Big Guts and Bigger Guns

“Everyone ready?” John asked, looking to his allies. Abigail pounded her fist into her hand, an eager smile on her face. Bubbles floated up from Mandruzzo’s palms, floating inside of his jacket to act as an extra layer of armor. Hexagons appeared in the whites of Elizabeth’s eyes, surrounding the edges and slowly multiplying inwards toward amber pupils; more and more electricity sparked from her fingertips as she pulled on fingerless gloves. Her outfit was similar to what she had worn during the trials, a leather jacket with a white undershirt and jean shorts.

As they entered the barrier, the forest around them shifted into a plain, the trees disappearing and the grass rising a few inches. A beaten dirt path was beneath their feet, red and blue wildflowers dotting the landscape. A gentle breeze rolled from the direction opposite them, carrying the scent of something rotten burning.

“Only one way forward, yes?” Mandruzzo commented, gesturing to the path that stretched out in front of them.

“Guess we’re travelling the beaten path,” John said, taking a sheet of the mask’s tattoo paper and showing it to Elizabeth. “I have to put this on you. It’ll let you recognize me.”

“Weird but okay,” Elizabeth said, lifting the back of her shirt and allowing him to put it in the middle of her back where it would be out of sight. “What’s the plan?”

John took the mask off his belt buckle and unfolded it, putting it on. It automagically glamoured into a stubble across his chin and cheeks. “Let’s move. I’ll take point. Elizabeth, you’re on the left. Stay closer to me. Mandruzzo, you’re on the right. Stay closer to Abigail. Abigail, bring up the rear.”

He heard three distinct snickers to his last remark, but when he looked back at his party, they all looked into the distance, Abigail even beginning to whistle innocently. Shaking his head, he pressed the party onwards, following the dirt path into the horizon.

After the first few minutes, Elizabeth took out her phone and began playing music for them. It put a spring in the party’s step, and made the seemingly endless path much less daunting.

Twenty minutes later, John swept the horizon once again with Symphony of the Night enhancing his vision, and saw a small bridge in the distance. As they drew closer, a deep chasm revealed itself below the bridge.

Discordance blared in John’s head, and he glanced around wildly, catching sight of two black specks rocketing down toward them from the sky. They contrasted against the strong sun overhead. As they neared, John saw that their slim, scaled black bodies had a light gray underbelly. Razor sharp teeth stuck out in a deep underbite, pupils a sliver in their parchment colored eyes.

“Mandruzzo, bubble shield, now!” their de-facto leader ordered, spreading his hands apart and creating a thick, reinforced slab out of Mana Construct which the first creature crashed into, bouncing off it and scrambling away low to the ground on four legs. Up close, its black scales were iridescent like oil in the afternoon sun.

A swarm of bubbles flew out of Mandruzzo’s coat, circling them in a dome shape. The other creature opened its mouth and billowed flame onto the bubbles, which absorbed the fire inside of themselves, inflating and popping in a violent explosion when it crashed into their shield. John took the opportunity to use Advanced Spy on it.

The lizards regrouped, great membranous wings kicking up far too much wind as they soared high again. As they rose, Assess Threat made their underbellies glimmer a faint pink, and John shot a barrage of bullets into the nearer one. It shrieked in pain, changing course to barrel toward him. As it did, he noticed the area where its wing connected to its body held the same glow.

“Abigail, you’re with me. Mandruzzo, Elizabeth, you two take the higher one. Its weak points are its underbelly and where the wings meet the torso,” John said, backpedaling toward his partner. “Abigail, I’m gonna launch you into the air. Take out its left wing, I’ll go for the right. Attack where it connects to the body.”

“You got it!” She stepped into his interlocked hands, and he activated Mind Over Matter to boost his throwing strength, launching her high into the air. Flames burst out of her palms as she rose, and he used Move on her torso to carry her higher.

Taking a running start, he leapt into the sky, Jumping off the solid pocket of air his boots granted and appearing beside Abigail, just above the confused creature.

He drew Ebony and activated Armor Piercer for two grit points, channeling Mana Construct through it and firing an arcane bullet the size of a dinner plate through the creature’s tendons, ripping its wing clean off.

Abigail, not to be outdone, propelled herself toward the beast with flame. Taking its wing in one hand, her body slowly turned to flame from the bottom up. Then, the vague humanoid outline of flame rushed up her still-flesh arm into her free hand, exploding onto the creature’s weak point. The explosion and **** thereof propelled her away from the beast, singing the scales around where its wing used to be, taking what remained of the limb with her.

“How do you want to-” Mandruzzo began, but Elizabeth zipped up into the air without so much as a glance his way.

“Follow my lead.” She appeared above the beast in a flash of lightning, and lashed out with a closed-hand eagle strike. A giant static claw projected out of her hand, though it was mostly absorbed by the beast’s scales. Nonetheless, the impact of the attack carried it downwards.

Mandruzzo sprayed bubbles upwards into the air in rough diagonal columns, then applied some to his new boots. Jumping up, he skated on his bubbles into their new battlefield, leaping from bubble to bubble as though they were solid. The chasm diver, reorienting itself with its wings, fired a burst of flame toward him. Clapping his hands together, he brought the bubbles he had skated up on in front of himself as a shield, absorbing the fire and encasing the creature in them. Some slipped past, overwhelming his bubble defense and burning his hands.

Noticing what John and Abigail had done, he rearranged them around the creature with a twirl of his fingers, surrounding the creature’s wings with them. An explosion stronger than that which repelled it before tore at the muscle, and it was **** to join its companion on the ground.

John nudged himself toward Abigail with Move, and she held him in her arms, slowing their descent with a gout of flames from each foot. Her charming smile dazzled him, and he blushed a little as she put him down.

“Now we go for the underbelly. Your explosions are strong, but it resists fire. Think you can hold it down for me to get a good attack in?” John asked, Cinder appearing behind him and placing a healing flame on Mandruzzo.

“Watch me.” Abigail smirked, arcs of flame racing across her skin as she dug her heels into the ground.

I believe I may be of assistance, John. We can cage the creature with the fire trails I enchant your bullets with, Cinder explained, floating behind John and forming her thumb and index finger into a pistol.

Excellent! Stay with me, John replied, sprinting toward the creature and leaping onto its head. It reared back to sink its teeth into him, and he Jumped off it, the creature confusedly snapping repeatedly at his Afterimage. Appearing in a square around it, John harassed the beast with shots from his pistols, lingering trails of flame hanging in the air from the point of fire to the point of impact. It stomped around its small, fiery cage, recoiling with pain and backing up whenever it bumped a lingering trail. Within seconds, its only path was forward, toward Abigail with her arms outstretched.

Abigail’s aura rolled out in waves around her as she absorbed more and more of her own flames, biceps bulging as she stared the beast down. John booked it toward her, the chasm diver snapping at his heels as he retreated. He slid between her legs, and the creature snapped at her torso, its head going through it and her fiery body trapping it therein. Its forelegs scrambled for purchase against her, and she grasped each in her own hands, the razor-sharp claws sinking into the fire of her flesh and leaving it to struggle as though embedded in steel.

Stepping back, she put all her strength into a kick to its chin, sending it a couple feet into the air and exposing it completely to John and Cinder. Drawing both of his guns, John charged a Mana Bolt through each, firing the pulse into its weak underbelly. The lustrous blue beams encircled by angry, orange fire pierced the creature clean through, and it died with its limbs scrabbling at the air, letting out a high-pitched shriek.

Meanwhile, Mandruzzo had his prey trapped, and Elizabeth fed more and more lightning into the bubbles surrounding it until, despite its massive armor, the sheer power of their attack felled it. “Mangia merde e morte!”

Looking at the health and mana bars of his party, John noted that while he and Abigail had hardly used half their mana (and Abigail had lost some health in her subduing, which healed before his eyes thanks to Cinder), Mandruzzo was at a third of his, and Elizabeth was almost tapped out completely.

“Are you two alright?” John asked, approaching the duo at a slow jog. Abigail followed close behind, leaning on him a little to catch her breath as Cinder healed her.

“Just fine, though I sense a distinct lack of cooperation,” Mandruzzo spat, glancing sidelong at Elizabeth.

“I told you to follow my lead! You just did whatever you wanted!” Elizabeth shot back, the hollow hexagons in her eyes duplicating and growing smaller as she glared daggers at him.

“A fanabla! You charged in without a plan and gave no instruction! If not for me, this thing would still be alive.” Mandruzzo kicked the corpse with his foot, and it let out a gurgle as its mouth opened and blood spilled out. He jumped back at this, and Elizabeth guffawed, undeterred.

“Both of you, that's enough,” John said, stepping between them, “we have two more of these things to kill. Mandruzzo, you’ll stick with me for the next one. Abigail, fight with Elizabeth.” He sighed as he took the mask off to wipe his face before replacing it. If it was just me and Abigail, we could take two of these things out no problem.

“Ready to go?” John asked, taking water bottles out of his inventory and tossing them to his friends before taking one out for himself. He drained it in only a few seconds, trashing the empty bottle. Mandruzzo and Elizabeth stowed theirs away, and Abigail gave hers back to be returned to his inventory. He put it in the bottom left corner, so as to not confuse it with the others.

The group moved slowly across the bridge, each looking out onto the bright landscape for any signs of an enemy. When they were halfway across, Discordance started going off. Figuring the horizontal line was clear thanks to his allies, he activated Reflex Mode looking first up, then down. His eyes widened as even in his heightened state, the bricks beneath him quickly crumbled. He looked to his allies, unable to grab all of them and ready to help whoever struggled.

Mandruzzo shot bubbles beneath himself, landing on them and skating back up to the other side with little effort.

Elizabeth merely had to orient herself upwards, and she zipped out of the hole, none the worse for wear.

Abigail could do limited flight, but momentum was against her. She began to slow her descent, hovering toward the wall.

John, still in Reflex Mode, leapt off the falling bricks, picking up Abigail on her way down, and with a final Jump he safely made it to the other side.

“Paid you back.” John grinned down at her, and she stuck her tongue out at him before jumping out of his arms.

“What did that?” Abigail asked, and her question was answered by two earthy brown claws grasping the side of the cliff. Two lizards, similar in shape to the others but wingless and the same brown as the rocks, climbed out of the hole after them, licking their chops.

John used Advanced Spy on the beasts, noticing that Assess Threat highlighted their tails and claws.

John shot a torrent of bullets between the two beasts, the lingering flames effectively separating them between the two pairs of warriors. “Its weak points are the base of the tail and the claws.”

“What’s the plan?” Mandruzzo asked, bubbles floating off his palms as he looked to John with confidence.

“Can you freeze your bubbles solid? Do you have enough mana left to carry you through this fight?” John called, running forward and Jumping in front of the climber several times, confusing it with his lingering images.

“Of course! What shall I do?” Mandruzzo asked, the bubbles he produced and those in the air turning a darker blue as he called ice into them.

“We’re going to trap it first!” John performed the same trick he had with the last, Jumping around it and trapping it in a prison of fiery orange bars. Much to his shock, however, this one simply ignored the pain and trudged on through the flames.

“What’re we going to do?” Abigail asked, looking to Elizabeth. Elizabeth looked from her, to the beast, then back to her.

“I don’t know!” she squeaked, zipping behind Abigail. Abigail patted her on the shoulder before stepping between her and the charging behemoth. It snapped at the brawler, who phased through the attack before using the climber’s own momentum against it, turning on her feet and delivering a roundhouse kick to its left eye.

It howled in pain and retreated, and Elizabeth, emboldened by its retreat and partially recovered, pointed a single finger at it and sent a stinger of lightning toward its other eye, effectively blinding it.

“What now?” Mandruzzo asked, as the beast swiped away his bubbles. John watched its health tick down, but it wasn’t enough.

“Make those frozen bubbles around its claws and destroy them! I’ll take the tail.” John Jumped in front of it again, distracting it with an uncharged Mana Bolt to the face. It snapped at his afterimage, and he kicked off the ground, bouncing off his boot’s air pocket and using it to bring his foot down on the creature’s nose, still bolstered by Mind Over Matter.

It roared in pain, and then collapsed to the ground as its claws were ensnared in large bubbles, frozen solid and shattering the ice and the flesh therein, crippling it.

It squirmed around on the ground, and John charged a Fist with five hundred mana, bringing it down on the spot where the creature’s tail connected to its hindquarters. He rained blows on the same spot, each successive hit making the creature wail louder and louder until its hindquarters exploded into blood and guts, going silent in a crimson pool of its own blood.

Elizabeth and Abigail had begun to fight in sync, dealing identical blows on either side of their opponent. It swept through both of them with its tail, but met naught but lightning and flame.

Together, they delivered a swift kick to its forelegs, shattering the bones in its claws. It snapped at Abigail, but this too was met by flame. Bellowing a ferocious roar, exhaled a stream of stones that Elizabeth dodged. Grasping the battery around her neck, she drew all of its power out and discharged it all at once into its tail, thankful she had heeded John’s words when it slumped over, defeated.

The first to break the post-battle silence was Mandruzzo,