. That had to be why her aura-sensing wasn’t working. She knew it.
“Does anyone have a plan?” Zod asked very pointedly, not directing the question at Kie.
When Kie didn’t answer, Saeda, Tee, and Miko all turned to him. The walls around them were beginning to glow faintly.
Miko opened her mouth to speak, but a tremor rippling beneath their feet shut her up instantly. The needle-like pricks stabbing at their skin were growing sharper by the second. They remembered that sensation all too well. Tremors meant trouble—serious trouble.
They tightened formation, backs pressed together, eyes sweeping both ends of the dark tunnel. Thoughts of the Harbingers crashed into all their minds like a warning.
Then, suddenly pink, fleshy throats lined with jagged green teeth burst from the walls around them, making their eyes widen in horror. The green snouts split open into three sections, releasing shrill, ear-splitting screams as squirming tongues shot out from between the teeth. Chills crawled down their spines.
Zod’s blade snapped up just in time, slicing the monster lunging at him clean in half. The two severed pieces slapped onto the ground and immediately began writhing. Now able to see clearly, he realized they were like giant weeds, and killing them wouldn’t be easy. He gritted his teeth.
The walls writhed with movement. The air filled with the wet, slick sounds of battle.
Miko moved fast, turning a massive mutated herb diving at her into perfectly sliced seasoning. The needles prickling at her scalp made her glance up. More monsters were dropping from above. She bent her knees and launched herself upward, sprinting along the tunnel wall, carving through creatures as she ran. Then she leaped across the open air, cutting down another wave falling from above.
Kie’s senses buzzed with anticipation, amplified by the monstrous shrieks echoing all around. The frantic dance of energy waves rippling off his swords was almost beautiful. With a swift flick of his blade, he fired a blast of energy that tore through several creatures at once. He wanted a Harbinger—not those spineless vines.
Bright light reflected off the walls, nearly blinding them. Tee realized that was why she couldn’t see the flame burning along Kie’s blades yet. She hurled one of her own swords like a spinning disc, slicing several pink mouths clean in half before stabbing two more forming from the wall. In that brief instant of stillness, she finally noticed the creatures’ lower halves—slithering vines instead of legs.
A rain of slimy green chunks splattered across them, making Saeda look up. Miko was still in the air, leaping between walls and cutting monsters to pieces.
Saeda forced herself to focus. She had to deal with the ones attacking from below. She slashed through the writhing heads with sharp, precise swings. But the sheer number of creatures spilling from every wall was suffocating. She couldn’t help blurting out.
“They’re coming from everywhere!”
Worse, the creatures’ lack of eyes was deeply unsettling. The increasing brightness of the walls didn’t affect them at all. Zod knew they couldn’t waste any more time on those things if they hoped to reach the Harbingers. He dismissed one sword and inhaled slowly, feeling his energy gather and thrum within him.
Clenching his fist, a vibrant blue light flared from it as he aimed at the cluster of mouths forming along the wall. Sensing the danger building, he shouted, “Duck!”—a warning sharp enough to snap everyone to attention.
Miko reacted instantly, vaulting off the ground, her senses sharpening. Saeda, Kie, and Tee all widened their eyes and instinctively crouched low toward the brightly lit floor.
Zod exhaled hard and spun, his fists flinging outward as he unleashed a massive wave of blue energy. The force and speed of the blast ripped through the writhing creatures, cleaving their upper halves apart and carving deep grooves into the tunnel walls.
Plant matter rained down on Saeda, Kie, and Tee, scattering across the ground as they stared upward in awe and disbelief. But their shock didn’t last because new mouths were bubbling up from the ground beneath them.
A single exasperated exclamation burst from their lips.
“Crap!”
Zod, still caught in the momentum of his spin, snapped his eyes wide at the sense of something slithering toward his left leg. He held his breath, halting his blast, and looked down just in time to stomp on an open snout ready to snap at his bone.
The lingering threat of Zod’s formidable energy beam vanished. Reacting with urgency, Saeda and Tee launched themselves off the ground, narrowly avoiding the snapping jaws lunging for their faces.
With a graceful backflip, Tee executed a swift kick, her metal-spiked boots connecting with a creature lurking behind her. Mid-flip, she summoned two swords, plunging their gleaming blades into the ground—one piercing the jaw of a monster forming from the earth.
Still mid-air, she recovered the swords and landed deftly on her feet. With a flick of her wrists, she sent the blades spinning like deadly discs, slicing through the slithering, oversized plants creeping along one side of the tunnel.
In the span of a second, the walls pulsed with blinding brilliance. A sudden jolt beneath her boot warned of a lurking threat rising from below. How dare it!
Without hesitation, she slammed her spiked boot down on the creature’s snout, issuing a silent command for its destruction. The snout retracted swiftly, vanishing back into the earth, leaving a deep crater as a testament to her power.
The seismic tremor that rippled through the ground shook them all, but there was no time to stop. They had to keep fighting.
Panic seized Zod. A sudden realization hit him—as he spun in place, sharp snouts were erupting from the ground all around him. His frantic mind failed to summon a sword in time. Instinctively, he raised his other foot to stomp down on a creature. But to his surprise, a powerful surge of energy erupted from it.
The unexpected blast obliterated the creature that had ensnared him from below. Yet the force of the explosion sent him careening backward, throwing off his balance.
As he fell, his body collided with another monstrosity, its sinewy appendages coiling tightly around him in a suffocating grip. The creature’s gaping maw opened wide, poised to snap off his head.
With his arms pinned by its vice-like grip, Zod’s only recourse was to strike with his feet. Each kick became a conduit for destructive energy, unleashing blasts that tore through the charging monsters with devastating ferocity.
Saeda, caught in the chaos, narrowly dodged the streaking energy blasts from behind. Amidst her relentless assault, her eyes caught Zod trapped in the creature’s coils, perilously close to losing his head to its ravenous jaws.
Reacting instantly, she summoned a radiant, four-foot-long blade, its blue glow casting light across the battlefield. She sent it spinning with precision, slicing the creature’s head from its body in one fluid, decisive motion. Yet even with the beast decapitated, Zod remained entangled, struggling in its lingering grip. With sheer determination, he exerted every ounce of strength to free himself.
Regaining his freedom, Zod’s gaze swept over the battlefield. His eyes widened in disbelief at the endless wave of monsters surging from the ground—a chilling reminder of the relentless threat they faced.
He launched into action, delivering rapid, powerful kicks that sent radiant energy blasting into the emerging creatures. Kie, Miko, and Tee watched closely, their resolve strengthening as they observed Zod’s newfound technique in action.
Kie gathered his energy, preparing to unleash a colossal wave of power. With fierce determination, he sent a wide surge of energy ripping through the tunnel, obliterating every monster in its path and reducing them to nothingness.
In that pivotal moment, Kie’s sharp gaze noticed that the far end of the tunnel remained shrouded in darkness. A realization struck him. No monsters lurked in that unilluminated section. The strange glow from the walls around them stirred his curiosity, prompting him to wonder at its mysterious significance.
Miko leapt gracefully from the tunnel’s upper walls, moving in a blur as she sliced through the monstrous adversaries with incredible speed. Her momentum faltered, however, when she encountered a macabre sight—a skull fused into one of the plant-based creatures. Her sword shattered the hardened matter, confirming its bone-like structure. A queasy unease churned in her stomach, compelling her to descend to the ground alongside her teammates.
She landed with utmost grace, knees bending to absorb the impact, her eyes locking on Zod as he sent energy blasts flying from his feet. Witnessing his new technique brought a spark of amusement, lifting her spirits and prompting her to rise quickly to her feet once more.