Chapter 12: Second Bioform (1)

Gio’s blood went cold. E-Rank. The same rank as his own core. The wasps had been F-Rank, a full tier below him. This thing was on his level. Maybe above it.

"Run," Gio whispered.

Lloyd didn’t move. His flashlight trembled in his hand, the beam dancing across the creature’s armored face. His mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. His legs had locked.

He was frozen. Completely, utterly paralyzed by fear.

The Iron-Boned Bear reared back on its hind legs. Its chest expanded with a sickening, wet crunch, and a glowing orange light emanated from deep within its ribcage, shining through the gaps in its iron-plated fur.

Then, it opened its maw and unleashed a torrent of liquid fire.

The roar of the flames was deafening. A stream of blinding, white-hot fire erupted from the bear’s throat, washing over the space where Lloyd had been standing a second before. The concrete pillar behind them hissed and cracked, the surface melting into glowing slag.

"LLOYD, MOVE!" Gio screamed, sprinting forward.

Lloyd didn’t move.

Gio hit him at full speed, tackling him sideways just as a secondary burst of flame swept over them. The heat blistered Gio’s back, sending him and Lloyd tumbling across the wet ground.

"GET UP!" Gio roared, shoving Lloyd. "RUN!"

Lloyd scrambled to his feet, his rifle clattering to the ground, forgotten. He ran. Not toward the camp. Not in any direction that made sense. Just away, screaming, his legs pumping with the blind, animal desperation of prey.

The bear dropped to all fours and charged, its iron-shod paws tearing up chunks of asphalt.

"Hey! Ugly!" Gio shouted, raising his plasma handgun and firing. The bolts splashed harmlessly against the creature’s iron-bone shoulder. "Over here! Look at me!"

The bear paused. Its glowing eyes locked onto Gio. It inhaled deeply, its chest glowing bright orange again.

Gio dove behind a slab of broken concrete just as a wave of fire washed over his cover. The heat was suffocating, singing his hair and scorching his tactical suit.

’it breathes fire. Great. Just great.’

He reached inward, feeling for the threads of light that connected him to his stored Bioform.

’Come.’

White energy erupted from his palm. Two glowing Mutagenic Wasp replicas materialized, their wings humming.

’Eyes. Go for its eyes. Keep it blind.’

The wasps shot forward like white bullets, diving straight for the bear’s face. They buzzed directly in front of its glowing eyes, stinging at the soft tissue around its eyelids.

The bear roared, a sound that vibrated in Gio’s teeth, and swatted at its face. But as it did, it inhaled sharply, and a burst of flame erupted from its mouth, catching one of the wasps. The construct flickered and dissolved into white mist, the bioenergy instantly consumed by the fire.

’Damn it! The fire burns through the constructs!’

Gio recalled the remaining wasp. He needed help. Now.

The bear had caught sight of Lloyd again and was lumbering toward the fleeing noble.

"CONTACT! EAST PERIMETER! E-RANK HOSTILE!" a soldier barked into his bracelet as Lloyd crashed into the camp.

The camp erupted. Commander Darwin was on his feet instantly. "Form a line! Recruits, fall behind the soldiers! NOW!"

But the bear was already crashing through the tree line, breathing fire in wide, sweeping arcs to clear the path. The soldiers opened fire, but their plasma bolts just scorched the iron bones.

Blaze stepped forward, his hands igniting. "Let’s see how you like a real fire, you ugly bastard!" He thrust his palms forward, unleashing a torrent of flames.

The bear didn’t even flinch. It inhaled, its chest glowing, and fired back.

Blaze’s fire met the bear’s fire in mid-air. For a split second, the two flames wrestled, but the bear’s breath was denser, hotter, fueled by whatever monstrous biology churned in its lungs. Blaze’s flames were pushed back, washing over him. He screamed, diving out of the way as his tactical suit caught fire.

"My turn!" Reuben charged, his body fully hardened into stone. He swung his mace at the bear’s front leg. CLANG. The sound was like a hammer striking an anvil. Reuben’s stone arm cracked, and he stumbled back, howling in pain. "It’s like hitting a bank vault!"

Kojiro teleported onto the bear’s back, his katana drawn. He slashed at the base of its neck, but the blade sparked uselessly against the iron plating. The bear shook itself violently, throwing Kojiro off. He dissolved into smoke just before hitting the ground, reforming a few meters away, panting heavily.

"The armor is too thick!" Kojiro shouted. "We can’t pierce it from the outside!"

Gio’s mind raced. The armor was impenetrable. The fire breath was devastating. But every time the bear used its fire, its chest glowed. The heat had to come from somewhere. It had to be generated somewhere.

’The throat. The lungs. The soft tissue inside the mouth.’

If they could get past the iron bones, they could hit the fire source. But getting close meant getting burned.

"Melody!" Gio shouted over the roar of the flames. "The bear’s throat! The armor is thickest on the outside, but the inside of its mouth and throat has to be soft to let the fire out! Can you get inside its guard?"

Melody was crouched behind a truck tire, her cat ears flat, her tail puffed. She looked terrified. But when she heard her name, she nodded, her eyes locking onto the bear’s massive jaw.

"Kojiro! Tabitha! Draw its arms! Keep it from swiping at her! Blaze, if you can still stand, blind it with smoke!"

Blaze, patting out the flames on his suit, coughed and nodded. He threw a series of fireballs not at the bear, but at the wet, muddy ground around it, creating a massive cloud of thick, blinding steam.

The bear roared, confused by the sudden fog. It inhaled to clear the air with another blast of fire, its chest glowing bright.

Now!

Kojiro and Tabitha struck. Kojiro teleported to its left flank, slashing at its knee and vanishing. Tabitha whipped its right ear with her electrified whip. The bear thrashed, its massive arms swinging blindly at the pests.

Its chest was glowing. Its mouth was open, drawing in a massive breath to unleash another torrent of flame.

Melody moved.

She sprinted low and fast, her mutated legs carrying her with feline speed. She didn’t go for the legs. She went straight for the chest. As the bear inhaled, its jaw dropped wide, the orange glow illuminating the back of its throat.

Melody leaped. She used the bear’s own iron-plated shoulder as a springboard, launching herself into the air directly in front of its face.

The bear’s eyes crossed, focusing on her. It tried to breathe fire, but Melody was already inside the blast radius.

She thrust both arms forward, her razor-sharp claws extending to their maximum length, and drove them straight down into the glowing, soft tissue at the back of the bear’s open throat.

The bear’s eyes bulged. A muffled, wet explosion of fire and blood erupted from its neck, blowing out the back of its skull. Melody was thrown backward by the force of the blast, tumbling across the mud.

The bear staggered. It tried to roar, but only black smoke and blood poured from its ruined throat. Its chest heaved, the orange glow flickering and dying.

It swayed. Its massive legs trembled.

And then, with a final, shuddering groan, the Iron-Boned Bear collapsed.