NOVEL NEXT Chapter 100 - Crossfire
"Alright, listen up," Luca said, putting on his best 'fearless leader' voice even though his stomach was doing backflips. "Danny, you're our tank. Use [Taunt] to draw its attention when we're all in position."
Danny smacked his Warhammer against his palm with a wet thunk, his face lighting up like he'd just been handed the keys to a candy store, "Oh, I am so ready for this."
"Zoe, your cloaking's back online?"
A quick thumbs-up, and the shimmer around her flickered like heat waves off summer pavement. "Ghost Protocol's working again."
Great. She gets to play ninja while I'm stuck playing target practice.
"Good. You'll flank it, hit it from behind when the shield drops." He turned to Ryan, who was already fiddling with something on his belt. "You'll prep the EMP grenade. When Danny has its attention, throw it directly at the shield."
"And you?" Ryan asked, securing the device with hands that were steadier than Luca felt.
Plasma blaster in hand, Luca checked the charge. Still at 70%. Should be enough. Has to be enough. "I'm going to get to Emily's position. We'll coordinate the attack from both sides and catch it in a crossfire."
It was a stupidly simple plan. But hell, sometimes the dumbest ideas were the ones that actually worked.
"Try not to die, yeah?" Zoe said, giving his shoulder a light punch. "I'd hate to have to explain that to your dad."
"Wasn't planning on it." [Silent Step] activated with that familiar sensation of perfect silence wrapping around him. With a quick nod to the others, he slipped away down the corridor.
The monster had absolutely trashed this deck. Collapsed corridors and exposed wiring sparked and hissed, turning what used to be a straight shot into a damn obstacle course. Twice, he had to squeeze through gaps barely wider than his shoulders, going on pure instinct and a lot of luck. At a sealed bulkhead, his [System Bypass] kicked in, the security lockout melting away with minimal fuss.
Okay, maybe I'm getting the hang of this ninja thing.
Through the walls, he could feel the Champion moving. A massive pressure disturbance that made his teeth ache, circling back toward Emily's position like a shark that had caught the scent of blood. The plasma fire was drawing it back. He had to move faster.
One final turn brought him to the edge of their location: a large room that used to be firing ranges and test chambers. Now it looked like a bomb had gone off. And there, scattered among the ruins like survivors of a particularly brutal paintball match, were three familiar figures.
Emily, crouched behind an overturned testing bench with twin blasters ready. Joey, slapping a med-patch onto a gash in his own leg like it was no big deal. And Chris, back against a pillar, assault rifle aimed at the main entrance with the kind of focus that meant business.
"Luca!" Emily's relief hit him harder than that tentacle had.
Don't puke. Do not puke in front of the girl.
She looked good, even battered and covered in grime. His brain, with absolutely perfect timing, chose this moment for a rush of blood to places that weren't his head. Great. Really helpful right now.
"Cavalry's here," he said, sliding into cover beside her and trying to discreetly deal with the wedgie his suit had acquired. "Ryan, Danny, and Zoe are setting up an ambush. We've got a plan to take this thing down."
Quick rundown of the strategy. Chris and Joey nodded along like they actually trusted him. Emily's eyes narrowed in that way that meant she was already three steps ahead, calculating angles and timing. "It's coming back around," she warned. "Gets more pissed off each time."
"Then we change the game," Luca said, checking the time. Thirty seconds until the others would be in position. His heart was hammering against his ribs like it was trying to escape. "Chris, on my mark, hit the north entrance with suppressing fire. Joey, cover the west. Emily and I will—"
The ceiling exploded inward.
Debris rained down as the Nullmaw crashed through from the ceiling, tentacles lashing out in all directions. Its shield flickered with blue energy, brighter than before, almost pulsing with raw power. The metallic spikes on its limbs had grown longer, more numerous, gleaming like freshly forged daggers.
"Down!" Luca shouted, shoving Emily aside as a spike-covered tentacle smashed into the spot where they'd been standing. The impact shattered the metal floor, sending sparks fountaining outward.
Chris opened fire immediately, his assault rifle on full auto. Plasma bolts hammered into the shield, creating ripples but failing to penetrate. Joey dragged himself behind a weapons locker, firing one-handed while clutching his injured leg.
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"We need to get to the others!" Emily called over the chaos, her twin blasters spitting bolts at the thing.
The Champion surged forward, its mass flowing like liquid darkness. Tentacles whipped through the air, smashing equipment and punching holes through walls. One massive limb swept across the floor, catching Joey's injured leg and dragging him from cover.
"Joey!" Luca fired repeatedly at the tentacle, but the shield absorbed every impact.
The Champion's attack pattern had shifted. Rather than trying to crush them, it was now grabbing, seeking to isolate. A tentacle snaked around Chris's waist, lifting him momentarily before he managed to slash it with his plasma knife, dropping back to the ground with a heavy thud.
"The others should be in position!" Luca shouted to Emily. "We need to move!"
She nodded, laying down covering fire as they backed toward the north exit. But the Champion was too fast. A tentacle shot between them, then another, cutting them off from each other. He dove left as Emily rolled right, ending up on opposite sides of the room.
"Emily!" he called out, just as a massive tentacle wrapped around her waist, yanking her into the air.
Horror froze the blood in his veins. The Champion lifted her toward its central mass, where a maw lined with metallic teeth gaped open. Emily struggled, firing her blasters point-blank into the shield, but the barrier held firm. Her injured arm was pinned against her side, her face contorted with pain and determination.
Time seemed to slow. His [Reflex Shot] ability activated automatically, the world crystallizing into a moment of perfect, terrible clarity. He saw everything at once: the angle of the tentacle, the trajectory of Emily's ascent, and the exposed, sparking junction box on the wall directly behind the Champion.
His body moved without conscious thought, his finger squeezing the trigger before his brain could even form the command.
The plasma bolt streaked across the room. It missed the Champion entirely, slamming directly into the junction box.
Electrical systems ruptured in a shower of blue-white sparks that cascaded over the Champion's shield. The creature convulsed as raw electricity danced across its barrier, the field sputtering and momentarily disrupting.
Emily dropped from its grasp, rolling hard as she hit the ground. The Champion shrieked, a sound that vibrated through Luca's bones rather than reaching his ears.
"Now!" he shouted into his comms, the word tearing from his throat. "Danny, go!"
The north wall shattered as Danny burst through, his Warhammer raised high. He activated [Taunt] as he roared, slamming the weapon into the creature's exposed mass. The energy pulse rippled outward, washing over the Champion in a wave of force. The creature's attention snapped toward him, its tentacles writhing with what looked like pure hate.
***
"Over here, you overgrown calamari!" Danny taunted, his armor's external speakers amplifying his voice to painful levels. "Come and get some!"
From the broken ceiling, Zoe appeared, her cloaking dissolving as she dropped directly onto the Champion's back, plasma dagger in hand. She drove the blade against the shield repeatedly, aiming for the same spot over and over.
"The shield's fluctuating!" she called out. "Keep hitting it!"
Ryan slid into the room from a side entrance, his EMP grenade primed. "Fire in the hole!" he yelled, hurling the device directly at the Champion's central mass.
The grenade connected with the shield and detonated in a pulse of brilliant blue energy. For a split second, nothing happened. Then the blue barrier flickered and collapsed inward, the disruption spreading across its surface like cracks in glass.
"The shield's down!" Ryan shouted, immediately unleashing a blast from his shotgun at the now-exposed flesh.
Chris's assault rifle roared to life, plasma rounds tearing into the creature's body. "Eat this, you bastard!" he yelled, activating his [Power Surge] ability. The weapon's output doubled, white-hot plasma cutting deep furrows in the Champion's hide.
The creature thrashed wildly, its tentacles smashing into walls and floor. One caught Danny square in the chest, sending him crashing back through the hole he'd made, but he was up again in an instant, charging forward with his Warhammer raised high.
"There!" Emily shouted, pointing to the Champion's throat where a glowing red core pulsed beneath its armored hide. "Its weak point!"
Luca's [Weak Point Focus] ability activated instantly. His HUD highlighted the core in painstaking detail, displaying structural weaknesses and optimal firing angles. The skill enhanced his damage against weakened targets, and with its shield down, the Champion definitely qualified.
He steadied his plasma blaster, taking a deep breath as he lined up the shot. Time seemed to stretch, the world narrowing to just him, his weapon, and that single, glowing red target.
"Goodbye, ugly," he murmured, and squeezed the trigger.
The plasma bolt streaked across the room, a perfect line of blue-white energy that punched through the Champion's throat and directly into the core. For a heartbeat, nothing happened. Then the core pulsed once, twice, before erupting in a blinding flash of crimson light.
The Champion's body convulsed violently, tentacles thrashing with decreasing coordination. Its central mass bulged and contracted as internal systems failed catastrophically. With a final, silent spasm, the creature collapsed, its limbs twitching briefly before going still.
Silence fell over the ruined chamber. They stood frozen, weapons still raised, half-expecting the thing to rise again. But it remained motionless, black ichor pooling beneath its massive form.
"Is it..." Joey began.
"Dead," Luca confirmed, his Situational Awareness detecting no life signs from the carcass. "Really dead."
Emily limped to his side, her good arm sliding around his waist. "Nice shot, Captain."
Luca grinned despite my exhaustion, wrapping his own arm around hers. "Couldn't let it eat my first mate, could I?"
Danny approached the fallen Champion, prodding it with his Warhammer. "This thing would've wiped the floor with us individually."
"Good thing we're a team, then," Ryan said, already scavenging through the debris for anything useful.
Luca leaned against Emily, allowing himself a moment to catch his breath. His muscles ached, his ribs screamed with every movement, but they were alive. All of them. And with the Champion defeated, they could finally continue their mission deeper into the battleship.
Zoe nudged the creature's remains with her boot. "Let's just hope there aren't more of these things waiting for us."
"Don't jinx it," Luca muttered, but he couldn't keep the smile from his face.
[+77,143 XP]
[+27,000 credits]
[Skill level up! Silent Takedowns Level 0 --> Level 1]
[Skill level up! System Override Level 0 --> Level 1]
[Skill level up! Data Breach Level 0 --> Level 1]
[Skill level up! Adaptive Exploits Level 0 --> Level 1]
[Skill level up! Execution Protocol Level 0 --> Level 1]