“That fug thing is shrugging off everythi it with,” Grey mumbled. “What happeo your spiders?” she asked, gng at Arae.

  “It just ighem. The acid just slid off its scales, just like everything else.”

  Our entire group was huddled behind Grey’s wall of nanites, and we probably would have been pletely overrun by the Forty-Four, if it wasn’t for Temporal slowing it down to a fra of its regur speed. Most of the creature’s acid sprays spshed harmlessly against the shield, but the occasional bst went wide. That’s how they lost Pestilence.

  “We o figure something out, the bears ’t hold out forever,” I said quietly.

  I holy panicked slightly when the scarabs died, and the wave of antithesis surged across the previously safe ground. Thankfully, the buffer was swiftly filled with Teddy’s bears. Having the moose there meant they didn’t even have to watch out for the Twenties charging across the lihat let everyone focus on the real problem, the Forty-Four.

  “Get me close enough, and I’ll create an opening for everyone!” Dreamer decred as she danced bad forth.

  “Maybe, but you saw what happeo Tusker,” Whisperer said, hoarsely. “He just got grazed by that acid, and that bacteria ate him alive. The only one of us that could have stopped it is currently doing his best impression of a metal statue!”

  “Perhaps we could use Teddy’s vehicles. They at least bent the shell around the hive,” Psmanx suggested. “My psma accelerator barely scorched its scales.”

  As we discussed, Hoppy showed up, followed closely by Bob. “I don’t think you rely on Teddy for a bit,” she said as she skidded to a halt o me. “It looked like she was having one hell of a time keeping it together.”

  “Whateed?” Bob asked. The stupid bear just waltzed up like he was on a Sunday walk, without a care in the world.

  “An opening, distra, anything to get at that colossal pain in the ass,” Bright-Eyes snapped.

  “Alright!” the bear answered. We turo stare as he just waltzed around the edge of Grey’s barrier.

  “He’s insane!” someone hissed.

  “He’s a robot, nanid I know Teddy gave her bigger models specialized armor. Maybe he’ll make it,” I responded calmly. “We only need a distra after all.”

  “I like him!” Magpie decred. “He’s a go-getter.”

  I raised one of my tentacles over the edge of the barrier to observe Bob’s approach. The Forty-Four moved painfully slowly, but it was still fast enough to bathe him in a full jet of acid. It melted off his fuzzy exterior but didn’t seem to slow him down.

  “It’s w! It’s focused on him,” I reported.

  “So how does that help us?” Hoppy asked. “It still melt any one of us on a whim.”

  “We push the barrier fet closer, and try whatever we to create an opening,” Grey said fidently.

  “I’ll fnk around the side; my armor take the acid. Not sure about a bite, but I’ll try and stay out of strike range,” I added.

  Most of the group nodded. I wasn’t sure if they were vihat we were making the right move, or just didn’t have any other ideas.

  I stepped to the side as Grey slowly advanced her half-dome cover. The Forty-Four had half-turned and was trag Bob with its tral head, but still bathed me in a bst of acid as soon as I emerged. The stream would have been strong enough to knock over a car, but my armor stayed upright and, more importantly, intact.

  As I advanced, I let my tentacles open up. The sers verged on a single point, bringing my full destructive strength against the beast, yet they did little more than leave scorch marks against its titanic scales.

  Across the room, Bob danced just outside the creature’s strike raaunting it. I couldn’t tell if he was just trying to keep its attention to get close enough to strike. Either way, he was a good distra.

  Ohe team got within striking distance, Grey reformed into her titani. She rushed forward, accelerated by Temporal’s powers, and grabbed hold of the two mprey heads while the rest of the group advanced, firing indiscriminately.

  The Forty-Four’s response was explosive. It pivoted in an instant, flig its tail around to sm into Bob before coiling around the team. The two urained heads spewed their toxic payloads.

  Executable took the brunt of it. The outer g of his battle orb smoked and cracked as he was bathed in the caustic stream. The acid sprayed off him in every dire, which just made the situation worse.

  A particurly rge glob of acid caught Whisperer in the leg, causio go down screaming. At nearly the same instant, Dreamer was hit in the lower arm. The small girl looked at the damage with nearly detached fasation, then swiftly removed both her arm and Whisperer’s leg before running fain.

  “Hoppy! Get Whisperer back!” I yelled over the otion. Thankfully the girl must have heard me, because she shot towards the downed woman, scooping her up and rocketing back towards the Kodiaks.

  While most of the group fired iively against the behemoth, Dreamer just tinued charging forward. “I liked that arm, you alien asshole!” she cried as she brought her dimensional bde down upon the Forty-Four.

  For the first time, we saw the creature take damage. The scales on its belly were ripped apart like they were nothing. She tio rampage across the creature’s front, ripping it open but uo strike too deeply.

  Spiders poured into the wound, exploding and coating the unprotected flesh in acid. My sers cut into the wound, along with Psmanx’s beam. We were making progress, burrowing into the creature in an attempt to kill it, but that’s when things went south.

  A rogue glob of acid caught Temporal in the face. She didn’t even have time to scream before it burhrough her head, killing her. Freed from Temporal’s slow effect, the Forty-Four ripped out of Grey’s grip and raged.

  Acid sprayed everywhere, but thankfully didn’t hit anything as the creature fully righted itself and stared.

  At that moment, Bob’s voice echoed out. “Bad critter, DOWN!” The Forty-Four’s head jerked downwards, revealing Bob standing just behind its head. The creature tried to jerk back, but its head just didn’t rise. Bob reared bad smmed down again, f the head closer to the floor before he triggered the spacial anchor, preventing it from rising again.

  The mprey heads turned, spraying him with acid and snapping as the tail filed around behind us, but he just tinued driving the head lower.

  “Shouldn't you be killing this thing right now?!” he shouted, finally snapping us all out of our reverie.

  “We need something big!” Magpie shouted as she ran up to ihe wound we’d created up to this point. “Hopefully someone has something impressive.”

  “Aeonys, you know those Css II direal mining charges I’ve used before?” I asked as I strode forward.

  Of course.

  “I assume that my Css III catalog has an upgraded version?”

  You would be correct about that. There are a couple sizes. How big do you want?

  “About as big as this wound,” I replied as I stepped into the rent flesh.

  Done

  The thing that appeared in the wound was about three feet tall, two feet wide, and about te long, and had a single fshing trol panel sitting at the back.

  “What the fuck is that?” someone asked quietly.

  “A fug big bomb, ohat should project the explosion deeper into the Forty-Four, I hope,” I replied as I bent over to check the detonator. “You might all want to step back.”

  As soon as everyone scattered, I triggered a ten-sed tdown and ran like hell. The Forty-Four struggled violently, and it even mao dislodge Bob enough to rise and look at us, just in time for the explosives to do their work.

  The shaped charge blew the backside of the creature apart, ripping the tail clear off and everoying one of the remaining hives still standing behind it. It silently screamed. The mprey heads thrashed about, spilling their acid spit onto the floor, while the tail whipped about, destroying everything it came in tact with.

  It took a couple minutes, but the beast finally y still.

  “Fuck me,” I choked out between ragged breaths. “Please let that thing stay dead.”

  “I hate to break it to everyone, but this isn’t over. We’re still smack dab in the middle of a battle,” Gray announced. “We should also collect Temps' body,” she announced sadly.

  “I’ll do it,” Magpie volunteered. “I’ll put her in one of the vehicles for the time being,” she added as she gently lifted the woman’s body. As she turned, Magpie stopped, her eyes glued to the area at our rear.

  “That’s not good,” she said quietly.

  I whipped around to see what she was looking at. The Kodiaks were pletely trashed. Of course they were; they would have been in the way of the tail when it coiled around the group.

  A cold feeling crept up into my stomach. “Where’s Teddy?”