Rhea kept reporting to Rale about the tumor mission. She had arrested Shy, they currently have a CI survivor in the hut, the information regarding to the tower lifeforms, and the info gotten from the interrogation with Shy.
Meanwhile, Mysty checked on Albur to ensure he is ok. Covie just stared at the telecommunication building shake the ground, stand up on fours and walking away. For some reason, this is already not surprising and intimidating anymore. She stared at the wrench, and sighed heavily.
Rhea turned to the moon hut, her face is completely emotionless like nothing happened.
"The core hunt may postpone a little, I am expecting the sixth core to grow. We will nail it as soon as possible. If anything happens I will take full responsibility for it."
"If Earth dies, you surely can't afford that responsibility."
"Well, except that of course."
Rale sighed heavily,
"Anyway, the next portal is estimated to open tomorrow. got a few devices you guys could use."
"Are they usable in this virus environment?"
"Not for sure. We don't have any anti-virus devices strong enough to reliably resist AC-23."
"What about stacking all the anti-virus devices? Wouldn't their effects get stronger?"
"No. Uh... how am I gonna explain this? Think of AC-23's resistance as a ten. Our devices are, say, an eight, a six, and a nine. You can't just stack them together and get twenty-three. Each device is still below AC-23's resistance threshold, so the virus can suppress their effects. Using all of them at once might help a little, but it won't suddenly make them strong enough to break through."
"I see".
Covie stared at Rhea, seeing her slowly nod. Mysty walked to her, and sat down beside her. She is holding Havoc and Albur's rifle, which Albur gave her earlier. The two of them didn't speak, they just look at the tower lifeform walk.
"Why is Havoc with you? I thought he should be with Albur?" Covie broke the silence.
Mysty glanced at Havoc, and sighed.
"He insist to give me him, what did he say again? Something about he could at least help us out."
Havoc emitted a hologram of a square, robotic head, it stared at Mysty.
"So, maybe I change my owner?"
Mysty shook her head,
"I ain't good enough to hold onto you."
"Why don't you use me in my battle mode? Like the Prismatic Blade."
"My style of fighting is speed and agile."
Mysty turned her head towards the rifle.
"This is a bit heavy compared to my pistols. And I don't use my hands better than my legs."
Mysty took out one of the pistols, and gently touched it. Covie stared down at Havoc, Havoc turned his head and stared at her too. Havoc then turned his head to Mysty again.
"Then aren't I pretty much useless now?"
"That's what I am trying to tell Albur, if he isn't the one using you, your powers won't be that strong."
"Or you look for Rhea, she might be able to use you." Covie suggested.
"She uses her battle suit to fight. It would be strange for her to suddenly change no?"
The 3 sighed together.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Far from the crew, on a skyscraper, a figure stood at its rooftop. Its Cluster, he stared at the 3, then at Rhea, and then moved his eyes onto the wandering tower lifeform. He grinned, the gem on his staff begun to glow, he raised it, and charged up red lightning powers, and aimed at the tower lifeform.
"Starring...psychopath..."
Cluster fired a beam of red lightning. The recoil cracked the building, while Cluster remained still, watching the beam travel.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"....I'll keep y'all posted, I promise, I will try connecting my camera to give a live...."
The red beam hit the tower lifeform, creating a small shockwave that stunned it a little. The crew turned their head towards the tower lifeform. It bellowed, and crouched. Rhea stared at it for a second, then pressed the walkie talkie again.
"We have some situations here, I'll contact later."
"Copy that."
Rhea walked to the crew. They are all staring at the tower lifeform. The tower lifeform stood up, and shook off the dust on it. Strangely, its body glow a faint red light for a split second.
Rumbling sounds are heard from it, the crew slowly backed away as they drew out their weapons. Mysty put Havoc into her pocket. The tower lifeform turned around, and stared at the crew.
The entrance of the building became a giant mouth, opening from the side, with a long sharp drooled tongue. It is dripping purple saliva like the other virus lifeforms, this tower lifeform doesn't look like any other of its kind.
The crew stepped back, Mysty loaded her weapons. Covie begun slowly heading to the hut. Rhea entered her battle bot suit. The tower lifeform let out a ground shaking roar, all of its eyes glowed red in an instance.
Covie quickly rushed towards the hut and put herself in front of it. The tower lifeform stared at Mysty and Rhea, it roared and ran straight towards the two of them. Mysty fired her weapons, but it didn't do much damage.
Rhea quickly blocked herself between Mysty and the giant's tentacle foot. The tower lifeform kept pushing. Rhea was pushed back by the colossal being. She couldn't release all of her suits strength against an incoming brute force immediately or else the springs will snap. She doesn't have time to slowly warm it up.
She grabbed the tower lifeform's foot and slowly raised it before tossing it away. It managed to maintain its balance. The ground begun to crack severely due to the tumor weakening the earth.
Rhea fired rockets at its legs, hoping to get rid of its mobility. Yet its super tough skin proves she can't. Mysty tried using her taser and kicks, but they didn't even do a scratch.
Covie swung her fist and landed a full power punch. It slightly hurt the behemoth, but its far from enough to make a bruise on it. It just caught its attention. It slammed its tentacle at Covie, but she flew away and dodged it. She brought the hut with her to prevent it from crushing the hut.
Rhea scanned the behemoth while dodging its attacks. She realized none of her rockets could break its skin easily. Up against this type of monster, executing it fast and easy is the best choice.
"Mysty! Aim for its eyes! Those are its sensitive parts!"
Mysty nodded. She took out her pistols and dashed around the behemoth. She looked for the windows, but there is not much. Since a telecommunication building requires low temperature for machines to run better, windows give unwanted heat from the sun. The only windows Mysty could find is located at the very top of the tower lifeform's body, near the roof top.
Rhea saw Mysty trying to aim her pistols. She quickly warmed up the suit and slowly remove the strength limiter. The tower lifeform growled as it rushed towards Mysty, causing violent earthquakes. Mysty tried to outrun it, but its massive size immediately caught up to her.
Rhea quickly grabbed one of the behemoth's legs and pulled, making it trip. The whole ground shook again. Just then, Rhea's walkie talkie buzzed.
"Agent Rhea? Why is going on? We detected a large active virus lifeform rampaging!"
"Director Towelestone, we had an issue here. A tower lifeform became aggressive out of no where, we're trying to handle it!"
The tower lifeform bellowed as it turn around and slammed its tentacle at Rhea. She blocked it with both of her arms of the suit. She slowly pushed it to the left, causing the creature to almost lose balance. Mysty got the opportunity to fire at the window where its eyes are located.
But the bullets didn't hit the eye. They lose energy mid-flight and dispersed. The tower lifeform noticed Mysty attacking its eye. It turned to her and slammed its tentacles at her. She dodged it quickly by dashing away.
The tower lifeform is furious. It then teared off a part of the building on it and threw it at Mysty. She fired a Concentration Shot and destroyed the flying piece into pieces. The dust nearly entered her eyes. She quickly backed to Rhea's side.
"Its no use! My pistol don't have enough range!"
Covie flew to the 2 with the hut. She heard Mysty's words. She reached into the hut, and took out Albur's rifle.
"This should help!"
Mysty turned to Covie, and saw the rifle. She immediately understood what she meant. She put her pistols back to the holsters at her hip and took the rifle before reloading it.
The tower lifeform roared and slammed down its tentacle. Rhea fired a rocket at it but it didn't stop it. They quickly dodged by jumping away. The shockwave from the slam sent parts of the ground surging outward, and it sent the crew flying.
Mysty reduced the impact by rolling on the ground. She aimed the rifle at eye of the tower lifeform and fired. But the tower lifeform quickly blocked the bullet with one of its tentacles. Rhea got up quickly and pulled one of its tentacle legs while it is still moving its tentacle that blocks the rifle shot. The behemoth tripped again, its tall building body fell forward at Mysty.
Mysty is lucky she is at the edge of the building's fall point. She quickly rolled away. The giant creature slammed onto the ground, its building body shattered, revealing the true body of the tower lifeform. A colossal rectangle creature made by masses of virus flesh with numerous eyeballs on its body, standing on all fours.
Covie flew to Mysty and helped her up. The giant lifeform glared at Mysty, and opened its mouth before roaring. Rhea noticed most of its eyes have light blue pupils, which indicate they might be blind. Only the one eye on the top of it have purple pupils. The tower lifeform stood up, all of its eyes glowed red for a brief second.
Mysty fired the rifle at its other eyes, but they didn't even make it flinch.
"Don't shoot those eyes! Shoot the one at the top!"
Rhea then fired heat seeking missiles at the eye at the top. The behemoth turned away the last second before the missiles land. Making the missiles miss its eye.
Mysty kept firing at the eye while Rhea sent out even more rockets. The tower lifeform kept turning its body around to tank the shots with its body. Its reaction speed is pretty quick due to it is created by virus substances that absorbed the telecommunication devices.
Mysty pressed slot 1 and fired a Disabling Shot, it stunned the behemoth for a while. Mysty then fired a rifle shot. But the tower lifeform managed to close its eyelids. Its tough eyelid blocked the shot.
"Its no use! It could still block the attacks!"
"Just use the fast attack one, I seen Albur using it. The green one."
Mysty stared at the rifle, and thought it' Hyper Blast. The tower lifeform got angry and slammed down 2 of its tentacles. The shockwave is much stronger, a huge portion of the land surged outwards and sent more cracks to the earth.
Rhea managed to stand still and not get sent flying. Covie was sent flying but managed to balance herself. Mysty was also sent flying, but succeeded to reduce the fall impact. The tower lifeform chased after Mysty, it slammed its tentacles at her numerously.
One of the slam hit her leg, shattering every bone and caused severe bleeding. Mysty dropped on the floor, out of agony, she let go of her grip, the rifle slipped off her hands. The shockwaves also made it slid further away from her.
Rhea hurried to her and blocked the tentacles the tower lifeform slammed down. The tower lifeform was furious, it swiped its tentacle sideways and hit Rhea away, injuring her and slightly damaging her battle bot.
Covie tried to help, but the tower lifeform kept slamming near Mysty, creating shockwaves that stopped Covie from getting to Mysty. Havoc is also panicking, he doesn't have any way to help her out.
The tower lifeform stared at Mysty. It opened its mouth, its sharp tongue slipped out and thrusted towards Mysty. Mysty could barely fight back using her pistols, her vision is blurry due to the extreme pain of her crushed leg.
She managed to cut off its tongue, but 4 more tongues came out from its mouth. They wrapped around Mysty's limbs, locking her to ensure she can't escape. Mysty struggled, but they did nothing.
"No! Mysty!"
"Son of a pot!"
"Guys...help....!" Mysty murmured.
She tried using her arms to prevent getting pulled into its mouth. Havoc emitted virus substances but they did nothing significant. Rhea dashed towards it but it slammed her away. Mysty was pulled closer into its mouth.
"Oh no!"
Suddenly, a green flash appeared.
"Hyper Blast!"
A green bullet flew directly towards the behemoth's eye. It exploded as it hit its eyes. The tower lifeform bellowed in pain, letting go Mysty, causing her drop on the ground.
Rhea and Covie was shocked. They turned to the direction the Hyper Blast flew from.
It's Albur. Holding the rifle with smoke coming out from the barrel. He is lying on the floor, panting. It took him a very long time to adjust the aim and support his only one arm to fire the shot.
"Bullseye....."
"Wha- Albur?"
Albur quickly push himself to stand up, he quickly ran towards Mysty despite he have difficulty doing so. While the blinded behemoth bellowed in agony while stomping around, Albur rushed to Mysty and helped her up. He was shocked to see Mysty's bloody leg.
"AWWW SNAP! What happened to your leg?"
"Wha.....Albur....?"
Albur carried Mysty on his back, despite struggling, he quickly headed towards the crew. The blinded behemoth kept stomping, but then, the cracked ground sank. The creature's leg fell into the hole, and its body hit the ground. It created a massive shockwave, it nearly made Albur trip, but then, Havoc made limbs using virus particles to stabilize Albur and stop him from falling.
"Woah, thanks man."
"Gotcha, kid,"
Suddenly, the ground started rumbling, the cracked ground finally gave up. The parts of the ground started cracking further and sink. Albur quickly quickened his steps, but the ground's sink speed is quicker than his running speed.
The tower lifeform kept bellowing in agony and fury. It begun blindly picking up parts of the ground and throw them at all directions. Covie quickly flew to the 2 of tried to help them. But one of the boulders tossed by the tower lifeform landed between Covie and Albur.
The floor beneath Albur collapsed, Albur fell into the hole.
"AWWWW SNAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Albur's yell echoed as he fell further into the hole.
"No!"
Covie tried to dive down and save him, but more boulders rained down from the sky. Rhea grabbed Covie and the hut and shielded them with her body. The rocks and dust rained down on Rhea's back, she pushed Covie and the hut further into her arms. The ground trembled even more, the tower lifeform at last lost its footing, and fell into the hole.
It took tens of minutes for the ground sinking and the trembling to stop, a massive hole with a diameter of 15 kilometers and has its surface covered by rocks that stretched to a couple metro stations appeared in the tumor.