“Keep firing!” Kyle shouted, adrenaline coursing through him as the ranged chaddlings bombarded the smoldering body inside the cloud of dust.  Parasitic Resonance was connected, and Kyle was doing his best to fight against the natural regeneration that the fungus provided Reynolds.  He swore as he met fierce resistance, unable to damage the fungus faster than it could regrow.

His only saving grace was that the monstrosity was knocked flat to the ground by the final hit of Skippy’s combination attack, which gave Kyle a window of relative safety.  While focusing his Willpower on Parasitic Resonance took most of his effort, he still released blasts of Repel toward the monster’s legs to keep it off-balance.

C.H.A.D.D. flashed a warning, at the same moment Kyle felt a surge of mana from Tillienne, high above their heads.  A pillar of crimson light slashed through the dust as her battleaxe descended, the effect undoubtedly from a skill he’d never seen before.  Reynolds roared as the blade of energy bit deeply into the wound Skippy left behind, crimson light bathing the crater in crackling energy.

Reynolds lashed out in retaliation, one of his whirring blades narrowly missing Tillienne.  He swung for her again, but his position on the ground made the blows awkward and telegraphed.  The wings of mana on her back gave her incredible maneuverability, dodging the attacks as she tried to gain more distance.  Unfortunately, Reynolds had other methods of attack.

Kyle swore again as mana flowed through Reynolds’ body.  Hundreds of spear-like barbs shot out from his legs and the mushroom crown, Parasitic Resonance only being strong enough to stop about half of the number.  Tillienne blocked what she could, though deep cuts opened up as the attack struck, with one of the spears piercing through her left shin entirely.

She flew toward him, and Kyle connected with a tendril of Parasitic Resonance before activating Healing Impetus.  He focused the energy around her cuts as he grabbed the still-embedded spear.  “This is going to hurt.”

She nodded, and he pulled it free, immediately pushing Healing Impetus in behind the wound.  The bleeding stopped, and the flesh around it re-knit, but Kyle knew that the leg was still weak.  While his skill was a genuine life-saver, mending larger punctures like that would take time and care to ensure they healed properly.

What is it with C Grades and area attacks?  Kyle wondered as he wrapped the wound, thinking back to the hodags.  Skills like the quick bursts of sharp fur or the fungal spears appeared to be fairly common, and he realized that he didn’t have a lot of great answers.  Even if the ones he’d seen weren’t particularly dangerous to him, he’d need to start taking precautions.

A note of concern from C.H.A.D.D. turned his attention back to Reynolds, who was tearing through the remaining melee chaddlings as he regained his footing.  An angry scarlet scar split Reynolds torso, with wriggling threads of fungal flesh trying to sew it back together.  The ranged chaddlings made a valiant effort continuing their bombardment, and the remnant energies from Tillienne’s attack hampered the regeneration further.  This was an opportunity, and they’d have to take it.

“If I get you an opportunity, can you use that attack again?” Kyle asked.

“I can use it two or three more times.  But Kyle, you can’t seriously expect to fight that thing head on,” she protested.

“We don’t have a choice,” Kyle snarled, pushing Ignition further.  Crimson energy bathed the area around him, and he turned to Tillienne.  “Find a window, and put this thing down.”

Before she could argue, he activated Healing Impetus on himself to prime his cells for healing.  With a quick channeling of Adaptive Regeneration, he charged in.  Just as the last melee chaddling was slashed apart, Kyle joined the fray.  A blast of Repel caught Reynolds mid-scream, drawing the monstrosity’s ire.

Synaptic Barbs warned him of a spinning blade coming in from the rear, threatening to pierce him from behind.  Reflexive Evasion took over, and Kyle sidestepped the slash, then dodged the follow-up cut from the other side of the twin blade which aimed to carve him vertically.  Parasitic Resonance still fought to gain ground against Reynolds, the C Grade energy resisting his attempts to destroy the abomination from the inside.  Identify showed him that Kyle’s Willpower was higher, but the qualitative difference in the mana couldn’t be ignored.

He snarled as he ducked under a horizontal slash from one of the blades, then pressed his left palm into the arm and activated his modified Repel, sending a rippling shockwave up the grotesque appendage and interrupting the follow-up slash.  The other arm swung around in a sweeping blow, and Kyle jumped into the air to avoid it, already anticipating Reynolds’ next move.

As expected, a spray of fungal spears exploded out from the mutated monster.  Rather than impaling Kyle, however, most bounced ineffectually off of his skin, with only a few able to pierce deep enough to draw blood.  The force of the attack pushed him back slightly, and a quick use of Repel while he was midair allowed him to reposition to relative safety, avoiding another whirring chop from the spinning blades.

Unfortunately, the reposition cost him a bit of the pressure he was putting on the C Grade, and with a spin its other arm extended, the buzzsaw blade catching both of the ranged chaddlings and splintering them when they stood.  At the same moment, a scarlet arrow flashed across the battlefield, piercing through Reynolds’ torso like a bullet.

It was Tillienne, using the same skill as before, this time using her lance as the medium.  A neat hole had been opened next to the slowly-mending scar from her original attack, and Kyle closed in, blasting the wound with a full-force Repel.  The damaged torso rocked back, as the slash widened once again, though Kyle could still see the monster’s overwhelming Vitality at work.

His mana reserves were beginning to get low, and without another choice, he absorbed a trickle of energy with Parasitic Resonance.  He gritted his teeth, expecting a reaction from the Core of the Parasitic Devourer.  Kyle was close to reaching the much-anticipated 100%, and if his experience with the hodags and shrike matriarch were any indication, he should be close to gaining the last few percent through his connection to the C Grade.  To his surprise, nothing happened as the powerful energy circulated through his mana network and recharged him.

A faint feeling of disgust and rejection came through Pack Leader’s Instinct, surprising him.  Maybe the core isn’t as much of a glutton as I thought, Kyle mused, pushing the thoughts away.  He was still in danger, and time was running out.

With his attention wholly focused on the abomination before him, Kyle dodged attack after attack as he considered their options.  With the ranged chaddlings no longer providing a constant bombardment, the major wounds on Reynolds’ body were knitting together more quickly.  He doubted the C Grade had enough energy to fully recover, but it still had plenty of fight left in it.

Tillienne’s aura felt a bit more unstable after her last attack, and Skippy would be out of commission for a while.  At best, he could hope for one more strike from the fae woman.  His own attacks had limited effect, and until Parasitic Resonance had ramped enough to fully offset the regeneration, he didn’t want her wasting it.

The biggest problem is the blades, Kyle thought, avoiding the sweeping slashes.  Even with his incredible resilience, taking a hit head-on without Storm Shelter would be dangerous.  He remembered some of Frank’s old lessons, an expression called “defanging the snake.”  If he could neutralize the weapon attacks, he could focus more of his efforts on Parasitic Resonance.

An idea crystallized, and before C.H.A.D.D. could protest, Kyle jumped close to the opened hole in Reynolds’ body, pressing his palm into the injury and activating a modified Repel.  This widened the injury further, though it left Kyle open to attacks from both sides.  He could feel the mana gathering as Reynolds released another spray of fungal spears, while spinning blades approached him from above and below.

At the last possible moment, Kyle activated Storm Shelter, shaping the skill to slightly enter the open space of the hole before snapping fully into formation.  This cost the skill some durability, though it caused even more damage on top of the massive injury as it forced the wound open even more.  The spears blasted Kyle’s barrier, and the whirring blades slammed into it from each side, leaving huge cracks.  As he did against Skippy, fungal roots sprang out of the grotesque hands holding the blades, surrounding the spherical barrier and tightening around it, threatening to crush both Storm Shelter and the Survivalist within.

[THAT WAS A PROFOUNDLY FOOLISH IDEA, DR. MAYHEW.]

Kyle ignored C.H.A.D.D., instead focusing his attention inward.  Against the mechs, he’d needed Storm Shelter to do more than it ever had before.  Even as a training exercise, it was do or die.  When he was fighting the first C Grade hodag, he’d needed to create an opening, and an empowered Repel was what he needed to make that happen.  Finally, against the mutated hodag, on the edge of life and death, he’d needed more power, and Heart of Creation answered his call by empowering Ignition.

A lattice of sundew-covered bamboo appeared around him, concentrated acids interposed between him and the crushing fungal tendrils.  Kyle ignored them, continuing to reflect on Heart of Creation.  It had been at the corner of his consciousness, but was never something he’d been able to intentionally activate before.  It simply came into play in the moments he needed it most, empowering him to create the future he wanted – the future he needed.

Kyle felt a surge of power from behind Reynolds, and could barely make out a scarlet flash from Tillienne’s final strike.  It was time.

Kyle released his hold on the already-cracking Storm Shelter, using a quick Repel to blast the bamboo lattice outward, where it melted the fungal roots with sizzling and popping.  At the same time, he felt something in his center click as Parasitic Resonance was flooded with power.  The normally invisible tendrils of the skill glowed with silver-white light, and Kyle pushed.

The mana that Reynolds was gathering to launch a volley of fungal spears at Tillienne was stopped entirely in its tracks, Kyle’s Willpower proving dominant.  Already, he could feel the skill beginning to destabilize under the strain of Heart of Creation, and with a roar, he focused his power on the already damaged areas.

His mana poured into Reynolds, binding to every aspect of his mana network.  The vision of Zierlan’s abominations flashed in his mind, and the Core of the Parasitic Devourer answered in response.  All of Reynolds’ mana was compressed into a single spot.  With a snarl, Kyle focused his Willpower with a singular goal: destroying Reynolds completely.

There was a moment of resistance, before the final flash of silver light.  The flesh around the injuries seemed to just… unravel.  Reynolds’ face froze in a silent scream as, in the span of just a few moments, the grievous injuries from Tillienne and Skippy were magnified, and his body was reduced to nothingness.  Kyle collapsed to the ground alongside remnant bamboo, panting heavily.

He felt a stab of phantom pain, and realized it came from the Core of the Parasitic Devourer.  Whatever Heart of Creation had done, it clearly impacted his core somehow.  Before he could explore it further, however, Tillienne came rushing over.

Her boosting skill had been deactivated, and her weapons were returned to the silvery charms of her bracelet.  She looked as exhausted as him, and she favored her good leg, even after the healing.

“What the hell was that?” she demanded, helping Kyle to his feet.

“I just took advantage of the damage you and Skippy did,” he replied, standing with some effort.  “Believe me, if I could just annihilate C Grades, I would have done it from the start.”

She gave him an appraising look for a moment, before breaking out into a toothy smile.  “You’re really something else, do you know that?”

She looked like she was about to continue, but was interrupted as a massive explosion rang out.  She and Kyle both turned sharply, to see a wave of magma rising above the treetops, then crashing down.  At the same moment, the ground beneath their feet began to quake, and a grotesque fungal creature rose into the sky, a C Grade aura radiating off of it.  A message popped up on their nav bracelets, and upon reading it, they shared a look.

Malcolm Corthus has taken the field.  Retreat to your evacuation zones.  Everything remaining in the colony will be subject to immediate termination.

They grabbed Skippy’s unconscious body, and ran.