Symbiosis: At World's End

Cost

The Gorgon soldiers were losing ground. They had all rejoined forces for a collective assault on the main group of symbiotes, but it wasn't going according to plan. Instead, they had been surrounded from all angles, including above. There were several symbiotes perched above them, swiping at them with long tendrils and firing spikes at them whenever they tried to fly away, thus leaving them trapped on the ground. The symbiotes above them seemed to be jeering them in their own way, almost as if this was a funny spectacle for them.

"If we don't get out of here soon, we'll be cut to pieces!" One of them shouted.

Then they heard a guttural screech from one of the symbiotes. They saw it fall to the ground with a massive hole torn through its chest. A few more fell down in front of them with similar wounds.

"We have an opening! Move move move!"

All at once, the Gorgon soldiers leapt onto their glider boards and flew off into the air, firing sonic and fire blasts as they went. Unbeknownst to them, a shadowy form watched from the shadows, a sword just barely visible in the light cast by the fire. It remained still for a moment before vanishing back into the shadows. Merrick needed to keep moving. There were more symbiotes that were in need of killing. He sprinted and used his enhanced strength to leap from building to building as he closed in on an unsuspecting victim. A single swipe from his arm left it without a head on its shoulders. He continued his run as he cleared two houses with his next jump.

"They are congregating in front of a building nearby. Several deployments of soldiers seem to have gone to ground there and are holding them back remarkably well."

Merrick turned his other arm into a long, sharp tendril as he leapt down behind them and began to cut through them like grain. Within a few minutes, he had cleared a wide area around him and given the soldiers some breathing room. He turned to the other symbiotes and snarled. Several of them charged. More of them left for easier prey. Others stayed to watch. He turned his whip arm into long, bladed talons and began to slash them to ribbons.

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Brianna groaned in pain as she received another punishing blow straight to the gut from her opponent. The brute of a symbiote had quickly taken the upper hand with its vastly superior strength and its sheer ferocity. She had gotten in several good hits but none of them seemed to do anything to hinder it. She needed to change tactics. She leapt backwards and stuck to the wall behind her and began to spray as much webbing as she could at the monster, hoping to slow it down. It half worked. About a third of the webbing found its mark while the rest made a massive obstacle around it. Brianna then had an idea.

She began to swing around the room, firing more webbing and wrapping it up in a thick, black cocoon. Then she charged in and began to unleash a rain of blows as fast and powerfully as she could muster. Finally, she performed a jump as high as she could before using her downward momentum to punch the symbiote as hard as she could. The cocoon went limp. She sighed in relief and leapt out the window to check on her mother. She poked her head out and saw her still in a state of shock, right where Brianna had left her.

Suddenly, she felt horrible pain in her back, and she was thrown across the room. Now it was her turn to put a whole through the wall. She got back up groggily and stumbled back to the fresh gap in the wall to see the symbiote closing in on her mom again. She tried to jump through to help but she stumbled again and fell two her hands and knees. Looking up, she saw the symbiote raising its claw to kill her mom. It had been playing possum.

"NOOOOOO!"

She reached out as she screamed and to her shock, the symbiote stopped with a look of shock on its face. Brianna felt confusion until she noticed there was a black spike right through the center of its chest. Had she done that? The symbiote turned around slowly and began to slowly make its way toward her in heavy, jerky steps. Brianna hauled herself to her feet and raised her hand again and thought of the spike again. This time she saw what happened properly. A black spike shot out of her palm and punched a hole in its face, killing it instantly. She looked back at her mom, who was looking at her shocked. She began to approach her, only to stop when she began trying to back away with the shock on her face being replaced by terror. She slowly backed away, trying to shake the overwhelming sadness of her mother being terrified of her. She jumped out of the window and swung around the building before leaping through the broken window above her and letting her costume turn back into the clothes she had been wearing before. She hurried down the stairwell to the floor she had left her mother on.