Ch. 16 Rescue in the Ruins

[Jet]

Several of the cores had been destroyed, and as they were dismantled the watery bodies lost their form. With nothing to hold them together the bodies collapsed into the liquid on the floor. Before Jody would have called it water, but now she wasn’t so sure. The ankle deep substance had grown more and more difficult to move around in. It had thickened, become something more gelatinous, and slowed her movement as Jody tried to chase down a core that one of her team had exposed, but this one slipped away.

Something else caught her eye though, a green uniform floundering under the surface. It was the resistance soldier they’d encountered who’d been imprisoned in the wall with the others. Jody splashed toward him but an unseen current pulled him further down the tunnel. As Jody chased him she became aware that most of the liquid was rushing down the tunnel as well. Suddenly a large wave crashed into her and the current swept her off her feet. Blindly she lashed out with her sword, managing to force it into the stone wall and anchor her in position while the current washed over her. It only lasted a moment, Jody sat up and pulled her weapon free of the wall. She was still wet, the ground was damp but she was no longer sitting in ankle deep water. She wondered for a brief moment where all of the liquid had gone but that question was answered as a sludgy figure lurched up the tunnel toward her.

The remaining devils had merged into one enormous enemy, now filling the tunnel and stretching from wall to wall. Jody scrambled to her feet and back to her allies, the path forward was completely blocked now. Inside the liquid body she could see a cluster of eyes, at least three of them floating about, but there was also a familiar green uniform. The resistance member had been absorbed into the blob and he was no longer struggling. Her allies were firing their ranged weapons at the monstrous being as it lurched its way forward, making a horrid squelching noise as it came. Andraia was firing, probably trying to freeze it, Rai was free to shock the monster now that they weren’t all standing in water. Raven was firing at the cores but his shots couldn’t seem to penetrate deep enough through the liquid body. Jody could only grasp her sword and shield helplessly as the sludge monster rolled forth to crush them, it was too late to turn and run now. But just as it was upon them the devil began to smoke and glow with a yellow light, as if burning up from the inside. The devil swelled in size and exploded, splattering them with a fresh coat of slime.

“That was really close, nice job someone,” Jody said, looking around for one of her teammates to give credit to. She assumed that Rai’s electricity or Andraia’s buster had caused some sort of reaction and forced it to burn up from the inside, but neither one of them claimed responsibility. From further down the tunnel Jody could hear the sounds of a buster charging, and through the light of its energy a familiar figure in heavy black armor was illuminated. It was that Arcadian who had forced them to separate before! Her team was looking pretty beat up, they weren’t ready for another fight. They began to run again as the charged plasma shots began to fly. Together the ground rounded a corner, hoping they could lose him in the labyrinth but the wall exploded inward, the Arcadian was eradiating a golden aura and had simply charged through the wall. He raised his buster again and let another blast of plasma fly.