Dark Fall

New Threats!

Alex and the group slowly made their way to the evacuation site while being wary of their surroundings. They didn’t move on the big streets but instead opted to travel through the narrow alleyways.

This way, they didn’t move out in the open where the aliens could see them if there were any of them nearby.

On their way to the evacuation site, something popped up in Alex’s internal radar and he had the group stop in place.

“Stop!”

They were just about to cross the street and head into the alley ahead of them when he told them to halt.

“What’s wrong, Alex?”

“Hold on...I feel that there’s something wrong…”

Jesse immediately pulled Josh behind him while Diane also moved closer to her father and brother.

“Let me take a look first,” Alex said before he crept towards the sidewalk and crouched behind one of the buildings’ staircases, and looked out.

Maxie had followed him and asked, “What is it? What do you see?”

“I’m not sure...it’s a little too foggy right now...but I just feel that something’s off. It’s just a feeling but it’s what has been keeping me alive until now, my intuition.”

Alex obviously couldn’t say that he had picked up the presence of something abnormal in his internal radar so he just chalked it up to his intuition. Maxie wasn’t going to dispute with Alex because he had specifically explained to him and his group that they needed to listen to everything he said while they moved through the city.

What Alex picked up on his radar wasn’t human nor was it an alien but he could tell that it wasn’t friendly.

It was about a hundred paces away from their location and it was moving back and forth between either side of the road with somewhat erratic movements.

‘Scourge what is that?’

[...I believe it’s a monster.]

“A monster?”

“What’s that Alex?”

Alex had involuntarily spoken up when he heard what Scourge said to him inside his head. He didn’t reply to Maxie and just ignored him.

‘What do you mean it’s a monster?’

[It means that the Second Phase of the invasion is already underway...they must have completed the forward command center overnight so they’ve released the monsters already to clean up any surviving humans in the city.]

‘Already? Isn’t this too fast?!’

[It doesn’t matter, what does matter is that the precious humans that you’re trying to protect are in immediate danger. These monsters may not have the aliens’ radar but they’re agile, deadly, and move in small packs of 5.]

‘So there’s 4 more of them out there? Where are they?’

[They’re probably outside of our detection zone. I suggest we find another way forward. We can easily kill them since they’re not like the Zaegnids, but you don’t want to show those in the group your ability, right?]

“...Tsk, this is getting to be a real pain,” Alex quietly mumbled to himself before backing away with Maxie behind him.

[I told you. You shouldn’t have picked up these living pieces of baggage. It will only hinder our movement and activity. What a wasted opportunity, those monsters are the perfect targets for our [Devour].]

After moving back to where Diane and the rest were, Maxie immediately asked, “What did you find, Alex?”

He replied with a shake of his head and said, “I’m not sure, but it’s too dangerous to move forward using this route. We should circumvent the area and find a safer way.”

“...I’m not sure what’s getting you all worked up, but we’ll listen to you. Let’s turn back a block and move east before heading south again. We should still stay as close as possible to the river.”

[Alex, watch out. You’ve been surrounded. That earlier monster was only a decoy, the other 4 had already smelled the humans moving with you and were moving to surround you already.]

Alex soon felt the presence of the other monsters and cursed, “s**t, everyone, get inside the building!”

Without any hesitation, he kicked down the door to one of the buildings that were close to Diane and Jesse before pushing them inside.

“What’s wrong, Alex?!”

“No time, just listen to me and get inside!”

Inside the house, Alex placed his backpack on the ground before taking out the grenade launcher that he had stored away and giving it to Maxie after he loaded it and took it off its  safety and said, “It’s loaded and the safety’s off, there are 6 rounds so until you get a clear view of the enemy, don’t fire it!”

“Enemy? What enemy?!”

“We’re surrounded, so keep your calm and protect those behind you. I’ll try to attract their attention outside and kill as many as I can. Head to the second floor and stay away from the windows!”

“A-Alright!”

“Remember, trigger discipline! Keep your finger off the trigger so you don’t accidentally fire it off. You could kill yourself and those you’re supposed to protect if you make that blunder!”

“D-Don’t worry! I won’t make such a stupid mistake!”

Maxie and the others quickly did as they were told while Alex made his way outside again. 

Last night, making the gauze and bandages while testing out his [Drain] skill wasn’t the only thing, Alex did. He had returned to his previous hiding spot in the middle of the night while the others were resting and went to retrieve a few of the things he had left behind.

He avoided all of the aliens on his way over and packed only the most essential things into the large backpack. Medicine, a few pieces of clothes, some grenades, and most importantly, the grenade launcher.

Alex couldn’t bring too many of its ammunitions and decided to only take a dozen which he thought should be more than enough especially since it wouldn’t be him that would use it.

With the grenade launcher in Maxie’s hands, they at least had something they could use to protect themselves from the monsters so this put a little bit of ease on Alex’s mind after he left them.

“Alright, since they’re not looking anymore, let’s get to it then.”

[Finally, some action! I’ve been growing restless. The second phase is the perfect time for us to hone our powers but here you are escorting these humans like some hired guard!]

“Enough with the nonsense, tell me where they are.”

[One of them is above you.]

Alex looked up and saw the monster that Scourge was referring to that would clean up the human survivors in the city. It was a rather grotesque-looking thing that was a cross between a large lizard and the alien from the movie, ‘Alien’.

It was clinging onto the wall with its webbed-feat while its armored head was looking towards Alex. The sharp tail was moving ominously in the air and it immediately lunged forward after it was discovered by Alex.

“Hmph!”

He responded quickly by jumping away while his arms transformed into blades.

“Tsk, it was here already and you didn’t tell me! Useless!”

[We should enjoy this fight! If we sniped it from afar, where’s the joy in the hunt?]

“Aren’t we being the ones hunted right now? How is this supposed to be enjoyable?!” Alex growled at Scourge while he blocked the sharp alien tail coming at his face.

[This is a Volonoid. It doesn’t have eyes and tracks its prey using its sharp sense of smell. Be careful of its sharp tail and corrosive body fluids.]

“Corrosion?”

[Behind you!]

Alex quickly rolled to the side and dodged another one of these Volonoids that had suddenly lunged at him from behind. The monster’s tail managed to cut Alex’s side but it was immediately healed right after.

“Tsk, I thought you said these things were supposed to be easy to kill?!”

[Hmmm...Let me start helping you then. I fear that your human friends won’t be able to last too long if we dally around.]

“You could have done so sooner!”

Alex didn’t know how to fight. Apart from his great athletic body and the fact that he was a parkour enthusiast, he had no other advantage in terms of fighting capabilities. However, Scourge was there to compensate for that is it took control of Alex’s excess biomaterial and transformed them into sharp tendrils that shot out from his side and back.

[Just focus on one of them. I’ll watch our blindspots.]

“Got it.”

Alex immediately rush towards the first Volonoid that had jumped at him from above and dodged the monster’s tail attack. His battle perception was enhanced during battle, so he could clearly see the monster’s tail coming at him which he blocked with one of his arm-blades before lashing out with his other one and cutting it off.

“KISHHAAA!!!”

The monster hissed in pain after its tail was cut off but Scourge immediately yelled inside Alex’s head, [Dodge the blood! It’s corrosive!]

Without any hesitation, Alex jumped to the side and avoided the spurting blood that was coming out of the monster’s injury before he lunged forward and pierced his arms into the monster’s flank, and jumped back again.

The tendrils that Scourge was controlling blocked the attacks from the second Volonoid while it also helped with Alex’s movement.

He agilely flitted around them and matched their agile movements before taking them down one by one. However, these were only 2 of the 5 monsters that Scourge said were in their pack so he quickly began searching for the rest before he heard an explosion from the second floor of the building Maxie and the others were in.

“Dammit.”

Without any hesitation, Alex quickly scaled the walls of the building using the tendrils that were growing out of him and broke through one of the windows before making his way to where Maxie and the others were hunkering down at.

He quickly moved through the hallway and noticed that there was a trail of blood on the floor and walls with a charred Volonoid corpse at the end. He quickly heard Diane’s yell and Maxie’s roar as another explosion ensued.

“Ahhh! Die, die!”

“Maxie!”

Alex jumped towards the room at the end of the hall and noticed that the final Volonoid was just about to jump on Maxie, who had just killed its two friends. It was too late for him to pull the trigger but his savior was already there by the doorway.

Everything around Alex began slowing down as his brain kicked into overdrive, slowing down the world around him. 

‘What do I do, what do I do?!’

Alex searched for anything he used and saw the window that was just ahead of him. The alien was also perfectly lined up with him and the window so, without any hesitation, Alex quickly lunged forward after he kicked off the wall behind him.

He tackled the Volonoid just before it could pounce on Maxie with its poisonous claws. He pushed the monster through the window and dragged it to the ground with his tendrils wrapped around its body.

Alex cushioned the fall with the monster’s body and immediately transformed his fingers into razor-sharp blades and began lacerating the monster’s belly and slashing its throat in reckless abandon.

[Quickly getaway! The monster’s corrosive blood will―”

“Ahh! s**t! s**t!!!”

Scourge took control of the tendrils that Alex had forcefully taken control of earlier and unwrapped them around the monster’s body and used them to push Alex away from the monster that had its belly split open and was bleeding to death.

[Hold on, I’ll shed a bit of the corroded skin and quickly regenerate it.]