8 All of Us Into Darkness part 2

Johnson was growing used to the feeling. He still didn't know what to put his attribute points in. Every second he didn't use them was a second that something could go wrong. These driders weren't as strong as Gloria. It was just like monsters to send in their weaker members to study an enemy. His three squad mates put their helmets back on and packed up their field extractors.

Just as the suppressive fire team changed out Yuta jerked up and started screaming. Captain Richard moved quickly taking his Masquerade and firing a round in Yuta's head. It bounced off a reflexive barrier. Richard kept firing. "No," Johnson shouted just as Yuta's head turned to the nearest extractor. The brother was stunned trying to adjust to the increase in power when Yuta moved.

A round shattered the faceplate of the brother turned monster. Everyone was firing upon Yuta but as he ran for the brother. It happened too fast. No one thought to move the brother out of the way. Even those near him wouldn't have guessed what was going to happen. Yuta placed his face over the brother's and spewed out a long red colored worm. It moved between hosts.

Johnson didn't have time to think. He put his hands up and blasted. The blue light of his technique lit the room, brothers moved cleared the way, and the attack hit. The hastily formed barrier around the creature's body began to heat up rapidly. The barrier cracked and fell away. Johnson yelled as he pumped more power into his energy beam driving it into the monster. The barrier was gone but a thin layer of qi still protected it.

Something of a cocoon formed around the two bodies and it began to increase in qi density. Johnson let go of his attack after 5 seconds. After that his reserves were cut in half and he had to start cycling what vital energy he had.

Energy Beam damage = 22.6m x 4 seconds = 90.4m damage.

Others started attacking and they started firing. It was useless they didn't have the punch needed to shatter that barrier. Johnson took the 3 attribute points he had and put them into strength. He clenched his fists as his muscles jutted out in his armor and bulged obscenely. Just when he thought he couldn't take anymore they relaxed. Then they did it again. Each time he felt his qi intensify as it ran through a more powerful body. Just as his body started feeling like normal, he felt a wave of fire and steel type qi emerge from the monster. Monsters unseen since the fall of mecca.

One emerged from the hastily made cocoon. Its qi roared out hungry. The power armor had been repurposed mutated and changed into dragon like scales. The bipeds head was a mix of dragon and human. With a misshapen jaw and too many teeth. Some of the teeth ripped chunks of flesh from the monster's mouth. It shook itself revealing malformed wings, knees twisted, and long spike like digits on its three clawed hands. It roared hungry and mad.

Johnson smirked his attack hadn't been useless. This monster had been deprived a good portion of its qi. Even so it's qi was powerful and terrifying. It opened its maw and unleashed a massive stream of flames. Those close by either leapt out of the way or used their shields to block out the heat.

He did the math in his head. 76.8m damage per second. Multiply that by 4 and you get 307.4m damage from his little ole energy beam. Really, he wished he could have been the one to end this fight. Instead Richard took a Mecca style blade to the monster's head. The long scimitar's vibrating blade reinforced with qi quickly cut through the monster's barrier and power armored scales. He cut through the monster's head and let it plop on the floor.

Richard began extracting the monster cells immediately. "If we are done here then its time to move out. There is a lot of ground to cover. He held up the mass of monster cells it was far more than a single drider that was for sure. One of their brothers moved forward and put a hand on Johnson's shoulder pauldrons.

"Its what they would have wanted. No brother should be a puppet for monsters." Janson said. Johnson didn't know much about that brother, but he agreed with the sentiment. Moving past the front-line Johnson looked around. Up on the ceiling dozens of red cocoons moved about filled with spiderlings. Holes between rooms those too new to have been reinforced with qi forged steel covered the place. This was a monster nest without a doubt.

Small lines of webs covered the inside of the tunnels while driders stared from the dark of the tunnels. Their red glowing eyes gave them away. Johnson moved his hands one to each and blasted. He killed two on the spot before the cocoons above burst open to reveal new fully grown driders. Covering fire from behind gave him either killed or stalled the driders long enough for him to make the kill. Things weren't going exactly as planned but loose ends were tying up.

"Janus, Driders are considered low ranked monsters when first born. No more dangerous than D class. Am I right?"

"Driders are normally nature or dark type. These are steel and water or flesh in our case. We Farron aren't monster masters. Let's leave that for the Blackroot village cultivators. They have the pathways for it. These monsters are newborn and have no culture except kill everything they can get their hands on. They don't retreat when cornered, they have tactics but no fall back plans. Driders may be low class when young but they are smart. These creatures have numbers." Janus finishes.

Johnson nodded his head. He had though as much.