Death 6

The squadron continued down the tunnel. The altered continued to come one after the other, none of them with the levels of irregularity as the ones beforehand. The deafening blasts of their cannons could be heard all across the tunnel, as well as the ones on the opposite end which slowly dwindled as they delved deeper.

It had been nearly 15 minutes of walking around and catching whatever came their way as they twisted and turned through small caverns and chambers. The sound of the gunfire that came from behind them slowly started to reverberate from in front of them. Amir raised his left hand and stopped the group.

"We are almost here, but something is off..." Another one of the handlers walked up to him, they talked to each other. The one nodded frantically, answering all his questions as Amir shook his head over and over again.

"There is a new room up ahead, is anyone else here familiar with these caves?" Marco looked around, no one gave him an answer. They continued to walk forward a bit slower, the gunshots had stopped completely at this point from all directions.

They came across a blockade in a path, as if the roof caved in on itself like the tunnel in the entrance. To the right, an opening which should not be there.

They all stepped forward, a giant dome chamber about 100 feet by 100 feet. They saw Lyle's group walk in from the other side. They all glared at the middle of the room.

A gigantic cocoon about 40 feet tall from roof to floor. Emanating the black mist, giant arms and legs flayed from it, snaking in and out as if trying to escape. It was shockingly quiet aside from the sound of something warping and a slight hiss of what sounded like a gas leak. Under and in front of it stood a singular man. 

Wearing what looked like an ancient space suit, his clothes were a crimson color. He was facing the cocoon, away from the group. His suit was lined with thick black sprouts that looked like veins which pulsed with a black and blue color.

One of the handlers from Amir's fired at him with no hesitation. He raised his fist, blocking the shot completely. It looked like the black veins exploded in that area, covering his forearm with the black mist. He moved at them, so fast it was as though he phased, punching the guy straight in the stomach.

The handler fell to his knees, 5 remained. Amir went for a sweep kick, the astronaut raised his foot and lowered himself backwards as another handler aimed his gun directly to his temple and fired. He lowered himself more, grabbing onto the one's wrist with his right hand and pulling him in for a forehead bash. The astronaut spun himself up with the force of the handler falling to the floor. He now stood straight in front of Marco.

Marco tried to look inside the mask in the very brief stare down. Nothing, just a black fog as if he was looking into the other side's void. His brain told him to raise his hand and fire, but before he could move an inch, the astronaut dropped to the floor and swept him off both of his feet. 

In the time that he fell, he saw as he took down the other two handlers, leaving Amir alone as the only one who could sustain his barrage. He was on the floor now, his head hit the floor as Lyle came in to jump the astronaut.

"Everyone focus on whatever the FUCK that thing is." "We handle this guy you take care of THAT." Lyle and Amir both engaged in hand to hand and slightly long range combat. The instant one is not throwing hands and blocking kicks, the astronaut charges at them to prevent them from aiming properly. Less than half a tenth of a second between each exchange, whenever they extended a bit too far he would dash behind them and hit them in each other's directions.

The rest of the bunch fired into the mass in the center of the room with no real sense of direction. As they shot, corpses shot out from within the cocoon. Landing around them, they were all C tier altered that were falling from within, their proportions mangled, twisted, stretched out and compressed in all sorts of places.

First went down Amir, with a left right combo to his chest and a punch to the jaw. Lyle tried to follow up by shooting the astronaut in the back of the head, he ducked, jumped backwards and turned around mid air to deliver a left hook to the liver. 

His attention was turned to the other group now. He jumped forward, raising his right fist for a right hook. Bodhi jumped in front, smashing him across face with his right arm which carried the exoskeleton. He flew about 20 feet and slammed against a wall.

Splayed out on the wall, the dust settled around the astronaut as he removed himself from the crater that held him. He stepped out and slowly. He cracked his shoulder and rotated his neck, his hand gripped on to one of the veins and crushed it with his hands.

He lifted up, and over his head, a pole emerged from the black pool on his shoulder pad. He spun it around, about as tall as himself, he twirled it around behind him, spinning himself a few times before smacking the end on the floor as he stopped. As he struck it, the ground rumbled.

Everyone lost their footing as the floor opened up under them. The few in the center all fell backwards first as the ground caved in, they looked down to see hundreds of altered sitting under them, their hands extended upwards to reach for them as they fell. Bodhi jumped out of the way towards the other 7 that were on the opposite side where he entered.

Marco was near his entrance, he was the first to his footing, helping up Lyle and Amir before carrying the others to the tunnel they came through. It was after he placed the last guy down that he heard the slam. He walked out to the small remaining platform, Amir was clinging on to the edge as the astronaut raised the staff over his head and swung down.

From behind, Marco summoned the sword again and sliced forward while dashing at him. Striking the pole and parrying it backwards towards Bodhi who caught the man. Marco extended his hand and pulled Amir up.

Bodhi held on tight, he grabbed the astronaut by the stomach and suplexed him. The astronaut caught himself with the pole, free from Bodhi's grasp, he balanced himself on top like a bird looking down at them. He eyed the three of them down. A blind man, a fat man and a guy with a sword.

The three of them stood with their backs to the pit. They could hear the screams of the handlers behind them, yelling and begging for someone to help them. The sound of bones snapping and crunching clear as day.

Bodhi cracked his knuckles, Marco gripped onto his sword and gun tightly while Hamzah adjusted his gloves. 

"Let's kill this son of a bitch." Spoke Bodhi to the two who nodded in agreement.