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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/Spartawolf on 2024-07-26 20:21:53+00:00.

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“What the hell?!” Sephy yelled in shock, quickly bringing her plasma rifle to bear as the ground stirred all around them, revealing several Zorn standing up, camouflage still stuck to them like a second skin. 

“Back to back!” Alora ordered them all as she quickly drew a wand out of her robes. “In a circle! Stay close and cover each other!”

“Don’t let them get up!” Nika growled out in a challenge as she quickly drew her plasma rifle, letting loose a burst towards a shape in the earth that was rising up. “Put them down!”

Be careful, there’s a lot of them! Chiyo called out as she gathered her power.

“Good thing I have a lot of ammo!” Jack growled as a liberal blast from his heavy plasma rifle obliterated two of the closest Zorn charging at him and Chiyo, before something pinged off of his armour. Looking down, he saw a crude arrow clattering to the ground, with one of the Zorn having shot at him with a shortbow or crossbow of some kind. 

“That’s the spirit!” Sephy called back, regaining her confidence as she crouched down, putting an accurate burst of plasma into the chest of another Zorn, who stumbled but kept coming with a determined snarl, until Sephy fired a follow-up burst that took its head clean off.

Huh. 

That was unusual. 

Zorn weren’t known for pain tolerance or that kind of willingness to stay in the fight, and Sephy has never fought any that defied those traits before. 

“Careful with these ones!” She called out to the others, erring on the side of caution. “Something’s off!” 

“Pyrallis!” Alora yelled out as a jet of fire from her wand lanced out, zigzagging and slamming into yet more Zorn that seemed to all be rising out of every patch of dirt around them! The Zorn clearly felt it, but they did nothing to stop it from burning them as the closest one closed the distance, forcing Alora to quickly chant a brief prayer and summon her spear of faith, where the muscle memory of her combat drills growing up forced her to use the tip of her spear to parry the Zorn’s own before catching the monster under the jaw using their own momentum, forcing the point up through its mouth into its brain.   

“Getting really sick and tired of you ooga boogas,” Nika growled to herself as she rapidly switched to her shotgun, blasting another Zorn’s legs from under it. 

We need to move! Chiyo warned, as she used her power to halt the flight of several arrows fired towards Jack that had been dunked in excrement, before flinging them right back to sender. Dante gave a loud barking challenge as his markings lit up, and he discharged a fierce bolt of lightning that slammed into another Zorn before forking out and bouncing into several more, which seemed to be very effective.

“Back the way we came!” Alora ordered. Though they had obviously been tracked that way, at least they knew there weren’t any traps lying in wait back there. “Stay to-”

Suddenly there were several loud bellows, as several large, bottle-green cat-like reptiles burst from the ground ahead, which they recognised as Zorn mounts complete with yelling riders. Several more sounds joined it, making a cacophony of malevolent-sounding snarls and barks as several more creatures popped out of the ground. These smaller beings resembled some kind of canine, with sickly pale-yellow skin, beady feral eyes and a snarling maw of thick, powerful teeth that reminded him of pit bulls from his home world.  

“What the fuck!?” Jack exclaimed as he flicked the switch for his underbarrel grenade launcher, the *THWOOP* of the grenade arcing out and slamming into one of the cat-lizards before erupting in explosive fury. “How the hell were all these things hiding here!?”

Think about it later! Chiyo projected out as one of the larger beasts charged straight for them both, spurred by their rider. Jack quickly let out a burst of heavy plasma fire before both he and Chiyo dodged out of the way, with Jack blasting the larger beast point blank in the flank with another burst, smashing through the bone plates and getting into the softer flesh beneath, causing the beast to violently smash to the ground, taking its screaming rider with it.  

Watch out! They’re trying to cut us off! Chiyo warned the others as another rider, spotting the Ilithii getting separated from the others charged at her. Spotting the threat in time and setting her jaw, Chiyo focused her will as the charging beast picked up speed, before she summoned a wall of telekinetic force that the beast smashed into with a sickening crunch of bones, causing their back half to flip up over it, launching its rider who got some impressive air before slamming back to the ground, head first. 

“Shit! We’re getting separated!” Nika cursed before her discipline took over. Getting to one knee in a firing position, she quickly let loose several bursts that slammed into the closest Zorn charging her way, though they seemingly showed no regard for their own lives as they were cut down. She spotted more in the distance that were still taking shots at them with bows and arrows, but she paid them no mind - their armour would easily protect them. 

She was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a guttural snarl behind her, and using her tail to aid the movement, the Kizun quickly dodged the small creature that had tried to rapidly close on her from behind, unable to halt their leaping momentum as the Nika’s shotgun blast took it out, obliterating it’s back half. 

She then cursed again as a rider made a pass at her and knocked her staggering to the side, the point of the Zorn spear just grazing the shoulder plate of her armour as she turned away just a nanosecond too late. She quickly primed a grenade and threw it hard, the activated adhesive sticking to the back leg of the beast, detonating a few moments later to the sound of a frustrated shriek.

“Uh, ok!” Sephy muttered to herself as a Zorn got in close, and she quickly raised her plasma rifle to deflect the blow of the greatclub aimed at her head. Quickly clinching in close and trying not to gag at the stench, Sephy drew her stiletto and stabbed the Zorn in the chest several times, the thin point of the slender knife easily piercing through the ribcage to get at the inner organs within. The monster snarled but showed no signs of feeling the pain as they snapped their head forwards and caught the Skritta on the cheek with a headbutt.

“Motherfucker!” She snarled, pulling out one of her pistols and mag dumping the tenacious thing until it finally slumped down to the ground, still moving, but uselessly. She shot it in the balls for good measure before looking around, quickly picking off a Zorn that was trying to shoot at Alora with a bow and arrow. 

Hearing a thundering charge behind her and a warning bark from Dante, Sephy glanced back and immediately jumped as high as she possibly could, using her wings for propulsion as one of the Zorn cavalry passed by underneath, narrowly avoiding the snapping maw of the cat-lizard wanting a bite of her feet as she dropped down, headshotting the rider with a pistol before yanking on the reigns hard, sending the beast clamouring into another one that was charging the opposite way towards Dante. 

Dropping a grenade at the two tangled beasts, Sephy quickly lept out of the blast radius and looked up to where her drone hovered dutifully above them. 

“Heh!” She grinned. “That is SO going on NetTube!”

“Krealash!” Alora cried out, waving her arms forward with a burst of divine nature magic, causing roots and vines to spring up from the ground to entangle the closest group of Zorn charging towards them, making them sitting ducks as the others finished them off from afar with gunfire. The entanglement would remain for a few minutes, and would cut off most of the enemy on that side. 

“Form up!” Alora called out, as she saw that most of the Zorn cavalry were slain, but had succeeded in separating the members of the team to try and pick them off. “Try and get to me!” 

“Watch out for the dogs!” Jack yelled out as one of the beasts darted past him to go for Chiyo, dodging the swing of his axe. He left his axe buried in the ground as he tried to switch to his heavy plasma rifle, but was distracted by another Zorn that chucked a spear at him before grabbing another from a dead comrade. Blocking the spear with his rifle, Jack knocked the Zorn back with a kick, before quickly drawing his Photon Revolver and blasting the Zorn twice in the chest, before his third shot hit it in the face. Spinning around and firing, he caught another of the Zorn hounds before yet another one zipped up from out of nowhere and clamped its jaws around his ankle, the plates of his armour holding. 

“Fucking Shitbulls!” Jack snarled as he aimed his gun carefully before shooting the beast off with a few blasts, the stubborn creature still clamping on to his armoured leg until it no longer had a jaw to do it. 

Jack! Chiyo exclaimed in a panic, as she levitated in the air, the ‘Shitbull’ that got past him latching on to the Ilithii’s foot as it tried to drag her down. 

Bringing his rifle up then immediately dismissing the foolish idea, Jack sprinted over as quickly as he could, summoning a knife and plunging the blade into the thing’s neck.

It’s not letting go! Chiyo told him, her voice laced with pain as Jack tried to dislodge the…

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