Crystalized Munchkinry - Act V - Chapter 65 (Patreon)

As they stood in front of the flesh wall that was part of the meat sack that, according to Dragon, hid the ominous Ball, Taylor wondered what they would find on the other side.

“So, anyone with a phasing power?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Lux. We will simply cut a nice hole here,” said Alexandria, then immediately raised her sword and slashed furiously towards the flesh wall.

Instantly, a sizable vertical hole appeared, leaking unknown and disgusting fluids, but the darkness within the hole revealed none of its secrets. It stayed like that for a few seconds, then closed up like a very disturbing fleshy zipper.

“Well, that was impressive,” quipped Narwhal, throwing a mocking look at Alexandria.

“It seems we need something that will keep the hole open,” spoke up Dragon, preempting any argument that could happen. “Do it again, Alexandria, then Narwhal, use your force fields to stretch it wider.”

All of them grimaced at hearing that.

“That sounded wrong…” said Nero while shaking her head in disgust.

Nobody liked how Dragon had phrased it, but they still complied with her idea. Alexandria once again slashed mightily with her sword, and as soon as the wound appeared on the flesh wall, Narwhal’s force fields flew forward and began stretching it open, creating an uninviting gateway into the belly of the beast.

Taylor ignored the bile rising in her throat and, without prompting, sent in a few of her clones to see if it was a viable route for them.

“Yeah, it’s empty from what I can see,” she said after a few seconds of scouting. “For now…”

“Then let’s go!” exclaimed Dragon and jumped through the hole.

An excited Nero, a very nervous Cardea, and stoic Armsmaster followed her. Alexandria waited for a moment, then flew in, making sure not to touch any part of the hole.

Taylor looked around one final time and nodded to Narwhal. “Go, I will cover you!"

The purple woman didn’t answer. She simply went through the hole, still keeping it open. Taylor created a few more teams of clones, just in case, then also jumped through, the wound closing up immediately behind her as soon as Narwhal let go.

Taylor had already seen the inside of the abominations through the eyes of her clones, but it was entirely different to see with her own (sadly enhanced) eyes what madness had been spawned from the collaboration of the Goblin King and Simurgh.

The walls were, of course, slimy, dotted with cancerous tumors leaking some kind of pus. The floor was rough and uneven, sometimes broken by root-like veins illuminated from the inside with the same green light as the plasma fired by the monsters. The air was damp and far too humid, but thankfully, she only knew this because of the sensors built into her suit and not because she felt it on her own skin.

The only light, besides the things they brought with them, came from the veins bulging across the ground and walls, filled with glowing green plasma. The eerie darkness was only broken by the periodic vibrations of something that sounded suspiciously like a heartbeat. It beat to a steady rhythm, and if it weren’t for the fact that it belonged to a towering monstrous abomination, Taylor might have even called it gentle.

Her senses, previously confounded by the warped space inside, recalibrated, giving her a pretty clear picture of the situation. The walls, the floor, and everything else were filled to the brim with energy, especially the veins transporting the volatile plasma.

However, the space inside this bio-horror was so vast that she couldn’t sense the location of the Ball.

“Where to, Dragon?” asked Narwhal while curiously looking around.

Dragon spent a few seconds looking at nothing, presumably checking her sensors, before pointing towards one end of the hallway they found themselves in. “That way.”

Everyone nodded in understanding, then, as one, they began walking towards their ultimate goal.

As they walked through the warped space inside the abomination, a veritable tsunami of monsters continuously beset them. Alexandria didn’t even hesitate to throw herself into the middle of the biggest clumps of monsters, while Narwhal was doing her best to become a giant human-sized blender.

Armsmaster was methodical, his movements efficient, never wasting a drop of energy as he dispatched one monster after another. Nero and Cardea used their issued guns to take potshots at the monsters. Nero started with grenades, but after she threw one, the entire construct shook hard enough that they collectively decided they could manage without the creative bomb Tinker’s grenades.

Dragon, with her new rifle, stood next to the two of them, keeping an eye on them while shooting down monsters with inhuman precision.

Taylor herself was everywhere. She flooded the hallways and chambers they walked through with clones, both on the ground and in the air, trying to match the incoming army of monsters in sheer numbers. She personally darted in and out of groups of monsters, delivering an insane amount of damage before retreating.

Thankfully, they didn’t have to fight any of the giant beasts, though the bowels of the meat sack were sometimes wide and tall enough to fit at least a dragon inside them.

Even with their powers, it took them at least an hour to reach the Ball. Mostly because they proceeded deliberately slowly, making sure not to fall into any kind of trap. But in the end, they reached it.

The Ball hovered high in the air in one of the largest chambers they had encountered on their way there.

They arrived on a ledge with slopes connecting it to a pit beneath the Ball, where they could see the portals hovering and the ludicrous amount of wildlife pouring through them. On the ground near the portals were holes that immediately swallowed the arriving creatures, probably transporting them somewhere else for processing.

The sound was beyond deafening.

Thankfully, their communication equipment allowed them to communicate without difficulty.

“Oh, my god!”

“Wicked!”

“Fascinating…”

“Let me guess, you want us to set the bomb up down there in the middle?” asked Taylor dryly.

“I’m afraid so, Lux,” answered Dragon with an equally dry voice.

“Joy."

They spent a few minutes carefully clambering down the slimy and slippery slopes, avoiding the streams of mindless wildlife. However, the moment they stepped inside the circle of portals, the chamber began flooding with monsters.

The monsters came from everywhere. From the hallway they used to get there, from the ceiling, from other entrances; some even crawled up from the holes that swallowed the incoming animals. Taylor saw a few of them literally tear through the walls just to reach them.

She immediately activated her trusty lightning barrier, enveloping the Tinkers and Cardea, who looked like she wanted to curl up into a small ball and cry herself to sleep. Narwhal then created her drill, cutting through the rough, fleshy floor and, after a few seconds of wet tearing sounds, finally reaching dirt.

While the leader of the Guild worked, the Tinkers began setting up the last bomb, making sure everything was connected correctly and ready to detonate.

Alexandria and Taylor, however, were out there, keeping the monsters away from the barrier. The Brute was a whirlwind, cutting through swathes of enemies, while Taylor used her senses to precisely target the more problematic monsters. She had her clones create a wall around the barrier, destroying any monster carrying lightning weapons or preparing blasts that could threaten them.

A minute into the fight, she noticed the monsters changing.

Before, they had been fully formed, albeit horrible-looking, creatures. Now they looked more like a child’s attempt to create something out of clay after someone had stepped on it.

They were missing limbs, or their limbs were horribly deformed. The cancerous growths multiplied, sometimes covering the monsters entirely, while others simply looked half-melted.

And as time passed, the number of monsters continued to grow. However, due to the rapidly declining quality of the creatures, it mattered little.

Taylor pivoted around an incoming plasma projectile, using the movement to slash through a hulker. Then she jumped into the air, fired several lightning blasts toward where the plasma had originated, and took a quick look around.

Her shield was holding. Her clones were holding. The Tinkers were working.

She extended her jump into a short flight toward Alexandria, who was cutting several half-melted mammoths to pieces. “You good, Alexandria?"

“Excellent, Lux,” answered the heroine, not even stopping for a second. “How goes the setup?"

“Not long now, I think.”

“Good.”

Taylor then joined Alexandria, and the two began a deadly dance of sword and spear as they moved around the chamber, cutting down monsters by the score, either on the ground or in the air, their backs to each other.

They didn’t slow down for anything, circling around the shield in the middle and taking out everything in their path. Eventually, they fell into a comfortable rhythm, almost anticipating each other’s movements or assisting each other by setting up kills.

A minute or so later, Dragon’s yell broke them out of their fugue. “We are done, let’s leg it!"

Assault smashed apart another monster in the endless line of creatures he had already destroyed. Frankly, if it weren’t for his power deciding that he apparently needed superhuman stamina right now, he would have been back in the medical hall, conked out.

The fight had been interesting and exciting at first. Something new. Something where they could go all out without worrying about regulations, laws, or anything like that. But, as with a lot of things, it eventually turned into an endless, boring grind.

He had no idea how long he had spent in the “trenches,” so to speak, but he knew he wouldn’t be lasting much longer, superhuman stamina or not. His wife had already gone back to rest several times, and as he watched her approach, her body glistening with sweat, he was sure the next break would be coming soon.

Maybe he would even join her...

He was about to ask her about it when his communicator came alive. Presumably, everyone else’s did as well, judging by how the people who had previously been mindlessly exterminating monsters suddenly raised their heads.

“This is Dragon speaking. The operation was successful. Detonation imminent. Everyone retreat toward the walls, then brace for the explosion. Detonation will occur after final roll call. I repeat...”

He didn’t pay attention to the rest. He simply jumped toward his wife, grabbed her, and threw her over his shoulder, ignoring her protests. Then he started legging it toward the wall as if the hounds of hell were chasing him.

Which, considering how those annoying plasma-spewing dogs looked, wasn’t exactly an inaccurate comparison.

He saw all the other parahumans also running toward the gate, while those capable of flight – and Eidolon, who had never come down from the air – laid down covering fire, illuminating the battlefield with rainbow-colored explosions.

As soon as he cleared the gate, he put down his wife and, while enduring her complaints, began pulling her even farther away from the wall.

Ethan would trust Dragon with his life, but in this case, he wanted to make sure that neither he nor Sherry was anywhere near the explosion, no matter how tempted he was to watch an entire city get annihilated.

When Sherry realized what his goal was, she stopped complaining and began jogging alongside him. He gave her a smile, then turned his attention back to his legs.

The exhaustion was finally catching up to him, and he was pretty sure that the moment he stopped moving, he would collapse.

They were behind the farthest building, sitting on a crate and leaning against each other, barely capable of speaking when the communication channel came alive again.

“This is the final roll call: Assault, Battery, status?"

“This is Assault, I’m clear.”

“Battery here, I’m clear too.”

“Copy that."

The line went silent again.

They looked at each other, then, as one, leaned out from behind the building, looking toward the still shield-covered city.

“This is Dragon speaking. The final roll call is complete. I repeat, the final roll call is complete. Detonation imminent. It is advised that those without safety equipment do not look directly at the explosion.”

Battery reluctantly stopped watching and yanked Assault back into the cover of the building.

“You can watch it later in the recordings. I would prefer my husband to still be able to see..."

"But, I…"

“No!”

Their argument was cut short by Dragon speaking up once again.

“Detonation imminent. Countdown in sixty seconds. I repeat...”

An unfamiliar siren sounded, drowning out the sounds of the battlefield and everything else around them. He saw the news helicopter also begin to flee.

He would bet a considerable amount of money that at least a few of the crew would need medical attention for eye injuries, all because they couldn’t contain their curiosity.

He wished them luck, but in the end, he had to agree with Sherry. He much preferred looking at her than an explosion.

Maybe…

It depended on how cool of an explosion Dragon could make.

"Detonation imminent. Ten… “

They both braced their backs against the building while huddling between two hefty crates. He hugged Sherry closer to himself and closed his eyes.

"Detonation imminent. Five…”

“Four…”

“Three…”

“Two…”

“One…”

There was a brief silence, followed by a small crackle.

Then came a flash, and everything went white.